Defunct NASA Project, Mississippi, Pure Pork

Do not pretend either Democrats or Republicans care about the gross waste of national taxpayer funds -- it is epidemic and systemic, and who knows where or when it will end --

NASA’s Defunct Project Survives on Mississippi Pork | The Big Picture: "NASA will complete a $350 million tower to test rocket engines for a program that was canceled in 2010. The A-3 test stand will be finished early this year at Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. Its funding survived thanks to Senator Roger Wicker, a Republican from that state who supported the test stand’s completion even though NASA doesn’t need it."

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Police Misconduct Condoned, Justice Denied

Post-Katrina Police Prosecutions in New Orleans Face Setbacks - NYTimes.com: "Legal experts say that successful prosecutions of police officers are always difficult. But the drumbeat of failures and setbacks has left even some of the most vocal proponents of police reform disillusioned." (read more at link above)

Police tase, shoot and kill 90-pound schizophrenic teen | MSNBC: " . . . According to Wilsey, as the first two officers were restraining Vidal, the third officer walked into the family’s house and said “I don’t have time for this. Tase him. Let’s get him out of here,” Wilsey said. At that point, one of the officers used a stun gun on Vidal. The young man hit the ground and “this guy shot him,” Wilsey said. Vidal was taken to a local hospital where he was declared dead. When Wilsey asked why the officer had shot the teen, he said the officer replied, “Well, I’m protecting my officers.” “He reached right up, shot this kid point-blank, with all intent to kill,” Wilsey said. “Keith was not threatening anybody, Keith did not want any part of it. He was having a bad day,” Wilsey said. “He was flat out murdered, there was no need for deadly force. No reason.” The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation is looking into the killing, standard practice in police-involved shootings, and prosecutors have vowed to seek the truth of the matter “wherever the truth leads.”. . . ." (read more at link above)

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Former New York City Mayor Bloomberg decries labor-electoral complex

In other words, end collective bargaining for government employees (FDR never supported government employee unions having "collective bargaining" rights), end public pensions, treat government employees like all other white-collar employees -- 401K plans, etc.

NYC's Bloomberg decries 'labor-electoral complex': " . . . Especially since Detroit's recent bankruptcy, mayors in many cities around the country have begun pushing to change the pensions that have long been seen as a prized — sometimes the primary — benefit of government jobs. Some have proposed replacing or reducing traditional pensions in favor of what are called defined-contribution plans, like a 401(k), at least for new employees. Bloomberg suggests New York City employees should have a choice between the two types of plans. In New York, the annual pension cost has risen from about $1.5 billion a year to $8.2 billion a year in 12 years, draining money that could otherwise have gone to affordable housing, tax cuts, schools or a host of other purposes, Bloomberg said. And health insurance costs have doubled since 2002, to $6.3 billion this year, he said this summer...."

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Unions Betrayed Detroit, public pensions

What you will never read in mainstream media --

Who Really Betrayed Detroit? by Steven Malanga - City Journal: "Most press accounts note that city-worker pensions in Detroit are modest. They rarely mention that, for two decades, the city supplemented those pensions with annual, so-called “13th checks” for retirees—an additional monthly pension payment. Pension-fund trustees—themselves city workers, retirees, city residents, and elected officials—handed out nearly $1 billion in these annual payments to retirees in the city’s general pension fund. ... Some reform-minded Detroit officials tried to halt the payments, understanding that they undermined the pension system’s finances. When he succeeded Coleman Young as mayor in 1994, Dennis Archer grew alarmed at the extra payments. He was rightfully concerned—as the Free Press noted, the pension system “was largely controlled by union officials acting as trustees...." (read more at the link above - Steven Malanga is the senior editor of City Journal and a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. His latest book is Shakedown: The Continuing Conspiracy Against the American Taxpayer.)

In other words, the Unions betrayed themselves and Detroit.

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