Taxpayer-Funded Research Helps Congressmen Become More Popular
by Capitol ConfidentialThis Friday, taxpayer funded researchers will brief politicians in Congress on how to improve their approval ratings by avoiding face-to-face townhall meetings with voters.
After receiving tongue lashings from outraged taxpayers across the country at townhall meetings this summer, career politicians no doubt will eagerly listen to this briefing to learn how to avoid direct contact with voters and simultaneously increase their approval ratings. Taxpayers already upset by out of control, wasteful Washington spending would, however, probably be even more upset if they were told that this research was all paid for with tax dollars by the National Science Foundation.
While politicians may welcome publicly funded research to discover the cure for Congress’ low approval ratings, most Americans expect government funded research to instead find cures for cancer, heart disease, and other life threatening conditions.
As early as next week, the Senate could vote on an amendment offered by Senator Tom Coburn to prohibit NSF funding of political science research.
We would encourage you to attend the briefing, ask questions, blog about the issue, and expose this waste of taxpayer dollars.
Below is the invite to the briefing.
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56 Comments
Quite frankly, about the only thing this current CON-gress could do to improve their ratings with the Citizenry, would be to resign, en masse'. That would save them the collective embarrasment of being voted out in 2010.
Perhaps we can get a few Tea Party folks there???
vote them all out… That attend this meeting.
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Are these people insane? [rhetorical question].
I will offer one bit of advice to our political sellouts and prostitutes which will greatly improve their ratings: do what we fuc%ing want – control spending, reduce the deficit, lower taxes, improve the economic climate which means help small/mid size businesses not union cronies and stop urinating on the Constitution you filthy heathens.
Most of the politicians already had low approval numbers before any public meetings were held so this whole study is a sham to start with. It is just another thing to be used as an excuse so our elected officials can weasel out of answering to the ones that elected them.
I really wonder who commissioned this ground-breaking study by the NSF with our tax money. It just has to be some Liberal politician that had low approval numbers and couldn't figure out why his constituents didn't love him.
Politicians need to be seen and heard, for that is how they campaign. But it is bad for their image to be speaking off-the-cuff, giving unscripted answers to unscreened questions, revealing just how intelligent and "connected to the ordinary people" they really are.
Therefore politicians are actors?
That does explain a lot…
We NEED to have term limits!! It would end all the b/s!! They need to have regular jobs, and NOT get paid by the taxpayers for the rest of their lives 'just because' they were elected officials at one time!!!
A way to measure any thread of honor or itegrity they might have left would be to issue them the proper swords and see if ANY of them fall onto them !
Nope…. All swords returned with their thanks for your continued support of their socialist objectives.
Sadly term limits will NEVER become a reality until the electorate votes in politicians who FAVOR term limits who then can legislate them into law. And how many politicians would run on that ticket ?
We the CONGRESS, by the CONGRESS and for the CONGRESS ! Revulsion beyond the pale !
The world is indeed off it's axis. I just ran some water in the sink and it circulated counterclockwise. Hey capitol Confidential, do you have the dial-in numbers for this webinar? I'd like to attend and make a couple of suggestions on how my congressman can increase his popularity….
Most of the politicians would be more than happy to run for office by supporting term limits it if got them elected. The question here is if they would support term limits once elected. The answer is very few of them really would and for those that said they would and went against it once elected, too many of the brain dead voters out there would just vote them back in again.
The only way to increase their popularity with the public, is the day they all leave. Vote’em out in 2010! Lets start over again with the Founding documents!
You make a valid point, of course. There is no contractual manner in which this violation of trust could be enforced…except at the ballot box. It's a long and arduous project….but worth the effort if the electorate got behind it with well screened candidates.
Nothing suprises me anymore! It's just par for the course. But keep your chin up folks, other than the hate crimes crap BHO just signed, they have not been able to pass their agenda. Keep up the pressure. It's working. We need to continue to fight for our country not just until 2010, but until we can replace them all with people willing to stand by our founding documents.
Start here… http://superstore.wnd.com/store/item.asp?DEPARTME...
Cowards! I love how the title of the seminar is called "Exploring Democracy in the 21st Century". Those politicians who skipped townhalls have no knowledge of what Democracy is. I think the seminar should have been called "EXPLOITING Democracy in the 21st Century".
I am waiting for Bh0 to pass a hate crime bill that includes him as president and expires after he is out of office (or unitl the next republican gets in).
A good start would be to stop researching how to trick us into believing you are doing your job. If you are avoiding town halls then it shows how much you care about what we think. If you don't care what we think then you are of no use to we the people and should not by any means be "representing" us.
I say dump all these politicians and put real people, average people, in office. We need firemen, farmers, bakers and mechanics who understand what the rest of us want and need.
Something is clearly wrong in this nation when ELECTED public SERVANTS refuse to face their constituents. I've been appalled to read about the reactions of certain "representatives" toward their constituents….locking the doors, calling the cops, etc. They refuse to listen to us, but expect us to support them????? What a bunch of bloody cowards!
I say, fine then. If they don't want to deal with our anger face-to-face, they'll face our anger when it comes time to run for re-election.
If you haven't read the executive summary of this study do so. It demonstrates the destructive relationship between our college education system and our politicians. They work together to shut us up, separate us and control the content and direction of Townhall meetings to make them just another spin session to flatter the politician instead of an opportunity to hear from the public and dialogue with them. Not only do we need to rid ourselves of totalitarian politicans we need to take out their comrades, the college activitists from the 60's who create and promote this garbage.
Found this thing last night from the Pork Report. Sent them an e-mail asking them to explain why they claim copyright protection for a report produced from public funds. Haven't gotten a reply yet.
If they start avoiding me i will be even more angry.
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Very disturbing that congress finds it more important to avoid us than to spend the money on research to save our lives. Once again, it's all about them.
Will work if we can get TRUE AMERICANS out that DON'T VOTE to VOTE this time. JFK won because most of America did not vote!!!! (By the way loved JFK, was my Commander in Chief)
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It just goes to show how disconnected from reality these people really are.I watch TV and read the news and I see a regular horror show going on.How these people can't see the destruction that they're responsible for is beyond me.Well,they know exactly what they're doing.
They call themselves progressives which is just a term for socialists,fachists,marxists and communists.People in this country gave them the power and they're going to weild it until they're thrown out.They've caused a lot of damage to this country to date and will do a lot more in the next year.
They're career politicians,incumbants who could care less about the people who voted for them.Legistating for special interest has been going on in this country for decades in both parties.Although the the level of evil coming from Obama and the democrats is amazing.I've been watching this country spiral down for a long time but now finally I hope we hit bottom and are ready to head back up.
Can we get a list of all who attend the seminar? Such an attendance list would be interesting.
This gaggle of clowns and criminals in our incompetent congress wants to know how can we improve our ratings while simultaneously screwing the American public.
Now that this little event is exposed, it would be interesting to see whether they get a bunch of cancellations. My own Rep has been ducking town halls and doing these controlled teleconferences instead, typically on short notice with phone invitations going out by robocall to known supporters rather than all constituents. It's a do it yourself echo chamber which is then promoted by a bunch of robocalls to those who "missed" the call, feigning disappointment that they didn't participate, but expressing willingness for the staff at the local office to listen to their concerns at any time (i.e., by meeting and ignoring them privately, rather than as a group in a public forum).
It's time for the Tea Party movement to push back. http://www.TeaMoney.ning.com
Nothing will save them in November 2010 if we stay organized and back candidates carefully.
http://www.TeaMoney.ning.com
The NY 23rd race is just a warning shot across the bow in that regard. The primaries are next.
You got it, ritual suicide on C-SPAN. Watch the poll numbers skyrocket.
Only individual voters can hold politicians accountable. We need to be more organized as principled, independent voters than either party – not to create a third party or to try to impose such things as term limits, but rather to make it clear that they have accountability to something more than party leaders and PACs / lobbyists. We need to empower individual voters to stand together, as at the Tea Parties, and beat them by stopping the game of playing for power with other people's money. Keep your own political money, and then use it strategically in key races to defend basic American principles such as limited government. http://www.TeaMoney.ning.com
Oh how these so-called politicians just hate to meet with real Americans who are disgusted on how they are handling our money. This is a scam. Time to vote all these idiots out of office in 2010, 2012, 2014!
Yeah, Mr./Mrs Congressman, I have one suggestion for you on improving your image, pull your head out from betwixt your buttcheeks and start doing the peoples bidding, like you should be instead of doing whatever you want like some ruling class. We rule you, not the other way around, now get the hell back to work and stop wasting our time and money on bullsh!t "studies", moron.
Also, find a way to remove the whiteout and corrective red pen these idiots have put all over our Constitution.
Yes – we need to start defeating them in the 2010 candidate selection process, and the primaries – and then in the 2010 general election, and then stay organized to find and support even better candidates for 2012 and 2014. This is not a battle over one hot issue such as health care. It's a long counter-insurgency war strategy against the liberal activists who managed to deceive voters to gain power last November. Fool me once …
all they need to do is confess their past sins. start telling the truth. pass term limits.stop the current corruption
end represent the people who voted them into office. redo better campaign reform.stop gay marriage.enforce imigration laws.that would be a good start.
[...] The full article is HERE. I hope the NRA or Gun Owners of America challenge this dangerous Appeals Court Decision to the Supreme Court. This ruling is nothing more then another attempt at destroying the Second Amendment Rights of Freedom loving Americans. We must never forget that Freedom and Democracy was born on the barrel of a gun. It is the barrel of a gun that has kept us free for over 225 years and keeps us free today. No nation or empire could possibly invade America with the armed population we have. Am armed population keeps the Government honest, the rich humble and crooks scared shitless. That’s just the way things ought to be to. It’s a sad and cruel irony that our own politicians are doing to America what evil empires have tried and failed to do for decades; that is destroy America’s freedom and democracy from within. It’s gotten to the point political dissent isn’t even tolerated anymore. Want proof? Listen HERE to Lou Dobbs describe being shot at at his own home with his family present for just exercising his First Amendment Right to Free Speech. Hmm, can’t speak your mind without fear of being shot. Can’t buy or own a gun to protect yourself. Soon we’ll have a crappy Socialized Medicine that’ll make third world medicine look good. Starting to sound like we’re getting dangerously close to copying the Communist China’s policies thanks to Socialist Democrats doesn’t it? You can’t even trust that elections are fair and honest anymore thanks to easily hacked electronic voting machines. Getting to the point it’s becoming a waste of time to vote because the electronic voting machines are already rigged to elect a candidate chosen by the ruling elite. Want proof? Watch THIS Documentary HERE and see for yourself. Warning: The politicians and voting machine companies DON’T want you to see this video. Because of the huge, 264 Meg, file size I’m not yet able to make a local copy available on this shared server. If I uploaded a 264 meg file on to the server Lunarpages would probably throw a fit even though technically I’m supposed to have UNLIMITED disk space and UNLIMITED Bandwidth on this account. If I can get Lunarpages approval to use more disk space I’ll upload it on to the server. To the Lunarpages management, and I KNOW you read this Blog, please let me know if I can upload this important documentary on to the Dreamer Server my account is on. The Documentary runs 1 hour 21 minutes and has a file size of 264 Meg in an MP4 format. This Friday, taxpayer funded researchers will brief politicians in Congress on how to improve their … [...]
[...] The full article is HERE. I hope the NRA or Gun Owners of America challenge this dangerous Appeals Court Decision to the Supreme Court. This ruling is nothing more then another attempt at destroying the Second Amendment Rights of Freedom loving Americans. We must never forget that Freedom and Democracy was born on the barrel of a gun. It is the barrel of a gun that has kept us free for over 225 years and keeps us free today. No nation or empire could possibly invade America with the armed population we have. Am armed population keeps the Government honest, the rich humble and crooks scared shitless. That’s just the way things ought to be to. It’s a sad and cruel irony that our own politicians are doing to America what evil empires have tried and failed to do for decades; that is destroy America’s freedom and democracy from within. It’s gotten to the point political dissent isn’t even tolerated anymore. Want proof? Listen HERE to Lou Dobbs describe being shot at at his own home with his family present for just exercising his First Amendment Right to Free Speech. Hmm, can’t speak your mind without fear of being shot. Can’t buy or own a gun to protect yourself. Soon we’ll have a crappy Socialized Medicine that’ll make third world medicine look good. Starting to sound like we’re getting dangerously close to copying the Communist China’s policies thanks to Socialist Democrats doesn’t it? You can’t even trust that elections are fair and honest anymore thanks to easily hacked electronic voting machines. Getting to the point it’s becoming a waste of time to vote because the electronic voting machines are already rigged to elect a candidate chosen by the ruling elite. Want proof? Watch THIS Documentary HERE and see for yourself. Warning: The politicians and voting machine companies DON’T want you to see this video. Because of the huge, 264 Meg, file size I’m not yet able to make a local copy available on this shared server. If I uploaded a 264 meg file on to the server Lunarpages would probably throw a fit even though technically I’m supposed to have UNLIMITED disk space and UNLIMITED Bandwidth on this account. If I can get Lunarpages approval to use more disk space I’ll upload it on to the server. To the Lunarpages management, and I KNOW you read this Blog, please let me know if I can upload this important documentary on to the Dreamer Server my account is on. The Documentary runs 1 hour 21 minutes and has a file size of 264 Meg in an MP4 format. This Friday, taxpayer funded researchers will brief politicians in Congress on how to improve their … [...]
A CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION CAN PUT A STOP TO ALL OF THIS NONSENSE AND OUR GLORIOUS REPRESENTATIVES CAN NOT DO A THING ABOUT IT.
WE VOTE IN A CONSTITUTIONAL AMMENDMENT AND VIOLA NO MORE LIFETIME GIGS OF LIVING OFF OF US FOR EVER.
TERMS LIMITS CONSTITUTIONALLY MADATED AND THEY ARE OUT OF THERE. WHILE WE ARE AT IT WE CAN ALSO DEMAND :
ALL BILLS PUBLISHED ON LINE FOR TWO WEEKS PRIOR TO VOTING
NO ADDITIONS OR REMOVAL OF ANY PART OF BILLS AS PUBLISHED (GET RID OF SNEAKING IN PORK OF THEIR CHOICE)
ALL BILLS REQURIING FEDERAL MONEY HAVE TO BE PUBLISHED, DEBATED AND VOTED ON
INDIVIDUALLY, AS WELL AS THE NAME OF THE LEGISLATOR REQUESTING THE MONEY.
(ONE MORE ANTI PORK RULE)
THEY ARE NOT GOING TO WANT TO HAVE THE WHOLE WORLD AWARE OF THEIR IDIOTIC PORK BARREL SPENDING IF THEY HAVE TO EXPLAIN WHY WE SHOULD BE FUNDING RESEARCH ON WATERLESS URINALS AND EQUALLY REDICULOUS THINGS)
OUTLAW ANY CONTRIBUTIONS TO POLITICAL OFFICE SEEKERS BY ANY LOBBY OR PAC, FOREIGN OR DOMESTIC INCLUDING MONEY, TRIPS, ANYTHING OF VALUE, IN OTHER WORDS. INCLUDED IN THE BAN WOULD HAVE TO BE NO DONATIONS TO ANYONE RELATED BY BLOOD OR MARRIAGE TO THE CANDIDATE.
MAKE IT IMPOSSIBLE FOR THEM TO SELL THIS COUNTRY TO THE HIGHEST BIDDER.
WE DEFINITELY NEED A CONSTITUTIONAL AMMENDMENT THAT STATES THAT NEITHER THE PRESIDENT NOR ANY MEMBER OF THE CONGRESS NOR ANY REPRESENTATIVE OF THE U S CAN SIGN ANY AGREEMENT OR TREATY WITH ANYONE INCLUDING THE U N , IMF , OR ANY OTHER ENTITY IN THE WORLD THAT IN ANY WAY IMPINGES ON FREE SPEECH OR ANY OTHER RIGHT OUtINED IN THE CONSTITUTION.
PRESIDENT OBAMMA IS PRESENTLY DOING JUST THAT.
IN OTHER WORDS, THE U S CONSTITUTION IS THE ONLY AUTHORITY OF ANY AND ALL LAWS GOVERNING UNITED STATES CITIZENS.
NO NEW WORLD ORDER, DEFINITELY NO SUBJUGATION TO THE U N AS OUR PRESIDENT WANTS.
MAKING CHANGES THAT FORCE BEHAVIOUR BY CONSTITUTIONAL MANDATES ARE TIME CONSUMING AND NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART BUT IT IS POSSIBLE IF WE HAVE THE WILL.
DEPENDING ON THAT BUNCH OF CROOKS IN WASHINGTON FOR ANY CHANGE IN THEIR BEHAVIOR IS WASTED EFFORT. THE CORRUPTION RUNS TOO DEEP.
AMERICA, IF WE DON’T START TAKING THIS COUNTRY BACK, WE SOON WILL HAVE NO COUNTRY.
Our boys in uniform are fighting the enemy face to face and our congress are such cowards they won't even face their own constituents face to face and have to train how to do it. Lets hope they all get voted out next election.
unless the people vote for changing the officials then nothing will get done. also, there is no accountability in govt, no measuring stick by which the people can look at and say that govt official is not doing there job. without the news media reporting we would have a biased review of their (govt) reporting. as in the private sector you have a commitment to fullfill objectives, the only objective for govt is to be re-elected
Worthless bastards, I hope they all croak. I'm sick of'em all
Time to vote ‘em all out — the Republocrats, the Demopublicans, the whole lot — leave not one standing. Not at the federal level, not at the state level, not at the county or city level — vote in anyone, Elmer Fudd for that matter — I have been arguing this for 30 years, and now, finally, it seems to be getting some traction. Hallelujah.
They will learn soon enough this is the type of thing that gave rise to the tea party movement in the first place. We know you are not listening to our voices and this will only make The People even more angry. Congress, you keep injuring what you think is a chained bear. Yes, please keep it up. 1776 will repeat itself, as you have learned nothing from our past.
Good point. Just look at all Obama promised during hit OFFICIAL campaign (He's now in his unofficial campaign mode — the eternal campaigner), and compare that with what he has actually come through on. I'll bet there are several million DEMOCRATS, much less conservatives who are now downright sorry they voted for such a scam–you thought Madoff pulled a fast one? Can't hold a candle to what Obama pulled off.
[...] Oh, Clearly Needed Research November 1, 2009 Posted by taoist in Congress. Tags: Corruption, Pork, Spending trackback Congress is spending taxpayer money researching how to be more popular with the American public. [...]
I have my own version of cap and trade. We cap their powers and trade all of these socialist out in the next election.
http://www.PinkSlip2010.com
FIRE YOUR CONGRESSMAN!!!
Pink Slip 2010 Fire Your Congressman!!!
PinkSlip2010.com
THIS IS CHEAPER AND MORE POWERFUL…PinkSlip2010.com
SPREAD THE WORD!!!
SPEAKING OF PORK……PinkSlip2010.com
THEN CHECK THIS OUT…PinkSlip2010.com
SPREAD THE WORD…PinkSlip2010.com