Byron York, via Ace, via Hot Air:
You’ve heard a lot about the astonishing spending in the $787 billion economic stimulus bill, signed into law this week by President Barack Obama. But you probably haven’t heard about a provision in the bill that threatens to politicize the way allegations of fraud and corruption are investigated  or not investigated  throughout the federal government.
The provision, which attracted virtually no attention in the debate over the 1,073-page stimulus bill, creates something called the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board  the RAT Board, as it’s known by the few insiders who are aware of it. The board would oversee the in-house watchdogs, known as inspectors general, whose job is to independently investigate allegations of wrongdoing at various federal agencies, without fear of interference by political appointees or the White House.
In the name of accountability and transparency, Congress has given the RAT Board the authority to ask “that an inspector general conduct or refrain from conducting an audit or investigation.†If the inspector general doesn’t want to follow the wishes of the RAT Board, he’ll have to write a report explaining his decision to the board, as well as to the head of his agency (from whom he is supposedly independent) and to Congress. In the end, a determined inspector general can probably get his way, but only after jumping through bureaucratic hoops that will inevitably make him hesitate to go forward.
When Iowa Republican Sen. Charles Grassley, a longtime champion of inspectors general, read the words “conduct or refrain from conducting,†alarm bells went off. The language means that the board  whose chairman will be appointed by the president  can reach deep inside a federal agency and tell an inspector general to lay off some particularly sensitive subject. Or, conversely, it can tell the inspector general to go after a tempting political target.
Post-partisan. Transparent.
On a somewhat lighter note, Jim Treacher has the top 10 reasons Obama’s nothing like Travis the Chimp
Children write letters to presidents, being a comparative study.
Could I make money selling the new “Constitutional Shredder” on TV for $19.95 plus S&H?
Order now and we’ll double the offer.
Well, they are building up the proper political machine to make their vision of the future a reality. I, for one, welcome our new fascist overlords.
“Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board  the RAT Board.”
An appropriately Orwellian named vehicle. And, yet another example of the truly totalitarian nature of the hopey-changey age of O!…
They will brook no dissent!…
It’s no longer the highest form of patriotism; paying taxes and marching with ideological lockstep with the one! is…
Can you imagine the way the MSM and the nutroots would have been howling with Outrage! had Boooooooooooosh! tried something like this..? They’ve spent the last 8 years decrying what they styled as <b<Fascism!, but once the have control they move to actually quash all forms of check and balance or independant oversight. It’s mind-boggling…
Just another example of the morally bankrupt, ethics free, political connivances of the Democrats and far left…
I want to hear any of the resident trolls defend this provision. I want to know why it was in the stimulus bill to start, and whether they think it a good thing to have no checks on the tyranny of the majority…
We Won! I Trump you on this!…
Ethics!, Transparency!, Integrity!, Fair!, Post-Partisan!,
O!
“Off the grid” feels like a buzz word now.
I wonder how much crap like that is in this Obamination.
Gee … if only people could have read it before they voted … but, you know, like thorazine said, I’m sure they all read it as it was being drafted, so what’s the point of reading the “finished product”?
This always ends badly. Unfortunately, not just for those who deserve the bad end.
This first hundred days is going to be one for the record books. A lesson in what not to do. Hope it is learned soon.
Rangle likes it.
This bill is simply a compendium of everything the Congressional Democrats want. I don’t think anyone read the whole thing as it was a “copy ‘n paste” of all their wish lists. They only read or cared about the part they each contributed.
See, right there, page 643, line 12 to 15, that’s mine. I vote Yea.
I forgot to add. The whole bill is the Democratic Party platform now.
Can’t wait to find out where this came from:
snuck in by whom? It’s not entirely clear. “I intend to get down to the bottom of where this comes from,†Grassley vowed. “And quite frankly, it better not come from this administration, because this administration has reminded us that it is not about business as usual, that it is for total transparency.â€Â
Maybe not this time. When I inquired with the office of a Democratic senator, one who is a big fan of inspectors general, I was told the RAT Board was “something the Obama administration wanted included in this bill.†When I asked the White House, staffers told me they’d look into it. So for now, at least, there’s been no claim of paternity
HOPE! CHANGE!
From Obama always count on this, His “we” means thee not he. We the people get to be transparent, the Administration gets to go dark.
Well, that’s the end to the [exposure of the] Democrat culture of corruption.
I want to hear any of the resident trolls defend this provision. I want to know why it was in the stimulus bill to start, and whether they think it a good thing to have no checks on the tyranny of the majority…
Techniques used in public restrooms by ghey redumblican cruisers coming up as rebuttal in 3…2…
Heh,
Watch the CNBC video on Drudge. Quite amusing.
“How about we all stop paying our mortgages?”
I kind of like that idea. It’s all Outlawy.
Barrack Milhouse Obama is starting to be a not so funny name for this character.
Anyone catch Rick Santelli on CNBC this am? Its on Drudge … there is some life in the capitalist afterall.
watch it. classic.
we won’t go quietly.
oops
I won.
Techniques used in public restrooms by ghey redumblican cruisers coming up as rebuttal in 3…2…
Unless, of course, the topic can be shifted to the Great Warrior Spirit of Russians.
Vodka, right?
That Rick Santelli video was fantastic. So, our betters are going to re-finance homes for people who cannot afford them now, but re-finance at a lower interest rate. Yeah, that’ll fix the problem, if they give them 60 year mortgages.
Truth is, Santelli says this sort of stuff everyday, day in and day out. He doesn’t hold back, ever. What’s unusual are the big cheers and anti-Obama-policy jeers coming from the floor.
Who is Travis the Chimp? Sounds like someone I ought to meet.
This is the same deal Santelli is speaking against, except in the arena of Foreign Affairs. Rewarding the losers, which means getting more of what put them there in the first place.
That’s that hoochie what called Christianity a “perverted religion.”
“This is the same deal Santelli is speaking against, except in the arena of Foreign Affairs. Rewarding the losers, which means getting more of what put them there in the first place.”
But to some, dead Jooooooos are a feature, not a bug.
RAT Board. Now there is telling acronym.
A perfect place for a Dzerzhinskyh.
So glad I saved for years and paid 30% down on my house and have made several extra payments on my mortgage…
Of course I don’t want to be some mewling ward of the “G”, so I think I will just continue to pay my own way, thanks anyways.
LTC John, you responsible behavior will not be rewarded by Obamalot.
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But who will oversee those who oversee the oversighters? The Car Czar?
Maybe the new Secretary of the Census…Rahm “fuck them” Emanuel?
Maybe Michelle “I’m proud of America now!!” Obama!?
I know, I know!!! Someone Spiritual!! Jeremiah Wright!
First we had TARP, then we got HASP, now we have RAT. So our government is now both a hardware store and a rodent. Very nice.
It’s a Hardware Store! No, it’s a rodent!
It’s a Hardware Store! No, it’s a rodent!
The Obama Administration. It’s both a Hardware Store and a rodent!
Quantities unlimited. Coming soon to your local neighborhood ACORN office.
O!, you know you want it.
Sponsored by Civility Now!
This has to be a parody. Or a parody of a satire. There is no way that they are going to name it RAT. Looking past the incredibly horrible idea underlying the name, it is beyond tone deaf. Didn’t the Leftists go coo coo for cocoa puffs when they thought they saw the word rat on a Bush campaign ad?
You go broke betting against the stupidity of our representatives.
I did hear a funny joke once that before they decided on the name “Operation Iraqi Freedom” that the other name they were kicking around was “Operation Iraqi Liberation”.
JD, you forgot with the lefties its ‘do as I say, not as I do’.
There is no way that they are going to name it RAT.
I’ll bet that if you look into it you’ll find that the name was suggested by someone who wasn’t overly fond of the idea, and that its proponents were too stupid to catch on.
So the term RAT is an example of the political art of ratf**king.