NevadaBrad

As Harry Reid works closely with our supreme leader, President Barack Obama (mmm, mmm, mmm), to turn America into a rotting mess, there is good news in the Silver State! During the past two weeks I have seen several marmots – mostly in the usual place, but a few in places I haven’t seen them before. I tried to snap some pictures but it was just too cold and windy that particular day. But to celebrate our 2010 team of marmots I’m posting a few low quality scans of some old pictures. I’ll try to improve the quality another time.

I don’t think I saw a single marmot last year. I can only imagine that they fled the country. I’m not sure what kind of healthcare is available to marmots but I’m sure it’s pretty good. I’ve never actually seen a sick marmot. I suspect they magically regenerate. Or perhaps the colony has a marmot shaman that instantly heals ailing marmots. It’s possible they headed for the border because of the healthcare disaster going on here.

It’s getting to be the season that marmots should start appearing. If I don’t start seeing marmots soon then I’ll assume that they really did flee the country. If it’s true then I think we had better wake up and take notice of their warning.

I’m starting to think that all of the marmots might have fled to Iceland – that would explain a lot.

Against my better judgment I spent some more time listening to KJFK today. I was surprised to hear some reasonable progressive talk radio for the first time. And on two different programs, no less!

Bill Press was actually having a calm discussion with a guest about Obama’s offshore drilling announcement. Of course, they were critical of the announcement and talked about the president’s motives and so on. I didn’t agree with their viewpoint but it lacked the vitriol that I’m used to hearing from progressive talk.

I also listened to Randi Rhodes on the way home. Aside from having a completely bone-headed caller, her show actually had some decent content. The caller argued that taxes are not really taxes, but rather an investment in America’s future. Randi agreed and provided several examples of things that we invest in with taxes, such as health care. Incorrectly, both Ms. Rhodes and the caller declared that the right wants to eliminate funding for interstate highways. They seemed to be saying that conservatives are against all taxes, which is just absurd. I believe that even the most extreme conservatives will argue that taxes should be collected for roads and military. Ms. Rhodes then went on to say that corporations get all sorts of tax breaks and that government is the answer to that problem. She thinks that tax breaks need to go to the people and the small businesses rather than big corporations. She does not seem aware of the fact that only people pay taxes, not corporations. If a company is taxed more then more taxes are passed on to the customer. She thinks that corporations control Washington, which I think we can all agree on to some extent. It quickly became obvious that everyone seems to agree on what the problems are. The difference comes in the handling of the problems. I believe that the left will make the problem worse if they implement their “solutions”. I’m sure they think the same about the right. But they’re wrong.

Just before I turned the radio off I heard Randi make an interesting statement. She thinks that if she would only take up the conservative cause then she would have as much money and as many listeners as the top conservative talkers. She certainly has a favorable opinion of herself. Maybe I need to listen more, but I had to laugh that should would dare compare herself to the unnamed conservative hosts. Ms. Rhodes then explained that she believes so strongly in her cause that she is willing to put up with lower and pay and ratings in order to share her brilliant progressive ideas with the world. She is quite the martyr.

Then again, she has literally dozens of listeners and I just have a goofy little blog that even I don’t read.

I finally did it. I turned on KJFK and took a listen. Fortunately, I have a limited amount of time to listen to the radio, which is a good thing when you’re listening to KJFK. It immediately became clear why listenership is low on leftie stations. The hosts were petty, condescending and mean and rarely did I hear an intelligent argument put forward. This was a stark difference from what you usually hear on conservative talk radio. Worst of all, the entertainment factor was about zero.

When I listened to the liberal talk station I heard basically the same thing over and over. The right is afraid. The reason they are afraid is because they are so full of hate. Almost every caller called in to repeat that fear comes from hatred and hatred leads to violence.

Let me throw out some examples of things I heard that seem to exemplify liberal talk radio. Unfortunately, I don’t have exact quotes because I was driving at the time, but I will make an honest effort to objectively paraphrase what I heard.

- Randi Rhodes wanted to know who is more like the Nazis – People who throw bricks through windows or people who don’t throw bricks through windows? (Answer: Republicans are Nazis because some person, presumably associated with the tea party movement, may have thrown a brick through a window.) She also explained that the tea party movement is the result of middle-aged and senior white men who live in terror because America is changing and they are being left out. Also, she does not like Rush Limbaugh.

- Cory Farley is losing faith in people because of the reaction over Obamacare.

- Bill Press related a story about an armored car accident that left $20 bills scattered all over the street. He then related that if he found money all over the street he would steal it and not give it back. On the bright side, I heard him having a fairly thoughtful discussion about Afghanistan with a guest (although I wonder if the discussion was as thoughtful during the Bush years).

- Thom Hartmann opined that the Republicans have been hijacked by violent extremists and that there is no moderation left in the party.

I was interested to hear Cory Farley express that most people are either idiots or evil because they oppose Obamacare (my words). And although presented in a flippant manner, I was shocked to hear that Bill Press has no problem with stealing and would join in himself if given the chance. Perhaps that’s why he likes Obamacare. Among all the ridiculous comments, what I never heard was any kind of logical debate or argument. The conservatives were constantly labeled as racists and hateful fear-mongers. For example, one caller called in to ask if what he had been hearing from his conservative friends about Obamacare was true. The answer from the host was basically this: of course it’s not true! They’re just a bunch of fearful, hateful extremists! Did the host address the question? Not at all.

It also seemed clear that they never want to miss a chance to by hypocrites. Just to pick one small example, I heard a discussion about how spitting on a politician is a federal crime and the person who did it should be put in prison. I don’t recall any outrage over Cynthia McKinney assaulting a police officer (is that a crime?). But if you spit a little when you pronounce your P’s you should probably just be sent to the electric chair. Except the death penalty is bad. But since you spit when you talk to a politician we’ll make an exception.

So, it is painfully clear that the left is trying to focus on the racist, fear-mongering, spitting tea party so that no one will talk about Obamacare. They are hoping that between now and the November elections America will forget what our politicians just did to us. The lefties lack the ability to understand some simple concepts. THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH RACE! And the only thing we fear is having all of our rights being taken away. Even if you disagree, can you please acknowledge that it is indeed a terrifying thought to have your basic rights stripped from you? Instead of stoking the flames of hatred why don’t you try to explain why the actions of our government will not lead to fewer freedoms?

I think the bottom line is this: the libs attack people because they can’t win a debate on issues. But people are smart and they see through that tripe. That’s why people like Limbaugh and Beck are so successful while leftie hosts enjoy a generally small audience. Although the lefties brand conservative hosts as bigots and fear-mongers DON’T BELIEVE IT! Hannity uses a good biblical quote to summarize his views: “Let not your heart be troubled.” Glenn Beck constantly tells people that violence is not an answer to our problems. His message is that we need to be educated and then come together as a nation. Washington is leading us to a very dark place and we’ve got to help each other survive. This is what people tend to believe. Although the skies are cloudy now, the storm can’t last forever. Eventually the sun is going to come out.

So, I’ve done my duty – I tried listening to the other side. I would love to know if there is something I’m missing. Am I listening to the wrong hosts? Or at the wrong time? Or on the wrong day? If anyone has some advice please let me know.

For years we’ve been told how precious our planet is. It’s one of a kind. It’s the only Earth we’ve got. After years of bludgeoning the ozone with our CFCs and warming the planet with our carnivorous lifestyles, we’re finally starting to come around. We bring our Earth-friendly shopping bags to the store and we carefully try to reduce the temperature of our breath before exhaling. No one is more vigilant about preserving Mother Earth than those on the left. While those on the right are more into exercising “dominion” over the earth, the lefties have selflessly turned their lives over to the planet to protect what fragile life may still be left in her.

While this liberals and progressives will stop at nothing to find the medicine that will finally reduce Earth’s imaginary fever, they bare their hypocrisy when it comes to an imminent threat that is very real. If the the Earth is a lone oasis in a hostile universe then the United States is no less so. The world is full of hostile governments that exercise ruthless control over their populations. Even fairly free societies such as England make no bones about watching their citizens from cameras installed on every corner or denying people the right to bear arms. The United States is an island where people can believe and say whatever they want. Life and liberty are guaranteed. At least that’s the way it used to be.

Now, the same people who to control what kind of light bulbs we use for the sake of the planet are willing to annihilate an oasis that is no less miraculous than our incredible planet. People can go anywhere in the world and see progressive ideas in effect. Of course, this is especially true of health care since socialized medicine is available just about anywhere else you go. And yet America has a fantastic health care system – the best in the world. Somehow they did it without the government running it.

So, why can’t the lib-progs leave us alone? Why can’t they show the same interest in protecting America that they do protecting the planet from fictitious man-made climate change? America did not become the greatest country on Earth because of how hard we tried to be like everyone else. We need to take a stand. Harry Reid, Shelley Berkley and Dina Titus need to be thrown out for what they’ve done. Instead of standing for liberty and freedom they trampled our rights. Instead of giving everyone a chance to succeed they voted to make people dependent on the government.

The politicians in Washington are counting on people tiring of the debate before the November elections. Let’s show Washington that Obamacare is not a cure – it’s a festering wound and it’s only going to get worse between now and November. The cure is to clean the filth out of Washington and elect people who will restore our freedoms.

If you listen to Obama he will tell you to give America the painkiller instead of opting for the life saving surgery. He wants you to forget what they’re doing in Washington. We owe the United States of America – the greatest nation in the history of the world – at least the same respect that we show our planet. We have nowhere to retreat and the threat is real. Let’s choose the surgery and cut out the disease in Washington this November.

I’m not sure why, but all my Facebook friends are big libs. I haven’t added anyone, but several people have added me. One blessing is that I get keen insight into what kind of people voted for our supreme leader, President Barack Obama (mmm, mmm, mmm). I imagine some of these are average people that you might find waiting in line at Wal*Mart; however, some of these people spew some serious ugliness.

I believe that most people are decent people, but there are some psychos on every edge of the political spectrum. I also believe that the liberal/progressive edge stretches much further toward the center than you see with other political ideologies. Those on the left repeatedly label people racists just because they don’t agree with them. I contend that the actual number of crazies on the left is proportional to how many racists they think there are on the right.

Rather than continue to babble, I include here a few comments found in the comments of my Facebook friends:

I’m not cheating I’m not a Republican thanks

raggio with the help of the Clark County repugliKKKans have been robbing the clark county treasury my whole life ! I think he even uses the money to dye his hair as it has been many different colors over the years ! He’s really cute when it’s that bright orange !

…democrats=the ones with the brain !

Will they stop by and visit with the “C” street terrorist ensign in his bordello ?

Full disclosure – I clipped out some parts of the comments that were not specific to the point, but I did not change the intent in any way. I’ll also admit that most of these comments came from one angry person.

I will also state that there were a (very) few kind words about Bill Raggio that came from this group. And I would be negligent if I declined to mention that there is a conservative involved in many of these discussions that is seemingly incapable of making an intelligent point. To this person: I’m sorry if you ever read this, but someone needed to tell you.

Many comments described disappointment at leaders that voted against SB 283. One person chimed in with a comment about gay marriage not being ordained of God. One response read thus:

Which god ? john ensigns ???? newt gingrich’s ??? bush’s ???
cheney’s ???? hamas ????? pedophile priests ???? dali llama ?? the polygamy god ???there are so many that keep women as slaves and concubines I get confused !

Bush’s name was actually spelled to include a profanity so I modified the spelling.

I’m curious if this is typical of discussions between liberals/progressives. When I talk with my like-minded friends, I never hear this type of speech. There is frustration that our political leaders do not listen to the people that elected them. There is discussion about corruption among our politicians, which is most rampant among the Democrats. These discussions involve specifics like Reid’s ties to trial lawyers and our supreme leader President Barack Obama’s (mmm, mmm, mmm) unarguably dishonest entry into the political scene. There is talk about Al Franken’s loss in his senate run, followed by repeatedly recounting the votes until he showed a win. ACORN was involved in this race and it is obvious beyond all doubt that ACORN is a very bad organization.

The point is that among my friends I never hear ugly personal attacks about others regardless of how strongly we disagree. Attacks are always based on specific facts, even if some disagree on how to interpret the facts. (William Jefferson was testing ways to save money. Freezing is how you save food, right?)

When I read the discussion among my Facebook buddies there is one thing I have never read: Intelligent discussion or debate about anything. I understand that the smart people probably sit back and shake their heads while they let the less thoughtful go at it. I guess all I’m looking for is some thoughtful and insightful argument between people whom I don’t agree with. I’ll need to look elsewhere.

It’s that time again. More mindless blabbering about radio stuff. Since the last time I travelled this path I’ve done some thinking. Reader Rick posted a comment and asked the following questions:

Can you provide me with ratings for the weekday drive time?

Is Bill Manders so popular that KKOH continues to support and keep his program active?

Where does Bill Manders stand in the ratings?

I dug around quite a bit but couldn’t find any specific information to answer these questions. This type of detail is included in the reports that must be purchased (usually through a subscription). My curiosity does not lead me to pay money for this information. At least not right now. Or maybe ever.

Anyway, while thinking about this topic I came to the realization that I’m not a fan of local talk. “Reno’s Morning News” (Breakfast Club) may be great. Bill Manders may be King of Reno. But, personally, I’m just not a big fan of local talk. Like sushi or Macs, it’s not my thing. I used to like local talk. I loved Brian Maloney when he used to be on KOH. I also loved Ira Hansen when he was on KOH. I think Rusty killed it for me, though. He did a lot of good for our community, but that’s when I started to fall out of love with local talk. Even Ira Hansen, whom I loved on KOH, did not appeal to me as much when he reappeared on 99.1.

I only mention all this to identify that I am not impartial when it comes to discussing local talk. I suspect that Bill Manders is extremely popular. He’s been on KOH for a long time and KOH is usually pretty sensitive to programming the most popular (e.g. profitable) shows. If anyone would like to provide more specifics about the topic I would love the information.

The spring numbers are available, so I’ll be posting them along with my usual commentary shortly.

I thought that with my last post I was done with the trial lawyer thing, but then I started wondering again. Why do trial lawyers support Democrat candidates so disproportionately? Do they truly believe in the liberal/progressive cause? Or are they simply investing their money where they think they’ll get the most return?

It seems that these firms advertise on Fox News in a huge way. In fact, with the exception of the local attorneys that I’ve mentioned, all the lawyers I’ve listed are advertisers on Fox News (I’ve got a few more to add at the end of this post). If you can believe what the reporters and politicians say, Fox News is the equivalent of the devil. Or maybe Rush Limbaugh is the devil and Fox News is hell. If that’s true, then where does Glenn Beck fit in? I don’t know how it all works, but Fox News is supposed to be bad (although I’m convinced that anyone who demonizes Fox News has never actually watched it). Do these firms also advertise on MSNBC or CNN?

I was further annoyed by Harry Reid’s response to a message I sent him. In my message I expressed my concern that Washington seems hellbent on passing a strange health care bill but they aren’t doing anything to stop the bleeding when it comes to job loss. I also mentioned that in regard to health care I consider tort reform to be a legitimate problem – much more so than the issues addressed in the bill. He seems to be avoiding legitimate problems while focusing on things that are just not critical right now. Finally, I demanded that he consider the voice of the people and discontinue his support of the current Democrat health care proposals. As always, in his response he just explained to me why I’m wrong and why he’s right. In part his message said this:

Proponents of tort reform link the rising costs of premiums for medical malpractice insurance to the rising cost of personal and group policy health insurance and assert that limiting punitive damage awards could significantly reduce the costs of health care. Critics of tort reform note that caps on punitive damages at the state level have been wholly ineffective in reducing the cost of malpractice insurance and have only served to enrich insurance companies. Furthermore, because medical malpractice suits result in less than one percent 1% of total health care costs, tort reform would do little to lower the overall cost of health care.

Just once I would like to get a response that says something like, “I value your opinion and will absolutely make it part of my consideration.” It will never happen, though.

Why would Harry Reid support tort reform? According to OpenSecrets.org, four of the top 20 donors for his 2010 campaign are trial attorney groups that would certainly be negatively impacted by tort reform. The second ranked donor is none other than Weitz & Luxenberg, a group that was previously featured here. Counting donations only from trial attorney groups in the top 20 (Weitz & Luxenberg, Simmons Cooper LLC, Waters & Kraus and Cooney & Conway), Harry Reid has received $203,800. In other words, about .22% of his donors contributed more than 7.6% of his current donations. All four firms specialize in asbestos/mesothelioma litigation. There are several more firms in the top 100 and I’m sure even more among the more than 1,800 donors. So, Harry Reid is clearly beholden to a bunch of shady lawyers that aren’t even located in Nevada while openly rebelling against the people who put him in office.

As a comparison, I looked up the same information for John Ensign. I could not find one trial attorney group among the top 100.

I don’t know if I’ll ever have answers to my questions. In the meantime, here is more campaign contribution information for attorneys I’ve seen advertising on TV.

First, Baron and Budd. Steve Baron donated $6600 to – that’s right – John Edwards between 2004 and 2007. He also donated $4600 each to Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, $2300 to Joe Biden and a whopping $29,500 to the DNC.

Russell Budd was even more generous. Again, $6600 to John Edwards between 2004 and 2007 with similar contributions to the other candidates. He gave $25,000 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in 2007 and $43,500(!) to the DNC in 2004. It used to be a free country, so I say use your money however you want. On the other hand, how many jobs could have been created with this money? Heck, give me the money and I’ll campaign for the candidates of your choice full time. The check should be for $133,900 (total contributions from 2004 to present). Or you can pay me cash under the table – I think that’s how Democrats work, isn’t it? But I digress.

Next is Adam Pulaski of Pulaski & Middleman. Of course, Mr. Pulaski donated to John Edwards, but it was a measly $1000 in 2004. More interestingly, he also gave a small donation to Ciresi for Senate. Mike Ciresi, of course, is the trial lawyer that was involved in the “big tobacco” class-action lawsuit. The one where he and his firm were thoroughly enriched through arguably devious methods. Strangely, Pulaski also donated a total of $7130 to Lindsey Graham in 2008. Why he would make a donation to a Republican senator from another state seems odd to me. This is certainly something I’m interested in researching further.

David Middleman of Pulaski & Middleman gave only a small $500 donation to Mike Ciresi in 2007. If it’s quality and not quantity that matter, then consider that the only money he donated went to a scummy trial attorney from another state.

As a side note, considering that Ciresi suddenly found himself with painful gobs of cash he seems to be pretty stingy with his money. He gave $1750 to a Minnesota congressman and $2300 to Hillary Clinton. Someone needs to ‘splain to him the rules.

I saved the least interesting for last. I couldn’t go on and on about these attorneys without mentioning Fox News mainstay Binder & Binder. You may remember Charles Binder. He wears a hat:

Charles Binder of Binder & Binder

It seems that most of his donations are for local people, but when he supported a presidential candidate he went for John Kerry (woo!). Same goes for Harry Binder. Each made a $2000 donation to John Kerry – nothing else too remarkable otherwise. There was a large donation to the DNC by a Charles Binder, but I couldn’t confirm this was the same person. BUT, Charles Binder has a program on Air America, so that should be entered into evidence. I’m not sure whether this firm technically counts since they specialize in dealing with the Social Security Administration. I’m inclined to call this business legitimate, but I”ll let you make the call.

Sorry – lots of words and nothing very interesting. I hope I’m done with this subject. Something new next time – I promise.

Since my last post regarding trial lawyers, I did a little more research. Specifically, I paid a little more attention to the ads that were on TV and I looked at the local trial lawyer pool to see how they compared. I shouldn’t be surprised by what I found, but I will admit I was a little disappointed.

I saw ads for additional firms that were advertising for whatever it is they advertise for (mesothelioma, asbestos exposure, drug side-effects, etc. – pick one). One was Weitz & Luxenberg. Perry Weitz donated $28,500 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, in addition to $2300 and $2000 to John Edwards (WHAT!?!) for his 2008 and 2004 presidential runs respectively. He also gave $6600 collectively to Biden and Gephardt for their campaigns.

Working alongside Mr. Weitz is Arthur Luxenberg. He also donated $28,500 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, as well as $2100 and $2000 for John Edwards 2008 and 2004 campaigns. Collectively he also gave $8820 to other Democrat candidates since 2004. He actually donated $2000 to Joe Lieberman in 2004 – by far his least extreme donation.

So, I decided to look at some of the personal injury lawyers local to the Reno area. When I searched on Google the first firm that came up was Bradley, Drendel & Jeanney. I grabbed information for Bill Bradley, Joseph Bradley, Thomas Drendel and William Jeanney. Their donations break down as follows:

• Bill Bradley – $2300 to John Edwards in 2007 and $1000 to Harry Reid in 2008
• Joseph Bradley – $1000 to John Edwards in 2007 and $1500 to John Edwards in 2004
• Thomas Drendel – $2000 to John Edwards in 2007 plus $1000 each to Harry Reid, Jill Derby, the Nevada State Democratic Party and the DNC
• William Jeanney – $1500 to John Edwards in 2004 (Juanita Jeanney also gave $1500 to John Edwards in 2004)

It seems like there may be a pattern, but I can’t quite pick out what it is.

While looking up information, one name came up regularly – Peter Neumann. He is also a trial lawyer in the Reno area. He is apparently a very successful lawyer because he gave almost $36,000 to Democrat causes and candidates in 2008, almost $25,000 in 2006 and more than $30,000 in 2004. He even gave $1000 to Al Franken in 2008. Strangely, he also donated $3100 to John Edwards in 2008. Oops, that’s not strange. I meant it was strange that he only donated $500 to John Edwards in 2004.

Anyway, I could go on all day like this, but there really wouldn’t be a point. In an extremely inaccurate stab, I went back to the Fundrace webpage and typed “trial lawyer” into the occupation field and did a search. The result showed that trial lawyers had donated $25,551 to Republican candidates and $164,048 to Democrat candidates. The flaw is that this number does not include large donations such as the $28,500 donations made to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee or the DNC, for example. It also only gives a sampling – it’s not a complete list. I’m not sure how the page selects which donors will be included – it could be weighted heavily toward Republicans or Democrats. At face value it certainly illustrates what I’ve been trying to say.

Trial lawyers contribute more to our country’s health care problems than insurance companies. When trial lawyers are spending so much money making sure other trial lawyers are legislating then we can be assured that we will never see tort reform. We will never see our health care system improve. We will only see the corruption spread. John Edwards is the poster boy for what’s wrong with our legal system. Instead of despising him, the trial lawyers generally celebrate him and use their money to try to make him (or people like him) our president. To me, this is absolutely terrifying.

There is good news, though. If you are having trouble figuring out who to vote for, just look at who the trial lawyers are donating money to and then vote for that persons opponent. It makes research much easier. Had you done this, you would have voted against Harry Reid, Dina Titus and Jill Derby. It seems like a pretty safe system to me.

I finally did it. I took myself down to the county offices and changed my voter registration. I am now registered as an NP.

This is not the first time but it will be the last time until something drastic changes. I originally registered as an R right out of high school and voted in my first election five months later. My dad was a D, so I don’t remember how I ended up an R.

So, I first changed my registration in 2001 after the election of George W. Bush. I strongly supported him and was giddy when he won (yes, he was elected and not selected). One of the first things he tried to do was shove amnesty down our throats. I was so disgusted by this that I changed to an IA. The tragedy of 9/11 happened shortly after that and a lot of things changed. The Ds became very mean and hateful and seemed to quickly forget that our status as Americans came before our political affiliation. Partisan politics resumed and the vile things that came from the Ds was so offensive to me that I re-registered as an R to show support for President Bush.

As President Bush’s second term rolled along it became clear that his values were not quite in step with the people of this country. He again started pushing for amnesty and then saddled us with Medicare reform that only caused our hole to become deeper. As a capstone, near the end of his presidency he pushed for the original economic stimulus plan. Everyone seemed to know that it was a bad idea, but he pushed for it anyway. Then our supreme leader, President Barack Obama, came into office and continued the policies of President Bush.

It is clear that both major political parties are out of touch with the people of this country. I have chosen to shed my R because I’m tired of choosing the lesser of two evils. I can readily admit that President Bush made some major errors. I am further disgusted by news of John Ensign’s affair. I refuse to argue that he has done well for Nevada even though he has made such an egregious error in his personal life.

This is my challenge to any Ds that may be reading this: Admit that our supreme leader, President Barack Obama, has been a failure. Quit supporting his outrageous policies and hold him accountable in the same way that you would hold an R accountable. Hold Senator Reid accountable that same way you have held John Ensign accountable for his mistake. Finally, quit complaining about people in the townhall meetings and support them the same way you supported those who protested President Bush throughout his presidency.

Stop letting Washington pit everyone against each other! I’ve taken a step and I hope everyone reading this will find a way to take a step for themselves. There is no better time to start cleaning out Washington than now.