Ever wonder who gives politicians all that money?

February 15, 2013:

If you like numbers and if you'd like to know more about money and it's (massive) influence on the U.S. government, this is the site for you.  Run by the Center for Responsive Politics--a non-partisan, non-profit, independent group--OpenSecrets.org has a mind boggling amount of data on who spends what in politics.

Lobbyists are people who haunt Washington, D.C. seeking to influence politicians to support their organizations.  As you can see below, there have been between 12,000 and 14,000 lobbyists in D.C. from 1999 to 2012.  That's 12,000 lobbyists exerting influence (and money) on 535 elected representatives! And from 2007-2012, lobbying organizations been averaging roughly $3 billion dollars a year in spending.  I think I'm going to write a letter to complain about that.

States of the Union: Much promised, little achieved

From the New York Times, February 13, 2013:

The Times had this graphic on their web page showing how little of what presidents propose in State of the Union speeches actually gets put into action.  If you focus on the "fully successful" line (because "partly successful" seems pretty vague), it seems that the average is about 30% or a little less.  LBJ seems to be an outlier, and presidents working with a Congress of the same party are somewhat more effective, but not as much as you might think.

Obama and the Drones

February 12, 2013:

They fly at 20,000 feet, carrying laser guided bombs and missiles, and are flown by satellite by pilots who are often half a world away.  On a typical day, the pilot might be monitoring a group of people inside a small compound in Pakistan (or Yemen or Afghanistan or Somalia).  The pilot and his commanding officers determine that the people on the ground are militants training new recruits.  Authorization is given, the pilot marks the target with a targeting laser and releases the bombs.  Two, 500 pound Paveway bombs follow the laser to the target.  The people below never hear a sound (the drone is too small, too quiet, and too high to be detected) before the bomb explodes on top of them. They are there one minute and gone the next.  A successful strike is recorded, no U.S. soldiers' lives are endangered, and the drone flies on, searching for its next target.