Thus, in no specific order, consider what your political class has been working on lately:
- Most people know that the state of California has been in dire financial straits for a number of years now. According to an Associated Press article from December 6, 2010, budget cuts have been made in many state services including adult dental care and health care programs for children from low income families. Governor Schwarzenegger has called a special legislative session this week to address another $6 billion budget shortfall.
However, one expense that has not been drastically cut is the $5 million program that purchases cars for use by every politician in the state legislature and then pays the gasoline fees for those legislators. These vehicles include a $55,000 Cadillac and a $52,000 Lexus hybrid. According to the article, California is the only state in the union with such a deal for its state politicians. A spokesperson for the state Senate pro tem stated: The real question is, is there a cheaper, more efficient way of providing transportation for lawmakers to do their job?"
Here's a better question: why have the program at all? Forty nine other states get along fine without such a program. Most Americans drive their own cars to work, why can't California politicians do the same, especially in these difficult financial times for most American families? How many adults can have the needed dental work done or how many low income families could get health care for their children using that $5 million budget?
- A November 19, 2010 blurb in The Week magazine summarized an article in the Palm Beach Post that documented how almost 6 million Florida paper ballots from the disputed 2000 Presidential election are still being preserved in a climate controlled room in the Florida capital. Cost of preservation: $43,000 a year. Chance anyone will ever look at 6 million paper ballots: next to zero. Why keep them and waste taxpayer money: craziness.
- The December 3, 2010 issue of The Week magazine contained a short article based on a Bloomberg report that described how a former Czar in the Obama administration, Steven Rattner, had agreed to pay $6.2 million in fines and to a two ban to stay out the financial securities industry to settle pension fraud charges. However, the state of New York announced that it will sue Rattner for $26 million and demand a lifetime ban from the industry in an alleged kickback scheme to win New York state pension business. Guess those responsible for the due diligence of screening candidates for the new Obama administration somehow missed these little corruption and criminal problems and still allowed Rattner to become a Czar.
- In another The Week article, this one from October 28, 2010, we see how big, intrusive, and useless many government functions have become. A woman in Michigan recently advertised for a "Christian roommate" and is now under investigation by the Michigan Department of Civil Rights. A spokeswoman for the Department stated that while people can choose to live with anyone they want, this particular woman's advertisement constituted a "discriminatory statement" which violated the Fair Housing Act.
You have got to be kidding. Is this all that the Department has to do with its time, resources, and budget, dictate how we advertise for a roommate? To add insult to injury, the spokeswoman is quoted as saying: "Our interest really lies in her getting some training so that this doesn't happen again." Now they have really crossed over into George Orwell's "1984" world. We will tell you who to live with and train you to that you do not make the silly mistake again of choosing who your roommate is. Unbelievable infringement and interference with an American's life and freedom.
This government entity should be disbanded if this is what they do for a living, saving the Michigan taxpayer the budget dollars and protecting their freedom of choice. I wonder if they would have reacted in a similar manner if the Michigan woman had advertised for a "Muslim roommate?" Just curious to see how that would have gone down at the Michigan Department of Civil Rights.
- The St. Petersburg times reported on December 6, 2010 that the Obama administration and the Defense Department are actively reminding hundreds of thousands Federal employees and government contractors not to read the secret cables and other classified information that Wikileaks has published. The only exception would be for those people that have the proper security authorizations.
As the Times said, talk about shutting the barn door after the horses have left. Tell someone not to "touch that plate because it is hot" and what will most people do: probably touch the plate. Tell someone not to read something and what will most people do: probably read the banned material. Is the government and the political class so naive to think that people will not read the gossip and juicy details just because they were told not to and it is so easy to do? Unbelievable.
- Speaking of the Wikileaks fiasco, how incompetent is our government and political class that a private in our armed forces can take a portable USB drive and a blank CD disc to work and walk out with thousands and thousands of classified documents? It was not like this person was a sophisticated computer hacker or computer engineer that had to battle through firewalls and security protocols to access this top secret information. Nope, just a regular U.S. Army private with the simplest of computer tools and we are now the laughing stock and embarrassment of the diplomatic world. Talk about incompetence.
- According to an article in the November 19, 2010 issue of The Week magazine, a Michigan state assistant attorney general was fired for repeatedly harassing and borderline stalking the gay president of the University of Michigan's student assembly. The attorney general showed up at the student's house, once at 1:30 am, and accused the student of being a pervert, a racist, an elitist liar, and a gay Nazi via a blog dedicated to the student and maintained by the assistant attorney general. Just the kind of public servant I want in my local government. Maybe he could get a job with Michigan's Department of Civil Rights since he is so sensitive to the rights of this student.
- The illegal drug trade continues to crazier and crazier and much more dangerous. In early December, San Diego law enforcement came across 20 tons or marijuana and an underground drug smuggling tunnel leading from a warehouse in San Diego to a private home in Tijuana, Mexico. The tunnel was equipped with a ventilation system a fluorescent lighting system, and a rail car to transport the marijuana. This was the second such sophisticated tunnel found in the area within just a month or so.
One sophisticated smuggling tunnel is a novelty, two tunnels is a coincidence but if they find a third tunnel, I think we can safely say that the Mexican drug cartels are doing a thriving business if they can operate such a sophisticated smuggling system. The real question is when will our politicians become just as sophisticated in coming up with a drug strategy that treats the nation's addiction problem and renders the drug cartels poorer in the process.
- When we are talking about political greed, the name Charles Rangel always seems to come up. This week he was formally censured by the House of Representatives for about a dozen financial and ethics violations, infractions that we will not go into here. Nevertheless, he is still in office. Wonder what penalties those same infractions would have gotten the typical American worker? Probably not a similar slap on the wrist and allowance to continue to pull in about $170,000 a year in wages and the many perks that go with being an elected Federal politician.
- Let's finish with my least favorite politician, Nancy Pelosi. According to a recent new York Times article, summarized in the December 3, 2010 issue of The Week magazine, Nancy Pelosi is the least popular, active politician in the country. She is so unpopular that she has a net favorability rating of negative 25 (the favorability rating is the difference between the percentage of Americans that have a favorable view of her less those that have an unfavorable view of her. She is so despised that her negative 25 rating is worse than the negative ratings of Dick Cheney (negative 17), Sarah Palin (negative 14) and even George W, Bush (negative 9). The craziness factor is why the Demcrats continue to have her as their party leader in the House Of Representatives.
Take that world. Our politicans can be just as corrupt, just as crazy, just as wasteful, and just as incompetent than anything around the world. Unfortunately.
Our recent book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at www.loathemygovernment.com. It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.
Please visit the following sites for freedom:
http://www.cato.org/
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http://realpolichick.blogspot.com
http://www.flipcongress2010.com/
http://www.reason.com/
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