September,2019, Part 1, Political Class Insanity: Illegals Still More Important Than American Citizens, We Still Hate Our Politicians, and An Out Of Control, Nonsensical Congresswoman

It is another month which means it is again time to review the latest political class insanity from Washington and around the world. Political class insanity takes many forms including the wasting of taxpayer wealth, criminal fraud within government programs, inane and stupid political quotes and actions, the inability to create and implement effective and efficient government programs, stupid and ill performing economic policies and strategies, and other forms of insanity that continue to evolve and surprise and shock us.

Let’s get started:

1) It is no secret that Americans do not like their politicians. Gallup and other reputable polling organizations have reported on this high level of disgust for years. And the latest sentiment has not changed: 

• A recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll finds that 70% of those polled are angry.
• And they are angry “because our political system seems to only be working for the insiders with money and power, like those on Wall Street or in Washington.”
• This level of anger has not changed since the same poll asked the same question back in 2015 so even as the economy has improved, the anger level has not subsided: “Four years ago, we uncovered a deep and boiling anger across the country engulfing our political system,” said Democratic pollster Jeff Horwitt, whose firm conducted this survey along with the Republican firm Public Opinion Strategies. “Four years later, with a very different political leader in place, that anger remains at the same level.”
• And despite a great and improved economy, 56% of Americans are “anxious and uncertain because the economy still feels rocky and unpredictable.”

So it does not matter what party the President comes from, it does not matter what party controls Congress, we despise them all. Which means that term limits were never more needed to get rid of the current political class types that 70% of us think very little of.

2) We have previously made the point that liberals and Democrats in Washington, and elsewhere, care more about illegal immigrants than American citizens. These folks get all upset because of the conditions that illegal immigrants are being detained in, even though they get free medical care, free food, and free shelter, despite breaking our laws. But you see none of that same kind of compassion for the millions of Americans who are homeless, hungry, and sick.

This theory and reality was proven again in Seattle:

• The King County sheriff’s department out by Seattle recently decided against using the Law Enforcement Information Exchange database.
• This database helps law enforcement and the Federal government track down illegal immigrant CRIMINALS.
• Thus, illegal immigrant CRIMINALS now have more rights than the potential and real victims of these CRIMINALS’ crimes.
• From Conservative Review: “The Law Enforcement Information Exchange (LInX) is a database of crime incident reporting used by over 2,000 local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies to share information about criminal events in a given area of operations. It is designed and operated by the U.S. Navy. LInX is very useful to detectives seeking to find fugitives or crack a case because they can draw upon arrest information put on the system by other law enforcement agencies. For example, if one agency is looking for a fugitive sex offender and he is pulled over for a traffic stop by another police department, LInX would be one of the first ways the detective would discover the criminal he is looking for. Well, the system is effective enough in catching fugitives that King County, Washington, law enforcement feared that continued use of the system would violate the county’s ordinance of not sharing any information on immigration status with ICE. So they are concerned about violating a local ordinance, but evidently have no concern about violating federal law."

Thus, not only is this sheriff’s department protecting criminals in its own district, it is potentially allowing criminals committing crimes outside of its county to get away with crimes by denying important information to other law enforcement agencies. Again, the purpose should be to protect citizens and capture criminals regardless of their citizenship status. Isn’t that more important than protecting these illegal immigrant criminals and preventing them for paying for their crimes?

3) Newbie Congresswoman Ihan Omar has been quite the spectacle since winning a seat in Congress. Besides hating Israel, she has not shown a lot of love to the United States, an absence of love that we will save for another day. 

But she recently showed her hate when demanded that the United States allow the United Nations to handle the border crisis on the U.S./Mexico border. In other words, she wants the country to abdicate control of its border to an international body that has proven itself to as inept and incompetent over the decades as the political class in Washington.

Specifically: “We should do what any other country does by dealing with this situation in a serious way. So, we have to bring in the United Nations high commissioner on refugees, an agency that has the expertise and the training to handle massive flows of refugees humanely.” 

Really, Congresswoman, the United Nations has handled refugee crises humanely? Not sure that worked when Syria collapsed. Not sure when tribal warfare broke out in Africa. The United Nations does nothing humanely or efficiently and to even think that giving up our border control is a good thing is insane. 

Plus, millions of Americans served in our armed forces over the years, and untold thousands died or were hurt, to protect our borders, our country, and our way of life. To think that a Congresswoman with less than two years Congressional experience has any clue what to do on the border is ludicrous, as her suggestion proves.

4) But Omar was not done in her remarks on the border. She also said, without providing any proof, that the Federal government was arresting and deporting illegal immigrants because they were poor. Again, much like her friend and cohort Ocasio-Cortez, she spews this garbage without providing any proof and expects anyone within ear range to believe her. 

No, Congresswoman, these people are being arrested and deported because they broke the law, not because they are poor. If a doctor, a lawyer, or foreign millionaire walked across the border and broke our laws they would be deported also. They are being deported because they broke the law, how hard is it for you and others like you to comprehend that simple principle?

5) Looks like Omar has provided the most insanity for use to kick off this month’s political class insanity theme. Consider this craziness and possible law breaking by Omar:

• During her talks on relinquishing border control to the United Nations she talked about taking the “high moral ground.”
• But she might not have the “high moral ground” in either her personal life or in her campaign finance handling.
• A recent divorce filing claims that Omar was having an adulterous affair with her political strategist during her campaign for Congress.
• This strategist, Tim Maynatt, had divorce papers served on him by his wife which made the accusations of adultery between him and Omar.
• If true, not a whole lot of “high moral ground” on Omar’s part in this tryst.
• But possibly even worse news, it seems that one out of every three dollars Omar’s campaign spent somehow made its way to Mynatt’s consulting company and included in these big payments were tens of thousands of “travel” expenses unrelated to Omar’s campaign.
• According to the Daily Caller: “Federal Election Commission (FEC) records reveal the Omar campaign began making travel reimbursements to Tim Mynett’s company, E. Street Group, LLC, on April 1, about a week before Dr. Beth Jordan Mynett said her husband admitted to having an affair with the congresswoman, according to a divorce filing the New York Post first reported on. Omar’s campaign funded $21,547 in travel for E. Street Group starting in April, FEC records show. Tim Mynett is a partner with the company, according to his LinkedIn profile. Beth Mynett, the wife filing for divorce, said in her court filing that Tim Mynett’s “extensive travel” with Omar is likely unrelated to his work with E. Street Group.”
• This could be a violation of Federal campaign laws, i.e. it is not kosher to use campaign funds to fly your adulterer lover around the country.

If true, then this “high moral ground” Congressional member is an adulterer and abuser of campaign funds. Makes it hard to take anything she says seriously, given this hypocrisy, especially when it is as stupid as letting the United Nations control our borders.

A good first start on this month’s political class insanity: an out of control Congresswoman, prioritizing illegal immigrant criminals over protecting American citizens, and Americans are not happy with Washington politicians. More insanity to follow.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

https://www.amazon.com/Walter-Bruno-Korschek/e/B002KYU08Q/ref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share

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.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.bankruptingamerica.org
http://www.conventionofstates.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

October, 2013 Political Class Insanity, Part 3: An Underpaid/Delusional Congressman, Banks Still Rule, and More

Please note: Nancy Pelosi recently made the outrageous comment that there was no waste to be cut in the Federal govnerment, i.e. EVERY dollar the Washington political class spends is essential to our country. Keep this insanity in mind as we go through this month's polticial class insanity, you will quickly see that she is very much out of touch with the reality of today's wasteful federal government.

This is the third in a series to review the latest insanity, lunacy and antics from the American political class. The first two posts were quite depressing. We saw politicians getting richer, fraudsters getting richer, bridges ready to collapse around the country, and more. As a warning, the insanity today and in subsequent days will be as bad, as wasteful, and as depressing as the insanity we have covered this month and in the years leading up to this month. The number of politicians stays the same but the idiocy they come up with, the ineptness they exhibit, continues to grow exponentially.

1) Over 20 million Americans are unemployed or under employed. The average/median household annual income in this country has dropped substantially since AFTER the recession ended and is now about $50,000. The price of gas is up about 80% since Obama took office. Food stamp recipients now total over 47 million Americans, an all time record by far.

And what does a current member of Congress think about his salary, currently about $172,000 a year with outstanding benefits to boot? According to  recent Politico article, one lawmaker, Congressman Phil Gingrey,  said he’s “stuck” making $172,000 a year, while Congressional aides will go on to make in big bucks lobbying on K Street, according to a National Review report. Staffers “may be 33 years old now and not making a lot of money. But in a few years they can just go to K Street…and make $500,000 a year. Meanwhile I’m stuck here making $172,000 a year,” Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Ga.) said, according to the National Review.

He is “stuck making $172,000” while tens of millions of Americans cannot even find a job or need help putting food on the table. He is “stuck” making three times more in salary than what the typical American family makes. And it is not like the Congressman is poor. According to Politico, quoting the National Review reports, his net worth is about $3 million. 

We are truly living in a “Hunger Games” country when the country is suffering dire economic stress and a Washington politician complains about only making $172,000.

2) The U.S. healthcare industry can make you shudder. According to Aetna, in the United States, we spend over $2.3 TRILLION a year on health care. No other country in the world spends more but 32 other countries in the world have higher average life expectancies. 

This comes out to over $10,000 a year for every single American citizen but we still rank 33rd in the world. And Obama Care is likely to make us spend more and fall further down the rankings since the legislation never looked at the root causes of the $2.3 TRILLON expense.

3) According to a recent article from the New York Post, that was reviewed in the September 30, 3012 issue of The Week magazine, in just 2001 alone former Congressman Robert Kennedy, Jr. had sexual trysts with 37 different women. He tracked and categorized these trysts, along with annotations, in a diary that the Post had obtained.

Kennedy, whose wife committed suicide last year, is just another politician whose respect for his spouse, his word of honor, his constituents, and his public office is no better than the politicians who came before him, e.g. Weiner, Spitzer, Edwards, MacGreevey, Sanford, Ensign, his uncle JFK, etc. If you are having affairs with 37 different women, it is a lot tougher focusing on the government work of the people.

4) An article in the December, 2012 issue of Reason magazine gave a stunning example of how government spending and mismanagement of taxpayer wealth is so out of control, using the Chicago city government as an example:

• While trying to get its out-of-control budget tamed, between 2003 and 2012 the city of Chicago eliminated more than 8,000 city jobs, about 20% of its workforce.
• However, according to a recent analysis from the Illinois Policy Institute, the cost of health care for the remaining employees’ jumped 29% in 2012.
• Additionally, from 2003 to 2012 the annual cost of a city employee on the city payroll jumped from $58,299 per employee to $96,082.
• Thus, with 20% fewer employees compared to 2003, the city is paying out $700 million more a year for 20% fewer employees vs. 2003. 
• Far fewer employees and far more costs, you cannot make this stuff up.
• But it gets worse since on the current budget trend, the city must find a way to increase its annual contributions to the employee pensions fund by almost three fold, from $476 million a year to $1.2 billion a year by 2015.

Needless to say, unless some drastic cuts are taking soon, the city is going pull a “Detroit” in the next few years despite cutting a fifth of its workforce. This is the poster child for out-of-control government spending when you slash staff but increase your staffing budget.

5) I get a little sense of relief when I find out that at least our politicians are no different when it comes to politicians around the world in wasting taxpayer money. The latest issue of Business Week has some information on how the Chinese government has gone overboard building infrastructure in China and has allowed loose credit policies (are you listening, Federal Reserve board) to result in the building of new towns and special zones that have gone unused and unoccupied because while the government said to build and encouraged building. The immutable forces of the market said there was no need or demand for the build outs.

 One of the most glaring examples of taxpayer wealth wasted  is the building of a new airport in a far flung city in the western Chinese hinterlands in the Xinjiang province. The new airport has four check-in counters and handles a grand total of two flights a DAY. Thus, wasting taxpayer money does not appear to be a uniquely American political talent.

6) On January 21, 2010, President Obama stated: “I’m proposing a simple and common sense [financial] reform, which we’re calling the Volcker Rule, after this tall guy behind me.” The Volcker rule that he proposed was to ensure that banks could not make investment bets and investments that would stick American taxpayers with the bill if the banks ended up failing, much like what happened in the Great Recession. 

Simple enough. When the Dodd-Frank financial industry reform legislation was passed, the Volcker rule encompassed 12 pages of the final bill. Three years later, the rule has still not been written into formal, enforceable regulations. The unfinal, unapproved regulations now run 530 pages long and we still do not have an answer of how to do this simple thing.

Deadlines for enforcement continue to be missed and you can be sure that many lawsuits will ensue since translating 12 pages of law into well over 500 pages of regulations is going to tick off some people regarding the intent of the original 12 pages and the effect of over 500 pages.

Whenever something can be done simply, you can be sure that our political class will make longer, more difficult and less effective.

7) Speaking of financial matters and the Great Recession, a graphic from a recent issue of Business Week showed how much taxpayer money that the Federal government gave to bail out the firm AIG actually passed through AIG and directly into the hands of foreign banks:

• Canadian banks got $1.4 billion of American taxpayer wealth
• French banks got $20.8 billion
• British banks got $2.6 billion
• German banks got $10.8 billion
• Swiss banks got $3.8 billion
• Netherlands banks got $.6 billion
• Total = $40 billion of American taxpayer wealth ended in the vaults of foreign banks.

Which obviously raises the question of why were foreign banks relieved of the responsibility for their stupid decisions in the marketplace? And why were American taxpayers forced to pay for their stupid decisions?

That $40 billion could have been used to:

• Give every American household a $350 tax rebate.
• Could have kept the White House tours operating for 40,000 years.
• Could have put a trained, armed police professional in every U.S. school for about five years to prevent future Newtown like shootings.

Never underestimate the ability of the American political class to take care of bankers and itself from a financial backer and donor perspective. And now they have expanded to take care of overseas bankers also.

Enough insanity for today but tomorrow brings another day and another batch of lunacy from our politicians.

Our 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:

Term Limits Now:http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.robertringer.com/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

June, 2013 Political Class Insanity, Part 4: Another ATF Screw Up, Democratic Adultery, Government Spying, And More

Okay, I think this will be the last post on this month’s political class insanity. It has been a bumpy ride as we learned that the ATF has had its storage facility robbed of a quarter ton of explosives, how John McCain would rather work on ESPN issues than real national issues, how the French political class are trying to tax some of its citizens at a tax rate over 100% of their earnings, and various other political class acts of lunacy, waste, and idiocy.

Today should end the insanity for another month or so. Today, we will start out with some insanity courtesy of Reason magazine. Reason is a fabulous monthly magazine that is dedicated to preserving freedom and liberty in this country. In their pursuit of that goal, they come across a lot of political class insanity that is summarized at the beginning of each of their issues. The following insanity comes from their June, 2013 issue:

1) Earlier this year. the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a challenge the Federal government’s ability to put a U.S. citizen under warrantless surveillance, a law suit against a 2008 amendment to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act or FISA. That amendment allows the Federal government to intercept communications between someone inside the country and someone outside of the country.

The unbelievable reason why the lawsuit was rejected was apparently not because of the heinous act of the government spying on citizens but the fact that the plaintiffs could not prove they had been spied on and thus, had no standing to challenge the law. They could not prove they had been spied on since the government will not reveal who they are spying on!

According to the ACLU in 2012: “The Justice Department claims the plaintiffs should not be able to sue without first showing they have been actually been monitored under the program - but it also argues that the government should not be required to disclose if plaintiffs have been monitored.”

Well, the political class and the Federal government certainly tied this one up in a neat knot, along with the Supreme Court. We can spy on anyone we want and you cannot sue us because we do not have to tell you that we spied on you. Insanity and a definite threat to freedom from a growing and arrogant Federal bureaucracy.

2) Two posts ago we reviewed how the ATF had lost a quarter ton of explosives when robbers broke into the ATF’s supposedly secure bunker in Montana and made off with the explosives. Apparently, the ATF incompetence is not restricted to Montana, according to Reason magazine:

• In 2012, the ATF opened up a dummy retail store in Milwaukee which sold designer clothes, jewelry, and drug paraphernalia.
• The ATF agents hoped to use the store front to buy drugs and weapons from felons and make the appropriate busts.
• According to the primary local newspaper, the sting operation did not result in any major busts of drug dealers or criminal gangs.
• However, merchandise worth $35,000 was stolen from the store despite the fact that ATF agents ran the operation.
• Included in the stolen property was an actual machine gun, a fully automatic M-14 rifle, and an assortment of other guns.
• Although the store operation was shut down, the agents forgot to remove documents on site that contained the names and contact information of undercover agents in the field.
• The agents caused $15,000 in property damage the building that has yet to be paid.
• And worse of all, they ticked off the people living in the surrounding neighborhood who were unaware that criminals and other shady characters were coming into their neighborhood as a result of what turned out to be a useless and dangerous government sting operation gone bad.

The most insane piece of the escapade is that an ATF spokesman insisted that the store operation had made Milwaukee safer. If the ATF thinks that losing a machine gun and other weapons is a safety success despite no major arrests, they must think losing a quarter ton of explosives in Montana was a booming (so to speak) success also.

3) Anne Arundel County in Maryland recently lived through a little local political class insanity itself. Apparent, county executive John Leopold resigned his post after being found guilty of misconduct. No surprise there, just another politician found lacking in integrity.

What was surprising was that after he left office, his replacement discovered more than 500 secret security cameras that had been set up in county office buildings. The 500 cameras were monitored by a single person, a contract employee who reported directly to Leopold, the county executive who was forced to resign.

All of which raises a whole set of interesting questions:

• How was the former county executive able to fund the purchase, installation, and operationalizing for over 500 cameras? Does not look like the county has a good audit process in place.
• What was he looking for and what did he find as a result of the 500 cameras?
• Does he have to tell anyone that he secretly taped them or does he have the same power as the Justice Department who thinks they do not have to tell anyone they secretly monitored them?

Insanity at the local government level.

4) Many times we have reported on how powerful politicians somehow are always able to get sweetheart deals for their friends and relatives, always at the expense of the American taxpayer. Nancy Pelosi’s brother-in-law’s company got a sweetheart deal from the Federal Department of Energy. Senator Diane Feinstein’s husband got in on the ground floor of California’s effort to build a high speed rail line.

Now along comes a Politico article from May 24, 2013. According to the article, as chairman of the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee, Buck McKeon has major influence over the Pentagon’s annual spending plan, making him and his committee very powerful entities within the defense industry. No problem so far.

However, the article goes on to point out that a California lobbying company run by the Congressman’s brother and nephews has landed five lobbying clients, according to current filed disclosure forms. Each client lists “defense” as an issue area. A little conflict of interest? Why shouldn’t the Congress have to be removed from this committee and go work on a government area that has nothing to do with defense since his close relatives are heavily involved in the defense industry. The appearance of conflict of interest is just as bad as actual conflict of interest.

But would make Congressman McKeon any different from the dozens, if not hundreds, of recent members of Congress who have made it a point to financially help out friends and relatives, as witnessed by the August 16, 2012 post we wrote last year, based on an investigative report by the Washington Post:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-slime-sleaze-immorality-and_16.html

Disgraceful.

5) A recent special Congressional election in South Carolina resulted in former South Carolina Republican Governor Mark Sanford being elected to fill the vacant House seat. For those of you that do not recall or never knew, Mr. Sanford was caught in an adultery affair while governor, bringing disgrace to himself and his office.

However, he has made a political comeback from this affair with his election to the House Of Representatives, a fact that must have really ticked off Democratic Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz who ranted recently about Sanford in an MSNBC interview:

The Republican Party continues to be the party of extremists, it doesn’t send a strong message to women in this country that the Republican party understands that they have gone way off the issues that are important to women when they election a candidate like Mark Sanford after his track record.

I could not agree with her rant more. Lying, adultery, and lack of integrity (not to mention lack of self control) should not qualities we would want in any politician. Including Democrats. You see, Ms. Wassermann-Schultz did not remember the ugly track record of lying and adultery that has been a hallmark of DEMOCRATIC politicians over the past few years:

1. Democratic President Bill Clinton: serial adulterer and liar.
2. Democratic New Jersey Governor Jim MacGreevey: adulterer and liar.
3. Democratic New York Governor Eliot Spitzer: adulterer and liar.
4. Democratic Senator John Edwards: adulterer and liar, with the added bonus of cheating on his wife while she battled cancer.
5. Democratic Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick: Text messaging sex scandal
6. Democratic Congressman Anthony Weiner: Twitter sex scandal and liar.
7. Democratic New York Governor David Peterson: adultery.
8. Democratic Congressman David Wu, D: about two years ago he announced his resignation form Congress following allegations he engaged in "aggressive and unwanted sexual behavior" with a young woman. (CBS News, July 26, 2011.)

Going further back in time in the history of Democratic hanky-panky in their hall of shame:

1. Democratic Congressman Gary Condit: adulterer and liar, actions that may or may not have resulted in the death of the young woman involved with Congressman, Chandry Levy.
2. Democratic Senator Gary Hart: adultery affair with Donna Rice.
3. Democratic President John Kennedy: serial adulterer and liar.
4. Democratic Congressman Wilbur Mills: adultery affair with stripper, Fannie Foxx

So Ms. Wasserman-Schultz, I could not agree with you more but it is mostly because of this list of shameful Democratic politicians and the track record of their abuse of woman and their own wives.

That will do it for this month’s political class insanity. I need to go wash off the slime and disgust that the American political class continues to generate and spew on the country and its citizens every month. As always after reviewing their insanity, Step 39 from “Love My Country, Loathe My Government” becomes ever more attractive. Step 39 would impose term limits on all Federal politicians so that they would be “one and done.”

Given the disgraceful behavior of our current set of politicians, how much worse could it get if we just replaced all of the incumbents with new faces with new ideas?

Our 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.reason.com/
http://www.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

The David Patraeus Scandal: A Case Study In Shallow Political Class Thinking and Inane Problem Solving

Many times in this blog we have made the case that the current people of our political class are not the sharpest knives when it comes to problem definition, identifying the root causes of the identified problems, and implementing the correct solutions to eliminate those root causes. The fact that major problems such as our failing public education system, our lost war on drugs, our skyrocketing health care costs, an overwhelming national debt, etc. have been with us for what seems forever, and just keep getting worse, are just a few obvious examples of this problem solving deficiency in Washington.

More recently, the current and expected failures of Obamacare, the nonsensical economic stimulus programs such as Cash For Clunkers and Cash For Appliances, the fatal Fast and Furious drug running fiasco, and other such short term problems make one wonder how inept can Washington be, both short term and long term, to not be able to seemingly resolve any challenge. The Federal government has been around for over two hundred years, many of our current politicians have been in office for decades. You would think and hope that once in a while, given this experience, a problem, any problem would get resolved.

But then you hear a politician speak and examine their thought patterns and you realize why nothing has ever been solved. The latest example of such a case is relative to the ongoing sex scandal regarding former CIA Director David Petraeus. As you probably already know from a recent post,

http://www.loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-latest-inductees-into-political.html)

and ongoing news reports and Congressional investigations and hearings, Petraeus had to resign his CIA Director post when it came to light that he had been involved in adulteress affair with his biographer for a long period of time.

This affair had the potential to put national and military security at risk since such behavior opened up Patraeus to the threat of blackmail since 1) he had been entrusted with the most top secret information and plans of our national security establishment and 2) he had been married for decades. Congressional hearings need to find out if any secrets were compromised or any intelligence or military operations (e.g. the terrorist attack at the U.S. Libyan consulate in Benghazi) were sub optimized as a result of the affair.

Before we talk about the dearth of politicians problem solving skills, let’s try to establish how much money Petraeus has made and was making as a result of his government service. Believe it or not, I could not find out online how much salary a CIA Director annually. I do not know if it is classified or just hard to find.

However, given that the President earns about $400,000 a year, members of Congress and top White House staff earn about $170,000 a year, it is probably a safe bet that the Director of the CIA is making several hundred thousand dollars a year. This would place him well within the top 3-4% of earners in the U.S. today.

This CIA salary is in addition to the money he made as a top general and how much money he will earn as a result of his Federal retirement benefits, as described by the Celebrity Net Worth website:

A four star Army General earns the military pay grade of “0-10″. The 0-10 base salary for someone with 38 cumulative years of service is $19,566.97 per month, or $234,803.64 annually. In 2010, at the peak of his Army career, Petraeus’s salary was $290,000 per year because he was serving as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Chief of Navy Operations, Commandant of the Marine Corps and Army/Air Force Chief of Staff. As a retired four star General, David Petraeus is entitled to an annual pension of $220,000 for the rest of his life. He’s also free to get a new job in retirement and therefore earn two incomes. On the other hand, if Petraeus loses his security clearance from this scandal, it may limit the types of jobs he would be able to take. Petraeus may also have cost himself the ability to join the lucrative speaking engagement circuit, which could have earned him $100,000 – $200,000 per event.

I review all of this to establish that Petraeus is probably not hurting for money, both short term and long term.

Which brings us to California Senator Diane Feinstein. The good Senator was recently questioned on the Sunday television talk show, “Meet The Press,” and was asked about the Petraeus adultery affair. Her answers make you really want to shake your head relative to her problem identification and root cause analysis abilities:

“Here’s a man, and you see Time Magazine, and you see the medals he has. You see the stars. One day, he takes all of that off. He’s in a plain blue suit like this. He looks no different from you or you or you. Having said that, there’s no entourage. There’s no driver. He gives an order at the CIA. There’s discussion. There’s flak. People don’t like this. And then he goes home to wash dishes. It is a major adjustment. I think we need to look at this transitioning of people. I think we need to look at our tours.”

Her actual video discussion can be accessed at:

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/feinstein-petraeus-cheated-because-he-had-no-entourage-no-driver-had-wash-own-dishes

So let me get this straight, as analyzed by Ms. Feinstein:

• The CIA Director gave in to his sexual urges, endangering the national and military security of the nation by opening himself up to the potential of blackmail, all because he now has to do the dishes.
• The CIA Director gave in to his sexual urges, endangering the national and military security of the nation by opening himself up to the potential of blackmail, all because he no longer had a driver to drive him around.
• Even though the CIA Director had made, was making, and will make enough money off of the American taxpayer to put himself in the top 3-4% all American wage earners, he could not afford to hire someone to do the dishes or drive himself around and thus, gave in to his sexual urges.
• Even though the CIA Director had made, was making, and will make enough money off of the American taxpayer to put himself in the top 3-4% all American wage earners, we need to spend more taxpayer money to ease his “transition” from a military life to a civilian life. This use of taxpayer wealth is apparently more important than helping the 23 million Americans who are currently unemployed or under employed, in Ms. Feinstein’s view.

Where do these political people live? The lack of a chauffeur or a dish washer is the cause for a potential national security breach? If that is the case, it is not Petraeus’ fault, it is the fault of whoever submitted him for the vital position of CIA Director and the fault of those in Congress who approved his appointment if washing dishes was enough to set the man off on the road to adultery.

Is it any wonder then that no problem facing the American public ever gets resolved? The really worrisome fact is that Senator Feinstein is the actual head of the important Senate Intelligence committee. If this is the depth of her problem solving skills, washing dishes causes adultery, then be scared, be very scared.

This is just another example of why Step 39 from “Love my Country, Loathe my Government" is so important. Step 39 would impose term limits on all Federal politicians, “one and done.” Letting current politicians stay in office for decades has not resolved any of our major issues. If we impose term limits, at least we have a chance to get some different people into Congress and the White House on a regular basis and hopefully, some of them might actually be able to resolve a problem or two.

Lord knows the current set of politicians sitting in Washington are unable to do any real problem analysis and solving, as witnessed by the latest from the head of the Senate Intelligence committee. Dish washing and chauffeurs, I am pretty that these were not the root causes of the adultery problems and resultant national security problems of David Petraeus. At least not in our world and our reality, a world and reality that I increasingly believe many of our politicians do not inhabit.

Our 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.

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