Let’s see what insanity we uncovered today:
1) Tax time is approaching so it was timely to read some words from Sandra Block of Dailyfinance.com that appeared in the January 28, 2014 issue of The Week magazine. According to her research, in 2013 the IRS was able to only answer 61% of calls from taxpayers. This appears to be just picking up the telephone, where they failed 39% of the time. Ut does not include the number of times they answered the phone and gave out the wrong information.
Additionally, the average wait time for a call that was actually answered by the IRS was a disgraceful 18 minutes. And this is the same government agency that is supposed to be the hub in implementing the 2,000 plus page Obama Care legislation. If the IRS cannot do the job they were originally set up to do and have been doing poorly for decades, it is highly unlikely they will do any better handling the Obama Care complexities and bureaucracy.
2) Former U.S. Congressman Mel Reynolds resigned from Congress in 1995 after being convicted of statutory rape, something that you really do not want a standing U.S. Congressman to be convicted of. While serving in prison for that conviction, he was also convicted of bank fraud. Yes, that is correct, WHILE IN PRISON he was convicted of a serious financial crime.
Recently, he was back in the news when he was arrested in Zimbabwe on pornography charges for allegedly taking lewd photos and videos of models and prostitutes. Again, this was a U.S. Congressman at one time, which is insane in itself. Even worse, though, despite the conviction on rape and the conviction on bank fraud, a political peer, Bill Clinton, took care of him by commuting his original prison sentence in 2001.
How many ordinary Americans do you think Clinton would have pardoned if they had been convicted of both statutory rape and bank fraud? I would bet none since they are not part of the political class inner sanctum where insanity and felony convictions are inconveniences more than anything.
3) One of the major budget items in the Federal government across many Federal departments is to protect the country from terrorists. I do not now the exact numbers but I would venture a guess that annually we allow the Federal government to spend hundreds of billions of dollars to protect us from attack.
For those hundreds of billions of dollars you would expect us to have the absolute best terrorism and security protection in the world, in the history of the world. That would probably be a gross inaccurate assumption, however, based on an article that appeared in the February 28, 2014 issue of The Week magazine:
- According to the article, an 84 year old nun was recently convicted for breaking into one of the supposedly “most secure” nuclear facilities in the country.
- Note, that I did not say “tried to break in,” she actually made it inside the facility.
- Once inside, she threw around human blood in protest of nuclear technology besides hanging banners and spray painting peace signs.
- She was one of three people who got in after cutting through a chain link fence around the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
- Not only did they get through the fence, they actually got inside the uranium processing and storage facility.
- Although she was sentenced to 35 months in jail, she pleaded with the judge to put her away for life to honor her protest and principles.
So let me get this right. We pay hundreds of billions of dollars to protect ourselves, our families and our country from terrorist attacks and an 84 year old nun with two accomplices, one 64 years old and one 58 years old, can cut a chain link fence and get close to the uranium in a government facility. Does not seem like we are getting good value for our money in this government area.
The really terrifying thought is if an 84 nun can do this, imagine what a determined terrorist or terrorists could do inside a domestic nuclear facility, who did not want to just hang banners or spray paint some walls. That is the true insanity of what a farce the Federal government’s anti-terrorism efforts are.
4) We have often made the case that government in America is like Jabba The Hutt from Star Wars, a gross, obese entity that cannot get out of its own way. Often, one part of the government does not know what another part is doing or how one part of the government passes a law or regulation that makes no sense to another part of government.
The first Jabba example this month comes from the political class in the state government of Wisconsin, as explained in the February 28, 2014 issue of The Week magazine. One part of the state government in Wisconsin, the state legislature, passed a bill that legalized rubber duck races in the state. A rubber duck race is defined to be when participants throw hundreds of plastic duck toys into a river and watch them race to a finish line. The fact that the state legislature is working on such nonsense is a piece of insanity in itself.
However, another part of the state government in Wisconsin, the Justice department, warned that the legislation might be breaking state gambling laws. Thus, budget shortfalls, failing schools, and other state issues are being neglected while at least two parts of the state government try to decide if rubber duck races are legal. Pathetic.
5) The other Jabba The Hutt issue is going on in New Jersey. That state, along with a host of other northern states, are suffering through one of the coldest and snowiest winters in a long time. This is causing state and local governments to run out of rock salt that is needed to keep their roads clear of snow and ice. There has just been too much needed this year to keep up with the high snowfall levels.
The problem could be easily solved if a non-U.S. ship containing 40,000 tons of rock salt that was being shipped from Maine to other areas would be allowed to dock and unload. This is obviously the simple, needed remedy to keep the roads clean and protect Americans from accidents.
But obvious and simple are not two traits of the American political class, as witnessed by this situation.. It appears that a 1920 Federal law allows only U.S. ships to move goods from one U.S. port to another. Since the rock salt, all 40,000 tons of it were loaded on a non-U.S. ship, that ship is not allowed to dock in an American port and unload, even it means saving lives and protecting the health and welfare of Americans.
You cannot make this nonsense up. Local and state politicians are asking for an obvious waiver to this 94 year old law in order to do their jobs and keep the roads clean this winter. However, according to an article in the February 28, 2014 issue of The Week magazine, Federal government authorities say that the waiver is unlikely to be granted, safety of Americans be damned. Lunacy of the utmost degree.
6) We have covered this issue already but additional information is now available so it is worth reviewing again. We had previously reported that 53% of President Obama’s nominees to be foreign ambassadors for the United States were either political allies or people who had raised at least a half a million dollars for the President’s election campaigns. According to an article in the February 28, 2014 issue of The Week, this is almost twice the rate of previous administrations.
Thus, the President was more interested in rewarding his political allies and election financers than putting experienced State Department career diplomats into important government positions overseas. Better to take of one’s friends than to put the best people in the right places to optimize U.S. interests.
The additional information on this travesty came out when many of these nominees went before Congressional committees for review and approval:
- The nominee to be ambassador to Norway admitted he had never been there, did not speak the language and ended up insulting the current government in that country in a number of ways. He mistakenly referred to the prime minister of Norway as the president and mistakenly called the existing majority party in the Norwegian government an extremist “fringe political entity" which it is not.
- The nominee to be ambassador to Argentina cannot speak Spanish, a nice asset to have as ambassador to a Spanish speaking country.
- A television soap opera producer, with no foreign service experience, was named as the potential ambassador to Hungary.
- Jennifer Rubin, writing in the Washington Post correctly stated that such a practice “is a grave insult to competent foreign service officers.”
- Jacob Heilbrunn, writing in the National Interest correctly stated that sending wealthy campaign fund raisers to foreign lands as ambassadors is not optimal since “it signals to the host country that the U.S. doesn’t take it very seriously.”
That will do it for today. Amateur hour in the State Department, rock salt held captive by a 94 year old law, the importance of rubber duck races in Wisconsin, a nun that foiled the Federal government’s entire anti-terror effort, and more. More insanity tomorrow if you dare. In the meantime, please join our term limits effort at:
Because if rubber duck races are the priorities of our current politicians, how much worse could it get if we replace them all and see what happens?
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
