May, 2016, Part 3, Political Class Insanity: Nobody Likes Clinton and Trump, Afghanistan Fail and More

It is the beginning of another month which means it is time again to review the latest political class insanity from the American political class. Each month it takes us multiple posts to cover the wasteful spending, incompetent government organizations and employees, government programs that usually make a problem worse than resolving it, inane and idiotic politician comments, etc. In fact, last month we set a record, needing ten full posts to cover it all.

To review past posts on this insanity and idiocy, just click on the first few posts in each month listed to the right of this page. After reviewing just a handful of these insanity posts we think you will agree that we are currently being served by the worst set of American politicians ever to hold office in our entire history.

It looks like our politicians have been especially insane over the past month or so let’s get started with the latest insanity from today’s American politicians:

1) As of the April 29, 2016 issue of The Week magazine, not one of the five remaining Presidential candidates, Trump, Kasich, Cruz, Sanders, or Clinton, was regarded favorably by a majority of those polled by a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll. Trump was the most disliked candidate with 65% of those polled viewing him unfavorably and only 24% viewing him favorably. 56% view Clinton unfavorably and only 32% view her favorably but that gap between the two measures is getting worse over time, doubling in the past month of that issue of The Week.

Bottom line: our political processes are so broken in this country that even the last standing candidates are viewed with disdain by the majority of Americans. Maybe it is time to change the processes since what we have now is obviously not working.

2) Staying with that same issue of The Week, an article in that issue reviewed how a Taliban truck bombing in the center of the Kabul, the capital city of Afghanistan, killed at least 64 people and wounded hundreds more. Many of those hurt and killed were women and children and other other civilians. At the same time of the bomb’s detonation, Taliban gunmen entered the government’s National Security Directorate building, that nation’s equivalent Secret Service organization, and began firing.

Thus, after more than a decade of supporting the war effort in Afghanistan, trillions of taxpayer dollars spent, and thousands of U.S. military personnel killed and wounded, this country still cannot stop a massive bombing within the capital’s city limits and a direct attack on what should be a secure branch of the government. From Bush to Obama, what a massive military, foreign affairs, and economic failure.

3) We often talk about how screwed up the country's tax code is today. It is long, cumbersome, impossible to police, and detrimental to economic growth. An article from The Atlantic, that was summarized in the April 29, 2016 issue of The Week magazine, outlined how out of the $4 TRILLION in profits that the top 50 American companies made from 2008 through 2014, $1 TRILLION of those profits have been left off shore in other countries to avoid paying the second highest corporate income tax rate in the world in the U.S. 

Imagine how much good $1 TRILLION would be for this economy if the political class actually had put together a coherent tax code that encouraged companies to invest in America rather than stranding a trillion dollars overseas, a trillion dollars that generate no taxes for the Federal government and create no incremental economic advantages for American workers. Insanity...with a lot of zeros attached to that dollar sign.

4) Staying with the same issue of The Week magazine, April 29, 2016, there was a synopsis of an article written by Malik Jalal for The Independent in England. Mr. Jalal claims that he is a member of the North Waziristan Peace Committee, a group of Pakistani tribal leaders that are trying to find peace among the warring parties in Pakistan, parties that include the Taliban. He claims that while his own government recognizes their mission and search for peace, the Obama administration has ruled them as a terrorist group aligned with the Taliban and has been trying to kill him with a series of drone attacks since he has been placed on a U.S. kill list.

As a result, multiple times U.S. drones have attacked him or what they thought was him with the following results:

• The first drone attack destroyed his car and injured his nephew who had borrowed the car while killing four innocent men in an adjacent vehicle.
• The next drone attack blew up a car similar to his, killing another four innocent Pakistanis.
• The next attack killed three more innocent victims.
• A fourth drone strike, aimed at tribal leaders, killed 40 people.
• 51 people killed without successfully killing the intended target.
• He also claims that U.S. drone attacks kill nine Pakistani children for every successful killing of an intended target. 

I have no idea if he is telling the truth. But if he is telling the truth, how much more insanity, wasted taxpayer wealth, and killing of innocent civilians will there have to be before the Obama administration takes a hard look at what looks like a horrible military and public relations program.

5) We always like to give equal time to corrupt politicians regardless of what level of government they serve. Natalie Johnson, writing for the Washington Free Beacon on May 3, 2016, helped us with that objective when she reported that former New York State Assembly Speaker, Sheldon Silver, was sentenced in Federal court to 12 years in prison on corruption charges. In addition, Silver will have to pay back $5.2 million in the money he stole and another $1.75 million in criminal fines.

He was found guilty of getting $5.2 million from his corruption activities over a two decade period. These illegal activities, from a legal perspective, involved honest-services fraud, extortion and money laundering. The good news is that he was caught and found guilty and will spend 12 years in prison. The bad news is why did it take 20 years to get him for his corruption. That’s the insanity of the whole situation.

6) Citizens Against Government Waste are an organization that identifies and shames wasteful government spending in Washington. Every year, they publish their annual”Pig Book” which documents the worse pork barrel spending and wasting of taxpayer money by the political class in Washington in the past 12 months. This year they added another feature to their website which documents their “Pork Of Shame,” some of their most egregious wasteful spending of taxpayer wealth. A few "Pork Of Shame" entrants include the following idiotic spending of Congress:

• $15 million for “wood utilization research.”
• $681,000 for one latrine at Fort Harrison.
• $77.2 million for bike paths.
• $10.1 million for peanut research.
• $7.3 million for grasshopper research.
• $1 million for a dinosaur exhibit at the LA Museum
• $273,000 to “combat Goth culture.”
• $3 million for the Alaskan “bridge to nowhere.”
• $350,000 for the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame.
• $16.1 million for brown snake research.
• $500,000 for the Sparta Teapot Museum.
• $1.8 million for “swine odor and manure management.”
• $948.6 million for Abrams tanks... that the Pentagon does not want or need.

The entire list can be seen at: http://cagw.org/reporting/pig-book/pig-book-timeline

Keep in mind, as we often remind readers, that while the Washington political class was spending real dollars and taxpayer wealth on these inane projects, millions of Americans were going hungry, were homeless, were drug addicted, were unemployed or were without proper health care, including thousands of our veterans. 

Now ask yourself if we really needed to spend $500,000 on a Teapot museum and not on these unfortunate Americans. 

Did we really need to spend over a quarter of a million dollars to combat a lifestyle choice, Goth, and not on on these unfortunate Americans? 

Shouldn’t people or industries of these vested interests, e.g. the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the pork industry, the peanut industry, etc., pay for their own interests and either let the taxpayers keep their own money or divert this vested interest money to the unfortunate Americans who need help.

Just another set of outrageously bad priorities in this country as forced on us by the political class. 

That will do it for today’s insanity. Bad spending priorities, political corruption, a potentially ineffective and inhumane drone military program, a stranded trillion dollars, failure in Afghanistan, and leading political figures that no one likes. You cannot make up this insanity, it is too gruesome and original. More tomorrow.

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

Part 4, August, 2013 Political Class Insanity: Oahu Going All "Detroit," New Orleans Mayor Maybe Going To Jail, And The Drone That Could Not Be Killed

This is our fourth, but not our last, post this month covering the past month or so of political class insanity that has befallen us, courtesy of our current crop of politicians. You cannot help but wonder, after reading the insanity that we document every month, is whether the current crop of American politicians are the worse set that America has ever had to endure. 

After all, after decades and decades of failing public schools, a lost war on drugs, leaky borders, escalating health care costs, etc., problems that our current politicians, never seem to be able or willing to resolve, they have to at least be in the running of worst ever.

Consider that hypothesis as you read along below of the current set of lunacy and ineptness is revealed:

1) Most informed Americans know that the city of Detroit has recently failed for bankruptcy, the corruption and ineptness of its political class over the decades has led the city down the path of financial ruin. What was once the fourth largest and one of the richest cities in the country has lost well over half of its peak population and is now so poor that most nights the vast majority of its streets lights are turned off to save money or are broken and not repaired to save money.

Detroit is a prime example of the fiscal ignorance of most politicians, how wasting taxpayer wealth and not using it wisely eventually catches up with a city, even a large one like Detroit. But municipal fiscal calamities is Rust Belt towns like Detroit. A Washington Examiner article from July 28, 2013 illustrated how long term fiscal irresponsibility of local politicians is leading the island paradise city of Oahu, Hawaii down the drain to bankruptcy:

• In 2009, the EPA ordered the local Oahu government entities to spend $2 billion to upgrade its Sand Island and Honouliuli waste water treatment plants, an upgrade that will cost another $3 billion in repairs.
• Oahu roads, always rated among the worst in the nation by the Reason Public Policy Institute and TRIP, are in need of  $100 million ANNUALLY in repairs over the next 10 years.
• Oahu has a number of functionally obsolete bridges that experts say are too narrow and unsafe for drivers or pedestrians."
• On average, Oahu has one water main break a day. These water delivery system repairs will cost $2 billion.
• An Oahu  park restroom facility at Maunalua Bay has been closed since February 2011 since it needs $350,000 to upgrade its sewer system.
• Dozens of other parks and recreational facilities  need more than $1 billion to repair.
• In the face of these crumbling infrastructure problems, the city still plans to build a 20-mile, $5.2 billion elevated rail project, from west Oahu into downtown. 
• That project has already cost taxpayers $1 billion, is on hold because of  a federal lawsuit that could end the rail project and strand/waste that $1 billion in taxpayer wealth.
• Honolulu already spends a whopping 19% of its operational budget just on debt servicing costs.
• If the rail project is actually built, experts say that this debt servicing number could exceed 20% and even rise as high as 24%. 
• The city must also set aside $200 million for police pay increases and another $30 million for medical costs. The fire department's new contract negotiations are under way.
• Oahu already has an extremely high cost of living so raising taxes to pay for the infrastructure repairs, an unneeded train, and debt servicing costs will be a severe strain on local citizens.
• That may explain why the city's homeless population rose 4.7% in the past year and that the number of homeless people living on the streets, rather than in shelters, climbed 11%. Which makes one wonder where the local political class in Oahu is going to get all of the money it needs to fix what it has neglected all of these years.

Fiscal insanity caused by political class fiscal and economic ignorance. Unfortunately, as always, it is the common citizen that suffers when the political class is so inept and inefficient, with absolutely no long term strategic thinking ability. Unfortunately, this malady of incompetence is not restricted to politicians operating in Detroit and Oahu.

2) I just came across this piece of insanity from January, 2013 and ABC News but thought it was worth reviewing to illustrate how low politicians will go for self enrichment.  Former mayor of New Orleans, Ray Nagin, the mayor during the Hurricane Katrina catastrophe, was indicted on Federal criminal charges. Details of the indictment from ABC News include the following:

• The 21-count indictment accused Nagin of enriching himself as the city struggled to rebound in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. 
• He is accused of using the office of mayor to guide municipal contracts and  projects to business associates who allegedly paid kickbacks and bribes and flew him on lavish free trips to Hawaii, Jamaica, and Las Vegas. 
• The specific charges include bribery, honest service wire fraud, money laundering, conspiracy and filing false tax returns. 
• "The defendant C. Ray Nagin, knowingly devised a scheme and artifice to defraud the City of New Orleans and its citizens of his honest services through bribery and a kickback scheme, whereby Mayor Nagin used his public office and his official capacity to provide favorable treatment that benefited the business and financial interests of individuals providing him with bribery/kickback payoffs in the form of checks, cash, granite inventory, wire transfers personal services and free travel," the indictment said. 
• The indictment says that on the same day, Nagin allegedly waived penalties that were owed by the businessman on a delinquent tax bill owed to the City of New Orleans. 
• The indictment also alleges Nagin accepted $50,000 from businessman Frank Fradella as well as monthly wire transfers of $12,500 that totaled $112,500. Fradella pleaded guilty to bribing a New Orleans city official in June 2012. Prosecutors alleged that on June 20, 2009 Nagin awarded a $1 million Katrina sidewalk repair project to a local businessman. On June 21, the very next day, a Nagin family member allegedly was paid a $10,000 kickback from that businessman. 

Nice guy, the city and its citizens are reeling from losing their homes, their jobs, and possibly their loved ones and this politician decides it is not a disaster it is an opportunity. Despicable.

3) Consider some research from the Center For Public Integrity that was published on its website on July 16, 2013:

http://www.publicintegrity.org/2013/07/16/12969/huge-drone-could-not-be-grounded

Their work uncovered a piece of military hardware that was obviously not needed, and which the Air Force wanted to cut out of its budget, both long term and short term, for a number of reasons:

• The Air Force decided to trim their budget by terminating the production line for a $223 million drone aircraft that was designed to fly over vast terrain for about a day while sending data and pictures to military controllers on the ground. 
• Given that the “Global Hawk” drone aircraft had already  cost far more than expected, and was plagued by recurrent operating flaws and operational problems, it sounded like a good idea to move on to other options.
• The Pentagon‘s top testing official stated in may, 2011 that the “The Block 30 [version of Global Hawk] is not operationally effective
• Joint Chiefs of Staff, Army Gen. Martin Dempsey testified at an House Armed Services Committee in February 2012 that the Global Hawk “has fundamentally priced itself out of our ability to afford it.”
• The White House sent Congress two formal messages in 2012 saying that “strongly objects” to the lawmakers’ demand for additional Global Hawks.
• Canceling the purchase of new Global Hawks from Northrop, the creator and manufacturer of this drone, and putting recently-built drones in long-term storage would save $2.5 billion over five years.
• Even better, the mothballed drone’s military missions could be picked up by an existing Air Force plane, the U-2 spy plane, which had room for more sensors and which could fly higher.

Wow, a government bureaucrat that looked at the problem, identified the root causes, explored more inexpensive yet more productive options, and proceeded to the right thing. Bravo.

Well, almost bravo. You see, Northrop pays a lot of lobbyists and former government officials and politicians to make sure that this type of integrity and analysis never impacts their financial bottom line. Thus, even though the Air Force did not want any more of these drones, the Joint Chief of Staff did not want any more of these drones, and the White House did not want any more of these drones, Congress went ahead and overrode all of these concerns and bad experiences to keep this program actively eating up taxpayer wealth for no reason.

Why did Congress vote to keep the program alive? The article points out that two powerful Congressmen, Howard “Buck” McKeon, and Rep. Jim Moran, received a total of $135,100 from Northrop Grumman’s political action committee and employees for their election campaigns and leadership PACs since the beginning of 2009. Thus, it is quite possible that the American taxpayer was sold out to the tune of $135,000 to keep spending billions and billions of dollars for no good defense reason at all. Good payoff for Northop if you can get it.

The article cited above goes into much more detail of the mechanical problems of the drone itself along with the disgusting lobbying and payoff problems. Insanity that politicians in Washington can be bought for so little but cost the taxpayer so much.

Only three pieces of insanity today but they were whoppers. Hawaiian politicians that have let their capital city crumble beneath them over decades of neglect and now will find it almost impossible to finance the needed repairs. A local city politician that looks at others’ sufferings not as a chance to serve and protect but as a chance to get wealthy. And members of Congress that apparently would sell out their integrity for a campaign contribution, regardless of how useless a continued government and taxpayer expense would be.

More of the same tomorrow. However, before that, may we suggest that you visit our new term limits website:

www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com

Because really, after reading about drone corruption, New Orleans corruption, and Oahu incompetence, how much worst could it get if retired every current politicians and replaced them with someone else, anyone else?

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, Politicians Say The Darndest Things, Part 2: Jay Leno, Snoop Dog, NSA Lies, and More

This is the second of a two part series where we review the latest idiotic, out-of-touch, and stupid quotes from members of the American political class. Yesterday, we saw how taxpayers continue to fund sheep issues, how left leaning political figures are turning on the left leaning President of the United States, how a California Congresswoman thought Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were doing a great job despite crashing the economy and other, equally inane quotes and thoughts.

Let's finish this line of discussion today with the second half of insgitful and pitiful quotes from our current politicians:


16) Jay Leno: “Hey, Snoop is back in the news. Not Snoop Dog, Snoop Obama. We wanted to have a President who listened to all Americans…and now we have one.” So, not only are some on the left of the political spectrum turning on this administration, some Hollywood types are also taking their best shots now on every thing from the President’s drone strategy to the shredding of the Fourth Amendment.

17) Magdi Ahmad Hussein, chairman of the Islamic Labor Party, was speaking at what he thought was a private political meeting in Egypt. However, it turns out there was a live microphone in the room that was broadcasting the meeting’s discussion live over the airwaves: “I’m very fond of battles. With the enemies, of course – with America and Israel, but this battle must be waged with maximum judiciousness and calm. Even though this is a secret meeting, we must all take an oath not to leak anything to the media.”

These are the same guys that the Obama administration has already given well over $1 billion worth of jet fighters, tanks, and other aid to, people who consider us their enemies. And down the rabbit hole we go.

18) The governor of Maine, Paul LePage describing one of his political opponents in the state legislature: "He is bad. He has no brains, and he has a black heart." I am sure that these two will shortly put away their differences to reach a common ground for the betterment of the citizens of Maine. Not.

19) President Obama in 2007: “This administration [the Bush administration] also puts forward a false choice between the liberties we cherish and the security we provide. I will provide our intelligence and law enforcement agencies with the tools they need to track and take out the terrorists without undermining our Constitution and our freedom. That means no more illegal wiretapping of American citizens. No more National Security Letters to spy on citizens who aren’t suspected of a crime. No more tracking citizens who do nothing more than protest a misguided war. No more ignoring the law when it is inconvenient. That is not who we are. That is not what is necessary to defeat the terrorists.” Hey, we originally believed him when he put forth this defense of the Fourth Amendment.

He followed up this rousing defense of privacy and our rights with the following reassertion a few years later: “As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our Founding Fathers faced with perils that we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience’s sake.”

But, by June, 2013 he had somehow lost this strong defense of our rights and privacy: “It is important to recognize that you can't have 100% security and also then have 100% privacy and zero inconvenience. We are going to have to make some choices as a society. What I can say is that, when evaluating the programs, they make a difference in our capacity to anticipate and prevent terrorist activity." Oops, ignore what I said when I needed your votes. Screw the whole privacy and Fourth Amendment, we need to trample your rights in order to protect your rights

20) Consider the following recent discussion between Congressman Hank Johnson and NSA Director Keith Alexander in light of what we now know, i.e. the Federal government is probably confiscating every single electronics communications of every American every day without a court warrant:

Rep. Johnson: Does the NSA intercept Americans’ cell phone conversations?

Director Alexander: No.

Rep. Johnson: Google searches?

Director Alexander: No.

Rep. Johnson: Text messages?

Director Alexander: No.

Rep. Johnson: Amazon.com orders?

Director Alexander: No.

Rep. Johnson: Bank records?

Director Alexander: No.

Rep. Johnson: What judicial consent is required for NSA to intercept communications and information involving American citizens?

Director Alexander: Within the United States, that would be the FBI lead. If it were a foreign actor in the United States, the FBI would still have to lead. It could work that with NSA or other intelligence agencies as authorized. But to conduct that kind of collection in the United States it would have to go through a court order, and the court would have to authorize it. We’re not authorized to do it, nor do we do it.

As a Director of the NSA, he is either a boldface liar or an incredible out-of-touch leader of the NSA. And President Obama thinks American citizens have a trust issue? How could we not have a trust issue based on such lies as this exchange in front of Congress no less.

21) The Director of National Intelligence James Clapper may have lied to Congress when he told the Senate Congressional committee back in March that the NSA does not gather data on millions of Americans. Consider for yourselve the quotes from this exchange back in March, in front of Congress and under oath, between Senator Ron Wyden and James Clapper:

Wyden: "And this is for you, Director Clapper, again on the surveillance front. And I hope we can do this in just a yes or no answer, because I know Senator Feinstein wants to move on. Last summer the NSA director was at a conference and he was asked a question about the NSA surveillance of Americans. He replied, and I quote here, '... the story that we have millions or hundreds of millions of dossiers on people is completely false.' The reason I'm asking the question is, having served on the committee now for a dozen years, I don't really know what a dossier is in this context. So what I wanted to see is if you could give me a yes or no answer to the question: Does the NSA collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans?"

Clapper: "No, sir."

Wyden: "It does not."

Clapper: "Not wittingly. There are cases where they could inadvertently perhaps collect, but not wittingly."

Wyden: "All right. Thank you. I'll have additional questions to give you in writing on that point, but I thank you for the answer."

How many different ways and different times can different people lie in this administration?

22) Senator Mary Landrieu, scolding a fellow Senator on his idea to build a fence along the Mexican border to prevent illegal immigration: “We need to build a smart fence. And a fence is not just a physical structure which could be built out of a variety of different materials with or without barbed wire on the top. A smart fence which is what Sen. McCain and I want to build — since he’s from Arizona, I think he knows more about this than the senator from South Dakota who doesn’t have a border with Mexico, but only Canada and that is quite different."

I know that in my reality, South Dakota does not have a border with Canada. It has a border with North Dakota which has a border with Canada but since South Dakota is SOUTH of NORTH Dakota, the Senator, who somehow got elected to Congress with a minimal amount of knowledge of basic U.S. geography, must live in a different reality than most of us, at least relative to geography.

We certainly live in interesting times:

• Politicians that continually lie to us and then say we have a trust issue.
• Politicians that can change their views and positions on issues, depending on the political situation, without even blinking.
• Left leaning political figures that think the current left leaning President is a terrorist.
• Countries in the world whose leaders hate us but we still give them billions of taxpayer dollars to continue to hate us.
• Politicians that have no grasp of simple geography.
• Politicians that have no concept of reality, whether it is spending millions and millions of dollars on inane Federal programs like sheep improvement centers or who think that corrupt and scandal ridden organizations (e.g. Fannie and Freddie) are actually doing an outstanding job, etc.

Don’t take my word for it, just listen to what they say.

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

June, 2013 Political Class Insanity, Part 1: Not Enough Toilet Paper, Too Much California Scamming, Fort Hood Travesty, and Training Sucker Fish

It’s a new month which means another round of reviewing the latest political class insanity. Unfortunately, as each month goes by, we find it harder and harder to restrict the number of days we write about the many ways our politicians waste our wealth, kill off our freedoms and liberty, and embarrass themselves with their actions and inactions.

We will delay looking at the insanity from the latest Obama scandals for a few days. The Benghazi, IRS, and news outlets snooping scandals by the administration is just to overwhelming to include in these insanity updates. Each of these scandals will get dedicated posts in the near future.

So, Let’s get started and see what piles of insanity the political class has left for us in just the past month or so:

1) The first piece of insanity should really get you ticked off. A local Texas NBC TV affiliate reported recently that accused Fort Hood shooter, Maj. Nidal Hasan, has been getting full pay while he awaits trail. You may remember Mr. Hasan. He went on a shooting spree in 2009 that resulted in the death of 13 Army personnel and the wounding of 32 while he shouted out Islamic slogans. Since he assassinated those 13, he has received an unbelievable $278,000 in salary from American taxpayers as he awaits trial.

One of the verified inspirations of Mr. Hasan was Anwar Al-Awlaki. Al-Awlaki was a leader of Al Qaeda until Obama put a kill order out on him and he was killed in Yemen by a drone strike. Thus, Mr. Obama found Al-Awlaki dangerous enough to be considered a terrrorist and meriting being killed.

But his administration did not consider Hasan’s terror attack to be an act of terror even though:

1. He killed 13 Americans.
2. He wounded 32 Americans.
3. He shouted anti-American and pro-Islamic statements as he went about his shootings.
4. He was mentored by one of the leading terrorist in the entire world.

Rather calling the shooting a terrorist act or an act of war, Obama somehow put together some convoluted logic that called the shooting of 45 Americans an act of “workplace violence.” Unfortunately, this disgraceful designation resulted in the shooting victims not getting pay, retirement, and medical benefits given to soldiers wounded in war, in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, or any other terrorists attacks.

Thus, a terrorist shoots 45 Americans in Texas and continues to get paid his salary over the past three plus years, accumulating over a quarter million dollars in salary. Many of those that get shot and their families struggle to pay their bills because the Army will not classify the attack as terrorism.

One of the victims of the attacks, Army Spc. Logan Burnett, who was wounded, summed up attack and the lack of logic the best: "You take three rounds and lose five good friends and watch seven other people get killed in front of you. Do you have another term that we can classify that as?" Yes, it is insanity and despicable.

2) Previously, we have discussed many, many stupid government expenses on stupid projects, including but not limited to:

• The building of a robotic squirrel to see how squirrels might interact with snakes.
• The development of a computer program that simulates “Prom Week.”
• The study of the sex lives of a certain species of snails in New Zealand.

But one of the latest wastes of nearly a half million dollars of taxpayer wealth is as inane as anything we have previously discussed. The Department of Interior will be spending $472,150 to teach survival skills to bonytails and sucker fish. Survivial skills of fish, are you kidding me? Consider some of the quotes that the government has put out relative to fish survival skills and this program:

• “The objective of the proposed project is to determine if training increases Bonytail and Razorback Sucker survival when exposed to predators.”
• “This proposal builds upon the 2012 Bureau of Reclamation assistance agreement with the Arizona Game and Fish Department (AZGFD) tasked with investigating the potential for training Bonytail and Razorback Suckers to recognize and avoid predators."
• “One of the early conclusions of the prior work is that the schooling behavior of Bonytail may allow untrained fish to show improved survival because they recognize predator avoidance behaviors exhibited by trained individuals.”

Why do these fish need to develop survival skills and more importantly, why do we have to pay for it? $472,150 would have been able to keep White House tours running for around six months, a much better use of this money as opposed to fish survival skills. Unbelievable.

3) Many current members of the American political class have tended towards socialist policies recently where the state is more important than individual freedom. One of the heroes of these politicians has been Hugo Chavez, the recently deceased dictator of Venezuela.

Unfortunately, his socialism policies disrupted the national economy so much that there is now a severe toilet paper shortage in the country. Yes, government economic policies have caused a crisis that reaches into the bathrooms of Venezuela.

Trade Minister Alexander Fleming, in a recent public statement, tried to calm the country: “The revolution will bring in to the country the equivalent of 50 million rolls of toilet paper. Our people need to calm down and realize that they should not be manipulated by the media campaign of a shortage.” Any “revolution” and the government/political class that operates it that has to focus on importing millions of toilet paper really cannot be trusted to handle much of anything else in any citizen’s life.

4) The Bankrupting America website identified a unique, wasteful spending episode on May 17, 2013. An Inspector General report found that top managers in the General Services Administration had a real sweetheart deal when it came to their annual job performance evaluations and monetary awards.

It seems that GSA executives had given cash bonuses to themselves based on broad coworkers’ reviews under the GSA‘s “Peer-2-Peer” review process. He latest annual awards were given to 71 executives and cost taxpayers $160,700, over $20,000 per executive.

Between fiscal years 2009 to 2011, the GSA executives had awarded themselves a total of 702 awards. GSA officials agreed with the inspector general’s findings and pledged to correct the agency’s actions going forward.

What a sweetheart deal, awarding yourself, your friends and peers taxpayer money based on self reporting successes.

5) Scamming government employees are not restricted to the Federal government. A recent news report from KTVU in San Francisco reported that a three year investigation has resulted in the arrest of several San Francisco public school employees who allegedly embezzled millions of dollars in grant money.

Details of the investigation allege the foolwing components of the conspiracy:

• Investigators allege six current and former school district employees committed felonies by diverting state and Federal grant money to several nonprofit organizations.
• These people allegedly got at least $750,000 for their personal expenses, unauthorized salaries and bonuses.
• The charges allege former Associate Superintendent Trish Bascom was in charge of the embezzlement and had control over money distributed to nonprofits.
• The nonprofits were hired to provide school district services, for which Ms. Bascom would write checks directly to individuals.
• She allegedly carried out the plan with the help of her senior executive.
• The embezzlement charge involves about $15 million in grant money funneled through three nonprofits over a 10-year period
• One of the nonprofits, the San Francisco School Alliance, received between $5.5 and $6.3 million, charged a half-million dollars in administrative fees and actually invested some of their illegal gain, $250,000, in the stock market, which it lost, rather than on educational programs.

Given the dire financial situation of the state of California, what a shame that public employees were able to scam millions of dollars over such a long period of time and the political class in California was unable to uncover the wasteful spending for so long.

That should do it for now, the beginning of another long journey into political class insanity, idiocy, and waste. More tomorrow … and the next day and the next day….

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