December, 2013 Political Class Insanity, Part 3: The President As An Eloquent Lampshade, Bad IRS Star Trek Parodies, Walmart Pickier Than Harvard, and More

This is our third post on political class inanity this month, a monthly series we do every month to capture the lunacy, ineptness, and wasteful spending of the American political class. The first post in this month’s series can be found at:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2013/12/december-2013-political-class-insanity.html

We will continue documenting all of the fiascos that continually get shoved on us by our politicians at least for the next few days. Afterward, unfortunately, we will have to return to do a series of Obama Care insanity and its disasters, a piece of legislation that never stops finding ways to screw up the country and its citizens.

1) When President Obama came into office in 2008, his approval rating was well over 70%. There was great hope for his administration to lead the country to better days. In many ways he was viewed more as a messiah than as a human leader.

Well, those days are long over. Despite being protected and coddled by the mainstream press, his lack luster performance in office, the lies of his administration, his mishandling of every economic matter and issue, his divisive rhetoric, etc. has thrown the country into a deep funk.

His total lack of leader potential and ability has even started to draw the ire and sarcasm of the mainstream press that once so adored him. Consider the recent naming of him to GQ’s “least influential” people in 2013:

He can blame Republicans in Congress all he likes and get away with it because congressional Republicans are the worst. But the fact remains that I have spent the majority of this man's presidency watching bad things happen, then hearing a thoughtful speech about how we gotta make sure the bad things never happen again, and then watching as nothing gets done. Next time there's an election, I want Nate Silver to analyze the data and tell me who to vote for so that I don't end up casting my ballot for a very eloquent hat stand.

But this is not the first time that he made the least influential list. Back in 2011, GQ had this to say about the President when he was the 25th entrant:

Okay, so we're cheating a bit with this one. He did order the raid that wiped Osama bin Laden off the face of the earth. But then he used that surplus of political capital to let everyone in Washington stick a boot in his ass. This is a man who should be the most transformational figure of the century. Hell, he promised to be that. Instead he wields all the power of a substitute teacher at night school.

When the President of the United States is quite accurately compared to an eloquent hat stand and a substitute teacher in night school, you can be pretty sure that the country is now officially leaderless.

2) The Washington Post reported on Congressional hearings back in June about excessive wasteful spending done by IRS party planners for an employee conference. Among those expenses was $64,000 spent on something called “plastic squirting fish” and $50,000 spent on a horrible Star Trek parody video. 

Now this is wasteful spending but Congressman Elijah Cummings did make an insightful comment during the hearings, indicating that at least he realized how stupid these types of government expenditures, types of expenditures that are repeated thousands and thousands of times every year across the Federal bureaucracy, are relative to average American citizens: 

“I swear to God, I have looked at that video over and over again, and I swear I do not see the redeeming value. I was up at 3:00 this morning watching it, because I was trying to get to the redeeming value. I couldn’t get there. I live in a block where most people don’t even make $50,000 a year, and still we can produce a video that has no redeeming value — none — and spend taxpayers’ hard- earned dollars for that.”

Kudos to at least one Congressman who gets it.

3) How badly has the political class mismanaged the economy over the past few years? Well, according to a recent article in the Business Insider, you actually have a better statistical chance of getting admitted into Harvard University than you do of being hired at a new Wal-Mart that is opening up in the Washington D.C. area:

• The store is currently combing through more than 23,000 applications for 600 available positions, reports NBC Washington.
• That means that Wal-Mart will be able to hire one person for every 38 applications it receives — i.e., just 2.6% of applicants will walk out with a job.
• That’s more difficult than getting into Harvard. The Ivy League university accepts 6.1% of applicants

Now, that is insanity and ineptness from the American political class.

4) Although most Americans would probably not describe themselves as “extremists,” most people probably just want to go about their lives as freely and silently as they can, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), they would be wrong. It seems the DHS is more paranoid and scared of average Americans expressing their Constitutional rights to freedom, liberty, and the tenets of the Constitution than truly scary terrorists and other extremists. 

If you fall into any of the following groups of Americans, the DHS is probably following you, using many -so-called “fusion sites” around the country to do their Orwellian Big Brother job of tracking your every move:

• Military veterans
• Tax resistance groups
• Alternative media followers
• Opponents of open borders, i.e. those Americans who believe that those who illegally enter this country should not be rewarded with free welfare benefits such as housing, education, etc.
• Animal rights groups
• Environmental protection groups
• Pro life groups
• Anyone who shares the same beliefs as those that led the American Revolution.

Thus, if you have served in our armed forces to protect the country, if you are tired of politicians wasting our tax money and want it to stop and taxes lowered, if you dare to gather information from non-administration controlled media outlets, if you believe that national security requires closed borders, if you love animals, if you love the nature, and you love the principles of liberty, the government is watching you because of your radical ideas. Insanity and true paranoia.

5) According to a recent article in the Hollywood trade publication Variety, President Obama has nominated a television soap opera producer, Colleen Bell, to become America’s next Ambassador to Hungary. Let me say that again so that it sinks in: President Obama has nominated a television soap opera producer, Colleen Bell, to become America’s next ambassador to Hungary.

In most people’s minds, an ambassador is a vital diplomatic rank and position, traditionally earned after a lifetime of dedicated foreign service. It’s an important position and rank that few career diplomats in the State Department ever reach. Apparently, Ms. Bell has no such experience, training, or credentials and has never had any kind of diplomat experience for such an important government function.

However, while Ms. Bell has never been a diplomat, this "Bold and the Beautiful" producer has logged several years of service to Barack Obama himself. She and her husband, Bradley Bell, raised $2.1 million for Obama’s 2012 reelection, according to The New York Times. Yes, why should we demand and enjoy competence in important government positions when it is so much easier just to reward your political friends and financiers with plum assignments like ambassadorships?

She will become the latest member of Obama’s Hollywood political campaign fundraising team to be rewarded with an ambassadorship during his Presidency:

• John Emerson, who was the former president of Capital Group Private Client Services, is now the U.S. Ambassador to Germany.
• Political consultant, Noah Mamet, is a current ambassadorial nominee to serve as U.S. Ambassador to Argentina.
• Former HBO executive, James Costos, is the U.S. Ambassador to Spain.

And these are just the Hollywood political backers that are representing American interests around the world but who have no diplomatic or ambassador credentials. It does not include other, non-Hollywood political backers who are now ambassadors solely because of their fundraising abilities and not their diplomatic abilities. Pathetic abuse of power.

So what insanity did we learn today? We have a “least influential President,” we have an IRS that wastes money like there is no tomorrow, we have an economic malaise that makes Walmart more difficult to get into than Harvard, we have a paranoid and dangerous Department of Homeland Security/Big Brother, and we have Hollywood entertainment types masquerading as diplomats. Yeah, this is all going to end badly.

More insanity tomorrow but until then, please consider joining our drive for Federal term limits in order to start fixing what the current set of politicians has broken. Because really, how much worse could it get if we started over with all new people in Washington:

www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com

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

April, 2013 Wasteful Government Spending, Part 1: The Elvis Boat, Robotic Squirrels and Other Insanity

Today's post is another in a long line of wasteful government spending reviews that continually prove that no American, rich or poor, should pay another penny in taxes until Washington gets these types of idiotic spending misadventures under control. Not when current tax wealth is wasted of the likes of the 25 government programs listed below.

The Democrats in the Senate, who have controlled the Senate for four years, recently came up with their first real budget since April, 2009. Rather than cleaning up the Washington wasteful spending addiction, they want to feed the addiction by taxing Americans and America to the tune of an incremental one TRILLION dollars over the next ten years.

Rather than stopping the skyrocketing national debt and the wasteful spending that causes future generations of Americans to be burdened with high debt levels, they want to spend an incremental one TRILLION dollars over the next ten years.

Disgraceful insanity, wasteful spending, despicable leadership. The following 25 wasteful spending examples were compiled at the following website of the Independent Journal Review, a website that can be accessed directly in order to find the sources of these examples of waste:

http://www.ijreview.com/2013/03/44144-countdown-to-bankruptcy-25-most-insane-stories-on-wasteful-spending/25/

While we cannot vouch for the integrity of all 25 examples, we have previously discussed a number of them. At those times, we had verified that they were actual, if stupid, government programs and associated stupid spending. Given that the website cites and links to all their sources, I would assume that most, if not all of them, are real.

Now, eliminating these 25 examples of waste would not give Americans tax relief, curb our national debt, or balance the budget. But remember that these types of expense are repeated thousands of times over every day, week, month, and year within the Federal government. These millions of dollars listed below in this very small sample of government gone wild probably represents billions and billions of dollars that the total Federal bureaucracy wastes every month.

Thus, I present another 25 idiotic wastes of your tax payments. After the list, we provide some simple advice on how to get the under budget idiocy in Washington under control before it overwhelms our wealth, our democracy, and our freedom.

25. Pet Shampoo - $505,000 Sergeant's Pet Care Products received half a million dollars in Community Development Block Grants provided by HUD. [Fiscal Times]

24. Snowmobile Competition - $45,900 Grant is allotted for an annual snowmobile competition in Michigan. [Fox]

23. Elvis Cruises - $308,000 Estimated price for an Elvis music boat funded by federal government. [Examiner]

22. Puppet Choreography - $1.18 million Taxpayer money for puppets discovered at USA.GOV. [Breitbart.com]

21. Star Trek Training Video for IRS - $60,000 Along with a Gilligan's Island version, almost totals four weeks of White House tours. [AP]

20. Sports Diplomacy - $5 Million U.S State Department spends $5 million a year on the PR program. [US Public Diplomacy]

19. Shrimp Treadmill - $515,468 A National Science Foundation-funded study examines how shrimp scamper. [Fox]

18. Ukrainian Easter Egg Workshop - Part of $8.1 Million Grant Heritage Areas receives an $8.1 million grant and partly funds the Ukrainian egg crafts workshop. [Daily Caller]

17. Circus Training - $20,000 National Endowment of the Arts has spent $84,000 over last four years funding the Circus Day Foundation. [Fiscal Times]

16. Eat More Caviar - $30,000 PR program pushes Americans to eat more fancy fish eggs. [Fiscal Times]

15. Robotic Bees - Harvard has received over $9.3 million from the Feds since 2010 to fund robotic insects. [Fox]

14. Meditation for Math & Science Students - $349,862 Money doled out so students can zone out. [Fox]

13. Tribal Casinos - Hundreds of Thousands FBI is investigating how much of $4.5 million given to Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation went to Foxwoods casino. [AP]

12. Smuttynose Brewery - $750,970 Taxpayer money doled out to brewer. [Fiscal Times]

11. Wineries and Vineyards - $1.5 Million Just cutting this one subsidy alone would fund White House tours for a year. [Wastebook 2012]

10. Cowboy Poetry - $50,000 The Cowboy Poetry festival to be held in April 2013 would receive taxpayer money, according to Senator Pat Toomey. [Daily Caller]

9. Beef Jerky - $639,884 Pentagon spends this on developing rolled-up beef jerky that is already on the market. [Fiscal Times]

8. Faith-based Gardens - $389,319 CNS News reported today that low-income families get money to plant gardens.

7. Moroccan Pottery - $27 Million Moroccan pottery is a "key" part of a USAID program to improve Morocco's economic competitiveness. [Fiscal Times]

6. Martian Pizza - $947,000 NASA spends about $1 million annually “researching and building the Mars menu.” Last year, it was vegan pizza - for astronauts on low-protein diets. [Hawaii Free Press]

5. Criminals Petting Wild Horses - $2 Million Bureau of Land Management set aside as much as $2 million so convicted criminals can teach wild horses and burros to be gentle. [CNS]

4. Snail Sex - $880,000 "The National Science Foundation awarded a grant for $876,752 to the University of Iowa to study whether there is any benefit to sex among New Zealand mud snails." [CNS]

3. Prom Video Game - $500,000 "$500,000 government video game about high school proms is used to teach social skills." [The Hill]

2. Robo-Squirrel - $325,000 "Researchers at San Diego State University used funds from a $325,000 grant provided by the government-bankrolled NSF to invent a robotic squirrel." Robo-squirrel is still fighting rattlesnakes. [Fox]

1. Joe Biden's Expenses - Millions and counting... Vice President Biden’s trip to a Parisian Five-Star Hotel in February cost $585,000. Biden's stay in London with an entourage cost $459,338. His limo service cost $321,665. He often flies home to Delaware from Washington at a trip cost of $8,800 an hour.

Two simple ways to get this under control:

1) Step 44 in "Love My Country, Loathe My Government" would prevent the Federal government from spending any Federal tax dollars any program or project that does not significantly impact a substantial number of citizens in at least five states. If this principle was applied to the above 25 expenditures, none of them would survive since the increased knowledge in New Zealand snail sex or shrimp jogging would not impact a substantial amount of citizens in at least five states.

2) The second step to curbing this nonsense would be to implement that National Bounty System that we proposed in the following post:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2012/05/national-bounty-system-fixing.html

This process would "deputize" citizens and Federal government workers, the quest to stamp out waste, providing financial incentives and rewards for doing so. Senator Rand Paul has recently proposed such a process for Federal employees. I believe that if much of this wasteful spending had to stand up to the light of public disclosure and discussion it would wilt away.

These types of actions would help clean up the "one time" idiotic spending of Washington, waste similar to the above 25 examples.

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

 

Chicken Little And The Washington Political Class, Part 2: Biden and The Hyatt Regency

Last week we did a popular post that showed how inane and stupid the Chicken Little talk was from Obama and other Washington politicians relative to the financial sequester:

http://www.loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2013/03/chicken-little-and-washington-political.html

The sequester required a small 2% across the board cut in spending by the Federal government because the President and those in Congress were too incompetent to come up with a rational plan to trim government spending over a 17 month period.

The President was given the task of deciding how to cut the spending by a measly 2% and he chose the most vindictive and cruel ways to do it, ensuring that the citizens of this country would suffer the most despite the fact that the government wastes hundreds of billions of dollars a year.

He chose to shut down school and family tours of the White House despite the low cost of continuing them and the tradition of continuing them. He chose to release over 2,000 illegal alien criminals, of which over 400 had been convicted of a violent crime. He threatened to shut down the long tradition of the White House Easter Egg Hunt despite its low cost. He threatened other measures to maximize the negative impact on America.

We pointed to a number of ways that the government could have cut far more expense with much less pain to Americans. However, politically, that was not the best route for the President, with vindictiveness and pain being his path of choice. A week or so after that post, we have uncovered a whole new set of wasteful spending projects and programs that Obama should have shut down long ago but did not.

1) Last week CBS News, a main component of the mainstream media, actually did a piece on government waste that should have been cut before it even happened. The IRS spent $60,000 to have a mediocre Star Trek themed video produced for internal use. The video can be viewed at the following link:

http://patriotupdate.com/2013/03/taxpayers-fund-irs-star-trek-parody/

You cannot claim that you are running an efficient government operation when tens of thousands of dollars are spent on unneeded videos, especially poorly made ones like this piece of trash that will have no redeeming value and impact virtually any American’s life. Makes you wonder how many more such government videos are produced that are just as unnecessary.

2) U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy from Vermont recently wrote a letter to a Vermont citizen regarding the status of the next generation U.S. military fighter jet, the F-35 which has been under development since 2001: “The F-35 program has been poorly managed and is a textbook example of how not to buy military equipment. The causes of the F-35 program’s present difficulties are too numerous to detail in my response to your letter; however, I believe the F-35 program is approaching a point where the military services and a majority of Congress will recognize that the jet is just too costly to proceed with purchases at today’s planned levels.”

While I applaud the Senator’s candor, I think he is being a little too kind. According to a recent report from the Secretary of Defense by the Director of Operational Test and Evaluation, J. Michael Gilmore, dated February 15, 2013, the fighter’s ultimate cost is likely to be about $1.5 TRILLION which will put it at 100% over budget. The plane currently cannot fly in bad weather, on instruments, or at night due to failures in many of it systems. These failures exist despite the fact that the American taxpayer has already spent $400 billion on this disaster.

$400 billion already spent, No viable jet fighter in sight. Over $1 TRILLION still to be spent. You could give a lot of White House tours for $1.5 TRILLION.

3) Apparently the Federal Department of Education has a great amount of say in the education processes on native Americans. As a result of sequester, this administration and its strategy to make these measly 2% cuts hurt as much as possible, forced expense cuts on Native American schools in Minnesota, according to the outraged Congresswoman from that district, Congresswoman Betty McCollum:

• Native American schools in Minnesota are freezing salaries, leaving job openings unfilled, enlarging classroom sizes, and making other cost savings moves to satisfy demands being enforced by the Department of Education.
• The White Earth Reservation tribal school may cut the school year down to save money.
• The Red Lake School District has cut security staff.

However, at the same time these kids’ education capabilities are being cut, the Department of Education is creating a totally new position that pays over $127,000 a year. The job is going to a former aid of Congressman Charles Rangel, David Johns, and is titled, “Executive Director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African-Americans.”

I would assume that this is not a solitary position and that this new executive director will also have a staff of people burning through taxpayer money. You decide: do not create and staff this position and new entity, saving hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in
order to minimize the cuts to Native American education processes or expand the Federal government bureaucracy and screw the kids’ education. Not being the vindictive type like our President, I would have kept the resources with the kids and not the bureaucrats.

4) And for the worst hypocrisy of all, Vice President Joe Biden. He recently flew to Europe where he spent one day London and one day in Paris. Total cost to the American taxpayer: about $1 million. Yes, one million for a two night stand in Europe. Copies of the receipts for these two nights can be seen at the following link:

http://www.mrconservative.com/2013/03/6986-biden-spends-585000-in-one-night-paris-stay-on-your-dollar/

Details of the London expenditures include the following:

• Biden’s entourage needed 136 rooms at the Hyatt Regency, certainly not your low end hotel accommodations by any stretch of the imagination.
• These 136 rooms resulting in a total of 893 room nights for the stay for members of his security force and other entourage members, all for a one night visit.
• The total cost just for the hotel stay came out to $459,338.65, or a little more than $500 per room for these public servants

Comparable expenses were run up at the Paris stopover.

Look, I understand the need for our politicians to visit overseas locations and meet foreign leaders. I understand they need to be kept safe, it is a dangerous world out there. But come on, 136 rooms, Hyatt Regency, $500 a night? Why did these people not stay at our embassies, they are secure. The London embassy certainly has the room:

Or why couldn’t Biden have stayed at the U.S. ambassador’s residence in London, another secure location which also certainly has the space while the rest of his entourage stayed at the equivalent of the Red Roof:

The reason he did not is that Biden is just like every other politician in the White House and in Congress: they are so out of touch with reality and the need to intelligently and unselfishly cut expenses that they would rather have the people of America suffer before they see their plush, extravagant, and selfish life styles affected.

Biden’s expenses could have been used to operate White House tours for a whole year. Instead, the tours are out for Americans, the Hyatt Regency is still a go for politicians.

This Chicken Little behavior of our political class through this whole sequester mess, a process they agreed to 17 months ago, proves once and for all that we need term limits more than ever in this country, as proposed by Step 39 in “Love My Country, Loathe My Government.” When the ruling political class is more focused on making life painful for the citizens in this country, it is definitely time to replace those that find being vindictive more preferable to being compassionate and caring.

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 

January, 2013, Political Class Insanity, Part 1: Armored Cars For Pumpkin Festivals, Lottery Fraud In D.C., Tax Dollars For Klingons and More

Its that time of month again, the time when we review the latest insanity, idiocy, and wasteful spending of the American political class. Unfortunately, this type of behavior never seems to end. As you begin to understand the insanity, you realize why we as a nation  have a $16.3 TRILLION national debt, record high unemployment, etc.

So let’s see what our politicians have dumped on us this month:

1) On December 12, 2012, the Bankrupting America Project reported on its Facebook page that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is stepping up its efforts to protect attendees of pumpkin festivals, which apparently can get pretty rowdy. How do they know this? The DHS gave the town of Keene, New Hampshire, $285,933 to buy a BearCat armored vehicle.

Keene is not a major metro area, it is highly unlikely to be terrorist target, Keene has a population of 23,000 and had experienced just one homicide over the two years prior to the purchase. Their grant application listed the 2004 Pumpkin Festival as an example where the armored vehicle would have been useful. The city of Keene told DHS the vehicle would be used to patrol similar events in the future. Must be a heck of a rowdy town and Pumpkin Festival if U.S. taxpayers have to provide armored vehicle support.

Let’s do some simple math. Since there are about 20,000 cities and towns in this country, if the Federal government wanted to fairly protect all citizens to the same degree they are protecting Keene, N.H., they would have to spend about $5.7 billion. This shows what a tremendous waste of money this expenditure was, more than a quarter million dollars to protect a Pumpkin Festival that happens only once a year. Ridiculous.

2) According to a December 10, 2012 Associated Press report, a Federal grand jury is actively investigating a $38 million contract to operate the District of Columbia lottery. Although no one has yet been charged in the lottery probe, law enforcement entities are looking for evidence of crimes including bribery and illegal steering of contracts, with numerous city politicians are under investigation.

Political corruption and criminal activity, what a surprise! Especially in D.C. Unfortunately for local citizens, this is not the only scandal and potential corruption that is underway in D.C.:

• Three staff aides to Mayor Vincent Gray's 2010 election campaign have already pleaded guilty to Federal crimes.
• Two town council members have resigned in the past year after pleading guilty to felonies.
• One of council members involved stealing city money earmarked for youth sports.
• And who can forget the antics and convictions of former D.C. mayor Marion Barry.

They make us so proud, don’t they. Corrupt and stealing from kids. Disgraceful.

3) Senator Tom Coburn’s (R-OK) has become one of the few members of Congress that is actually embarrassed by the wasteful spending in Washington. Every year he investigates the most ridiculous Federal spending and documents them in his annual Wastebook publication.

He was recently at it again, identifying some absolutely ludicrous spending by the Department of Defense. Apparently, among other things, the Department of Defense spent taxpayer wealth for a lecture series involving fictional alien species, including a lecture session entitled: “Did Jesus Die for Klingons too?”:

• This Klingon session funded by the Defense Advances Research Projects Agency.
• DARPA paid about $100,000 for a strategy planning workshop on the 100 Year Starship project which included a discussion involving the Klingons, a fictional alien species who were villains and then later allies of humanity in the Star Trek series.
• The session entitled "Did Jesus die for Klingons too?"
• This discussion featured philosophy professor Christian Weidemann from Germany's Ruhr-University Bochum who discussed the theological conflict to Christianity if intelligent life was found on other planets. How this discussion helped in our national defense is completely lost on me.
• At another Department of Defense funded session, topics such as how to make deep space travel most efficient, how scientists would go about creating a “warp bubble,” and whether would need to wear clothing during space travel were discussed.
• This session featured actors from the famous "Star Trek" TV series as special guests. Again, how any of these activities do not totally waste taxpayer wealth and help our national defense is lost on me.
• And the biggest taxpayer insult of all: all of these sessions were in conjunction with the 100 Year Starship project, the objective of which is to "foster a rebirth of a sense of wonder" to "make interstellar space travel practicable and feasible." So far, the 100 Year Project has consumed more than a whopping $1 million.

Total, total waste. I often wonder if the Federal bureaucrats who spend money like this truly understand how idiotic these expenditures are or do they truly think these are valid uses of hard earned citizen wealth. I believe Mark Twain once addressed this same question: “Sometimes I wonder if world is being run by smart people who are putting us on or imbeciles who really mean it.”

I would go with the imbecile answer if I had to bet.

4) On December 7, 2012, the D.C. CBS affiliate reported on some lunacy from Congress. Really, lunacy. According to the CBS report, the House of Representatives actually spent time and effort and voted to eliminate the word “lunatic” from all Federal laws and legislation. The legislation that passed the House by a vote of 398-1. The word lunatic was deemed to be “demeaning.”

Let’s review: the looming fiscal cliff, an ever escalating $16.3 TRILLION national debt. Persistently high unemployment and under employment rates. Record numbers of Americans on food assistance rolls. Leaky borders, A lost war on drugs. Still no national and coherent energy strategy. Burdensome taxation. Failing public schools. All of these major issues to be addressed and Congress decides to tackle an issue that is likely not in the top 500 issues that concern Americans.

Unfortunately, these was only one politician who has the right priorities. The only “no” vote was cast by Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, who stated in a statement that: “Not only should we not eliminate the word “lunatic” from Federal law when the most pressing issue of the day is saving our country from bankruptcy, we should use the word to describe the people who want to continue with business as usual in Washington.”

I love his sarcasm, love his proper set of priorities. Too bad he was outnumbered 398 to 1.

That’s the first set of insanity for this month. More tomorrow since even though our politicians are rarely in Washington and rarely at work, they still are able to generate sheer lunacy and idiocy every month.

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

Why Mr. Spock Would Only Give Obama One Term

I am not a big Star Trek fan but my family is so I have had to sit through all of the Star Trek movies and television shows in one form or another. However, a scene from the Star Trek movie, "Wrath Of Khan," has actually stuck with me since I first saw it.

In the climatic scene, the villian Khan and his bad guys are trying to shoot down the Enterprise when both ships enter some kind of dense, gigantic electrically charged cloud. This cloud reduces visual and instrumental tracking, making it difficult for the bad guys' ship to finish off the Enterprise.

After some tense maneuvering and dodging within the cloud, first officer Mr. Spock presents the following observation relative to Khan's actions: "He's intelligent but not experienced. His pattern indicates two dimensional thinking." In other words, Khan is searching for the Enterprise going left and right, ignoring the up and down dimension of space. Thus, Captain Kirk stops dodging left and right and drops the Enterprise down 10,000 units. Khan, the two dimensional thinker, goes directly over the Enterprise, Kirk lifts the Enterprise up 10,000 units and can now attack Khan's ship from behind. Victory!

Now consider some quotes from Barack Obama:

1. August 10, 2009 in the New York Times: "I've got a lot on my plate and it's very important for us to sequence these big initiatives in a way they don't just all crash at the same time." Which raises the obvious question: Is it better to have them crash sequentially?
2. Over the past few weeks, the President, his press secretary, and White House press releases have explained that the President will now "pivot" to the jobs issue. Which raises the obvious question: has he been ignoring the jobs issue to date?

In fact, the President appears to be only a one dimensional thinker, according to his own words. The President is a straight ahead, sequential thinker, focusing on only one issue at a time. In 2009, he was focused only health care legislation, postponing or "sequencing" other major issues after the one, single issue he was working at the time was done.

Unemployment has been stuck at around 14 million Americans and 9.0% for what seems forever, and this does not include the underemployment issue which probably includes another 9 million Americans who have given up looking for a job or are underemployed. It is only now that the President will "pivot" from wherever his attention has been to working on jobs?  At least Khan was a two dimensional thinking, looking left and right. Obama only looks straight ahead, only one problem at a time.

Yes, the President might be intelligent. However, his first three years in office and his pre-Presidential years show that he has had minimal experience in solving problems, he has minimal experience in multitasking, he has minimal experience in strategic thinking. The country faces some very serious issues. It cannot afford to wait until a one dimensional thinker and leader gets around to putting something else on his plate.

Consider what has happened since 2009 when the President declared he needed to sequence our national problems and issues:

• Unemployment and underemployment have gotten worse.
• Our national debt is on target to rise four TRILLION dollars during the President's term, incurring about $35,000 of debt for each household in the country.
• North Korea and Iran are two years closer to being nuclear weapons powers.
• We still have no national energy strategy and program.
• Most of our public schools are still under educating our kids.
• Health care costs are still rising more than twice the rate of inflation despite Obama Care.
• Our borders still leak and we still do not have a comprehensive and compassionate illegal alien plan.
• Our war on drugs is still being lost and resulting in a violent and lawless narco state evolving just south of our borders.
• We appear to still not have a coherent and effective strategy in dealing with the war in Afghanistan.

How long will it take the President to "pivot" to these problems? We cannot afford to wait for a one dimensional thinker to get around to these issues, these problems are affecting all of America everyday.

When Kirk took Spock's advice and dropped the Enterprise down below Khan's ship, he was strategically solving a problem by understanding the root causes of his dilemma, i.e. Khan is the problem but he was only a two dimensional thinker. Consider how this President does not think strategically like Kirk:

• His health care solution did not address the root causes of high health care costs in this country, e.g. Americans eat too much of the wrong kind of food, Americans do not exercise enough, Americans smoke too much, America's average age is increasing, etc. A strategic thinker would address these root causes. Obama did not, all he did was create a giant government bureaucracy that increases our taxes and does not eliminate the root causes of high health care costs because he could not think outside of the single dimenson of government bureaucracy.
• His energy policies are not much different: simpleton tactics with no overarching strategy. He wants cars to get better mileage, he wants trucks to get better mileage, he wants the EPA to shut down existing power plants that are polluting, etc. But there is no overall plan, just straightforward, one dimensional, short term thinking with no overall strategy.
• His drug policies are no better than any of his predecessors in the White House. By not thinking strategically, we are worse off than when he came into office if you look at the drug cartel violence wrecking Mexico.
• Failing public schools - I do not know what he is dong differently than any other politician who came before him and their approaches were no better than Khan's two dimensional thinking.

You get the idea. This President has two major problem solving flaws: all of his policies have been disconnected, short term, tactical actions that will not change or address the underlying root causes of our problems. Second, by his own admission, he cannot multi-task, he has to address each problem sequentially and when he does, the first flaw comes into play, non-strategic thinking.

Now it could be that the President spends so much time hosting every conceivable sports championship team at White House photo ops that he does not have enough time to multi-task. It could be that the President spends so much time political campaigning that he does not have enough time to multi-task. It could be that the President spends so much time traveling internationally that he does not have enough time to multi-task.

Or it could just be the simple fact that this President has never had to multi-task or think strategically. His background and White House tenure so far shows he can do neither. Thus, Mr. Spock would probably not support him for a second term since while the President might be intelligent, he's not experienced in the skills we need from a leader and a problem solver. If he cannot think beyond one dimension today, if he can only handle one issue at a time on his plate, we cannot wait until he might develop any multi-dimensional skills. 

The problems listed above are moving too fast and in negative directions to have someone like Khan at the helm. We need a multi-dimensional thinker that can multi-task. Too bad Spock and Kirk are no longer around.



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