Joke of the week: "Wasteful use of funds shocks Washington D.C.'s elite!"

It’s Friday, March 20, 2009 and there’s no reason why I shouldn’t have an opinion on the recent continuing mess going on in Washington D.C., right? Hearing outraged congressman and senators as well as White House staffers including our President drone on and on about how shocked, dismayed, and awed they are over the discovery of AIG using bailout money to pay bonuses to their executives is nothing short of award winning comedy. Think about it for a minute. The loudest of these screamers have wasted, continue to waste, and will waste billions and trillions (if they get their way) on a 24 hour basis while they feign being petrified by what ends up being a mere pittance compared to the total paid thus far to their Harvard B School buddies. Sadly, we lemmings out here on the reservation eat this stuff up as our “off with their heads” sensitivities go into overdrive causing us to be seriously distracted from the magnitude of the ongoing vast ineptitude in a system eat up with inefficiencies and cronyism. While the public rubs their hands in glee over the persecution of those receiving $165 million in bonuses, meanwhile, they are completely oblivious to the multi-billions slipping through the cracks. This is reality but at what cost? How about the loss of personal freedoms and the intrusion of government into every aspect of our daily lives on a scale that would cause even the most liberal of our founders to not only roll over in their graves but to also run somewhere and hide their faces in shame.

That doesn’t mean I support people being paid bonuses for their work that ended up costing taxpayers billions of dollars. However, as bad as this might be, it actually really does pale in comparison to the cost of the back scratching deals that go on every minute of every hour on Capitol Hill. My advice is that we wake up and smell the coffee as we do our best to not collectively take our eye off the ball. I pray that we will not end up trading the American way of life for our grandchildren and great grandchildren for some short-term handouts being manipulated by scheming power brokers busy at work within our corrupt political establishment. We have these high-ranking government officials who openly daily feed at the trough of excess and luxury at taxpayer expense complaining the loudest about these bonus payouts. Now we are beginning to find out how that some of the loudest of the complainers were perhaps not only complicit in this pay out, they actually helped assist in making sure it was included in the bailout bill they passed. That’s why I call this entire episode mostly an orchestrated smoke screen intended to cover up the magnitude of the mountain of billions evaporating even as we speak.

While I might care about getting back the $165 million, common sense would tell me it’s much more important to get some of the nearly 1 trillion that has been thrown away (literally) over the past six months. Having these AIG executives and their families receive death threats may pacify the heated anger of the masses, but this my friend is very short lived while the past due bill coming for us all will not be. At the same time I am sick and tired of people who call any type of realistic assessment of what’s going on as being nothing more than a sour and pessimistic view of life in our times. I ask you, if we are unwilling to see the situation for what it really is, how will we ever see it fixed? Truth is not always pleasant or easy but it is an absolute necessity if we are to be set free! And, that’s the way I see it as recorded in my blog appropriately titled, ‘The View From Here’. Do have a great Saturday and be sure to enjoy fellowship with other brothers and sisters at the local meeting place on the Lord’s Day Sunday. I’ll try to cool off some over the weekend and be a little more positive on Monday. Until then, may the good Lord bless and keep one and all! Amen. ….More later.