Millionaires in Congress

CRP Reports 237 Millionaires in Congress:
"Talk about bad timing.
As Washington reels from the news of 10.2 percent unemployment, the Center for Responsive Politics is out with a new report describing the wealth of members of Congress.
Among the highlights: Two-hundred-and-thirty-seven members of Congress are millionaires. That’s 44 percent of the body – compared to about 1 percent of Americans overall."

Let me preface my comments with the following observation. I can't tell you how hard it was to pick an image to attach to this post. Normally I go to Micro$oft's new Bing search engine, click on Images and make a quick pick from the list of pictures they present me. Not this time. All of the simulacrums (look it up) were so apropos to this article that it must have taken me 15 to 20 minutes to make up mind. Boy there are a lot of people who dislike politicians out there, and every one of them has a camera or a drawing pad.

Back to my comments on the article about Politician Salaries.

I hate to say this, but I feel sorry for these poor Pols, and before you start throwing stones let me explain why. Imagine here you are making a mere $170K a year having to make difficult decisions about spending Millions of Tax Payer Dollars (TPD aka OPM) on pet projects for your colleagues. Then to add insult to injury the Fed starts printing more money and low and behold you are now in the position of having to spend Billions of Tax Dollars just to keep up with the increased money supply. The final insult comes when you now have to make a decision to vote for a health care bill that will require you to give the OK to spend 1.2 TRILLION of TPD (OPM) on a bill. You're further annoyed because this piece of legislation was requested by some babe from a place called California, who represents a district that consists of less than one tenth of one percent of the nations population. Voting for it may cost you your job, not doing so may cost you your job. My God what do they expect from you. All this work and responsibility for what, after all you only make a paltry $170K a year, and your net worth is only a few Million. Hell at this rate you can't steal enough to live on much less get re-elected. And all the while those fat cats on Wall Street collect multi-millions of dollars in bonus's with TARP money that you voted for.

Life is so unfair. Just ask our underpaid Congress.

Pay 'Appalling Underclass' not to breed

New Zealand Mayor Says, Pay Problem Parents Not To Breeds :
"AN outspoken Kiwi politician has proposed a new solution to the country's child abuse problem - pay the 'appalling underclass' not to breed. Michael Laws - who stirred up controversy by calling the late Tongan King a 'bloated brown slug'' - has again hit the headlines.
'That there is a group within our society who give their children no hope nor opportunity from the moment that they are born,' the regional mayor wrote on the New Zealand radio website where he broadcasts as a talkback DJ. 'That these ‘parents’ are known to authorities ... and yet the authorities can only intervene after children have been harmed.'
Mr Laws goes on to write: 'it would be far better for this appalling underclass to be offered financial inducements not to have children, given the toxic environment that they would provide for any child in their care.'"

At first blush I was a little put off by Mayor Laws comments, but then I started to think about it in Good Old US of A terms. Suddenly it dawned on me that his solution seemed more humane than the way we do it.
We pay to have our Appalling Underclass abort their children, and when they get pregnant again we pay for them to abort again. It's a little game of Genocide we play in the name of "pro choice".
When some of them get wise to the game and won't abort their children, we begrudgingly give them welfare to support the surviving children in benign poverty. When those children get old enough, we can get a second chance at Genocide by paying them to aborting their children.
Life goes full circle.

Unfit for Military Duty

75 Percent of Young Americans Are Unfit for Military Duty :
"The latest Army statistics show a stunning 75 percent of military-age youth are ineligible to join the military because they are overweight, can't pass entrance exams, have dropped out of high school or had run-ins with the law. So many young people between the prime recruiting ages of 17 and 24 cannot meet minimum standards that a group of retired military leaders is calling for more investment in early childhood education to combat the insidious effects of junk food and inadequate education."

An amazing statistic don't you think? Now you know why the both parties are loath to stop illegal immigration. We need illegals, they're all hungry, skinny, eager to learn, and will kill for work.

TV Program Aims at Obamamania

ABC's 'V' New Fall Series -- ChicagoTribune.com:
"Imagine this. At a time of political turmoil, a charismatic, telegenic new leader arrives virtually out of nowhere. He offers a message of hope and reconciliation based on compromise and promises to marshal technology for a better future that will include universal health care.
The news media swoons in admiration -- one simpering anchorman even shouts at a reporter who asks a tough question: 'Why don't you show some respect?!' The public is likewise smitten, except for a few nut cases who circulate batty rumors on the Internet about the leader's origins and intentions. The leader, undismayed, offers assurances that are soothing, if also just a tiny bit condescending: 'Embracing change is never easy.'"

I can't believe what's happening in the news lately. First the NY Times article about Voter Remorse and now this, ABC is making a Sci-Fi version of The Obama West Wing. I'm sure that it has something to do with ratings, after all they can read Fox's numbers. Or maybe it's a ploy, and when the "totalitarian space lizard" reveals itself, it will turn out to be George Bush.

Euphoria Gives Way to Second-Thoughts

In Iowa, Euphoria Gives Way to Second-Thoughts on Obama :
"WILLIAMSBURG, Iowa — Pauline McAreavy voted for President Obama. From the moment she first saw him two years ago, she was smitten by his speeches and sold on his promise of change. She switched parties to support him in the Iowa caucuses, donated money and opened her home to a pair of young campaign workers."

First of all let me say that I'm speechless because the article is by JEFF ZELENY, and was originally published in The New York Times. I was so taken back that I read it twice looking for some sort of  Liberal political agenda hidden deep with in it. Low and behold I couldn't find one, but I'll keep looking, it's got to be there somewhere. Meanwhile I'll ad my brief thoughts on the article.
The stories of why these people voted for Obama reminds me of a blog comment that I saved because I thought it was so spot on. I think it applies here even though some of the reasons given in the article are about a sense of belief in Obama's message. I don't know if that was their true feelings or a smoke screen for Fashion Voting. Below is the blogger comment, you decide:

"Our country is paying a terrible price for a trendy impulse. The fashion voters - those who voted for the nation's first black president regardless of his qualifications and despite the communists in his background - are how we got into this ungodly mess."

The Trading Sardine

Andy convinces Billy to buy a can of sardines at a high price by telling him how wonderful they taste. Billy, being greedy, decides to resell them to Charlie for a profit at an even higher price by convincing him, too, about how great these sardines are. The process is repeated several times until the last buyer, let’s call him Zebediah, pays a million bucks to Yorick for a can of the “world’s absolute best sardines – EVER”.

Well, Zebediah decides to open the can and eat the sardines, only to discover they are ordinary, plain sardines. Furious at being swindled, he yells at Yorick: “You crook! You liar! I paid you a million bucks for plain ordinary sardines. They were not the greatest tasting sardines - EVER”, yells Zeb.

Yorick shrugs and replies…

“Hey Zebediah, you are such a schmuck. Those were not eating sardines – them were trading sardines!"

I found The Trading Sardine fable embedded in a post on the Sudden Debt blog. The reason I didn't include the entire post is that it was full of esoteric charts relating to the CIT fiasco, which I thought would bore every one. The Trading Sardine while a simple allegory, illustrates what has happened to housing, commercial real estate, stock market, and commodities.Basically what has transpired right in front of the noses of all of the regulators that are supposed to protect us, is one big Circle Jerk.
We are all Zebediahs now.