The Arrogance of Our Elected Officials - It Must Be Contagious!

In all probability the epidemic of arrogance begins in the White House and trickles down from there, infecting Congressional and the Senatorial "representatives" of the Democratic Party. Our most recent exposure to this virus was recently presented by Senator Charles E. "UpChuck" Schumer, D-NY, who made an ass of himself on a recent airline flight. Little Chucky decided he didn't need to follow the rules against using cell phones on aircraft prior to reaching altitude, and argued with the flight attendant who asked him to end his conversation and turn his cell phone off. After being told the flight would not leave the ground until he complied, he did so, telling his seat-mate (another Senator from NY) that the flight attendant was a "bitch". YOU'RE A REAL CLASS ACT, UPCHUCK!

Then we have yesterday's incident where twenty senators are demanding an investigation into reports the Obama administration threatened to close Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska if that state's Democratic senator, Ben Nelson, didn't join other Democrats in voting for health-care reform. How's THAT for political leverage? For those of you who may not understand the importance of Offutt AFB to our national security, Offutt is the home of the Strategic Air Command (now just the "Strategic Command"), the headquarters for ALL our heavy bombers! Well, as of this afternoon, it appears that Sen. Nelson still has a pair.
According to Newsmax.com, "Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson — the moderate Democrat whose opposition is holding up the Senate's health care bill — says new language on abortion doesn't satisfy his concerns.

Nelson told KLIN radio in Lincoln, Nebraska, Thursday that an attempt at compromise doesn't get to the fundamental issue of barring federal funding for abortions.

Nelson says without further changes the compromise isn't sufficient.

Catholic and anti-abortion groups have also weighed in against the new language, which attempts to separate public from private funding of abortion.

Democrats are wooing Nelson in order to get the 60 votes needed to pass a sweeping health care bill by Christmas.

But Nelson said abortion wasn't his only concern and he didn't see how the Christmas deadline could be met."

GOOD ON YA, BEN!! It's nice to know that somebody on the left side of the aisle isn't a knee-jerk reactionary in support of just any crap that his President and party throw at the people of this country. Obama must really be getting desperate to threaten our National security - not to mention the immediate unemployment of 10,000 Nebraskans if Offutt were to be closed.

Next there's the U.N. "Small Arms Control Treaty". In fact, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton just announced in mid-November the Obama Administration would be working hand in glove with the UN to pass a new “Small Arms Treaty.”

Disguised as legislation to help in the fight against “terrorism,” “insurgency” and “international crime syndicates,” the UN Small Arms Treaty is nothing more than a massive, GLOBAL gun control scheme. Of course, we all know that "terrorists, insurgents, and international crime syndicates" are law-abiding folks who legally buy and register their weapons... don't we?
Ultimately, the UN’s Small Arms Treaty is designed to register, ban and CONFISCATE firearms owned by private citizens like YOU. And by so doing, the left hopes to circumvent our 2nd Amendment rights under the guise of an "international treaty". Does al Qaeda pay attention to UN mandates? Does Iran? Does North Korea? Does ANYBODY? NO!

So far, the gun-grabbers have successfully kept the exact wording of their new scheme under wraps.

As for Obama's "transparent administration", it's about as transparent as Mount McKinley. Closed door meetings - some totally closed door, others just closed to Republicans - with bans on the press and other media show us exactly how "transparent" the current administration isn't.

Now Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are petitioning the government purse string holders (Congress) for a budget boost of $400,000,000,000 each by year end. That's a total of $800 BILLION that we're supposed to get from WHERE? Well, we'll just borrow it from our good buddies in Communist China. We are bleeding GREEN folks! What little money "Joe Average" may have in the bank won't be worth a tinker's dam by the time the current administration is done mortgaging our country to the rest of the world!The reason for the year-end panic is that Fannie and Freddie don't want to take the chance that the upcoming election year will change the makeup of the Congress to the point that fiscal conservatives may - once again - take control of our nation's checking account.

Oh, and while we're on the subject... the FDIC is also asking for billions of dollars. They apparently expect that there will be many more bank failures during the coming election year, but nobody is telling us that! More "transparency"...

So far the only "jobs" (to speak of) that have been created by Obama's minions are government jobs and government training for government jobs. Obama's "jobs" plan is one of increasing the size of the government Behemoth, thereby increasing citizen dependence upon the government for their livelihood and all things related thereto! There's less resistance to his socialist agenda that way.

Cap and Trade - We have all heard the term, but we may not all understand the practical aspects of it. If "cap and trade" is passed, the end result - admitted to by Obama - is skyrocketing energy costs! Now that's something we really need, when many of us who are retired can barely afford heating costs in the winter already. Doubling our energy costs would certainly be one way to reduce the population - the elderly would be freezing to death during the winters. Why do we need "cap and trade" anyway... when we can reduce our energy costs by tapping into existing resources on U.S. soil? The "Bakken Formation" in North Dakota is estimated to contain BILLIONS of barrels of sweet crude oil! The following is an excerpt from a paper entitled "Bakken Formation Reserve Estimates", by Julie LeFever and Lynn Helms (emphases added):

"A landmark paper by Dow and a companion paper by Williams (1974) recognized the Bakken as
a tremendous source for the oil produced in the Williston Basin. These papers suggested that the Bakken was capable of generating 10 billion barrels of oil (BBbls). Webster (1982, 1984) as part of a Master’s Thesis at the University of North Dakota further sampled and analyzed the Bakken and calculated hydrocarbon generation capacities to be about 92 BBbls. This data was updated by Schmoker and Hester (1983) who estimated that the Bakken was capable of generating 132 BBbls of oil in North Dakota and Montana. Price (unpublished) used a more complete database and estimated that the Bakken was capable of generating between 271 and 503 BBbls of oil with an average of 413 BBbls."

Why have we not heard about this from the "lamestream media"? Another claim is that we have more untapped oil resources in the northwestern United States than exists in ALL of the OPEC nations combined! WHY ARE WE NOT DRILLING?? Apparently somebody wants us to be dependent upon high-priced foreign oil imports... I wonder who that could be?

It's our government, that's who it is!

And why were no Republicans, or even moderate Democrats, invited to the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference? Nazi Pelosi took herself and 20 other hardcore, party-line quoting Dems on that so-called "working/job creating" trip.

So much for the "transparent Obama administration". You can't see into it for all the smoke and mirrors!

Here's A Crazy Idea ...

If company-provided cars are taxed as additional "income", our government should tax Nazi Pelosi on an additional $3,000,000+ annually for the use of that government-provided Boeing 757. It takes her home to California, and back to Washington D.C., every weekend at $120,000 per round trip in fuel alone, not including the aircrews pay and maintenance costs. How's that for a waste of our tax dollars? Those trips are NOT required to fulfill the duties of her office, they are for her convenience. When the Senate is in session for those 110 days, Pelosi should be required to be in the Washington D.C. area, within one hour commuting time of the Senate Office Building - as should they ALL. If they choose to leave that area, they should do so at personal expense!

Do our military members serving overseas get to come home at government expense every weekend? No. They get to return when their tour of duty is over. That's their job ... just as the job of the House and Senate is to be where they work when in session. Why do we continue to treat our servants as if they are royalty?

I could be wrong about this ... and the Moon really could be made of "green cheese"!

Living Large on Taxpayer-Supplied Easy Street

Want a raise? Don't beg to your boss. Just vote yourself one. That's what the United States Congress did in 2004. "For the fifth year in a row, lawmakers voted not to reject their automatic "cost of living" raise that will increase the annual salary of members by $3,400 to a total of $158,103 per year."

During the Constitutional Convention, Benjamin Franklin considered proposing that elected government officials not be paid for their service. Other Founding Fathers, however, decided otherwise.

From 1789 to 1815, members of Congress received only a per diem (daily payment) of $6.00 while in session. Members began receiving an annual salary in 1815, when they were paid $1,500 per year - a significant amount of money in 1815, considering that those who were working for "wages" (as opposed to farmers and tradesmen) were knocking down a whopping 50¢ per day! Members began receiving a larger annual salary in 1855, when they were paid $3,000 per year. The current salary (2009) for rank-and-file members of the House and Senate is $174,000 per year. The Majority and Minority Leaders of the House and Senate are paid $193,400 each. And the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi is paid $223,500. Are we getting our moneys worth? Oh, and let's not forget the $120,000 in jet fuel that Pelosi burns up every weekend in that 200 seat Boeing 757 aircraft for a round-trip from D.C. to California at taxpayer expense! If the private sector (Big 3 Auto CEOs) flies in private jets to meetings called by the ruling party in Congress, it's a big waste of taxpayers money. If a Democrat flies in a taxpayer funded private jet on government business, it's OK. If the country is having hard economic times, you certainly couldn't tell it by looking at how our government is managing our tax dollars!

Here's what I see as a few problems in our system:
1. Our laws are made by lawyers rather than people with common sense. This is the equivalent of having the fox guard the hen house. Does anybody still wonder why our laws have become so complex and bifurcated? Special interest groups, PACs, Labor Unions, and essentially anybody else with lobbyists on Capitol Hill goes to the head of the line, while the majority of the citizenry suffers in silence. We have the best politicians money can buy.

2. Those who make our laws are overcompensated for what little they do for us - they're too busy doing for themselves. And they get to approve their own pay raises! Wouldn't we all like to have a job like that? "Public service" means serving the public, not servicing them!

3. Members of Congress are entitled to a retirement after only 5 years of participation (I refuse to use the word "service" to describe what they do). There are about a half-dozen different retirement schemes for them, so they can milk us for as much as possible (source: 2007 Congressional Research Service Report). They also have full medical coverage, and a staff and office plus other expenses for which we pay.

4. The worst part is that "we the people" keep re-electing the same lazy, corrupt, lying bastards over and over again!

What's the solution? There is no solution so long as #4, above, continues unchecked. Should that ever be corrected then things like term limits, a salary cap at around $50,000 with a very modest local housing allowance become more possible (or, better yet, government supplied quarters on a military installation such as Bolling AFB, Andrews AFB, or Fort George Mead, all within reasonable commuting distance of downtown D.C.). Lawyers should have minimal representation in Congress, comprising no more than 1/3 of the total makeup of Congress, thus insuring that our laws are less likely to be intellectualized to the point of ineffectiveness in the real world.

I just think "we the people" are getting ripped off to the maximum extent possible by professional politicians, and thought I'd share these "tip of the iceberg" thoughts with you.

I could be ... nah, no way!

*OINK* - I Smell PORK!!

House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi goes to to visit the Pope on the public dime ... this seems to be an issue of state endorsement of a specific religion. She is an official of our government, flying with her entourage of sycophants, in a government (read: taxpayer) supplied 200 seat aircraft, to have an audience with Pope Benedict XVI.

In an attempt to be perfectly fair about this though, she will meet with representatives of the Italian government during her week long visit to Italy. Pelosi, who arrived in Rome on Sunday after spending the day in the Tuscan capital Florence, was to meet with Italian President Giorgio Napolitano and lunch with her Italian counterpart Gianfranco Fini on Monday.

Monday afternoon she was to lead a conference on security before meeting the press. (Excuse me, but what the hell does Nancy Pelosi know about security, other than the fact that our government provides it for her?)

On Tuesday, Pelosi was to meet Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and the defence and foreign ministers, Ignazio La Russa and Franco Frattini.

Pelosi plans to spend Thursday in southern Naples (doing what ... shopping??).

Okay ... so here's her iternerary:

Sunday: Pelosi goes shopping and sightseeing in Florence

Monday: Pelosi meets with the head lefty of the left-wing Italian government for lunch, then "leads a conference on security" in the afternoon before she meets with the press. (She's used up maybe 4 hours of Monday for "business".)

Tuesday: Pelosi meets with 3 other lefties, probably simultaneously in the PM's office. But, let's be generous and say she meets with them individually in their own offices. (That takes care of 3 hours or a half workday.)

Wednesday: Audience with "Il Papa". (There goes 45 minutes.)

Which leaves Thursday, Friday and Saturday, which are unaccounted for. With no published official schedule, one can only assume that it will be spent touring and shopping, at our expense. And, although her airplane has a large bedroom, and a staff to see to her every need, I seriously doubt that she's sleeping in it in these hard economic times. My money says that she stays in a 5-star hotel everywhere she stops.

The Head Porker puts the perennial pork to the people again!

I suppose I could be wrong about this ... but I'm NOT!