If there is one thing I can’t stand its bad smells. Just ask my family. The first thing I do when I encounter an offending odor is complain about it, loudly. Then I usually wave my arms about wildly. This causes my family to claim I am waving the smell toward them. Actually, I am desperately trying to dissipate the smell. For the life of me, I can’t understand how men can just sit there and breathe in and out normally while a cloud of noxious fumes hangs in the air.
Lately I have been complaining loudly about the foul stench of hypocrisy coming out of Washington. We have been told ad nausea that this is “the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.” Really? Then why did Obama spend $126,000 transition dollars to jet to Hawaii before the inauguration? Or why did his transition team spend $3,800 to cover windows in its Chicago offices only to turn around and spend $3,200 to have the coverings removed a few months later? I guess going to JC Penney and buying curtains on sale to use for three months was beneath them. And I’m sure the Hay Adams Hotel and the Blair House in D.C. didn’t mind the transition team spending $4,000 to upgrade the first family’s temporary digs while they waited to move into the White House.
Does no one remember when the government scolded Merrill Lynch for spending more than $1 million to redecorate an office? I’ll admit a million bucks for redecorating sounds excessive. And I believe if private entities take tax payer dollars they better be held accountable for how the money is spent. But guess what? Government money IS our money - your money. And the question remains why did Obama have to spend $5.1 million (nearly all of the $5.3 million available) of federal transition money when he had already raised $4.5 million in private funds for this very activity? I thought we were in the middle of a crisis. I guess the concept of shopping around for the best deal is lost on folks who are surrounded by opulence paid for with other people’s money.
Then there is the stench emanating from congress, which is almost palpable. Take Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi who insists on having a military jet at her beck and call to ferry her (and her entourage) across the US and the globe. I’m sure her foreign junket to Rome came under the heading of “job related expense.” This from the Democrat who represents San Francisco, the most anti-military community in our country. Wasn’t it just a few weeks ago when the Democrats were eviscerating corporate CEOs for using private jets?
I could go on. At a White House hearing Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) pounded her fist and foamed at the mouth while railing at bank executives for their handling of bail-out money. It was recently revealed that Waters and her husband had personal and financial stake in a minority-owned bank which, coincidentally, received $12 million in TARP money. Sniff. Sniff. Whew! Do you smell that? Man! How can they just sit there breathing normally with that cloud hanging over their heads?
I have found the best way to deal with noxious odors is to get rid of the offending source. I’m looking forward to 2010 and 2012. Until then, just picture me waving my arms wildly as I write these posts.
