WTF…..Washington?

That’s right……I said it….WTF?

In recent weeks there has been a lot of time spent in Congress doing 2 things that they seem to do best…… Intimidation and that old ever popular stand-by…Bribery. Yup…a whole lot of that going on up there. Now it’s not the low level kind of intimidation and bribery that we normally think of. Well….except for a few people like Rep. William J. Jefferson from Louisiana...who is still kickin’ it “old-school” and keepin’ it real. Remember, he's the guy...who back in 2005, authorities found $90,000 in cash in his freezer. Some would say “well that’s been SO long ago…and you only bring that up because he’s a Democrat”….No I only bring it up because HE’S A THIEF…..Not just ANY thief…..but a thief who continued to serve in the House of Representatives until he was tossed out of office in 2008....not by his fellow House members, who said that they were going to put an end to this type of corruption....but by the VOTERS of his district. Jefferson continued to serve in the House between 2005 and 2008 without any outcry by Ms. Pelosi about the “cold cash” in his freezer. That was in spite of what she said, as she came into power as the Speaker of the House…that she was going to “clean up the swamp”….referring to getting rid of corruption in the House of Representatives. So much for that…..huh?...How that workin’ for ya’ Nancy?...(Note to Charlie Rangel: Based on this evidence…even though you too are a thief and a tax cheat…it’s ok to “do lunch” with Nancy) Anyway….where was I ?.....oh yeah….Intimidation and Bribery in Congress.... Before we go any further...let me say that if it seems that I cut my normal commentary (i.e. rant) a bit short, not only here…but also in the next couple of paragraphs…it’s only because the important part comes at the very end…..so stick with me…With that said…I will be glad to debate this issue with anyone only AFTER you read this piece to the very end…..and only then…if you can honestly say that I’m wrong.

So what’s been going on up in Washington?....First there is Intimidation....There are some Congressional leaders who still like to use the old “Chicago-style” arm-twisting technique to get their way….While there might not be any literal arm twisting (I said “might not be”)….there are certainly a lot of suggestions (i.e. threats) that are offered up by Congressional leaders...in order to assure that fellow Congresspeople fall in line, and vote as they are told to vote. For example…suggestions/threats like “We won’t back you for re-election if you don’t vote the way we tell you to vote”. What ever happened to that silly concept of representing your constituents? (Now before some of my Democrat/Liberal friends get their nose all out of joint….let me say this…IT HAPPENS ON BOTH SIDE OF THE AISLE…OK?....get over it already….) Here’s what needs to happen….Go to Washington and do your job…Instead of throwing billions of dollars of wasteful spending into unrelated bills….just so you can make the “folks back home” think that you are looking out for them….tell the truth….you are stealing tax money from one group of people...so that you can send it back home….so that ultimately, you can get re-elected. The simple version is...you’re buying votes….Which brings us to the other method of getting things done that we mentioned……

The other method of securing votes from fellow members of Congress (and as we’ve seen…the folks back home as well)…is one that is also tried and true….it's Bribery. I’m not anti-Louisiana, but this next little tidbit also happens to deal with someone from Louisiana. It seems that Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu got a $300 million Medicaid "fix" for her home state just before voting in favor of cloture last Saturday night….(the move that would officially put the Senate health bill on the floor for consideration). Let me see if I have this right….(I’m going to type this part very slowly so that I can understand as I go)….A person (or group of persons) in the U.S. Senate…..told fellow Senator Mary Landrieu…..that THEY would give HER state $300,000,000 (300 million dollars)…….of someone else’s money….. IF she would vote the way that they wanted her to vote….. Sound about right?....(Well there’s certainly nothing RIGHT about it….but does that sound correct?)….I'm not going to resort to name calling...but in many states, if you did that same thing (take money in exchange for "favors")....it would get you arrested. I’m not going to elaborate…mainly because that IS what happened…and yeah…I don’t give a monkey’s butt whether or not this has been done for decades….STOP IT !!! The issue is not whether or not it has “always been done that way”….the issue is that it HAS TO STOP.

Now….back to my original question….”WTF…Washington?” Allow me to explain my question …Where’s The Funds…..Washington? I just had a young lady walk out of my office that has small children….here it is 2 days before Thanksgiving….and she had no food in her house. I don’t mean it like when we say “we don’t have any food in the house”….and we just mean that there’s nothing there that we really want….No…I mean that she literally had NO food in the house. She can’t seem to get through all of the government “red tape” in order get food stamps…even though she qualifies. So it has reduced her to a point of going to orange groves…”after hours”…to get some kind of nourishment for her children. She cant “water-down” the little bit of milk that she gets from WIC (a State of Florida program) to make it go farther…(like she used to)….because NOW the government in its infinite wisdom…has decided that whole milk is not the best thing for her children…so now she can only get 2% or fat-free. Before you say…”Well that’s better for them anyway”….let me say this to you…..“Shut up”….When that might be what little nutrition that your kids are getting….do you really want to “water down” 2% milk? So I ask…..Where’s The Funds Washington for food for her kids? While you guys are up there stroking each others (fill in the blank) and passing out hundreds of millions of dollars to buy ONE vote, so a bill might go your way….she is at home with her kids trying to explain to them why they don't have food to eat....So Where’s The Funds Washington for these and many other kids who are in the same situation? Before you criticize this young lady…..let me say again…”Shut Up”…and then I’ll tell you that I know her….and I know that she is a good mommy to her kids. Things just aren’t going the way that she would like right now…but in spite of that….she is doing the best that she can…with what she has….She has gotten some help though....even though a lot of that help....has come from Evil, Right-Wing, Nut-Job Christian individuals and churches (and yeah I DO know that for a fact…) While you guys (and gals) in Congress are spending billions of dollars on useful things….for example, like some of the things in the recent “stimulus bill”…useful things like…..$300,000 for a GPS-equipped helicopter to hunt for radioactive rabbit droppings at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington state…..$30 million for a spring training baseball complex for the Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies…….$11 million for Microsoft to build a bridge connecting its two headquarter campuses in Redmond, Wash., which are separated by a highway…….$430,000 to repair a bridge in Iowa County, Wis., that carries 10 or fewer cars per day……..$800,000 for the John Murtha Airport in Johnstown, Pa., serving about 20 passengers per day (to build a backup runway)……..$219,000 for Syracuse University to study the sex lives of freshmen women……..$2.3 million for the U.S. Forest Service to rear large numbers of arthropods, including the Asian Long-horned Beetle, the nun moth and the woolly adelgid……$3.4 million for a 13-foot tunnel for turtles and other wildlife attempting to cross U.S. 27 in Lake Jackson, Fla……..$1.15 million to install a guardrail for a persistently dry lake bed in Guymon, OK....and the list goes on and on and on…..Yeah….while you’re spending money on those things…simply to look good to the folks back home….and so that you can shore up support for re-election from some special interest group…. Where’s The Funds Washington for this young lady’s children to have something decent to eat?

So while you guys in Congress are patting yourselves on the back, for a job well done....(when all you really did was waste hundreds of millions of tax dollars on ONE vote...NOT to solve the problem of health care....rather, all of that money was spent just to be able to talk more about your disastrous health care bill in the future. A bill that if it is eventually passed....will waste billions more of our tax dollars)...and then run out the door of the Senate...so you can fly home to that big Thanksgiving dinner with your family. As you're getting ready to take the first bite of that perfectly prepared turkey...think about what I've said....and then for once....YOU need to ask... WTF….Washington?............. Then Again….That’s Just Me