There is talk about cancelling Congress’s July 4th recess so that the debt ceiling talks can progress. What a crying shame to take away our lawmakers’ holiday vacation from them so that they may actually legislate. I am crying in my soup. Here is an interesting video, with a great graphic calendar, showing just how much time our legislators spend in Washington, D. C. enacting laws:
http://www.youtube.com/...
As President Obama mentioned in his press conference today, even his young daughters are better at time management and getting the job done with their homework than our Congress is at their tasks, vacating themselves from their jobs that have serious import over all of our lives. Did you notice all the red X’s on the calendar in the above video? It is amazing how few days per year they work in our halls of government. I might also add that it is about time for our President to become engaged as well.
This greater issue, that of public malfeasance while receiving government salary is probably the larger issue of the civil riots in Greece. Sure: the Greeks are upset over the austerity measures being applied to their benefits, but they are furious that the powers that be are so corrupt, themselves immune from the cuts and neck-deep in corruption. Arianna Huffington, who I regard as a sensationalist hell-bent on upping her readership above all else, has actually penned quite a good article on the real fight going on in Greece, that for democracy:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
As if our own leaders and leader-wannabees are exempt from such corruption, look again. Michele Bachman, the current star babe of the GOP,defended the fact that her psychologist husband accepted over $137,000 in federal funds from Medicaid:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
While “too much government” is her mantra for all of us, apparently it is the Bachmann’s anathema for their own personal asset enrichment. If Mr. Bachmann accepted these payments so poorer patients would be able to be treated, why isn’t his dedication to equal access to treatment a part of his and his wife’s political agenda for all of us? I find it amazing that altruistic actions exhibited by right-wing ideologues are usually apparent only when the benefits wind up in their own pockets. This double standard of government involvement — less for the majority of the population and more for those in the upper echelons of sovereignty and wealth. This is a blatant abuse of power and money; hypocrisy all the way to the bank. As I wrote yesterday about Rick Scott: even if Florida recalled him from office, there is a line a mile long of new officers of corruption just waiting to take up where he left off.
I repeat myself: the United States needs to take a lesson from ancient as well as modern Greece.
http://www.nytimes.com/...