A Lot of Dollars and No Sense

BernardGoldberg.com ^ | April 9, 2013 | Burt Prelutsky

[SJackson]

Even though everyone knows that canceling White House tours to prove the severity of the Sequester cuts was a scam perpetrated by Obama, it didn’t prevent Joe Biden from blowing 460,000 of our tax dollars for one day in London and another $585,000 on a one-day stopover in Paris.

The arrogance of this administration is seemingly unlimited. When the French revolted against their royals in the 18th century, they did so with less justification than we have. George Washington was offered the kingship of America and he refused the crown. But that hasn’t prevented future presidents, as well as vice-presidents, Republicans and Democrats, from behaving like royalty.

That’s why it kills me when even conservatives grudgingly agree that presidents deserve to take expensive vacations. Just how hard does anyone think these people are working? There’s no heavy lifting involved, and they pretty much work bankers’ hours. On top of that, over a billion dollars a year is spent providing them with protection, 24/7 access to chefs, waiters, personal trainers, barbers and beauticians, medical and dental specialists, plus nannies for the kids and the dog.

When you get right down to it, every day they spend in the White House is the equivalent of an extravagant vacation for normal people.

But most of us are so sheep-like that we have actually bought into the fairy tale that even a president who hasn’t come up with a budget in four years is working harder than a grunt in Afghanistan, and desperately needs his R&R.

Like the Shadow of radio fame, Barack Obama clearly has the power to cloud men’s minds. But even that fails to explain why Israel’s college students treated him like a combination of Mick Jagger and Moishe Dayan when he addressed them during his recent excursion to the Middle East. Until one of the kids heckled him in Hebrew, I found myself wondering if he had brought the young chowderheads along from Harvard or Georgetown.

So although this administration is unable to come up with the chump change required to allow school kids to tour their White House, Joe Biden can waste a million dollars living it up on the continent and they can pay a schmuck named Samuel Betances a couple of million dollars to promote diversity — by which they, and he, mean anti-white bigotry — to federal employees.

Some people assumed that when I titled my second book of political commentary “Liberals: America’s Termites,” I was merely engaging in name-calling. Well, I wasn’t. At least not entirely. Otherwise, I might have titled it “America’s Skunks” or “America’s Weasels.” I referred to them as termites because, like the nasty little crawly creatures, they have shown an extraordinary ability to take a great stately edifice that has withstood over two centuries of wind, rain, depressions and wars, and bring it crashing down on our collective heads.

Speaking of termites, I don’t want any parks, bridges, buildings or ships, named after politicians, unless they write a personal check to pay for the darn thing. If we’re looking around for people to honor, I suggest we begin honoring honorable people, such as Jonas Salk or Irving Berlin, Mark Twain or Richard Rodgers, people who have actually made enormous contributions to America.

I found it ironic that Obama, who has devoted four years to dividing Americans based on race, wealth and gender, told the Israelis and the Palestinians they should start getting along. This coming from the putz who has spent his entire administration demonizing Republicans, who may have somewhat inhibited his ability to turn this country into Greece, but they never rained missiles down on him and his family. And when I last checked, they hadn’t blown up any school buses or pizza parlors.

I realize that Chuck Hagel isn’t looking to me for advice, but I would still like to suggest that we don’t engage in any more wars unless the U.S. or an actual ally is attacked. But we should never again be involved in siding with one side or the other in a conflict between Arabs or Muslims. As we should have learned from the overhyped Arab Spring, there’s no advantage for us, no matter which side wins. For us, it’s just a tragic loss of lives and an immoral waste of money.

A recent poll disclosed that of the ten nations in the world that despise America the most, nine are in the Middle East. And that’s after decades of trying to defend these people against the Serbs, Al Qaeda, the Taliban, Hamas and Saddam Hussein. (Lest you not be able to sleep tonight, the tenth was Greece. I don’t know why, but perhaps they resent our trying to copy them.)

I’m not suggesting we turn a blind eye to any of these countries that threaten us. I’m merely stating that we never go to war to defend them. I’m all for using special ops to take out the likes of Ahmadinejad, Al Assad, the Iranian mullahs, and to use armed drones to take out other jihadists if they appear to be a threat to Christians or Jews.

So long as we start drilling for our own oil, natural gas and coal, we can go back to ignoring them the way western civilization did for several centuries after their first misguided attempt to conquer and convert the world to their lunacy.

For their part, they can go back to pretending that Mohammad wasn’t a blood-thirsty pedophile, and insisting that art, music, literature, science and technology, are the stuff of infidels.

And for my part, I can’t help thinking these are the people Obama wants Israelis to get along with when he can’t even be civil to the likes of Paul Ryan, Justice Sam Alito and Ted Cruz!

[yldstrk]

penny-wise and pound foolish as they used to say

[Thank You Rush]

“”24/7 access to chefs, waiters, personal trainers, barbers and beauticians, medical and dental specialists, plus nannies for the kids and the dog.””

Any other employee in this country and HE IS OUR EMPLOYEE, who received these perks from his EMPLOYER, would be required to report the value of these perks on their income tax return, wouldn’t they?

The salary for that office is $400,000 per year plus $50,000 expense account (ahem!) - what would it be with all the perks added?