by Sam Huntington
I was doing some reading the other day at The Heritage Foundation. They put together an article about the booze, pole dancing, and luxurious hotels charged to the American taxpayer during 2013. You can read the article here.
I’m not saying that any one of these expenditures will bankrupt America. I’m not even saying that all of them together present a clear danger to the US economy. I’m certainly not suggesting that expenditures under one administration is more shocking than any other. I’m only suggesting that the arrogance of the federal bureaucracy is nothing if not jaw dropping. With millions of Americans out of work, all the rhetoric about rich people not paying their fair share, and all the issues about sequestration … it makes you want to know, “Who in the hell are these people?”
Heritage Foundation’s top ten outrageous government waste includes:
- An outhouse in Alaska, $98,670.00
- Heated bus stop in Arlington, Virginia, $1 million
- Pole dancing grant, $10,000.00
- Pizza from a printer, $124,996.00 (another NASA project)
- Female psychology, $335,525.00
- Booze and whiskey glasses for the State Department, $5.4 million
- Monitoring psychological depression on Twitter, $82,000.00
- A new facade for the British Embassy, $1 million
- New artwork for the VA office, $562,000.00
- Government employee vacation to St. Croix –we have no idea how much this cost.
I could write for another hour about other things that deserve closer attention, but I know you get it. Well, most of you do. Tell me though, how do we get the attention of bureaucrats who don’t really care what we taxpayers think?
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ReplyDelete"Tell me though, how do we get the attention of bureaucrats who don’t really care what we taxpayers think?"
Not sure where "Always On Watch" lives. In USA, the bureaucrats at national, state, and local level really do care what we taxpayers think because the bureaucrats at national, state, and local level are taxpayers. In USA government is of the people, by the people, and for the people.
“Who in the hell are these people?”
These people in USA, are your neighbors, friends, and relations.
Ema Nymton
~@:o?
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DeleteI live in Northern Virginia, where I've lived all my life -- as did my father before me. Neighborliness here died about 1985 or so.
DeleteNo, Enema, these people in USA, [sic] are YOUR neighbors, friends and relations -- which is pretty strange in itself; I didn't know that robots had neighbors, friends and yada-yada-yada.
DeleteAlways On Watch,
Delete"We welcome civil dialogue at Always on Watch. We will delete comments that include any of the following:
1. Any use of profanity or abusive language
...
3. Use of personal invective"
Interesting responses from some of the _other_ writers on this blog. The expressions of anger, threats, and hostilities directed at the people of USA are astonishing.
" Neighborliness here died about 1985 or so."
The people in Northern Virginia I have met have been quite neighborly. Maybe it has not been so much that your neighbors attitude have changed ...
Ema Nymton
~@:o?
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Long-standing communities have been upended via the McMansion craze. Those living in the McMansions are typically friendlier toward others living in McMansions -- toward those of us living in the original houses on the blocks, not so much.
DeleteWhen I think back upon the bad old days when Nazis and Communists loaded people on to trains to transport them to concentration camps and death camps, or to work in the mines until they died, I wonder to myself … how is it possible that so many people just went along with that program? How could they even imagine that what was happening to them would have a positive, uplifting conclusion?
DeleteAnd then someone like Enema comes along and clears up all my confusion. I hope this is civil enough for you, Enema.
I think Ms Nymton believes what she says, incredible as that may sound to those of us who've developed radically different views and had very different experiences over a protracted period of time.
DeleteNow, if Ms Nymton could tell us WHY she believes that government bureaucracies are sensitive to individuals and truly exemplify a government constituted to be "of, by, and for the people," the conversation might get interesting. An exchange of insults and accusations is NEVER interesting. Instead, it's merely childish -- and extremely tiresome.
If you mind your etiquette,
You're apt to want the things you get.
Be of good cheer
Throughout the new year.
It provides good protection
From sad misdirection.
More about that heated bus stop in Arlington, Virginia:
ReplyDeleteThe backlash from the Walter Reed stop has prompted the county to put its plans to build 23 more stops like it at more than $900,000 each on hold.
Pizza from a printer tastes like cardboard. Heh.
ReplyDeleteThis is interesting. I imagine the toner cartridges for pizza printers are quite expensive.
DeleteIf these people are our friends and neighbors, then we need to drop over for some ass kicking. If they are our relatives, then we have to stop diddling inside the gene pool.
ReplyDeleteApologists like Ema are enablers.
ReplyDeleteIt is a simple fact of human nature: People are not as careful with other people's money as they are with their own, which is the principle reason government must be confined to it's strict constitutionally enumerated powers.
The progressive state has become so overweening it denies us the pleasure of wasting our own money, demanding instead we turn it over to them so they can flush it down the toilet.
Ema: Were I not still on a Christmas high, I would wish for you that you reap the rotten fruit of the bumbling state you so stupidly cheer on.
Tell me though, how do we get the attention of bureaucrats who don’t really care what we taxpayers think?
ReplyDeleteYou get their attention by not feeding the beast. The monkey needs to be starved and there are a multitude of ways to do this.
Looks like a regular ol' outhouse to me! Couldn't possibly cost $100,000! Who got the rake off?
ReplyDelete"Heritage Foundation’s top ten outrageous government waste includes:
ReplyDeleteAn outhouse in Alaska, $98,670.00"
So, now we know where Enema lives; a Section 8 outhouse in Alaska! I heard that the basement is being sublet to Liberalmann.
Hey, who cares? The federal government can NEVER run out of money; they'll simply print more. Just ask any Leftist; ask LiberalMann or Ema.
ReplyDeleteEVERYthing is affordable, which is why NOT spending cash for ANYthing is UNacceptable.
BZ
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ReplyDeleteSuch pessimism, petty jealousy, and hatred being exhibited by so many of the _other_ writers on this blog. You seem to be collecting a following of petty losers, malcontents, haters, and traitors to USA. Life in USA is not as bad as so many here wish it were.
You might want to appeal to a better group of true, honest patriots.
Ema Nymton
~@:o?
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Ema, I'm sorry, but you write as if you were in grade school. And a poor public school at that. I suspect you aren't more than in your 20s. And I'll put my public service up to yours any time, any where, for any length. Name it.
DeleteBZ
http://www.bloviatingzeppelin.net/
Ms. Nymton,
DeleteWhile I disagree strongly with your generally pro-interventionist, anti-independence point of view most of the time, I am ashamed of the way so many choose to address you. It's not only childish, it's degrading, and does much to destroy "our" credibility.
That rudely derisive comments about Conservatives, evangelical Christians, and Libertarians abound at places like TheDailyKos, BuzzFlash, The HuffingtonPost, Progressive Eruptions, and the New York Times, albeit more subtly in the last case, does not give any of "us," who purport to be decent, well-informed and credible any excuse to behave every bit as badly toward you.
If we, as a society, cannot relearn the art of behaving like considerate, civilized adults, and treat each other with respect instead of insults worthy only of adolescent boy-chatter in a Junior High School locker room, we won't be able to have a society at ALL much longer.
Please accept my personal apologies. I don't support your point of view, but I respect you as an individual and fellow citizen all the same.
Judging from her profile picture, Ema is a gray-haired senior citizen. Also "Ema Nymton" spelled backwards is "not my name."
DeleteEnema,
ReplyDeleteI agree with your 6:46 AM EST comment; at least as it appears on my screen!
The Alaskan toilet is being installed on a popular trail.
ReplyDeleteMy issue here would be why Alaska doesn't use some of its oil money if this is a state park.
Actually building the toilet seems non controversial.
Good point about spending STATE funds for a STATE facility that neither serves nor affects any OTHER part of the country. But why a facility of this sort should cost so MUCH is an important consideration. Those who subscribe to the notion that the Federal Government has no need to reign in costs, because they have an unlimited supply of (FIAT) money make an excellent point.
DeleteHow much longer could our National Engine, as it were, be expected to ride on "FUMES?" At the rate we are going it will soon be required to continue on liberal doses of THIN AIR.
Heated bus stop?
ReplyDeleteWish they'd put one up for the 106 at Wellington. Guaranteed to boost ridership.
I agree that heated bus stops are appealing -- especially in areas where sub-zero temperatures may occur with fair frequency -- HOWEVER, why they should cost nearly a MILLION DOLLARS EACH is incomprehensible, and seems frankly preposterous.
DeletePizza from a printer, $124,996.00 (another NASA project)
ReplyDelete----
I don't see any reason to object to 3D printer research.
I don't either, as ling as it is subsidized by PRIVATE funds.
DeleteUnless I am sadly mistaken, Newton, Shakespeare, Blake, Wordsworth, Dickinson, Leuwenhoek, Semmelweiss, Joseph P. Lister, Eli Whitney, Robert Fulton, Charles Dickens, Bessemer, Mushett, Marconi, Benjamin Bannekars, the Wright Brothers, Thomas Edison, Alexander Fleming, Jonas Salk, that unpleasant-looking fellow who founded Apple who just died of cancer, Bill Gates, et al. did not not achieve what they did because of government funding.
It seems Civilization did better when extraordinary individuals with passion, vivid imaginations, insatiable curiosity, thirst for knowledge and that special gift we call Vision or Insight pursued their course in life simply because they WANTED to.
And yes I am fully aware of the Patronage System powerful forces like the Church, the Medici, European and British Kings and aristocracy used to foster achievement in ways that pleased themselves. So what?
I completely agree with Ducky. I think all federal employees should be issued Porsches, and all state employees issued Cadillac CTS’. It may not be sound spending, but you can’t put a price tag on employee morale.
ReplyDeleteOutstanding non sequitur, Sam.
ReplyDeleteKeep on thinking.
I knew you had a sense of humor tucked away somewhere.
DeleteAt least you spelled non sequitur correctly, even if you didn't spell DIANNE Feinstein's first name properly at WH. Here's your Get Out of Jail card. Now go, and sin no more.
DeleteThis government is full of vampires.
ReplyDeleteThe Heritage Foundation, now that's a credible source! Lol!
ReplyDeleteI enjoy Ema's boilerplate. She's likely a paid progressive troll.
ReplyDeleteI think it more likely Ms Nymton is a doughty older lady who was probably brought up to worship Eleanor Roosevelt and the New Deal.
DeleteI, personally, was raised to regard as the biggest WRONG TURN this nation has ever taken.
"As the twig is bent, so grows the tree." ;-)
I think she's about 80 and never has been married, and needs to be stroked, and poked badly
DeleteShe used to comment regularly at my blog, and I can attest to her comments being boiler plate. I suspect she copies and pastes them from some leftwing "talking points" site and imagines them to be utterly devastating to conservative viewpoints.
DeleteYes Stogie, Ema. does get around the blogosphere.
DeleteI do believe you called it right FreeThinke. Ema was no doubt groomed and trained by New Dealers.
"The Alaskan toilet is being installed on a popular trail."
ReplyDeleteGood, now you will be able to meet your friends, Enema and Liberalmann on the "popular trail". Perhaps they will let you choose which hole. Now watch it, don't forget Liberalmann lives down there!
Christmas Day at the Libtard household
ReplyDeleteJohn and Julie Libtard and their two children Allan and Michelle all gather in the living room around the tree to pass out presents.
John tells Michelle that she gets to open the first present. As she rips the wrapping off the package she squeals with delight. Oh daddy she says just what I wanted, birth control pills for the whole year, how did you know? Dad says, we'll your mom clued me in but I got them all for free at the clinic, it was just too good a deal to pass up.
Next dad tells Allan, you're next sport. Allan tries to look unfazed but his shaking gives him away. When he gets done peeling back the paper he lets out a cheer. Dad he says this is better than my wildest dreams, 99 months of unemployment, but I have only had my job for one month. Don't worry son, that company was just taking advantage of you, now you are set til you are twenty five and can stay in the cellar and blog and drink hot chocolate til your hearts content. Thanks dad says Allan.
Next Julie is presented her present. Coyly and slowly she removes the paper. Her jaw drops as she stares lovingly at her husband. There is a god she exhales. Well honey, says john, it pays to know a good lawyer. But how were you able to get me full disability and five years back pay she sighs? Hey, replies john, as soon as I found out that working for a conservative made you eligible for disability I called the counseled and as they say , the rest is history. I love you so much says Julie.
Finally it is dad's turn to open his gift. The rest of the family gathers round close knowing what's coming. Dad is almost brought to tears as he hugs everyone. I never thought this would come so quick and now I am enrolled in obamacare on a full subsidy. Now I can go back to signing up voters and and telling people we will out them if they don't vote Dem. Besides I can pIck up extra cash from the unions for doing their picketing for them. Life is so good.
Dad asks everyone is this the best Christmas ever and in unison everyone says absolutely. They all prepare to go to grandmas and papas knowing exactly what they want to tell the rest of their family around the dinner table.
Ema, kiss my White Ass
ReplyDelete.
Delete"... kiss my ..."
Propositioning for on-line sex is just about the level one expects from losers, malcontents, haters, and traitors to USA, who seem to infest certain web-site/blogs. Have you thought of joining Robert Sinclair, Mustang, Marine4Ever, or BZ at http://www.bloviatingzeppelin.net/?
Ema Nymton
~@:o?
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Ema thinks anyone who opposes socialism, Obama, the destruction of our economy and our liberties is a "traitor." From my point of view, those on the other side are the traitors.
DeleteOnce again, kiss my white Ass.
ReplyDeleteas long as we pay for their jets and vacays!!!
ReplyDeleteThere is no accountability in Washington. Punishing wrong-doers only happens when their misdeeds are aired to the public and it's never really punishment. They are simply shuffled to another department or position or quietly retired with a fat compensation package. As a whole, federal bureaucrats and elected officials do not think of the money they are spending as belonging to the American people. And unfortunately, they are delusional about believing that it is an endless flow or they wouldn't waste it on ridiculous expenditures. But it will only cease when our lenders cut us off and we have an economic collapse.
ReplyDelete