Tanks for Nothing?!

By William L. Garvin
“We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we’ve set.  We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded.”  Barack Obama, July, 2008

When you have to cancel White House tours, will the Easter egg roll be far behind?  What a foolish, foolish display of pettiness and phony politics.  In reality, sequestration has not resulted in planes falling out of the skies or thousands of airline passengers waiting in line for hours and hours to be assaulted by TSA personnel.  The President who incessantly cried fiscal wolf now says there is no imminent fiscal crisis.  Apparently, $16.7 trillion of debt doesn’t really matter!  Unfunded liabilities of trillion after trillion after trillion don’t matter either.  Record income tax revenue isn’t enough to stem another trillion dollar deficit to add to the national debt but still he insists there’s no immediate crisis.  There’s no budget either.

That explains why the Postal Service can spend $2 million on another GSA-styled conference.  That’s why Congress refuses to allow them to NOT deliver mail on Saturday.  What’s a measly $2 billion in savings?  Also, Janet Napolitano could have saved the $50 million she spent on spanking brand new TSA uniforms so she didn’t have to release 2,200 criminal aliens.  Tom Vilsack could have stopped wasting money with his stupid ads teaching college kids how to use a microwave instead of threatening to stop inspecting meat.  He might have also considered his super expensive “awareness program partnership” with Mexico to popularize our food stamps.  Since recipients are approaching fifty MILLION, the world seems to be pretty aware of the benefits.  By the way, Tom, how about cancelling those conferences in California and Oregon which feature “guest chefs” and “exceptional wines” for tastings?  By the way, where did the money come from to give Egypt another $250 million on top of the twenty fighter jets and 200 tanks already squandered?

Speaking of tanks brings us back to Janet Napolitano and her hoarding of ammo and weapons in the Department of Homeland Security.  By most estimates, DHS now has over 1.6 billion bullets.  One analysis concludes that is enough to fight the equivalent of a 24-year Iraq war, given that American troops were firing 5.5 million rounds per month at the war’s height.  Another analysis pointed out that DHS has enough ammo to shoot everyone in the United States, legal or illegal, at least five times!  Various other federal agencies also purchase large quantities of ammunition which liberal fact checkers/apologists invariably rationalize as needed for “target practice” and “training scenarios.”  Largely ignored are the specific requests for “.357 hollow point” bullets which are not used in target practice or training scenarios!  Of course, the 7,000 “personal defense weapons” capable of fully automatic fire and the 30-round magazines are perfectly understandable…aren’t they?

When it takes a thirteen hour filibuster to get the Attorney General to clearly say that an American citizen should not be killed by an American drone without due process, it’s no wonder that conspiracy theories proliferate.  When the use of drones and internet spying proliferates, when the government is not forthcoming, let alone transparent, many people readily believe the internet theory that DHS has purchased “2,700 tanks.”  Ms. Napolitano has an ignorant history of linking military veterans to “terrorist groups or lone wolf extremists capable of carrying out violent attacks.”  Similarly, the Southern Poverty Law Center, the radical left equivalent of the Westboro Baptist Church, defines “rightwing extremist groups as primarily hate-oriented or anti-government” which “may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration."  Of course the SPLC demanded the Justice Department and DHS “crack down on Americans expressing opposition to an increasingly tyrannical federal government.”  Only liberals should have freedom of speech!

The SPLC has now been joined at the hate hip by the Los Angeles Times.  Its editorial opined that “They are white, right-wing Americans, nearly all with an obsessive attachment to guns, who may represent a greater danger to the lives of American civilians than international terrorists.”  This is the prevailing liberal mindset.  This is the liberal culture of deliberate racial divisiveness.  This is the deliberate fanning of the flames of hatred.  The Times editorial queried:  “What can be done to reverse this tide of belligerent ignorance?”  Physician, heal thyself.  Times editors should look in the mirror and try to tell the truth!  Until they do, more and more Americans will “bitterly cling to their guns and religion.”

Stop Your Lying!

 

By William L. Garvin

 

“Vision without action is a daydream; action without vision is a nightmare.”  We are currently seeing the American dream become an American nightmare.

For a prime example, look at our leadership in Washington, D.C.  First of all, they lurch from fiscal crisis to fiscal crisis like an alcoholic on a cheap whiskey bender stumbling from lamppost to lamppost.  Grasping their temporary support, they pause long enough for inebriation to temporarily subside only to lurch forward in their stumble bum gait to the next temporary respite.  When confronted for their irresponsible behavior, they first deny having had more than one drink.  Then they concoct a fantasy that the world faces impending doom without them being allowed to proceed along their sotted way.  Finally, they blame the bartender for having built a bar where they were served alcohol.  Apparently one thing they will never admit is the truth—they are economic drunks about to reach a certain disastrous end.

Naturally, the current discussion about sequestration epitomizes the model for lying.  You see, one side (which includes ABC news) says that there are no actual cuts in sequestration.  In fact, the government will spend more this year than they did last year even AFTER sequestration occurs.  In fact, the government will spend more each and every year than they did the year before until 2020 UNDER sequestration.  All this artificial device does is slow the rate of increase.

Of course the other side says that times will immediately become apocalyptic.  Police, firefighters, and other emergency responders will lose their jobs.  Thousands of teachers will be turned out of the classroom.  Planes won’t be falling from the sky but it will take you hours longer to get on them.  Our military will be decimated and national security will be compromised.  Plagues and locusts are soon to follow!  Naturally, the President blames the Republicans.  However, even Bob Woodward and the New York Times point out that sequestration was a White House proposal (thank you, Jack Lew) and was signed into law by Barack Obama.

So who is the biggest liar?  One thing to immediately note is that the federal government has only a minor role in paying the salaries of teachers, police officers and firefighters.  Those costs are borne by local governments which by law have to balance their budgets.  Many state and local employees have not only foregone pay raises but have also taken pay cuts, much like their private sector counterparts.  Not so the federal government payroll.  Not so the congress or their staffs.  They continue merrily along their tipsy way.  With fiscal Armageddon less than a week away, the President jets off to Florida to play golf and the Congress goes on vacation!  To paraphrase Ricky Ricardo, “D.C., you got some ‘splaining to do!”

Then there’s the whole gun control debate.  When the administration and its media propaganda arm want to terrorize the low information voter, the nom de plume is “military style assault rifles.”  However, when the Department of Homeland Security wishes to purchase 7,000 rifles which use NATO ammunition and are suitable for “personal defense use in close quarters,” the assault rifle magically morphs into “personal defense weapons” or PDW’s.  This newly coined pseudonym also requires thirty-round magazines and is “select fire,” read FULLY AUTOMATIC.   In addition, DHS is also requesting another twenty million “hollow point” bullets to go along with the 1.6 BILLION bullets it has acquired over the last ten months!  Additionally, the President has signed legislation to allow the use of drones in the United States.  Some estimates predict as many as 30,000 drones will be in use domestically in the next ten years.

Ben Franklin once said, “Never trust a government that doesn’t trust its own citizens with guns.”  He probably was part of a conversation with Thomas Jefferson who said, “The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.”  Further founding father wisdom came from George Washington who noted, “A free people ought not only be armed and disciplined, but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government.”

If your home is broken into and you are in danger of being robbed, raped, beaten or murdered, you can follow Joe Biden’s advice and “go out on the balcony” and fire both barrels of your only weapon, a shotgun, into the air.  This is wrong on so many levels.  You could also follow the advice of Washington, Jefferson, and Franklin.  It’s your choice, America…for now.

Our American Monarchy

By William L. Garvin

This isn't about the current resident of the White House who laments that he's only the President of the United States, not the "Emperor of the United States."  It isn't about the supposed Constitutional scholar who boasts "If Congress doesn't act, I will" and threatens that he will write a bill and Congress will have to vote on it.  It isn't about the fact that he unilaterally defines laws as unconstitutional and orders the Department of Justice to refuse to defend them as he did with the Defense of Marriage Act.

This isn't about him promising to "work tirelessly" until every American had a job then dashing off to Florida to play golf with Tiger Woods on a private course closed to even the press.  It isn't about his $1,000 per hour golf lessons while his wife spirits off on another multi-million dollar ski trip in Aspen.  It isn't about the nouveau riche jet setting that exceeds the travel budget of Britain's royal family and would have made the Gatsby's jealous.  After all, four years from now, they will have packed their bags and moved on.  Metaphorically speaking:  "The King is dead; long live the King."

No, this is about the permanent aristocracy, the Congress.  Presidents come and presidents go but "the institution" retains its members as if they had a lifetime employment contract.  Maybe it's because they do.  Despite having only an eighteen percent current approval rating, there is little danger of being fired.  Over the last century, ninety percent of incumbents were reelected.  In 2004, for example, 396 of the 401 House of Representative incumbents running for reelection succeeded.  In the Senate, 25 of the 26 incumbents won their races.  It's probably just coincidental, but that year incumbents in the House outspent their challengers by an average of $700,000.  In the Senate, challengers were down by $4 million dollars in the money ball game.  With the additional advantage of visibility and the subsequent name recognition, along with taxpayer funded staff and organization, the King may be dead but the King's Court is alive.  It doesn't matter if you're a convicted liar, thief, tax cheat, or mentally unstable, you can and probably will be reelected.

With that in mind, the permanent ruling class feels "entitled" to confer special privileges upon itself.  It lavishes health benefits and retirement perks upon itself that the serfs, the peasants, the workers, the taxpaying citizens can never afford.  It profits on insider knowledge which results in the accumulation of wealth that far exceeds the salaries that they earn on the books.  Their cozy relationships with lobbyists often result in sinecures on boards and corporations should they ever be voted out or choose to retire from the government gravy train.  They also exclude themselves from the laws they foist upon the country class, the little people, those they think need Big Government to assist them in every aspect of their daily lives.  In reality, they act in an antithetical manner to the self-anointed noblesse oblige they affect on stage.

Naturally, the aristocracy needs a herald to incessantly proclaim honorable motives to their continual meddling (and their failures!) and to cover up the continuing expansion of their power and their kingdom.  That is the designated role of elite education and elite media.  Move along, nothing to see in "Fast and Furious."  Move along, nothing to see in Benghazi.  Don't worry about the Muslim Brotherhood ruling Egypt or Iran gaining nuclear weapons.  Move along, there will never be a negative impact from "quantitative easing" and the Fed pumping $40 billion each month of freshly printed money into the economy.  Never forget that Fox News, talk radio, the Tea Party and conservative principles are likely to be the ruin of America.  Don't worry about national debt, trillion dollar deficits, unemployment numbers, everything is just peachy keen!   "Don't think twice, it's alright."

The court wouldn't be complete without the jester, aka "the fool."  That is the low information voter who is incapable of separating fact from fiction.  They are the voters who are completely ignorant of government processes, our American history, the rule of law, personal responsibility, limited government and basic economics.  The traditional liberal education in arts, science and the humanities has morphed into an expensive, unemployable, progressive propaganda brainwashing.  Increasingly reliant on government, the low information voters will soon outnumber the voters who work and pay taxes.  The tipping point in America may soon result in a permanent American monarchy.    

The Demise and Death of Respect

By William L. Garvin

Several events have occurred recently to signal that respect is no longer a core cultural value in the United States.  First, the New York school system has decided that it will no longer suspend students for cussing out a teacher.  Then an eighteen-year old reprobate curses at her judge, flips him off and then seems genuinely shocked when he takes offense and gives her even more jail time. 

On a more serious level, convicted double-murderer Nathan Burris mocked his death penalty sentence.  “I cannot or will not express remorse or regret—it’s not gonna happen,” Burris taunted.  “I’m in California, and there ain’t no death penalty in California.  The way I see it, I have good 25-30 years left before anything happens.”  Burris murdered his ex-girlfriend (who had broken up with him) and a man he suspected was now involved with her.  As far as Burris is concerned, he’s got “three hots and a cot” for the rest of his life.

Taking personal vengeance to an even more disgusting level is ex-cop Christopher Dorner.  After being fired from his job, after exhausting all his due process, all his administrative and judicial appeals and still being found guilty, he was unable to get on with his life.  Instead, he swore vengeance not only against the Los Angeles Police Department but also against members of their families.  True to his malevolent threat, he murdered the daughter of the LAPD captain who defended him against the charges resulting in his termination.  Dorner also killed the young woman’s fiancé and later, ambushed and killed a police officer in another city.

Curiously and morbidly, the internet is abuzz with defenders of all three individuals.  Some actually see Dorner’s murderous rampage as some sort of legitimate crusade against oppression.  They view the monomaniacal ramblings he posted on Face book as some sort of “manifesto” of political significance.  None of this bodes well for society.

Maybe it’s because of a degraded culture that has become all too acclimated to lying and law breaking with no substantial consequences.  Presidential prevaricators abound.  President Nixon was not a crook and President Clinton did not have sex with that woman, Miss Lewinsky.  President Obama blamed Benghazi on a non-existent demonstration and video and shoots shotguns “all the time.”  Television edits and alters their videos to totally distort the content in order to further their assumptive biases.  Television pundits went to extreme lengths to tie the Aurora shooter and the Giffords shooter to non-existent conservative sources.  However, they don’t even mention Dorner’s glowing paeans to liberal politicians and progressive commentators and political voices.  Political campaigns saturate the airwaves and mailboxes with deliberate falsehoods and half truths.  They feel free to demonize anyone who gets in their way if it will score a cheap political point.

Maybe it’s because they see bankers earn millions while their clients lose more and nothing happens.  Maybe they see politicians criticize Wall Street on one hand and take their cash with the other.  Maybe they see Al Gore make millions selling his television station to oil money and al Jazeera and the hypocrisy nary makes a ripple.  Maybe they’ve gotten used to millions of law breakers coming across the borders and the government doing nothing about it.

Maybe it’s because they’ve grown up being told how special they are and how they should be extremely proud of whom they are even though they’ve never accomplished anything of any special significance.  Maybe their self-esteem has exploded into such full blown narcissism that they think they are smarter, better, and more deserving than anyone else.  Accordingly, they don’t need the normal restrictions of society, laws, or the legal system or see the laws as pertaining to them.  Maybe they somehow feel that they are entitled to be judge, jury and executioner.  Maybe they think they too should have the president’s drone policy.  

It Does Make a Difference!

By William L. Garvin

So much foolishness and so little time.  After four months of delay, Hillary Clinton finally appeared before congressional committees to testify about the murder of four Americans in Benghazi.  She added absolutely nothing to our understanding of what transpired or why those men died.  She accepted responsibility but not blame; apparently, no one is to blame because no one has been fired.  For some reason, the sycophantic media lauded her “what difference does it make?” Clintonesque screech as some sort of Joan of Arc rallying cry.  The media missed or ignored the point as did the investigating committee.  If you’re going to prevent such a travesty from happening again, the cause makes all the difference in the world in determining an appropriate countermeasure.  Why the administration chose to lie about a video makes a great deal of difference in determining public trust.  Why the consulate security requests were denied or ignored makes a great deal of difference.  What actions were taken and when they were taken makes a great deal of difference.  Of course, the myopic mainstream media seemed much more interested (and showed more diligence!) in make-believe girlfriends, lip synching singers, and doping cyclists than subjects of national importance.

This media foolishness is pathetic.  You would think Newsweek would have learned from their previous debacle showing President Obama with a halo over his head.  Did that influence actor Jamie Foxx to “give thanks to my lord and savior Barack Obama”?  Now Newsweek doubles down on blasphemy by a beatific, new cover picture of the president captioned “The Second Coming.”  Sainthood was stupid but deification is the height of media adulation, cooption and is an insult to Jews, Christians, and thinking people everywhere.

More foolishness surrounded golfer Phil Mickelson saying he might move out of California to a state where he would pay lower taxes.  When Tiger Woods moved to Florida for exactly the same reason, nary a discouraging word was heard.  Now that Tiger has fallen from grace, he might be treated as a pariah in the same way that Mickelson is currently being treated.  Of course, there is scant coverage of Warren Buffett employing an army of attorneys for millions of dollars to avoid paying corporate taxes.  The media hypocrisy was also apparent in their vendetta to lynch Mitt Romney for having a legal, off shore account in the Cayman Islands.  However, when Google shifts $9.8 billion of revenues into a Bermuda shell company thereby avoiding $2 billion in taxes, that’s good business.  Obviously, when you contribute over $800,000 to the Obama campaign, you will buy a lot of media good will.

More liberal foolishness, nee insanity, comes in their maniacal obsession to enact gun control for law abiding citizens.  One of the more humorous arguments relies on the single shot, muzzle loading muskets that were available at the time of the founding fathers.  Apparently, there wouldn’t be a second amendment if the constitutional authors had known that modern weaponry would exist.  That’s akin to saying we wouldn’t need protections for freedom of the press or speech if they would have known about radio, television, cell phones or the internet.  That’s almost as silly as the governor of New York postulating that the freedom to bear arms was designed for deer hunters.  Of course, his haphazard 7-bullet magazine limitation turned most of the peace officers in New York into instantaneous lawbreakers!

Predictably, the National Rifle Association is the liberal whipping boy du jour.  So, was the Newtown shooter an NRA member?  Well…no.  Was the Aurora theater shooter an NRA member?   No.  How about the Virginia Tech shooter?  No.  How about the Gabby Giffords shooter?  Again, no.  The Columbine shooters?  Definitely not.  What about the “Allahu Akbar” shouting, Fort Hood shooting Major Nidal Hassan?  Absolutely not.  Furthermore, not a single one of these homicidal loons was a conservative, Republican, or had any association with George Bush, Dick Cheney, or Sarah Palin.  Those torturous connect-the-dot liberal concoctions have as much substance as Hillary Clinton’s testimony.

Don’t expect any substantive discussion on important issues.  It’s a 140-character twitter world with an attention span of the same length.  Sound bites and pop culture dominate the low information voter universe.  Factual debate and investigative journalism are passé.  The watchdog press has become a simpering puppy propaganda arm for a liberal world view.  It is the only profession protected by the Constitution but it has shamefully denigrated that status.  They have violated their oaths and they passively protect those who violate the Constitution.  What a shameful and dangerous situation. 

That was Then…This is Now

By William L. Garvin

“On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas that for far too long have strangled our politics…and those of us who manage the public’s dollars will be held to account, to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day, because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government.”  President Obama’s FIRST inaugural address, January, 2009.

In his second inaugural address, the President focused on different priorities which are supposedly uppermost in the public’s mind:  gun control, climate change, gay rights, and voter suppression.  Apparently the $16 trillion dollar debt, unemployment still at 7.8% (the same as when he took office), 47 million Americans on food stamps, and the most anemic recovery in history from a recession (which ended in 2009), are no longer matters of presidential concern.  It goes without saying that these new priorities are “all for the children.”

Prominently displayed throughout the day was the irrepressible Senator Chuck Schumer from New York.  He prepped for his prime time appearance by promising on the Sunday talk shows that for the first time in four years, the Senate Democrats would prepare a budget!  What an earth shattering revelation.  “We Democrats have always intended to do a budget this year,” according to Schumer.  Needless to say, nothing was said about the President’s budget proposal being late once again but then the Senate is FOUR YEARS LATE!  Naturally, Schumer’s key and most blustery point was “…it’s going to have revenues in it and our Republican colleagues better get used to that fact.”  The tax train is stopping at a station near you…all aboard!  Maybe that’s why the Democrats booed Congressman Paul Ryan when he came to be seated at the festivities.

But since gun control is the flavor of the day, (now that Benghazi, Fast and Furious, Syria, Mali, the resurgent al-quaeda, the deteriorating Arab Spring and the economy are no longer politically relevant), here are a few facts brilliantly laid out by Mark Alexander  (The Patriot Post (www.patriotpost.us/subscribe/ ) to combat the prevailing emotional pablum being spewed:

“So, why all the political focus on "assault weapons"?
Because these weapons have been used in many murders, and crimes involving them have increased dramatically in the last 20 years, when gun control advocates coined the term "assault weapon," right?
Wrong. According to the FBI's most recent Uniform Crime Report, a summary of all serious crimes committed each year, in 1992 violent crime incidence was 752 per 100,000 people and 9.3 murders per 100,000.
In 2011, the violent crime rate had dropped to 386 per 100,000 and the murder rate to 4.7 per 100,000 -- nearly a 50 percent decline in both. This precipitous drop occurred at a time when the number of firearms increased dramatically -- including the sale of more than six million "assault weapons."
So, why all the political focus on "assault weapons"?
The 2011 FBI data shows that there were 323 murders committed with rifles of any kind. However, guns defined as "assault weapons" by the federal government were used in less than 0.5% (one-half of one percent) of all murders with guns in 2011.
By comparison, 496 murders were committed with hammers and clubs, and 1,694 murders were perpetrated with knives. Notably, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that drunk drivers are responsible for nearly 10,000 deaths each year in the U.S. -- far more than the number of deaths involving guns of any kind in 2011. (Should there be federal background checks every time someone orders a beer or glass of Chardonnay?)
Additionally, according to the demographic and geographic profile of most violent crimes, the vast majority of perpetrators who murder with guns are associated with gangs and/or drug cartels, which thrive on urban welfare plantations.
In fact, there were more than 500 murders in Obama's hometown of Chicago last year -- a city with some of the most restrictive gun laws in the nation. Most of those murders were tied to gangs and drugs.”
In reality, most “assault weapons” are “defense weapons” purchased by law abiding citizens.  For many of them, it actually is all about the children.  For others, it is a well armed militia, which in the language of the times was the general public.  For others, it is a matter of sport, hunting or target shooting.  For others, it is a matter of “choice.”  But liberals only support choice for liberals.

Let the Good Times Roll!

By William L. Garvin

Happy days are here again!  Laissez les bons temps rouler!  All those nasty Bush tax cuts which the Democrats refused to make permanent are now institutionalized as the Obama tax cuts.  There is one difference—now all those nasty rich people who have been robbing orphans and widows are going to be punished.  Their tax rates are going up and new revenue will just come gushing in.  The Obama Economy is in full recovery mode.  Don’t worry; be happy!

Why just look at the job boom in the last month alone.  There were 155,000 new jobs created.  That’s wonderful—all the television stations say so.  Don’t worry that the number is insufficient to keep pace with population growth.  Don’t worry that the unemployment rate rose to 7.8%.  Don’t worry about the number being revised downward next month—it’s a BOOMING recovery.  It’s party time!

Our astute leaders in Washington obviously believe their own press clippings.  Otherwise, they might actually be concerned about the $16.4 trillion (and growing) national debt.  Instead, they are not only refusing to place any significant spending cuts in place, they are already reverting to their pork barreling ways.  Examples highlighted in the San Francisco Chronicle show “fiscal cliff” crony capitalism running rampant.  For instance, “There’s 75,000 happy wind workers today,” an industry representative told them. “They literally have scarcely any orders for next year.” However, Washington’s corporate welfare program will pay wind farms $22 for every megawatt-hour of electricity they generate.  Congress also provides alternative energy producers $1.01 per gallon for cellulosic biofuels.  The Bill extends tax credits for construction of biomass, geothermal, hydropower and other alternative power plants.  Congress insists the extension is a one-year loophole that will “only” cost taxpayers $116 million this year but critics point out that the tax credit itself is good for the next 10 years!   The final cost will be closer $12.2 billion by the time alternative energy corporations are done benefiting.
There’s also $15 million for asparagus farmers and a $4 million tax break for people who buy “2 or 3-wheeled plug-in electric vehicles”.  Puerto Rican and US Virgin Island rum makers will have a majority of their federal taxes refunded.  There’s another item called the “NASCAR Pork Chop” which costs out at around $70 million which dwarfs in comparison to Hollywood’s $430 million late Christmas package.  Estimates of the total pork barrel hover in the $76 billion range.  Let the good times roll!

After Harry Reid called John Boehner a “dictator” (a phrase he never uses when discussing actual dictators!), Chris Christie joined the fray over the Hurricane Sandy Relief Bill.  One hesitates to say he “piled on” for obvious reasons.  Unfortunately, he was way out of line and for a change, Boehner was right.  The Bill was another blatant example of continuing fiscal insanity and another manifestation of Congressional addiction to spending.  Some of the porker additions are as follows: $28 billion for future unspecified "disaster-mitigation" projects; $100 million for the repair of Head Start centers around the country; $8 million to buy cars and equipment for Homeland Security and Justice departments; $150 million for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to dole out to fisheries in Alaska; $2 million for the Smithsonian Institution to repair museum roofs in Washington, D.C.; $207 million for the VA Manhattan Medical Center; $4 million for repairs at Kennedy Space Center in Florida; and $3.3 million for the Plum Island Animal Disease Center of New York.

The bottom line is that most of the bill money would never reach the Jersey shores and the people who actually need help.  After all the hoopla about FEMA doing such a wonderful job, much of the area is still in shambles, uninhabitable and mired in red tape.  Maybe that Obama-Christie hug was “premature congratulation” and less than satisfying to the people they are supposed to represent.  But don’t worry; be happy.  This administration has a wonderful economic plan to spend us into prosperity.  Don’t worry about spending cuts or sequestration.  The President has said the latter won’t happen and he doesn’t seem to care about the former.  It’s a wonderful world; no worries, mate; let the good times roll!