More Washington "Scandals" Please

     America in some senses is finally demonstrating that maybe, just maybe, it's capable of leading again. In ways that are significant, meaningful and lead to a better future for humanity than the global financial crisis and "our way or the highway" that has caused financial, physical and psychological damage to billions of global citizens.

    Given the "scandals" in the news coming out of Washington currently and the root cause (too many folks don't like a Black and Democratic President who is really a Muslim, Socialist, Communist who wasn't even born in the United States; wants to seize all guns, give hand outs so people never have to work, and who's economic policies more closer reflect the first 200 years of the country that made us a global leader . . .).  Surely you can add to that just by paying attention to whatever media you prefer.

    What makes me proud is that maybe something actually gets done to solve the problems that exist within the United States government without the double dip recession, riots and violence that have occurred in other parts of the world. Let's break them down.

• Benghazi:  The only reason anyone's still talking about this is because maybe they can splash mud in a way that helps hurt a Democratic presidential candidate (any) in 2016.  It's a tragedy.  Those who died didn't need to, but knew what they were doing and believed in it.  Nobody spent any time holding hearings for those who lost their lives similarly in the previous four Presidential administrations though, and most of Congress was in office then too.  But that was before corporations where people and could buy whatever laws they wanted.
• Justice Department AP Phone Records:  Oh, we'll waste hundreds of hours and hundreds of thousands of dollars investigating this in congress in 10 or 20 committees, but nobody broke the law.  Plus the folks who are protesting this are the same folks who gave them the authority to do that work if it related to terrorism and national security.  So just maybe, they'll decide that while there are bad guys (much less women) in the world, maybe there should be a little more oversight and a little less government intrusion into our lives.
• The IRS Scandal: So let's see.  25% of the over emphasis in auditing, proving you were a nonprofit organization, or determining which of the three types of nonprofits  given the possibilities, were Tea Party organizations.  Hmmm.  Don't see any complaints or screaming about the 75% that weren't Tea Party named.  It's very unfortunate that the Tea Party has been attached to the Republican Party, because the 100+ Tea Party folks I know wouldn't have anything to do with the Republican Party. They want smaller government, less personal regulations, but spend as much time helping society and the poor as they do in Tea Party activities. And I've been a Republican donor and voter my entire adult life.  I have no problem
  
  with the resignation or any further firings which may yet come.  Then again, I've been audited thanks to a screw up by a national unnamed firm and spent three years paying the IRS back.  When I took three 3-ring binders full of every financial statement for the year to the first audit meeting the agent called the entire office over to see.  If  you aren't acting intentionally to commit fraud in some way, you've got nothing to hide.  And  yea, I could have sued the blocks off the national firm or made them pay.  What a waste of energy, time and resources.  I just never used them again.  If you have no knowledge that we have an IRS to make sure that nonprofits really are nonprofits (and they should still pay some level of taxes beyond property but that's a different discussion) and to make sure that folks aren't cheating and hiding funds in the Cayman Islands or somewhere else so they don't have to pay some of the lowest federal taxes in the industrialized world . . . well, you're listening/watching Fox too much or work for the Koch brothers, the scariest human beings on earth who don't live in Syria. Fox News only lies every 30 seconds or so. But one has to be able to read to know that.

     The United States Federal government is bloated, corrupted by wealth, pensions, and plenty of

folks who collect salaries too high for the amount of productivity and outcomes they produce.  Show me a corporation that doesn't have some of the same activities and individuals and I'll probably ask for the proof. There are those who live their lives for self gratification, and those who live their lives according to higher callings.  Everywhere. There are literally hundreds of thousands of government employees who need to collect their pension, retire, or just get downsized so either they can learn how the majority of Americans really have to survive, or quit doing damage to society.  And in corporate America, their replacements (fewer) would of course earn half as much or less.  Talk about deficit reduction.

At this point I can only see about two dozen congress members worth re-electing in 2014.  Unfortunately not that many will come up in the 2014 election. I just wish they'd quit blowing so much smoke that some consultant told them would help keep them in office and actually do what needs to be done in the country, and the planet, for humanity.  The folks who actually can accomplish those goals though are doing so already and would never run for office.  They have too much integrity.