Red, White, and Blue in the Face!

Do you think Congress could actually live without their own private jets? Do ya think? It’s apparent to me that in this age of virtually instant communication they don’t seem to be paying attention to what we have to say to them anyway so where are they in such a hurry to get to that they need private jets? They certainly aren’t rushing around to their town hall meetings. Maybe they plan to use these jets as their means of escaping the angry mob that could descend on Washington, D.C. if these clowns can’t get their act together. Don’t forget – it hasn’t even been a year (mid-November, 2008) since they sanctimoniously lambasted bank and auto execs for using private jets to get to D.C. to ask for bailout money.

Evidently the uproar over House of Representatives plans to purchase new jets for Congressional travel has caused them to have second thoughts. Now mind you, if no one had raised a stink about this, the House plans would have carried through and we’d be paying for 8 new private jets. When the Appropriates committee passed the purchase out to the House, no one – NO ONE – objected. In fact it apparently took the House Appropriations Committee only 15 minutes to get this through their grubby little hands. I haven’t been able to pin down the first alarm that came out about this, but it snowballed quickly and now the our Congress is being embarrassed into shelving this massively stupid purchase. What is all this Congressional travel about anyway? Where do they go, what do they do? Apparently August is the peak travel season for our legislators – funny about that. That might be good for a post – where do they go, why do they go there?

So while our Congress is apparently comfortable with their jet-setting style not far away in rural America (that would be anywhere located outside a 100 mile radius of Washington, D.C.) homeless people are living in tent cities. A Wall Street Journal report from Nashville is a real eye-opener

The city and local nonprofits have found permanent housing for about 25 people from the tent city.

Many haven’t been so lucky. David Olson, 47 years old, said last week he and his wife wound up under the Nashville overpass after he lost a job making cement pipes in Iowa four months ago. The couple came to Nashville for a remodeling job that turned out to be a scam. “I’ve got five years’ experience in carpentry and 10 years’ roofing and I can’t find a job,” he said.

Mr. Olson, his arms and shirt caked with dirt, said life is hard in the swampy woods. The couple woke up to mud after a night of rain. His wife said she is frightened by the dogs that roam around the encampment.

As mosquitoes buzzed, they tried to set up camp on higher ground. They struggled to secure a tarpaulin over their tent to keep out the rain. Mr. Olson’s wife, holding onto a pole to prop up the tarp, cried. “I’m not used to living like this.”

Now I don’t know about you, but I’ve lived with the fear in the back of my mind that this very kind of thing could easily happen to my wife and me. That last line above really hits home. I try to poo-pooh the thought but as each day goes by the reality that this is happening to everyday Americans every day in America is really frightening. We may not have Depression style runs on banks but we’re certainly seeing Depression era joblessness and homelessness. By the way — who do you think’s helping these folks out? I’m betting there are no truckloads of relief supplies being sent to them; nor are they getting much in the way of help from the Unions or the banks or the auto executives or the DNC, the RNC etc. The help they are getting is from church groups and charities. Now, I’m betting even more that within those church groups and charities you’re going to find a pretty diverse mix of people – liberal, conservative, independent, etc. etc. – but they all have one thing in common. Faith in God and a willingness to help others.

(H/T: The Lonely Conservative , rightpundit.com , The Wall Street Journal )