Every day I find myself more of a cynic about the politicians in this country. I’m sure it’s always been bad, but today it seems we are hitting all-time lows.
First, in Arizona, the Arizona Republic has been running articles daily for three weeks about the Fiesta Bowl scandal. The heads of the Fiesta Bowl have been handing out perks to local politicians for years. Millions of dollars were syphoned off to entertain these sleazeballs. Now, all are trying to pay the money back. Nice.
The Associated Press did an investigation into how the BP money is being spent in the Gulf. Again, millions were used by local politicians for laptops, vehicles, equipment, and other items that were never used for any clean up purpose.
President Obama almost let the government shut down to keep tax dollars flowing to Planned Parenthood, and organization that finances an abortion every 90 seconds in the US. Now, there’s a principle to hold the line on vs. keeping the government running.
Then, to public unions. The Wisconsin battle over collective bargaining for public unions drew protests from all over the country. The theme was the injustice to pubic union employees. Want an injustice? The Arizona Republic did an investigation showing there was $7 million in wages paid to public employees who were on leave due to misconduct issues. These misconducts ranged from sexual misconduct, sale of stolen vehicles, insubordination, lying and sleeping on the job. Some took over three years to resolve with the employee on the payroll the entire time.
Here’s the example I love. A female deputy was found to be sleeping while she was supposed to be supervising a chain gang of inmates. A citizen called it in. A sergeant drove by the site and found her sleeping. She racked up about 2,977 hours while on leave and collected $50,196 in pay. She was dismissed, but appealed. She won the appeal because the sergeant was in plain clothes and not in an official car when he found her sleeping. She continues to work as a detention officer, making more than $40,000 a year.
So, an employee who was sleeping and could have put a weapon in the hands of any number of convicted criminals, a weapon that could have resulted in her death, another detention officer’s death, or a violent crime involving a private citizen, is found to be innocent. Despite being observed by a citizen and a sergeant.
And, you wonder why we are all becoming cynical?
