And still more from the scraps of paper I find in my pockets:
• Every American recently learned that 1.3 billion — that’s BILLION with a capitol “B” — in taxpayer dollars is spent annually to buy our friendship with Egypt. Given that so many countries do not vote with us in the United Nations, where can we find how much is being spent on other countries? What countries, how much and why?
• Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said that the current terrorism threat is the highest it has been since the World Trade Center attacks on 9-11 almost 10 years ago. Appearing before the House Homeland Security Committee she stated, “The terrorist threat facing our country has evolved significantly.”
This comes from the woman who not very long ago refused to acknowledge the existence of terrorism. She referred to violent fanatical situations as “man-made disasters.” Her current statement included the words terror, terrorist and terrorism a total of 62 times. So it seems our Homeland Security Secretary is finally convinced that we have a few problems.
• The latest cable news ratings are in and once again shows on FOX took numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. Before the Super Bowl we heard President Obama say that he does watch and has respect for the Fox News Channel. We have yet to hear from President Carter, who still claims that Fox purposely distorts the news. But Gentleman Jim has never cited one example. Will somebody please give President Peanut a pound of nails to keep his hands busy and his mouth shut.
• According to the story in the Washington Post, the Huffington Post website, which receives 20 million visitors a month, was sold to AOL for $315 million. That makes me wonder what the Drudge Report — which gets 800 million visitors a month — is worth.
• In order to reduce the three-and-a-half billion — that’s BILLION with a capitol “B” — dollar deficit in the state of Wisconsin, the state legislature is aiming to pass a bill prohibiting the costly collective bargaining with state employees. At this very moment, states like New Jersey and Florida, also in the same situation, are watching the results very carefully. State workers and their families call this “union-busting” but the general population calls it “a good start.” What do YOU think?
• Uncle Sam is in the hole for trillions of dollars. The debates right now are over billions of dollars in budget cuts.
I’m not sure how many of us really understand those numbers with a lot of zeros, so let me break it down for you. There are one-million millions in a trillion. There are one-thousand billions in a trillion. So let me put it this way: if my household budget was $20,000 in debt and I cut my spending by a measly 20 bucks, it would be the same as my government cutting a mere billion — that’s BILLION with a “B” — dollars out of a trillion dollars expense.
My president talks about using a scalpel to reduce the budget. I am StanGershbein@Bellsouth.net telling him to get a chainsaw.
