Inmates running the asylum

I dread reading the news, dread hearing newscasts on the radio. I've given up on television.

And I dread the return of Congress from its two-week "Easter vacation" -- did you ever get two weeks off for Easter? I never have -- and gets on with "the people's business."

Which "people" are they taking care of business for? Not my people. Not your people.

Unless, that is you are a coporate executive about to retire with a $400 million retirement package. Or unless you are someone who entered the country illegally or have a business that can funnel more money into your own pockets if you reduce the wages you pay to near-starvation levels.

Think of this: Ordinary, law-abiding Americans, the ones who have a legal right to be here, work hard to make a life for themselves in their own country, and who are dying for that country in a war half a world away, are not being protected by their own government. The government whose members enjoy a priveleged lifestyle at their expense.

The people in Washington, D.C. are not Americans.

The president, for example, like too many misguided presidents before him, has been seduced by the notion that he is the most powerful individual on the planet, able to impose his will and spread the largesse his government takes from its own citizens all over the world.

Congress? Bought and paid for by those with the most money to spread around, and stupefied by the vision of millions of new voters who, when allowed to turn their illegal status into citizenship, will be eager to vote for those who shoved ordinary working Americans out of the way for them.

The Department of State? Also stupefied, living in a dream world where "even-handed diplomacy" and "negotiations" can solve anything. They see their job as a kind of worldwide board game in which all players follow the rules. Reality would suggest that no one beyond our borders plays by their rules, but the experiences of endless decades dealing with despots and tin-pot dictators have taught them nothing.

So here's what's happening today:

Americans will die in Iraq;

Americans will lose their jobs, or see their wages reduced because cheaper labor is available elsewhere;

Americans will not be able to attend college, because the fees are too high, while illegals get preferential tuition rates;

Americans will forego medical care because they can't afford it, while illegals clog the emergency rooms;

Iran will continue on its nuclear course, while we "discuss" the problem;

The headman of China -- which was "Red China" when I was young, but a great "friend" and "ally" now -- will be warmly received in Seattle, because companies there see a chance to make more money, but will give no concessions regarding China's slave-labor working conditions, rampant piracy of Western goods covered by patents and currency manipulation while in D.C.;

Several thousand new illegals will pour across our undefended borders.

Who among these do you think Congress and the president will fawn over and promise the most aid to?

The answer to that question is the reason why I dread hearing the news.