Waste 101: American politics.

One thing the Guitarman has learned on his little adventure through the wonderful world of pseudo-journalism, is that you don't over-burden your reader(s) with inane ramblings every day and a half. Oh I can inanely ramble with the best of them, like the left turn on arrow only intersections. Don't get me started. Illinois politics? You can't shut me up. And since I spend the better part of my Saturday mornings doing my best to conjure up some brilliant, thought-provoking discussion, the last thing I want to do is post a new blog that is before it's time. But I can't. One word has got me going now: waste.

I don't waste anything. I recycle everything in my house. I don't throw leftovers in the garbage. (I think I still have some turkey leftover from Thanksgiving. I use the "starving kids in Africa" line so often that my brooding young teens now use it on each other.) I scold the wife if she leaves the water running in the sink for more than 5 seconds. I have cans full of nails and screws and little bits of hardware in my garage that might have some future use. I am not a hoarder, but am studying to be one.

So when I heard that President Obama was swooping in to his old stomping grounds to raise a little cash for his re-election, it was expected that a large pile of cash was going back with him. But the numbers staggered me for a moment. $2,000,000 in six hours. He was here for six measly hours, less than a working day for most of us. And he raised $2,000,000. And of course, I thought, what a fucking waste of money.

Our schools are broke, because our state is broke, and in turn we are all broke. Except for the lucky few who consider $38,500 a decent price to pay for a meal with Obama. And where does that money go? Into slick ad campaigns designed to fool us into believing the election year rhetoric that gets shoved down our throats. Into attack ads on the opposition that attempt to scare us into voting one way or the other. To date, instead of running the country, he has been stumping and thumping his way to $220,000,000. One more zero and he is in the billions. That is absolutely obscene, that wealthy donors across the country see fit to throw their money in garbage like that. I could make endless lists on how that money could be better spent, but the list would never end. It is a complete waste of money.

I know I am not alone in my sentiment, but just what is it exactly that we can do about it? A mere 10 years ago during the election for Prime Minister in England, the combined total of all the candidates was in the 10's of millions. Here we have one man that will possibly hit the billion mark. Waste. It's all around us. But when the leader of our great nation is the waster-in-chief, the rest of us will blindly follow.