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Friday, June 26, 2009

The most rediculous thing I’ve seen lately:

Today, folks, your Congress – yes…the United States House of Representatives – paused to mourn Michael Jackson.

Led by the illustrious Mr. Jesse Jackson, they took a moment of silence to mourn a man with a huge heart…

AHEM!

So…I might go so far to say he had a huge heart…although I’m not particularly qualified to say. I’ll say he was a stellar talent, a colossal tragedy, a complete eccentric, and fascinating like a car wreck.

I had the Thriller album and loved his videos. We still play ABC and other Jackson Five stuff for our son. He LOVES it. I was a child of the 80’s…I remember all about Mega-Pop-Star Michael Jackson. I had the jacket, people.

BUT AHEM!!!! CONGRESS PAUSING FOR HIM!?!?!?!?!??


MJ was not a political figure – not any more than any other musician. He held no office, did no official duty for the US government, and, in point of fact, had a highly tarnished reputation for his alleged crimes, not to mention being $500 million dollars in debt.

Why was there a pause for him on Capitol Hill?

Do you have any idea how much our congress costs us in tax dollars if and when they actually WORK!?!?!?

So…based on one of the longest recent sessions of Congress I can find on record, lets say that Congress works approximately 151 days out of the year. Just so you know, I’m being generous with that assumption. Most of these people work as little as 103 “days” a year…meaning that they were in session on a particular calendar day.

Of course “in session” might mean as little as 20 minutes. NICE work day if you can get it.

Would you not LOVE a job where you could show up 151 days MAX out of around 237 business days? And then only work 20 minutes on some of those days?

Wait till you see how much these people MAKE a year for showing such stellar attendance.

Ready for the money part?

According to the 2009 salary figures I found, the Speaker of the House makes $223,500 for his “year” of “work.”

The Majority and Minority Party Leaders make $193,400 each.

The rank and file makes $174,000.

The House currently has a fixed membership of 435 members.

So…that means for the 2009 Congressional year, the American taxpayers paid $75,778,300 for their House Representatives.

That is Seventy Five Million, Seven Hundred Seventy Eight Thousand, Three Hundred Dollars.

That works out to $501,843 per day IF the House works 151 days.

And $735,711 per day if they are working around that 103 day-mark.

If we assume a FULL work day of 8 hours (yea RIGHT), there are 480 minutes in that day.

That means the moment of silence probably cost between $1000 and $1500…and that is only IF they only used 1 minute of an 8 hour day.

If they were in session for one of their “marathon” 20 minute sessions, then it cost between $25,000 and $36,700 to mourn the King of Pop.

Maybe its my practical side coming through, but if I’m paying you to do a job (and let there be no mistake I AM paying these people to do a job…and so are you if you pay taxes!), you should spend your work time working and your personal time paying homage to pop stars.

Lord knows, we didn’t stop here at my job to have a moment of silence for MJ. We had too much work to do trying to keep our head above water in a down economy.

And being GRATEFUL that we are among the present fortunate to HAVE jobs.

Because we would get FIRED if we only showed up 151 days of the year and then only worked 20 minutes while we were there.

Do you consider these things when you vote for your congressional leaders?

Do you realize how much you pay these people?

Do you even know who it is you are paying and how often they show up? Have you checked?

Sometimes I’m such a stinker…

PS…all you 80’s babies…isn’t it SAD?!?!?!? MJ? Ed McMahan? Farrah??? Are we getting to that place where we will watch all our childhood familiarities die? Sigh…

Peace, ya’ll!

2 comments:

Gina said...

I agree, Felicia! And dare I point out...he was a child molester. Hello??? Talented? Of course but geez. Yes, it is weird. Farrah too and I just found out about Ed.
Anywhat...your blog is looking really great. Miss you. : )
Love, Gina

**** April **** said...

OH... MUH... GOSH! I swear the whole lot of 'em just need to go away!