Welcome to The Rambling Fool. My hope is that I provide topics of discussion that make us think, laugh and ask the questions Why. In some cases you will agree with my rants, other times I am sure you will thoroughly disagree, in either case I hope that you find my thoughts interesting and provoking.
Just some quick little anecdotes to start off your day:
The cumulative funds raised by candidates for the office of President of the United States after only three months of campaigning, is almost $154 Million.
- Never in the history of the presidential electoral process has the money raising happened so rapidly.
- It is believed by some experts that the eventual nominees will need to raise $500 Million apiece.
- Is this number insane or what? So effectively this means that the overall candidate mix will need to raise somewhere over $1.1 Billion to elect the next President of the United States.
- If we took only half of these funds and allocated the money we could feed and cloth the children of most of the poorest African and South American countries for the next 5 years.
- We could retrain every able bodied adult within these countries to support and feed their families.
Are you aware that the United States has already spent more than $500 Billion to fight the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and some estimates put the ultimate financial cost at more than $1 Trillion.
- Now I support our troops 1000% however, it seems like there is some form of mismanagement happening here.
- If we had simply focused our troops on pure anti-terrorism tactics and not the occupation and rebuild of an entire country, where would we be today? I would bet, that we would have a better handle on managing global terrorism and have a more stable Middle East.
Did you know that the US is in proccess of building 104 acre, 21 building, $1 Billion emabssy complex in the heart of Baghdad, designed to house 5,500 employees?
- First, the US Congress has only authorized appropriation for $592 Million. The construction was begun in mid-2005, so where is the other $408 Million coming from?
- Do we really need an embassy, a monolith to the power of the US, that is 10 times larger than any current embassy, and that will cost 10 times a much to protect and run per year?
- The fortress like facility will have 100% independence from the city of Baghdad utilities, with its own water supply, electrical plant and wastewater treatment plant. Shouldn't the US be spending a significant portion of these funds to addrees the infrastructure demands for the citizens of Baghdad, such as providing them consistent daily water and electricity, before we spend this money to build another symbol to the US presence in Iraq?
Please understand I do and always will support our troops whether in the states, at war or just abroad protecting US interest. Let's face it without these spectacular people on the frontline fighting for us and protecting our right to freedom we would not have the wonderful life we have here in the United States and in many other countries. My goal is to get everyone out there thinking and acting in a way that will force our government and organizations to begin to manage the war , our economy and the overall political process more effectively.
Thank you for taking the time to read through my little diatribe, and I hope that I can continue to provide you food for thought and a little chuckle to brighten your day. My hope with this lovely little blog is to provide some grounded insight into what is happening in our world today and hopefully add something that will make you think, laugh and challenge the world as you know it today.
The Rambling Fool
