Knowledge Without Integrity is Dangerous and Dreadful

One only has to take a look at today’s papers to see why the country is experiencing a “Crisis of Confidence”



In NY while we fall further and further into debt the MTA which has more sets of books then the Public Library is threatening massive toll increases unless they get a bailout.



God forbid they should look at cutting the fat in their executive offices to get back into the black.



This is the same Authority that broke the law by striking during holiday season a few years ago.



The same Authority that miraculously found millions of dollars that they said they didn’t have before the last set of toll hikes.



And who are they going to get this bailout from?



Well that would be the NY State Government, a group that would make Boss Tweed look like a girl scout.



An article in today’s Daily News listed at least 20 members of state government that have at least one of their former aides working for lobbyists.



We have our Governor giving secret raises to his staff and secretly hiring back disgraced former staff members.



We have a former Congressman who gave his staff 80% to 125% raises prior to leaving office.



We have our School Chancellor given permission to raise $1.5 million for his pet not for profit on city time.



And back at Ground Zero we have the 9/11 Memorial Foundation paying lobbyists like Al D’Amato hundreds of thousands a year and continuing to pay Christine LaSala $235,000 a year to deny 9/11 medical claims. This after she approved nearly $200 million in lawyers fees while only approving awards of $320,000 to five 9/11 victims while making well over a million in salary over the past 3 years.



All of this and you don’t even have to get past page five.



And this is just the stuff that we know about.



And the sad part about it is that it is allowed to happen.



Cabinet members don’t have to pay their taxes, Congressmen can own rent controlled apartments while making millions, and elected officials can just change laws to suit themselves without any input from registered voters.



Samuel Johnson once said “Knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful”



Well it is apparent that integrity does not appear often enough in today’s political landscape as many of our elected officials and power brokers have perfected the art of deception.



And you wonder why there is a “Crisis of Confidence” in America.