Where is YOUR tax money going?

Jacqueline Trescott of the Washington Post recently reported that Smithsonian Secretary Lawrence Small is paying himself $813,000 per year. The Smithsonian's secretary has virtually no responsibilities, other than deciding what to order for lunch, since the location and use of Smithsonian facilities is determined by Congress. The Smithsonian boss experiences none of the business risk that may justify high pay to public-company CEOs, since the Smithsonian holds a government-granted monopoly and exists on federal subsidies. Here is the Smithsonian's fiscal 2007 budget request to Congress; in it the Smithsonian asks federal taxpayers for $644 million in subsidies, including $537 million for salaries. So federal taxpayers with a median family income of $53,692 are having their pockets picked to give Lawrence Small $813,000 a year, 15 times the median income of the taxpayers. Why isn't this viewed as white-collar crime?


...Weird huh? Give it up for museums!!! Arts management might be good for something, if I can convince congress to pay me a ridiculous amount of money, and manage to steal from every American. (even illegal ones)

On that note, I think illegal immigrants don't have a 'right' to be here, because if they did they wouldn't be illegal. And i mean illegal as in 'the gov't could justly kick them out'. I agree with the idea, and the right to protest, and the need for cheap labor... but a bunch of people who agree that they are illegally living here (do they pay taxes? ...can they?) probably shouldn't try to intimidate politicians.
Besides being a terrible movie (horribly made, written, acted) "A day without a mexican" kind of didn't make sense. There would be some affect on the economy of Some cities and Some trades, but how was America before all of these people crossed over? Illegal immigrants are Now a crucial part of the economy, but there are so many unemployed Legal Americans that i doubt they would be missed for long.
Don't get me wrong, I'm down with 'Brown Power', just trying to think about this in a logical and white way. Which i think i've accomplished.
Later days.
-TTH