Year 2, Day 177 (One Week And Counting)

John and I left out of the North Little Rock terminal at about 2215 yesterday, having had the problems with my truck taken care of. While we were at the terminal, we took care of a few things, then waited around for one of the company vehicles to become available. While waiting, we engaged in conversation with a couple other drivers, both of whom were also waiting for a vehicle. The 4 of us ended up going together to Whole Hog Cafe to get some barbecue (of course, I had the beef brisket). When we left the terminal, I did some driving, since John - being "fat & happy" after dinner - felt a bit of drowsiness setting in. I didn't go too far, only making it to Bald Knob, AR, about 60 miles away. I only went there because I knew there would be some parking spots available. As of this writing, we are about 4 hours from the customer in Rochelle, IL. From there we will head to Milwaukee, WI to get a load going to Petoskey, MI (wherever that is).

By now, you may have heard about the bankruptcy filing of the city of Stockton, CA. This is truly sad news, mainly because of the people that will be affected, though the politicians I don't really have any remorse for. The reason I say that, you may be able to extract from the articles... I am linking two: one from the Los Angeles Times, and one (which is more of a blog post, but credits Reuters as the source) from the American Thinker. I chose two different sources due to the fact that they may each get the main body of the article from the same news service (Reuters), but they may spin it differently, depending on their own bias. Feel free to peruse the internet for other stories to compare with, but I just chose these two as an example.

I blame a lot of the city's leaders for this due to the fact that they squandered taxpayer money on many "projects" that were no doubt frivolous. I also blame state leaders because they set the example of such irresponsible practices. Most of which, these "projects" were put into motion in order to bolster their own image, with the image of the city and/or state and the welfare of the taxpayer coming in as a distant afterthought. We can see here that all politicians do NOT get behind a project proposal because it benefits the taxpayer, nor America, but because it benefits their political agendas. There are a few politicians that truly do look out for the American people, but they are either quickly swept away by the tides of greed and corruption, or they don't enjoy a fruitful career in politics for very long because they actually have scruples. The point being, we need to stand up and end the greed & corruption where it lies - in government! It's time we clean house and start from scratch!