These things have appetites.

“Whatever these things are, they sure have one hell of an appetite.”

Yep. That’s the line made so famous by so many bad science fiction movies. But I can’t help but think it may describe our government. After all, our President and his wife are treated to red carpet treatment all over the world, New York “date nights,” and when they finally come home, instead of getting into some kind of a work-mode, they host a 338-person State Dinner.

In the meantime, our Congressman and women, so tired after their lightening-fast vote on the Senate healthcare package, have already jetted to their various high-class homesteads to host their own feasts. And people are losing their jobs everywhere. People are losing their lives, elsewhere.

Thank God India is being touted as a “global leader” since the continued actions of the administration is selling us down the river. Dark waters, leading to a darker destination is the river, which bears us all. We are facing an economic meltdown of China Syndrome proportions.

We’re being sold shadows, and we’re paying with our very futures. And of course, our troops are left another week for that promised Presidential decision to send them the back-up they need. How many will die in that week, whom could have been saved with reinforcements? I look at the photo of President Obama and wife, standing with the Indian Prime Minister and I am struck by the cardboard cut-out smile of our President next to the uncomfortable looks of their guests.

I wonder about that discomfort. I wonder if it is real or imagined on my part – and if real, what might be the cause of it?

Surely the discomfort wouldn’t be due to the massive, glamorous appointments of the dinner which was held in a huge specially constructed tent on the South lawn. This possible discomfort wasn’t reflected in the Prime Minister’s comments, in which he was complimentary of the hospitality and noted that the Obama election last year had been an inspiration to millions of people in India.

Of course, a chef was flown in from New York and tableware was pulled from the Eisenhower, Clinton and Bush collections. Hollywood heavies and reps from CBS, NBC, ABC and CNN were invited. Oprah Winfrey was not. The first lady was decked-out in a gold and silver dress produced by an Indian-born designer.

All this occurred beneath chandeliers and in front of a clear view of the Washington Monument. A symphony Orchestra was on hand to provide some lovely music. No discomfort there.

And definitely, not your everyday dinner at home.

But that’s what you’d expect isn’t it? Amidst the gluttony on Wall Street and the payoffs and bribes in Congress; amidst continued job loss and amidst the well-fed Senators and House members passing legislation geared to steal even more from the regular people; amidst threatened taxes and massive increases in energy bills; amidst the dark cloud of nightmare health care edicts – our leaders enjoy the lives and trappings and treatment of kings and queens.

Quite an appetite these things have.

Honestly, I would feel better with a little interstellar warfare right now. Really, how much easier would greasing some aliens be, than dealing with the grey mists of obscurity in our nation's capitol and abroad, and the feeding frenzies of power and policy and astronomical ransoms they mask?

Sixteen years. Just remember that number. That’s how long we could have funded the war if we had used the stimulus money on our men and women overseas in the bad places, instead. That would have kept our troops in beans and bullets – not exactly posh state dinners, but when you’ve made it through another day, and you’re sitting in some dusty hole on the other side of the world, those field rations aren’t too bad.

They go down pretty well actually. But you do wonder – sometimes too often - when you’ll next have dinner with your family, or if you ever will again.