The Devlin Deception: Book One of The Devlin Quatrology Read Online Free Page B

will be uncovered and exploited in the next few days.
I have suffered for my entire life from a mild form of Asperger's
Syndrome, which I have worked diligently, but with sometimes limited
success, to overcome. That syndrome has made me much more
comfortable with numbers, systems and macro concepts than with words
and social interactions, but in my new position as owner or whatever
title people wind up giving me, I will work even more diligently to
overcome that difficulty. So I apologize in advance if that syndrome
surfaces as you and I have our conversations over the next several
weeks, months and years, but especially tonight as you all get to
know me a little bit for the first time.
    "Over the next year, I'm going to make our government work
efficiently and productively, something that our Congresses and
Presidents have not been able or willing to do for decades, as most
of you probably know already. They've just been 'kicking the can down
the road,' burying their heads in the sand and outright lying to the
American people."
    Several people at Slinky Joe's murmured, "That's right" and
"F'sure" and "Right on." Joe and Pete, watching
in their cramped office behind the bar, exchanged skeptical looks and
then focused back on the 13-inch black-and-white TV sitting on their
file cabinet. Joe, the more mathematical partner, reached for a
notebook and a pen. "I think we need to take some notes, Pete."
Pete just nodded.
    "In fact," Donne continued, "many of you have realized
that our political system has almost completely hijacked and
corrupted the so-called 'representative democracy' envisioned by our
Founding Fathers, and that both the Democrats AND the Republicans
have put the interests of party ... and the special interests they
serve, and themselves ... above the country as a whole, using all of
our citizens as unwilling ... or sometimes willing ... pawns in their
political power plays. It's like the Democrats and Republicans are
children sitting in a sandbox, throwing sand at each other, but that
sandbox is on the back deck of the Titanic, with no one up in the
wheelhouse steering the ship away from the icebergs that they've all
been warned about.
    "Like many of our citizens, I've become disgusted with the
continuous political posturing and the inability of our politicians
to set aside their constant quest for reelection and come to
agreement on MAJOR issues confronting the United States. Just look
back to how the President and Congress dropped the ball and virtually
ignored the ideas from the Simpson-Bowles commission and the
incongruously named Super Committee, and don't forget the idiot
brinksmanship and mudslinging in the debates about raising the debt
ceiling this past summer; to finally come to an agreement just ONE
DAY before the deadline was not only irresponsible, but should have
been criminal. And don't forget that that debacle triggered a
ratings downgrade of the United States, the first ever in our
history.
    "Of course, any sort of REAL fiscal responsibility would cut off
the taxpayer funding for the trough at which our elected politicians
have been feeding so greedily for decades, lining their own corrupt
pockets and those of their cronies. I swear, every time I watch the
Congress in action, I'm reminded of seagulls squalling and shrieking
around a handful of popcorn tossed on a beach. Or pigeons in Central
Park, for those of you who've never been to a beach. Just take a
moment and picture that.
    "And that popcorn, my fellow taxpayers, is YOUR money. But
Congress and Presidents have thought that it's theirs. Remember
Willie Sutton, the 1920s bank robber who was asked why he robbed
banks; apocryphally, he said 'That's where the money is.' Wherever
there's a big pile of money, there are lots of people trying to
figure out how to get their greedy little paws on it, and when some
of those people have the power to write the laws to make that legal,
watch out.
    "Now, I'm not going to spend a lot of time tonight on