Thought of adding the Fast and Furious debacle to the scandal list for this article, but that topic stands alone for a couple reasons, most of all because it resulted in the tragic murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, a decent American doing his job for an Obama administration that has established it cares more about covering up gross stupidity and incompetence, than his murder, a murder it is responsible for. Guess his murder is just collateral damage for the greater good of keeping a would-be leader for life in the presidency for another illegal term, and another and another and another… And that is a fact.

In addition, the guns put into the hands of Mexican drug gangs by Fast and Furious resulted in an unknown number of murders and wounding of Mexican citizens. Estimates run into hundreds of thousands, we’ll never know, just as we’ll never know how many additional murders of Mexicans and Americans are yet to come. Nevertheless, the coverup by Eric Holder and Barack Obama continues. Of course, they tried their usual surefire finger pointing, blame Fast and Furious on Bush, but even old reliable was too big a stretch, although the LM (left media) did try to come through for their master. But comments about F&F are for another article.

No deaths we know of in the Secret Service and GSA (General Services Administration) scandals. Just a giant stain on the reputation of a previously elite outfit, and the federal government’s real estate agency that is supposed to be making sure We The People’s Money is being used wisely, decides to celebrate by blowing a good hunk of that money on fun and games for themselves.

Over $800,000 for a few days of merrymaking by GSA employees and their families in Las Vegas in 2010. And it was an occasion for awards to be awarded! Good grief. Your stolen tax dollars hard at work. And more taxpayers' money for several fun times in Hawaii and a 17-day vacation birthday trip for an employee and his wife. Plus, there’s much, much more, bribes, kickbacks, missing equipment, fraud, and the list goes on. Stay tuned.

Brian Miller, the GSA Inspector General has recommended criminal charges to the Justice Department. One can only hope these charges will result in convictions, along with several firings. A terrible thing, taking a person’s federal career away from him or her, but using the people’s money like this is no different than stealing.

In both these cases there not only is an occurrence of children at play, but it seems an assumption by the players to have a license to do just that. Why? Certainly there are major differences between the two scandals, but there is that one thing that stands out in both, an assumption to have a permit to disregard even the pretense of standards. Didn’t the GSA merrymakers know there was a chance their gross and unashamed disregard for citizens' money would eventually be exposed?

Of course they understood, but the bottom line is they were sure no one would care. After all, they are part of an administration that has squandered literally billions of dollars of We The People’s Money, commencing as soon as Barack Obama became an illegal, not-natural-born-citizen president. The American citizens' employees at the GSA took their direction from the actions of the president and his administration.

The administration has known about the GSA gross mismanagement of citizens' money for months, and has done absolutely nothing except engage in yet another cover-up. Under pressure from members of Congress, the GSA Chief of Staff finally admitted he had informed a White House attorney about the situation in May 2011. Did she just sit on the information? Yeah – sure she did.

Several years ago, I was lucky enough to spend some time with a Secret Service agent. He was a cousin of one of my best friends. A couple of good guys from way Upstate New York. Most of the folks up in that part of the country are country-wise, know right from wrong, and love America. They’re honest, pay their taxes, and are not draft dodgers. This agent came from that stock.

The Secret Service is an elite group, the best of the best. That’s why the events in Cartagena, Colombia, are startling and disheartening. The fact some elite military personnel were involved, is disheartening  as well. The agents involved were on an important assignment, advance work for a presidential trip to the area for The Summit of the Americas. But these dozen agents, including supervisors, involved themselves in getting drunk, allegedly using cocaine, and hiring prostitutes, some of whom might have been underage. Prostitution is legal in Colombia.

Although some agents bragged to the ladies and others about their assignment, there is no evidence any agent was compromised. But, of course, the potential was there. A young lady, planted as a prostitute by an enemy, could secretly take photos or make videos, blackmail an agent, threaten to expose his activities to his wife and children for example, and thus obtain information about an American president’s future locations and movements. The result could be catastrophic.

Ironically, if a sobered-up Secret Service agent had paid, from his salary which his employers, We The People, pay him, the amount a prostitute said he owed her, there’s every chance the events in Cartagena would never have become known. Instead, this man disputed the charge which led to an argument, police, the U.S. embassy, and so on. I’ll bet the other agents involved really love this guy.

And so, it is obvious these secret service agents will lose their jobs, their careers. Instead of honor for them, there will be a lifetime of shame. And how can those married agents explain to their wives and children about their activities with prostitutes and the fact there is no more job, no more career with an elite and honored group, only disgrace. Of course there can be no explanation, no excuse, no reason, except an explanation of the truth. It’s impossible not to feel terribly sorry for the wives and children.

The Director of the Secret Service, Mark Sullivan, has to step down, for the good of the agency. He’s the man in charge. He has to take responsibility for what transpired in Cartagena. The administration and members of Congress have expressed their confidence in him. That means he’s as good as gone.

President Obama has said he will withhold comment on this incident until the investigation is complete. Huh? Wonder why he didn’t do this in the Trayvon Martin shooting, or for that matter, the Supreme Court’s potential actions regarding Obamacare. Don’t worry, our  Barack is not losing his touch, just no political advantage getting involved in this scandal.

The question is, as the question is with the GSA—why did it happen? In the last couple days former members of the Secret Service have said this sort of thing did not go on when they were agents. Violations of duty were infrequent, in some cases, agents were severely treated for minor incidents, but nothing even close to the magnitude of Colombia ever happened.

Why then? Essentially, the answer is the same as with the GSA scandal. Look to the current leadership, or lack thereof, of the country. There’s no culture of corruption inherent in the Secret Service. Rather, the culture of corruption runs rampant within the illegal Obama administration. And it is for sure, if the administration had the opportunity to cover up this scandal, We The People of America who are paying the bills, would be kept in the dark. The most transparent administration ever, Barack promised us.

Americans want to know, or should want to know—are the above incidents anomalies or are they the tip of the iceberg? Given the amount of lies and illegalities and disregard for The People’s Money by our current administration, I’ll bet on the latter. The real America has gone missing, and the re-election of Barack Obama can only mean she will never, never return to us who remember her, and love her.