Missing my former political life?

Every time I start to miss my days working in politics, I read something like this and thank the good Lord above for my current job and life.

Some of my favorites from Heritage's 50 Examples of Government Waste:

The federal government made at least $72 billion in improper payments in 2008

Government auditors spent the past five years examining all federal programs and found that 22 percent of them--costing taxpayers a total of $123 billion annually--fail to show any positive impact on the populations they serve

Washington will spend $2.6 million training Chinese prostitutes to drink more responsibly on the job

A GAO audit classified nearly half of all purchases on government credit cards as improper, fraudulent, or embezzled. Examples of taxpayer-funded purchases include gambling, mortgage payments, liquor, lingerie, iPods, Xboxes, jewelry, Internet dating services, and Hawaiian vacations. In one extraordinary example, the Postal Service spent$13,500 on one dinner at a Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, including "over 200 appetizers and over $3,000 of alcohol, including more than 40 bottles of wine costing more than $50 each and brand-name liquor such as Courvoisier, Belvedere and Johnny Walker Gold." The 81 guests consumed an average of $167 worth of food and drink apiece

Federal investigators have launched more than 20 criminal fraud investigations related to the TARP financial bailout

The Federal Communications Commission spent $350,000 to sponsor NASCAR driver David Gilliland

Auditors discovered that 900,000 of the 2.5 million recipients of emergency Katrina assistance provided false names, addresses, or Social Security numbers or submitted multiple applications

The state of Washington sent $1 food stamp checks to 250,000 households in order to raise state caseload figures and trigger $43 million in additional federal funds

Congress recently spent $2.4 billion on 10 new jets that the Pentagon insists it does not need and will not use

Congressional investigators were able to receive $55,000 in federal student loan funding for a fictional college they created to test the Department of Education

Sometimes, I am thankful the American people aren't paying attention, because if they were, we would probably be another revolution on our hands.