Faleomavaega on Insane Travel Marathon

Wow. Faleomavaega flew back to Washington from New Zealand (did he wave at American Samoa as he flew by?) last week in just enough time for the new president of the Federated States of Micronesia to pay a courtesy call on him. Sources tell us that he could hardly keep awake during the meeting and was barely able to walk. Moreover, we learned that not long afterwards he was scheduled to travel to Colombia. What is he going to do there? Shake his fist at the tuna factories or head into the jungles to march shoulder to shoulder with rebel groups, as he is wont to do in West Papua? Fortunately, American Samoa and the other territories remained part of the stimulus package, even though it had to move to final passage ast week without his watchful eye. Luckily, the ignorant comments of a Republican Florida congresswoman, who described territorial residents as foreigners, did not derail the bill. It will be recalled that on a previous occasion when Faleomavaega again was traveling, his own leadership mandated a disastrous minimum wage hike for the territory in reaction to comments made by yet another southern Republican congressman. We have not seen a press release on the Colombia trip but would not be surprised to see him describe himself as being "on assignment." Interesting. No one ever says just who exactly is doing this assigning, what the actual assignment is, who he makes a report to or what is supposed to be the resulting action. Congress doesn't work that way.