I was at a political party talking trash when the subject of what books do you read came up. Most of the thirty something crowd liked the current political authors Jonah Goldberg Liberal Fascism, Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt, Crash Proof by Peter Schiff and others. With the Internet and cable television people today have access to information that not so long ago was reserved for the halls of academia. Way back in 1984 before the Internet this was not the case. Government and private institutions hid embarrassing data like the CIA hiding the latest jet design from the USSR. One scholar, Charles Murray, decided to go public with a most politically incorrect set of data and observation that eventually let to welfare reform in 1996. The book was simply described as “explosive.”

Charles Murray AEI Scholar

First some highlights of Losing Ground. The book shows that the greatest gains in black education and employment were from 1950 to 1965. You will not learn that in any textbook today. Up to that point black teenage unemployment was 19% compared to 15% for white teenagers. Two parent families had been stable for decades at 78% compared to 88% for whites. Out of wedlock births varied little from 4.5% to 5.3% overall for both races. Then from 1965 to 1970 the year the Great Society programs were signed into law and gradual implementation and spending for the programs the poor and especially black progress towards integration into mainstream society took a huge leap BACKWARD.

Losing Ground by Charles Murray

By 1970 the equation had completely changed. Unannounced inspections of a woman’s residence were eliminated; men could come and go as they pleased. AFDC payments were $50 dollars a week (about $1160 a month today); food stamps $11 a week (about $255 a month), rent subsidies and Medicaid another $5 a week (about $116 a month). On the conservative side an unwed mother would get $66 a week (about $1550 a month today). A typical low wage job would pay $64 a week (about $1,480 a month). The woman gets these benefits as long as she is unwed and there is no legal responsibility for care from the father. Clearly for any young couple starting out the contrast is quit stark from the 1960 couple. By the mother remaining unwed and with no father they can double their purchasing power ($1,480 verses $3,030 today’s dollars), the man can cohabitate as he pleases. If life becomes difficult the couple can split up and go their separate ways.

As a result of this federal government intervention into the low income black families out of wedlock births went from less than 25% to over 50%, two parent families dropped from 78% to 60%, homicide almost doubled, rape, theft all increased in black communities. The one group that escaped was upper income blacks who took advantage of their opportunities and left these communities in large numbers making huge strides in white collar employment opportunities.

This is just one example in the game changing book but my point is that when the government gets involved in family law there are unintended consequences no matter how good the intentions of the law are. As Mr. Murray correctly points out the greatest strides in family formation, out of wedlock stability, black economic progress, black educational progress was from the period of 1950 to 1965 when there was very little government intervention into black and poor white families. Is there a lesson to be learned here?

I believe in Jesus Christ as my savior. I believe God gave man free will. Jesus if he were alive today would use the power of the church to fight abortion and other social issues. I somehow don’t envision Jesus lobbying Pontius Pilate for anything. Render to Cesar what is Cesar’s.

19 week old baby

Outlawing abortion on the federal level will drive it underground just like drugs, prostitution and other very expensive law enforcement issues. Do we go back to throwing doctors in jail? How will that look on every cable news outlet? That will be a one way ticket into oblivion for the Republican Party.

Conservative religious politicians who want to attempt moral laws that are destructive (or help?) to the family should first recognize what the bad laws are first. This would include child support payments and their effect on the divorce rate. Tough hard issues that will make a change for millions of parents and children. Without a basic understanding of these issues there will most likely be more harm done than good. We need to get back to 1960 where it made more sense for a young couple to get married then playing the system. Anything less is politics.

Matt Falconer is a local developer in Orlando, Florida and the surrounding areas. In the not so distant past Florida had a fantastic business climate. We have year around good weather on a sand bar that was fantastic to build on and a fresh underground water (Avon Park and Osceola ) supply. We enjoyed low taxes and had the “mail box” economy where retirees with social security and retirement checks to spend littered the landscape. There was enough tourism to drive the locals crazy from the traffic congestion and we good people running the local governments. And then the craziness set in.

Bush was elected; 9-11 happened, the housing bubble came and burst. Ten years later we suddenly wake up to see our local government went nuts in the sea of tax revenues. In a nutshell local government has increased 100% to 300% depending on the government program and municipality. A complete orgy of wasteful spending and consumption.

Matthew Falconer Candidate for Orange County Mayor

In the past a government worker might get $25,000 a year and a good vacation plan. Maybe $35,000 or at the most $50,000 for the super duper ones. Now that is all chump change to the cool people. These overpaid under worked too lazy to get a real college degree in a subject like engineering or economics are regularly pulling down $70,000 with benefits while the average taxpayer makes $38,000. Ken and Barbie found the easy way to live the high life and make the un cool kids their servants working the boring everyday jobs and taking their money using the power of government to steal for them. Good work if you can get it. It must be nice to be making $70,000 with 30 days vacation, the best medical and dental benefits with job security while the peasants suffer 12% official unemployment and unofficially 20% if you include all those illegal’s who up and left and the discouraged private sector productive workers.

Mr. Falconer has seen this disdain and arrogance from the other side as a person treated like a peasant by government. Government just getting bigger and more ridiculous by the day until he finally got fed up and did something about it. Instead of picking up the pitch fork and invading city hall which has always been the peasants’ recourse in the past against dysfunctional government he decided to use his wits. He formed a 30 member commission to look into the waste and abuse of our local government. Citizens who would donate their time and effort for the propose of building a better local government to protect and serve the people. The Taxpayer Budget Review Boards of Florida was formed in 2008 with the goal of improving local government and not overthrowing it.

Basically the committee looked at Orange County and the cities contained within. All together there are 14 governments with zigzagging jurisdictions inside Orange County. Orlando, Ocoee, Apopka, Oakland and so forth. All these local governments with their own police, fire, code enforcement, zoning and bureaucracies. All run to control the people and using the police powers of the state to extort the maximum revenue from the working stiffs trying to feed their families. The Ken and Barbie’s of the world along with the affirmative action and union crowds have transformed our local governments into mobster thugs looking to make a buck. Matt and his commission spent the better part of a year extracting financial information from these municipalities and developing strategies to reduce expenses. Here are his basic themes.

The first theme that occurs throughout the book over and over again is the waste in duplication of services. This means if city A is next to city B why not share resources? The equipment, manpower, facilities can be reduced and economies of scale can be achieved UP TO A POINT. There is no set point like the Laffer Curve has for excessive tax rates but the commission divided up Orange County into four service areas. Orange County has a population of a little over a million so setting up service zones around 250,000 seems reasonable. Of course local citizens will have to decide the size that best serves them. The point is that there are diminishing returns in government by getting too big. There is a loss of contact with the people and the services unresponsive to the needs of the public. Getting the perfect size and forming regional zones will be more of a art than science but the benefits is greater utilization of manpower, equipment and facilities saving the public a estimated 10% to 20% according to Mr. Falconer. This seems conservative to me. I suspect there are more savings especially in areas like fire protection, code enforcement and administrative staffing.

The second theme that runs throughout the book is technology, technology and technology. Basically placing as many function on the web as possible. Plans inspection and review, traffic tickets, code enforcement beefs, education on line to be accessed by the public. Basically putting as much as is possible on line for the average citizen to be able to access government services from the comfort of their home or business. One of the many examples is getting a permit for a billboard. Why do citizens have to fill out the paperwork and make a trip to the courthouse? Why not do it on line? The process would involve the normal information gathering as well as a question and answer session that the public may need to make sure the billboard is in compliance with construction codes. The same would apply to builders who submit plans on a regular basis. Why not have accounts where all updates and submittals can be handled on line instead of the regular trips to city hall? Creating a 21st century city hall will save both the public and local government valuable resources estimated again at a conservative 10% to 20%.

The third theme of the book is failure to utilize private services. The classic example is garbage pick up where the city service cost 40% more than the private service and occurs less frequently. There are other services that should be considered on a case by case basis. Building inspection, engineering, prisons, information technology, administration and many other aspects of government. The idea is to eliminate the functions outside the core functions of safety, justice, safety net, education and maintaining respect for the public and public property. Do we need public golf courses? The proposition is to eliminate all government functions outside the core functions and concentrate on delivering those services in an economical and responsive manner.

Education reform recommendations include Cyber Schools, Virtual Schools; Charter Schools, Smaller Schools of 50 to 100 students and Vouchers. A massive decentralization of the schools for the benefit of the public. There is nothing sadder and no sin greater than having our young loved ones sent to these huge government monopoly indoctrination centers of 3,000 to 6,000 students. Huge bastions of unionized teachers preaching progressive lockstep thinking to the poor peasant children that cannot escape to private schools. One recommendation that I would give would be to assign the money including transportation cost to the student and give the money to the principal to spend as he or she pleases. Let the principal budget for transportation, salaries, maintenance, administration, and overhead to Orange County at 445 West Amelia Street. Currently Orange County spends about $13,500 per student including capital projects and not including transportation cost. Put a voucher on each kid of say $8,000 + transportation cost and let the schools fight over the kids. We will see how eager the principals are to give any of that $8,000+ to 445 West Amelia Street and the bureaucracy. Education needs to be centered on the STUDENTS! If we give the power of the purse to the principals we will get more bang for the buck. Guaranteed.

It makes people feel good if they are spending on children and their education to go to first rate schools. It makes me feel horrible that all this money is being wasted on unions and bureaucracy that is designed more for indoctrination than education. I am saddened that my children and other children suffer this abuse from the government at such a young age.

There are more figures and recommendations and I would urge every local politician to read the book. It is amazing that Mr. Falconer and his volunteers have put together real numbers at the local level. It took the amazing 30 a lot of e-mails and conversations to get an overall view and idea of the waste in Orange County. When you’re taking about a few billion saving 20% is nothing to be taken lightly. Thank you Matt and the amazing 30 who put this book together.

Matt Falconer is a guy who did something constructive about the problem of fiscally insane government. He has identified problems and proposed concrete solutions to those problems. Mr. Falconer proposes an amendment to the Orange County charter. It contains language to eliminate duplicate services in nearby municipalities and other reorganization goals and realignments. Mr. Falconer is currently running for Orange County Mayor and has one of the most organized volunteer forces currently going from door to door spreading the government reform movement message. In local straw pools he finishes first by wide margins. I wish him the best and would vote for him if I could but currently reside in neighboring Seminole County.
A few amendments I would like to see to eliminate the gravy train for Ken and Barbie aka local government.

Amendment I. This would have to be statewide since implementation of it on a county level would give some merchants an unfair advantage for retail customers. The amendment would force all local taxes into three areas. The millage rate would be set at 1.65 or 2.00 or something agreed upon for residential and commercial real estate. No more two tier system of a fixed rate for the homeowner and a different rate for commercial and secondary homeowners. All other revenue collected must come from gas or sales tax so the public can see the true cost of local government every time they fill up or go to the store. No more hiding behind 100 fees for 100 different clients. This amendment would make all those thuggish behaviors of the union bureaucrats sniffing out more revenue disappear. Real simple like “All property tax rates shall be 1.65% and all remaining city and county revenues shall come from retail sales tax and or gasoline taxes.” Done. No need to be fancy or complex. I guarantee you the day this went into affect everyone would be REALLY interested in their local government and waste.

Amendment II. “No local worker can serve a city, county or state government agency longer than 12 years.” Real simple and it gets Ken and Barbie out of the government gravy train and into the private sector with all the other unwashed peasants looking to feed their families. The pension nightmare is ended. Lifelong government slugs are forced to get a real job. An elite class of union parasites are shown the door.
Just those two reforms would turn local governments upside down. Isaac Newton said “For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.” Well it’s time for the reaction to the insanity of our local governments.

I will help Matt Falconer, Todd Long, Franklin Perez, Karen Diebel and anyone else who exhibits a basic understanding of Austrian school economics and just plain respect for their fellow human beings. We have become a nation of governments plundering the populations they are reported to be serving. It happens at the top and has infected even the lowers levels of government. This is not a Democrat or Republican problem. I could not tell you Mr. Falconer’s party affiliation before he declared his candidacy and I could care less. The man understands government is a dead weight on society that is dragging down our living standards. And let me be even more frank. When the government starts causing me to be unable to feed and protect my family I WILL grab that pitchfork and get some payback.

On another level this is so unfair for one class of privileged Barbie’s and Kens to be taking money from another class of people who are productive members of society. Government needs to remember they produce NOTHING! Why on earth should government workers be paid more than productive members of society? Most of them are nice good looking people that can sit around five days a week looking busy and pretty. Handsome firefighters and policemen who work 58 days a year with lots of time to work out and be buff for the wives. So far removed from the rest of society working at Home Depot or on a construction site producing goods and services that benefit the people.

It reminds me of high school and the reunion 30 years later. The dumb guys who were in the “good” crowd all went into the government or union jobs. Very few of them had college degrees but they all had nice wives and nice pensions. The smart ones who went to college became chemist, doctors and contractors. And then there were the same poor saps that mostly didn’t go to college but were not cool enough to get that government job. Struggling to get by. It was like nothing had changed in 30 years. The “in” crowd was hogging all the money and fun plundering and pillaging the working class crowd only instead of using social circles and school functions they used the police power of the state to set up tax breaks for their industries and generate monopoly revenues for the unionized workers.

Most of the people like me who see the coming financial collapse and most likely break up of the United States are going to give the elections of 2010 and 2012 a chance. We owe it to the good decent people like Matt Falconer who played by the rules all his life and wants to fight government with peaceful legal means. Make no mistake there is a smoldering undercurrent to America just like it was 1858. The sides are lined up. Progressive verses conservative. There is very little middle ground. It will not take much to light that flame and when it is lit there is a huge amount of fuel just waiting to burn. Give it your best shot Matt. I and others with the education and military background will be waiting in the wings. Simper fi or was that Go Blue!

Matt Falconer is a local Orlando, Florida developer of some note and is running for Orange County mayor this fall. His book looks at Florida government from an “evil” developer’s point of view. This allows him to relate personal experiences and the frustration of dealing with government over the decades.

I have meet Matt once or twice and e-mail him once in awhile pretending we are buddies taking advantage of the fact that he is running for local office. He e-mails me back politely on occasion surly scratching his head wondering who the hell I am. Politicians God bless em. They do put up with a lot of crap come election time.

The forward is from Richard T. Lee of milk fame, one of the congressionally favor industries receiving billions in artificial price floor supports, caught me off guard. Having the corporate welfare queen write the forward to an anti government tax book was probably not the greatest idea. Fortunately he has a new book out and a second chance at redemption.

Mathhew Falconer

The first portion is about economic tax distortions caused by Florida’s homestead exemption that fixes property taxes for primary property owners leaving secondary home owners and commercial business exposed to the mercy of government officials. This is typical government thinking because the voters don’t get hit with a direct tax on their personal property. They get taxed with lost economic activity in their communities due to business failures and uncompetitive commercial properties. This can be seen in the huge commercial business buildings all around Central Florida partially or totally empty with no clients. A lot of these are not old out of date strip malls that are at the end of their life cycle but relatively new
10 years old or less structures that should be in their peak utilization years today. Here in the swank suburbs of Winter Springs we have several of these structures sitting unused begging for tenants. The point being that government economic distortions in the marketplace are not some abstract geek concept but real world policies that have devastating effects on the quality of life for our communities.

Simply put if $5,000 is taken away from the tax bill of a private residences and added to the local hardware store the hardware store has to lower profits, cut wages, cut staff, cut something to pay the bill. With the Internet and competition from competing chains the ability to pass the cost on consumers is limited by how sensitive consumers are to price. At the retail level the answer to that is VERY sensitive. So for most commercial enterprises they have to absorb part or all of a tax hike in property and related taxes. Because of the inability to pass cost on to consumers it becomes a contest to stay in business with eventually the death of marginal businesses. This is nothing new. Take a drive around Canada sometime. What do you see? Very limited competition, a couple of food and tire chains, a few specialty shops and a lot of blandness. Some would say like the Canadian people. Some in government see no problem with losing marginal competitors but those are real people losing their life dream. Those marginal competitors give consumers another choice. We lose competition and diversity when local and regional businesses go under.

The Socialist Republic of Florida

Why do the media cover gas prices and ATM fees so much? It’s something people deal with every day. It’s out there for all to see every time they drive anywhere. Use the same concept for local government taxes. When people in Seminole County see Volusia County pay 5 cents less for a gallon of gas and a penny less in retail sales taxes they are going to become involved in local government real quick demanding some answers. Simply put scrap the bloviating and expose inefficient operations by forcing local governments to display their cost to everyone on a daily basis. And yes some exemptions and waivers would need to be granted for special merchant situations on a case by case basis. By closing local taxing options, including impact fees, and exposing the true cost of government to the public on a daily basis people will demand and be very sensitive to price fluctuations.

Matt with supporters at local rally

Education, police, fire inefficiencies are explained. Mr. Falconer correctly points out the pension system for local governments cannot possibly be honored in the long run but offers up a “pay as you go” plan similar to a 401K plan. This will create a conflict between government workers and taxpayers without solving the real problem. The real problem is people get lazy in their government jobs. They lose their ability to be competitive in the private sector and sponge off the taxpayers their whole life. If you want to change the system you have to address this problem. Pass a constitutional amendment where no one can be employed by the state or local government longer than 12 years. No exceptions at all levels of government including elected officials. I know this would be a hard sell but it would eliminate the pension problems as well as the lazy slugs looking to suckle the government tit their whole working lives. Government workers attitudes would change dramatically if they knew their job was temporary and they would be working in that dreaded private sector sooner or later. You want change? That’s real change.

Instead of a traffic light and a designated crossing area Winter Springs got a $5 million dollar pedestrian bridge that is lightly used by the public

There is also something else he fails to mention but believe me it will happen. In Winter Park there is a new shopping development on Orlando Avenue right next to the sidewalk. Thousands of cars pass everyday. Cars get in accidents. When they do sometimes they stay on the road and other times they will end up on the sidewalk or into that nice expensive development just a few yards off Orlando Avenue. It’s a disaster waiting to happen and someday it will happen. Hopefully no one will be killed because of this government insanity but it just shows the complete lack of common sense these government officials have. If you want to be stupid and make a ass out of yourself there are better ways to do it than putting peoples lives at risk just because you think the peasants should be confined to half a square mile in the city. Appallingly stupid and disturbing.

Beautiful new private office building not less than a mile from pedestrian bridge unused with no tenants.

I have seen this first hand in construction over the years. Back in the 1980’s I was the private inspector 12 story high rise, Orlando City Hall, as well as others. Back then the project had one inspector. The threshold inspector was required to do soil density testing, rebar inspection, form inspection, mold concrete cylinders, check the shoring holding up the forms for the elevated decks, break concrete cylinders, do daily reports, write structural request for further information (RFI’s) and fax as well as explain the changes to the structural engineer and deliver any paperwork or construction testing materials to the main office. The only time the inspector was given help was if there was an elevated slab concrete placement and the inspector could not physically be in two places t the same time. Other than that the inspector was on his own. And I can personally attest to the fact that Orlando City Hall (1989 phase) was an easier project than the 33 story Sun Trust right across the street was in 1987. Sun Trust (formerly Sun Bank) was twice as brutal and dangerous.

Our FDOT super duper $5 million pedestrian bridge on a beautiful 70 degree Saturday afternoon.

On the City Hall project a city inspector would come on the job once in a while and proclaim all was well or pick out some minor problem and spend weeks addressing it in meetings with the contractor. To the private inspector and contractor this was like some side circus played out to appease the city egos across the street. The real drama was being played out everyday in the sweltering 95 degree heat 80 feet up in the air. Never once did I see a city inspector up there long enough to check a post tension cable. Inspection is tough work if you do it right.

Now city, county and state inspectors have people to do all the physical work for them. They stand around job sites for hours waiting to do an inspection. They get paid well with job security and benefits. Political correctness has creped into the inspectors life since so little is required of them. Anyone can do the job now so why not get the “right” inspectors with the right political views in place to receive government checks. If you did a survey of the Turnpike, FDOT, Orange County, City of Orlando I would guess 70% or more of them are Democrat and the number is rising as the politically incorrect ones are shown the door. The job has gone from physically and mentally demanding to being the right fit for the affirmative action profile.

Down in Miami a Turnpike Enterprise Project Manager was in charge of a project for years. The contractor had been screwing up the paperwork for years and the private inspectors assisting the turnpike inspectors were in and out of the project with no continuation of a designated private inspector which the Turnpike “Project Manager” should have insisted upon. Clearly the responsibility to maintain consistency of the project would fall on the Turnpike Enterprise inspector. Unfortunately this inspector was often at bars and failed to keep up with the paperwork, missing contract requirements. Sometimes not even notifying the proper private inspection firms the contractor was performing work. To make a long story short a complete and utter screw up. So what to do?

Believe it or not the Turnpike called in inspectors from Orlando to cover the job for this jerk and then over a month or so blamed them for the screw ups. In one instance the Turnpike authority was so desperate to make themselves look good and private inspectors bad they had several government inspectors stand around a work trailer while others were trying to work and be productive. The government inspectors standing around made fun of some other government inspector sitting down pretending to work because the inspector believed in Islam. I swear to god this happened. The idea was to make fun of the Islamic guy and hope the private inspectors would join in the religion bashing so they could report the incident to the government and fire some private guys to obscure the fact the Turnpike had completely blown it’s assignment. It was strait out of the novel 1984 by George Orwell. Who cares about the job when there is politically bad thought out there to be demonized. Of course traditionally guys always went into construction because they were NOT politically correct but this is where the government has taken the inspection industry in the last 25 years. Lazy politically correct slugs that do nothing but push paperwork around (badly in the case of the Turnpike Authority), flap their lips and collecting a check while others do the real work.

Mr. Falconer covers communist goals of promoting the UN, promiscuity, media control, destruction of the family unit and so forth. What he fails to see is the real motivations behind Marxism in journalism, government and the upper middle class. Only the useful idiots truly believe the goals of communism. Most upper class people stay married and don’t have children out of wedlock. They promote communism simply because it’s the best way to promote their carriers. If you are a lawyer it’s nice that the black community has an almost 70% out of wedlock birth rate and 28.6% of black men end up in jail. It keeps you rolling in the cash. There is never a shortage of criminals flowing in and out of the justice system.

If you are a journalist its easier to get emotional responses to “justice” stories and a lot less complex than explaining why not allowing across state line health insurance sales creates oligopolies and higher cost. Just put the brain into neutral and go for the emotion as well as the higher paycheck. Really why would any reporter want to take the hard road of explaining complex problems like Fox News John Stossel? John has to research and explain problems. It’s hard work. Why not just do a Chris Mathews and get some uninsured guy on with cancer and blame the government? Sure takes lot less work and gets better ratings.

The true motivation of the communist at the top is simply that they are cold hearted bastards that exploit stupid people for their own personal gain. Obama loves capitalism as can be seen in his expensive King Louis XVI taste. He just doesn’t want the peasants enjoying those same benefits. What communist truly want is just enough servants to sustain them in their life style of luxury while keeping the countryside clear of development so as to enjoy it when taking excursions out of the big city. Pretty much the same as the bully in high school who wanted to screw all the girls and beat up any guy who tried to get some. People need to recognize this behavior in government Mr. Falconer describes and be rude. In high school the best way to take down a bully was to break his nose. The same tactics need to be displayed to government bullies. Get in their face, be rude and take them down a few notches. Kick some ass. Whenever you see some communist government crap freak out and cause a scene.

Some of Mr. Falconer’s solutions are common sense like privatization of services. Again his Declaration of Taxpayers Independence is long winded and well intentioned. But it fails to get to the heart of the matter. The problem is people can make careers out of government service. Smart people who will figure out ways to get more money from taxpayers. Government workers need to be limited to a total of 12 years service in their lifetime. Government service should be a temporary employment situation at best. 12 years and then you are gone. 12 years gives enough time for even the most complex functions to be performed. And then it’s over and back to the private sector.

The second thing is to get government cost out in the public domain every day. Gas tax per gallon and sales tax are everyday things that will keep the cost of government permanently in front of the publics eye. Any local government wanting to increase its scope of services will not be able to hide behind taxes on business. Opps there it is! Exposed!

All these reforms could be done with a few amendments to the Florida constitution. Simple amendments. Amendment 12 “All new state and local employees shall not be employed longer than 12 years.” Government arrogance, pensions, attitude solved. Keep it simple and with some luck something positive will come out of the looming economic melt down.

I wish Matt the best of luck. Government needs more people like him with the intelligence and distrust of government to do good things for the average taxpayer. God speed.

The best selling book by Sarah Palin has been reviewed in the Wall Street Journal and other outlets. Most concentrate on her beefs with the John McCain camp or her economics. Some do the same old same old and try to nit pick her and belittler her. To me they miss entirely the real story of her life. The transformation of American culture from one of God, family and country to the government is god.

Sarah like millions of isolated white Americans grew up in an isolated America in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s believing America was good. Work hard and trust in god and family. She had a lower middle class nuclear family with both the mother and father present in her life. School was the usual rivalries in sports and competition for boys. There was not a lot of political correctness from what I can detect in her school or politics. From her accounts she had the all America lower middle class upbringing surrounded by friends and family. She was lucky.

Also going on in the 70’s in the inner cities throughout America was forced desegregation that brought political correctness, white flight, riots and the begging of the end to the American school systems as nonpolitical entities. This started in the 50’s but reached new plateaus in the 70’s brought about by abortion rulings and busing orders from liberal activist judges. I was there in Pontiac, Michigan in the 1970’s and saw first hand this insidious destruction of values and academic standards in favor of politically correct agendas that destroyed and disabled the moral and traditional values of our kids. Sarah and millions of other “regular” kids missed this and for years were ignorant of this movement into the schools of America by the leftist.

Then one fine summer afternoon she got a call from John McCain to run with her for vice president of the United States. And suddenly her world changed from local skirmishes with weasels involved in local issues to dealing with the fascist machine both in Washington and in the media. She like millions of other good and decent Americans sheltered from the viciousness and derangement of these New Leftist. Emboldened by a declining intelligent electorate and years of propaganda in our educational institutions both in lower and higher learning and she was shocked! Prey tell Sarah and the rest of white America where were you as our cities were destroyed in the 70′s and 80′s?

Sarah Palin

Sarah, like millions of other Americans, seems to have wakened up from her slumber. Will she run for the White House? My bet would be yes. It’s in her nature. So to it’s in the lefts nature to destroy her by any means necessary and I mean that literally. She would be putting her life at risk because with the exception of General Petraeus her road to the Republican nomination is strait as an arrow. I wish Sarah the best. She’s not perfect but who is?

She’s somewhat ethnocentric but only has a mild case of the world revolves around me syndrome. Her economics is tolerable but she would be well advised if she ever graces the White House to name Cato scholar Dan Mitchell as treasury secretary and LISTEN to every word he says.

And yes Sarah you did the “slime line” but millions of Americans have done worse. I worked as the asbestos inspector back in my college days. When I got done with class on the other side of campus I got in my car to drive across campus to my job supervising illegal aliens and they removed the carcinogens from the University of Central Florida Administration Building. I got in my car not because I was lazy but because I didn’t want my professors or fellow classmates to see what my real job was. Yes I and millions of other American have done these types of jobs that we don’t like to brag about. You are not alone.

And yes Sarah’s family was lower middle class but she had a family. She obviously doesn’t know how valuable that is unless you never had one. It is a HUGE advantage having a male biological father figure in the house protecting you and providing for your siblings. This is why I don’t get Sarah’s “I am woman” and support of Title IX attitude.

How many men were denied scholarships at universities because of Title IX? And for what? To make room for women’s badminton? The answer is college wrestling programs were drastically reduced in the 70’s to make way for women’s sports teams that were almost impossible to field. Another attempt by the left to marginalize men and their masculinity as well as their sports. Let the marketplace dictate the number of men and women in athletics. Shame on Sarah. She needs to scrap the women crap and support the removal of Title IX and all other anti male legislation. It’s not a whole lot of fun going to the welfare office with your single mother to get the necessities of life from some government worker. It is better to be lower middle with a father than suffer the depravity, be ostracized and endure the humiliation of poverty and no father.

I get the feeling she doesn’t really see the war in the lower 48 that has occurred on fatherhood brought about by welfare, child support and the virtual elimination of men’s role in their children’s lives. In the lower 48 men are looked at as walking wallets and nothing more to the leftist.

Sarah is cute and smarter than most women. She would be a great president over the dolt we currently have who is in love with the idea of being dictator for life. She needs to drop the feminist ego and listen to her kid Track. If she does that she can make a positive change for America if for no other reason than she will be the final straw that broke the republics back and separated the lower 48 forever. Live free or die.

Good luck Sarah and cover up when that buckshot starts falling down on you.

Mises Daily by Ron Paul | Posted on 9/3/2009

Most Americans haven’t thought much about the strange entity that controls the nation’s money. They simply accept it as though it has always been there, which is far from the case. Visitors to Washington can see the Fed’s palatial headquarters in Washington, D.C., which opened its doors in 1937. Tourists observe its intimidating appearance and forbidding structure, the monetary parallel to the Supreme Court or the Capitol of the United States.

People know that this institution has an important job to do in managing the nation’s money supply, and they hear the head of the Fed testify to Congress, citing complex data, making predictions, and attempting to intimidate anyone who would take issue with them. One would never suspect from their words that there is any mismanagement taking place. The head of the Fed always postures as master of the universe, someone completely knowledgeable and completely in control.

But how much do we really know about what goes on inside the Fed? With the newest round of bailouts, even journalists have a difficult time running down precisely where the money is coming from and where it is headed. From its founding in 1913, secrecy and inside deals have been part of the way the Fed works.

Part of the public-relations game played by the chairman of the Fed is designed to suggest that the Fed is an essential part of our system, one we cannot do without. In fact, the Fed came about during a period of the nation’s history called the Progressive Era, when the income tax and many new government institutions were created. It was a time in which business in general became infatuated with the idea of forming cartels as a way of protecting their profits and socializing their losses.

whole story here …

One of our local aspiring politicians here in Central Florida has recently written a book explaining his politics intertwined with history and a stab at economics. I have briefly meet Todd on several political rallies and must admit when I first meet him last December 2008 I was totally thrown back by the fact that he was a trial lawyer. Honestly after losing Orange County Republican Representative Ric Keller and his crap and losing my beloved Seminole County Congressional Representative Tom Feeney in the 2008 congressional elections to liberal Democrats I was in no mood for another RINO. It took a couple of beers and self control not to get just a little perturbed. Well I was wrong about Todd.

In his book he explains the frustrations he and millions of other conservative voters have had with former President Bush and the Republican in the congress and senate from 2001 to 2006. Basically we the people voted in one group of people and got a totally different result. Expanded federal government, new entitlement programs, corruption, poorly executed wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (until General Petraeus took over in 2006 in my opinion), lack of border enforcement and the constant political charades that pass as politics in Washington. The frustration and disgust is mutually and universally felt by millions including Todd.

The book is extremely well written for what I assume is a first book. It is at a basic senior high school level and is very easy to grasp the concepts that are put forward. The order of discussion is also very coherent and well thought out. The book starts out with the founding fathers and eliminates a lot of propaganda currently passing for fact in the main stream of the media and education institutions. How we got away from being a Christian nation and how the founding fathers viewed religion as part of our being are examined with just enough depth to make the case without boring the reader with tedious example after example. Pretty damn good job for a new author. An examination of socialism, dependency verses capitalism is examined in economic wealth terms as well as spiritual terms. Not something you see in every political book.

The current issues like our $11.5 trillion dept are examined currently and looking at the road of how we got here. Solutions are provided that are sp ecific ranging from a balanced budget amendment to supporting the Fair Tax national sales tax plan. Obama’s disastrous economic policies are examined without vilifying the man. Education and the importance of Christianity in children’s lives are examined. Supporting school vouchers is not going to win Todd any teacher votes and saying so in black and white took some courage for the likely Republican nominee for the Orange County congressional seat in 2010. Supporting 12 year limits on the senate and house members will not endear him to the established members of the Republican or Democratic Party. The stands that Todd made in this book took real courage and I mostly agree and certainly respect that. How many times have we had a politician tell us one thing and do the opposite? Seems like every day at the White House.

The book goes on to cover energy independence, health care reform, entitlement reform, illegal immigration, the environment (surprisingly green for a Republican), and finally the most, for me anyway, interesting part of the book, his assessment of running for congress as a complete unknown. Bein g a local I remember his radio adds and really liked what he said. But after Bush what was the difference between him and his primary opponent Keller? Really all I wanted was the seat to stay in Republican hands. Todd gives all us interested in politics some real insight to the process as an average Joe trying to make a difference and the obstacles he faced. Sadly only eight pages were devoted to this subject. The book is worth the price just to read his thoughts on that bitter campaign last summer.
Finally Todd is a lawyer not a business person or economist. And as such has blind spots in some of his policy solutions. It’s not his fault per se. He doesn’t circle much in these fields and just doesn’t know what he doesn’t know. Here are a few of his solution that I had a beef with.

Education scores are given for science scores for whites, Hispanics, American Indians and African Americans (these hyphenated classifications make me want to vomit). Well here is the politically incorrect truth. Whites have an average IQ of 100, Asian 101, Jews 110+, Hispanics 93, and blacks 85. Ouch that hurts. Vouchers are the right solution. Let the parents and students self segregate based on academics, athletic, knighting, race or any other way they want to. Forcing students with totally different values, intellects and abilities is beyond stupid. That doesn’t mean if Steve Erkel, the black brainy kid on Family Matters, wants to attend the dork school he should be denied . Go for it. The kid would fit right in there. Let the parents and children decide what is best for them. I said it not Todd.

On illegal immigration Mr. Long is right about non enforcement costing blue collar workers jobs and wages. Want a dirty little secret? Blue collar wages are driven down about 37%, depending on worker demand, by illegal immigration.

On page 159 a proposal to have women seeking an abortion view the unborn fetus on an ultrasound to make them sympathetic and possibly change their minds about the abortion is proposed. Bad idea. Some women who have abortions are haunted for years afterward. No need to make it worse. Or maybe that is the intention?

You want to make women responsible for their behavior? A better idea would be to do away with all payments related to children. No welfare, child support, food stamps. Eliminate it all. Give custody to the parent with the most stable employment background. If that fails start looking at dividing the kids up. If that doesn’t work look at the grandparents. If that doesn’t work adoption and finally bring back the orphanages. A dirty little economic secret is that since the 1950’s the biggest change in the family has not been the lack of faith in Jesus Christ but the change in a money supply to unwed mothers and divorced mothers. Charles Murray of the America Enterprise Institute has written several papers and books on the subject. Any economist worth his salt can do a regression analysis of t he divorce and unwed mother rate from the 1950’s and find the relationship between increased economic incentives to reward bad behavior and a increase in that behavior. Why my friend in graduate school did just such a regression analysis. People are more inclined to follow Jesus Christ if there are consequences to not following his example. Make the consequences real.

As far as religion in schools as a Libertarian if the parents want it then so be it. I don’t feel if parents object they should be ignored. Let them put their kids in a secular school.

On page 179 there is a condemnation of the news media. We all know the liberal idiots who pollute the air waves on a daily basis. But I don’t think much has changed over the years. Some people want to be informed and some could care less. The media in the 70’s was never fair they just hid their bias better. Hey I am all for honesty. At least know you know you’re getting propaganda from the jerks. I disagree that people are less informed today. If you want to know something you can find it much quicker than back in the day. The same 30% that supported the American Revolution are the same 30% that are well informed today. I have a family of liberals and facts mean nothing to them. Trust me on this. They will seek out the propaganda no matter what.

Abolishing the FCC would be a good first step. The government has no constitutional right to the air waves. Through the whole thing to the industry and have them come up with standards of decency and reporting news events. When they come up with their standards they either sign on or they don’t. If they don’t follow their standards have them sue each other in an arbitration hearing. Fines go to the winner. The FCC is about to silence critics and like any government program is poorly managed and susceptible to politics and dictators. Get rid of it if you ever get the chance.

On health care get rid of Medicaid, Medicare and all federal government related expenditures. Give the people a voucher to the elderly buy health insurance. Eliminate pre-existing clauses. Set up medical savings accounts for the young and so forth. CATO has written several papers on the subject and they have several excellent free market solutions. Mr. Long supports decentralizing government programs to the state and local level. Privatize it all and get the government out of the business.

Pretty much the same thing with social security. Mr. Long does support privatization of social security but also support raising age eligibility requirements if social security is not privatized. Pretty unfair but then again the whole system is unfair. I support giving a rebate to anyone who wants to opt out of the system with interest. That would be fair. And require all private accounts mandated, say 5% of gross income, to be put in federal, state or local bonds. The money will not grow fast but that’s not what it’s for. People can use their income above 5% to invest as they please.

On the ethanol mess I couldn’t quite pick up if Mr. Long was for or against the tariff on Brazilian ethanol. As any respectable economist will tell you tariffs punish consumers at about a 9 to 1 up to a 19 to one ration. For every domestic dollar gain to industry consumers lose $9 to $19. Bill Clinton knew this dirty little economic secret and when he signed NAFTA it helped our economy. Never support tariffs. The government’s policy on energy should be one of encouragement then getting out of the way. Period. Do that and gas will be $1.50 a gallon.
The green people will be disappointed that Mr. Long isn’t for cutting down every tree and eliminating every environmental regulation. Oh well. But as stated before industries should self regulate themselves with the government acting only as the referee throwing the flag when someone cheats. Industries know who cheats, how they do it and if they can get away with it. Setting up a financial system to rat out and fine the bad players would clean up any industry pretty darn quick. I have worked with thousands of contractors over the years and they know all the tricks of the trade. Having them hire industry insiders to check out the other guy would be much more effective than government for life employees looking to make friends.

Overall this was an excellent first book that is very suitable for younger readers and those without a lot of political knowledge. For hard core politicians, economist, business people getting Mr. Long’s positions on issues is refreshing. Mr. Long makes no apologies for his religious faith and takes some very politically dangerous positions. Honesty in a political book is a rare thing these days and he is to be complemented on his frankness. Well worth the read. Best of luck in 2010.

origianl post at …

As her opponents seethe, writhe and wail over governor Pailin’s every move it is business as usual in Alaska. Sarah Palin quietly goes about her business as usual much to the chagrin of those who have rabid hate for her. Personally I find this whole “OPPOSE SARAH PALIN” (from both sides of the isle) drop dead funny. Apparently the opposition is so out of touch they have no clue how “mindlessly stupid” they appear to anyone who has no vested interest one way or another in what she does.

In fact daily it is becoming more clear just how “mindlessly stupid” the majority of officials running our government have become (or always were and we just paid it no mind).

While Governor Palin was busy signing a joint resolution declaring Alaska’s sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution – and now 36 other states have introduced similar resolutions as part of a growing resistance to the federal government.

Kathleen Sebelius Obama’s Secretary of Health and Human Services is doing the footwork trying to foist the latest SCAM onto the citizenry of the USA. Free health care to all.

When asked by a reporter “does president Obama expect EVERYONE to pay the bill for this program?” her answer was YES. Now either the woman is totally out of touch or plainly an open faced liar.

What a surprise of late!

It certainly does not take rocket science to see why the Sarah Palin bandwagon grows daily by leaps and bounds.

Fair Play, economist Steven Landsburg states this eloquently in a passage on the importance of rights, tolerance, and pluralism (p. 92):

You and I disapprove of bigotry. But the private virtue of tolerance and the public virtue of pluralism require us to countenance things we do not approve. Tolerance means accepting the fact that other people’s values might be very different than your own. Pluralism means eschewing the use of political power as a means for ‘correcting’ those values.

The idea of tolerating intolerance sounds suspiciously paradoxical, but so do a lot of other good ideas—like freedom of speech for advocates of censorship. In fact, freedom of speech has a lot in common with tolerance: Neither of them means a thing unless it applies equally to those we applaud and those who offend us most viscerally.

Tolerance is ennobling, which is why we should teach it to our children. Pluralism is insurance against tyranny, which is why we should demand it of our government. To speak up for even the most despised minorities is both morally right and politically prudent.

Read more …

A Review of the book:

United In Hate — The Left’s Romance With Tyranny and Terror is a book that examines the seamy underbelly of the radical Left which considers Western society and its values an anathema. Dr. Jamie Glazov, the Managing Editor of FrontPage Magazine, methodically details the causational factors that have lead modern Leftists to adhere to the death and destruction mantra of tyrannical Islamic Jihadists.

The Twin Towers are destroyed, 2973 people die in the attack and the radical Left cheers; the war in Iraq is won and the Left expels a disgusted sigh; totalitarian thugs kill innocent millions that the Left justifies as a “cleansing” required to forge a utopian society; suicidal Jihadists shred shoppers in malls with nail bombs and are excused by the Left as door-matted victims striking back at their oppressors; women are vilified, stoned, mutilated and killed by radical Muslims as Leftist feminists remain silent, save here in America where they rail mightily against a country club that’s denied membership to a female executive.

What draws Leftists moth-like toward the annihilating fires of unbridled totalitarianism, or drives them to slavishly worship at the feet of dictators that kick them to the curb when they are considered no longer useful? Why does the Left cleave to a radical Islamic terrorism that vows to destroy all non-believers, including them? Dr. Glazov answers these and other “head scratching” questions in a court-ready presentation of the Left’s mindset that will make forensic psychologists proud.

The Left’s hatred and rejection of Western civilization, its freedoms and values, begins with an acute sense of alienation from it, and unable to “fit in” the Left believes radical societal change, regardless of the consequences, is necessary. After all it’s the West’s fault that the Left has no sense of purpose or direction. Although the Left vehemently argues against this premise, its words and actions prove Dr. Glazov’s case.

The ideological descendents of the communist/progressive Left that spent its capital hoping the West would lose the Cold War to the Soviet Union are today’s leftist core. Based on their hatred for the United States, the Left has forged a symbiotic relationship with radical Islam, whose hatred for America equals theirs. Both make it clear that they consider Western civilization evil and unworthy of preservation. Violent revolution is the Left’s path to change; the Jihadists’ follow the path of war and annilation.

Some might think Dr. Glazov has taken a wrong turn in his analysis of the radical Left’s agenda and beliefs. If so, they should read the scurrilous quotes of Michael Moore extolling the virtues of the “Iraqi freedom fighters,” or Ward Churchill’s and Jeremiah Wright’s crowing after 9/11 that “America’s chickens have come home to roost.” Or, they should examine the genuflexing before the world’s tyrants by the likes of Jimmy Carter, Sean Penn and Tom Hayden. Dr. Glazov’s take on the radical Left is correct and as sharp as a tightly focused laser.

Should the book cause even one radical Leftist to re-examine his or her contorted beliefs and return from the “dark side,” Dr. Glazov’s efforts will be a resounding success. A great thought provoking read!

Ben R. Furman
Former FBI Counterterrorism Chief
www.blackhawkpress.com
www.blackhawkpress.com/blog
You can get the book at:
United in Hate: The Left’s Romance with Tyranny and Terror

While I was bouncing around the internet I happened onto an interesting article posted by an author who had written a book on the matter. (Book linked below.)

Since Barack Obama likes to pattern himself after FDR and the New Deal … it caught my attention. I could never understand why people would be happy with a 19% unemployment rate … at least happy enough to re-elect a president over and over.
Were they fed skewed facts?
I have often wondered if women (who were not usually bread winners back then) were counted into these statistics. If we took the % of woman out of that statistic does the percent then rise to 38%? Is that really what we can look forward to under the HOPE PRESIDENT?

Oh wait I know now HOPE means I HOPE none of this drops on my front door.

Hope then was suppose to be just past the horizon or around the next corner?
Sound anything like what passes the lips of Barack Obama almost daily?
Why am I getting the feeling Obama WILL SAY ANYTHING to keep the lid on this powder keg?

Notice this tactic at hand today?

Let’s use an analogy to make the point: Imagine that in the last days of his presidency, George W. Bush declared a new policy. His spokespeople explained, “It is rather misleading to say that the unemployment rate in October 2008 was 6.6 percent, because that implies millions of Americans are destitute. But in fact they are all receiving generous assistance from the government in various forms. If we say that their ‘job’ is filling out the paperwork for unemployment claims, then the true unemployment rate is more like 0.4 percent. Those are the people who truly have no source of income, and need to be helped.”

Would any left-liberal sign on to that rationale? Of course not. Now, there is no objectively hard and fast line between a “real” government-provided job versus a “phony” job such as “filling out unemployment forms.” In fact, a purist could note that all government jobs are artificial and not indicative of true productive value for consumers, since their compensation is derived through involuntary taxation.

This book by Robert P. Murphy can be purchased for around $13 at Amazon.

The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Great Depression and the New Deal (The Politically Incorrect Guides) ISBN: 9781596980969