“Vote ‘em out…”

You know as you get older you start to notice things you probably overlooked in your younger years. Things like better offers on the things you buy if you were a first time user. You know what I mean, you sign up for a cell phone at ‘X’ dollars a month…..then after you’ve had it a couple of years, you see a new ad on TV for the same service but way cheaper than what you are paying, but the catch is …you have to be a ‘new’ user.

So, in some cases it actually makes sense to cancel your existing contract and start a new one for the better rate. It used to hack me when I would see insurance rates from my broker that were cheaper than I was paying. If I asked the broker I’d get told that this was their current rate and oh, yes they would lower mine…now that I asked.

The problem as far as I was concerned was that I had to ask. No one offered these deals to me before I asked. They didn’t seem to be looking out after me.

Well, friends it seems as if we have the same thing going on in the nation’s capital doesn’t it?

For the past couple of years the majority of Americans have been concerned over our rising national debt, the annual deficient, out of control spending and how can we get our economy back on track. Voters on November 2nd are expected to express their anger with the size and scope of our government and with their elected representatives. Most Americans feel as if their elected officials do nothing but pay lip service to their constituents when it comes to our concerns. The average voter is treated as a third class person not worthy of notice or concern by those inside the Beltway.

Yesterday the following was released by the White House:

The president has signaled that at the start of the New Year, he will speak more directly to the country about the financial choices ahead. “If we’re going to get serious about the deficit, then we’re going to have to look at everything: entitlements, defense spending, and revenues. … And that’s going to be a tough conversation,” he said.

You think?

Why weren’t they (both parties) doing this all along? They didn’t seem to be looking out for any of us, were they?

Why weren’t they looking at runaway spending?
Why weren’t they looking at defense cost overruns and more efficiency in the branches?
Why weren’t they weeding out governmental corruption?
Why weren’t they concerned over bloated programs that produce little, but cost much?
Why weren’t they concerned over self serving members cutting ‘insider’ deals?

Because they didn’t care…did they?

Now, with the midterm elections right around the corner, we are hearing the cries of ‘reform’….’reform’….and we are expected to vote the same tired old politicians who refused to listen to us as they cling to their plush jobs which might be slipping away.

This is not strictly a democratic party problem, no this is a problem for both parties. This is a problem of too little, too late and of lies, deceit and arrogance on the part of the elite elect. Their distain for the ‘common voter’ shows in their interviews and ‘off the record’ conversations.

Well, you know what? The time for playing games is over. The time to change the forces that don’t look after us to someone who does is almost here. You need to vote, you need to make certain your children vote, and your neighbors and your grandmother. Everyone needs to vote.

You have no right to complain if you don’t.

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“It’s Alive…It’s Alive..”

To start us off this week, I offer the following quote :
“The problem is, and always has been, that once government programs and agencies are created, they quickly become sacrosanct and virtually impossible to destroy. As Ronald Reagan said, ‘Government programs, once launched, never disappear … a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we’ll ever see on this earth!’ So it doesn’t matter that the Department of Education doesn’t educate, or that the Department of Energy doesn’t produce energy. It’s government and, thus, by definition good in the minds of the Washington establishment.” –columnist Cal Thomas
Truer words were never spoken. One has to wonder if anyone, anyone out there has a complete understanding of just how many agencies are in our government? Or better yet, what the functions and annual progress indices are for any of these agencies. I was surfing the internet the other day and ran across an interesting federal agency called the FLC. Never heard of it? No wonder, here is a description of what it is and what it does:
“The Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer (FLC) is the nationwide network of federal laboratories that provides the forum to develop strategies and opportunities for linking laboratory mission technologies and expertise with the marketplace.”
I’m certain this made you feel better didn’t it? How many government employees are working at this place? What is their budget and what do they produce or accomplish? How can we find out if we wanted to do so? You can’t look at their website and see any of this information. Public companies post this kind of information on their annual reports and websites for the entire world to see, but I bet you’d have to file a freedom of information request to see anything about this agency. I realize my question might be broad, but private enterprise companies are judged based upon their annual performance. Generally this consists of something as simple as …did we bring in more revenue than we spent in expenses? It’s all fine to discuss such things as these next couple of items (from their mission statement):
• Promote and facilitate the full range of technical cooperation between the federal laboratories and America’s large and small businesses, academia, state and local governments, and federal agencies.
• Provide direct services to member laboratories and agencies in support of their technology transfer efforts.
• Enhance efforts that couple federal laboratories with American industry and small businesses to strengthen the nation’s economic competitiveness.

But my question is how much actually got accomplished in any given year to improve the gross domestic product of this nation by increasing any one business segment? If you are spending millions each year and have no quantitative method of assessing your effectiveness, then what is the purpose of your existence in the first place?

How many agencies such as this one do we have in this country? Who reviews them after they have been completed to determine if they are really making any headway with their programs or are they just engaging in pointless watermelon talk? Watermelon talk is a local term for; well you know what it is, don’t you?

I once bid on a government contracting job that employed about 50 people and had a budget of several million a year. My bid came in at about ½ the cost and used about ½ the number of employees. The bid was rejected and the entire process stayed with the municipality. In an after action meeting I inquired why the government needed twice as many employees as it would take for me to do the job. Their answer was that the government supervisors kept asking for more employees to get the job done on time. No one had ever asked if the employees were being efficient with their time (they weren’t) or if the processes could have been improved upon (it could have been) or was anyone actually looking at performance on a regular basis (no one was) so their budget requirements keep being increased year after year.

If you and I ran a private business the same way the government runs their business, we would have been broke a long time ago. But then isn’t that the current status of our national debt? Fiscal responsibility should be more than an election year slogan; it should be a mission statement.

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“Talking out of both sides of their mouths”

The Boston tea party of 1773 was committed by a group of angry colonists disguised as Indians or Native Americans… if I need to be politically correct. These die hard citizens were rightfully disturbed over the increase in taxation from England along with a host of other unwelcomed rules and regulations. As you know from history, this is one of the pivotal events leading up to the Revolutionary War and the establishment of the United States as an independent and sovereign country.

It now seems as if history is once again repeating itself by the creation of a new, but different tea party in our country. This time it is somewhat different from the first one.

Tea party opponents try to uncover the so called ‘disguise’ of the members of this new political movement and seem to be stumped because they cannot find its core or even its leaders. It’s almost as if all of the members are still disguised and are hidden from view. In the minds of those opposed to the tea party concept, the members of the tea party are still running around refusing to show their true identities.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

What’s humorous about this situation is that none of the members are hidden at all; no …they are all in plain sight and walking freely among us. They are simply us. They are our neighbors, our relatives and our friends. They come from all walks of life and are members of all political parties. They are not hiding at all, which is what makes their detection all that more difficult.

I say again….History repeats itself. It is not uncommon for those in opposition to something to put labels and disparage any form of things unknown. In this instance the tea party movement to the established political parties (of both major parties) is an unknown. The major parties simply do not know how to react to a grass roots movement that has only been in existence for a short time and has no central leadership or even organization behind it. They keep looking for something that does not exist.

It simply is what it is.

This, as you might well imagine seems baffling to career politicians. They are used to everything being done on a quid pro quo basis. The theory that you would actually do something or be a part of something without having some sort of ulterior motive is beyond their normal range of comprehension. You and I both have witnessed our elected representatives going at each other tooth and nail at 10am and then praising each other at cocktail parties at 10pm. All in a days work for them. Their lives are lives of compromise and give and take depending upon what each one of them can give or take. From what I’ve seen, very little consideration is given to those of us who have voted to send someone to Congress to work on our behalf. No, the normal behavior is to do what works for their purposes and then if there is anything left over for us then it may or may not trickle down to our level.

Is it any wonder that the average American is sick and tired of this farce and is now ready for some real changes, not just the same old tired campaign slogans we have been hearing for years and years? We all know the potholes and roads get fixed just before elections, but what about all the rest of the time? Why can’t our government be more responsive to our nation’s ills and problems when there is no election to be considered?

No, our problem is that since the 1700’s our nation has become more and more diverse and in an effort to win the hearts and minds of voters, the politicians have tried their best to carve out a piece of the pie for each individual group. Our growth over these past 200 plus years makes that almost impossible. We are too complicated and diverse to tailor our government so that each and every one of our needs is addressed by the state. Perhaps it was possible in 1773, but certainly it isn’t possible now. We need to get back to basics and address the issues that are of concern to all of us, not just a few.

The sole purpose, in my opinion, of the rise of the tea party movement is to unite people across this land who are seeking the solutions to our common problems. The unity being expressed by the growth of this movement should be applauded and encouraged, not spoken about as if it were a secret society.

It is no secret; it is the will of the people. It was no different in Boston in 1773.

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‘Run…the voters are after us!!!!!’

I suppose I’m just naïve or something, but I always thought being a member of the United States Congress was an honorable position and one we should all look up to for guidance and inspiration.

Having said that, I’m of the opinion that those who run away from adversity and challenges are often called by less than inspirational names….such as cowards or ‘yellow’ or shirkers or (and I love this old word)…a poltroon.

So as in the course of any major military battle, since recorded history began, the commanding force that ran from the challenge at hand was deemed to be cowardly due to their actions. Thus we can safely attach that same label to any and all who shirk from their respective responsibilities, can’t we?

Obviously, there is a point to all of this bit of explanation… and that is to illustrate the actions of our current federal congress that recently fled the nation’s capital leaving a multitude of tasks unfinished. Several members advised that the session had … ‘just ran out of time’… before the fall break. Small wonder that they didn’t have time to convene on really important national items, but did manage to allocate forty minutes of their time towards considering whether or not to recognize the Washington Stealth Lacrosse team for its winning season. Nothing against a winning team, but I do think we have larger fish to fry, don’t you?

So, the Congress packed up its bags and quietly slunk out of town and back home for the remaining few weeks before the 2010 mid term elections. Or perhaps hop on another taxpayer funder junket to Paris (for info on the Islamic world), Dublin (Information on US/Russian relations) or Punta de Mita Resort in Mexico (for conference on South American policies). Oh and be sure and invite your spouse, since they come in handy at the embassy parties given in your honor. At taxpayer expense, naturally.

What a wonderful life they have. Great benefits, excellent retirement options, good travel, better than average pay, lengthy vacations and multiple opportunities for private enterprise all at someone else’s expense. All you have to do is make big promises and get yourself elected, then make more promises to get reelected…..do this a number of times and you are on easy street for the remainder of your life.

Of course every once in awhile some of those nasty old voters may want to bring you to task for running away from the very things they elected you to do for them.

Such as you did this past week, when you left town before you:

1. Told anyone how you would vote on the upcoming decision to extend or deny the Bush tax credits (due to expire on December 31st)
2. Enacted and passed a budget for the forthcoming year. Choosing instead to just vote on a stopgap measure for the next two months.
3. Failed to consider ethics charges against two house members who are up for re-election as the outcome of their trial might endanger their reelection chances. (You think?)

These items as well as slew of others just as important were left hanging until after the mid term elections. So none of us in this country actually know what our budget is going to be or what our tax rates will be until after we elect or not elect those who were sworn to represent us.

A fine kettle of fish this is.

The entire country is basically frozen in place, afraid to jump in any direction because no one knows what the Congress is going to do….and they won’t tell us. No sane business man or woman wants to lay their lives and fortunes on the line by building a new plant or facility and hiring more workers without being able to calculate their overhead costs.

Who can tell me right now what any healthcare plan for any of my current employees or future employees will be or might be? No one, that’s who.

Who can tell me what my taxes will be in the coming year? No one, that’s who.

Who can tell me if the person I vote for will even be my representative (if mine is one of those currently involved in the ethics investigation) after their ethics trials are held? No one, that’s who.

Run, run away and keep on going…..then perhaps we can elect honest and responsible people to look after our affairs after you are long gone. Good riddance and don’t come back.

We don’t need cowards, we need real Americans.

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“Send in the clowns……”

I really must make it a point next week to run down (not literally) my postman (post-person? postal employee?) and ask him (her? or whatever) what happened to my application for benefits under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Family Program. Surely it must be stuck in their (his, hers, whatever) mail sack or bag or whatever they call the thing they use to carry the mail. Forgive me if I am not PC enough to get all of the terminology correct, I’m doing the best I can.

You didn’t get your notice either? What’s up with this? Maybe we were absent the day the notice went out…..you think?

Not surprising, no one in our neck of the woods has heard of it either. It must be some sort of regional program.

A little bit of explanation. The Temporary Assistance….let’s just call it the TANF program was part of the stimulus program enacted last year. It was designed to provide some benefits and assistance to our citizens who were attempting to obtain government jobs. So, included in last years stimulus package was this little noticed program which has doled out over 4.3 billion bucks to some 120,000 of our citizens. Lucky them.

Don’t bother to get your calculator out, I’ll do it for you, it comes out to a little over $40,000 per person.

Here’s what the money was to be used for:

Basic assistance- (I could have used this and you probably could as well) I suppose that’s for food, gasoline, tires, clothes, a new flat screen TV…you know all of the things that we need to live on….doesn’t seem to be many restrictions or definition as to exactly what the word ‘basic’ actually means…but those are detail and who cares about details when you are handing our free money?

Emergency expenses-(I could have used this and you probably could as well) this money was to go for such things as rent and utilities. I have those. I could have used money for this. Especially if it was free. My electricity bill is way too high, and if the Queen of England is trying to get her light bill partially paid for by the government, why shouldn’t I? I wonder if she remembers to turn out the lights in her castles as she moves from room to room? Probably not.

Subsidize payroll on jobs- (I could have used this and you probably could as well)…this is a great way to spend government funds. You just go into the private sector and pay for a certain portion of an employer’s payroll. Talk about a boost to the economy. Why the governor of Mississippi (a republican… no less) says it helped his state keep 3,200 jobs. All an employer had to do was keep the person on the payroll for at least six months. What a deal. I really like this one the best. Let’s say I’m in the construction business and you own another company and we are both bidding on a contract. You, poor fellow, did not get notice of the subsidy program, so shame on you. If some portion of my labor costs are being subsidized by this government program, whose bid is probably going to come in lower? I know you readers, you can figure this out. Why… it would probably be mine since I have lower cost associated with the project. I win; you lose…thanks to Uncle Sam and this wonderful free money.

Free money….? Would someone, anyone be kind enough to explain to me where this free money actually comes from in the first place?

Is this the model of efficiency we need for economic growth in this country? Unfair competition for some, but not all? Federal programs being instituted to a select few who just happen to be on the inside and being made aware of what is available?

I know, the naysayers will say that we all can look for these programs, they are open to everyone. You just have to know how to look.

Sorry, but I don’t have time to look…I’m too busy working to pay my utility bills, my mortgage and taxes so you guys in congress can give away more money or pay for clowns like Steven Colbert to entertain you for a day. At least he is honest enough to admit he is a clown, none of you people will do so.

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FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS ARE FOR DEMOCRATS…NOT YOU OTHER FOOLS !!!…

I’m so glad the president and his minions have spoken. It gives me such a warm and fuzzy feeling to know they are looking after my best interests. In view of the recent Supreme Court decision allowing corporations to finance political campaigns the Democrats have once again proven their unwavering bias.

Yesterday the president opined that … ‘We don’t need to give any more voice to the powerful interests that already drown out the voices of everyday Americans.” In other words, he was going to make certain that new pieces of legislation would be introduced in the coming weeks that would blunt the impact of the courts ruling. Doesn’t this lead us to a sort of Catch 22 situation? A law suit forces the court to rule …the court rules..and a new piece of legislation is proposed which might get passed which will result in another law suit resulting in another ruling resulting in another piece of legislation? How many can be attempted before there is a time out? Perhaps the question should be…is there ever a time out? Another brilliant suggestion was voiced in this manner: Rep. Donna Edwards, D-Md., went even further. She suggested a constitutional amendment to strip a corporation’s “personhood” for First Amendment purposes. What a can of worms this would open up, obviously Ms. Edwards has no idea about the purpose and concept of a corporate entity. I guess she was absent from law school the day this was discussed.

Several legal scholars have voiced their concerns that trying to repeal this decision or to introduce legislation to regulate it once more places restrictions on the first amendment right of free speech. Of course, the current administration and its lockstep followers see it as an opportunity for big business to have more clout (read vote getting possibilities) in upcoming elections. I’m certain that the fact that most big businesses, as well as businesses in general, are owned and controlled by Republicans may have played into this analysis of the courts ruling. This follows the ‘fair play’ philosophy of the Democrats who believe if it is good for someone other than themselves it must be bad and done away with at all possible costs.

I find the words of the president to be especially curious when he says that he is concerned that the … ‘powerful interests may drown out the voices of everyday Americans.’ I may be old and more forgetful than perhaps twenty years ago, but didn’t the President of United States…a few weeks ago…jump on board of a sweet heart deal for the labor unions of this country in regards to taxation on healthcare? Maybe I missed something, but aren’t labor unions a ‘special interest’ group or are they exempt from criticism and inspection like …Acorn? As I recall, the IRS and the FBI were going to actively investigate the books at Acorn, but I haven’t heard anything recently about their progress. I looked up the words…’special interests’ in the dictionary and a picture of the logo for Acorn popped up….but what do I know…I’m just a citizen.

No, it seems to me that if something seems ok and for the benefit of those on the left, then heaven help anyone who might be looking to see if it is fair for all of us. They seem to labor under the impression that whatever is good for them is good for the rest of us as well. No one on our side should be expressing any views or comments contrary to those coming out of the beltway and to do so would be tantamount to being a traitor. I’m surprised we haven’t heard some left wing nut case to call for the reinstatement of the alien and sedition act. There seems to be no shortage of democratic zombies out there who would do any and everything possible to garner some form of adoration and largesse from the benevolent chief of state.

On second thought, give ‘em time…they’ll figure out a way to shovel it onto the pile.

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“Can you hear me…now?”

I suppose I should consider changing my name to something like Rip Van Perry since it appears I have been asleep for quite sometime. Before I dozed off, I recall the candidate for the president of the United States, Barack Obama had been criticizing the Bush administration for being too invasive of the rights of the American citizens.

Now we find that one group (Moveon.org) who had worked long and hard to put Mr. O into the White House had this to say (July, 2008) about Mr. O’s flip flop on telecom surveillance:
“We’re disappointed in Senator Obama’s support of the compromise on FISA—the bill doesn’t go far enough in protecting our constitutional liberties and allows a free pass for phone companies who helped the President illegally wiretap innocent Americans. We hope Sen. Obama will honor his word and do everything he can to strip this immunity from the bill. He’s also said that accountability is very important to him, so we’re hoping he will follow up with a plan for how to protect our liberty and our security, along with a plan to bring lawbreakers to justice. Americans want those who violate the constitution to see consequences; it’s a core American value and a winning position for the election. This along with his strong stands on healthcare, the energy crisis and ending the war can help the Senator win in November.”
Of course, MoveOn.org must have believed the Obama promise that he would take care of their request in exchange for their support in helping him to get elected. I wonder how they feel now? It now appears that the fears of MoveOn.Org are going to come true. The FBI is pushing for the right to obtain logs from all mobile phone companies in order to track the movements of Americans. Read More at:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10451518-38.html

What happened here? I was under the impression (obviously mistaken) that the Obama administration was going to put an end to the evil spying policies of the Bush/Cheney era. Now it seems that Mr. O is taking the position that none of us have any ‘reasonable expectation of privacy’ when it comes to making cell calls. Better keep this in mind when you call your significant other and speak those little words between now and Valentines Day. You never know who will be listening.
In another swipe at our civil rights is the administrations request for the internet service providers to maintain a log of all of the web sites each one of us might choose to visit. This little discussion is taking place at this time and is approved by none other than good old President Barack…..read about this at:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10448060-38.html?tag=rtcol;pop

Obviously the internet has become a major part of our lives and there isn’t anyone who would deny that it has been used to further the criminal activities of some. But, the Obama administration seems to focus on throwing the baby out with the bath water in their implementation of any of their policies. Look at healthcare, we estimate that some 13-20 million citizens don’t have health insurance, so why not address those and leave the rest of us alone? The same logic (perhaps that’s the wrong word to use in relationship to anything to do with the government) applies to using the internet. Why would the government need to track where I go when they should focus on looking at the people committing crimes? Certainly we have no issue with warrants being issued to facilitate the investigation of criminals, but to give wholesale approval to store data on all of us seems to be overkill to me. I’m certain requiring the internet service providers to maintain huge amounts of information such as this would result in the costs of services to escalate. Of course, then we would have to build a large government agency to handle and process all of the information being passed along to them. More jobs to fill, more tax to support, less freedom….there’s change for you.

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“Politicians need summer school….”

I have a friend who ran for a position as a district judge. He won.

He told me that after he was elected, one of the first defendants that had to be sentenced had a range of prison time from five years to life. My friend tells me there were not any guidelines or books to help him figure out what was proper in this case. As a result he went back and studied books, case law and prison conditions to find out for himself what was the right thing to do. He wanted to know how to be fair in his elected position. He is a good man.

In the past several months we have seen a number of elected officials who apparently missed their opportunity to learn what was appropriate as well as what was expected of them for their positions.

A Texas legislator was in the news a couple of weeks ago, after it was discovered that he was billing both the State as well as his campaign funds for the same travel expenses. His defense was that ‘he didn’t know it wasn’t the right thing to do’. He’ll probably blame on some poor second grade teacher who failed to stress honesty and integrity to him when he was seven years old. Poor baby.

Another Texas congressional representative has been accused of using funds given to her for scholarships and then awarding them to family members and close friends. Under the anti-nepotism rules of the scholarship program, Representative Bernice Johnson of Dallas was prohibited from giving out scholarship monies to her relatives or children of her staff. Ms. Johnson stated that she had indeed violated the rules, but had done so … ‘unknowingly’. She also stated that she just wasn’t ‘fully aware’ of the program rules. Of course….knowing the ‘rules’ doesn’t seem to be of much interest to many law makers such as Ms. Johnson. According to the news report, these scholarships were to be given to needy students in her district. None of the recipients lived or attended school in her district. Ms. Johnson just wasn’t aware of this small requirement.

The left leaning media is quick to point out that representative Charlie Rangel of New York merely missed several items when it came to ethics. One pundit says that Rangel’s ‘overlooking’ of the taxable income from property in the Dominican Republic couldn’t have been much since the property only cost $82,750. In the writers mind, this meant that the house was not a ‘villa’ and couldn’t have been very ‘palatial.’ I don’t know for sure, but it seems to me that the IRS doesn’t cut anyone any slack just because the property isn’t worth millions of dollars. Rangel also seems to have allegedly abused his office by using his elected position to raise funds for some ‘learning center’. Oh, wait there’s more. Add his lack of candor in filling out some financial disclosure forms as well as perhaps using a rent controlled apartment in New York for a campaign office. Several of Rangel’s defenders took the position that Rangel was hardly the first person in New York to do this, so what’s the big deal? If we all took that line of thinking, then I suppose since Cain killed Able that gives me the right to gun down my neighbor with the barking dog since ‘everyone’ has been doing it for a long period of time.

Last but not least is Representative Maxine Waters. Mrs. Waters is being investigated by the House ethics committee who alleges that Waters’s office improperly worked in September 2008 to press for aid to prevent the failure of Boston-based OneUnited Bank. This bank eventually stayed afloat with the help of money from the Troubled Assets Relief Program. Waters’s husband, Sidney Williams, had served on the bank’s board. He owned stock in OneUnited that had declined in value from $350,000 in June 2008 to $175,000 two months later and would have been “worthless” without the bailout funds, according to the ethics committee. Mrs. Waters has defended her position by stating that she was pressing for aid for all minority banks. Apparently the only bank discussed in her meeting was OneUnited, but this seems to not be of any concern to Rep. Waters.

Well, this is all I have time for this week. I’m certain there are others which I could discuss, but four is quite enough for the time being. I guess my point here is that adult people who manage to get themselves elected to a public office should have some level of intelligence, honesty and integrity. They should not use or abuse their elected positions and then blame it off on stupidity or a lack of information about the rules.

If you and I are expected to live and abide by the rules, shouldn’t those who are in our government required to do the same? Perhaps we need some sort of school to train these poorly educated folks who have chosen to represent us in the nation’s governments, after all it doesn’t seem to be their fault if they can’t figure out the difference between right and wrong.

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“Coming soon….tax on air!!!!”

Every day in this country brings us new joy, doesn’t it? You can never say you are bored with what our government is doing to us on a daily basis can you? Most of the things that will apply to each and every one of us are hidden somewhere in some sort of legislation that gets passed and put into effect without any input or commentary by any of us poor working stiffs.

So, we are expected to be cheerful and sing as we trudge off to the mines each day, hi-ho, hi-ho it’s off to work with go. Sometimes I begin to believe our elected officials really think all of us will get our greatest rewards when we die rather than anytime we may have here on planet Earth. Why should we have any pleasure or fun? They seem to revel in theft, corruption and just plain stupidity each and every day of the week.

Hardly a day goes by that we do not hear of some legislator in some part of the country caught again with their hand in our cookie jar. I don’t know about you, but frankly I’m sick of hearing elected officials tell us that … ‘The rules weren’t clear’ or ‘ I didn’t understand that stealing was not allowed…’ We aren’t dealing with second graders here, we are dealing with grown men and women who supposedly are astute enough to get elected and placed into positions of trust to represent our interests, not their own.

Well, enough about this issue…..

Let’s talk about taxes. Several items have been brought to my mind this past week.

One is the tax on gasoline. Most of the state governments as well as the federal government are talking about raising the tax on a gallon of gasoline. Why? Well it’s very simple, see we are driving less as well as buying vehicles that get better gas mileage than they used to do so the total amount of gasoline being consumed is actually going down due to our being more efficient. You’d think this was a good thing, wouldn’t you? But no, the government (both local and federal) see tax revenues declining due to our being more efficient and therefore they need to increase the amount of tax to equal the revenue they once were receiving. So, using this analogy I suppose when we are able to buy vehicles that get 100 miles to the gallon, we will be paying more in taxes since the government still needs the revenue. Sounds right to me, how about you?

The same explanation is going for our electricity providers who are seeing a reduction in total usage due to better insulation and more energy saving appliances. Got to keep those tax revenues up no matter how efficient we become. Reduction of governmental expense seems to be a foreign concept, doesn’t it?

If you want to look at a harbinger of what could happen in this country you should study the current economic conditions taking place in Greece. This country is in serious trouble and the future doesn’t look well for them any way they go. If they cut government spending in order to reduce their debt, then tax revenues will fall causing more spending to be required to be cut resulting in less tax revenues and on and on. Spending more government money creates more debt so this isn’t the answer as well. They are in a no-win situation due to their massive and unsustainable debt load.

Our local government borrowed a huge amount of money to build a rail system which has resulted in less than one fourth of the expected daily passengers. Since the fare revenue is so drastically reduced, the rail administrators came up with a brilliant plan. Increase the fares to cover the operational shortfall. So, instead of lowering the fares (basically think of it as a tax) to encourage more riders on a daily basis, they discourage riders by increasing the fares. I suppose if only one person rode each day, then untimely that person would be charged the entire operational fee for the entire system.

The problem ( as I see it) is that the majority of persons running our government have never operated a business or had to cover payroll, pay taxes or deal with employees, banks and the IRS. Once you have done this, you begin to understand what it takes to actually manage something in order to remain in business. Governments have no profit motivation since their source of revenue is virtually endless. Opening up credit and reducing the amount of governmental interference is the quickest and surest way to get the economy on the run once again.

Otherwise we end up like Greece, looking for new ways to tax the citizens…such as making us pay for the air we breathe.

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I want…mercy..not justice……

Long ago and far away, I was in a discussion with a friend of mine who was a judge. I was just wondering about certain aspects of the judicial system. I’ll never forget that he told me that if I were to ever find myself in court for any reason whatsoever I had better hope for mercy and not justice. He advised that no one really wanted justice….everyone really wanted mercy.

I suppose he’s really correct, since it’s doubtful anyone would want to be judged by a jury of their peers. Or is that piers? Probably doesn’t matter does it? When you look at the sorry state of our nation’s educational system, you might want to think long and hard about ever coming to trial in any kind of an American courtroom.

Several years ago I was involved in a major law suit that was very complicated and involved. The longer it took to go to trial the more concerned I became. It was difficult enough for me to explain what the case was all about much less the group of attorneys on our side. The experience left me very leery of the entire judicial system. I was not at all comfortable thinking that a group of my fellow citizens who had barely passed high school would be the ones deciding whether I was a winner or a loser. Fortunately the other side settled and I missed the experience of a court room trial.

Do not get me wrong, I’m not saying that all juries are ignorant or dumb. But let’s look at the recent trial of former governor Rod Blagojevich of Illinois. This trial droned on and on for weeks and then was declared a mistrial due to the hold out of one juror. Later news reports came out with the information that the jury was unable to understand the legal jargon and thought the charges were simply too complex. One juror reported that they got hung up on the charge of ‘conspiring to commit extortion’. It seems they didn’t understand exactly what this meant.

I had no problem with this…the charge looks fairly simple……but then again I wasn’t in the trial so maybe I missed something. However I am under the impression that conspiring to do something means several people got together and discussed committing some type of action, like murder or theft or even extortion. Under the law, conspiracy means an agreement between two or more persons to break the law at some time in the future, and, in some cases, with at least one overt act in furtherance of that agreement. There is no limit on the number participating in the conspiracy and, in most countries, no requirement that any steps have been taken to put the plan into effect. So in Rod’s case, the act of discussing on the telephone what he planned to do about filling the vacant senate seat of one Barack Obama caused some confusion on the part of the jury. His discussion of what he planned appears to me to be conspiracy, but then again what do I know?

Folks come to me all of the time asking questions about various things. One of the most common ones I get is whether or not someone should sue someone for something. I’m not an attorney and generally tell them they should consult with a lawyer, but I’d rather get pecked to death by a duck (my friend’s favorite term) than to get involved in a law suit. Looking at the level of education in this country, who wants to spend lots of dollars for a courtroom filled with jurors who cannot read or write, much less understand business practices? If the case was a simple case of someone stealing an apple, perhaps that might not be so bad. However when if comes to complex finances and business issues, then how has our school system prepared our citizens to handle these kinds of challenges?

Simple…they haven’t.

This might sound cruel, but suppose you own a business and someone sues you for whatever…..the person suing you wants all you’ve got. You’re trying to explain that you aren’t wrong to a group of people who normally are asking questions such as … “do you want fries with that?” These people are in a position to judge your fate as well as your future. If it comes to this in your life, I suggest you throw yourself upon the court and seek mercy…you won’t get justice.

Sad isn’t it? But until we get an educational system that rewards achievement and promotes excellence from our teachers as well as our students, we’ll be stuck in the ditch with the rest of the third world countries of this planet.

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