Do you remember "Schoolhouse Rock"?

Back in the early 1970's, back when Saturday morning cartoons were still popular, ABC had a series of short vignettes called "Schoolhouse Rock". 
They dealt with grammar, history, math and such. 

For everyone who remembers.....

 

Dude, where's my bribe?

Every now and then the shakedown artists in D.C. forget that they can be tracked, recorded and monitored as they go about their business of asking for contributions in exchange for (sarcasm)  "thoughtfully and carefully crafting legislation for the greater good of society". (/end of sarcasm)

Here's the great Eleanor Holmes Norton, who represents herself and her cronies the District Of Columbia in Congress.  She's shaking down a lobbyist, and reminding said lobbyist just who the f*** she is. 

BTW, this video was posted by Cenk Uygur of "The Young Turks" program on Current TV.  Hardly a Tea Party outlet. 

Eleanor Holmes Norton will be re-elected in a landslide. 

Enjoy the decline !!

 

My heart breaks. My tears flow.

Lobbyists on K Street in Washington D.C. have had a rough time of it for the last two weeks. 
Here's Roll Call, on the difficulties now facing the residents of Gucci Gulch:

…sequester cuts…reflect not only Washington’s political paralysis but a bitter lobbying failure for K Street interests across the board. From university professors and scientists to cancer victims, defense contractors and federal workers, hundreds of advocacy, trade and labor groups have lobbied aggressively for months to head off the cuts. They’ve run ads, testified on Capitol Hill, staged demonstrations and hounded lawmakers, all to no avail. …the path forward could be a lobbying nightmare.


These people have lifestyles that would make Roman Emperors blush. 
They convince your CongressCritters to spend money on silly, silly things.  Mostly defense, but sometimes on million-dollar studies of Why Lesbians Get Fat.  (Hint: It's because they're less promiscuous than men, therefore more secure in their relationships.  Plus, they party a lot.) 

Anyway, thanks to the great Dan Mitchell for the quote copied above.  And also for this cartoon showing his reaction to the difficulties now facing K Street, which, if Libertarians have their way, will eventually be bulldozed to put up a Frisbee Golf Course.

Ryan Sheffield's 12 Political Compromises

My Bar Friend Ryan Sheffield has put a list of "12 Political Compromises" on Facebook.  This is his governmental wish list. 

As a side note, Ryan is one of those creative people who can do just about anything he wants to do.  Go here to view (and purchase) some of his artwork, mostly drawings of authors that incorporate their quotations.  I think I've used the Twain and the Hunter S. Thompson to liven up posts on this site a few times. 
Go here to download (no purchase required) his two e-books.  I've read some of his stories, and they're good stuff. 

IMHO, Ryan is very close to the Kingdom Of God, i.e., the Libertarian Party, with this list.  My additional commentary is in italics.  Here goes:

1. Repeal Citizens United. You would be hard-fought to find any normal citizen who thinks it’s a good idea for corporations, labor unions and special interest groups to have an unfettered cashflow into political campaigns. It doesn’t matter what “side” you are on, you should probably oppose Big Money syndicates controlling the election process and fueling the obnoxious TV commercials you are being bombarded with every day.

Why do we have big corporations and super-pacs giving a rip who gets elected?  Well, to produce a successful product, you have to convince millions of citizens to purchase the product.  That's the hard way.  The easy way is to get Congress to mandate the use, purchase, or monopolization of the product.  Corporations want protection from competitors.  In a nation with a massive government, it's far more effective to purchase one Congressman that to sell to 330 million Americans.  Here's something from the Cato Institute:

The proper answer to large expenditures for speech is either more speech or, if the existing system proves unworkable, a constitutional amendment. As for money, it's just a symptom. We have a big money problem because we have a big government problem. By restraining the regulatory and redistributive powers of the state, we can minimize the influence of big money. Restoring the Framers' notion of enumerated, delegated, and limited federal powers will get government out of our lives and out of our wallets. That's the best way to end the campaign-finance racket, and root out corruption without jeopardizing political speech.

In other words, if it really matters who wins the elections, your government has gotten too big.  If governments can mandate profits for favored corporations, government has gotten waaaay too big. 

2. Close the “Revolving Door” and shut lobbyists out of government. This is an extension of number 1. Again, no one wants these organizations, right or left, buying and bribing politicians or running their own regulatory agencies. Politicians work for us, not the highest bidder.

Once again, lobbyists are just a symptom.  They're not the disease.  If the government matters enough to justify the hiring of lobbyists, the government has gotten too big. 

3. End the “War on Drugs.” This doesn’t mean we have to legalize EVERYTHING, but this “war” is a bottomless money pit and a failed experiment. It is the reason the violent cartels exist and the reason your idiot son is snorting bath salts in your basement.

Precisely.  Exactly.  Ever since Nixon began the War On Drugs in 1970, the only drug whose use has declined is....tobacco.  That's because tobacco is legal and no longer cool.  
There are a few antibiotics that should possibly be restricted because unfettered use causes viruses to mutate and grow stronger.  
Everything else?  Well, ask yourself which currently illegal drugs you want the Mexican and Afghan Drugs Lords to have a monopoly on. 

4. Stop treating the environment as a partisan issue. The environment SHOULD be something we all agree on. It affects us all equally. As long as free enterprise exists, there must be checks & balances on pollution, deforestation and animal cruelty. This is not “socialism.” It’s the necessary price business owners must pay for the ability to run operations that affect our natural surroundings and resources. The beautiful but unrealistic Libertarian idea that simply boycotting polluters will solve the problem is a pipe dream. Especially if the public is unaware they are polluting in the first place (or simply doesn’t care.) We need to agree on what “facts and science” are and deal with the problems accordingly. Present “free market” alternatives. That is healthy and good. But accept science before you make suggestions. Economic freedom doesn’t make toxic waste taste any better.

The environment is a classic economic "externality".  You want to purchase powder-coated metal parts from me, so I powder-coat the parts.  You give me money.  I give you painted parts.  We're the only two people involved in the deal.  But not if I dump a lot of leftover zinc and iron-phosphate into the Trinity River.  Then a lot of other people become a party to our deal.  That's called an "externality". 

The classic Anarchist position in this case is to boycott the polluters.  The classic Libertarian position, however, is to sue the shit out of them if they have done YOU harm.  (Plus, all environmental regulations should be voted on by Congress, not enforced by appointees.)  Go here and here for two more excellent Cato downloads on how we could help the environment, lower the bureaucratic costs, and also let manufacturing businesses prosper. 

5. Audit the Federal Reserve and, preferably, abolish it. A private banking organization with no oversight or accountability should NOT be in charge of the nation’s economy. Central banks were never a good idea. But private and secret central banks are even worse.

Oh yes, yes, yes, Mr. Sheffield.  Yes, yes, yes.  And when we End The Fed, let's level all their buildings and plow salt into the earth where they stood so nothing will ever grow there again. 
The Fed was founded in 1913 to stabilize the money supply.  Since 1913, the dollar has lost 97% of its value. 

6. Legalize gay marriage. It doesn’t affect you. Just let it happen, move on, and turn your attention to issues that actually affect us all.

Yeah.  If God doesn't like gay people, why does he keep making so many of them? 

7. Disrupt and destroy the partisan divide. We are all screwed if this extreme partisanship continues to divide us. The culture of the American media has made it impossible for us to discuss issues and make progress. The main source of this problem? Pigeonholing. If someone asks you if you support the Affordable Care Act (or Obamacare, for the other partisans), your answer should be nuanced and thought-out and should NEVER place you squarely in a political party. The common practice of assuming what “side” someone is on based on a single opinion is the MOST destructive aspect of our modern political culture.

In my opinion, we have so much extreme partisanship and a partisan divide because the only choice we have is between two partisans.  You can pick the Crips or the Bloods.  I've commented on this dozens of times elsewhere, but let's say the Crips and Bloods are the only parties to hold office for the last 75 years.  They both advocate slavery, puppy torture, and poor dental hygiene.  But the Bloods have a better position on Healthcare. 

So you always support the Bloods.  Otherwise the Crips will win.  If a 3rd gang (The Libertarians) comes along advocating an end to slavery, puppy torture, and are pro-brushing and flossing, they're written off as a wasted vote.  They might help the dreaded Crips win !!  So what's the solution?  How do we end all of this partisanship of Us vs Them? 

Through a system of approval voting.  Go here for an explanation.  It would allow most of us to comfortably step outside the Us and Them boxes and safely try out some other points of view. 

8. Recognize that gun control is like drug control. They will always exist and banning them only makes them more dangerous. People have a Constitutional right to arm themselves and threatening to take that right away only makes the loony “patriot” gun nuts all the more rabid and frothing at the mouth for their insurrection fantasies. Compromise: Don’t sell assault rifles at K-Mart. Gun store owners are always going to be more scrutinizing than a 16-year-old making minimum wage at a big box store.

I became a rabid 2nd Amendment nutcase when one of my co-managers brought in plans for a WWI-era machine gun that we could make at the shop.  I totally understood those blueprints, and I'm a borderline mechanical idiot.  Ryan is correct.  Guns aren't going away if someone like me can make one. 
I don't have insurrection fantasies, but do have the fears.  I now sometimes carry a gun, because cops are too dang heavy. 

9. Remove the words “socialism” and “capitalism” from the healthcare debate. It should be universally considered the “noble” goal to provide affordable healthcare for all American citizens. The road to that goal is (and SHOULD be) up for debate, but the endgame should not. The question is how to pay for it and how to ensure that quality of care (and personal decision-making power) do not decrease. It’s going to be difficult to sort out, but it’s hard for me to believe that there is anyone in America who does not think it’s a positive thing for everyone to have healthcare. “Healthcare is not a right.” You’re correct. Now let’s sit down and figure out how to make it one in a way that we can all agree on. If your opinion on healthcare is little more than “I support the President because he’s a Democrat like me” or “I dang’ol hate commies!,” you should probably stop voting.

I think that true Capitalist Healthcare has never been tried.  Here's my modest proposal.  If this became the system in an 8-block Free Market Zone someplace south of downtown, people would be flying in from all over the state for treatment.  And I think this would meet Ryan's criteria of a noble solution for a noble goal.  Hit the link. Please. 
But I do like the word "capitalism", because when regulators and Nanny-Staters allow unbridled acts of capitalism to take place, capitalism usually works.  Lap Band surgery and Lasik eye surgeries have become 80% less expensive, mostly because Medicare, Medicaid and insurance policies don't cover them. 

10. All censorship is wrong. A message to the left wing: All speech must be permitted, even what most would consider “hate.” I’m sorry. Free speech is an “all or nothing” issue. We can never open the door for authority to tell us what we can and can’t say or express. A message for the right wing: Seriously, just think about it. Is it really worse for your kid to see a naked lady than it is for them to witness a mass murder? Obviously not, if you’ve ever watched primetime TV. Get your priorities straight.

Here's a Ryan Sheffield print.  It's gonna be the first one I order:

11. Recognize that nearly every one of those infographics, chain emails, or biased news articles you share with your friends is chock-full of misinformation, omission, and partisan agendas. Yes, even the ones that agree with your position. “There are lies, damned lies, and statistics.” – Mark Twain

That's why I probably won't watch the (ahem) debate between The Obamneys.  Much truthiness will be thrown around that's half-right, half-wrong, manipulated, and taken totally out of the original context.
 
My questions about the infographics, chain emails, news articles and partisan agendas usually come down to this...  a) Does this person want to leave me and everyone else alone? b) Does this person's agenda promote or discourage ethnic, racial, or national Tribalism?
Nothing else matters. 

12. Talk to each other. Stop being so goddamn clique-y with your politics. Talk to someone who disagrees with you without letting the debate devolve into a talking points recitation contest. We need more open minds, less partisan cheerleading. I feel like I’m watching a word-war between Crips and Bloods who haven’t yet realized that the only thing dividing them is the color of bandana they wear.

Sorry, I’ll shut up now.  

Some of my responses were old talking points and some were new. 

Sorry about breaking Ryan's post down into a word-war between Crips and Bloods and Libertarians. 

The LP bandana is red and blue with porcupines on it.  

I'll shut up too.  At least until tomorrow morning.  

Be sure to hit the links at the top for Ryan Sheffields art and stories !!   

On Privatized Prisons

One of the few legitimate uses of government power is for initiating the use of force. 
The government is supposed to have a monopoly on police, military action, courts and prisons. 

So, of course, that's what the government has been trying to outsource. 

(They want to educate our kids, control our lightbulb purchases, correct our diets, takeover the medical field, subsidize their campaign contributors, dominate insurance, regulate oil drilling, protect manufacturers from overseas competitors, prohibit recreational drug use, prevent me from purchasing some awesome fireworks, monopolize college education, prevent gays from marrying, hamstring the auto industry, inflate the money supply, rape the economy, run up our debts, and shoehorn their way into hundreds of thousands of other situations where they are totally incompetent.) 

But prisons?  One of the few things that really is their job?  That's what they're willing outsource. 

One of my employees has been recommending a blog called Grits For Breakfast.  Mr. Grits specializes in the failures of our justice system, and Lord Have Mercy, outsourced prisons have been one of failures.  There really are good reasons why the government should have a monopoly on initiating force. 

Here's Mr. Grits on an outfit called GEO, which runs some prisons in Mississippi:

In Mississippi, "the state's corrections commissioner on Friday said that [the GEO Group] would no longer operate three [private prison] facilities in the state, which held 4,000 inmates," NPR reported recently. Regrettably, Mississippi is seeking another contractor instead of taking their management in-house or downsizing youth facilities, as Texas has done.

Now to be clear, a state that, in the 21st century, voted 2-1 to keep the Confederate battle logo as part of its state flag (you don't really see it flying much in any of the come-to-Mississippi tourism commercials, do you?) doesn't really care what us Texans, DOJ, or anybody else thinks about them. They ousted Geo out of their own self interest, so as another of GEO's customers, Texas should naturally consider why.

The decision comes in the wake of legal setbacks for the company in federal court involving abuse allegations at a juvenile facility, though GEO insisted their departure is unrelated and adamantly denied the charges. Even so, "the judge's [March settlement] order ... said an investigation by the plaintiff's counsel 'uncovered pervasive violations of state and federal civil and criminal law and a wholesale lack of accountability by prison officials. For example, staff of the [facility] and those responsible for overseeing and supervising the youth engaged in sexual relationships with the youth; they exploited them by selling drugs in the facility; and the youth, 'handcuffed and defenseless[,] have been kicked, punched, and beaten all over their bodies.''"

To make matters worse,"Staff at the center failed consistently to report and investigate claims about excessive use of force, even though they witnessed many of the acts, the judge wrote. 'Given that the facility employs correctional staffers affiliated with gangs, no more can be expected.'" Finally, "The judge also noted a Justice Department report, which confirmed many of the allegations and said the state of Mississippi was 'deliberately indifferent' to the constitutional rights of the young inmates."

Whatever proximate cause anyone wants to attribute it to, when federal judges start saying things  like that about your government contract, it's understandable one might decide it's time to pack up and leave town!

Texas has closed many of its juvenile facilities and may soon end up closing the rest of them, shifting juvenile supervision wholly to the counties and more aggressive community-based programming. It's too bad Mississippi looks like it will continue  contracting management of these facilities instead of taking the opportuntiy to pull them in-house or, better, downsize. I'm not sure  just finding another profit-driven management contractor will solve the problems the judge chastised them over.

Related posts: From Texas Prison Bidness, "GEO Group subject of lawsuit in prison death at Central Texas detention center." Also, "GEO guard indicted for contraband at Val Verde Correctional Center."

The cartoon of a contractor whispering in the Mississippi governor's ear came from here.  The cartoon of the Statue Of Non-Liberty came from here.   The chart showing the prison population increasing, partly because of lobbying on the part of the prison industry, came from here.  The cartoon of the vicious cycle came from here. 

The Green Industry - A few things you probably already knew

This bit of brilliance is by Timothy P. Carney of the Washington Examiner. 
No, the industry of painting machines green isn't driven by a a desire to save the planet. 

Environmental policy is not driven by tree-hugging activists, earnest liberal bloggers, or ecologically minded citizens. Instead, it flows from the lobbyists and executives of well-connected multinational corporations and built-for-subsidy startups that see profit in the loan guarantees, handouts, mandates, and tax credits Congress creates in the name of saving the planet.
K Street is the epicenter of this green-industrial complex, and ground zero might be the firm founded by Democratic revolving-door earmark lobbyist Steve McBee.

McBee, a former top staffer for Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and powerful House Appropriations Committee member Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash., reportedly wrote key provisions in the stimulus bill to open the spigot of green corporate welfare. Also, he has hired up the Capitol Hill staff at the center of big environmental legislative pushes like cap and trade.

Exploring corporate lobbyists' central role in Obama's "green energy" push provides us two important lessons. First, it reveals as hypocritical the Democratic attack that opponents of cap and trade and other green policies are simply shills for big business.

Second, it ought to heighten our skepticism that these "green" policies are really crafted with an eye to helping the environment -- they are more likely skewed toward the bottom line of lobbied-up Big Business.

McBee's clients include SolarCity and the Green Tech Action Fund as well as electric-car maker Better Place Inc., waste-to-power company Ze-gen, and solar-power developer BrightSource Energy. But the big guys -- Boeing, JP Morgan, and Google -- also hire McBee to lobby for green-energy subsidies.

Electric car company Tesla signed on with McBee days after Obama's election, and soon won a $465 million loan guarantee to aid in building a new all-electric car.

With McBee's former boss being a senior Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, McBee Strategic used to be an earmark factory. After Obama's election, though, McBee pivoted to green energy and saw revenues soar in 2009.

"I attribute it to the bets we've made on clean energy and energy," he told Roll Call.

Late last year McBee hired Kathleen Frangione, described by Politico as "Sen. John Kerry's top climate staffer." You see the play: advance green legislation, then lobby for the companies trying to make money off that legislation.

Hit the link up top to read the whole thing. 
The pictures of the Room Cleaner (a space heater with a feather duster taped to it) and the gasoline powered alarm clock, both of which were approved as "Energy Stars" by regulators, came from here. 

Keep Food Legal, The Department Of Agriculture, and Sherpas For Subsidies

There is a new political organization and website in town, and it is dedicated to something that I love dearly....Groceries. 
The Keep Food Legal group is dedicated to getting the government out of our farms, our pantries and our kitchens. 
We have one employee in the Department Of Agriculture for every eleven farmers.  The ratio of other leeches, parasites and regulators is even higher if you count the guards at our borders who make sure the prescribed quotas and amounts per nation (but no more) of food can cross the border into our cage. 

Here are some details from the Keep Food Legal site.  

We Love Food
Do you love food? If you’re like us, you do. Maybe you love particular foods. Do your tastes skew toward artisan cheeses, wines, and meats? Do you live for flavorful organic vegetables sold by small farmers and producers? Or do you prefer street foods—tacos, barbecue, and the like? How about fast food? Or maybe fine dining? Or, like us, do you love some or all of the whole range of food options available across America today?

We Hate Food Bans
If you’re like us, you’ve probably also noticed that there are too many restrictions on our right to procure the foods we love, and that these restrictions are growing. At the local, state, and federal levels, elected officials have banned or are working to ban or severely restrict everything from traditional farm products (like raw milk and cheeses) and locavore-friendly farm practices (like on-farm animal slaughter and meat packaging), are seeking to prevent chefs from using common food ingredients (like salt and trans fats), and are looking to ban others from selling a variety of foods (including soda, energy drinks, bacon-wrapped hot dogs, and giant pizza slices).

Our Mission
Does all this regulation make your stomach growl, leave your palate dull, and make your blood boil? Us too. That’s why we founded Keep Food Legal (KFL).
KFL is the first nationwide membership organization devoted to culinary freedom—the right of every American to grow, raise, produce, buy, sell, cook, and eat the foods of their own choosing. KFL’s mission is to promote goodwill, fellowship, and a sense of common purpose among those who grow, raise, cook, and sell food—and those who buy and eat it. We want to unite people in the middle of the food chain (like grocers and restaurateurs) with people at both ends of the food chain (like producers, farmers, and consumers), and to use the power of this union to create a meaningful and lasting partnership between all links in the chain. KFL will thrive and be a non-partisan force for culinary choice and freedom by coalescing the food community—food producers, farmers, food sellers, chefs, home cooks, diners, foodies, grocers, bar owners, and restaurateurs. The diversity and number of our members—people like you—will be our strength.

KFL on the Issues
What are some of the issue KFL take on? The list is too long to print here, but these are some of our most important targets:

• KFL will advocate in favor of abolishing all food-related subsidies. Government subsidies distort prices and demand, cause environmental problems, and have played a large role in creating America’s obesity problem.
• KFL will work to defeat food regulations and bans which limit our freedom to produce, cook, buy, and sell the foods we want. The government has no right to tell people what we can and can’t eat.
• KFL will advocate at the federal, state, and local levels in favor of more food choices. It is not enough to oppose bad new laws. We will work—in legislatures and in the courts—to roll back bad ones already on the books.

One thing KFL will never do is advocate in favor of (or against) any particular foods or dietary choices. We believe strongly that adults should eat what they want (or what they and their doctor think is best for them). And we also believe that children should eat what they and their parents think is best for them. Government shouldn’t tell you what to eat, and neither should KFL.

Go here for some reasonably entertaining rants about what happens to your waistline if you adhere to the Department Of Agriculture's food pyramid. 

My God, ELEVEN servings of bread, cereal, rice and pasta.  No wonder the USDA is, you know, ummm, bloated. 
Those jokers don't know any more about health, growing methods, crop rotation, or erosion than anyone who actually farms.  They are Sherpas for subsidies and quotas.  That is all.  Hit the "sugar" label below. 
Let's see if the Republicans shut 'em down.  Anybody think it's going to happen? 
I didn't think so. 

Casino Jack - the worst movie ever made about a great story

I went to see the "Casino Jack" last night.  It's the new Kevin Spacey movie about the rise and fall of lobbyist Jack Abramoff. 

Jack Abramoff ?  Jack Abramoff ?  Why, I don't even know Abram....
Sorry about that.  Couldn't help it. 

I wanted to love this movie.  I wanted it to be greatness. 
Unfortunately, it's badly written, poorly edited, and horribly directed.  The director, George Hickenlooper, has done mostly documentaries up to this point.  Maybe that explains why he shovels in every tic, idiosyncrasy, and mannerism that his research uncovered. 
By the time you finish watching this thing, you'll know that Jack Abramoff worked out every day, walked around his office with dumbells, loved to quote from movies, covered his head on the Sabbath, wore a fedora the rest of the time, kept a bust of Ronald Reagan on his desk, ate kosher, and produced a couple of Dolph Lundgren movies.  But you'll have no idea what made him tick. 

Ok, enough of the minor league Roger Ebert nonsense. 

Here's what's interesting about the Jack Abramoff scandal.  This is from The Washington Post:

Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff and public relations consultant Michael Scanlon quietly worked with conservative religious activist Ralph Reed to help the state of Texas shut down an Indian tribe's casino in 2002, then the two quickly persuaded the tribe to pay $4.2 million to try to get Congress to reopen it.


Dozens of e-mails written by the three men and obtained by The Washington Post show how they built public support for then-Texas Attorney General John Cornyn's effort get the courts to close the Tigua tribe's Speaking Rock Casino in El Paso in late 2001 and early 2002. The e-mails also reveal what appears to be an effort on the part of Abramoff and Scanlon to then exploit the financial crisis they were helping to create for the tribe by securing both the multimillion-dollar fee and $300,000 in federal political contributions, which the tribe paid.

Ten days after the Tigua Indians' $60 million-a-year casino was shuttered in February 2002, Abramoff wrote a tribal representative that he would get Republicans in Congress to rectify the "gross indignity perpetuated by the Texas state authorities," assuring him that he had already lined up "a couple of Senators willing to ram this through," according to the e-mails.

What he did not reveal was that he and Scanlon had been paying Reed, an avowed foe of gambling, to encourage public support for Cornyn's effort to close two Indian casinos in Texas.

(People with a monopoly in an industry, especially a "vice" industry, have long utilized opponents of their industry to preserve their monopoly.  This is called the "Bootleggers And Baptists" phenomenon.  Bootleggers and Baptists are united in their opposition to legal alcohol sales, and both sides vote in favor of alcohol prohibition.  You can hit this link to read about illegal marijuana dealers tipping off the police about semi-legal medical marijuana dispensaries.  Bootleggers and Baptists - once you understand how it works, you'll see it everywhere.) 

Abramoff, one of Washington's powerhouse Republican lobbyists until his work came under scrutiny by law enforcement agencies this year, has long been close to Reed, former executive director of the Christian Coalition and now southern regional chairman of President Bush's reelection campaign. Both have political ties to House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), as does Scanlon, who had served as his spokesman.

Here's a summary of the movie and the scandal....An Indian casino has a race-based gambling monopoly in a certain region. There are rumors that another tribe will also be given a casino license, cutting into the profits of casino #1. 
Casino #1 hires a lobbyist to block casino #2 from opening.  The lobbyist, who is damn good at what he does, hires Ralph Reed and The Christian Coalition to protest against The Gambling Menace, The Horrors Of Gaming, and the like. 
The lobbyist then turns around and takes money from Casino #2 and spreads some more of the wealth in Congress, this time as an encouragement for the regulators to examine and support the pro-gambling side of things. 
  
So.  If you assume that it's ok for our government to prevent me or anyone else from opening a casino, or if you assume that it's ok for our government to issue race-based casino licenses and withdraw them at will, and if you assume that government has a right to regulate private behavior....

If you know that Congressmen are bought and sold like East Lancaster crack whores, and if you are willing to tolerate this kind of whoremongering from military contractors, big business, the green energy/perpetual motion machine lobby, and unions...
Then what was so bad about Jack Abramoff ? 

And why would you ever trust government to properly regulate gambling, funeral homes, pharmaceuticals, or even rural stoplights?  Much less your healthcare? 

On Russ Carnahan's wind farm, 10,000 teachers, and everything else

Some people in Missouri are working up some outrage over Rep. Russ Carnahan giving $105 million dollars worth of Porkulus funds to his brother's company, the Wind Capital Group. 

Here's The Wall Street Holy Journal:

A wind farm in Missouri that got a $107 million stimulus grant is generating some turbulence for two prominent Democratic candidates, Robin Carnahan, the state’s Democratic Senate candidate and her brother, Rep. Russ Carnahan.


The wind farm is a project of Wind Capital Group of St. Louis, whose president, CEO and founder is the Carnahans’ brother, Tom Carnahan.

....An Energy Department spokeswoman said the grants in lieu of tax credits had been awarded to all eligible applicants, and that the department had reviewed Wind Capital Group’s application in the same way it had reviewed all the others.

Yeah.  She looked at who was pushing for the grant, and said "yea" or "nay" based on the Congressman's clout.  Carnahan has clout.
 
Look, these things have absolutely nothing to do with usefulness, the public good, the general welfare, or common sense.  They are about recruiting and rewarding donors.  If the Carnahans could loot the public till  by claiming that wind farms prevent alien invasions from the planet Nekthar, that's the justification they would use. 

Please be patient with me.  I'm going somewhere with this.....

This next excerpt is from The Cato Institute, where they are working up some outrage over The Teleprompter Jesus wanting to hire 10,000 more teachers. 

This week, President Obama called for the hiring of 10,000 new teachers to beef up math and science achievement. Meanwhile....public school employment has grown 10 times faster than enrollment for 40 years (see chart), while achievement at the end of high school has stagnated in math and declined in science (hit the link to see the other chart).

Either the president is badly misinformed about our education system or he thinks that promising to hire another 10,000 teachers union members is politically advantageous–in which case he would seem to be badly misinformed about the present political climate. Or he lives in an alternate universe in which Kirk and Spock have facial hair and government monopolies are efficient. It’s hard to say.

So what?  Russ Carnahan gave his brother's Superstition-Based Energy Company a total of  $102 million dollars, despite prayer, wind, and wishful thinking all being less efficient than oil. 

Barack Obama wants to add 10,000 more public school teachers to the public tit, despite the dismal results shown above.

So when are we going to stop believing that their stated goals have anything to do with these wealth transfers?  It is all about rewarding supporters, folks. 

Wake the hell up ! 

On every survey or poll taken, you claim that you don't trust Congress, you don't approve of Congress, and you think Congress does a rotten job.  You would let Ted Bundy babysit before you would allow Congress to trim your hedges.

But when Congress wants to spend a few jillion bucks on an anti-poverty program, or an education program, or a new machine to blow up A-rabs, the same surveys claim that you support these programs (based on party affiliation, of course).    

It's easy to get worked up over the Carnahan family, simply because the quid isn't far enough removed from the  pro quo.   
Very few people can look at that chart above and think we need 10,000 more teachers in our Gladiator Traning Institutes, but when Obama wants to hire more teachers we think it's a good idea.  It would be rude to point out that these 10,000 teachers aren't going to start biting the hand that feeds them. 

But take a look at who gets the rest of your the government's money.  If The Pentagon needs to buy bullets, do they just purchase them from some random-assed bullet manufacturer?  Absolutely not.  They purchase them from a supporter, or someone who is about to be a supporter. 

What about a jail?  Are those built and constructed by generic contractors? 

Absolutely not.  They are built by supporters.  Supporters who lobby for laws that guarantee plenty of occupants for their jails, BTW.     

99 cents of every taxpayer dollar spent goes to the supporters of at least one of our two governing factions.  (I think the other penny is stolen.) 

It's getting harder and harder for entrepreneurs to get loans to start a new business unless they've have a strategy for some sort of rent-seeking partnership with government. 

Yeah, The Carnahans should've covered their tracks better.  But somebody was going to get your money, and unless you were politically connected, it wasn't going to be you. 

Vote Libertarian.  We're know that some government is necessary, but when we're finished, it'll be small enough to drown in the bathtub.

Lisa Murkowski - "Baby, You Done Lost Your Good Thing Now"

Senator Lisa Murkowski (Exxon - R), having failed to get the Republican nomination or the Libertarian nomination, is making one last appeal to her base:

Less than an hour before Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski planned to announce a write-in campaign to retain her seat, her top aide e-mailed scores of the most prominent lobbyists in Washington to ask them to join a Saturday conference call with the senator.

The emails went to another segment of her supporters that couldn't be ignored:

Karen Knutson, Murkowski’s chief of staff, emailed scores of top lobbyists in town and employees at some of the largest oil companies – including Chevron, Conoco Phillips and Marathon Oil – to ask them to join the senator on a conference call Saturday, according to a copy of the e-mail and a recipient list obtained by POLITICO.

Here's B.B. King doing "Baby, You Done Lost Your Good Thing Now"



The magazine cover came from here. 

More on the New York City Food Nazis

From the Lew Rockwell blog comes this account of another government power grab. 

The New York City Food Nazis are at it again. They are enacting a bogus restaurant hygiene grading system to “alert” the sheeple diners about the hygienic “qualities” of each restaurant in NYC. There is some good news though: They are using Lew Rockwell’s…er, I mean Karen DeCoster’s…er, I mean Walter Block’s…er, I mean Bill Anderson’s…er, I mean Wilt Alston’s…er, I mean my subjective standards as to what level of hygiene is acceptable for their grading system.

Well said, sir.  One of the first things that you learn in food service, or retail is that not everyone grew up in your mother's house.  "Clean" is one of the most subjective concepts out there.  The Whited Mama didn't have the cleanest kitchen in north Mississippi, but any time somebody was invited to show up for dinner, they found a way to make it on time.  Heck, a lot of people showed up when they weren't invited. 

Now let’s look at my subjective food hygiene standards for a moment. I GUARANTEE YOU that many of you would not find the cleanliness level of my kitchen very appetizing, yet I cook and eat in it every day—and I’m in great health. So my question to myself (and to you) is this: How do I know that if a NYC restaurant does not achieve the top letter rating of A, but a B or a C, that that particular restaurant might still be a more hygienic environment to eat in than my own kitchen? I don’t—and that’s my point. This is just another power grab on the part of the gunvernment to make the sheeple feel more “safe” now that they will “know” the hygienic quality of a restaurant that they may choose to patronize (based on, of course, the subjective standard of some Health Department bureaucRAT).

Precisely.  If the bureaucRAT in question doesn't like the owner, the cashier, the prices, or the politics of the establishment being investigated for heresy, there is no way that the bureaucRAT won't find something to downgrade.  You can find germs in a surgery center if you look hard enough. 

Okay, I’m wrong. The truth is that before this letter grading system was adopted in New York City there have been millions ofthundreds of thousands ofttens of thousands oftthousands ofthundreds of restaurant patrons dying every second minute hour day week month year…hold on a minute. You’ll notice in the linked news article that there is NO MENTION of any outbreak of food poisoning or food-related deaths that has even prompted this new restaurant hygiene grading system.

But think of the "jobs created or saved" in the Food Nazi Bureacracy. 

If this new ridiculous Food Nazi tactic doesn’t put some restaurants out of business, I GUARANTEE YOU that at the very least it will force some restaurants to waste money on unnecessary “improvements” to their restaurants to be in accordance with the “higher” standards of the NYC Food Nazis—money that could have been spent in a productive manner somewhere else.

But here's the real kicker.  Advocates of the Grocery Gestapo will tell you that trained professionals are needed to protect the ignorant public from spending their money in an unsafe place.  They'll tell you that government knows best about where you should eat, and what you should eat.  Remember, NYC is the place working on a salt ban in restaurants. 
They know what's best for you.
But which restaurant are you more likely to choose?  The "C"-rated establishment with a line out the door?  Or the place that's been given an "A" for showing a civil-service lifer what he wants to see? 

Please allow me to beat the rotting corpse of this dead horse just one more time.  I'm speaking as someone who has lost almost 50 pounds by ignoring our government's most famous piece of health advice.  (Well, maybe the anti-smoking messages are more famous, but most of those were published, by government decree, on the cig packs by their manufacturers.) 
Suppliers of gut-busting foods loved this little chart.  Loved it, loved it, loved it.  And it will kill you.  It may have caused more diabetes than the sugar industry. 

See the tag at the base of the pyramid, where Uncle Sam is recommending that you have 6-11 servings of bread, cereal, rice and pasta?  Do you remember seeing that on all your packages of bread, cereal, rice, and pasta?  And if you ate bread, cereal, rice and pasta in those quantities, do you remember getting fatter than the Sunday newspaper? 
But no one questioned it for years.  It was the government telling us what is best, and what they thought was best reflected what The Farm Lobby produced.  But after a few decades of increased heart attacks, plus pressure from health groups, the government decided it was time for a new set of recommendations. 
The new nazi-nanny guidelines look like this.  They kept the pyramid shape for sentimental reasons. 

Here's a guy called the Baltimore Health Coach, explaining what all they got wrong this time, and why:

1. Nobody needs to eat dairy, EVER, and many are better off NOT eating it at all.

2. Processed grain foods, even the whole grain versions, are at best a food to limit, and at worst a lead contributor to chronic and degenerative diseases.

3. The under-consumption of omega 3 fatty acids and over-consumption of omega 6 fatty acids (in the supposedly “heart healthy” vegetable oils like soy and corn oil) is clearly a major a contributor to disease.

4. No distinction is made about quality. This is especially damaging when it comes to meat, eggs and dairy. Experts in the health food world disagree about the place of animal foods, but all agree that factory-farmed animal foods are highly toxic.

5. Everyone has a different style of metabolism and requires a different ratio of fat, protein and carbohydrate. The 2005 pyramid is STILL one-size-fits-all.

6. Sweet fruits like apples, oranges and bananas are way over-emphasized as health foods. There is plenty of nutrition in them, but they are also high in sugar and should NOT be so heavily relied upon. This may surprise you, but many populations that have had incredible health thrived on little to no fruit at all.

7. Saturated fats in high quality butter and eggs, coconut, avocado and palm oil ARE healthy and should especially be consumed by children.

But why does the government put out bad advice?  Why issue these food fatwahs at all, if they aren't 100% sure?
Here's the Baltimore Health Coach again:

The USDA Food Pyramid STINKS because of the MAJOR influence of the food industry lobby. The USDA Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, the “unpaid” group of volunteers responsible for the Food Pyramid, have consistently been in bed with (i.e. ex-board members or recipients of grants) organizations like:


The National Dairy Council
The National Dairy Promotion and Research Program
The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association
The American Egg Board
The American Meat Institute Committee
The Dannon Research Institute, Inc.,
The Sugar Association
Grocery Manufacturers

Plus....

Just look at agricultural subsidies to see where the government’s loyalty lies. $15 billion in subsidies go to the soy and corn mega-farms that make the processed and fast food industries boom. Close to ZERO money is given to support fruit and vegetable farmers. Hmm…

Yes.  Hmm.....
In closing, think back to the new New York City cleanliness inspectors.  Do you think there might be some cleaning supply companies lobbying for that program?  Do you think there might be some politically connected restauranteurs who want to see that pesky upstart deli down the street given a "C" ??   And do you think the citizens of NYC will take this like a bunch of compliant little sheep? 

Yes, yes, and yes. 

The picture of the redneck kitchen came from here. 

Well, at least we tried - The Tarrant Regional Water District's "River Of Slush" will keep flowing

Well, at least we tried. 

My friend Adrian Murray was unsuccessful in his bid to get a seat on the Tarrant Regional Water District board yesterday. 

Here's the Startlegram:

The campaign was marked by dramatically different depictions of the water district. Lane and Leonard said the district is a well-run organization that is aggressively seeking other water sources. Murray and Basham criticized the board for high-ticket purchases such as a helicopter and argued that the current leadership was recklessly spending public money and making its decisions in secret.

And here are a few blurbs on the Tarrant Regional Water District's Trinity River Vision Project from the Fort Worth Weekly, a periodical not overseen by the people who will profit from this boondoggle project.  This piece was written back in 2007, and I understand that the spending is now approaching a billion dollars. 
Just for some background, this is what the Trinity looked like before they spent the billion dollars.


View Larger Map

Here's what the Trinity looks like now that they've spent the billion dollars.  I think they've torn down two buildings so far.  If someone has a more recent photo of the non-progress, I'll gladly post it.


View Larger Map

Notice the subtle differences?  I don't either.  There aren't any.
Heck, we coulda dredged out a new river running from Burleson to Abbott for that amount. 
Sorry for the digression.  Here's the Fort Worth Weekly:

....According to records obtained by Fort Worth Weekly under the state open records law, the district will spend about $600,000 this year on outside lobbying firms. DFW Airport, by comparison, will spend $560,000 with two Washington lobbying firms, and DART has budgeted about $310,000. Fort Worth paid its Washington lobby firm $168,000 in 2006, and Dallas spent about $240,000.

....Trying to find out why the water district needs to spend so much on lobbying is difficult. Neither Trinity River Vision Authority director J.D. Granger — son of the congresswoman — nor water district board president Victor W. Henderson returned calls seeking comment. Board vice president Hal S. Sparks III said it was not “his place” to comment on such contracts and referred all queries to Tarrant water district general manager Jim Oliver.

....Clyde Picht, who lost to Lane in the water district board race last year, said, “This is a local agency that should basically be concentrating on delivering water cheaply and efficiently to the cities in North Texas. Why would they even need any lobbyists in Washington?”



He has recently announced he will seek a new term on Fort Worth City Council — in part to continue his opposition to the Trinity Vision project. “Their spending habits are getting out of hand,” he said. Picht noted that the water district is already spending more than $100,000 a year on J.D. Granger’s salary (remember, that's Congresswoman Kay Granger's boy - TWS), “and I figured maybe part of his deal might be that he has to call his mother every once in awhile. But I guess they have to hire someone in Washington to keep in contact with her.”


Since October 2001, the district has paid Washington lobbying firm Hicks-Richardson $256,653. The company is budgeted for $60,000 this year. Another Washington lobbying firm, Welch Resources, is due to receive $120,000 in fiscal 2007, and has been paid $290,260 since it first started lobbying for the river agency in 2004.

Local politically connected people are also getting big paydays. Political consultant Bryan Eppstein, who has worked on the campaigns of many water district board members as well as those of Fort Worth Mayor Mike Moncrief, is getting a combined $30,000 a month from the water district and Trinity River Vision Authority for a communications/lobbying firm he will head. Included in the duties, according to the contract, are “the development and implementation of legislative and regulatory strategies.” The total worth of the contract, which runs through 2010, is $1.4 million.

....Former Texas House Speaker Gib Lewis, who handles lobbying in Austin for the Tarrant district, is budgeted to receive $60,000 this year. Since October 2001, Lewis has been paid $283,500 by the water district. Neither Eppstein nor Lewis returned the Weekly’s calls for this story.

....The $120,000 yearly contract with Welch Resources has raised even more questions from critics. Welch is run by former U.S. Rep. Mike Parker of Mississippi, who booked more than $1 million in lobbying contracts last year.

....Steve Hollern, a former Tarrant County GOP chairman, called the TRV a “massive transfer of wealth from private citizens to rich developers.” The lobbying, Hollern said, “is just part of the cost to keep this transfer going. But I have to give the devil his due. They plan and execute behind the scenes in ways that would make Machiavelli take notice.”

Move along, people, nothing to see here.  Please keep moving, please keep moving. 

Pics came from here and here.

Picture worth at least a thousand words

Dr. Ralph sent this to me from Pundit Kitchen. 

Dr. Robert Atkins vs. The U.S. Department Of Agriculture

"Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint."

-Mark Twain

I grew up on a rice farm in North Mississippi, in a family full of big-time eaters.  In addition to rice with every meal possible, we also ate a lot of bread.  Lots of spaghetti. 
When I was working on the farm, and then in warehouses, I never had to worry about weight gain.  It didn't matter what I threw in the furnace, it was going to burn. 

30 years later.....well, you know what happens.  I got up to 235 pounds.  I could feel my heartbeat in my neck without touching it.  When I was younger, my blood pressure was borderline anemic.  Earlier this year, I found out I was in danger of the problems associated with high blood pressure. 

What the heck?  I was making a point (more or less) of eating "balanced" meals, as I understood them.  I didn't eat many desserts.  I had looked at the USDA Food Pyramid on the back of bread wrappers enough times to understand how a regular healthy diet was supposed to work.  I would often sit down and knock off a mega-bowl of rice, and consider it healthy.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Pyramid, for those of you reading in other countries, used to look like this:

See those 6-11 recommended servings of bread, cereal, rice, and pasta at the bottom?  Remember this picture from the back of your old bread, cereal, rice, and pasta packages?  Why was the government advising us to eat more carbohydrates than a Chinese village?  Here's Buzzle:

During this time (2003-2004) controversy arose between the food pyramid of Harvard and that of the USDA. Proponents and supporters of the Harvard model claimed that the USDA pyramid was flawed. The argument had to do with the fact that it was the USDA, and not the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), that created the food pyramid. Ergo, the food pyramid of the USDA was prone to influence from lobbyists in the food industry.

You can go here for an interesting set of links about the sugar, beef, wheat, and tater industries scratching and clawing to preserve their places on Uncle Sam's menu recommendations.  Based on pressure from other health experts, dieters, and the fact that we were all getting fatter than the Sunday newspaper, (and we were dying a lot) the USDA eventually revised the pyramid to cut way back on the carbohydrates.  You can go here to see that they're now recommending 3 ounces of grains every day.  That's a heck of a lot less than 6 to 11 servings. 

So, back to my point..... I had to lose some weight.  I used to be in the bookselling business, so I went to the all-time bestseller, a title that spent about 4 years on the NYT Bestseller List: Dr. Atkins New Diet Revolution.  Guess what I found inside? 

* The U.S. is the fattest nation in the world.  Many of our homeless people are overweight.
* Much of this has more to do with insulin resistance caused by eating too many carbohydrates.  We consume so many of the foods pushed by lobbyists (my words, not Dr. Atkins') that our bodies don't/can't burn off any fat. 
* Our epidemics of diabetes, heart disease, and high blood pressure can be attributed to these habits. 

There has been sufficient evidence to make these assertions for more than 30 years now.  But the heavy hand of government and such powerful organizations such as the Department Of Agriculture blanketed the nation with messages about low-fat dieting from the 1970's to the present.  In fact, U.S. government statistics from this time clearly demonstrate that along with the dramatic decrease in dietary fat intake....there was also a dramatic increase in the intake of refined carbohydrates, not only sugar, but white flour. 
There is no doubt in my mind that this increase in refined carbohydrates has been spurred by the media attention given to The Food Guide Pyramid, created by the U.S. Department Of Agriculture, which made 6-11 servings of wheat derivatives the basis of the pyramid.  I believe that the Food Guide Pyramid's recommendations have directly contributed to the twin epidemics of diabetes and obesity we now face in this country. 
(The food combinations that were recommended by the U.S.D.A.) are bad for your health, bad for your energy level, bad for your mental state, bad for your figure.  Bad for your career prospects, bad for your sex life, bad for your digestion, bad for your blood chemistry, bad for your heart.  What I'm saying is that they are bad. 

So....
About three and a half weeks ago, I started doing the exact opposite of what the U.S. Department Of Agriculture recommended, and went with Dr. Atkins' approach. 
I've lost almost 20 pounds. 
I've pulled in my belt by THREE notches.  Count 'em.  Three.  Yeah.  Three. 
I've lowered my resting heart rate by almost 10 beats per minute. 
I feel much better.  The sunshine looks brighter.  There's now enough room in my pants for a Mormon family. 
I don't have anyone to blame but myself for getting up to 235 pounds.  I've always known I shouldn't eat so much. 

But is there anything, anything at all, that our government can do better than the private sector? 

One more note: go to Snopes.com for the circumstances of Dr. Atkins' death. 

Prediction: Congressman Bart Stupak will soon be attracting even higher bids

It irks the crap out of me to go to all the trouble of creating a motivational poster like this one....

....only to have the guy retire to "spend more time with his family". 

Since it's difficult to reward a guy properly for betraying an entire nation while he's still holding elective office, I'm betting that we'll soon see Congressman Stupak working in a highly paid job as a bag man lobbyist between donors and The Current Ruling Regime.  Time will tell. 

Guess who came to dinner?

Martha Coakley, democrat candidate for the senate seat vacated by Ted Kennedy, held a fundraiser last night. Here's The Wall Street Journal:

We've argued that the leading health industry CEOs will one day be exposed as the most short-sighted business leaders in history, but how to explain the gala fundraiser that their top lobbyists hosted for Martha Coakley last night?
Amid a Beltway panic, the health lobby is riding to the rescue of the Massachusetts liberal, whose defeat in the special Senate race next Tuesday could deny Democrats the 60th vote for ObamaCare and thus maybe spare the U.S. health system from the coming damage.
As first reported by Timothy Carney of the Washington Examiner, the host committee for the fundraiser at Pennsylvania Avenue's Sonoma Restaurant includes lobbyists for Pfizer, Merck, Eli Lilly, Novartis and sundry other drug companies that have been among the biggest of ObamaCare's corporate sponsors. Other hosts—who have raised at least $10,000 for Ms. Coakley—include representatives from UnitedHealthcare, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Humana and other insurers. As far as we can tell, the insurance industry claims to oppose ObamaCare's current incarnation.
Naturally, lobbyists from America's Health Insurance Plans and Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the major trade groups, were on hand too. Money follows power in Washington, obviously, though this example seems especially inexplicable given that Ms. Coakley's GOP opponent, state senator Scott Brown, may be the last chance to defuse the health-care doomsday machine. But maybe someone in the press corps will bother to mention this episode the next time President Obama takes aim at the "special interests" he claims are opposing his agenda.
Against overwhelming public opposition, the only things keeping ObamaCare alive at this point are power politics and the misguided corporate cease-fire that Democrats have either coerced or bought—or is homegrown at companies like Pfizer that are deeply invested in more government control of the economy. Ms. Coakley's election would make that outcome a certainty.

Can someone please explain to me, using little-bitty words that I can understand, why it is that requiring us to spend money with these monopolist wannabes is some kind of "reform" ?

On wanting Obama to fail

Various conservative groups are rejoicing over Obama's failure to land the Olympics in Chicago. Go to The Huffington Post for a summary. This is supposed to reflect the mean-spiritedness, bitterness, and all around nastiness of our partisan political environment, blah blah blah blah....

Mike Lupica has a different take, reminding us that winning an Olympic bid is not the same as a victory for the U.S...

We can talk about winners and losers all we want to now that it is over. The biggest winners of all are the people of Chicago, because their city doesn't have to plunge itself into debt to host the Olympics. This is the kind of winner New York was despite Michael Bloomberg's insane quest to get the 2012 Games, which eventually - and blessedly - went to London.

....The biggest winners of any modern Games are the businessmen who build the stadiums and the villages, and tell us the same thing we hear when another professional sports team wants a new stadium.

But, as usual, I digress. My question is this: Is it ever ok to publicly rejoice when the President Of The United States fails? Here's my friend John Jay Myers on the subject:

I am not against Barack Obama. I am for freedom.
I do not believe that one man from Chicago has suddenly taken control of the United States and is single handedly trying to destroy the country.
I do, however, believe that lobbyists and money control our country, that banks, big insurance, and the military industrial complex etc., have so wrapped their tentacles around the throats of our politicians that the interest of the common man is no longer on their minds.
After all, one party hired Ben Bernanke - a man who 2 months before one of the biggest financial meltdowns in history didn't have a clue what was about to happen, claiming everything was great.
Then, the next party in power? They appoint the same guy. Someone wants that guy in charge, and it isn't the American people.
I think it's important for the Libertarian Party to understand that Obama bashing comes off as single minded and divisive, when doing it we have everything to lose and nothing to gain.
Republicans know where we stand; most Democrats think we are just hardcore Republicans.
So why do we so voluntarily lump ourselves in with them? We can stand for issues, stand against bad policy, but let's prove what I have always thought, that we are the thinking man's party. People like to feel smart. We should be advertising the fact that we are above the fray, that we will not sink to the level of the other groups, which only succeeds in truly dividing this nation.

If American can be divided, if the media can put you in a box, and if that box can be characterized, it's over.
If we try to play be the media's rules, we will never win.
When you choose the Anti Obama stance as a part of your "message" you are alienating 50% of the voting public. I assumed our goal was to actually gain support.
When you do this, you may get Republicans to say "I guess Libertarians aren't SO bad..."

But you are not going to get them to vote for you.

When I was a kid I worked on a parasail boat, and my job was to shout away the tourists on wave runners who would run over our lines, and I was a little over zealous in my shouting, (who'd've thunk it) the owner came up to me and said "Do you know who those people are you are screaming at??" He went on, saying "Those are my future customers!"
The left are our future customers, and we are selling freedom! And we are we shouting at them!!
All of this is not to say that the current administration isn't making bad decisions, they are indeed, but we need to stand on the merits of the decisions, and not demonize one man or a few people. People see through that type of partisan rhetoric. They are sick of it. We need to be a change, a true choice, something different, not a fledgling party who thinks we can now play by "their rules."
I am writing this message in a hope it will get to the powers that be, and that some thought might go into how we frame our stances, in what will be the most important time in the history of the Libertarian Party.

John Jay Myers
http://www.johnjaymyers.com/

Well, I guess that's the last time I can post pictures of Obama with an ACORN nutcap....

I guess I agree with John Jay. If your newsroom starts applauding when Rio Freakin' De Janeiro gets the Olympics instead of Obama's notoriously corrupt Chicago, you might be taking it too far. That's what Joe Voter is going to think, anyway.

So I'm going to try very hard at this new way of looking at things (and typing about them....)

I want Sasha and Malia to make good grades.

I hope that Bo, the Obama's Portuguese Water Dog, can go on a duck hunt this winter.

Speaking of corrupt business deals for sports stadiums, I hope the Washington Redskins beat the Dallas Cowboys twice this year. I hope everyone gathered around the White House flatscreen has a great time watching it happen.

That's all I can do for now. This is just too painful.