Sarah Palin: Serious Threat To The Left

How serious a threat to the Left is a common sense woman like Governor Sarah Palin? A pretty large threat, given the level of contumelies expressed by the "smart" people in the media.

A course its allin' our fault fer being sich igneren' rednecks. Can't you see that when David Letterman alludes to sex between former Governor Eliot Spitzer and Governor Palin's 14-year old daughter that's it's just humour? It takes a special type of sophisticate to appreciate the rape of a child. Try the humorous example of our own Governor Goldschmidt. Ha ha.

How afraid is the Left?

Let's Look At Dave Hunt

This picture was found on the Wiki page for Oregon State Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dave Hunt.

Dave has said some rather stupid things during the course of the session. And led the Democrats to some pretty stupid places. How could a man with no clue about what it's like to operate a small business in Oregon find himself leading a group of people that have no clue about what it's like to run a small business in Oregon?

Well, mebbe it's time to look at his experience after high school. I can't blame Sheldon High for the way he turned out. Sheldon has some good people coming out of that school. So what happened after high school?

Columbia University and a degree in Poli-Sci. I went with my son for his interview night for Columbia, and was relieved that he didn't find anything that appealed to him. I know that "Columbia" is a "name" school. Like Brown, Cornell, etc. Maybe I should have applied to a bigger name school than I did for my Ph.D. But I researched the staff at Boston University and only applied there. I knew what tools I needed to add to my quiver of arrows, and merely adding the cache of a name school didn't seem to have any utility. Remember, those who can, do. Those who can't, teach.

So, with a bachelor's in Poli-Sci, the Oregon boy went to Washington, D.C., where he got hooked up as staff with three members of Congress; Slaughter, Baird and Hooley. Staff for politicians. What are heavens for?

Well, he was able to get hooked-up as the Executive Director of the Columbia River Channel Coalition and the Association of Pacific Ports. Doing a quick AltaVista search reveals that these seem to be basically dummy organizations to move funds through to staff. How much advocacy must be done to alibi for a paycheck? It would be interesting to review Mr. Hunt's time card. It's enough that he's found a sconce to offer his needed advice and to have others pay for that advice.

Speaker Hunt has no interest in what it is that will need to be done in order to survive the next 18 months. It will take us that long to elect a new House. He has never invested a dime into any private enterprise. Never written a single paycheck. Has always had an expense account. Here is his statement explaining his pain yesterday as the Oregon House raised personal and corporate income taxes:

'"Today’s vote was a difficult one for all the members of the House, Democrats and Republicans alike. We face an unprecedented global economic crisis that requires every one of us to come together to solve the problems we face.

'“Today, we asked Oregon’s most profitable corporations and wealthiest Oregonians to be a part of the solution that helps bring Oregon out of this recession and bring greater long-term stability to out state.

“'Through the work of Ways and Means Committee, we have already made significant cuts in both the 07-09 and the 09-11 budgets. But we have done so in a way that protects the core services Oregonians require. Without passage of these two bills today, the cuts we would be forced to make would have severed that core and gone far deeper than we believe our constituents would allow.

“'It is never easy to vote for tax measures. And I applaud those members who were willing to stand up for Oregon; to stand up for our children, seniors, disabled and vulnerable Oregonians who rely on the services we pay for with tax dollars.

“'Now we have a clear path to a balanced budget for 2009-2011. There are still plenty of difficult votes and issues ahead. But with yesterday passage of the expansion of our health care system to cover uninsured children, and today’s passage of these two revenue bills, we can finish our work and know that we are doing right by Oregon.'”

Where to begin? Let's start with the second line, "We face an unprecedented global economic crisis that requires every one of us to come together to solve the problems we face."

Who is this guy? Obama? Head of the U.N.? At some point, I would hope an Oregon politician would stop worrying about fixing the world, and start to work on fixing the state. We are facing unprecedented economic problems here, in Oregon, all of which are due to this state continuing to spend more and more money on things we shouldn't be spending money on.

Did we really need to expand our health care system to cover uninsured children? Did you read the bill? Did you read who is really qualified for this new expense? Just poor kids? Nope.

Does the Speaker read the news? Pick up a magazine? Listen to Republicans? Nope. Otherwise he would have found out that Hawaii had to end its "universal child health care" program. But what can you expect of a guy with no business experience, years of doing the bidding of Congressmen, and then doing that community organizing thing? (Oh, yeah. He went to Columbia. He's smart.)

We--the small business owners in Oregon--have eighteen months before we can repeal the laws that have just been passed. Before that, we need to find and recruit candidates to run against these madmen. And then the case needs to be made: we need to elect candidates that want to work for the State of Oregon. Not to serve as ombudsmen of World Change!™ We need to build and repair roads that help us move products and people to markets. We need an energy policy that results in increases in the base load needed for business and industry. For heating your homes and offices. For charging you new, mandated car. We need a jobs policy that means jobs, not government jobs, but jobs that come from using the richness of our state's natural resources instead of locking up those resources. We have wealth. Democrats simply refuse to let us use those resources. For all their concern about Change!™, they really are nothing more than economic prudes, unwilling to allow others to get their hands dirty to make a buck.

Over the next nine to 18 months, the cascading effects of this current legislature will be felt throughout the state. Tax your health insurance premiums? More people will opt out of health insurance. Tax your business and personal income at higher levels? More people will opt out of Oregon into states with more reasonable tax and investment policies. Destroy GM and Chrysler? More newspapers, radio stations and television stations will find themselves on the brink of existence. Radio and TV will suffer; it seems the newspapers have already positioned themselves for federal bail-out checks. Just like you're gonna love the new GM car, you're gonna really love the new federal newspapers.

Car dealers will suffer. Banks will suffer. Defaults on mortgages are going to increase. Broadway in Seaside will begin to shutter as marginal businesses find themselves with no choice but to close their doors. What happens if one, two or three business at Young's Bay Plaza close? Darkened store fronts mean less traffic. The city fathers in Astoria will attempt to avoid the necessary store closings by spending more money on Visit Astoria campaigns. Did you know that automobile dealerships aren't an approved use within the city's planning guidelines? These guys are seriously anti-business. How else to explain all the real, new investment in the county ending up in Warrenton? Even as opportunities dry up and blow away, Astoria continues to dig deeper and deeper. Change!™ Not in Astoria.

Whose fault is all this? Did you pick up the phone once during this current session to talk to your state rep or state senator? Nope?

Declining business leads to declining values in real estate, which leads to declining tax revenues for local government. Which will lead to higher borrowing, as the community's leaders hope to ride out the wave of financial calamity that's coming. And they'll be encouraged to do so by guys like Speaker Hunt. After all, isn't that what the state's legislature has just done? Rather than cut taxes, reduce borrowing and make the state a better place to invest and grow, didn't Speaker Dave just lead the legislature in the opposite direction?

Yep. Enjoy your day.

UPDATE: The take-away line is "At the time of decapitation, Mike weighed 2½ pounds; when he died 18 months later, he weighed nearly 8." But this post kinda explains your government in a way that hopefully makes sense.

Oregon Economy At A Glance

Click here.

One State, One People

Ordnung.

To the German of late 1920's, early '30's, the idea of "order" was important. It wasn't until the mid-30's that the forces of the Green Police were accumulated into what was then known as the Orpo. The Germans of the early Twentieth Century were known as the driving force of progressive thinking. There was a well-established "organic" school that spent time popularizing an idea that there were culturally instituted beliefs that would help a culture "rise" to a new level of understanding the human condition. Relying, in great part, to the writings of Sir Charles Darwin, the organicists of the 19th century decided that human development would, and should necessarily, follow the path set forth by Darwin's expositions of evolution. Relying solely upon a sentiment of self-importance, these new organicists developed a theory of the New Man, which related their interpretations of how the human race must develop, as opposed to a theory that left open the question of how man will develop.

This determinism was exhibited as rather a faulty theory, post-Hitlerism and post-Nazism. But the theory of determinism seems to be alive today. (There is a brief, yet trenchant discussion of determinism here.

Determinism seems to rely upon the notion that at least one person knows more than all other persons. And absent that, that some group or cabal will know more than all other persons. Now, sometimes, that can be the case. As a coach of little kids playing soccer, baseball and basketball, there were times that I could predict the outcomes of games that were yet to be played.

But, if I had coached those kids as if they would never win, I would never, should never, have been a coach.

This is the error of determinism and its followers.

This is a kind of important thing to think about in the coming months and years. How well will you be able to accept that American values are nothing more than a misapprehension of how to live well, and how to live your life? If you accept that we, as Americans, are wrong in believing that we have a better system of living, a better system of government, and a better way of comparing our thoughts and deeds to others living in our world--as does President Obama--then how do we differentiate ourselves from those who seek to achieve a determinist outcome?

That is, if we accept that we as Americans are no different--and probably worse--than others living in the world, how is it that we can do anything but accept that we must become what the determinists insist we must become?

Here is an enjoyable and brief essay (.pdf) on the the role of the Lutheran church during Hitler's ascendancy in Germany.

It ends up begging a whole lot of questions about the rise of national socialism in the 1930's in Germany. Like, where was the Church--in all its forms--during the rise of anti-humanism?

Determinists have as a common fault a belief in their own infallibility. Rationalists have as a common fault a belief in humanity's perfection. It is not going to be any single individual that saves us. It will be the loud, maundering chorus of us, we crowd, we lot of mangy people. The People. We, the People.

So all I can ask of the elitists who temporarily populate Salem and Washington, D.C., please, don't hate us. We will overcome. We always have. We always will. Your search for ordnung is understandable. We've been through it before. What it isn't, is inevitable. And you've been through that before.

How's That Economic Stimulus Thing Working?

We are so running out of money.

Political Stasis, Or You Can't Fix Stupid

How stupid are House Bills 3405 and 2649?

Really stupid.

But that won't stop them from passing. Here's the contact info for your state legislators:

Betsy Johnson
Party: D District: 16
Capitol Phone: 503-986-1716
Capitol Address: 900 Court St. NE., S-215, Salem, OR, 97301
Email: sen.betsyjohnson@state.or.us
Website: http://www.leg.state.or.us/johnson

Debby Boone
Party: D District: 32
Capitol Phone: 503-986-1432
Interim Phone: 503-717-9182
Capitol Address: 900 Court St NE, H-375, Salem, , OR, 97301
Interim Address: PO Box 928, Cannon Beach, OR, 97110
Email: rep.deborahboone@state.or.us
Website: http://www.leg.state.or.us/boone

Brad Witt
Party: D
District: 31
Capitol Phone: 503-986-1431
Capitol Address: 900 Court St. NE, H-374, Salem, OR, 97301
Email: rep.bradwitt@state.or.us
Website: http://www.leg.state.or.us/witt

Whether you e-mail, call or write, and I'd hope you'd make a call, just let them know that you'd appreciate their opposition to these bills. Times are hard, and running up taxes on the folks who make the money they spend would be appreciated.

House Bill 3405 increases corporate taxes on business.
House Bill 2649 increases personal income taxes.

Will passing either of these bills make it more likely that you will see an increase in business investment--and concurrent increases in employment--more likely, or less likely?

Advocates of these bills will tell you it's time that the rich pay more of their fair share. If you're employed, chances are that you work for a Subchapter "S" corporation. (This is a statistical likelihood based on the sheer number of "S-Corps" out there. Locally, there's also a pretty big chance that you're working for a small, mom and pop partnership. But the tax rules are still the same.)

How do S-Corps treat taxes? Like personal income.

Raising taxes on "the rich" and "corporations" is more likely a double increase in taxes for the folks who make, buy and sell stuff in Oregon. But Democrats--most of them--have never had jobs making, buying or selling stuff. Teachers only pay tax on their 1040's. Lawyers, same thing. Community organizers? Same.

They have no clue what a reduction of after tax income means to the input mix of any business. When profits decline, employment decreases. Building a company from scratch, these people have no idea how difficult it is to "finally" hire your first employee, or your second, or your third. They believe that business has a template; you're rich and you just start hiring people. (Morons.)

As difficult as it is to hire your first employee, it's not as difficult as terminating that employee. When the hand-writing is on the wall, you let people go. The first one is hard, emotionally. The second one is easier. By the third, or fifteenth, you've got your "letting people go" mojo in high gear. As you trim you seek to retain the most productive, the most loyal. You are oblivious to the political currents swimming around in places like Salem. Survival means making choices. When you're bailing out your personal economic boat, you throw people overboard.

There is no throwing overboard of people in Salem. We could cut our current budget by at least twenty-five percent and you and I would see no reduction in the valued services we receive from the state. We won't, because someone, somewhere, would complain about "fairness" or "social justice." (Oh, don't forget sustainability, the children, the elderly and our teachers. And the union members. Mebbe teachers and union members is redundant.)

By passing HB 3405 and 2649, we allow Salem to refuse to empty the lifeboat, while forcing the private sector to do so. You don't have to be a business owner to see the writing on the wall. If you work for someone else, remember, failing to call, failing to fight against these tax increases means you're more likely to face the employment cuts the state is unwilling to force upon itself. We, you and I, are the enemy of the state and public employee unions and the teachers. And we will be defeated with passage of these bills.

We will spend more and more on government and public employees. At the expense of private jobs, private businesses and private companies.

Democrats will vote for these bills, citing concerns about the environment, sustainability, a new Vision for the future; all of this is simple crap.

They can't make decisions. You've elected them. They control the public checkbook. And they are on a spending spree.

As the economy continues to shrink--in terms of private employment--fewer new companies will be willing to enter Oregon's economy sans massive government expenditures, either through tax forgiveness or subsidy. Neither of these forms of enticement are financially sustainable in the long run. Buying investment with public funds isn't really the miracle that Governor K and his witless minions in the House and Senate want you to believe it is. It's simple cronyism and a form of graft.

Last time I checked, neither of these were sustainable forms of public policy. But it's what we have. And it's stupid. And you can't fix stupid.