Monthly Archives: February 2012

Feb 20 2012

Down The River

 

The excuse machine for the Maine Democrat Party is on full spin cycle. They tumble through the revolving objection drum, searching daily for a new reason to obstruct a balanced budget.  First, the Governor presented his proposal to address the DHHS budget shortfall to the Appropriations Committee.  The Democrats and their moderate Republican allies on the committee chose instead to produce a bill that did not address the looming fiscal crises but rather preferred to push the problem to a later date.  After overwhelming outrage from the people, the House correctly amended the bill to deal with the issue more directly.

Amazingly, this bill had bi-partisan support, at least, for a time.  Several Democrats have now realized that throwing messy obstructionist tantrums is far more effective in garnering headlines than to simply do the work of the people.  So now, we have the juvenile revolving reason to pout.

To start, these Democrats said they could not support the bill because it did not have the approval of the Appropriations Committee. Then the committee gave the bill its approval.  Now, the Democrats can’t support it because it doesn’t have enough …spending?  And we all know that the reason Maine is grossly over budget is because we haven’t spent enough, right?  Really?

This should come as no surprise to the people of Maine.  As the high levels of corruption in government bureaucracies are now coming to light, we can see clearly why Cynthia Dill and others want to spend more.  They just need a few more perks for being public servants.

The smelly onion of the Turnpike Commission keeps unraveling with pungent and rank clarity.  The investigative works of Peter Mills and his staff have shone a light on the many get rich schemes hidden beneath the veils of this tax-funded organization.  Indictments have come down with more on the way.  But it pales in comparison to what has been unearthed within the corridors of Maine State Housing.

In the past five years, under the leadership of Dale McCormick, Maine State Housing Authority (MSHA) has increased travel expenses by 157%.  Training expenses have increased by 287%.  Gift cards, catering, massage therapy, and martial arts training, to name a few, all spent with lavish exuberance on the taxpayer dime.

Some of the training facilities itemized under “education/training” were such heralded institutions as Ground Round, Pushard’s Okinawan Karate, Abracadabra Productions, and Dan’s BBQ.  Expenses marked “office supplies” included Funtown/Splashtown USA, Are You Ready To Party, Inc., Healing Hands Therapeutic massage, and Sandcastle Entertainment, which rents bounce houses and slides.  These abuses continue to be uncovered by watchdog groups, such as Maine Heritage Policy Center.

Perhaps, as Democrats continue to obstruct the arduous task of balancing Maine’s budget with cries to spend more money and, instead, demand to spend us down the river, we the people should ask why?  Was it because you didn’t have enough for your expenditures in the first place?  Or do you just want to play?

Feb 17 2012

Is your mettle, metal or muddle?

 

Is your mettle, metal or muddle?

 

There is one question that I hear repeatedly asked of my children by my wife.  She will ask often, sometimes daily, “Am I the only one in this house who knows how to reach down, pick something up and clean up a mess?”  I….ahhh….I…I’m sure she is only referring to the children when she asks that, sadly, rhetorical question.  She, of course, couldn’t be making any implication of me…at all…right?  Anyway, ahem, one of the frailties of human nature is to make a mess, see the mess and wait for someone else to clean the mess.  There seems to be this sixth sense, of sorts, that if we leave it alone long enough, someone with a compulsion to fix everything will show up to set things aright.  That’s called kicking the can down the road.

Unfortunately for the State of Maine, John Martin Democrats and their moderate Republican allies have played “kick the can” for so long they’ve acquired affection for the game and an addiction to the stench coming from the can.  Now that Governor Lepage is “cleaning up the neighborhood”, the Democrats, led by John Martin, and all the moderate Republicans in the appropriations committee are doing everything in their power to obstruct the efforts of the Governor and the Treasurer to set the State of Maine back on a course to fiscal solvency.  The reasoning behind their actions is the same old Kennebec two-step.  The Democrats want to preserve the bloated bureaucratic slush fund that pads their ample taxpayer funded behinds.  The moderate Republicans take their cues from the Democrats.  They believe their threat that a conservative fiscal approach will cost them their election.  So they are trying to save their own ample taxpayer funded behinds.

Sitting in meetings with several of these moderates on occasion, this columnist heard one legislator lecture us, ad nauseum, on how his decisions were influenced by all he had learned since he came to Augusta.  Hmmm, maybeeee….that’s the problem.  Legislators spend too much time learning from and adhering to the edicts of big government instead of listening to the people.

I have a photo that I use for inspiration. It was taken in Nazi Germany.  The year was 1936 and the place was Hamburg.  A large is crowd is “assembled” to “celebrate” the building of a warship.  All in the crowd are obediently raising their hand in the Nazi salute except for one man.  With arms defiantly across his chest and a look of disgust, August Landmesser refuses to follow the crowd.  Moderates could do well to heed his example.  We the people are asking our leaders to lead, not bow to government demands.

Here is how the people view the situation.  Big government is way too big.  It’s obese.  The people want the government to quit eating so much, cut back and lose weight.  They ask our legislators to have the courage to say, “No!”

As these politicians act with all the focus and dexterity of the Keystone Kops, it becomes more apparent that the appropriations committee needs a transfusion of strength and common sense from the people, since they are sorely lacking their own.  By the time this in print, the weak watered down appropriations bill, filled with gimmicks and tax hikes, will be back in the legislature for vote.  Call 1-800-423-2900 (House) and 1-800-423-6900 (Senate), tell them to vote “no” on this bill and stop obstructing the Governor’s plan to balance the budget. Let’s Set Maine Free!

Feb 17 2012

Labyrinth

 

Labyrinth (B.Y.O.B. part duex)

 

No, it’s not a crime to be a buffoon.  It’s not a crime to lack the initiative, intellect or integrity to try and create your own wealth.  None of these are crimes.  The crime our Founding Fathers abhorred the most was forcing good hard-working people to be complicit with the negligence of the foolhardy through government regulation.  It is the ultimate crime for the innocent to pay for the bad behavior of those bent on self-destruction.  So, in short, if you want to be a buffoon, do it by yourself, on your own dime, and away from us.

Given humanity’s history, its weakness for power and the poor behavior it spawns, the Founders knew that it was inevitable a buffoon would cycle through the government structure from time to time.  So checks and balances were put in place.  But, again, what if a person crazy like a fox can gather a coalition of buffoons and can control them to implement the will of the crazy fox.  What if they can form a majority?  Should the minority have to follow the dictates of the majority even if the majority are buffoons?  What if those in the minority do not wish their wealth to be spent on the edicts of tomfoolery?  Should their monies be extracted from them by force of law to fund behaviors they oppose?

The framers of our government structure decided that to prevent this, government should not be involved in the everyday lives of the citizen.  It should not control the rise and fall of a person’s wealth.  It should not dictate the choices of the people it served.  The majority should rule but the majority should never infringe upon the rights of the minority.  How could this amazing dream be realized?

They acknowledged that we were all endowed by our Creator with unalienable rights-Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.  Government could not infringe upon this.  A small Federal government that focused on national security and left the matters of the States to the States while they, in turn, left matters of local ordinance to local government would assure a limited government. This they hoped would protect the rights of all individuals to strive to achieve individual goals.

But now here we are, lost in the labyrinth of big government.  How often we’ve asked, “How did we get here?”  We have allowed ourselves to trade those unalienable rights for the handouts of big government with promises to protect the minority.  Now we have an obese government structure that is crushing the individual.  Take for instance California, where a new law will force 1 in 25 Californians to have to purchase a green energy car by the year 2025, or here in Maine where LURC forces rural Maine to abdicate landowner rights to a bureaucracy, or government agencies which unfairly target independent contractors to eliminate them from the workforce, all funded with your tax dollars whether you agree with it or not.

So a government that was created to fear the people now exacts fear from the people.  Know this, that the minority will never be protected until the self-reliance of the individual is once again held in high esteem by the majority of the people and the government that fears them.

Feb 17 2012

BYOB (Be Your Own Buffoon)

 

B.e Y.our O.wn B.uffoon

We are bombarded on all sides by a myriad of opinions.  Historically, varied opinions will find some common ground, coalesce and then start the political struggle to become the majority.  In modern America, this seems to be the establishment view.  Change can only come through government, specifically Federal, and so we have evolved now into this never-ending frenzied power struggle for who can control Washington D.C.  Our Founding Fathers coalesced around a much different consensus than the modern political view of today.

Our Fathers viewed government as the source of a nation’s problems not the solution.  These men had watched the broken governments of England and Europe stagger beneath the leadership of drunken witless men whose lives were consumed by a passion for the never-ending cycle of gluttonous feasting followed by shameless wenching with a quick return to the tax-funded glut.  No, this was before the time of Ted Kennedy and Chris Dodd.  Predictably, the wealth of these nations was soon depleted.

Without the intellect, integrity or initiative to work to find their own wealth, these buffoons set their sights on the bursting treasure trove in the New World Colonies.  Much to the utter shock of dim-witted magistrates and monarchies, those colonists, who had carved out their own wealth with their own blood, sweat and loved ones lost, were more than reluctant to give it to a slothful soulless magistrate.  When taxes and tariffs became so onerous that these colonists began to lose their own businesses, they fought back.  They became radical right-wing extremists.  You know the story.

Our Founding Fathers formed a government that vested power in the people from the bottom up; that is, the power of government weakened the farther it moved away from the people it represented.  In this way local government, such as counties, would exercise more control over the matters of local ordinance since those officials must face their electorate on a daily basis.  The idea was to promote individual sovereignty.

The Founders created a form a government designed much like a professional athlete, with all its parts proportioned to their need and function.  This is in sharp contrast to our government today, which is shaped more like a bobble-head doll.  The head is grotesquely large, listless, and stares straight ahead.  It only moves when you bump into it and then it just bobbles in place.

Our Fore Fathers knew that it was not a crime to be a buffoon.  The crime would be the inevitable buffoons in government who could be organized by someone who was crazy like a fox.  Now foxes have gathered together enough governmental tomfoolery that the labyrinth of government bureaucracies is once again choking out the people’s wealth.  Leaders throughout government, such as John Martin here in Maine, have carefully crafted layers of regulatory bureaucracy governed by mindless unionized leaders who obey their every bidding.  They shamelessly pad their taxpayer-funded behinds with more and more of our hard earned treasure.  Because they lack the initiative to create solutions to this disease, they block those that do and, instead, look for other ways to pilfer the people’s treasure to fund their wanton glut