Retro 1: U.S. Navy Shops For Sale! Cheap, Never Used, Act Now

Note: Given the Thanksgiving holiday this week and the resultant preparations, family visitors, and other commitments, we will be rerunning the top rated and most popular blog posts from the past five years. These posts cover a wide variety of political class insanity, wasteful spending, inane quotes, and other idiocy and are the discussions that most resonated with our readers. We will be back next week with fresh material, starting with our monthly update on "Political Class Insanity."

Just when you think that you have identified the latest government waste of taxpayer money, some big new wastes jump into your face. Consider some recent news reports that reported on how the U.S. government was scrapping two of its Navy ships even though they had never seen one day of service. Details of the waste include:

• Two large Navy ships, that have never been used, are headed for the scrap yard even though they are almost completely finished and ready for duty.
• Work began on the USNS Benjamin Isherwood and the USNS Henry Eckford in 1985 at the Pennsylvania Shipbuilding Company and were intended to carry fuel to the Navy's ships around the world.
• When the company defaulted on their Navy contract in 1989, the 600 foot ships were sent to Florida for completion. At the length of two football fields, these were not insignificant ships.
• The ships were eventually moved to the James River Navy yard and have sat there at 95% and 84% complete the past 18 years.
• A British company considered buying the ships and completing their build out for sale to a NATO country.
• However, since the ships are single hulled and double hulls are required for today's fuel carriers, the British company decided not to complete the construction and instead, settled on a $10 million contract and taxpayer expense to scrap the ships altogether.
• This week the ships are being towed to Texas to be cut up for scrap iron and scrap steel for recycling.Thus, after spending $300 million to begin building the ships, almost finishing their construction, getting absolutely no use out of them, and paying to tow the ships from port to port, the taxpayers will get hit with one last insult and be charged $10 million to destroy the never used ships.

Where to start on this insanity:

• Who is responsible for ordering the construction of these ships but never getting any use out of them? In the private market, if a business person was to incur that big of a screw up they would be out of a job.
• Was there nowhere in the world that these ships could have been sold in order for taxpayers to get some money back rather than incurring another $10 million cost to have them destroyed? Even though the could not be used to haul fuel, was there no company in the world who would not want a sturdy Navy ship to ship other goods in its hold that was not fuel related? There must be a Chinese shipping company who could use a new ship or two, especially since China's exports in the first half of 2011 was a record level of $874 billion, 20% higher than in 2010 (The Week, July 22, 2011). Thus, not only should the people responsible for building $300 million worth of ships be fired, the people who could not get anything in return by selling the ships should also be fired.

This is a classic example of Step 34 from "Love My Country, Loathe My Government." Step 34 would remove politicians from any Congressional committee that does not do its committee job to at least to minimum standards. Whatever Congressional committee or subcommittee members were responsible for flushing $310 million of taxpayer wealth down the drain need to be removed from their committee or subcommittee posts.The article contains a quote from Joseph Keefe from www.maritimeprofessinal.com who stated that the scrapping the ships will "close one of the saddest chapters in American shipbuilding history and for that matter, Federal fiduciary folly." In other words, what a waste of taxpayer money. Very well said, Mr. Keefe.

Another scary aspect of this story is the thought that this may not be an isolated incident. What other $300 million wastes are hanging around the Pentagon closets? With Pentagon resources deployed in three war zones, dozens of foreign countries, and probably most of the fifty states, I find it hard to believe that this is the only wasted money in the Pentagon budget. Eliminating this type of despicable behavior would reduce the Pentagon budget without further endangering the defense of the United States.

While we are on the topic of waste, let's move out of the Defense Department domain and move to another area of gross government waste. According to USA Today article, that was highlighted in the July 7, 2011 issue of The Week, the Federal government wastes about $17 billion of taxpayer wealth every year in the operation of its unemployment benefits program. Almost 12% of the program's budget is paid out fraudulently to Americans who are either collecting benefits they are not entitled to or are those people that have gotten a job but are still accepting unemployment benefits.

Compare these figures to the politically motivated ramblings of President Obama over the past few weeks. He has made a big deal about closing tax loopholes for oil companies and corporate jet users. Now, while I agree these loopholes should be closed, they are a pittance compared to the unemployment fraud. 

Over ten years, the oil company loopholes would amount to about $20 billion and the corporate jets loophole would amount to about $3 billion, a total of $23 billion or so over 10 years. Ten years worth of this type of unemployment benefits waste comes out to $170 billion, which is almost eight times more than the political gamesmanship loopholes of Obama.

It never ends. The government cannot plan its Navy needs, resulting in wasting over $300 million on just two of its ships. The government cannot efficiently run a simple unemployment benefits program, wasting 12% of its budget and $17 billion a year. The politicians worry about the smaller, trivial wastes of taxpayer money while the bigger wastes go on and on every year. 

The worst part of all, there is no apparent accountability. No one ever seems to be held responsible for all of the waste. Politicians continually get re-elected in the face of the waste. Government bureaucrats never seem to lose their jobs despite inefficiency and waste. 

You wonder what kind of world those in DC live in where how well or bad you perform your job has no ramifications on your monetary reward and career paths. Its the kind of world I would like to live in where performance is unrelated to reality. But first, I need to see if any of those ships are still available, they are too good a deal to pass up.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

Term Limits Now: http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.bankruptingamerica.org
http://www.conventionofstates.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

Navy Seal Team 6 And Others - Thank You!

No ranting about politicians today. No pointing out their selfishness and greed. No examples of how they waste our tax money. No complaints about how they do not think strategically. No enumerating how little they have accomplished over the past fifty years or so.

Today is a good day, a satisfying day. One of the worst human beings to ever walk this earth is no longer walking this earth. Osama Bin Laden was killed today and the world is a little less evil, a little less dangerous than it was yesterday. Most of America has waited and prayed for this day for a long time. And we should thank those that made it possible:

• Thank you to Navy Seal Team 6, which apparently was the strike team that flew into foreign air space without notifying the owner of that airspace they were coming. The strike team that flew directly to and landed within the hostile Bin Laden compound and then proceeded to hunt him down within that compound. A strike team that had the decency to give him the option of surrendering, an option that was declined. Well done.
• Thank you to the highly skilled helicopter pilots who flew into foreign airspace and a hostile location in the dead and darkness of the night. Who got the strike team in and got them out with their mission accomplished and with no injuries to U.S. forces. Well done.
• Thank you for the intelligence trove of information that was likely retrieved last night in the Bin Laden compound and the hope that it will prevent additional terror attacks and lead us to those that would execute such attacks. Well done.
• Thank you to the CIA and other intelligence community analysts who had worked long and hard to find a single human being in the world who did not want to be found and who had legions of supporters who would help him not to be found. I cannot imagine the frustration building up over the years of knowing what had to be done and the lack of information available to do the job. Well done.
• Thank you to President Obama and other high ranking political and military officials who kept the mission a secret and who acted boldly by violating Pakistani air space and ground space, knowing full well that if certain elements of the Pakistani government and military were involved, we would likely not be celebrating the successful mission today. Well done.
• Thank you to all of the members of our armed forces who served their country and contributed to this day, many of whom did not make it back from their assignment in Afghanistan. Our heartfelt thanks to them and their families for their sacrifices. Well done.

It's a good day today.




Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at http://www.loathemygovernment.com/. It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect

freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

http://www.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com
http://www.flipcongress2010.com/
http://www.reason.com/
http://www.repealamendment.com

The Continuing Energy Crisis and The Continuing Failure Of The Political Class To Solve It

Before we talk about our lack of a national and rational energy strategy in this country let's review the failures and timelines of political class shortcomings in other critical areas, as we have reviewed in the past few days:

• Nixon declared "War On Drugs" back in the late 1960s and over forty years later we are further away from wining that war than ever.
• In 1983, a Reagan national commission released a landmark document that proved public education in America was failing and provided a road map of steps necessary to reverse the trend of failure. Twenty seven years later, public education is still mostly a failure but costs us twice as much in tax dollars to achieve that failure.
• In 1986, the U.S. Congress demanded that the U.S./Mexican border be secured within 45 days. Twenty four years later, nothing could be further from the truth.

Three major issues that impact the majority of Americans that have not been solved for many decades by the political class but which have cost the American taxpayer TRILLIONS of dollars. Today we had a fourth failure, the lack of a cohesive, national, and rational energy strategy. In the mid-1970s, the economy and the nation was shocked by the oil embargoes and resultant energy crises. More than 35 years later, our energy needs have grown significantly as has our dependence on foreign regimes for much of that energy and our dependence on carbon based energy sources. We are just one political or natural disaster away from the next energy crises.

This failure was brought into focus over the past couple of days as I read about a solar plane test flight that happened in Switzerland. The Associated Press reported on July 8, 2010 that a completely solar powered plane stayed airborne for 24 consecutive hours using nothing but the energy it gathered from its 12,000 solar cells. And this was not just a Kitty Hawk type flight, get just a little bit up in the air. This flight got as high as 28,000 feet above the earth and reached top speeds of 75 MPH as it took laps over the Jura mountains near the Swiss Alps.

The goal of the group responsible for this amazing feat intend to eventually circle the globe using nothing but the energy from the sun. The research team claimed that they proved that a single seater plane can theoretically stay in the air indefinitely using nothing but the rays of the sun.
Clean energy, non-foreign dependence, what a deal. And the entire project appears to have been financed and managed without any help from any government source. Entire cost of the whole project including the around the world flight: about $95 million or about .1% of the amount the U.S. government has acknowledged it wastes in fraudulent and erroneously vendor and other type payments a year.

The main goal of this group is not to replace conventional jet propulsion options but it is more focused on testing and promoting energy efficient technologies. Think about this for a second: if the technology exists to fly a small plane non-stop for 24 hours at altitudes at about five miles above the earth at 75 miles an hour, why can't that same technology be used to power a small compact car on the ground for less than 24 hours at a time and at speeds generally less than 75 MPH? Why has the political class not come up with this kind of solution in the 35 years since Carter was President? If we can waste $100 billion a year, why can't we somehow find a way to effectively spend a fraction of that waste on something as neat and far reaching as this technology? Why do we continue to drill for oil in all the wrong places or subsidize the building of nuclear power plants (and dealing with their deadly nuclear waste) as Obama proposed several months ago when some smart, non-government, non-political class people can fly an airplane on nothing more than the sun's rays? The enormity of the failure of the people running our government is baffling.

Or perhaps not that baffling, if you read an article that was printed the June 20, 2010 edition of the Tampa Bay Times. The article was entitled, "Big Oil's Addiction"and was written by Deborah Gordon and Daniel Sperling. Ms. Gordon a chemical engineer and a transportation consultant and Mr. Sperling is a director at the Institute of Transportation Studies at Cal-Davis. Their conclusion is that while the major oil companies posture about newer, cleaner fuels, they are still fully wedded to their traditional strength: finding and mining or drilling traditional carbon based energy materials via investment massive, multi-billion dollar facilities. The authors talk about a study by Professor Peter Odell of Erasmus University who predicts that the oil industry in 2100 will be larger than it is today. The authors also conclude that the oil industry already has a TRILLION worth of embedded already in existence and will probably invest another TRILLION dollars in the next decade. To think that they are ready to embrace technologies like the Swiss example is foolhardy.

With the money they have invested and the risk involved, the oil companies are not about to step aside and that is where the political class comes in. We now know that President Obama received more campaign donations from BP than any other politician in the past twenty years. Oil company lobbyists are all over Washington DC. Could it be, just maybe, that we have not solved the energy crisis, come up with new technologies, decentralized our energy dependence because of this political/oil company relationship? With relatively minimal investment ($95 million) a small independent group of smart people are flying solar powered plans. I would bet that the oil company spends more than that annually to protect its interests in Washington, interests that are not compatible with a cohesive and diversified national energy plan.

That is why Steps 23, 24 and 25 in "Love My Country, Loathe My Government" are so important. This approach would establish another panel of smart Americans, without politicians and without lobbyists, who would develop an integrated energy strategy that balanced the four needs of being diversified, inexpensive, domestic, and clean. As the article authors point out, the oil industry has too much of a vested interest to be put in charge of this effort, the politicians are too closely tied to the lobbyists and have not proven that they can do a good plan after the past 35 years, and at least one of the members of Congress believes that the island of Guam could tip over; do we want to trust that he and others like him can come up with a relative;y complex and effective energy plan? I don't think so.

So there we have it. The failure of the American political class to solve the drug addiction problem (over forty years and still waiting), the energy crisis (over 35 years and still waiting), the failure of public education (over 27 years and still waiting), and the illegal immigration problem (over 24 years and still waiting). The time for waiting is over, the time to stop wasting money and start solving problems should start immediately. Steps 23 through 29 in "Love My Country. Loathe My Government" is the way to do it. Albert Einstein once said that: "The definition of stupidity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results." Let's not be stupid, lets finally solve something, without expecting over and over again that the politicians and lobbyists will do it for us.


Our new book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at www.loathemygovernment.com. It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Also visit the following sites for freedom:

http://www.cato.org/
http://www.reason.com/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://www.realpolichick.blogspot.com/
http://www.flipcongress2010.com/

Paying For Failure - Why The Federal Government Will Never Be My Latex Salesman

Yesterday we reviewed the many ways that government and the political class have significantly eroded many of our rights over time. We closed that post with a reminder that in addition to eroding our rights and extending their control over our lives, the political class has been a failure at just about anything they do: public schools, war on drugs, budget management, energy policies, etc. Consider some more of their failures, while on a smaller scale, still waste time, taxpayer dollars, and resources:

• According to an article in The Week magazine from April 9, 2010, Federal auditors submitted fake products designs to the Energy Department in an attempt, that was successful, to get the designs certified as energy efficient and awarded the Department's EnergyStar rating. This rating is useful in marketing such designated products as energy efficient and eligible for tax breaks. However, the designs were not for some sophisticated consumer electronics or a breakthrough technology that would save energy. The two designs that were awarded the EnergyStar rating were for a gasoline powered alarm clock the "size of an electrical generator" and plans for an "air purifier" which was nothing more than a feather duster attached to a space heater. If the Energy Department can award their prized ratings to outrageously bogus products as these, what value do their ratings have on other products that are awarded the same designation? The article concludes that the certification process and stamp of approval as worthless. However, as taxpayers we continue to pay for worthless.
• According to an article in The Week magazine from its March 26, 2010 issue, two IRS agents personally visited a California car wash to hand deliver an unpaid tax bill to the owner, Aaron Zeff. The tax bill was for $.04. Yes, $.04. Now that $.04 shortfall had grown to $202.31 since it was identified in 2006 due to late fees and taxes. However, even at $202.31, was it worth the time of two IRS agents to make an on site visit? Would not have one agent been able to do it and the other work on catching some real criminals? If you assume that each agent makes about $60,000 a year and it took two hours (four hours total = two hours times two agents) to drive out and deliver the bill, then just the cost of salary used to deliver the $.04 bill comes to about $120. Not a good use of taxpayer money.
• According to an article by Steve Chapman of the Chicago Tribune, as summarized in the April 16, 2010 issue of The Week magazine, your cell phone acts like a GPS device that wireless companies could use to track your whereabouts, if they wanted. Even if they do not want to track you, law enforcement organizations may want to and they do NOT need a search warrant to do it. According to Mr. Chapman, "police need only tell a judge that the information is relevant to a criminal investigation - even if you are not the target" of that investigation. Obviously, you do not live in a free country if police agencies have virtually unfettered access to where you are and where you have been. George Orwell would be so proud. And we pay the Federal government for this privilege of invading our privacy.
• In a Washington Post story from January 17, 2010, a poll showed that 58% of Americans prefer smaller government with fewer services to 38% who prefer larger government with more services? What has the political class done over the past few years? Saddled us with skyrocketing budget deficits as they do just the opposite, increasing the size of government exponentially, against the will of the majority of Americans.
• Not to be outdone, state level governments and politicians continue to just as poorly serving the public as the Federal politicians. In a short article in Reason magazine from May, 2010, it was reported that Florida lawmakers have decided to sell some of their state buildings in order to help make up a budget deficit. However, no one knows exactly how many and where all of the state-owned buildings are located. For that, they are considering hiring an outside company to find and compile a list of all the real estate the state government thinks it owns. How incompetent is this? You have grown so large and inefficient that you do not have an accurate inventory of your buildings? Those are pretty big things to lose track of. Three other questions arise to make this even more ridiculous: first, there are 67 counties in Florida and the state "thinks" it has about 18,000 buildings or about 270 per county. Seems like an awful lot of buildings to have in each county. Second, if the state of Florida cannot find all of its buildings, do we really think that the much larger Federal government has any idea how many buildings and properties it owns and where they are located? Finally, Florida is going to sell these buildings at the lowest point in recent Florida history regarding real estate values. Thus, they are almost definitely going to be selling low after buying high, what a waste of taxpayer money.
• A Washington state senator says that poor children should not be called "at risk" anymore because (at least in her mind the label is "discouraging"), they should be called "at hope." She has proposed that all uses of the words "at risk" be removed and replaced in all state laws. Nothing better to do in Washington? Wow, they must have solved their public education problems, their drug addiction problems, their crumbling infrastructure problems, their budget deficit problems, etc. if they are now focusing on wordsmithing state laws for no apparent reason beyond someone's opinion. (Reason magazine, May, 2010)
• On ABC's news show, This Week, on January 24, 2010, White House Senior Advisor David Axelrod was discussing the health care reform bill and was quoted as saying: "People will never know what's in the bill until we pass it." Huh? Is this anyway to run a democracy, passing bills that no one knows what is in it? No wonder Americans were up in arms about the legislation, even those supporting it had no idea what was in it. Not a free country when your leaders are making decisions on these bills but do not read or understand what is in them. This reminds of Congressman Henry Waxman's retort when he was asked what was in the proposed cap and trade legislation and he said he did not know all that was in it. The reason this was disturbing was that he was a primary sponsor of the bill.

Much like Jerry Seinfeld, I do not want these George Constanza-like politicians becoming my latex salesmen. In fact, I want them out of my life and the stupid, wasteful programs they cooked up to be terminated immediately. That is why a primary suggestion from "Love My Country, Loathe My Government" needs to be implemented quickly: a zero based, ground up approach needs to be done for every single Federal agency in order to root out needless programs, look for efficiencies, fire incompetent or lazy Federal employees and get the remaining ones focused on real problems. Step 39 would also be helpful: term limits for all Congressional politicians. They have not solved anything of consequence for over 40 years, lets not wait another 40 before we dump the career politicians, the George Constanzas of America. I would love to pay for a success once in a while.

Our new book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at www.loathemygovernment.com. It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

sex. lies and videotape - Political Class Style - Part 2

Two days ago we covered the sex and videotape portions of our theme, which was based on the 1990s movie - "sex, lies and videotape," of the political class. Today we will cover the "lies" portion. We will not review the extensive list of political class adulterers again (John Edwards, Eliot Spitzer, Bill Clinton, etc.) since although adultery is a form of lying that we covered under the "sex" section.

From a "lies" perspective, there is just so much that we could include. We could start with the first George Bush who said "Read My Lips," inferring that he would never raise taxes. Shortly thereafter he did raise taxes. If we go back to Nixon, there were untold number of lies as it related to Watergate. Bill Clinton bellowed that "he did not have sex with that woman" (Monica Lewinsky) which of course he did. The second George Bush told us that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction which of course it did not. Every time Congress and the political class pass a spending bill of any kind, it always goes over budget and under performs. Given that it ALWAYS happens, there appears to a systematic lie to all political maneuvers and projects.

But Barack Obama gets special attention in this post, either because he is the most recent President and his lies are still in our minds or because he tells the most lies. Consider:

• The President boasted that his administration will not have lobbyists in powerful positions but it does.
• The President promised that he would keep earmarks and pork projects below two thousand per fiscal year, the same levels from ten years ago. His latest budget had almost six times the amount promised.
• The President promised to get our troops out of Iraq but he has not done that and it does not appear that he will do that in the foreseeable future since he now plans to permanently garrison 50,000 troops in country.
• The President promised to close the terrorist prison at Guantanamo Bay but he has not done so.
• The President promised not to raise taxes for those not making over several hundred thousand dollars a year but his raising of cigarette taxes has already raised taxes for the those making less than his threshold and his massive deficit spending levels will eventually and significantly raise taxes for every income producing American.
• The President promised to unite the country but under his administration the country is more divided as ever as the President has allowed critics of his policies to be called un-American, a%#holes, knuckle dragging Neanderthals, and racists while he remained silent.
• The President said health care reform and its benefits would not cover illegal immigrants but it does (Page 50, Section 152 in current legislation). Looks like Congressman Joe Wilson was right when he called Obama a liar, maybe Pelosi should revoke his censure.
• The President said that there would not be rationing of health care under his health care reform legislation but there is (Page 30, Section 123 of the current legislation says there will be a government committee that decides what treatment and benefits you get - sounds like rationing to me).
• The President said there would not be "death panels" under his health care reform legislation but this appears to be another lie (page 425, Lines 4-12 calls for the government to mandate "Advance-Care Planning Consult," page 425, Lines 22-25 calls for the government to provide an approved list of end-of-life resources, guiding you in death.)
• The President said he will not raise taxes for those not making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year but the current health care reform legislation legislates eight new taxes into existence that could affect anyone, regardless of income levels (e.g. Page 167, Lines 18-23 - any individual who doesn't have acceptable health care according to the government will be taxed at 2.5% of income regardless of income levels.)

The Obama list of lies could go on further but let's stop here. Again, maybe because his lies are fresher in our minds has resulted in a longer list. or, maybe he just lies more, either intentionally or unintentionally. In either case it does not matter. Our political class continues to be loaded with liars, adulterers, and people so stupid as to have gotten themselves videotaped in either compromising or illegal situations. All the more reason to dump all incumbents in November and when they come up for re-election in subsequent years. We have seen this movie to many times, let's put the political class version of "sex, lies, and videotape" back on the shelf and start looking for a new movie.


Our new book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at www.loathemygovernment.com. It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

The Leadership Void In Washington Continues to Grow

The concept of leadership has many facets and can manifest itself in many different ways to different people. To some people, leadership is taking responsibility for results, even if the leader was not the direct cause of those results. To others, leadership is maintaining a strong sense of positive principals and acting consistently even when those acts might be distasteful. Leadership might be the ability to get people unified behind a common cause to act against their best interests in the interest of the greater good. Leadership might look like confidence and humility co-existing together rather than self worth and ego running the show.

I thought about different forms of leadership lately as I watch the political class continue to fumble away at their jobs in Washington D.C. The latest example of the leadership void arose this past week when a Congressional ethics panel formally admonished New York Congressman Charles Rangel for accepting a corporate sponsored trip to the Caribbean. The panel had proof that his staff had warned him on at least three occasions that taking the trip would be a violation of Congressional gift rules. However, the Congressman took the trip anyway and does not deny taking the trip.

Rather than step up and take responsibility for this violation, what does the Congressman do? He blames his staff for not informing him of the violation. Remember, this is a Congressman that has been in office for about forty years, I seriously doubt that he did not know that a trip to the Caribbean might violate some sort of House rules on gifts. He should have had the wherewithal to check and make the trip was legitimate even if his staff did not inform him, which they apparently did at least three times. Rather than be a leader, he threw his staff under the bus and denied any responsibility for results.

This incident takes us to the second aspect of leadership discussed above, maintaining a strong set of positive principals and acting consistently even when those acts might be distasteful. What did Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi do when the organization she "leads", the House of Representatives, formally admonishes a member like Rangel? Doe she take any punitive action even though it would harm a member of her own party? No, she does absolutely nothing, saying that "we'll just see what happens next." Why wait? The ethics panel has spoken, the panel that Pelosi ultimately has responsibility for. When Republican Joe Wilson publicly called Obama a liar in public last year during a Presidential speech, Pelosi made sure a formal censure measure of Wilson was immediately passed by the House, despite the fact that Wilson immediately and personally apologized to the President and the President accepted the apology. The inconsistency of behavior proves that Pelosi is not the leader she thinks she may be despite the fact that she promised to "drain the swamp" of ethics abuses back in 2006. By the way, Rangel is still facing a whole host of other potential ethics violations. If guilty, it should be interesting to see if Pelosi steps up to her leadership role and drains the swamp of Charles Rangel.

Speaking of taking responsibility, Obama has got be the king of not taking responsibility. For the entire first thirteen months of his administration, nothing that has gone wrong has been his fault. Unemployment rising faster and faster with no end in sight? The fault of the Bush administration even though Bush has been out of office for over a year and the Democrats have controlled Congress for over three years.. Federal budget deficit skyrocketing? The fault of the Bush administration even though the Bush administration has been out of office for over a year and the Democrats have controlled Congress for over three years. Banks got too much money in taxpayer bailout funds? The fault of the Bush administration even though the Bush administration has been out of office for over a year, Obama the Senator voted to pass the bailout funding, Congress has been controlled by the Democrats for over three years and Bush tried to prevent the housing meltdown dozens of times but was blocked from doing so by the Democrats. Washington gets a record breaking snowfall? The fault of the Bush administration even.... Just kidding on the last point but you get the point. A true leader steps up and takes responsibility for both good news and bad. This President's lack of humility does not allow him to perform in that manner, his ego will not allow it.

The leadership ability to get people unified behind a common cause requires a standard of respect for differing opinions, something that has been severely lacking in Washington these past years. In just the past thirteen months, those that have disagreed with Obama's policies have been called racists, knuckle dragging Neanderthals, a%$holes, un-American and a few other names. What has Obama done to squelch the divisive name calling and work towards unifying the country? He has been silent in every case, allowing the name calling to escalate and further divide the country.

A great leader unifies the people for the greater good, bad leaders divide the country for no one's good. Whether it is ignoring ethics violations, blaming others for their own shortcomings, forcing distasteful and ill conceived programs onto people, calling people names, etc., we are faced with a tremendous leadership void in this country and it is slowly ripping the fabric of freedom and community apart. Please visit "Love My Country, Loathe My Government," specifically pages xxii and xxiii, to see how the Freedom Pyramid theory can restore both individual freedom and leadership to the country today.


Visit our website at www.loathemygovernment.com to order an autographed copy of the book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government -Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom and Destroying The American Political Class" and to sign up for the cause. The book is also available online at Amazon and Barnes And Noble.

More Political Class Insanity - California Style

Yesterday I thought we had caught up on all of the recent national and international political class insanity. However, I log on this morning and another great example of political class insanity and waste is staring me in the face, this one concerning the state legislature in California. Before we go to the insanity itself, let's review the financial and economic state of California today, according to a Reuters report and a few other news websites that I came across in less than five minutes of searching online:

• According to Reuters, California currently has about a $2o billion budget shortfall.
• This shortfall occurred despite billions of dollars in budget cuts in 2009.
• Unemployment in the state is over 12% compared to national unemployment rate of less than 10%.
• State employees are given unpaid furlough days every month to reduce state salary expenses.
• in 2009, the state treasury could not pay bills for a short period of time and had to issue IOUs because the state government did not have enough funds to cover the expenses.
• It takes a two thirds majority to pass a budget in the state so fundamental economic/financial reform reform has been difficult, requiring short term and one time budget tricks to balance the recent budgets.
• The state credit worthiness ratings of its bonds was downgraded in 2009, resulting in higher borrowing costs, deepening the current budget shortfall.
• To make up for their state reduction in support of public college education, college costs at the state universities were raised over 30%.

Pretty serious stuff affecting every single California resident and taxpayer. One would assume that the state level political class would be focused on cleaning up this mess and getting the California state financial house in order. However, that may not be the case, according to an Associated Press report today. Rather than focusing on budget matters, the state Assembly is scheduled to take up and vote on a resolution calling for a state wide "Cuss Free Week."

Stop and think about this one for a little while. This resolution would officially designate the first week of March, every year, as Cuss Free Week. If the Assembly passes it today, the measure would go to the California state Senate for a vote next week. Thus, if both the state Assembly and Senate are addressing this non-issue, you can safely assume that hundreds, if not thousands, of man hours have been spend by both the politicians and their staffs on this effort. These are valuable hours that might have been better spent working on the massive budget issues instead.

And it gets even better. Its not like this is a big problem in the state legislature. The AP article explains that "cussing" is very rare on the floor of the Assembly and Senate and that politicians try to "maintain a sense of decorum even if they engage in heated arguments over legislation." In 2007, a lawmaker used the word "hell" in the Senate, after which Senators took time out to discuss whether that word was appropriate for use on the Senate floor.

Thus, not only is this a waste of time and a stupid idea, deflecting focus away from real problems, it is NOT EVEN A PROBLEM in the legislature. Nobody is dropping f-bombs during debate or profanely ripping other lawmakers. It does not get any worse than solving a non-problem with a inane idea while the financial foundations of your government are collapsing. It is behavior like this that cries out for term limits for the political class, as outlined in Step 39 in "Love My Country, Loathe My Government" and also for accountability and removal of politicians from committees and subcommittees that work on such stupid ideas (Step 34).

Remember, you can end a lot of this insanity by removing all incumbents for office by voting against their re-election in November.


Visit our website at www.loathemygovernment.com to order an autographed copy of the book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government -Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom and Destroying The American Political Class" and to sign up for the cause. The book is also available online at Amazon and Barnes And Noble.

On The Eve Of (Financial ) Destruction - Part 1

One of the great protest songs from the late 1960s was Barry McGuire's "Eve Of Destruction." The song came to mind today while reading an Associated Press (AP) report describing Obama's 2011 Federal budget. His proposed budget calls for a record breaking spending level of $3.8 TRILLION and a one year deficit of $1.56 TRILLION. In other words, his budget will require the Federal government to spend 40% more than the expected tax revenue it will collect. Obviously, the government will have to borrow money from any individual or nation who will lend it to us, sinking the country's financials deeper into debt. Further, he expects the deficit to "shrink" to just under $1.3 TRILLION the next fiscal year.

Let's do some math:

• If each U.S. household had to pay for the $1.56 TRILLION deficit, the cost per household would come to about $12,000 per household. This would be above and beyond the taxes needed to cover the non-deficit portion of the budget.
• If we look at last year's deficit level, this year's deficit level, and the proposed deficit for the next two years, the political class in Washington is expected to overspend its tax collections by about $5.7 TRILLION. On a per household basis, this comes to about $44,000 per household.
• As discussed in previous posts, the Obama administration has proposed to freeze spending levels in some Federal government areas, claiming that this action will save about $250 billion over the next ten years, or about $25 billion per year. If those savings ever materialize, the $100 billion savings over four years would result in each American household theoretically getting back $769 in savings. The $769 in savings represents less than 2% ($769/$44,000) of the additional taxes that are going to be required at some point to pay for the deficit spending of Washington.
• Many U.S. household will not even save this much since Obama's budget proposal calls for letting the so-called Bush tax cuts expire when they come up for renewal.
• The cost over the next decade, according to the proposed budget, would be about $8.5 TRILLION. If you add in the $2.8 TRILLION deficits from the past year and this year. the total deficit spending of the political class could be $11.3 TRILLION or a whopping $87,000 per household. As mentioned in a previous post, the government is notorious for underestimating costs, this $87,000 estimate is probably understated.

Looks like Barry McGuire was right, he just got the cause wrong, we are on the eve of destruction. We are on the eve of destruction from a financial perspective. As the deficit gets bigger and bigger, the available credit and capital required to support that deficit will drain money out of the private credit markets. Businesses will find it harder to get affordable credit and loans to expand, stifling employment growth. As the deficits get larger, those buying the bonds to support the deficit spending will require higher and higher returns as the risk of default accelerates, causing the deficit to get bigger even faster, sucking even more capital out of the private sector. Taxes must go up eventually for everyone, not just the rich, to feed the deficit beast in order to avoid or delay a government default, taking more wealth out of the economy. With less disposable income, households will purchase fewer products and services, further depressing the jobs market.

Apparently, the Obama administration does not get it, even though they received a good kick in the pants a few weeks ago in Massachusetts. When a Republican can take over Ted Kennedy's Senate seat in a state like Massachusetts, you know the ordinary American is not happy. They are not happy about this administration's deficit spending, bailing out of banks, insurance companies and car companies, and the expansion of big government at the expense of freedom and control over their own lives.

In response, this administration continues on a reckless spending spree, still thinking that spending an additional trillion or two on a fatally flawed health care reform plan is a good idea, wasting billions of dollars on earmarks and wasteful pork barrel projects, continuing to expand our military presence around the world, and offering token spending freezes on only a portion of the Federal budget. The proposed $25 billion a year savings is less than 1% of the total $3.8 TRILLION budget. It is less than 2% of the just the deficit amount from this year. Pitiful.

What could be done to help Obama reduce the deficit? There are any number of suggestions listed in "Love My Country, Loathe My Government:"

• As we have stated previous, the U.S. currently has over 50,000 troops stationed in Germany, almost 50,000 troops stationed in Japan, and about 30,000 troops stationed in Korea. These deployments are from another age and time, we can no longer afford to garrison these types of troop levels around the world. In his Afghanistan speech, the President claimed that it costs about a million dollars a year per soldier to deploy them in that country. If we assume that the cost is less than that in non-fighting zones (say we arbitrarily reduce the $1,000,000 cost down to $600,000) then by bringing back the 130,000 troops we have just in Germany, Korea, and Japan, we could save about $78 billion a year, every year going forward. We could reduce the size of our military and focus those remaining forces where they are needed to fight terrorism. Additional savings could be found by reducing the thousands of active troops we have in countries such as Spain, England, and other European countries. (Step 30 in "Love My Country, Loathe My Government").
• One of the primary attractions of voting for Obama the candidate was his promise to get us out of Iraq as soon as possible. That promise has not been fulfilled as of today and worse yet, he has vowed to keep 50,000 troops in that country for the foreseeable future. If we go conservative and use the $600,000 estimate per year per soldier, the savings of getting everyone out of Iraq would be about $30 billion a year. (Step 30)
• We need to review all military costs we are shouldering for other nations and determine if paying all of the costs is worthwhile or cost effective. The perfect example of this type of cost savings was reviewed in an article from the New York Times that was reprinted int he St. Petersburg Times this past Sunday. It described the missile defense system that the Obama administration is deploying in the Persian Gulf to protect the world from the threat of Iranian missiles. If we are protecting the world, specifically oil rich nations in the Persian Gulf, how about we ask those nations to pay for the privilege of being protected by our missle defense system? They can certainly afford the likely billions of dollars it will cost to permanently deploy the system, why shouldn't they pay for it? There are probably hundreds of these types of programs where we pay for everything to the benefit of others. Those times are over, we cannot afford them any more.
• As mentioned in previous posts, Obama the candidate promised to keep wasteful earmarks below 2,000 per year, the same levels as early in the Bush administration. Unfortunately, the current Federal budget, that President Obama signed in the fall, has over 11,000 earmarks, wasting tens of billions of dollars every year. One way to get this problem under control is to institute a rule that no Federal spending, project, or program would be funded unless it materially affected a large number of residents in at least five states. If a program did not meet this criteria, it would not be done or it would be funded by state and local governments in the states where the project would be implemented. In this way, the Federal government would not be building farmers' markets in Kentucky, building bike trails in Michigan, or do any other wasteful programs such as these. (Step 44)
• Social Security will soon not be able to pay its benefits from the taxes it collects. Thus, fair and financially sound actions are required to get this expense stream under control. These actions should include raising the retirement age, changing the funding requirement for the program so that the program is funded as it goes (depriving the political class from raiding the Social Security trusts), and reducing Social Security benefits based on the wealth level of each American. People such as Donald Trump, Bill Gates, and Warren Buffet are too wealthy to receive a monthly Social Security check. In order to keep the system and its financials solvent, benefits for the wealthy should be cut to provide for those that are not wealthy (Steps 10, 11, 12)
• Benefit and retirement perks for future Federal employees need to be reduced. Since most Americans do not currently get both a pension and access to a 401k retirement plan (in fact, many, many Americans have access to neither), it is not fair for future Federal employees to get both. Thus, the Federal employee pension system should be phased out over time with new employees having access only to a fair 401k type retirement option, putting them on a par with most other Americans. (Step 9)
• Every government agency needs to do a ground up review of all of its expense lines and programs. Many Federal programs take on a life of their own even when their original purpose has disappeared. There is great redundancy across multiple Federal entities that could be reduced along with the corresponding budgets. We need to do a basic business and functional analysis of all government functions, giving each department and agency an aggressive budget reduction (say 10% a year for five years) in order for the hard cuts to be made in nonessential expenditures. (Step 1)
• Rather than increase funding by deficit spending, the Federal government needs to self fund itself by wringing fraud out of the big programs such as Social Security and Medicare. If you are losing dollars from fraudulent activities, increasing spending is likely to increase the waste lost to fraud. An investment in additional policing resources for Social Security and Medicare should pay many dividends in government spending savings. (Step 5)
• An independent panel, without politicians and without lobbyists, needs to be formed, and staffed by smart Americans like we did with the Manhattan Project, the Apollo space mission, the military base closing commission, etc., which would take a comprehensive look at how to reduce the escalating health care and Medicare costs, currently about half a trillion dollars a year. The past year has proven that the political class is incapable of creating fair, effective, and cost reduction national health care legislation. (Step 28)

The above nine ideas would go a long way to getting the Federal budget under control. I am sure that other, smarter people could come up with many other smart, insightful ideas for getting the government's growth contained. Unfortunately, no one in the political class has shown the bravery to tackle such a task, leaving us all on the "Eve Of Destruction."

Visit our website at www.loathemygovernment.com to order an autographed copy of the book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government -Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom and Destroying The American Political Class" and to sign up for the cause. The book is also available online at Amazon and Barnes And Noble.

Liar, Liar Pants On Fire - The Greatest Political Lies Of All Time

The next few days will be spent reviewing some information from the latest edition of Reason magazine. Before starting, though, please allow me to put in a recommendation for Reason. Reason's subtitle is "Free Minds and Free Markets" and it does a great job of examining the concept of freedom in a wide variety of settings. The writing is first rate and is supported by detailed and provocative analyses of facts, something politicians rarely let get in the way of their actions. It delves into the seamier side of politics and the detrimental effects the political class and government actions have on liberty in this country and abroad. I highly recommend it as a refreshing alternative to the narrow minded, shallow reporting of most main stream news outlets.


Today we will start with an article in the March, 2010 issue of Reason magazine by Veronique deRugy. I have been looking for the information she writes about for years and I thank her for pulling it together. As you can imagine from the title of this blog, Ms. deRugy's article deals with some of the biggest political lies ever told. It is in the context of budget overruns and how just about every political class program runs over budget. This article highlights some of the biggest lies and failures including the following disasters:

• Medicare: 1967 estimated cost for 1990 = $12 billion; actual 1990 cost = $98 billion, off by a factor of 8.6 times higher than estimated


• Boston's Big Dig: 1985 estimated cost of $2.6 billion; actual cost by 2008 = $22 billion, off by a factor of 8.5 times higher than expected


• Capital Hill Visitor Center: 200o estimated costs of $265 million; actual cost by 2007 = $621 million, off by a factor of 2.3 times high than expected


• Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Disposal: 1992 estimated costs of $6.3 billion; actual cost by 2008 = $79.3 billion, off by a factor of 12.6 times higher than expected


• V-22 Osprey Aircraft: estimated 1986 cost of $4 billion; actual cost by 2006 = $12.5 billion, off by a factor 3.1 times higher than expected


• International Space Station: 1993 estimated cost = $17.4 billion; actual cost by 2003 = $32 billion, off by a factor 1.8 times higher than expected


• Denver International Airport: 1989 estimated cost = $1.7 billion; actual cost by 1995 = $4.8 billion, off by a factor of 2.8 times higher than expected


• Kennedy Center Parking lot: 1998 estimated cost = $28 million; actual cost by 2003 = $88 million, off by a factor of 3.1 times high than expected

The original Medicare estimate looks even more ludicrous in 2010 since the annual cost is around $500 billion, 43 times higher than the original annual estimate of $12 billion.

These estimates are reported by Ms. deRugy and are based on a detailed analysis that was published by the Journal of American Planning Association. The authors examined 258 world wide government projects from the past 75 years to come to their conclusions. They found that nine out of the ten government projects they examined came in over budget. The clear cut world wide winners were the Sydney Opera House and the Concorde supersonic jet. The opera house came in at 1400% of budget and the jet came in at 1100% of budget. Looks like the word wide political class cannot run anything efficiently or effectively either.


Back to the waste in the U.S. One would hope that if a project runs over budget that the results would be above expectations. However, that is not the case. The Big Dig not only exceeded its budget by eight fold but it took seven years longer to complete than scheduled and it has been plagued with problems, the epitome of which was the tragic death of a motorist who died from falling roof panels while driving through a Big Dig tunnel. The International Space Station missed its budget but the expected results from the space station have not materialized. The Yucca Mountain Project is not even operational yet despite overrunning its budget by over twelve fold. The Osprey has been plagued by mechanical problems in addition to cost overruns, problems that have killed 32 Marines in four crashes. The Capitol Hill Visitors Center not only missed its construction budget by over two times but it overran its construction schedule by three years. Thus, we as taxpayers are constantly overpaying for under performance in both cost, functionality, and schedule.


The article goes on to explain how badly the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has been in predicting costs for government programs. In 2005, the CBO projected Medicare would cost $1.5 trillion a year by 2050. In 2009, just four years later, it predicted the cost in 2050 would be $3 trillion a year by 2050. How can you predict so horribly that you double your original forecast in a very short time? And we expect these people to accurately predict the cost of the Obama health care reform program?


Speaking of the Obama health care program, the article goes on to explain the financial shenanigans that the Obama administration and the Democrats are doing to us. I never understood why the government would start collecting taxes immediately, if the current Democratic plan passes, but the benefits to Americans would not start until 2014. I thought Obama wanted to make sure that the bad legislation did not start until he ran for President again.


However, I was not devious enough in my thinking. Obama and the Democrats continue to emphasize the ten year impact of health care reform and how reasonable the cost will be. The problem with this approach is that in the first ten years, there are ten years of tax collection under the program but only six years of real expenses of the program. Thus, by looking at the first ten years, Obama skews the true costs to something more reasonable. The true analysis would be to start counting the ten years in 2014. In that case, true costs could be closer to $1.8 TRILLION dollars, double what Obama and Democrats are hyping today. These numbers would cost every American household an additional $1,400 a year in health care costs on average. Thus, as the article points out, Americans will pay much more than the politicians are telling us and who really believes we will see any where near the benefit that is also being hyped? If so, it would be the first time ever that the U.S. Federal government program met its purported expectations.


As stated in "Love My Country, Loathe My Government," the government and the ruling political class never execute any program successfully, always over budget, always behind schedule, always under delivering goals, and in some cases, such as the Big Dig, actually fatal to ordinary Americans. There are many other examples in the book where we see how badly the government functions. Many steps in "Love My Country, Loathe My Government," would address this situation, the most important of which is Step One which would start to shrink the Federal government's budget by 10% a year for five years. The reasoning is that if the political class has less money to work with, they will have less money to waste. Thus, we would be much less likely to hear, "Liar, liar, pants on fire," when it comes to government waste.



Visit our website at www.loathemygovernment.com to order an autographed copy of the book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government -Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom and Destroying The American Political Class" and to sign up for the cause. The book is also available online at Amazon and Barnes And Noble.

Innovation Models For Government

In reading the current version of Fortune magazine (January 18, 2010), I came across two examples where innovative thinking is changing the fortunes of two entities, one a business and one a local government. In both cases, people are thinking through the whole problem, understanding interrelationships between the parts of the systems, understanding the financials of the entire process, and acting creatively to solve their problems and create value. I thought of them as modes for the operations of the Federal government which seems to do none of the above things:

• the political class seems to never understand interrelationships, with many of the laws they pass having unintended negative impacts on other areas of the economy or the country.
• the political class never seems to consider the financial costs and impacts, continually running up huge spending deficits.
• when was the last time you ever stood back and thought: "What a creative and innovative government solution!", it never happens.

The first article, by Gregg Segal, was about Hyundai Motors of South Korea. Hyundai entered the U.S. market in 1986 with a single model, the Excel. It was one of the very lowest priced cars in the market and was also one of the most quality deficient in the market also. According to the article, when Hyundai repossessed cars from its lower income delinquent owners, their quality was so bad that they were usually worth less than the outstanding loan balances. However, since then, Hyundai has made quite a turnaround. In the past year or so when all major car companies saw their sales drop significantly, Hyundai actually saw a steady growth in its sales. Hyundai is now the fourth largest car company in the world, surpassing Ford in 2009. Hyundai now has a full line of vehicles for sale at its dealerships and has steadily moved up the charts in J.D. Powers quality ratings, becoming the best quality mass market car brand in 2009.

How did Hyundai move from a terrible single product line up to a full line, high quality performer? The article points out a number of contributing factors:

• Hyundai maintains a Global Command and Control Center in Seoul that minute by minute tracks every aspect of its operations including the shipping and tracking of parts to ensure adequate, but not unnecessary, availability of parts, cameras continually monitor every assembly line around the world, the center watches over all R&D activities around the world, and monitors the massive Hyundai test facility in California. This constant monitoring and adjusting allows Hyundai to anticipate and react to all problems before or just after they crop up. When was the last time the political class was so proactive as to avoid a disaster before it happened?
• Hyundai constantly shortens and improves its delivery process to introduce new autos to the market. Thinking about the agonizing slow process of the health care reform bill, when was the last time the political class ever shortened and improved its delivery process of worthwhile laws and government services?
• While Hyundai has improved its sales volumes substantially over the past few years, its corporate philosophy is now focused on quality, not volume, which is quite a difference from the Excel days when sales, not quality, was the mantra. When was the last time the political class focused on quality?
• Hyundai has built a cross functional quality culture where all parts of the company work together to ensure that quality exists from the design team to the sales floor. When was the last time the political class had a quality process to ensure that the laws it passes actually are enforced in the manner they were designed to be enforced and address the issues they were designed to address?
• According to John Krafcik, president and CEO of Hyundai's American operations, "Hyundai is an ambitious company that looks for boldness and leadership." When was the last time that the words "boldness" and "leadership" were apt descriptions of the American political class?

The second example was also in the Fortune issue. In an article written by David Whitford, the possibility of reinventing Detroit is reviewed. In previous posts we have reviewed the sad state of Detroit today. It has gone from being the fourth largest city in the country with a population around two million people to a shell of its former self with less than one million residents. Its unemployment rate is approaching 30% and its housing market has collapsed. There are vast swaths of inner city property that have been abandoned and the buildings have been knocked down or burned down. This has made the city very difficult to run and manage. Tax revenue is down and police, fire, ambulance, and other services have become very inefficient since they must serve a large geographic area with low population density.

The question becomes one of what would help rejuvenate Detroit. Becoming a regional financial center would be tough because Chicago and Minneapolis fulfill that role in the Midwest already. Boston and San Diego are years ahead as far as being biotech centers. Some have suggested that Detroit might become a center for TV and movie production but Hollywood does not seem interested. Anyway, none of these ideas would make good use of the acres and acres of empty and blighted land.

Mr. Whitford's article, "Can Farming Save Detroit," reviews an incredibly unique way of approaching and solving Detroit's problems. Rather than try to rebuild Detroit's historical industrial base, some people are dreaming of turning the city's many vacant lots into high tech farming centers. Their thought is if they can convert the vacant land into a productive farming industry, it will generate jobs and hopefully consolidate the remaining residents closer in to a core city center, making fire, police and rescue more efficient and less costly. The outer parts of the city limits would evolve into farming centers, the city core would evolve into a more manageable city.

And we are not talking about a typical farm and just tilling some soil and planting some seeds. The people dreaming up this transformation are looking at the latest in farm technology, indoors and outdoors, that would utilize such technologies as compost heated greenhouses, hydroponic growing (water only, no soil), aeroponic farming (air only), etc. Crops would grow year round despite the cold Detroit winters and the farming centers would be a tourist destination for both locals and visitors.

Is this a viable solution for Detroit? I do not know but at least those addressing the city's many maladies seem to have done their homework. They understand the problem, i.e. they have a lot of unused assets (vacant land) with little chance of using that asset they way it had been used historically (car and other industrial production). They understand the bad economics of a lot of vacant land with not a corresponding population density that needed to be served by fire, police, and other city services, i.e. they understood the root cause of the problem. They are thinking creatively to find unique solutions to dire problems.

Like the Hyundai example, the Detroit farming solution stands in stark contrast to the government and the ruling political class who rarely, if ever, display the characteristics of 1) understanding the root cause of a problem, 2) understanding the relationship between all components of the problem, 3) understood the financials of the problem, and 4) acted boldly, quickly, and creatively to solve it.

Many steps in "Love My Country, Loathe My Government" would help bring the positive characteristics of Hyundai's rise and the Detroit farming idea to the ruling class. Term limits would remove politicians from office after a reasonable time, infusing new people with new ideas into the ruling process on a regular basis. Doing a comprehensive zero-based review of all Federal government functions and programs would weed out unnecessary functions, meld together related and redundant functions, and would help bring creativity out in solving problems. Holding politicians accountable based on their performance on Congressional committees would also move members of the ruling class out of committee positions for not thinking uniquely and creatively in solving problems.

Hyundai and Detroit farming are just two examples of innovative approaches to problem solving. Some how we need to get that same energy into the political process before we waste another trillion dollars or so on government processes and functions that just do not work.

Visit our website at www.loathemygovernment.com to order an autographed copy of the book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government -Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom and Destroying The American Political Class" and to sign up for the cause. The book is also available online at Amazon and Barnes And Noble.

Global Warming - Some Random (But Major) Issues To Consider

As we start into 2010, the next big Congressional debacle is likely to be the debate on global warming and whether the United States should implement a vast and complicated cap and trade program to reduce carbon emissions. I am sure we will revisit this topic many times in 2010 so this article will just start the process of posing the necessary questions that need to be asked and the analyses that need to be done do arrive at the right answer, whatever that may be, relative to the overall global warming issue and the specific cap and trade proposal that Congress may or may not agree to.

As with health care reform and any other recent Congressional and political class activity, the hope for a balanced and fair evaluation is unlikely, given the vocal supporters of the global warming theory, the multitude of lobbyists likely to be moving around behind the scenes, and the general inability of Congress to understand the interactions and total range of consequences of their actions. However, the following issues are real and should be addressed before moving forward.

1) Is global warming actually happening and if so, is the threat from global warming significant?
Most polls show that the majority of Americans believe there is global warming underway and to varying degrees, something should be done about it. Al Gore has made a second career out of it and the main stream media seem to think it is a done deal. However, please consider the following:

• Over 31,000 scientists, including thousands with PhD degrees, have signed a petition at http://www.petitionproject.org/ that states their opposition to those scientists that claim global warming exists and is a real threat to humanity. This project was avidly supported by Physicist Frederick Seitz (prior to his death in 2008). Dr. Seitz was once president of the United States National Academy of Science, he received the National Medal of Science among many other prestigious awards, and he received honorary doctorate degrees from 32 universities. Thus, when a politician states that the science of global warming is unquestionable, does that the politician really know what he is talking about when tens of thousands of scientists disagree?
• Dr. Fred Singer of George Mason University is founder of the Science and Environmental Policy Project, whose work has also scientifically found fault with the global warming scientists.
• Late last year a computer hacker published thousands of emails stolen from leading climate researchers that touched on such topics as a scientist lamenting the lack of global warming at the moment, using statistical "tricks" to "hide the decline" in global temperatures, the promise to block the publication of "unhelpful papers", proposals to boycott a journal that was open minded with regard to global warming, and other incriminating statements. This may show 1) climate science is not such a slam dunk as some would claim and 2) some scientists may be fudging data (and reality) for their own personal gain. How real is global warming if you have to fake data and suppress conflicting opinions in order to prove your point? (source: The Week magazine, December 4, 2009)
• Earlier this year the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency suppressed the findings of one of its own scientists, who concluded from his analysis of many different climate studies that the worry about global warming might be overblown. Shouldn't these findings from an EPA scientist have been made public for debate for either confirmation or rebuttal?
• Three decades ago, many climatologists were claiming the earth was heading towards a new ice age and that a possible solution would be to shoot carbon emissions into the atmosphere to prevent the cooling of the earth. That is the exact opposite of what they want to do now, take carbon emissions out of the atmosphere.
• Speaking of Al Gore, how many people know that a lot of his future wealth will be determined by how successfully he pushes the global warming threat? He has relationships with certain parties and companies that need the global warming argument to succeed. Can you say "conflict of interest?"
• What about the credible reports and analyses showing the ice cap at Antarctica is actually increasing? How does that mesh with the shrinking Arctic icecap? Wouldn't both ice caps shrink if global warming was a world wide crisis?

2) If global warming is actually happening, is it possible to get it under control?

• As reported in "Love My Country, Loathe My Government," China and India will bring over 800 carbon spewing, coal fired power plants online by 2012. If they are not forced to bring their accelerating carbon footprint size under control, does it make any difference what the rest of the world's countries do within their own borders? Given the recent failures at the UN climate conference in Denmark, where the developing countries were not amenable to giving up their cheap energy sources without massive bribes from the Western countries, and possibly not even then, it makes no sense to penalize U.S. industry and business when the emerging economies in China, India and elsewhere are belching out pollution and exports based on cheap (mostly coal) and dirty fuel.
• In the January 11, 2010 issue of Business Week magazine, an article by John Carey, "Measuring The Gas Without the Hot Air," laid out a major problem in climatology in that attempts to actually and precisely measure emissions on a local basis are almost impossible. Thus, how can you control emissions, and penalize the violators, if you cannot measure the level of emissions the violators are turning out?
• Although many nations signed the Kyoto Treaty, which was the first attempt to rein in emissions, very few nations met the targets set out by the treaty or even came close to meeting them? How will that non-compliance tendency be overcome on a going forward basis?
• In a November Business Week article by Ben Elgin, "A Big Loophole In Cap and Trade," Mr. Elgin exposed some schemes that are already being contemplated on how to game and cheat the proposed Congressional cap and trade system before it is even approved by Congress! If people can con the legislation before it is even passed, you know it is likely to be a lousy bill and will cost the American taxpayer in the end. More on these schemes in future posts.

3) Do we actually think that the American political class can pass a bill that effectively and fairly addresses the problem?

• So many examples, so little time. Of course, my favorite example is that the recently completed visitor's center in Washington came in 50% above budget. If they cannot build a simple building on time and on budget, what makes anyone think they can run the entire U.S. energy industry?
• Do we think that Congress can pass and oversee a cap and trade program that is not manipulated by Wall Street and other high powered investors to the detriment of the American taxpayer? Government oversight did not work so well for taxpayers relative to the banking industry.
• Who will decide what projects and factories are to be included under the cap and trade program and what the value for the credits and debits will be? (more on this in a future post based on a Reason magazine analysis, "Is Government Action Worse Than Global Warming?")
• The American taxpayer is reeling under an extremely heavy taxation burden before the increased costs and taxes from the horrible health care reform bill and the cap and trade legislation hit the household wallet. Less money to spend on vacations, restaurants, consumer products and services will continue to depress the employment market.
• According to a blurb in the January, 2010 issue of Reason magazine by Ronald Bailey, the U.K.-based organization, Carbon Footprint consultancy, claims that to stop global warming each person on earth needs to have a carbon footprint of only two tons per person per year. According to the article, the average American citizen's footprint is over 20 tons annually. What countries get close to the two tons per year? According to Mr. Bailey, Cuba, Togo, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Uganda, and Mali beat and come close to the target of two tons per year. Of course, these are some of the poorest, most backwards countries in the world. Do we really think that Americans will give up their cell phones, their SUVs, home heating, big televisions, and other modern convenience and reduce their carbon footprint by 90%?

These are just some random thoughts and reviews that I have come across relative to global warming. We will delve into many of these topics in detail going forward. However, these items do not even cover the need to develop a long term strategic energy plan for the country. You cannot address global warming without also addressing the nation's future energy needs and still maintain the current level of affluence in the country. Given that the political class has not developed such a plan since the oil crises of the 1970s does not bode well for them doing so in the near future. Please turn off the lights when you leave.


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