Part 2, Why There Is Hope To Better Educate Our Kids, Something That The Political Class Never Provided, Hope and Good Educations

It is no secret to anyone in the know that we are doing a terrible job of educating our kids in this country. On international achievement tests, there are usually kids from dozens of countries who score better on all different types of tests than American kids. It is truly a national disgrace.

A national disgrace especially when you consider that we have spend more and more on public education in this country over the years and have seen no improvement of positive return on that spending. This embarrassment was captured by the following graph from the Cato Institute, using California as an exmaple:



It is not as if the American political class has not tried to fix the problem, they have just proven they do not know how to fix the problem, as witnessed by the graph above. Their solution always involves spending more money which in turn has gotten us nothing. Their latest attempt, via the so-called Common Core effort, has also proven to be a disaster. Where Common Core has been instituted, in states like Massachusetts and Maryland, the results have been a disaster. 

At one time, Massachusetts turned out the smartest kids in the country. Under common Core, they have slipped to seventh place. Several years after Common Core was established in Maryland, test scores have plummeted:


Step 27 proposed a solution to this problem that did not include any input from the American political class. Over the past several decades they have proven themselves incapable of not injecting politics, greed, and their lack of knowledge of education principles and strategies. As a result we have wasted hundreds of billions of dollars funding the Federal Department of Education and lord knows how many billions of dollars developing Common Core, of which both investments have failed horribly and disgracefully.

But that does not mean that we cannot heal our education processes and start turning out smart kids again. In fact, there are success stories in this field all across the country, a few of which we will shall over the next two days. One of the common themes underlying these success stories is that the political class has been cut out of the education process, resulting in tremendous successes without tremendous costs.

1) Yesterday we showed two examples where it is possible to give our kids a high level of quality education without excessive or with no input from politicians. We discussed the high school in Watts in Los Angeles where the entire senior class from this all boys schools were accepted into college, a record that very few schools anywhere in the country can match.We also discussed an article from the website, www.sfbayview.com, from a few years ago that showed how ten African-American kids were thriving academically in so many artistic and academic fields. 

Let’s start today’s continuing examination of kids in America getting a good education with an article from the Heritage Foundation that was written by Lindsey Burke. The article, “How Charter Schools Spend Less Than Public Schools But Achieve Better Results,” examined recent research on how charter schools, the bane of teacher unions and the politicians that depend on those unions for their perpetual electioneering, are outperforming public education processes at a lower price.

Details and research from the article include the following:

• In America, there are about 2.5 million kids enrolled in 6,500 charter schools in the U.S.
• Enrollment rose almost 100% from 2001 through 2011.
• Burke assumes that this incredible growth rate is because “may be due to the schools’ productivity and ability to improve learning outcomes on a more limited budget than traditional public schools enjoy."
• Burke backs up this assertion by quoting recent research on charter schools: “…the public charter school sector delivers a weighted average of an additional 17 [National Assessment of Educational Progress] NAEP points per $1,000 invested in math, representing a productivity advantage of 40 percent for charters. In reading, the public charter sector delivers an additional 16 NAEP points per $1,000 invested, representing a productivity advantage of 41 percent for charters.”
• The research also dispelled the myth that charter schools perform better because they get smarter and more motivated kids to begin with: “Any claim that the higher productivity of charters relative to [traditional public schools] TPS is because charters serve a more advantaged population would be undermined by these findings, as all charter sectors outperform their [traditional public schools] TPS on productivity measures even though half of the charter sectors enroll a more low-income population of students than their TPS.”
• Although counter intuitive, the researchers conclude that charter schools are more efficient because they have LESS financial support and budgets: “It appears to be likely that much of the basis for the higher productivity of public charter schools rests on the fact that they receive less funding and therefore are highly disciplined in their use of those education dollars.” 
• A Stanford University researcher, Caroline Hosby, found that going to a charter school from kindergarten through eighth grade brings lower socio-economic kids’ academic performance up to the level of affluent suburban schools in math and would close 66% of the gap in English achievement levels.
• A 2010 Department Of Education survey found higher levels of satisfaction among parents with both the quality of schools and their child’s development.
• The average charter school has a waiting list of 300 kids trying to get in, indicating a high level of acceptance and desire in the communities they serve.

So charter schools deliver high academic performance at a lower cost that attracts high levels of enrollees and provide high levels of satisfaction to parents relative to their kids’ education. This all proves that all kids from all segments of society can get a great education. But somehow along the way American politicians find a way to not accomplish what is doable despite spending hundreds of billions in a vain attempt to do so.

2) New Orleans is a city which has had good education results with charter schools. Nine out of ten kids in that city attend charter schools, a reality driven by the destruction of Hurricane Katrina. This makes New Orleans the city with the highest level of charter school penetration in the country.

How has that effort worked out for their kids? Stacy Telcher Khadaroo writing for ChristianScience Monitor on March, 2014 went looking for those answers:

• In New Orleans, there is no longer a traditional central district office that dictates what schools students will attend, a central office that usually hires and promotes teachers in negotiation with a union, and controls everything from budgets to textbooks. 
• In New Orleans, families get to select among charter schools citywide that have to meet certain benchmarks in order to have their charters renewed.
• Although 82% of the students in New Orleans schools are considered low income, charter schools’ test scores and graduation rates have climbed steadily over the past decade or so.
• Andy Smarick, a partner at the nonprofit Bellwether Education Partners in Washington believes that New Orleans has shown that "we can move government out of running schools" and have it focus on oversight instead.
• A charter superintendent, Patrick Dobard, gave some insight on why New Orleans charters have been successful: "Our model is about empowering educators that are closest to the children, to give them the autonomy to have great schools, but to have a strong accountability system in place...ensuring there is equity and access throughout the whole system."
• Academic results in New Orleans schools have moved ahead of the state average for high school graduation by several points, with 77.8 percent for the class of 2012 graduating within four years – up from just over 54 percent in 2004.
• Based on a state based academic performance school, in 2004-05 only 12 percent of students in New Orleans attended 'A' or 'B' schools while nearly 75 percent attended 'F' schools. By 2012-13, just 17 percent of students were in 'F' schools, while 34 percent were in 'A' or 'B' schools.
• Even better, the percentage of New Orleans students qualifying for college scholarships prior to Katrina was less than 6 percent of students in 14 high schools that were later taken converted into charter schools. By 2013, that 6% had increased over four fold to 27%. by the RSD qualified for these scholarships, NSNO reports. In 2013, 27 percent did.

The entire article can be viewed at:

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2014/0301/New-Orleans-goes-all-in-on-charter-schools.-Is-it-showing-the-way

The writer goes into much detail on the mechanics of education in charter schools that helped attain the tremendous improvements listed above. Regardless of how they do it, the results are what any parent would want for their kids: high and improving academic performance, better chance for college scholarships, etc. 

More proof today that we as a nation can do a much better job educating our kids. But somehow the political class gets in the way of allowing that improvement to happen. That is why Step 27 from our book, “Love My Country, Loathe My Government,” along with the track records of the education endeavors we have reviewed over the past two days, are needed to finally give our kids the education they deserve in an efficient and cost-effective manner. 

Allowing national politicians and Federal bureaucrats have given us the exact opposite: inefficient and lower education levels in a high cost manner.

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

Putin's Russia, Obama's America: Mirror Images Of Corruption, Cronyism and Waste? Part 3

Last week we did a post on how the political class corruption undermining the financial integrity of the Russian Olympics in Sochi were really not that different than the rampant and growing level of political class corruption in America. Besides listing some general areas of politicians’ corruption, we went into detail on how the Obama administration was basically bequeathing ambassadorships on people who had had no international diplomatic experience but who had raised at least half a million dollars for his past political campaigns. That post can be accessed at:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2014/02/putins-russia-obamas-america-mirror.html

As soon as that post went live, word came out of New Orleans that former Mayor Ray Nagin had been convicted on a whopping twenty counts of illegalities including bribery, wire fraud, and kickbacks. The depth of the corruption was quite unbelievable, the details of which can be reviewed at:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2014/02/putins-rusia-obamas-america-mirror.html

So within two days, we examined major corruption examples at the local government/political level in New Orleans, at the Federal government/political level in Washington D.C., and the international government/political level in Russia and the Olympics. But as soon as that corruption was documented, two other major pieces of political class corruption came to the forefront, one example at the government bureaucracy level and one at the Congressional level:

1) The fabulous website, Bankrupting America, reported on February 14, 2014 on how the Obama economic stimulus program is still costing the American taxpayers millions and millions of dollars many years after it was supposed to be terminated: 

• Although the stimulus program and spending was supposed to last just two years, taxpayer money is still flowing from it and instances of fraud are still being reported, according to The Dallas Morning News.
• The paper recently reported that, “The top administrator [Joe White] of a chain of hospitals that collapsed under the ownership of a North Texas physician [Dr. Tariq Mahmood] faces charges that he defrauded the Federal government of nearly $800,000 in stimulus funds.”
• White allegedly “falsely certified” documents that made his hospital eligible “to receive stimulus rewards for switching from paper medical records to an electronic system.” 
• In addition to defrauding the government and the taxpayer, he may have accomplished the fraud using an employee’s stolen personal information. 
• Rather than using the stimulus funds to make the switch from paper to electronic records, hospital employees have told the government the hospital pocketed the money and “continued to use paper and uncertified technology.”
• The newspaper says White and Mahamood could face time in prison for their actions. Mahmood has pled not guilty while White has yet to enter a plea.
• The Dallas Morning News said the stimulus program that provided the funds has “major weaknesses. Care providers’ records are not screened as part of the reward process….a 2012 report by the inspector general of the U.S. Health and Human Services Department advised the funding government agency to obtain supporting documentation from some providers before paying them.”
• In typical bungling government fashion, the funding agency, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) did not take the inspector general’s advice. 
• The article reported that the Federal agency (CMS) “balked, citing concerns that doing so would create an ‘up-front burden’ for hospitals and would delay payments.” So the good news is that the taxpayer payments were not delayed, the bad news is that the taxpayer payments were obtained and wasted under false pretenses.

More taxpayer money wasted through corruption, fraud, and incompetence, years after the taxpayer spigot should have been turned off.

Many times the fraud and corruption is not as blatant as the Dallas hospital ripoff scam was. Consider the much more subtle moves of Comcast Corp., the largest cable company in the U.S. Comcast want to merge with its main competitor, Time Warner Inc. Time Warner is the second largest cable provider in the country.

Since the merger deal would further consolidate the telecommunications industry, it is likely to face tough and difficult scrutiny from Federal government officials. The legitimate and major concern is that the merger would raise monopoly and antitrust concerns at the Justice Department. It would also come under scrutiny from a public interest perspective at the Federal Communications Commission. Serious stuff with far reaching ramifications on consumers across the country.

But alas, Comcast probably has that covered. It has been among the top corporate donors to members of Congress and the perpetual reelection campaigns over the past few years. If you follow the money, as documented by the MapLight analysis of campaign contributions to members of Congress, from PACs and employees of Comcast Corp., from January 1, 2001 - December 31, 2012 via the OpenSecrets.org website, you will see that Comcast has

been focusing their contributions on members of the Subcommittee on Communications and Technology. 

It is probably not a coincidence that this committee which has jurisdiction over the Federal Communications Commission:

• House members of the Subcommittee on Communications and Technology received $853,525 from Comcast from January 1, 2001 - December 31, 2012. 
• Contributions from Comcast to House members serving in the 109th, 110th, 111th and 112th Congresses totaled $6,678,446 from January 1, 2001 - December 31, 2012. 
• Representative Greg Walden., Chairman of the Subcommittee on Communications and Technology has received $53,000 from Comcast from January 1, 2001 - December 31, 2012. 
• Representative John Dingell, has received $100,775 from Comcast from January 1, 2001 - December 31, 2012. This is more than any other member of the House of Representatives. 

It is probably not a coincidence that Dingell also is a member of the Subcommittee on Communications and Technology.

Disgusting and disgraceful corruption disguised as campaign contributions. Comcast is paying out millions of dollars in the very safe bet of receiving billions of dollars worth of government leeway in their market dealings with Time Warner, the nation’s consumers and citizens be damned. Do we really think that these Congressional members would be receiving money from Comcast if they were in charge, of say, agricultural matters? No way.

Three short days of political class corruption reviews from around the world, five prime examples of how citizens get screwed:

• Russian taxpayers funding the corruption, bribery, kickbacks and cost overruns at the Russian Olympic.
• American foreign policy interests being sacrificed with diplomatic novices staffing ambassador posts simply because they raised election money for Obama.
• Local New Orleans residents being shafted by a long time local politician, now convicted, who looks to have been heavily into kickbacks, bribery, wire fraud, and other crimes.
• The American taxpayer paying out its wealth in a stimulus program that should have died years ago, to a corrupt hospital administrator via an inept government agency.
• Corporate election campaign donors to corrupt politicians who are likely to look more favorably on those donor’s corporate needs than the needs and rights of cable service users.

As you can see, political class corruption takes many forms, from plain incompetence to serious greed. Somewhere along the line we have allowed a class of people to take over our political processes and turn those processes inwards to their own gain and away from the benefit of citizens and taxpayers. Whereas politics used to be a means to an end, I.e. get elected to promote positive change in the lives of the citizens, getting elected is now just a means in itself, get elected to stay elected to stay in the money, the good of the country be damned.

And the real shame is that a few simple steps could reverse this whole downward spiral of corruption, greed, and lack of ethics, steps that were outlined in “Love My Country, Loathe My Government:”

1. Step 1 - Reduce Federal government spending by 10% a year for five consecutive years - if there is less Federal money to waste, the amount of corruption involving less money should go down substantially.
2. Step 6 - allow only individual citizens to contribute to political campaigns, eliminating the contributions of PACs, unions, corporations, and lobbyists. This eliminates the problems like the Comcast bribes described above.
3. Step 7 - Only allow individuals to contribute to political Senate or House of Representative political candidates that represent them directly. For example, somebody living in New Jersey could no not make a contribution to a candidate in Kansas.
4. Step 34 - Hold House and Senate committee members accountable for their respective areas of responsibility, removing them form their cherished committee posts if they do not meet minimal performance standards. The taxpayers and citizens would determine if minimal performance standards were met, helping to minimize the overwhelming influence of entities like Comcast do today.
5. Step 39 - Implement term limits for all Federal politicians, one and done. With term limits, there would be no need to continually be at Comcast’s and other corporate donors mercy since there would be no need to continually raise campaign money for a continual reelection cycle.

Five simple steps to return the power to the people by taking it away from the rigged election processes that are controlled by selfish and self serving politicians who are financed and beholden to entities like Comcast. Failure to implement these freedom restoring steps just makes us look like an Americanized version of Putin’s Russian thugocracy.

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.robertringer.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

Part 4, August, 2013 Political Class Insanity: Oahu Going All "Detroit," New Orleans Mayor Maybe Going To Jail, And The Drone That Could Not Be Killed

This is our fourth, but not our last, post this month covering the past month or so of political class insanity that has befallen us, courtesy of our current crop of politicians. You cannot help but wonder, after reading the insanity that we document every month, is whether the current crop of American politicians are the worse set that America has ever had to endure. 

After all, after decades and decades of failing public schools, a lost war on drugs, leaky borders, escalating health care costs, etc., problems that our current politicians, never seem to be able or willing to resolve, they have to at least be in the running of worst ever.

Consider that hypothesis as you read along below of the current set of lunacy and ineptness is revealed:

1) Most informed Americans know that the city of Detroit has recently failed for bankruptcy, the corruption and ineptness of its political class over the decades has led the city down the path of financial ruin. What was once the fourth largest and one of the richest cities in the country has lost well over half of its peak population and is now so poor that most nights the vast majority of its streets lights are turned off to save money or are broken and not repaired to save money.

Detroit is a prime example of the fiscal ignorance of most politicians, how wasting taxpayer wealth and not using it wisely eventually catches up with a city, even a large one like Detroit. But municipal fiscal calamities is Rust Belt towns like Detroit. A Washington Examiner article from July 28, 2013 illustrated how long term fiscal irresponsibility of local politicians is leading the island paradise city of Oahu, Hawaii down the drain to bankruptcy:

• In 2009, the EPA ordered the local Oahu government entities to spend $2 billion to upgrade its Sand Island and Honouliuli waste water treatment plants, an upgrade that will cost another $3 billion in repairs.
• Oahu roads, always rated among the worst in the nation by the Reason Public Policy Institute and TRIP, are in need of  $100 million ANNUALLY in repairs over the next 10 years.
• Oahu has a number of functionally obsolete bridges that experts say are too narrow and unsafe for drivers or pedestrians."
• On average, Oahu has one water main break a day. These water delivery system repairs will cost $2 billion.
• An Oahu  park restroom facility at Maunalua Bay has been closed since February 2011 since it needs $350,000 to upgrade its sewer system.
• Dozens of other parks and recreational facilities  need more than $1 billion to repair.
• In the face of these crumbling infrastructure problems, the city still plans to build a 20-mile, $5.2 billion elevated rail project, from west Oahu into downtown. 
• That project has already cost taxpayers $1 billion, is on hold because of  a federal lawsuit that could end the rail project and strand/waste that $1 billion in taxpayer wealth.
• Honolulu already spends a whopping 19% of its operational budget just on debt servicing costs.
• If the rail project is actually built, experts say that this debt servicing number could exceed 20% and even rise as high as 24%. 
• The city must also set aside $200 million for police pay increases and another $30 million for medical costs. The fire department's new contract negotiations are under way.
• Oahu already has an extremely high cost of living so raising taxes to pay for the infrastructure repairs, an unneeded train, and debt servicing costs will be a severe strain on local citizens.
• That may explain why the city's homeless population rose 4.7% in the past year and that the number of homeless people living on the streets, rather than in shelters, climbed 11%. Which makes one wonder where the local political class in Oahu is going to get all of the money it needs to fix what it has neglected all of these years.

Fiscal insanity caused by political class fiscal and economic ignorance. Unfortunately, as always, it is the common citizen that suffers when the political class is so inept and inefficient, with absolutely no long term strategic thinking ability. Unfortunately, this malady of incompetence is not restricted to politicians operating in Detroit and Oahu.

2) I just came across this piece of insanity from January, 2013 and ABC News but thought it was worth reviewing to illustrate how low politicians will go for self enrichment.  Former mayor of New Orleans, Ray Nagin, the mayor during the Hurricane Katrina catastrophe, was indicted on Federal criminal charges. Details of the indictment from ABC News include the following:

• The 21-count indictment accused Nagin of enriching himself as the city struggled to rebound in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. 
• He is accused of using the office of mayor to guide municipal contracts and  projects to business associates who allegedly paid kickbacks and bribes and flew him on lavish free trips to Hawaii, Jamaica, and Las Vegas. 
• The specific charges include bribery, honest service wire fraud, money laundering, conspiracy and filing false tax returns. 
• "The defendant C. Ray Nagin, knowingly devised a scheme and artifice to defraud the City of New Orleans and its citizens of his honest services through bribery and a kickback scheme, whereby Mayor Nagin used his public office and his official capacity to provide favorable treatment that benefited the business and financial interests of individuals providing him with bribery/kickback payoffs in the form of checks, cash, granite inventory, wire transfers personal services and free travel," the indictment said. 
• The indictment says that on the same day, Nagin allegedly waived penalties that were owed by the businessman on a delinquent tax bill owed to the City of New Orleans. 
• The indictment also alleges Nagin accepted $50,000 from businessman Frank Fradella as well as monthly wire transfers of $12,500 that totaled $112,500. Fradella pleaded guilty to bribing a New Orleans city official in June 2012. Prosecutors alleged that on June 20, 2009 Nagin awarded a $1 million Katrina sidewalk repair project to a local businessman. On June 21, the very next day, a Nagin family member allegedly was paid a $10,000 kickback from that businessman. 

Nice guy, the city and its citizens are reeling from losing their homes, their jobs, and possibly their loved ones and this politician decides it is not a disaster it is an opportunity. Despicable.

3) Consider some research from the Center For Public Integrity that was published on its website on July 16, 2013:

http://www.publicintegrity.org/2013/07/16/12969/huge-drone-could-not-be-grounded

Their work uncovered a piece of military hardware that was obviously not needed, and which the Air Force wanted to cut out of its budget, both long term and short term, for a number of reasons:

• The Air Force decided to trim their budget by terminating the production line for a $223 million drone aircraft that was designed to fly over vast terrain for about a day while sending data and pictures to military controllers on the ground. 
• Given that the “Global Hawk” drone aircraft had already  cost far more than expected, and was plagued by recurrent operating flaws and operational problems, it sounded like a good idea to move on to other options.
• The Pentagon‘s top testing official stated in may, 2011 that the “The Block 30 [version of Global Hawk] is not operationally effective
• Joint Chiefs of Staff, Army Gen. Martin Dempsey testified at an House Armed Services Committee in February 2012 that the Global Hawk “has fundamentally priced itself out of our ability to afford it.”
• The White House sent Congress two formal messages in 2012 saying that “strongly objects” to the lawmakers’ demand for additional Global Hawks.
• Canceling the purchase of new Global Hawks from Northrop, the creator and manufacturer of this drone, and putting recently-built drones in long-term storage would save $2.5 billion over five years.
• Even better, the mothballed drone’s military missions could be picked up by an existing Air Force plane, the U-2 spy plane, which had room for more sensors and which could fly higher.

Wow, a government bureaucrat that looked at the problem, identified the root causes, explored more inexpensive yet more productive options, and proceeded to the right thing. Bravo.

Well, almost bravo. You see, Northrop pays a lot of lobbyists and former government officials and politicians to make sure that this type of integrity and analysis never impacts their financial bottom line. Thus, even though the Air Force did not want any more of these drones, the Joint Chief of Staff did not want any more of these drones, and the White House did not want any more of these drones, Congress went ahead and overrode all of these concerns and bad experiences to keep this program actively eating up taxpayer wealth for no reason.

Why did Congress vote to keep the program alive? The article points out that two powerful Congressmen, Howard “Buck” McKeon, and Rep. Jim Moran, received a total of $135,100 from Northrop Grumman’s political action committee and employees for their election campaigns and leadership PACs since the beginning of 2009. Thus, it is quite possible that the American taxpayer was sold out to the tune of $135,000 to keep spending billions and billions of dollars for no good defense reason at all. Good payoff for Northop if you can get it.

The article cited above goes into much more detail of the mechanical problems of the drone itself along with the disgusting lobbying and payoff problems. Insanity that politicians in Washington can be bought for so little but cost the taxpayer so much.

Only three pieces of insanity today but they were whoppers. Hawaiian politicians that have let their capital city crumble beneath them over decades of neglect and now will find it almost impossible to finance the needed repairs. A local city politician that looks at others’ sufferings not as a chance to serve and protect but as a chance to get wealthy. And members of Congress that apparently would sell out their integrity for a campaign contribution, regardless of how useless a continued government and taxpayer expense would be.

More of the same tomorrow. However, before that, may we suggest that you visit our new term limits website:

www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com

Because really, after reading about drone corruption, New Orleans corruption, and Oahu incompetence, how much worst could it get if retired every current politicians and replaced them with someone else, anyone else?

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.robertringer.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w 

February, 2013 Political Class Insanity, Part 2 - A Mayor Gets Indicted, Nazi Thinking In New Hampshire, A Crooked Judge In MIchigan, Alternative Energy Cronyism and More

Yesterday, we started our review of the latest monthly insanity from the American political class. We reviewed an opulent Federal bathroom for one government executive that cost taxpayers over $200,000, we reviewed how the Obama administration is likely the worst Presidential administration when it comes to meeting its legally mandated budget deadlines, how Congress keeps spending money even when a government entity (the Defense Department) actually says it does not need any more money, and more.

But as has been the case for the past six months or so, we could not confine the insanity to one post. More insanity prevails today:

1) Although the lawsuit has just been filed and no verdicts or trials have occurred, it would not be a surprise if this was a legitimate lawsuit with a good chance of succeeding, based on the crony politics we have discussed many times before relative to alternative energy and vehicle programs.

The details below come from a Bloomberg article from earlier in January, 2013:

• XP Vehicles and Limnia recently filed complaints against the U.S. and the Energy Department in Federal courts in Washington, contending that the Obama administration’s Energy Department took care of political friends of the administration when it came to handing out taxpayer money and loans for alternative energy projects.
• Specifically, they are seeking damages for alleged abuses of the $25 billion Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing loan program.
• The two companies are seeking $450 million in damages, specifically: “Defendants used the ATVM loan program as nothing more than a veil to steer hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to government cronies.”
• XP Vehicles, said it wanted a $40 million loan in 2009 to mass produce an SUV-style electronic vehicle with doors and other parts made from foam.
• XP Vehicles was led to understand that review of its application would take “a matter of weeks.” but XPV claims if found out that two of its competitors, Tesla Motors and Fisker Automotive, were getting special assistance from Energy Department staff with their loan application process.
• At that time, a member of Tesla’s board of director was Steven Westly, a campaign contribution bundler for Obama.
• The complaint also claims Fisker’s investors included Obama donors.
• Tesla got their taxpayer backed loan of $465 million loan in June 2009 with an interest rate of only 1.6%, according to the complaint.
• Fisker received their taxpayer backed $528.7 million loan but in May 2011 the Energy Department blocked Fisker from receiving the rest of the loan when the company didn’t meet its developmental milestones.
• The Energy Department did not comment specifically on these lawsuits, per their policy, but did state that all protocols and guidelines for being fair were followed in all cases.

Again, only accusations, nothing proven one way or the other. But it would not surprise me if this was the actual biased process used. It would be consistent with how the Washington political class functions, political friends and cronies taken care of first, taxpayer money and wealth wasted in the process

2) If there was a tyranny of the month award, I am pretty sure this New Hampshire state legislator would be in the running.

New Hampshire State Representative Democrat Cynthia Chase encouraged her fellow legislators to use their elected positions to make New Hampshire less welcoming to any conservative or libertarian planning on moving to her state, including those already there.

A potential reason for her paranoia is a project underway in New Hampshire. The project’s aim is to encourage that Americans of conservative tenets to move to New Hampshire, run for office, and work to drive the state toward libertarianism and conservatism. It is called the "Free State Project" and supporters are called "Free Staters." These Free Staters want to make the state motto, “Live Free or Die,” a reality. Seems reasonable, given the motto has been around for hundreds of years.

Writing a web post for a blog on December 21 post, Ms. Chase wrote that, "Free Staters are the single biggest threat the state is facing today. In the opinion of this Democrat, Free Staters are the single biggest threat the state is facing today. There is, legally, nothing we can do to prevent them from moving here to take over the state, which is their openly stated goal.

In this country you can move anywhere you choose and they have that same right. What we can do is to make the environment here so unwelcoming that some will choose not to come, and some may actually leave. One way is to pass measures that will restrict the 'freedoms' that they think they will find here. Another is to shine the bright light of publicity on who they are and why they are coming."

It is tough to imagine an elected American official wanting to restrict freedom of only those that disagree with her political positions or who wants to pass punitive measures, again for just a subset of citizens, that would make their life more miserable. Unbelievable.

The Constitution guarantees equal treatment under the law and by government policies and officials. This fundamental principle is obviously lost on this politician.

I do not like to throw around comparisons to Nazi Germany, it is an insult that is rarely accurate and is often used more as a hate barb than an accurate description of the situation. However, if I change the words “Free Staters” above to “Jewish Citizens” and leave everything else the same, I think you will see how closely Ms. Chase’s words would line up with the Nazi manifesto in Nazi Germany in the 1930s.

Discrimination against only certain citizens and laws to make their lives miserable and “shine the light of publicity on who they are.” Think back to your history class and remember how Jewish citizens were forced to wear yellow Star Of David signs on themselves when out in public and you will better see my point. Again, unbelievable that our political dialog has come to using the power of the government to force others of a different political position to change their lives.

3) A January 18, 2013 Associated Press reviewed how that more than ten years ago, Ray Nagin was elected mayor of New Orleans on a promise to end corruption in a city infested by decades of it. On January 18, 2013 Nagin was indicted on charges he accepted bribe money, payoffs and other payments while the relatively poor city struggled to recover from Hurricane Katrina.

The Federal investigation alleges that city contractors paid Nagin more than $200,000 in bribes and subsidized his trips to Hawaii, Jamaica and other places. In return, they were awarded Nagin’s help securing millions of contract dollars in work for the city.

The charges against Nagin are a result of a municipal corruption investigation that has already garnered guilty pleas by two former city officials and two businessmen and a prison sentence for a former city vendor. Imagine, an American politician using his office for personal enrichment and greed. Who would have thought? This is especially distressing, given how difficult the recovery has been from Katrina and the personal, emotional, and financial suffering that came with it.

4) The Salt Lake Tribune had a very interesting article on January 11, 2013. Before reviewing it, be clear that the following information is just an accusation at this point in time but the FBI and Federal Trade Commission are deeply involved in the investigation of everything going on around the accusations of illegally buying political influence.

Specifically, accusations of political kickbacks related to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid are just that, unproven accusations. But the following highlights from the article are certainly interesting and could result in a Nagin-like situation for state and Federal politicians:

• A Utah businessman, Jeremy Johnson, claims that recently elected Utah Attorney General John Swallow helped arrange a deal in 2010 in which Johnson thought he was to pay Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid $600,000 to make a Federal investigation into Johnson’s company go away.
• Johnson said Swallow at first wanted $2 million to enlist Reid’s help but when he claimed did not have that kind of money they eventually agreed on $300,000 upfront and $300,000 later, according to Johnson‘s version of events.
• But when the Federal government still filed a lawsuit against the company for shady marketing tactics, a lawsuit Johnson thought he had paid to go away, he demanded Swallow return some of the $250,000 initial bribe payment.
• When he did not get the bribe money back, just days before the Nov. 6 election, Johnson engaged in a frantic effort to get Swallow to drop out of the race, saying information of the arrangement with Reid would come out and force the Swallow’s resignation from office if he became attorney general.
• According to the article, Federal agents, including the FBI, have been interviewing Johnson and others related to the situation.
• However, as proof of the scheme, Johnson has produced emails and other documents indicating that Swallow intended to put Johnson in touch with another businessman, Richard Rawle, who allegedly had connections in with Reid in Reid’s home state of Nevada, according to Johnson
• In a subsequent article, Reid's office denied any involvement in the alleged bribery scheme: "Senator Reid has no knowledge or involvement regarding Mr. Johnson’s case," his spokeswoman, Kristen Orthman, said in a statement. "These unsubstantiated allegations implying Senator Reid’s involvement are nothing more than innuendo and simply not true."

Whatever the case and whatever the Federal investigators come up with, there are some smoking guns, and smoking emails, that indicate that government favors are for sale, either at the state level, the Federal level, or just as a fraud cover to get money with no bribery involved. But that should not surprise any of us, most of us know that politicians’ priorities start and end with their career and personal financial enrichment.

The original article with the extensive details of bribery and secret meetings can be found at:

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/home3/55598812-200/johnson-swallow-rawle-attorney.html.csp

6) But it is not just political figures in elected office that are out only for their personal enrichment. Consider a short story that appeared in the January 20, 2013 issue of the Tampa Bay Times. Apparently, Federal authorities have filed a felony fraud charge against Michigan Supreme Court Justice Diane Hathaway in a case involving the sale of an upscale Detroit area home in a short sale arrangement.

The charge contends that Ms. Hathaway hid the ownership of a Florida property in order to get a short sale approved on her Detroit area home. The fraud allowed her and her husband to illegally get out from under a $600,000 debt. The article states a plea deal on the crime has already been reached and she will shortly no longer be a state Supreme Court Justice.

7) Our final political class insanity today comes from France, where it appears that politicians the world over are the same when it comes to their own financial enrichment and greed. According to a January 10, 2013 Associated Press article, the French bureaucrat leading the fight against France’s tax and fiscal fraud problem is now one of those being investigated for such fraud.

French Budget Minister Jerome Cahuzac has spent months seeking out and prosecuting corporate multinational tax dodgers, citizens who live abroad to avoid taxes and those within France who stash money in overseas accounts. Now, he is the target in just the sort of investigation he thought would help turn France's finances around, as prosecutors investigate an online journal's allegations that he transferred money from a Swiss account into one in Singapore, avoiding taxes in the process.

He has, of course, denied the allegations from the online news source, Mediapart, and as of now, these are not proven facts, just allegations. More to come but again, who would be surprised if a politician acted holier than thou in public while secretly arranging for his financial gain behind the scenes, in France, in the U.S., or anywhere where government is run by a political class?

That should do it for today, one last dose of political class insanity tomorrow to wrap up this month’s insults to our intelligence and pocketbooks.

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