December, 2013 Political Class Insanity, Part 2: A Million Dollar Bus Stop, Another Gem From Nancy Pelosi, Too Much Obama Golf, and More

This is the second post this month in our monthly series that examines the latest wackiness, wastefulness, and pure insanity from the American political class. This series does not include the dire consequences and lunacy of Obama Care, we do a monthly series now on that fiasco in the middle of each month. Today and for the next few days we will be looking at plain old idiocy and wasteful spending, incidents that would be funny if they were not so damaging to our freedoms and wealth.

1) When any human bureaucracy gets too large, the output and work of that organizations starts becoming petty, trivial, and plain stupid. That is because as the bureaucracy grows, people realize that the work they are doing is trivial and meaningless because there are too many people trying to look productive with too little real work to do.

As the biggest bureaucracy in the history of mankind, the Federal government certainly fits that bill. A prime example is from a recent article put out by the Heritage Foundation.

The Federal government is requiring General Motors (GM) to recalling 18,941 newer Chevy Camaros for violating Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard No. 208—Occupant Crash Protection. Wow, this is important. Who wants to be in a car that is a safety hazard, kudos to the Feds.

Is the safety defect because of defective seat belts? Ah, no.

Is the safety defect because of a air bag malfunction? Ah, no.

Is the safety defect because of brake failure? Ah, no.

The government is forcing GM to recall 18,941 Chevy Camaros because the air bag warning label on the sun visor may peel. Not always peel, almost always peel, just might peel. Seriously.

Here’s a solution: why not have GM send out new stickers with really strong clue to all of its customers and also its dealers, instructing the dealers to put the stickier sticker on the car when the customer brings their Camaro in for servicing? That way GM could save some money by avoiding a recall and either use the saved money to make even safer cars or start using this type of money to repay the American taxpayer the $10 billion it still owes us (see yesterday’s post). 

No, some nitwit, useless bureaucrat, in order to justify his existence, makes GM incur probably millions of dollars worth of unneeded costs to replace stickers, stickers that probably the vast number of customers never read or care about anyway. Government insanely out of control.

2) When Bush left office in 2008, the Federal government was responsible for just over $100 billion worth of student loans. That figure had grown about 78% during his eight years in office, saddling every U.S. household with a potential loan and debt liability of just under $100 per household if those loans were defaulted on.

Under Obama, that overall debt burden has increase almost seven fold in just five years of this administration, saddling the American taxpayer with almost $700 billion worth of student loans and debt. This equates out to a potential debt burden of almost $700 for every U.S. household. Given how poorly the economy under Obama has generated good job opportunities for recent college graduates, it is very likely that a large portion of this debt burden will eventually need yet another U.S. taxpayer bailout down the road. 

First, taxpayer bailouts for the car makers, then the banks, then Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and eventually the student loan bubble burst. When politicians deal with our money and wealth, the end result is almost always a catastrophe.

3) The Independent Journal Review reported in mid November that President Obama was to play his 150th round of golf as President. Now, I am not saying the President shouldn’t get to relax and have a good time. It is just that he seems to take his rest at the most dangerous times for Americans. 

His playing golf in November was during the crisis period when Obama Care and its associated procedures and websites were totally embarrassing his administration and the country.

After warning the country about the dire happenings in Syria one Saturday a couple of months ago, how he was prepared to engage the Syrians in actual hot warfare, he and the Vice President than went off after that war address to play some golf.

When the BP oil derrick was spewing crude oil into the Gulf, causing widespread economic and environmental damage, he played golf a number of times while Gulf coast residents coped with the disaster.

Yes, he is entitled to some down time but I wish he would choose some better opportunities to do so. And, to my liberal friends and family, if you can criticize Bush for his many vacations, I and the rest of American can criticize Obama for his golf obsession and ignoring of immediate crises that affect all Americans.

4) Continuing our Hunger Games theme, that is becoming more and more real every day, where taxpayers outside of D.C. pay a higher and higher cost to make the residents within the D.C. metro area richer and more comfortable, consider a March, 2013 Washington Post article. The city of Arlington Virginia, a city tucked deeply inside the D.C. Hunger Games Metro bubble, had recently installed a bus stop.

No big deal. Every city needs lots of bus stops. However, this bus stop cost about a million dollars to build, using a lot of both Federal and state taxpayer money. Yes, $1 million for one bus stop. 

It is a nice bus stop. The bus stop’s glass-and-steel roof looks like a bird taking flight. One wall made of etched glass opens up to view newly planted landscaping. Embedded in the bus stop’s floor are heating elements intended to ward off the cold weather and keep winter-weary feet cozy. 

But. worse yet, the county has budgeted $20.8 million for the remaining 23 stops, or about $904,000 for each one. Wow, economies of scale get the cost of one bus stop down to “only” $900,000 each.

Definitely a Hunger Games situation. How many homeless people could be sheltered in Kansas City for $20.8 million? How many drug addicts in Oakland could be saved with $20.8 million worth of medicine and counseling? How many hungry Americans in Houston could be fed with $20.8 million?

In all cases, a lot. But in America today, some citizens get foot warming, million dollar bus stops and other Americans go hungry, shelterless, and drug addicted. Disgusting.

5) A lot of our material for our insanity posts could not exist without Nancy Pelosi. She is a constant source of amusing quotes (“we have to pass the health care bill to see what is in it.”) She recently had a precious quote regarding natural gas: “I believe in natural gas as a clean, cheap alternative to fossil fuels.” Uh, Nancy, natural gas is a fossil fuel. And these people vote on legislation that affects us all. Pitifully ignorant.

6) The Federal government bureaucracy has gotten so large that it often cannot control its operations or its spending. This was certainly the case as identified by a recent Inspector General’s report on improper and illegal government Medicare payments to illegal aliens, as recapped in their executive summary:

Of the PDE records submitted by sponsors for CYs 2009 through 2011, CMS inappropriately accepted 279,056 PDE records with unallowable gross drug costs totaling $28,990,718 on behalf Medicare Part D Payments for Unlawfully Present Beneficiaries.

CMS did not have a policy addressing payments for unlawfully present beneficiaries under Medicare Part D that was equivalent to the existing policy that covers payments for these beneficiaries under Parts A and B. Because CMS did not have such a policy, it did not have internal controls to identify and disenroll unlawfully present beneficiaries and to automatically reject PDE records associated with them. Without such a policy, CMS incorrectly treated unlawfully present beneficiaries as eligible for Part D benefits and did not prevent Part D payments on behalf of them. 

In a nutshell, the Federal government illegally and improperly paid out almost $29 million in Medicare drug benefits to illegal immigrants who were not supposed to receive those taxpayer funded benefits and even worse, the government, despite being in the Medicare business for decades, n did not even have methods and procedures in place to make sure this type fraud and waste did not occur. 

As with the Arlington million dollar bus shelter, how many homeless American citizens could be sheltered in Kansas City for $29 million that instead went to illegal immigrants? How many drug addicts American citizens in Oakland could be saved with $29 million worth of medicine and counseling? How many hungry American citizens in Houston could be fed with $29 million?

Taxpayer wealth being wasted on bus stops and illegal immigrants and the needs of real American citizens go unattended to. A President who golfs at the wrong times, pumps up another financial bubble via dangerously high student loan liabilities, and who does nothing to deter the Hunger Games disgrace in Washington. A Federal government which worries about a sticker on a car visor rather than real issues. A leading politician that does not know basic energy facts. 

This is the disgrace that are American politicians today. And that disgrace will continue to unfold tomorrow as we plod through this month’s political class insanity.

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:

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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.

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

The Selling And Buying Of America, Part 4: The Last Two Washington Gangs - Big Oil and The Health Care Industry

Today’s post is the fourth in a series of four posts that discusses how the American political class is constantly in the business of selling and buying America, to the detriment of taxpayers, citizens, and our freedom. Our first post discussed the many ways that politicians continually enrich themselves, their friends and family, and their never ending reelection campaign funds.

The second post covered how American businesses and wealthy citizens are being shaken down to contribute to the Obama inauguration events, a happening that will likely cost the American taxpayer over $150 million to finance. Yesterday, we reviewed the first two “gangs” of people that are in cahoots with Washington to reap benefits and perks at the expense of the American taxpayer. These two gangs are the military-industrial complex and the Wall Street/Washington complex.

Today, we will review the other two “gangs” that are in cahoots with Washington politicians. The concept of Washington “gangs” comes from a new book written by Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University. The book is titled “The Price of Civilisation.”

Mr. Sachs says the US economy is caught in a feedback loop: ''Corporate wealth translates into political power through campaign financing, corporate lobbying and the revolving door of jobs between government and industry; and political power translates into further wealth through tax cuts, deregulation and sweetheart contracts between government and industry. Wealth begets power, and power begets wealth.''

In about fifty words Mr. Sachs has summarized how the buying and selling of America works. We no longer live in a democracy, we live below a tier of elitists that trade taxpayer wealth and freedoms for their own reward, greed, and enrichment. That is why no major issue ever gets resolved in this country. There are powers and “gangs” that do not want them solved, it would upset the cozy arrangements that these elitists have established among themselves.

I use the word “gangs” because that is what Mr. Sachs calls them, as outlined in an article by Ross Gittins of The Sydney Morning Herald. The final of the four gangs are described below:

- The third gang, according to Sachs, is the Big Oil/military-industrial/Washington complex, which has put the US on the historical path of heavy importation of oil and oil dependence and a deepening military quagmire in the Middle East, which costs America both wealth and the blood of its armed forces: ''Since the days of John D. Rockefeller and the Standard Oil Trust a century ago, Big Oil has loomed large in American politics and foreign policy. Big Oil teamed up with the automobile industry to steer America away from mass transit and towards gas-guzzling vehicles driving on a nationally financed highway system.''

Recall when the massive Gulf Of Mexico oil spill occurred, everyone was going after the scalps of BP, the major oil company that operated the well that exploded. Most people forget that while Obama talked tough relative to BP, he was the largest political benefactor of BP’s campaign donation to the political class. Also recall, that it is my recollection, that no executive of BP went to trial or jail for this ecological disaster. Were they protected by the gang alliance?

Big Oil has been on the side of the Pentagon and the military/industrial complex in making sure that America has a large Navy and associated large defense budget to protect the shipping of oil from the Persian Gulf. Two gangs working together to drain taxpayer wealth for corporate interests.

- The fourth gang is the healthcare industry. This industry is by far, the largest industry in the country, accounting for about 17% of US gross domestic product, according to Sachs: ''The key to understanding this sector is to note that the government partners with industry to reimburse costs with little systematic oversight and control. Pharmaceutical firms set sky-high prices protected by patent rights; Medicare [for the aged] and Medicaid [for the poor] and private insurers reimburse doctors and hospitals on a cost-plus basis; and the American Medical Association restricts the supply of new doctors through the control of placements at medical schools. The result of this pseudo-market system is sky-high costs, large profits for the private healthcare sector, and no political will to reform.'

Pretty damning accusations but probably not far from the truth, if far at all. Starting later this week we will be doing a long series of the disaster that is Obama Care and we will see that Washington/health care industry incest is just as prevalent and just as bad as the Wall Street/Washington incest we discussed graphically yesterday with people moving back and forth between high ranking government positions and high paying jobs in the health care industry.

Sachs concludes that the following reality checks verify his hypothesis that there are four gangs in existence in Washington that manipulate elections via financial donations to manipulate legislation for their own good and the good of their respective gangs:

• Corporate profits in 2010 were at an all-time high.
• Chief executive salaries in 2010 rebounded strongly from the Great Recession.
• Overall Wall Street compensation in 2010 was at an all-time high.
• While several Wall Street firms paid civil penalties for financial abuses, no senior banker faced any criminal charges.
• There were no adverse regulatory measures that would lead to a loss of profits in the finance, health care, military. and energy industries.

I cannot verify these five conclusions are all true but based on other research and writings, I would not bet against them. To them I would add the fact that:

• Major companies and political contributors like General Electric annually make billions of dollars in profits but pay very little in taxes (in fact, General Electric makes billions of dollars in annual profits and usually works the tax code so that it gets a tax refund from the Federal government and the American taxpayer).
• Alternative energy companies like Solyndra and their owners and investors were major, major contributors to mostly Democratic politicians over the past few years, the vast majority of companies never produced anything of value for society but were voracious users of and wasters of taxpayer wealth.
• Alternative car companies like Fisker (not even an American company!) and Tesla and their owners and investors were major, major contributors to mostly Democratic politicians over the past few years, neither company of which has come up with a viable auto for the mass market or other rewards for the taxpayer funding.
• Recent news articles have pointed out how Apple and Google are becoming masters of legally evading taxes by passing their revenue and profits through offshore accounts.

These are not secrets. These facts are in the public domain, trading taxpayer wealth via investments in alternative energy and car companies for political financial support, using the tax code to avoid paying taxes like General Electric does, using the tax code to avoid taxes by going offshore, etc. Why hasn’t anyone in Washington done anything about these well known atrocities?

Well, now you know, because these atrocities and affronts benefit the four gangs, as identified by Sachs, and these gangs are in partnership with the Washington political class. Our politicians have become slaves to their own personal greed and career ambitions, they do not care to bite the gang hands that feed them, that stroke them, that finance them.

That is why the following steps from “Love My Country, Loathe My Government” are vitally important to breaking the chains that link the four gangs to the Washington political class:

• Step 1 would reduce Federal government spending by 10% a year for five years in order to get to a balanced budget. A balanced budget has less slush funding available to take care of “gang” related needs and favors.
• Step 6 would allow only private citizens to contribute to election campaigns. PACs, unions, businesses, and lobbyists would no longer be allowed to finance election campaigns, especially useful when trying to keep their incumbent political friends in office.
• Step 8 would strengthen and reform the Federal Elections Commission so that it actually enforces strict campaign finance laws and rules rather than continuing with the "fox guarding the hen house" model we have today.
• Step 39 would impose term limits on all Federal politicians, making them “one and done.” This would help break the feedback loop that exists today where gangs feed the tills of incumbent politicians in order to gather favors from these incumbent politicians after they get reelected.

Now you know why no major issue ever gets resolved, it is not a priority of the Washington gangs and the Washington politicians. They have other, personal agendas that take precedent over the resolving our lost war on drugs, our failing public schools, our leaky borders, our lack of a national energy strategy, sky rocketing national debt, and escalating health care costs.

Years ago a hit movie drama named the “Gangs Of New York” was released to critical acclaim. Maybe Mr. Sachs should follow that lead and look for a movie deal for his concept, “The Gangs Of Washington.” I would suggest that this is really not a drama, more like a comedy and joke, the perfect vehicle for the Keystone Kops, the Three Stooges, etc. where the politicians in Washington play themselves in the film.

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:

http://www.reason.com/
http://www.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

How Well Would Have The American Political Class Handled The Chilean Mine Crisis?

The rescuing of the 33 Chilean miners, who had been trapped thousands of feet underground for the past two months or so, was certainly the feel good story of the year so far. Kudos to the miners, their families, and everyone involved in this dramatic and extremely difficult rescue. According to an October 15, 2010 article, there had never been another situation where the rescuers had to drill so far down to reach trapped miners, never mind the fact that at the onset of the crisis, no one even knew whether they were alive or where they were located. Nevertheless, the rescue mission was a success.

As I read the article, I was struck by a number of things: 

1. Within days after the crisis began, the Chilean President appointed an engineer, Andre Sougarrett, to be in charge of getting the miners out alive. In other words, there was a clear cut leader from the start of the rescue, a leader who had the expertise to do the job.
2. Sougarrett immediately flew to the mine where he quickly eliminated the "nest of confusion" that awaited him on his arrival. He quickly put a team together to start the process. In other words, he got the effort focused properly and right away.
3. They drove into the mine and assessed where the cave in had occurred and determined that drilling through the debris might cause another cave-in, leading them to conclude that the only safe way to get to the miners was to drill a new shaft. In other words, they assessed the situation and worked out contingency plans.
4. In addition to looking at maps, they talked to those  miners that had gotten out of the mine before the cave-in in order to more accurately determine where the survivors below the cave in might be located. Also, the Chilean President had asked for help from anyone around the world who had the expertise to help in the rescue. In other words, they quickly utilized all possible resources that were available to them.
5. Once the men were found alive, Sougarrett started three more drill holes called Plan A, Plan B, and Plan C. Why three plans? According to the article, Sougarrett said: "The only way to minimize risks is to have alternatives." In other words, more contingency planning.
6. Sougarrett talked to the miners every day, first using phones and then via a video link. He talked to them about what they were doing and accepted the advice and suggestions from the miners themselves. In other words, he was open to all possible answers.

 Now compare this approach with the way the American political class handled the Gulf Oil Spill:

1. Clear cut leadership - there was never anyone one person who had clear cut responsibility and authority to coordinate the oil spill situation. Parties involved in getting the oil spill under control included President Obama, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, the Coast Guard, the EPA, BP, state government officials, etc. but as always with our political class, everyone was in charge but no one was responsible.
2. Got the effort focused properly and right away - was there ever any focus to the Gulf spill situation? Seems like the events just kind of happened randomly with no one in charge and very little direction or focus on how to stop the leak. Seems like days and weeks went by with no one developing a plan of attack for ending the crisis.
3. Assessed the situation and worked out contingency plans - it was pretty clear from the start of the Gulf crisis that neither BP, the government, or our politicians had any contingency plans for stopping or plugging the leak. They were making up the process haphazardly as they went along. It was clear that the Interior Department had not required anyone, inside or outside of government, to have a well thought out and executable contingency plan process to stem the flow of oil into the Gulf. Attempts to stop the leak were all linear, i.e. try something and if that did not work, stop and try to think up a new approach. There was no parallel action plans (like Sougarrett's Plans A, B, and C), simply because no one in the political class and specific government agencies had taken the time and effort to develop them. Weeks and weeks after the spill began, the government started talking to a movie director, James Cameron, to see what help he might provide, based on his experience of filming underwater. Seriously, you are clueless when a movie director becomes your subject matter expert. And even if Cameron was helpful, why did it take so long to bring him in for a discussion? Again, grasping for straws in belatedly turning to a Hollywood director because they had not contingency plans.
4. Quickly utilized all resources available to them - there were numerous reports that President Obama turned down offers of help from some European countries who had expertise in dealing with and cleaning up spills in the deep waters of Scandinavia. It is still unknown why these offers of help were refused, international expertise was essential in the Chilean coal mine rescue.
5. More contingency planning - besides lacking an contingency planning for plugging the leak, there were no contingency plans for capturing the oil once it was into the Gulf's waters. When states asked for permission to do their own clean ups they had to wait weeks to get an answer back from the government. In the meantime, oil slicks and the such started fouling the states' beaches.

Besides the above article's points, consider the following observations:

• The Chilean rescue mission looked to be seamless, at least to the outside world. You did not see the bickering like we saw between the states' politicians and the Federal political class and bureaucrats in the oil spill crisis, bickering that probably delayed the clean up effort and the plugging the well effort.
• The rescue mission seems to have taken into account not only the physical well being of the miners but also their mental well being of the miners and their families waiting for them above. We seem to forget that 11 oil rig employees were killed when the BP rig exploded, I never got the feeling that the government or political class gave those that died or their family members the proper respect and support, they were to busy covering up their shortcomings or grappling with the fact that they never put together a contingency plan.
• Everyone in Chile seemed to be laser focused on getting the miners out alive.  I did not see or hear of any bickering of who was at fault and who was to blame during the rescue process. The focus was on the task at hand, sorting out blame for the cave in could wait. Compare that to our political class, that was holding Congressional hearings and diverting attention from the immediate tasks at hand, plugging the well and cleaning up the oil. Instead, BP personnel were called to Washington hearings to testify while the oil was still flowing out of the busted well. Do not think for a minute that facing accusing politicians and facing the possiblity of criminal charges did not divert attention and focus from the immediate needs to handle the oil spill. The hearings to sort out blame could have waited, I guess the political grandstanding could not.
• Everyone in Chile seemed to be genuinely supportive of the rescue mission. In the United States, it seemed our politicians and voters were more concerned in determining what impact the spill would have on the November elections rather than pulling together to stop the flow of oil and clean up the oil that had gotten into the Gulf.
• I also got the feeling that the Chilean President Sebastian Pinera was fully engaged in the rescue process while allowing the experts to do their jobs. I never got the feeling that President Obama took that same type of approach, to me he seemed to treat the oil spill as a distraction. Since the President took two vacations during the crisis, played seven rounds of golf, and took two cross country trips soley to campaign for California Democrats, these actions may account for my feeling that he was not fully engaged in an event that killed 11 Americans and affected the lives of millions of others.

I applaud the entire Chilean relief effort. It was blessed with able leadership and organization, was quickly implemented, it was well planned out, it considered and acted on all contingencies, and it considered the human needs including the mental well being of the trapped miners. Our political class reaction to the oil spill was not well led or organized, the effort was long and drawn out,  it was not planned out at all,  had not considered any contingency planning ahead of time or during the crisis, and disrespected the workers who perished in the explosion.

Fortunately for the miners, they did not work in an American mine, especially this time of year, a year of mid term elections. Our politicians would have left them in order to go home and campaign for their re-election, possibly getting back to the hypothetical trapped miners during their lame duck session after the elections.


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.

Visti these other sites for freedom:
 
www.cato.org
www.robertringer.com
www.realpolichick.blogspot.com
www.reason.com
www.flipcongress2010.com
 

The BP Oil Spill, Our Political Class, and Pollution of The World

Consider the following examples of pollution that were presented in an article by Ronald Bailey that appeared in the October, 2010 issue of Reason magazine (after reading the four examples, figure out what they have in common):

• The Nigerian government owns all of that country's petroleum resources. Since 1966, over 456 million gallons of that state-owned oil has been spilled which is comparable to having an Exxon Valdes disaster every year since 1966. Although oil accounts for 90% of Nigeria's exports and 80% of the government's revenues, the Nigeria political class has handled the industry so poorly that thew national petroleum company is now insolvent from a financial perspective. The risk of more pollution from spills is likely to increase as the Nigeria government starts drilling in more remote and dangerous terrain. Mr. Bailey notes that the Wall Street Journal's ranking of countries in order of economic freedom, places Nigeria at 106 out of 183 countries that were ranked, describing Nigeria as "mostly unfree," i.e. the government runs most of the operations in the country.
• In China, a country that ranks 140th out of 183 in economic freedom (another "mostly unfree" nation), 62 underground coal fires have been burning since the 1960s. These fires started when the country's communist government ran the entire coal industry in the country. The underground coal fires burn more than 20 million tons of coal annually, contributing 2-3% of the entire world's total fossil fuel greenhouse gases.
• Haiti is ranked 141, just after China on the economic freedom scale, and is also designated as "mostly unfree." According to Mr. Bailey's article, Haiti is currently 98% deforested, making it highly susceptible to storm and hurricane damage. 95% of Haiti's real estate property is owned by the government, giving private Haitian citizens no reason to protect their own property since they own virtually none of the property in Haiti. Haiti shares the same island with the Dominican Republic where virtually no large scale deforestation has occurred so it must be something in how each country manages it's assets that result in the dramatic difference from an environmental perspective.
• In central Asia, the Aral Sea, the fourth largest lake in the world in 1960, it has shrunk by almost 70% in size since then. Throughout that time, the central communist government in Moscow had repeatedly diverted feeding rivers away from the Aral to support large scale irrigation projects in the Asian deserts of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. These now independent countries get poor economic freedom ratings of 82 and 158, respectively.

As you probably guessed it, in every example, the source of the pollution was caused by each country's political class, who rule in a strongly undemocratic manner, where property rights and personal freedom is minimized. The point Mr. Bailey is making is that when faceless government bureaucrats manage their country's' problems, they are unlikely to have a personal stake in the how things are done, just how to get the desired or demanded results. Since these bureaucrats and politicians do not personally own their country's property, they have no stake in protecting them. As a result, four of the world's worst environmental disasters can directly track their source to government actions.

Unfortunately, dictatorships do not have a monopoly on the pollution of their countries. Consider a few examples what the United States government has done to Mother Nature in our nation:

• The Department of Defense generates 400,000 tons of hazardous waste a year, which is more then the waste generated by the five largest chemical companies in the country combined, and this mountain of waste is outside the enforcement capability of the Environmental Protection Agency. In other words, the biggest potential polluter in the country, the Federal government, does not have to abide by the same rules that the rest of us have to abide by.
• The Tinker, Oklahoma Air Force base was supposed to recycle all of its hazardous waste byproducts but until recently decided to sell it, not recycle it. Tests have found higher than expected pollution levels from these materials in the underground water sources close to the surface.
• The U.S. Army's Rocky Mountain Arsenal is only six miles outside of Denver, Colorado. One source I found called the arsenal the "most polluted piece of ground in America." It cost $40 million to clean up the arsenal's 600,000 cubic yards of contaminated soil, soil that was identified as contaminated back in the early 1950s.
• The Federal government runs the 59 Tennessee Valley Authority power plants. While these power plants expels large amounts of greenhouse gases every year, they too are exempt from Federal environmental regulation.

The same effect is going on in these Federal government examples as the examples pointed out by Mr. Bailey throughout the world. These properties are owned by the government and run by the politicians, they have no personal stake in preserving the properties since they do not personally own them. As a result, the biggest pollution source in this country is the very government that is supposed to prevent the pollution and which has exempted itself from its own regulation and oversight.

Which brings us to the government's role in the BP oil spill:

• No one seemed to care that those government employees that were supposed to safeguard the Gulf from an oil spill were either busy surfing the Net for pornography, accepting vacation trips and gifts from the same companies they were supposed to be regulating, were busy setting up career changes to move to the same companies they were supposed to be monitoring for safety, or were neglecting to do the required number of rig inspections. These employees had no personal stake in the safety of the Gulf, they did not own it (the United States government owns it), and the political class obviously gave them no incentive or direction to take a personal ownership stake in its safety.
• The political class legislated a trivial $75 million cap on liability for environmental and economic damages from an oil spill. This released the oil companies operating in the Gulf from having any kind of corporate stake in the environmental condition of the Gulf, they could just buy their way out of a oil spill for a relatively nominal amount of money.
• And the most atrocious piece of political class legislation, the Energy Policy Act of 2005 encouraged and incented the oil companies to go further and further out in the Gulf for oil drilling. The further out they went, the less and less they had to pay the Federal government in royalties. The chance for making billions in profits at the risk of millions in fines made the safety of the Gulf environment secondary.

We trusted environmental safety to our politicians, all of which all over the world caused some of the greatest environmental disasters the earth has ever seen. These politicians were in charge but were not responsible for the ensuing disasters. In all cases, they had no personal stake or ownership of the resources they were supposed to be safeguarding. The scary thing about this phenomenon in America is that the Federal government owns almost two thirds of the physical land in this country. Imagine the potential for widespread ecological damage like Rocky Mt. Arsenal, Tinker Air Force Base, and the Tennessee Valley Authority coal plants.

Several steps from "Love My Country, Loathe My Government" would address these issues:

• Step 1 would downsize the size of government by 10% a year for five years. Included in this downsizing would be the selling of the 70,000 or so government buildings that no longer serve a purpose (as we discussed in a previous post) and should also include the sell off of government land, with proceeds going to reduce our national debt. If the right conditions and laws for private ownership were put in place, people, companies (oil and mineral exploration companies), and organizations (e.g. the Sierra Club, the Audubon Society) could own Federal land, have a personal stake in keeping that land safe, and would be placed under the enforcement authority of the EPA.
• Step 34 would replace Congressional members sitting on Congressional committees that are responsible for the Federal departments and agencies that end up polluting public lands, i.e. they would have a personal stake, if not a property ownership stake, in protecting the earth. In the BP oil spill case, any Congressional person sitting on those committees that oversaw the Interior Department's operations, those operations that were negligent in safeguarding the Gulf, wold be removed from their committee post. Before these politicians are removed form their post, they would remove those federal employees from the posts which they failed at. This would put a federal employee's career stake in play regarding public land, air, and water when a personal ownership stake is not possible.
• While Step 7 would prevent any politician from accepting campaign donations from anyone or any organization except a private citizen, a short term solution in the spirit of this step would not allow any politician to accept campaign donations from any industry that the politician has Congressional committee oversight responsibility for. In the BP case, no politician sitting on any committee responsible for oil exploration and safety would be allowed to accept campaign donations form that industry.

The main point to take away from Mr. Bailey's article and this post is destroy the myth that government and politicians are caretakers of the earth. They are not trusted caretakers, mainly because they have no actual or administrative stake in keeping the earth whole. Another example where "I'm from the government and I'm here to help you" is not the case. Make them accountable by dumping the incumbents in the fall elections and making sure that the three steps above are implemented to ensure that accountability is instituted, from the lowest Federal employee to the highest ranking Federal department heads and Congressional members.

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/

Screwed Up Government Priorities, Case #2 - "Meanwhile, oil continues to spew into the Gulf.."

Yesterday we discussed the first in a series of posts regarding how screwed up our government's priorities are. We saw that while the political class spends almost $16 billion a year in local earmarks for their local states and districts and to generate campaign funds for their re-election, the same political class spends only about $2 billion a year on cancer research, a set of diseases that kill hundreds of thousands of Americans every year. How screwed up is that priority: better to get re-elected then save American lives.

Meanwhile, oil continues to spew into the Gulf...

Today we will look at a second set of screwed up priorities, namely the whole situation with the BP oil spill disaster in the Gulf Of Mexico. As an upfront disclaimer, let me state that I find the actions of BP leading up to, during, and after the explosion on their oil rig to be shortsighted, despicable, and inadequate. They took short cuts and probably violated a number of Federal safety statues and laws. Over 60 days later they still have not plugged the leak and really have no other plan in place to stop it for at least another couple of months. They should be held accountable for the damage and safety violations to the fullest extent of current law.

Meanwhile, oil continues to spew into the Gulf...

Unfortunately, over the past week or so, the political class has gotten itself and their egos involved in the process. A White House meeting was held with Obama and his staff and the Chairman and CEO of BP. CEO Tony Hayward later went over to get beat up at Congressional hearings by Congress people that probably had no idea of what they were talking about except that it made them feel good in front of the cameras. And, there is no doubt that Hayward probably deserved some of the beat down since it is obvious that under his watch, BP was not prepared for what happened. However, rather than beat up the head of the cleanup, could we have not waited a little while to crucify him in public? Would not his time have been better spent working on the problem, the continuing spill, rather than jetting to DC? There is plenty of time to get a pound of flesh after the hole is plugged.

Meanwhile, the oil continues to spew into the Gulf...

Anyway, Mr. Hayward is not the only one who should be crucified because of this disaster. What about Interior Secretary Salazar. I would like to get him on the stand and ask him the following questions:

• Mr. Secretary, the Associated Press has reported that an internal investigation has uncovered at least one of your employees responsible for oil rig safety has admitted that he used crystal meth and may have been under the influence the next day at work and that others have admitted to being users of illegal drugs. Did that have anything to do with safety laxity on your watch?
• Mr. Secretary, the Associated Press has reported that an internal investigation has uncovered numerous occurrences where your employees received hunting and fishing trips and other gifts from the same companies that your department was supposed to be regulating and inspecting. Did that have anything to do with safety laxity on your watch?
• Mr. Secretary, the Associated Press has reported that an internal investigation has uncovered numerous occurrences where your inspectors were actively inspecting oil company sites for safety at the same time they were negotiating for jobs at those very companies. Did that have anything to do with safety laxity on your watch?
• Mr. Secretary, an Associated Press report mentions a 2008 report by the Interior department's inspector general that "decried a culture of ethical failure" and conflicts of interest at the responsible Interior agency. Did this culture have anything to do with the safety laxity on your watch and how have you addressed this problem?
• Mr. Secretary, the Associated Press has reported that an internal investigation found that some local employees in your Lake Charles, La. office had a significant amount of pornography on their government computers. Did that have anything to do with safety laxity on your watch?
• Mr. Secretary, the Associated Press has reported that your department conducted sixteen fewer safety inspections at the BP oil rig than it should have. Did that have anything to do with the safety laxity on your watch?
• Mr.Secretary, the Associated Press has reported that safety regulation of the Gulf wells is so lax that "some key safety aspects on rigs are decided almost entirely by the companies doing the work." Did that have anything to do with the safety laxity on your watch?
• Mr. Secretary, the Associated Press has reported that the overall BP safety plan and the safety plan specifically for the rig that exploded never had a chance of being successful, even on paper, and was riddled with inaccuracies, falsehoods, and inadequate preparation for the disaster. Who is responsible for such a lousy plan and document and will there be repercussions for those responsible?

Meanwhile, oil continues to spew into the Gulf...

Secretary Salazar is not he only person I would want to grill as an American citizen. I would allow Congressman Henry Waxman and Senator Jeff Bingaman, the chairman in Congress who chair committees on energy, to be put on the stand together for the following questions:

• Gentlemen, given the myriad of failures discussed with Mr. Salazar above, how come your committees were so lax in their oversight of the energy safety issues on Gulf drilling rigs?
• Gentlemen, given that your committees are responsible for Gulf drilling rigs, have either of you ever been on an oil rig?
• Gentlemen, given that your committees are responsible for Gulf drilling rigs, are either of you familiar with the Federal safety regulations? I particularly address this to you, Mr. Waxman, since you have already admitted you have not read the entire Cap And Trade legislation even though you are a co-sponsor. Have either of you read the safety regulations of oil rigs?
• Gentlemen, according to a recent Washington Post article that was summarized in the June 25, 2010 issue of The Week magazine, there are currently only 62 inspectors assigned to oversee 4,000 oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, or about one inspector for every 64 wells or so while in 1985 there were 55 inspectors for about 400 oil rigs or about one inspector for every seven or eight rigs. Do you accept some of this responsibility for underfunding the need to have more inspectors?
• Gentlemen, Washington has been abuzz about energy and climate change legislation lately. Wouldn't it be wiser in the short term to worry about the continued leak than to focus on a long term energy/climate bill?

Meanwhile, oil continued to spill into the Gulf...

And finally, I would like to sit with President Obama and ask him a few questions:

• Mr. President, you have proclaimed that you and your administration are on top of the situation but since the spill began it has been reported that you traveled to California three times for political fundraisers, played at least seven rounds of golf, took two vacations, participated in several photo ops with athletic teams, and did not meet with Hayward until about the eighth week of the crisis. Is that your definition of being on top of the situation?
• Mr. President, Tony Hayward has taken a lot of heat this weekend because he took time off to attend a yacht race back in Europe. Should you have taken the same amount of heat for taking time off to go to a baseball game Friday night even though the oil leak continues?
• Mr. President, will you prosecute, fine, fire, or take an disciplinary action against government employees who failed in their assigned duties to oversee and regulate the drilling activities in the Gulf?
• Mr. President, why is it taking so long for local governments to get help and permission to stem the tide of oil that is washing over their shores? Why didn't the Army Corp. of Engineers have a contingency plan ready rather than deny permission for sand berms and other actions until they "studied" the implications? Shouldn't that study have been done prior to the disaster?
• Mr. President, why have you not asked for a waiver of the Jones Act so that willing countries can donate their equipment to help with the clean up? Could it be you want to delay the clean up and prolong the problem in order to get the legislation passed that you want?
• Rather than publicly browbeat the very people technically and logistically responsible for stopping the leak last week, would it have not been a better approach to lay off for just a little while and let them focus on stopping the leak and then bring them to Washington for your photo op and thrashing of BP, after the leak was stopped?

Meanwhile, oil continues to spew into the Gulf...

Let's face, this is a disaster of epic proportions. From BP's shortcuts to save a little money and time and flaunting of standard safety protocols to the inadequate Federal oversight and focus on not stopping the leak the leak at all costs, we have never seen anything so disgusting in our lives. And where are the government's priorities? Congressmen and women anxious to show their indignation on television when it was obvious most of them did not know what they a were talking about. Other politicians trying to get their favorite energy and environmental legislation passed while losing focus on the core problem: stop the darn leak. That should be the only priority right now. The TV grandstanding, the press conferences, the feigned indignation, working for passage of legislation, that can all wait under we stop the leak.

Meanwhile, oil continues to spew into the Gulf...

This is just another reason why term limits (Step 39 in "Love My Country, Loathe My Government") and ousting the incumbents in November is so important. Long time politicians get to comfortable in their positions and allow laxity to enter into their administering and governing. Regulations are passed but not enforced. Employees are hired but no trained or supervised properly. A crisis occurs and the political class looks at a way to leverage the disaster rather than fixing the disaster. Not only should the top management at BP be replaced but Salazar, Waxman, Bingaman, and all politicians sitting on the committees responsible for oversight of the Gulf drilling need to be removed from their committee and subcommittee posts (Step 34). In real life, if you screw up, there are consequences. Should be the same way in government. Allow an epic environmental disaster to occur on your watch, a disaster that was totally preventable, get removed from your committee post.

Meanwhile, oil continues to spew into the Gulf...



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/

"I Love It When A Plan Comes Together" - Words You Will Never Hear From BP or The Obama Adminstration

Given that a new movie about the television show "The A-Team" is coming out this summer, I thought it might be appropriate to recall this famous line ("I love it when a plan comes together.") from the TV show and apply it to the oil spill in the Gulf, which is now more than 50 days old. According to an Associated Press report from June 9, 2010 by Holdbrook Mohr, the BP contingency plan for dealing with a runaway well and oil spill did not quite come together:

• The contingency plan listed Professor Peter Lutz, a national wildlife expert, as a person to contact in case of a well disaster but..... he died in 2005.
• The contingency plan listed Professor Lutz's university as the University of Miami but.. the professor left the University of Miami almost 20 years ago.
• The contingency plan listed several names of Texas A&M professors who were marine life experts but.... their names and phone numbers were wrong.
• The contingency plan listed "sensitive biological resources" in the Gulf including walruses, sea otters, sea lions and seals but.... none of these species exist in the Gulf.
• The contingency plan stated that BP had the "capability to respond, to the maximum extent practicable, to a worst case discharge but.... that is obviously not the case as we are now in the eighth week and oil is still discharging and hitting the beaches in the Gulf.
• The contingency plan assumed that fish, animals, and birds would escape damage in a spill but.... that is obviously not the case if you follow the images from the Gulf.
• The contingency plan listed a company that BP uses for spill cleanups but.... the listed website for that company in the plan links to a defunct Japanese language website page.
• The contingency plan made no mention of the Gulf's Loop Current but... that current is expected, by all experts, to carry the remnants for the spill out into the Atlantic and possibly over to Europe.
• The contingency plan assumed that BP would be able to put together enough resources to block off the beaches but... within a few weeks of the spill, beaches were being fouled from Louisiana to Florida.
• The contingency plan and its underlying model estimated only a 21% chance that a spill would reach the Louisiana beaches within a month but.... those beaches were hit hard within nine days.
• The contingency plan did consider different orders of magnitude of the spill since they said they were planning for the worst case scenario but.... they could not handle this worst case scenario.
• The contingency plan states there would be no shortage of resources to fight a spill but.... there were not enough booms (floating lines of plastic to hold in oil on the surface); Alabama claims its beaches were fouled because of the limited number of booms that were deployed elsewhere.
• The contingency plan assumed that the booms would be properly deployed but.... out-of-state contractors hired by BP deployed the booms in the wrong places, relative to currents and tides, and those that were installed were not installed correctly.

It is obvious, that unlike the A-Team, BP had a contingency plan that did not come together and apparently had no chance of ever coming together, given how bad it was and how little it was thought through. One has to assume they never did a test run or a complete shakedown of the plan. Such a drill, if conducted properly, would have easily uncovered the above shortcomings.

The Obama administration, and the Washington political class, are no better than BP since they obviously did not have a plan either:

• according to the Associated Press report, this 582-page BP contingency plan was approved by the Federal government last year before BP started drilling this well.
• BP had a 52 page sub-contingency plan just for this specific well that was also approved in 2009. Note that both of these plans were approved on Obama's watch, Bush was no longer President.
• In a previous post and in other Associated Press reports, it was uncovered that those Federal employees responsible for regulating and oversight of the wells were very often provided hunting and fishing trips, parties, gifts, and employment which may account for the lax oversight and regulation that resulted in a 582-page contingency plan abomination.
• Given that the head of the Federal agency responsible for regulation and oversight in this area has already been removed from her job as has a high ranking Coast Guard officer in charge of the mission indicates a lack of planning and competence on the Federal government's part.
• It was reported today that President Obama has not even met the Chairman of BP face-to-face since the disaster started over 50 days ago. How can you say you have a plan and are on top of the situation, like Obama has said, if you have not met with your counterpart at BP?
• Following along that theme, since the disaster began, Obama has played six rounds of golf, has taken two vacations, has made three fund raising trips to California (he has only visited the Gulf three times which logically would say that fund raising is just as critical as the Gulf situation), has hosted a photo session with the New York Yankees, has hosted a photo session with the Duke University basketball team, has hosted a photo session with the United States' World Cup Team, and has played at least several games of basketball besides being interviewed about basketball by Marv Albert. While I understand that he has other concerns and priorities as President in addition to the Gulf oil spill, he cannot claim that he is ticked off and has been on top of the situation since day one when he allows his time to be taken up by these superficial other activities. Could he have at least canceled one round of golf to work out a plan with the chairman of BP?
• Congress is no better in being out in front of this situation. Senator Bill Nelson (Florida) and Senator Barbara Boxer (California) have asked that a criminal investigation be launched. The source of Nelson's information? The AP report listed above. Thus, Senators Nelson and Boxer, are you telling me that you get the big bucks as U.S Senators to sit back and react only after you read an AP report? Does not look like very good planning to me.
• While Obama has been to the Gulf only three times (Bush went to New Orleans four times within 18 days of Katrina), I have seen no reports of other Congressional members from outside of the Gulf states going on scene. I am assuming there are politicians, from outside the Gulf states, sitting on Congressional committees that are responsible for the whole situation, including drilling, energy, Department of The Interior, wildlife, etc. How can you plan for the clean up when you have not visited the disaster site?

Thus, both entities, the Federal government and BP, did not have any semblance of a plan that could have come together to prevent or mitigate the situation. Disgusting. This is a perfect example of why should no longer believe in the fallacy, and fund that fallacy with taxpayer dollars, that government is here to help you. The SEC (and a myriad of other Federal agencies) did not protect us from the biggest economic disaster since the Great Depression, the Interior Department and the Minerals Management Services did not protect us from this oil spill disaster, the Federal consumer safety organizations did not protect our kids from lead laced products and toys several years ago or cadmium laced products this year, the Federal automotive agencies did not protect us from fatal Toyota auto designs (89 dead Americans so far and counting), and no Federal agency has protected us from the flood of illicit drugs that comes across our unprotected borders.

Step 1 in "love My Country, Loathe My Government" would start the process of redefining government, downsizing it so that it finally gets something right by focusing on a much smaller set of higher priorities. Now, the Federal government focuses on nothing but gets involved in everything. As a result, it fails at everything while wasting TRILLIONS of taxpayer dollars. Step 34 would immediately eject all of those politicians sitting on any committee that was responsible for keeping us safe from drilling, they have failed miserably at that task. Step 39 would get rid of all of the current members of Washington since it would institute term limits. Given the above list of grievances and failures to protect us from disaster, it is apparent that long term politicians cannot do the job they are supposed to do. Lets get rid of them after one term, how much worse could it be?

I hope the A-Team movie has a happier ending than what we are experiencing today, both in the Gulf and in Washington. For once this summer and during this administration, I would like to see at least see one plan come together, even if it is only in the movie theater.

One last note: while I have referred to Bush above, I am not endorsing his reaction and effectiveness in the face of Katrina. It also was a disaster. For the most part, it is a waste of time to compare the two, Bush/Katrina and Obama/Oil Spill. Both were failures and saying one was better than another is no better than being queen of the pigs. You may be a queen but you are still a pig. Continuing to bring up the Bush presidency does nothing to solve our current problems.

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.

Government Salaries - High Pay, Low Performance

Consider some of the known government screw ups that have recently made the headlines:

- While the financial markets and U.S. economy were imploding, dozens of employees, including top officials, at the government watchdog organization, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), were apparently preoccupied during business hours using their government issued computers to surf the Internet in order to download and view pornography.
- According to the Intelligence report of Parade Magazine on May 16, 2010, the General Accounting Office (GAO) submitted twenty bogus product designs to the Department of Energy (DOE) in order to see if the DOE would certify them as energy efficient. Certification as energy efficient gets a product the coveted Energy Star designation, allowing the company receiving the designation to market their products as energy efficient. One of the designs was billed as a room air cleaner and the design consisted of a feather duster taped to a space heater. Fifteen of the fake designs, including this one, received an Energy Star label.
- According to an article in The Week magazine from the May 21, 2010 issue, Mexico's biggest drug cartel had access to top secret United States drug enforcement information. When a top drug cartel member was apprehended, police found the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration papers. Apparently the drug cartels have infiltrated U.S. drug interdiction efforts via corruption by Mexican officials.
- And last, but certainly not, least, we are starting to find out how not only BP but several government agencies are to blame for the massive oil slick coming out of the runaway BP well. According to an article by Justin Pritchard of the Associated Press (AP):

• The Federal Minerals Management Service conducted at least sixteen fewer inspections of the runaway BP drilling rig than it should have.
• Other AP investigations have shown that the rig "was allowed to operate without certain safety documents required by the Minerals Management Service for the exact disaster scenario that occurred."
• The cutoff valve that failed has failed numerous times on other rigs since the time that regulators loosened their standards for the valve.
• The Mineral Management Services organization has suspiciously changed the inspection visit numbers related to the BP rig several times over the past month.
• Last year the Mineral Management Services organization cited the runaway BP rig "as an industry model for safety."

- In previous posts we have already covered, in extensive detail, the incompetence's of the Treasury Department, the Federal Reserve Board, the FDIC, Housing and Urban Development, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Senate committees on housing and banking, House of Representatives committees on housing and banking, Federal Housing Authority, and other government agencies for their pitiful performance before and after the banking and housing crash.

Now, consider this low level of performance relative to some numbers that were published in the Tampa Tribune on May 16, 2010:

• The number of Federal employees taking home more than $100,000 in annual salary rose from 14% of the employee base to 19% in just 18 months.
• In 80% of professions where there is both a private industry and Federal government equivalent, the Federal government employee makes more money.
• The average value of benefits for a Federal employee is almost $41,000 while it is only $9,882 for a private industry worker.

Thus, not only are we getting far below satisfactory performance from our government agencies, we are paying them top, top dollars for this horrid performance. Government programs do not deliver what they are supposed to do, government agencies do not even follow their own processes and procedures, classified information leaks out easily, and the biggest economic crisis in eighty years goes undetected until it hits everyone in the face but we still pay top dollar for this incompetence.

As always, nobody in the political class is taking any responsibility for the bad performance. Obama and members of Congress are blaming the government workers involved in the oil slick in the Gulf, much like they do with other government shortcomings, it is never their fault.

"Love My Country, Loathe My Government" woulds address both of these issues. Step 1 would require a ground up, zero based approach to completely reviewing and fixing how government operations function, firing those that do not know how to serve their masters, the American taxpayer. Step 34 would hold those Congressional committee members responsible for such poor government performance and would remove them from their committee posts for severe sub par performances. For example, anyone sitting on the committees that oversaw the Minerals Management Service could possibly be removed for overseeing an agency that utterly failed in the case of the BP disaster.

It is only when people start losing their jobs will there be accountability driven down to all government employees. They are making enough money, accountability should finally become part of their job description.

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.