STARVE THE FEDS

Do we have reason to fear our ruling class of politicians? Certainly, we do. The attempts to paint the Tea Party movement as racist haven risen in number again. The old news regarding the free pass given to the Philadelphia area Black Panther Party hasn’t been washed away in obscurity. Now it appears that the President is OK with assassinating his enemies with no trial, even if they are U.S. Citizens off the battlefield? Arizona is being sued not only by the federal government in court but also in the scathing and seething opposition it has received in the battle for public opinion. I don’t raise eyebrows for politics as usual anymore, but what about for politics taken to the next level?

Public opinion is pretty much everything. Whether you are a musician trying to make it in the entertainment industry, or a corporation trying to sell a product, or a politician trying to cover himself up, marketing the message is everything. Case in point – when the film adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Two Towers” was released in 2002, there were those that objected to the title of the movie due to the 9/11 aftermath sensitivity, despite the fact the book was written a generation earlier. If the media message succeeded in pressuring the filmmakers to change the movie title’s name, it wouldn’t have mattered what anyone else thought. You could have had all the 9/11 families release a statement showing that they weren’t offended by a movie title, and it would have meant nothing in the face of media.

Therefore, in today’s politics, truth takes a backseat to the public message and public opinion nine times out of ten. Marketing isn’t everything (see “Crystal Pepsi”), but public sway can be. It always boils down to the people. Nowadays, it’s whether people want to make the effort to dispute or question what they are being told in media and advertising.

Those who wish the Tea Party to be branded as a bunch of racists have repeatedly attempted to do so since the movement started to have a real impact. The tactics used are deceiving – Michael Moore style propaganda, opinions given by prominent liberal talking heads on national TV (however loosely tied to the fact that opinion may be), or just by flat out lying about how we were on the wrong end of a recreated “civil rights” movement on Capitol Hill during a Tea Party protest. It doesn’t seem to matter that Andrew Breitbart has offered $100,000 to anyone who can prove someone from that Tea Party protest engaged in any racist behavior, and that no one has come forward. The stigma can still dog us and cause us to use our time defending ourselves when we should be on offense exposing politicians for who they truly are.

Conservatives can use the same tactics to strike back at the liberals, or we can take the higher road and hope enough voters will hop on board along with us. As for me, I will use this time and space for defense from my point of view, and then it’s offense from now on. Wasting time deflecting lies will only cause us to lose momentum.

First of all, I can’t stand racists from any side of the spectrum. So when any accusation of racism is used, you better have facts to back it up. If I’m going to take the road of truth rather than slinging mud back at the liars, then the line of truth must be drawn.

First premise – Tea Parties are NOT racist as a group. Big government is the catalyst, not the President’s skin color. As for me, my heart dropped when the big TARP bailout was voted on – McCain, Obama, George W. Bush – they ALL favored it even when the American people were screaming for them to stop. Whites, blacks, Democrats, Republicans, doesn’t matter – the stupid law was passed by all races, creeds, and political party in September 2008. The Tea Party started after we realized that Obama was no different. Many of us paused hoping Obama’s promise of hope and change meant an end to the bailouts and the start of something that made sense, even if we disagreed with his politics. The “Stimulus Plan” that was passed without being read put a stop to that hope, and we reacted quickly. If the problem was caused by people in general, then the reaction is based on the problem caused by the said people in general. I don’t care what the hell color you are.

Second premise – Due to the Tea Party movement’s general lack of national structure, then it is expected that bad things can happen within its ranks. If there is no defined leader to condemn the wrongdoing, then that creates a vulnerabilty; a leadership black hole that allows racists to come out of the woodwork and leech onto the Tea Party to gain some sort of credibility. Possibly, maybe they were hoping the racist accusations made by the lying left were correct, and were trying to stand up for themselves, who knows? The Tea Party certainly varies in viewpoints – for example, those that refuse to allow God versus those who make God the focal point. There are also those who believe in infiltrating the current political parties versus others that want to create a political party of their own. There are also those who are more fringe than others (9/11 conspiracy junkies, militia types, overly judgmental religious zealots of any faith). There is no overall platform, no matter what national tea party organization that tries to seize public media and claim themselves as the voice of the Tea Party attempt to tell you. Therefore, as with any group of people, you’ll have your crazies. I know I denounce racists, as well as millions of others, publicly and privately, so there you have it. If the other side wants to ante up with more propaganda and misinformation, then hopefully that shows Americans who they truly are, and why they have to rely on anything that has nothing to do with honest debate, purposeful and serious quests for serious answers, and trying to unite under some concepts even if they don’t agree on the methodology.

I don’t want war, and fortunately, it’s unnecessary. However, there is no denying the political storm brewing, and I fear for the consequences. I helped welcome my new niece to the world earlier this morning; how would anyone explain our current situation to her? Would she have to learn the hard way at an age too young to fully grasp why things are the way they are? Would she allow herself to be manipulated by mainstream opinion, despite her parents’ attempts to have her think for herself? Political storms are a ticking time bomb. The consequences are deadly when life is completely disregarded. Ditto for the disregard for what is right in favor of what is easy.

July 4th has come and gone; and by virtue of the 4th falling on a Sunday, many of us have Monday, July 5th, off of work in order to recuperate and, hopefully, remember. Despite that the first week of July is usually the hottest and most humid time of year for most of the Midwest, I’m still grateful to be alive and a citizen of the United States of America.

I don’t want to lecture people on how grateful they should be, even if it’s through the same people voluntarily reading this blog site. No matter how much I want to proclaim that it is absolutely crucial for people to possess gratitude, nobody likes being lectured to. I’ll leave that to the lecturers today.

I don’t know how military families do it. Today marks the first day that my family has become a military family by virtue of my brother-in-law’s Army re-enlistment. He just shipped out today to an equivalent of a “refresher boot camp” and is anticipated to be stationed in Georgia for around eight months or so. He will miss the birth of his daughter that is due this month. While the desire to support his family factored into the decision, I don’t see how anyone can say that any decision regarding joining or re-joining the military can be taken lightly. Ditto for firemen and policemen. It’s one thing to respect those in uniform for our protection, it’s another to be directly affected when it’s family. I’m not saying this to “one-up” those who are not in military families; rather, I’m just trying to illustrate the overwhelming feeling that comes with it.

I’m also not factoring in the way our federal government likes to politicize the military to make themselves look good. There’s a reason General McChrystal spilled his guts to Rolling Stone magazine – someone as detail oriented as a military general, I would imagine, would know the consequences of such actions. He didn’t do it for a publicity stunt, he did it to warn us what the hell is going on with our Commander-In-Chief. It’s nothing we probably couldn’t have already guessed, but he risked his career in order to build a case for that assertion. We stand warned.

I don’t go to church often enough. Whether one is a believer or not, there is no denying the presence that God has over this country. The Constitution was designed for a vigilant, moral people. Without the safeguards of morality, the Constitution is worthless. We would already know the answer to the rhetorical question that would follow Benjamin Franklin’s quote: “[We have brought upon you] a Republic, if you can keep it”. Whether one likes it or not, this was a nation based on Judeo-Christian principles that allows the freedom for everyone to worship whoever they please, even if it is Man. The precedents set by the popular interpretation of “Separation of Church and State” have it all wrong. It seems to give history revisionists and anti-Christian activists permission to try and wipe out Christianity.

Which brings me to this – why does it seem that Christianity and the Jewish religions are always under attack (militarily and/or politically) until they are extinct? When was the last time anyone tried to wipe out Muslims or Buddhists? Even with the violent history of Islam, history shows that Islam was never wiped out, just kept in check. Is this the battle between good and evil? Why is it necessarily to try and eliminate religions based on love, even if we tend to wince at some of the messengers and followers taking religion into their own hands as a means to judge others themselves? I am horrified that I let myself be hoodwinked by the anti-Christian propaganda for most of my twenties, even by bands I have loved growing up.

I’ve been unsure on where I want to pour my efforts since I lost the election last May. I’ve considered volunteering for the People’s Constitution Coalition of Ohio in support of their Soveriegnty Amendment. I’ve signed up for various candidates’ campaign information distribution lists. I’m still paying off debt used to fund the campaign (in addition to obligations I’ve had all along). I’ve devoted time planning a (hopefully) beautiful wedding with my bride-to-be. Being on the Republican Central Committee is a good thing, but meetings are limited and I’m too impatient to wait until the next meeting in order to attempt to make an impact. I’m wondering how the leadership will take the idea that I, among many others, refuse to endorse Republican candidates solely because they are Republicans. I’ll tell you something – when Constitutionalist and Libertarian parties are putting out more conservative candidates than the major party that claims to be conservative, I’m going to endorse the conservative candidate, regardless of political party. I have a nagging hunch that political parties are the major cause of the division that followed the unification of the American people as a result of 9/11.

I admire how people like Glenn Beck and various other organizations are studying various books from the Founding Fathers and Progressive Eras in order to shape their opinions as far as how to restore our country back to its original principles. I haven’t done that, and maybe I should. I want to start by re-reading the three basics – The Bible, The Declaration of Independence, and The Constitution. The Bible also doubles for personal reasons as well, as my young lady and I have contemplated loudly more than once about our walk with God and our worship.

As I’ve stated many times before, I’ve been publicly uneasy about approaching any subject when it comes to religion, because I’m not a good example for people to follow. I’m not a religious leader, I’m a sinner. I want to know more and dedicate myself more in order to become a better person, and be part of a bettering the community. I’m fascinated with the lives of missionaries that travel all over the world to spread the word about God. I’m intrigued by the idea that religious principles and political leadership are inseparable, no matter who may try to distort that very fact; because if there is no God to lead our government, than our political leaders become gods themselves. That may be what they set their sights on, but I’m grateful that many of our countrymen feel quite a bit differently. We don’t need dictators and oligarchies here, thank you very much. Independence Day lives on.

You ever notice that most horror movies take place in some rural area in the middle of nowhere? You ever notice that these films are usually written by people who live in the big cities? I never really noticed that until family friends came over to visit and they got freaked out about being here. Every cricket chirp, every tree branch squeak, every squirrel stirring seemed to make our visitors jump. I exaggerate, of course, but not about the pitch darkness and the quiet at night. Every single time, I swear to you, some remark is made about “Children of the Corn”, or that Jason from “Friday the 13th” will come out from the woods and ax murder everyone indiscriminately.

It’s funny until it hit me why this kept happening. People are afraid of what they don’t know. They assume the worst when they have no prior experience to go by. I find it a little ironic that the stereotypical liberal that comes from a large city or suburb seem to stereotypically remark about how conservative rednecks from the countryside are quick to fear concepts that they don’t understand (like socialism!), yet they display the same fear themselves. I suppose it isn’t fair to overrely on stereotypes, but our fun visitors are guilty of the same crime every time they remark about how rarely come over to my place due to their fear of getting killed.

I don’t live out in the Wild West; I live in rural Ohio. There isn’t forty miles that separate me from my neighbors. It’s not like Wyoming where someone can go missing and no one would have a clue where to go look for the body. Neighbors are within shouting distance. When I went house hunting over four years ago, I found that there were no registered sex offenders within miles of this place, and crime was pretty much non-existent. People are statistically safer here than back where they live, yet they harbored some irrational fear every time they were in the safer place.

If you have fallen for this before, then hopefully you know firsthand how easily the mind is fooled by outside influences. If your environment repeats assertions at various times of your life, and you have no life experiences to contradict those assertions, then many in your situation will assume those assertions to be true. Those same assertions usually get repeated to friends during everyday conversation, in the form of “I heard that such-and-such….”, etc., you get the picture.

Now that we’re living in an age where the first instinct is to distrust the media’s presentation of news if we know what’s good for us, it takes some getting used to when we are apt to just casually make assumptions about what we’ve heard. In the past few years, I’ve been consciously making the effort to rely more on what I see rather than what I hear. Firsthand is better than secondhand, is it not?

Hence actions speak louder than words. Talk is cheap, yet we seem to hang on the words of authority during times of crisis. When we’re too busy or too lazy to do our own research, utilize our logic, and make our own estimates using our math skills, it seems to be the easier route to just accept what we hear; we blindly trust rather than verify. We’re all guilty of this; I don’t want to see any fingerpointing from either side.

It’s all part of the political game. Monopolize the airwaves. Get your message out. If the opposing side’s message makes you look bad, then contradict their message twice as hard, using twice the ammunition, twice the airtime. Lies, truth, it doesn’t seem to matter. Politics, as I’m learning, is the people giving permission to a select few to delegate power to them. That power intoxicates people; tempts them to play God. Are we a nation governed by laws, or a nation governed by men on their God-trip?

To dip our toes in the pool of politics means risk being swallowed by the inevitable whirlpool. Politics is only calm if you go with the flow, and the flow is not always the right path to take. The whirlpool consists of the constant babble of information, true or not, distorted or exaggerated, purposely flooding and confusing our brains to the threshold. At this point, any sane human being would want to opt out of politics, therefore giving in to the establishment. Others may get swallowed up in one particular side, and fight daily against the other side. Those who want to do the right thing sail through the stormy waters regardless. There is a place to go, and whirlpool or not, we need to get there, even if it means stepping on the powerful political parties to get there. Neither side has our interest at heart. The Democrats are floating their usual drivel and driving our country into the ground. The Republicans are talking the good talk; pandering, seizing upon Tea Party momentum to keep going with their country club lifestyle. Actions, words. What you see, what you hear. When I see that Mitt Romney and Jon Kasich come to Mansfield, Ohio, expecting $1,000.00 per ticket just to rub elbows with them, what does that do to what you see versus what you hear? When I receive emails asking for $50.00 “donations” to support a local Republican candidate for judge, what gives?

I’m hoping that the Richland County Republican Party sent a message to the Ohio Republican Party that the usual won’t be tolerated anymore. However, I know better. The Tea Party is not as prominent in Ohio as we would like it to be. We pale in comparison to states that seem to get it, like Arizona, Kentucky, Utah, Wyoming, Texas, and Alaska. To a lesser but still good extent: Montana, Nevada, South Carolina, North Dakota, and parts of California. Ohio is still wishy washy. We’re certainly not liberal New England or metropolitan NY or LA, but we’re not freedom loving enough just yet. 

I’ll say it right now: November is NOT a “gimme” for Republicans. They can still lose elections; not because the Democrats are waking up, because they aren’t. The reason is because there are Libertarian and Constitutionalist candidates that truly get it and are truly superior candidates to those that are more well funded. For every Rob Portman for U.S. Senate (Ohio), there is a breath of fresh air like Eric Deaton. Mr. Deaton will probably not win, but the D vs. R race seems to be close enough to where he can suck away votes from Portman. If that happens, the Republicans lose and they would deserve it. This is why I voted not to endorse Republican candidates in the central committee, because inferior candidates get what they deserve. It’s too bad America doesn’t get what they deserve as a result; but it would take a political party to wake up and become principled instead of pandering to the principled ones. That’s what Democrats do now – pretend to be moderate and conservative in order to pick up votes. It’s going to take time; too much time. Party politics excel; America suffers. We’re due to learn our lesson sooner or later.

Hopefully, sooner.

Is the $20 billion settlement between BP and President Obama the be-all end-all to the rule of law and the beginning of the rule of Men? When did the Executive Branch become less about enforcing laws and more about making up the rules as they go along? Is this the end of the Constitution? Will the election of freedom-loving conservatives reverse course, or will they seize and feast upon the new power the liberals have handed to them? If the Bush Administration took government power from one to ten, and the Obama Administration took the ten and made it a hundred, will the new administration make it a thousand? Is a hundred good enough? How about ten? What will it take to get there?

It took health care and BP to bring it from a hundred to a thousand. BP CEO Tony Hayward just handed the golden opportunity to our runaway federal government. If the feds are talking the $20 billion as a “down payment”, then we aren’t starving the feds. We’re giving them carte blanche at the all-you-can-eat buffet, and then drinking excessively on the house – the tab being ours – and then they get the women to boot.

I thought political hecklers aren’t supposed to get attention. I just saw an article on Yahoo showing a woman covered in oil screaming at the Congressional hearing. What a bunch of contrived theater. Then again, so is the idea of Congress grilling someone to give the citizens a show. It’s a media lions den.

BP got in bed with the federal government, and the government seduction was complete. What’s with the $75 million limited liability clause allowed to oil companies for oil spills; especially after the Exxon Valdez scandal wore off? Why did the feds disallow a shallower well when Louisiana allowed it? Why did Obama reject the Louisiana governor’s pleas to build dunes to block the oil spill for so long? Why doesn’t Obama plug the damn hole, so to speak?

Now people are mad, and rightfully so. I just wish we had the foresight to know we don’t think clearly when mad. The federal government knows, and refuses to let the crisis go to waste in a blatant power grab.

I’m sorry about supporting the Patriot Act at one time. I trusted Bush, despite the screaming from those who pleaded to watch the government power grab. I didn’t listen. One would think that after our trust was betrayed by one President, that we would watch the next one like a hawk. It turns out that the ones who warned us were right, but much fewer in number than I hoped. The liberal media picked up on it, and flew with it. Now Obama is making a ten into a hundred, and people have turned a blind eye.

The power levels have to be so intoxicating, that anyone, no matter their intentions, will lust after keeping the power after getting several tastes. It’s what made the 1994 Republican Congress blow it for everyone. Even if the 2010 Congress was as conservative as the voters allowed it, with all the new power government has, will they have the willpower to turn back what the Class of 1994 couldn’t with such a meeker opponent? What confidence do we have that any human being can take the Rule of Men and turn it back to the Rule of Law? Even if any human being/s could do that, what safeguards would be in place to ensure the line isn’t crossed again? If the safeguards take the form of words, as the law typically does, what’s to stop anyone’s disregard for those words as our current government does for the Constitution?

The $20 billion is yet another example about it being all about the money. Money that will go wherever the government wants it to go, so the company presidents can line up the campaign coffers in time for the next election. It’s why the “Porkulus Plan” was such a disaster. It’s why there’s no real job recovery – because the Census isn’t permanent, and Obama’s moratorium on offshore drilling killed even more jobs.

George Soros has upended small countries’ economies singlehandedly just by pulling out of stocks and funds here and there. His volume is the name of the game. Now is he pulling Obama’s strings, as Glenn Beck and Jim Quinn have alleged for several years now, but I was hoping I wouldn’t have to confront and believe? Why is Brazil allowed to expand their offshore drilling, then? Soros has his pockets in Brazil oil, and Obama is handing him the capital. So if Soros is that powerful, and wants to exert that power toward transforming America into a system that is the socialist ash to capitalism’s fire? When did our flame go out?

It hasn’t. The Tea Party knows it (not the Republican cover up parties, by the way), the Campaign For Liberty folks know it, and even if many of us don’t know it, we suspect it, or know something just isn’t right. We all joke about how politicians are corrupt almost automatically, but that doesn’t mean we just have to accept it and take it up the rear end in the name of not making waves or appearing crazy to folks.

Those in power are playing with fire. The world hangs at an edge of a cliff. We’re not off it yet, but the conditions are becoming more prevalent. The Titanic sinks while we arrange the furniture.

In America, there should be no such thing as helplessness.

I consider Arthur Laffer a reasonable man. The guy relies on the beauty of mathematical logic rather than rely on second-hand news/opinion accounts like those who are mathematically illiterate are forced to do. His economic/tax theory, illustrated by the parabolic Laffer Curve, has been proven time and time again. For those who hate numbers, all he illustrates is that if the government starts at collecting zero taxes and then increases tax rates, generally incoming tax revenue increases. By default, that also means that all our individual outgoing tax expenses increase.

However, if government keeps increasing tax rates, that does NOT mean they will necessarily collect more taxes as a result. The Laffer Curve shows that the people who pay the taxes hit a breaking point as tax rates increase. Meaning, the more your goods cost more as a result of higher rates, the less goods you’ll buy, which means the less taxes are being collected. It makes sense that if we get penalized more and more for purchasing products, then we’ll just slow down or stop buying the products.

It’s the same reason some people in certain situations are reluctant to get raises at work – they know that the raise will trigger a higher tax bracket, and so they will take home less money as a result. Thanks a lot, progressive income tax system, and those who support it by keeping quiet and accepting business as usual.

So when the Bush tax cuts expire starting 2011, that means income taxes will go up, dividend taxes will go up, the capital gains tax will go up, and the estate tax (which is a fancy term for DEATH TAX) will be awakened from the dead. We die, and taxes will live.

Businesses with any financial foresight know this. Therefore, they are looking to produce as much as they can in 2010 to take advantage of the lower tax rate, so they can hoard when the higher tax rate goes into effect, which will minimize their penalties for producing. Which leads me to this thought – why are there penalties for producing anyway?

This phenomenon, called an “income shift”, will make 2010 look better than it should, but also makes 2011 and later much worse than it should. Just as the Cash For Flunkers program seemed successful at the time, only to find out the real result was that sales were stolen from the future. Someone who would have bought a car in September ended up buying them in July when the program was in effect. One more car sold in July means one less car sold in September. Instead of an even flow that is forecastable, the sales were distorted in favor of the timeline that the program was in effect.

Of course, Obama and the Congress could stick some provision in on a bill that would cancel the deadline, and let the current tax rates stand as they are, but they seem too busy convincing us that this isn’t a tax increase, it’s just an expiration of temporary tax discounts. Ummm…sounds like an increase to me. However, it is possible that if this becomes more of a political hotspot issue that we may see something passed sometime in late December, just in time for all tax preparers to relearn tax law after their software has already been installed for 2010. Nothing new here, Nothing to see here, please move along.

The Great Recession is here to stay for awhile. Jobs are opening up somewhat, but I wonder if that well will dry after the New Year rolls around. It’s times like these where I wish Mr. Laffer were wrong for once. Only time will tell.

It’s becoming a more hostile environment to those who want to remain neutral when it comes to betting our lives and livings in this world. The political class seems intent on having any given citizen believe that politics is a luxury and not a necessity; one can choose whether to follow the political winds of change or just to stand aside. The political class also seems intent on encouraging the thought that it’s ok if we don’t pay attention because we work long hours, study hard, and try to keep roofs over our heads. I don’t have to ask anyone for their words to prove this theory; it has been proven by the lack of participation of local Ohioans as far as political party central committees go. It wasn’t hard for me to go through – I found my precinct/ward’s representative slot had been vacant, I got 9 signatures in my ward (only 5 needed to be certified as valid), and I went unopposed in the primary. One vote in, and I win.

I’ve been tempted to fall into the trap that I don’t need to access information as much as I do. I don’t stare at TV news scrolls 24 hours a day, I don’t refresh news stories constantly, and my car radio reception has taken a nosedive since my car was repaired due to hitting a deer during campaign season. I’ve almost been tempted to end internet access and just focus on taking care of my property and my family, and outside politics be damned. My logic was that no matter what happened outside my property lines, if any of it came to my front door, I could deal with it then.

However, the tax bill always makes its way to the dining room table to be reviewed. Intrusive laws remind me of how a contract between a land buyer and land seller is really a contract among three parties – the two I listed previously, plus government. Add to that the fact that we have allowed our various levels of government the rights to seize our gross wages before we even receive our paychecks. You don’t need a front door for that.

Lines are being drawn, and I want to be at the front lines for it. Maybe most of you don’t want to participate, but I do. So here are some world changing events that have happened recently, with paragraph bites to demonstrate the lines, and which side is the right one.

Israel

Israel is the only beacon of true freedom in the Middle East, is it not? I don’t know Israel well. All I know is that the country has faced resistance from extremist Muslims, the UN, and Jew-haters everywhere since Israel was reformed in 1948. All three of those subsets are so ingrained as to not deserve any public trust from any freedom loving individual; therefore, if they make so much noise about how bad Israel is, then maybe Israel is doing something right. Add to that the fact that Israel has continued to voluntarily give up land such as the Gaza Strip against the wishes of their countrymen, and the war continues. The burden of proof is on the extremist Muslims, the UN, and the Jew haters, not on Israel. Let freedom ring.

BP Oil Spill

BP screwed up. Mistakes happen, but this mistake has cost mankind 11 lives, and has caused the animal and plant kingdoms countless losses that we’ll never be able to tally years from now. BP has made the oil industry look terrible, and has given our opportunistic federal government another reason to level a campaign against capitalism. I’m tired of stupid mistakes giving the opposition more ammunition to make the fight that much more harder for us. I think if accounting scandals have led to our ability to jail CEOs and CFOs held responsible, maybe these standards should apply to true environmental scandals such as these. I’m not talking the decline of the dodo bird population, I’m talking the oil covered wildlife along the Gulf Coast along with the tourism industry that has all but vanished. No slippery slopes, please. We have enough of those.

Republicans and Democrats

I’m trying my hand at being a registered Republican for the first time in my life. Not because I want to follow party politics, but because if this country is to be saved from deterioration, we must utilize options already in place before embarking on unchartered territory. I don’t know what to expect, or what people expect from me, but I will strive to be a conservative voice that has been severely lacking in the past.

A purely democratic system is wrong, regardless of who is in the majority. Socialism is also dead wrong. Freedom must be maintained or it will be left to deteriorate. Freedom and liberty must be guarded by highly vigilant people who can be trusted to do so by those who aren’t able to be so devoted for whatever reason. It seems socialism is wanting to use the vehicle of democracy and the Democratic Party to let freedom decay into a lower level of mankind – where we voluntarily surrender our liberty to our elected officials without a shot being fired. The media has somehow become a cheerleading vehicle for this, and people seem to allow themselves to be told what to feel about certain situations. I’m not saying news and opinion shows should stop their schtick; they shouldn’t. It all boils down to the people. You can go down the candy aisle, but you don’t have to buy the candy. You can watch Glenn Beck give his opinion, but you don’t have to allow it to substitute it for yours.

Democracy and socialism are beautiful systems and methodologies until you throw numbers into the mix. Numbers are the breaking point. Numbers are the ultimate in accountability. If everyone were highly capable of obtaining the correct information and had high skill levels in statistical operations, then the numbers would speak for themselves and the political tricks would be seen through, as well they should. I was told by one person that the reason he would vote for me for Richland County Commissioner was because with me, “two plus two would always equal four”. Damn straight. Two plus two can never equal five, no matter what spin the press or political hacks try to put on it. You can’t tell me black is white. You can’t put gray where it isn’t. Anyone that cannot define an “unfunded liability” without looking it up on Google should just stay home on voting day. Free lunches and broken promises lead to riots in Greece. We’re heading there. If it came to a violent revolution against a government that is very intent on retaining its overbloated power, whose side are you on? I don’t want another Tiananmen Square, I don’t want another failed uprising that Iran just had, I don’t want my life to exist at the behest of Kim Jong-Il. Even if we wanted to give a government full of good people more power to set things right, there’s nothing to stop bad people from utilizing the same power to fight against us. Worse yet, good people go bad when power is dangled in front of them. Money, power, prestige, and ego strokes hurt everyone, even at the local level. That is why government power should be minimized. Power to the people of 300,000,000+ and counting seems to me a better option than surrendering that power to hundreds of elected and unelected officals at the federal level.

To remain “neutral” is to allow the deterioration to happen, and falsely allow the neutralite to claim that they aren’t responsibile for the results. Not anymore. To not pick a side is to have the side picked for you.

Resistance is not just revolution. Resistance also comes in smaller, incremental forms, such as telling the census worker that you refuse to answer their questions. Resistance is putting up with shallow fair-weather friends that abandon you at the first sign of political disagreement. Resistance is pitting your home-schooling ethic against the teachers’ unions and our socialistic way of collecting school district taxes. Resistance is insisting on birthing your newborn child at home with the assistance of midwives, and not an automatic conforming to the habit of going to the hospital, as if hospitals have had to exist as a prerequisite long before we let mankind reproduce. Resistance is telling doctors that you refuse to let them vaccinate or let them take blood samples if you don’t want them to. Resistance is taking the long hard road full of people annoyed with you, irritated with you, and wishing you took the same simple road as they did. Resistance is taking the time to understand ourselves, and surrounding ourselves with those who think outside of others’ boxes. Resistance is knowing what’s right and using absolute determination to stick to it no matter if it goes out of style with other people. Resistance is no longer giving in to people that yell at you if you know they’re wrong but would give in just to avoid hassle. Resistance is hassle. Resistance is determination. Resistance is knowing who you are, and how you won’t let others chip away at it without just cause. Resistance is not letting ANYONE take anything from you that you don’t want them to have. It’s easier to give in and go “neutral”. I know who I am. Whose side are you on?

Olson 42%, Hartman 25%, Kent 20%, Morgenstern 13%.

I know it’s been a few weeks, but it’s taken some time to adjust back to normalcy.

It’s been almost one year since I publicly, and crazily, spouted my sudden urgency to run for President. It seems funny now looking back at it, but the humor is stifled by the earnest seriousness of the matter. Tea Party movements weren’t progressing fast enough; I needed some way to take back what I and many others let slip away. It led to running for county office and busy campaigning, which came to a crashing halt when the results came in the night of the Ohio Primary.

Many were utterly stunned by the loss, mainly myself. I am more shocked that I came in third place. Most of the folks I talked to in Richland County expected Olson and I to go neck-and-neck. Even those that did not support my candidacy expected the same. I’m not sure if reporters contacted the other two challengers an hour or so before the polls closed, but they found me. One tracked me down at our election party, even though I didn’t give him a heads-up personally. I know he expected a pretty close race. It wasn’t; so be it.

I never understood why some primary candidates stick around in races that involve three people or more, even though they know that they’re lucky to garner 5% of the vote. I promised myself that if I felt that the campaign was going to result in something similar, I would have dropped out and saved myself the time and money. I also promised myself that if I was running against someone who was more qualified for the position and was someone that I trusted, I would also drop out. I wasn’t in this for me. I was in this because so many believed in me and were counting on me. No matter how much hard work and money I poured out of my own pocket for this campaign, coming up short inevitably results in myself wondering where I went wrong and what I could have done better.

Graciously, people have pointed out that all the candidates have lived all or most of their lives in Richland County, except for me – I’m only on my fourth year of residency. In a county where most people have family and ancestors dating back past the Civil War living in the same area, the idea of running for office as an unknown could have been somewhat laughable. One person in particular pointed out that I haven’t really began reaching out to people until 6 months before election day; so through that perspective, pulling 20% was a miracle. Maybe so, but I wasn’t looking to do well for the first time out. I wanted to win for the sake of those who believed in me enough to put their trust in me. No matter how disappointed we all were about the outcome, I’ll never take that trust lightly. I am grateful to anyone who gave me the time of day, even if they didn’t vote for me..

I also noticed something – I got over 2,000 votes out of 10,000 approximately. I would have almost killed to get 2,000 fans of my bands/music projects, and I’ve been trying for years at the musical ventures. Maybe it goes to show that in order to inspire those who are teenagers or twentysomethings, you play music that they can believe in. For anyone older, one has to stand up for what they believe in politically. Both music and politics require integrity, and I hope to live up to those standards on both fronts.

Back to the politics for a bit – First of all, the voter turnout sucked…..hard. For a crucial primary election in 2010 – the year that citizen awareness was supposed to be the highest since the Revolutionary War – too many from Ohio stayed home. This didn’t just affect my race, but every race in the state. Just about every Tea Party endorsed candidate lost 2-to-1. Good thing this wasn’t a nationwide trend, as Utah and Kentucky primaries can attest. This blunder belongs to Ohio alone. So Ohio….you blew it!

In contrast to Ohio’s lethargic apathy towards politics, there is the red hot fiery political zone of Arizona. What John McCain wasn’t, Jan Brewer was in a big way. What’s with all this boycott talk from city councils across America all of a sudden? To me, this just sounds like your typical junior high school “fight” with the boys in the locker room barely slapping each other only because they were being egged on by peers looking to see some excitement to tell the kids on the bus on the way home. These aren’t knockdown, dragout fights to the death we’re talking here, just some sissy slapping with a bunch of tough talk going nowhere but wherever hot air ends up. Now if the one commissioner from Arizona follows through on his threat to cut off Los Angeles’s power supply, then we’ll have a level F3 political storm on our hands. It’s one step closer to civil unrest. Has it really come to this? I hope not; there has to be other peaceful means of achieving political ends. I don’t know what the answer is in this case; I haven’t been to Arizona in quite awhile.

I don’t know where to go next. I do know that Ohio is 400,000+ signatures away from putting a law on the ballot that can nullify all federal overreaching, such as Obamacare. If we were Arizona, no problem. We’re Ohio though; I’m not sure what to make of this but I am in full support.

Some of us from the Tea Party have made our county’s Republican committee. We can appoint replacements to county office when an official dies or resigns from office before his/her term expires. Other than that, I don’t know what to expect. Maybe I should have joined the Constitutionalist Party, since we still have too many RINO/”country club” Republicans here. Only time will tell. I just hope to rejoin life on somewhat of a normal basis, and have an impact elsewhere.

I took the day off the day before the Primary Election for 2010. Back in May 2009, I never thought I’d be in this position. THANK YOU to the Tea Parties for making this all a very real possibility, but most of all, thanks to God. The journey is still a mysterious one, and not one that was orchestrated by myself only. This wasn’t my plan. The journey to elected office may end tomorrow at the end of Primary Election Day, or it may continue on a miracle. No question, it will take a miracle to unseat a 24-year long incumbent, especially when there are two other challengers seeking the same thing.

Regardless of what happens tomorrow, there is something very real happening. This is beyond politics and Tea Parties; it involves more of civilization. More people are getting involved. Many are voting for the first time in years. Many understand the subtle differences that would have eluded us in the past. We didn’t wait for someone to educate us, we educated ourselves. As more and more start seeing fallout from the destructive politics that permeated our culture from 9/11/01 until today, we’re becoming more united, even if we don’t know it ourselves.

Granted, destructive politics started way before 2001, but 9/11 was a grand opportunity to take how we all united together and make something special of our country. Instead, we’re doing this as a result of our undoing that started with the bailouts of late 2008. The Tea Parties aren’t going away; in fact, the idea of Tea Parties are appealing to many more people.

This past week there have been attempts to use words from Starve The Feds against me in my campaign, and the attempts have backfired. People smell a rat from a mile away when quotes are taken out of context. Anyone who reads this knows that there is not a single racist statement listed anywhere; in fact, go ahead and try to find one yourself! I will never back down in deference to outside pressure, just as anyone would not allow their minds to be changed forcefully from another person. It seems like conservatives are getting a little sick and tired of being made to feel guilty, or feel pressured, or be intimidated. I won’t let it happen here; especially when everyone has gotten every opportunity to contact me during the campaign. I would have been happy to clarify any ambiguities. If someone who decides to bypass this route and go for the jugular with malicious intent, well I can’t help that.

What I have learned from all this, including the attempts to damage my reputation, is that people will stick together when the cause is noble. People will stick together willingly, when the cause is an unspoken duty and goodwill towards others. Immoral and unethical causes are unified only by force – whether physical (by intimidation), emotional (from having guilt placed on them), or by endurance (where the message is so prevalent, it seems to be not worth fighting against in the public eye anymore).

I am beyond thankful to God, my family, my extremely patient young lady, the Mansfield North Central Ohio Tea Party organization for not only their endorsement but for their insistence to all that we should vote for the person and not the party. Thanks to those I have talked to along the campaign trail in their living rooms, dining rooms, kitchens, front porches, and on the sidewalk. You all have taught me the idea of community is still very alive and well, and while we may not agree on every issue, we are truly all in this together. We definitely surround “them”, and not the other way around.

The path to county office may or may not end tomorrow, but I do know that this journey will not end tomorrow regardless of the election results. I’ve gained so much, and I really wish this on everyone to at least give this a try; to have your thoughts and ideas questioned and challenged; to put ourselves out there to lead instead of follow; to put our names on the line for what is truly right and not what is easy; to know that there are still good people in this world, who try hard, and work their collective tail ends off in order to achieve their goals. I consider myself honored to even be considered as a representative for over 120,000 people, and I will never take for granted the hours and days that many have poured forth of their own time, with or without being asked, so that this campaign still had a good chance for a miracle upset of a longtime incumbent that sorely needs to go. I will sleep tonight with renewed hope. The hope that was promised to us in Election Year 2008 never came from our president. It only comes from ourselves. That is what makes us Americans. We refuse to deteriorate voluntarily. I will definitely sleep with renewed hope. Never give in, never give up. Thank you, all of you.

Maybe you have heard about the mud of politics, how it’s all about “getting in the front lines” and “fighting” without actually going to war.

This is not a fight about strength, it is one of endurance. A political candidacy that starts as an open, pure debate between clashing intellectual minds with opposing views ends up deteriorating into mud slinging, intimidation, and constant defense against lies and manipulation. It’s being ambushed with facts and figures that need checked constantly after the fact in order to even provide an opposing view. It’s a game of name recognition and slinging blame to those who cannot defend themselves in order for the politicians to absolve their own skins.

I saw one of the best in the business engage in political trickery and machinery the other day. From orchestrating where his people sit after studying the acoustics of the forum in order to maximize the chances of applause becoming contagious, to talking 70% of the time (thereby leaving 30% for other candidates), to assigning someone to monopolize the time of the competing candidate after the forum so others are unable to conversate with the candidate.

It’s become a game. It’s something involving life vs. death, or job security vs. layoff, or corruption vs. honesty, or good-ole-boy network vs. wiping a dirty slate clean – it all gets tarnished by the desire to be re-elected. It makes one wonder what poison awaits the newly elected candidate that grabs ahold of them, takes over them, and tarnishes them in the eyes of the people afterward. What line is being crossed? In some ways, it’s almost similar to the line of thought that could occur when one ponders losing their virginity – sex can be one of the most beautiful acts of the world in the right situations, yet can cause utter pain at the worst of times. It’s responsibility vs. irresponsibility. It’s crossing a line that can’t be undone once the decision to crossing the line is made. Is getting elected that much like crossing over to some sort of a parallel universe, not unlike the one that was crossed in horror movie Silent Hill?

Corruption finds a home in politics because the ones who are willing to lie, cheat, and steal are the ones that get to go in, for the most part. The dishonesty puts the corrupt at an advantage over the honest, who are unwilling to go the extra dirty mile for the privilege of being the one selected to be deserving of the public trust. Is this much unlike a lions den for the honest and faithful?

An informed public is the only way to defeat this. At the national and state levels, organized Tea Parties using Facebook seems to be the most effective way of distributing information quickly to one another. It’s so effective that I stopped reading traditional news outlets, since all have been tarnished by political biases that credibility and trust have deteriorated over time, and make them not worth reading anymore. The only reason to read them online is to get a general idea of how people respond on the “Comments” portion of articles.

As for a local level, that remains to be seen. I think people are starting to utilize the tools that have been handed to them, and more are willing to try. For the intellectually honest, the new media is a great way to form your own opinions and have them challenged constantly. For the intellectually lazy, it’s just another way to be lazy and vote with their ignorance.

Since it’s easier for good men to do nothing, and let evil progress, does this mean that evil will always outvote the good, because the ignorant and lazy unintentionally align themselves with the evil? Does corruption win nearly every time since the corrupt know the tricks of the trade, instead of calmly demonstrating their record and daring others to challenge them? After being elected and re-elected repeatedly, why is there a need to play political tricks in the first place? Maybe this is why habitual incumbency is nothing short of a disease, and demonstrates why term limits are sorely needed.

We cannot sleep. The evil and corrupt are always moving.

If this doesn’t reek of some sinister slow moving conspiracy, then at what point do we start making the burden of proof be put on those who believe this isn’t an underground nationwide effort rather than putting the burden on us to prove that it is?

In Ohio, we have Ashtabula County, Richland County, and the City of Elyria to show as examples of a sheriff’s department or police department being absolutely gutted. Not just a layoff here and there, but departments almost eliminated entirely. That means no detective squad, minimal sex offender tracking, slow response times (if there’s ANY response). It’s more likely that a domestic violence beating will become a murder. It’s more likely that the inability of law enforcement to follow up will increase the likelihood of cases going unsolved, and increase the reliance on shady witness accounts.

We’re at an age where the idea of the peace being kept is now held in doubt. It’s no longer being taken for granted. Gun sales are still at historically high levels.

We can arm ourselves to the hilt all we want. The reality is that the County Sheriff is the only person that can legally stand between the force of federal government and the county’s citizens. Maricopa County (Arizona) Sheriff Joe Arpaio and Graham County (Arizona) Sheriff Richard Mack have gone a long way towards teaching Americans the true value and power of a county sheriff. It kind of makes me wonder about the timing of all these sheriffs’ deputies layoffs occuring throughout Ohio, if not nationwide.

Of course, this is all happening under the guise of “we’re simply just out of money” and “Ohio does not mandate that the sheriff maintain a road patrol”. Unfortunately, many people are expectedly seeing distorted reports linking sheriff’s departments to excessive spending, as if our law enforcement is fat that needs to be cut. With social services operating under huge surpluses, especially in my home area of Richland County, we’re supposed to be ok with the idea that we don’t need to fund our own protection?

Government is supposed to provide defense and infrastructure, at all levels. Yes, we can arm ourselves; and we can also get training as far as all the “how to’s” that come with that territory. However, there is a big difference between armed citizens and trained professionals. Even the most vigilant armed citizen will not have their guard up at all times; otherwise, we’d be unable to live our lives. Trained professional law enforcement agents make it part of their job, and part of their lives. They are paid to practice at this mindset, just like an accountant is accustomed to Microsoft Excel, and a lumberjack is to cutting wood. It’s the difference between recalling how to react at a moment’s notice, and split second instinctive reaction. There’s no contest.

An armed citizenry is still a good thing, but we need the Sheriff’s Department to lead us because they’ve been there time and time again, while we stand by never hoping to be in a position they’re in for fear of the possibility for traumatizing memories to set in our lives due to witnessing or being part of a tragic situation.

Apparently our county has had some beatings, break-ins, and a stabbing reported last night, the first full day of one car patrolling 500 square miles.

One more reason an armed citizenry is a good thing – there’s an organization called OathKeepers. We may need to lean on them during these interesting times. We shall see.