What I learned on 11/2/10

Having now lived through 42 national elections, I thought I had seen everything. Nope.

This year, for the first time in my experience, awakened voters (especially we seasoned citizens) fully realized that people we had trusted and elected had let us down. We said "No more!" to business as usual.

A percentage of us got off our butts at primary time and looked over the field of hopeful candidates. Then we actually worked for and went to the polls and voted for people we thought would not let us down. Certainly not always "attractive" candidates in the usual sense of the word. But we felt the usual attractive candidates were the ones who had failed us (like Harvard Law School grads who had made it to the U.S. Senate). Better to have a new kind of candidate, the kind we believed was telling us the truth - warts, if any, notwithstanding. We chose our nominees.

Ah, but here is the next new part. A lot of folks, largely the ones Angelo M. Codevilla called The Ruling Class, decided we had chosen our nominees stupidly and proceeded to trumpet their opinions far and wide. The opposition party instantly grabbed those opinions and made their negative political ads.

Sadly, many members of our party's electorate who had sat out the primary cycle, bought into the poor choice syndrome and bypassed the general election - or actually voted for our nominee's opponent.

Some fresh, new candidate choices lost. Would they have been good leaders? No one knows. But I remember when candidate Ronald Reagan was considered a low-class Hollywood type, not appropriate for high political office! And we all have read that self-educated Abraham Lincoln was considered a bumpkin log-splitter.

I may or may not live to see my 43rd national election. But I would hope that when it does roll around, all the smart guys work for and vote for their choice of candidate. When the primary winner emerges (your choice or your neighbor's) support them or just change parties, but spare the world your learned opinion.

Who Owns Chris Biggs?

Chris Biggs makes a lot of noise about keeping the Kansas Secretary of State's office non-partisan:

“I believe that partisanship should have nothing to do with the Secretary of State’s office,” said current Secretary of State Chris Biggs,“Elections in Kansas are fair, accessible and non-partisan.”

“That will change is if Kris Kobach is elected,” continued Biggs. “It’s clear that Kobach and his partisan allies are pursuing a political agenda that will destroy Kansas’s proud tradition of non-partisan Secretaries of State and make it harder for eligible Kansans to vote.”

All very noble, Mr. Biggs - too bad you don't practice what you preach.

The truth is that nearly 60% of Mr. Biggs recently reported (10/25/2010) campaign donations came from labor unions, special interest groups, lawyers, law firms and political sources.

Mr. Biggs' is his own single largest benefactor, having loaned his campaign $30,000 during the reporting period. This generous contribution is dwarfed, however, by the $61,562 he received from various lawyers and law firms. Contributions from legal and governmental interests represent a whopping 45.40% of Biggs' total fundraising efforts.

Labor unions and special interest groups were also very generous to the "non-partisan" Biggs campaign, kicking in nearly $30,000, or another 13.35% of Biggs' funds.

All total, 58.75% of Mr. Biggs' donations came from these highly partisan sources. By contrast, his opponent, Kris Kobach, reports a mere 12.74% of his donations were received from lawyers, governmental and special interest groups.

Who is the real "partisan" candidate, Mr. Biggs? What kind of favors will your contributors be expecting should you be elected?

I voted!!!

On October 19, exactly two weeks before Election Day! In my case, that says a lot about how important this election is to me.

I have always loved Election Day. You start your day knowing that voting will be the top priority of your day. So you begin the day by deciding exactly when you will go to the polls. Since retiring from a 9-5 job, we try never to vote in the early morning. Lots of people have to get to work, so best not to crowd the polls between 7 and 9. Same holds true for the noon hour, and the last two hours, 5-7, when people who had to be at work early will be trying to vote on their lunch hour, or on the way home from work.

It was always fun arriving at the polling place and sometimes having to wait for a parking place. Then standing in line. I remember one election day when the lines were so long they extended out the door and we shivered in the cold for about ten minutes before the line moved us indoors.

But this election is so much more important. Ever since I first read one of the ancient Greek philosophers discuss the fragility of man, I adhere strongly to the principal of not putting off until tomorrow. So, when the time for early voting began, we hurried to the temporary polling place.

In keeping with President Obama's view that this year's voters are angry and fearful, I voted like a angry, frightened old man. Democrats have controlled Washington, and our New Mexico state government, and I do not approve of their job. Years ago, a business client suggested that an employer should not hesitate to fire an employee who is not doing their job. His reasoning is that firing them from a job they do not like (why else would they do a poor job?) helps both the employer and the employee... forcing them to find a job where they will be happy.

So, I voted a straight Republican ticket for all candidates, and voted against every proposed Constitutional Amendment. If you want to amend my Constitution, don't spring it on me on a sample ballot while I am in line at the polling place. You are gong to have to spend some time convincing me.

I also voted against every bond proposal. Before I agree to any spending, prove to me that the population as a whole will suffer in the absence of the spending.

When Republican Gary Johnson was in our state house, he viewed every spending bill from the angle of how it would benefit all the people of New Mexico. If it didn't pass that test, he vetoed it! I learned a lot from Gary Johnson!

Yesterday a campaign worker approached my wife with some literature supporting some candidate. She said, "Sorry... I've already voted!" It feels so good!

Kansas Democratic Secretary of State Needs Ethics Lesson

A couple of weeks ago, the Kansas Secretary of State, running for reelection and lagging in the polls, decided that the official website of the office needed to be redone to make the site "as helpful and user friendly as possible." Problem is, it's still a rotten site - the major change is that it's now a full page ad for Secretary of State Biggs, featuring a large picture, and this text (emphasis added):

About Us

Secretary of State Chris Biggs is one of only four state officers authorized by the Kansas constitution and elected state-wide every four years. With his vision and leadership, our office serves all Kansans by performing numerous statutory duties related to the administration of statewide elections, business entities, and the uniform commercial code. The Kansas constitution created our office, but statutes define our daily duties.

Chris Biggs is "authorized by the Kansas constitution"? And the office only runs, I'm sure, because of his "vision and leadership." Transparently political...from the man who harps constantly about how non-partisan the office is supposed to be.

Today, we learned that Biggs is spending $159,000 of taxpayer money to run this ad:



He calls it a public service announcement. Just educating the public, he assures us. I'm sure it's important for the public to hear the name of the Secretary of State in order to learn about advance voting options in Kansas. Another blatantly political move, less than three weeks before the election.

The gall of an elected official spending $159,000 in taxpayer funds to display his mug all over the state this close to an election is incredible. And, by the way...how do we know he's spending $159,000? Because his campaign communications director, Tyler Longpine, tells us it is so. Why would anyone from his campaign need to be involved with the public service duties of the Secretary of State?

This is an outrage, and as a Kansas taxpayer and voter, I urge you to reject this transparent ploy and send this slimy politician packing. He has no respect for our money or our intelligence and is not fit to preside over elections for class president, let alone for the great state of Kansas.

Remembering 1972

It is a surprise to me that none of the political commentators are mentioning the 1972 elections. My guess is that Richard Nixon was so demonized that that election has been purposely ignored.

Mr. Nixon was the Republican incumbent. The Democrat nominee was George McGovern. For a running mate, McGovern chose Missouri Senator Thomas Eagleton.

Throughout the campaign, McGovern's left-leaning philosophies proved to be out of step with the American people. (He was tagged as the candidate for "Abortion, Amnesty & Acid") His choice of Thomas Eagleton, only added to that image.

Mr. Nixon was quite popular and there was every indication of a huge Republican victory. Then, just before the election, it was discovered that Mr. Eagleton had undergone electro-shock therapy for depression. That sealed the election outcome. Eagleton withdrew and was replaced by Kennedy brother-in-law Sargent Shriver. It did not help the Democrats.

McGovern won only the state of Massachusetts and The District of Columbia - 17 electoral votes in all. Nixon won 49 states and 520 electoral votes. It was, and remains, the biggest presidential landslide.

Toward the end of the campaign, some members of the Nixon campaign staff foolishly decided to break into the Democrats National Headquarters at the Watergate Complex and plant listening devices. The left-leaning media, spurred-on by the anti-Viet Nam War protesters, rode that break-in scandal mercilessly. As investigations unfolded, Nixon and his White House staff, hoping to protect their colleagues, made cover-up attempts which led to Nixon's resignation. Thus, our most spectacular election victory was followed by the first ever resignation of a U.S. President.

November, 1972 was 38 years ago. If you were 18-years-old then, you would be 56 today. It is not surprising that most of today's voters do not remember 1972. What they do know of the election is what the liberal media have taught... that Nixon was a crook.

Now, these 38 years later, I am seeing another landslide Republican victory in the making. And, following the election, I worry that there will be a relentless search to find some small infraction on the part of Republicans, Conservatives or Tea Party members, which can be exploited and blown into a Watergate-like bomb.

What a gal...

Many of us feel pride on those special days... a child is born, a wedding event takes place and your son or daughter walks down the aisle looking handsome or lovely. A patriotic day is cause for pride and celebration, but it isn't often that one can look at every day and feel proud of his/her relationships. I am one of the fortunates that can address that feeling every day of my life, I have the pleasure of awakening every day with my wonderful wife. She is the reason for my pride. She gives of herself freely to the call of helping others. She has been working tirelessly for conservative candidates at the local, district and statewide level. She isn't just stuffing envelopes or making phone calls, although they are important activities as well, she is taking responsibility for seeing to it that volunteers are showing up by the carload to support our candidates. The candidates put up with me because I have a convertible and drive it in their parade assemblies. But April does it all. She walks the parade routes, walks the precincts knocking on doors and distributes literature, sets up and attends fund raisers, takes over web sites and adds her magic to their appearence. She has been praised by everyone with whom she works.

Now you can see why I awaken with such joy every day of my life. I am married to one of the most wonderful, caring, intelligent women in the world.

I am a lucky man!

Memories I'd just as soon not have.

It was about 1975. I was having a conversation with a young TV sales Rep, recently out of college. The conversation turned to the activities of radical young people, like the SDS (Students For A Democratic Society). The Viet Nam War had wound down in what I believed then and now to be disgraceful policies of the United States Government. Our conversation ranged over some of the influence the young radicals may have extended on politicians.

The U.S. Military was working toward the extraordinary state they enjoy today... a well-educated, all-volunteer force of top rated professionals. The college R.O.T.C. was an important building block toward that goal. This starting point for training future officers began with young people obtaining a college education. The military was then suffering from an ill-deserved reputation and building a corp of better educated officers should have appealed to everyone. Not so. Earlier, at the University of Kansas, an important ceremony in the progress of R.O.T.C. training had been interrupted, and in fact abruptly ended, by a rowdy group of protesters carrying pro-North Viet Nam posters and shouting a chant that contained the phrase "Ho Chi Minh will win, win, win!"

I am loathe to express hate. But I freely admit I hated the SDS. Again, my unchanged belief is that they inflicted great harm on this country I love. Most of these young radicals were from affluent families. Few had ever done an honest day's work. They truly were reaping all the luxurious benefits of the country their parents and grandparents had built, and which they chose to destroy. As part of their protest, they were largely unwashed, long-haired - perhaps with a flower in their dirty hair - weirdly dressed, drug using bums... demonstrating their difference from, and indifference to, society. Of course, they felt they were hip, and we called them hippies.

The Bob Fosse film "Cabaret" had been out a couple of years but was still being widely viewed. This story of a bawdy girl (brilliantly played by Liza Minelli) was set in pre-World War II Germany, and chronicled some of the rise of the Nazi's Third Reich. There was a scene in the movie that was set in an outdoor beer garden. A large number of patrons were quietly enjoying their evening when suddenly a teenage boy, clean-cut and washed, wearing a simple brown shirt, stood up and began to sing, in a loud clear voice, a song stating that "Tomorrow belongs to me." So infectious was his singing, adult patrons began to join him. Soon the entire crowd was on their feet singing with the Nazi youth.

Meanwhile, in 1975 America, there was widespread and deep felt disdain for the young American hippies. Remembering the beer garden scene from Cabaret, I told my friend that these young Americans were fools. If they wanted to sell their philosophy, they should learn from the Nazi youth of the late 1930s. Boy, do I regret that thought. Maybe the hippies had seen Cabaret. More likely, they learned from the same tutors as did the Nazi brown shirts. They did bathe. They did cut their hair and go back to school. They became college professors. They became the architects of much of what is happening in our government today. Can I say Bill Ayers? Bernadine Dorn?

I still hate them. And they are still hell-bent on destroying America.

Tears.

Nine years ago my wife and I stood in front of our TV watching images of the horror unfolding in New York, our eyes red and sore from hours of crying. At one point some new piece of news flashed on the screen and my wife sobbed, "I just can't cry any more." I agreed. There just couldn't be any more tears left in our bodies.

But there were more tears. We have cried since - cried at the loss of young Americans lives in Iraq and Afghanistan.... and Ft. Hood, Texas. These were not bad people, finally caught perpetrating some evil deed. They were good people who had sacrificed a career, a peaceful civilian life, to serve their country.

We have cried as we tried to understand why anyone would want to kill them. We have cried as we tried to understand why people would want to destroy our beautiful America, this land we love so much.

We have tried to understand our enemy, and tried to understand why we cannot seem to defeat them.

We cry as we hear that some Americans, persons blessed with citizenship in this extraordinary nation, have joined al qaeda and their fight against America. One of those citizens born right here in my city while his father attended the very university later attended by members of my family.

Today we cry again as we hear anew of the suffering of so many. We cry as we realize that people with radical ideologies hold reins of power in our nation; people who seem to demonstrate that they do not share our devotion to this nation; people who seem to resent America's exceptionalism and want to bring her down.

Yes, there have been more tears. And, nothing gives us cause to believe the sadness will soon end.

Made in China - Paid in U.S.A.

Mark Steyn revealed a disturbing fact this past week. Strangely, I've not heard any news medium mention it.

Simply put, Steyn looked at the annual payment the United States is making to China just to cover the interest on the money we have borrowed from them.

Then he looked at the total Chinese Defense Budget. Guess what... the figures were nearly equal!

Steyn then conservatively projected the increases in our interest payments - as borrowing continues and interest rates rise - and arrived at the astonishing fact that in a very short time, the good old American taxpayer will be completely paying for China's military. All those fancy Chinese jet aircraft. All those massive Chinese aircraft carriers. All those millions of Chinese soldiers. All paid for by you and me.

When I was a kid, attending a small country school, we once scheduled a baseball game with an even smaller school. But there was a problem: that school did not have nine players to field a team. We had to give them several players so we could have a game. That worked out okay - we still won. But I have never heard of one nation equipping another nation with an army so they could have a battle!

Now, I don't think we are on the verge of a war with China, but imagine if we were! Think of all the good paying Chinese jobs, building war materials for both sides... all paid for by America!

Congress! Go Home!

A crude riddle used to float around bachelor parties and locker rooms:

Question: What food is guaranteed to kill a woman's sex drive?
Answer: Wedding cake.

I have a variation:

Question: What act is guaranteed to turn an intelligent person into an idiot? Answer: Elect him to Congress.

The answer to problems is often clear and simple to anyone but an idiot. Congress rarely sees the simple answer.

Consider government spending. In Congress, it works this way: various departments of government submit budgets calling for a 5% increase over the previous year. For the purpose of illustration, let's assume that, spread over many departments, those 5% increases add up to $150 billion. Congress ponders these budget requests and decides to give the departments, on average, only a 3% increase. Then they proudly trumpet that they have cut spending by $60 billion.

Wrong. They increased spending by $90 billion.

The correct solution? Eliminate the department. A classic example is the Department of Energy, formed to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. It has not. Eliminate the Department. Billions saved.

The Department of Homeland Security. Formed in the nervous days following 9/11. We have the FBI, the CIA, the Army, the Navy, The Marine Corps, The Air Force, The Coast Guard, The National guard... all able to secure the homeland. Eliminate the Department of Homeland Security. More billions saved.

How much more spending could we cut? How many more departments are there in the federal government?

In Congress, they talk endlessly about doing the nation's work. Bulletin to Congress: The nation will work fine without you. Take a vacation!