Breaking! Fired Fire Chief's Suicide Prompts Demand for Resignations

(cross posted on 24thState)

The favorite fire board candidate of Lieutenant Governor Peter Kinder stands defiant. As related earlier, voters in West County have fought for years to first regain and then hold the Monarch Fire District away from control of the union felt betrayal when several Republican lawmakers endorsed the union-backed Swyers. While Kinder, Auditor Schweik, and State Reps McNary and Gosen insist they endorsed the right guy, the suicide of Chief Fred Goodson may have been an attempt to jog minds to see the horrible destruction the union is perpetuating in their blood coup.

Chief Goodson Attendees received the stunning revelation that the excuse for the firings pertained to the alleged mismanagment of the sexual harassment allegations is contradicted by the revalation that the firings were promised over a month in advance of the court ruling. So it appears that were the leaders who were not even accused, then fully vindicated, they still would have been fired. When all you have ever done is lead a fire house, how do you make that career change at 60 plus years of age, especially when you have been fired without so much as a hearing?

So let's recap the record of the "Republican," "Taxpayer Candidate,""independent of the union" Swyers.

1. He has voted with the union favorite Kim Evans in a perfect block against Robyn Harris on every major decison.

2. He successfully voted to pass a tax increase.

3. Swyers, the certified public accountant actually voted for the tax rate increase before he even knew what the budget would be. Standard procedure is to vote a budget and then set the rate to meet it.

4. Swyers, embarrassed by the backlash over the tax increase then voted to undo his tax increas while complaining publicly that the lower rate would make the budget complicated to design.

5. Swyers, again in a block with Evans voted to fire virtually the entire leadership of the Fire District and do so without even giving any of the accused the opportunity to have a public hearing.

Why were the accused not given the chance to defend themselves?

6. Finally, Swyers the CPA voted to install a new fire chief hand-picked by the union who is not even minimally qualified. I repeat, he does not even meet the qualifications to be hired as a private. He has zero experience in a multi-house department and does not even have the requisite college degree.

7. Almost worse than the offense of hiring a union shill for chief, Swyers and Evans voted to waste money hiring an outside search firm to look nationwide for a guy they knew locally. So what did the firm do? Did they come up empty?

The unfortunate reality for Swyers and Evans is that former board member Gans has decided to not quit caring. Gans went from active citizen in the early 90s, to union-endorsed candidate for the board, to union-opposed board member amassing incredible institutional knowledge and connections. He predicted almost before the search firm began, that Vinyard would be their choice. This would be laughable if not such a shameless abuse of the public trust.

The combination of these embarrassing revelations and violations of the public trust lead Director Robyn Harris to take the extraordinary step of asking his colleagues to resign. They refused. Perhaps the Republican lawmakers who endorsed the clearly union-corrupted Swyers will ad to the pressure and join the departed Chief Goodson and demand justice.

St. Louis County Tax Hike

This from Lisa Payne Naeger. St. Louis County, now that "drive by" reassessments have been curbed, is contemplating a straight out property tax increase. You have to admire the honesty on the one hand. However, centrist Democrat Steve Stenger has expressed doubt about the need.

http://www.examiner.com/political-buzz-in-st-louis/charlie-dooley-wants-to-raise-property-taxes-st-louis-county

County Council Meeting on Tuesday, August 30. Show up and make your voices heard.

The U.S. Debt Matrix - Are you ready for the red pill?

In the famous scene, the protagonist is asked by the Judas character, whether he regrets not having taken the blue pill of blissful ignorance. Those who pay attention have to endure the frustrations that come with knowing the painful truth. What we do with that information is what defines us.

We who take up political arms and fight risk everything. Our Founding Fathers knew they risked their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor. Those same risks are very real today. The next four links paint one of the scariest pictures imaginable. Once you see it, take the "red pill" if you will, you may never invest in equities again. You also may choose to join the fight alongside Neo.

By the middle of the Bush years, the great investment banks like Bear and Lehman no longer made their money financing real businesses and creating jobs. Instead, Wall Street now serves, in the words of one former investment executive, as "Lucy to America's Charlie Brown," endlessly creating new products to lure the great herd of unwitting investors into whatever tawdry greed-bubble is being spun at the moment: Come kick the football again, only this time we'll call it the Internet, real estate, oil futures. Wall Street has turned the economy into a giant asset-stripping scheme, one whose purpose is to suck the last bits of meat from the carcass of the middle class.

Is the Greek debt crisis the result of a socialist country being really irresponsible? Likely. Did a loan arsonist burn down the Reichstag?

Greek Debt Crisis, A Goldman Sachs Economic Coup?

Here is the piece that lays out how "naked short selling" became a death star laser that could be pointed at any company or worse, any country.

Next we have an article in the Riverfront Times, a leftist publication in St. Louis, that describes the Obama administration's cozy ties with the Wall Street pirateers.

Neo

Finally, we have someone who is taking these menaces to court. He has extracted millions in settlements from one crooked investment bank after another. His current target is Goldman Sachs. Here is his story in his words.

Hey Boehner, Balance the Budget Yourself

One idea has nagged at me for years and Charley Reese elucidates it with this article. When our politicians come to us for help with their re-elections 94% of us say "sure we will help, you are doing a great job".

Like the willfully naive mother who welcomes her son home from school. He was a total delinquent and came home and defecated in the middle of the floor and told his mother to clean it up. She only sees her little man. "Ok Dear, we'll pretend that did not just happen." "That's right wench", "you got it".

For a generation, maybe longer, every successive Congress has allowed entitlements to grow and they have done nothing. We are the parents who have to clean up the $14.2 trillion deficit and figure out what to do with the $62 trillion (yes, that is TRILLION with a capital "T") of stinking unfunded liabilities. While Republicans rebuke Democrats for their intransigence, "The Architect" Karl Rove convinced the Bush White House and GOP Congress that adding an $8 Trillion unfunded Medicare Part D (free drugs for seniors plan) was the way to maintain Republican faith with seniors and therefore dominate the electorate for a generation. How did that work out?

Well, a two bit State Senator who abstained from nearly one half of his votes clobbered us in November. People smarter than me can give all kinds of excuse for electoral losses. I suspect the fact that when the GOP had nearly total control we maybe should have voted like Republicans and cut things. Had we cut entitlements and not added to them, maybe the independent voters would believe us now when we try to tell them there is a difference. Instead, we have a generation of Republican lawmakers who share culpability for the $62 trillion stinking pile on the floor. But we have a pivotal opportunity to capture the narrative.

As Charlie Reese points out in his famous last column entitled "545 vs. 300,000,000 People":

The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes. Who is the speaker of the House? John Boehner. He is the leader of the majority party. He and fellow House members, not the President, can approve any budget they want. If the President vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to.

There is your road map to restoring faith in the Republican Party and, by the way, to saving the Republic. The House GOP needs to send a balanced budget to the Senate and steadfastly refuse to accept from the Senate Democrats, a conference budget that goes higher.

Now, there will be plenty of excuses as to why that is impossible. It may be tough, but nothing is impossible. Here is my list of cuts as to where to begin:

1. Cut all federal salaries by 15-25% or at least to a wage scale roughly equal to the average private sector or at least state government employee. If we lose too many highly specialized employees we can give limited latitude to executives to limit their cuts. Mail carriers, HUD workers, sorry. The gravy train is going to roll back for a while.

2. Eliminate all non-essential federal departments that should be handled by state governments, beginning with that loathsome US Department of Education. Zero it out of the budget. Before Carter created the huge new Cabinet level bureaucracy in 1980, Education was a minor "Office" founded in 1868 to distribute good teaching methodology. I think we can handle it now.

3. Eliminate the Department of Commerce. Any others?

4. Allow oil drilling and tax it.

5. Sell off a few million acres of government owned land. Enjoy the cash and enterprise while at the same time reducing the liability and maintenance costs of the land.

These ideas are just a start, but the principle remains the same. If the GOP, which Party controls the House, from which all spending bills originate, truly desires a balanced budget, they need to pass a budget that is balanced and refuse to blink when the Senate Democrats try to force a budget that is in the red. Simple.
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Thomas Jefferson's Wisdom, Required Reading

This is making the rounds on viral email. I am posting it here as the messages are critical, now perhaps more than ever.

Resume of Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson was a very remarkable man who started learning very early in life and never stopped.

At 5, began studying under his cousins tutor.
At 9, studied Latin, Greek and French.
At 14, studied classical literature and additional languages.
At 16, entered the College of William and Mary.
At 19, studied Law for 5 years starting under George Wythe.
At 23, started his own law practice.
At 25, was elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses.
At 31, wrote the widely circulated "Summary View of the Rights of British America" and retired from his law practice.
At 32, was a Delegate to the Second Continental Congress.
At 33, wrote the Declaration of Independence.
At 33, took three years to revise Virginias legal code and wrote a Public Education bill and a statute for Religious Freedom.
At 36, was elected the second Governor of Virginia succeeding Patrick Henry.
At 40, served in Congress for two years.
At 41, was the American minister to France and negotiated commercial treaties with European nations along with Ben Franklin and John Adams.
At 46, served as the first Secretary of State under George Washington.
At 53, served as Vice President and was elected president of the American Philosophical Society.
At 55, drafted the Kentucky Resolutions and became the active head of Republican Party.
At 57, was elected the third president of the United States
At 60, obtained the Louisiana Purchase doubling the nation's size.
At 61, was elected to a second term as President.
At 65, retired to Monticello.
At 80, helped President Monroe shape the Monroe Doctrine.
At 81, almost single-handedly created the University of Virginia and served as its first president.
At 83, died on the 50th anniversary of the Signing of the Declaration of Independence along with John Adams

Thomas Jefferson knew because he himself studied the previous failed attempts at government. He understood actual history, the nature of God, his laws and the nature of man. That happens to be way more than what most understand today. Jefferson really knew his stuff. A voice from the past to lead us in the future:

John F. Kennedy held a dinner in the white House for a group of the brightest minds in the nation at that time. He made this statement: "This is perhaps the assembly of the most intelligence ever to gather at one time in the White House with the exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone."

"When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe."
Thomas Jefferson

"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not."
Thomas Jefferson

"It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world."
Thomas Jefferson

"I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them."
Thomas Jefferson

"My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government."
Thomas Jefferson

"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms."
Thomas Jefferson

"The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government."
Thomas Jefferson

"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."
Thomas Jefferson

"To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical."
Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson said in 1802:
"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property - until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered."

I wish we could get this out to everyone!!!

I'm doing my part. Please do yours......

Beat the Education System - The Homeschool Option for Everyone

The mission of the Taxpayer Watchdog is to expose waste with a goal of keeping government limited and responsive. This principle applies to government schools. I constantly hear from parents who are frustrated by their public school experience but are intimidated considering home schooling. Those who follow me on Facebook know that I am a huge fan of the homeschooling system, Time4Learning.

Our kids absolutely love Time4learning and never hesitate when told to get on a computer and do your school. It is 100% canned, off the shelf, and so engaging that it actually has built in fun activities called "playground" that your child gets to do once the work is done. They even have pre-K curriculum, so my four year old is cranking through that and almost ready for Kindergarten.

Despite the fact that it is SO easy from a parent's perspective, it is also so amazingly comprehensive and shockingly inexpensive. Check it out. The fact that way software works in "the cloud", you can do it from any computer, anywhere in the world. Also, the more people using it, the less pressure they have to raise prices. That is why, even though I am getting a tiny little check for doing this post, and more tiny little checks for successful referrals, I should have shared this a long time ago.

Disclaimer:
Time4Learning has given me the opportunity to review their program and share my experiences. Time4Learning is an online educational program that can be used as a homeschool curriculum or for afterschool enrichment. While I was compensated, the content in this review was not written by Time4Learning. The opinion is entirely my own.

The Hidden Tax of Corporate - Environmental Bedfellows

The unsightly film on our "clean" dishes had become a source of great frustration in our household. Dish washing was the job of my daughter and she was evidently was really slacking off. We worked with her on critical strategies like pre-washing, proper loading technique and the importance of rinse aids. Still, we found that the dishes usually had to be washed at least twice and with increasing amounts of detergent. In this lousy economy and runaway food and fuel inflation, I was using 50% more Cascade detergent and running twice as many loads. This deal worked out great for the the water and electric utilities, and especially for P&G (Proctor and Gamble) but not so well for us.

As a conservative, I believe there is a right way and a wrong way to do just about anything from how to install toilet paper to what ingredients are key to a product. That makes me a consummate label reader. So one day I noticed that Cascade was "phosphate free". That struck me as really odd because I dutifully inject that naturally occurring element into the ecosystem every time I use my Miracle Grow "Bloom-booster" plant food. So how could something that is good for plants be evil for the environment?

I asked my friend Kat, who is a full time environmental activist and I challenged her. I am now using at least twice as much water and electricity, not to mention time as I spent before on clean dishes. She toed the party line, that too much phosphates in sewer systems somehow creates too much algae which disrupts ecosystems.

So I explained my situation and the fact that a huge corporation about which she should be suspicious of before me, was making out like bandits. I asked her, "Do you realize you are working for the man?" "What?" She asked. The irony was quite amusing.

It would be funny were it not so outrageous. The whole thing reminds me of the two-flush toilets the Government mandated ostensibly as a way to conserve water and the new light bulbs that GE (Government Electric) has convinced the dim bulb Congress to force us to buy.

The phosphate free detergent is so egregious because this one is too unsupportable for even the Congress to enact it. Most of the environmental phosphates come from poop! So the lobbyists turn to the states and successfully obtained phosphate bans in the 17 silliest state lawmaking bodies. Playing both sides, P&G still sells it because it is the only solution that really eliminates the white film.

As a former lawmaker, the question I have is who was paying the lobbyists in favor and who was paying the lobbyists against. Were there any against? Did P&G send in an army of lobbyists to fight this at every turn? Did they take out full page ads in the New York Times and warn America that they would be wasting twice as much detergent, water and electricity? If they did, they capitulated early because now that 17 states have banned phosphates in dish washing detergent, the folks at P&G have now embraced the ban.

My friend Kat had a suggestion. She said I could find this really great eco-friendly detergent at, of all places, Whole Foods. Sure, it costs more, but it works. There is no way I will be making any special trips to that company we tried to support with a BUYcott until they ended up forcing out their CEO for his sin of opposing Obamacare, Whole Foods, in order to pay even more for a basic product. Instead, I found a much better solution.

Thank you Walgreens for carrying "Sun Sations" for three bucks, on sale for $1.99. Yes, my dishes really are once again "virtually spotless". Moreover, it is made in the USA, in red state Utah. Salt Lake City, no less. God bless America! Go jump in a lake, P&G!

Landmark Worker Liberty Setbacks from the NRLB and MO GOP

The Wall Street Journal reported that organized labor has a brazen new tactic to accomplish forced unionization. Meanwhile, the St. Louis Beacon reports that there is another new tactic to force unionization in Missouri. These power plays by big labor and Democrat politicians against workers and taxpayers are without precedent.

The Boeing Corporation found union demands so intolerable that they decided to build their newest plant in right to work, South Carolina. They simply followed the logical and well worn path of major manufacturers leading from forced union states to right to work states. Because organized labor devotes 90% of their political action funds to Democrats, it is no surprise that the Obama administration controlled National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) would do the bidding of big labor and launch air strikes against the freedom road out of forced labor land.

What is perhaps much more striking is what is happening in Missouri where Republican enjoy huge majorities in both Chambers. Not surprisingly, Senate leaders opened the Session with the bold announcement that they would make worker liberty a top priority. While that right to work law languishes, negotiators on a St. Louis police "local control" law announced that they have a deal between the City and the police union. The Republican Legislature will give the City local control over the police force, and give the union their dream of forcing the City into adopting a collective bargaining deal with the union. It seems, "local control" is a mere slogan to be applied selectively by whoever has the power. So the rank and file cops will be forced to join the union and taxpayers will certainly learn what other cities know about how hard it is to remove that bad unionized officers.

This is all the more stunning in light of the reality that despite the St. Louis City reputation as a solid Democrat and union stronghold, the City has managed to stave off forced collective bargaining. Also this week, right to work Oklahoma lawmakers moved to further restrict public employee collective bargaining agreement. Nevertheless, it is a Republican Legislature that is poised to be the first lawmaking body in the country to force a local government into a collective bargaining agreement. Evidently, lawmakers in the Show Me State got the wrong message from Wisconsin.

UPDATE - Critical Election and Stealth Candidates April 5th.

Like any election cycle, there were disappointments and bright spots. I have some specific thoughts moving forward.

We knew that Assessor Candidate Chip Wood faced a huge uphill battle starting with his running in solidly Democrat leaning St. Louis County and his starting the race against a man who already had over $200,000 in the bank. But still we fought. We fought because we want someone who will be professional, resist temptation to grow government, and because we like Chip. I hope he stays involved.

In Rockwood, like Chip Wood, we knew we were challenging an entrenched teacher union network. They have great lists of current and former teachers and administrators, and their message is simple and effective and wrong. At the polls all day, the teachers tell the voters, "support your teachers" as they hand them their picks. Well who opposes teachers? Mike Geller took the bold step of running and the even bolder step of running for the taxpayers and kids. His message was "vote for taxpayers and students". The truth is, we build schools and fund them, not for teachers, but for kids. We need to support our teachers as far as support for them does not harm kids. In the end, we need to vote for kids. Evidently, we fail to sink that message with the highly educated West County voters every cycle, and the degree to which we do sink it, we fail to succeed in turning out those voters. And with 17% voter turnout, the unions have their way more cycles than not.

In Monarch Fire District, we had one of the oddest splits of my political life. We have had three cycles in a row in which the taxpayers have aligned behind Fire Director Rick Gans and the union has had their candidate. The battle lines were clear.

This time, it appears the unions retained several Republican consultants who smeared our guy Gans as they touted Swyers as the "non-union" guy to "clean up the mess". The only mess most of us cared about was keeping a check on the union, which Gans was doing, so there was natural distrust of a candidate no one heard of, who was the father of a union firefighter.

I met Swyers at the polls, too. He seems like a decent man who is angry about mudslinging in his first campaign. I told him I was angry that he was obfuscating his funding. We set up electronic campaign financing to add convenience for candidates and transparency for voters. What was I to expect from a Certified PUBLIC Accountant who was taking the extra step of paper filing his financial dislosures and avoiding public transparency? The "P" in CPA means that ones duty is to the public first, even over the interest of any employer. Swyers knows this. There were at least eight or nine mailers from the Swyers camp, a tremendous amount of money spent on radio and a phone calling campaign and at least one paid staffer in Rush James.

Well, after running an aggressive, very expensive campaign with only $10,000 of reported spending, and swearing he was not union-supported, taxpayers are left wondering who really backed and funded the Swyers campaign, and will Swyers really stand for taxpayers or the union? Will Swyers follow through and cut the firefighter pay to say, the level of the police pay? Time will tell.

We did have several bright spots. My other four candidates won. Derek Grier will be a great new voice at Chesterfield City Hall. He will join Bob Nation who easily won re-election. In Ballwin, Mark Harder defeated long-time incumbent Pat McDermott. This was a tremendous feat as Pat is a popular local figure known for years of dedication to the community including the operation of the Ballwin Days Fair. Mark just outworked him. He will be great for Ballwin. Down in Jefferson County, my friend Dan Shaul won a seat on the Windsor school district board of education. He will do a great job looking out for kids.

When I sum this up, I end up back in the same place I always do; Civic Education. I spoke to an elementary school just last week as a "former Senator" because this is a hallmark of what I see as the real solution. The message is simple, this is your government-own it.

Politicians can only do so much. We eliminated the June (school) election date because limited ballots favor special interests. We merged school elections with the April (municipal) elections in hopes that broader interest would improve accountability. Still only 17% of people bothered voting. In America, we should not have to put all issues on in August and November in order to get people to care, but maybe that is what it will take. If 300 more "taxpayers" had shown up, Geller would have one.

We need to demand accountability and transparency from candidates. It still disturbs me that the Swyers campaign was so secretive. Union firefighters were staffing the polls for him while Lieutenant Governor Kinder recorded robo calls for him. Is he the union candidate or the GOP accountability candidate? We have no idea who paid for any of it, because he filed his reports on paper. In an ideal world, voters would have the mental foundation to find that as objectionable as I do and vote accordingly.

Who is going to take up the cause of cajoling "general interest" or "taxpayer candidates" into voting in April? Who will take up the cause of educating voters that the school board candidate who "supports the teachers" first, probably supports the taxpayers last? Why do we put firefighters over taxpayers? Is $126,000 in compensation and benefits not enough? Who will watch Monarch Fire District or any of the other Districts and begin the process of educating people about the insidious nature of public unions? Maybe you.

Critical Election and Stealth Candidates April 5th.

This election has two of the most critical opportunities I have seen in a long time; we must hold Monarch Fire District and Pick up a champion in Rockwood. I am getting a number of inquiries about what is on the ballot tomorrow. Here are my favorites below, but check out Gina's picks in her TV ad here:

This is not an exhaustive list, but I am also posting this on the Taxpayer Watchdog Blog, so if you have a favorite candidate, put them up there and direct your friends to the list.

Monarch Fire: Rick Gans - despite a massively deceptive smear campaign orchestrated by three paid republican consultants who secured the endorsements of Lieutenant Governor Peter Kinder and a few other notable people who do not even live here, ALL of the local republican lawmakers who have fought the fire fighter union attempts to hijack the coffers, including current State Senator Jane Cunningham, myself, former Senators Klarich and Flotron, ALL BACK GANS and urge you to tell all of your friends to reject the UNION-FUNDED SWYERS who never even voted in a Fire District election and is the father of a union fire fighter. Who is more to be trusted to look out for Taxpayers? Currently, taxpayers hold the board versus unions 2:1. A vote for Gans holds the union in check.

Rockwood School Board: Mike Geller - Vote for MIKE ONLY (even though you get to vote for three - more below) Mike is a good friend who helped me back in my first race in 1994. He is concerned enough that he is making his own foray into running a race because no other conservative would. MIKE IS RUNNING FOR YOUR SAKE.

Mike has made the incredibly bold step of campaigning for taxpayers and students. Unlike every one of his opponents (Doelle is calling himself a conservative while being endorsed by several unions), Mike was too honest to say one thing to the unions and another to you.
Mike is all about high standards and choices for parents. Yes, he has three children in Rockwood, but one at Rossman, his alma mater.
The three top vote getters win. If 2000 union voters vote for their three, that is 600+ votes each. If 2000 taxpayers vote only for Mike, he wins easy. VOTE ONLY FOR GELLER.

County Assessor: Chip Wood - Chip is a great guy whom I have gotten to know recently. He is the professional real estate expert who the Republican Party put up against the Democrat's lawyer/politician. When it comes to your property assessments, would you rather trust a Democrat politician loyal to County Executive Dooley or Republican businessman Chip Wood? http://www.votederekgrier.com/

Chesterfield City Council, Ward 2: Derek Grier - Derek is a gem. I do not know how else to describe him, but he is a great guy with all the right values who just wants to serve, and everyone who meets him wants to help him. This is his second run at the office and no one works harder. Please support Derek if you live in Ward 2.

Chesterfield City Council, Ward 4: Bob Nation - Bob is my Councilman. I have been impressed by his dedication to the job, especially when we asked hm for his support on a Wilson Rd. bike trail and I "caught him in the act" of walking the area on his own time in order to get a full perspective on our request.

Ballwin City Council, Ward 2: Mark Harder - I have known Mark for almost as long as I have known Mike. Even though this is a non-partisan office, Mark is a very dedicated Republican activist who will take sound GOP values to the Ballwin Board of Aldermen.

Windsor School District: Dan Shaul - I have known Dan for a number of years. He is great guy who stands for all the right things. If you are in Jefferson County but not in Windsor, consider helping Dan at the polls or calling your friends.

About 10 years ago, two candidates for a seat in North County got the identical number of votes, over 1500 each. How many people were self-flagellating in penance for not bothering to vote? Please take 5-10 minutes to hold the Fire District and put your best advocate in Rockwood.

An Embezzler For Your Banker

A left-leaning high school classmate asked about my being "far right" in my political views and why anyone would think it is a good idea to strip workers of their collective bargaining "rights". As a former lawmaker, I had some experience and, as it happens, opinions on the subject.

Julia, The term far right is really a misnomer. It depends on what you mean by it. I am really passionate about making the most sensible laws. By sensible I mean liberal, or free. I measured every vote by whether it added freedom or removes it. I called it my "freedom litmus test".

So if you were proposing more taxes or a new program that was expensive, I would see that as creating more of a burden on taxpayers, so it was "anti-liberal".
If you proposed an anti-smoking law, even though I do not smoke, I would resist that. Who am I to tell someone he cannot smoke, or tell a restaurant OWNER what he could do inside his four walls with consenting adults?
So we find that people who consider themselves "liberal" are actually leading the charge to limit a lot of freedoms while people labeled "far right" are actually the ones typically most vocal about retaining liberty.

As for collective bargaining "rights", FDR, the most famous progressive actually said that public employee collective bargaining was unconscionable.
A public employee union is funded by taxpayers in order to extract more pay, more benefits, and less work from those same taxpayers. Voting for any union-backed candidate is like putting an embezzler in charge of your bank. He may look nice, but his goal and yours for your money are completely different. Does that make sense?

Look at California. The unions managed to put in a majority Democrats in that once solidly western Republican state. The Democrats then raise union workers' pay, slash private contracting, and do everything they can to make more union members. Those union bosses then spend even more money electing more Democrats. California is bankrupt and yet has over 4000 retirees earning over $100,000 per year in retirement.
In my fire district, Monarch, the union spends $100,000 to $200,000 on each race for a single seat. They never lose. Today, the firefighters average over six figures in pay, overtime and benefits and work just eight 24 hour shifts per month. Those hundreds of thousands of dollars they have to spend are literally my tax dollars which now are being used to pull more tax dollars from my pocket-literally. They want to raise our tax rates and even start charging extra for ambulance rides that are already paid for.

You have heard the term military industrial complex. Military people retire early and run for office or go to work for military contractors and push for more military spending. It is the same with Democrats and unions and State and Federal government. Missouri has resisted this as Republicans have held enough power and joined with conservative Dems to moderate those moves.

So in Missouri we did things like ban teacher strikes. Union-heavy Illinois allows them. My aunt lives near Chicago. Her co-worker will retire at $90,000 per year in retirement at 60 and will be up over $120,000 by 75.

As for Wisconsin, like Illinois and California, they are bankrupt after years of the public union - Democrat complex. They cannot maintain the status quo and balance the budget. Reducing the nonsensical public employee collective bargaining rights is a move to break up the complex that created the problem.

Wisconsin voters knew that their liberal Dems had bankrupted the state and so they took a chance on Repubs who would restore fiscal sanity. The people really asked for this.

Anyone wishing to learn more about the issue of Right To Work laws is welcome to attend a presentation by Mark Mix, President, National Right To Work Legal Foundation

Friday, March 11th, 2011
10:30 A.M. – VIP Reception
11:00A.M. - Program
The Columns Banquet Center
711 Veterans Memorial Parkway
St. Charles, MO 63303

Pre-registration required: elizabeth@abcksmo.org

If You Like Gov. Christie, Meet Governor LePage

From a friend on mine in Maine, Dr. Tom Shields, also a former lawmaker there:

TO ALL OF MY OUT OF STATE FRIENDS - OUR NEW GOVERNOR HAS NOT BEEN IN OFFICE ONE FULL MONTH, THE LIBERAL PRESS IS AFTER HIM, AND HE COULD CARE LESS. REPUBLICANS HAVE NOT BEEN IN FULL CONTROL OF STATE GOVERNMENT FOR ALMOST 40 YEARS, SO THERE IS A BIG MESS TO CLEAN UP. GOVERNOR LEPAGE WILL DO IT.

Subject: God bless Maine's new governor - Let's get some facts straight!

The new Maine Governor, Paul LePage, is making New Jersey's Chris Christie look like an enabler. He isn't afraid to say what he thinks, and judging by the comments heard at the cigar shop and other non-political gathering places, every time Gov. LePage opens his mouth, his popularity goes up.

He brought down the house at his inauguration when he shook his fist toward the media box and said, "You're on notice! I've inherited a financially-troubled state to run. Observe...cover...but don't whine if I don't waste time responding to your every whim for your amusement."

During his campaign for governor he was talking to commercial fishermen who are struggling because of federal fisheries rules. They complained that President Obama brought his family to Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park for a long Labor Day holiday and found time to meet with union leaders, but wouldn't talk to them. LePage replied, "I'd tell him to go to hell and get out of my state." Media crucified LePage, but he jumped 6 points in the pre-election poll.

The Martin Luther King incident was a political sandbag which brought him national exposure. The 'lame stream' media crucified him, but word on the street is very positive. The NAACP specifically asked him to spend MLK Day visiting black inmates at the Maine State Prison. He told them that he would meet with ALL inmates regardless of race if he were to visit the prison. The NAACP balked and then put out a news release claiming falsely that he refused to participate in any MLK events.

He read it in the paper for the first time the next morning while being driven to an event and he went ballistic because none of the reporters had called him for comment before running the NAACP release. He arrived at that event and said on TV camera, "if they want to play the race card on me, they can kiss my butt" and he reminded them that he has an adopted black son from Jamaica and that he attended the local MLK Breakfast every year that he was mayor of Waterville. (He started his morning there on MLK Day.)

He then stated that there's a right way and a wrong way to meet with the governor and he put all special interests on notice that press releases, media leaks and all demonstrations would prove to be the wrong way. He said any other group which acted like the NAACP could expect to be at the bottom of the governor's priority list!

He then did the following, and judging from local radio talk show callers, his popularity increased even more: The state employees union complained because he waited until 3 p.m. before closing state offices and facilities and sending non-emergency personnel home during the last blizzard. The prior governor would often close offices for the day with just a forecast before the first flakes. (Each time the state closes for snow, it costs the taxpayers about $1-million in wages for no work in return.)

LePage was CEO of the Marden's chain of discount family bargain retail stores before election as governor. He noted that state employees getting off work early could still find lots of retail stores open to shop. So, he put the state employees on notice by announcing: "If Marden's is open, Maine is open!"

He told state employees: "We live in Maine in the winter, for heaven's sake, and should know how to drive in it. Otherwise, apply for a state job in Florida!"

Governor LePage symbolizes what America needs...refreshing politicians who aren't self-serving and who exhibit common sense!