out-of-the-box

It isn’t so much that the Austrians were and are correct, it is that we have had a runaway government for too many decades.  The explosive expansion of governmental agencies and jobs that fill a roster more than they fill a need or are effectively operational.

Even at the state level, such as with recently re-elected Christine Gregoire in Washington state, who ran on a no new tax platform, is now faced, because of lack of planning and understanding basic economics,   with raising taxes and ignoring a critical issue needed in Olympia - mandate a total management overhaul in every state agency, increase standards and clean out the dead wood.

End the Fed

The Austrians Were Right

by Ron Paul

Before the U.S. House of Representatives, November 20, 2008

Madame Speaker, many Americans are hoping the new administration will solve the economic problems we face. That’s not likely to happen, because the economic advisors to the new President have no more understanding of how to get us out of this mess than previous administrations and Congresses understood how the crisis was brought about in the first place.

Except for a rare few, Members of Congress are unaware of Austrian Free Market economics. For the last 80 years, the legislative, judiciary and executive branches of our government have been totally influenced by Keynesian economics. If they had had any understanding of the Austrian economic explanation of the business cycle, they would have never permitted the dangerous bubbles that always lead to painful corrections.

Today, a major economic crisis is unfolding. New government programs are started daily, and future plans are being made for even more. All are based on the belief that we’re in this mess because free-market capitalism and sound money failed. The obsession is with more spending, bailouts of bad investments, more debt, and further dollar debasement. Many are saying we need an international answer to our problems with the establishment of a world central bank and a single fiat reserve currency. These suggestions are merely more of the same policies that created our mess and are doomed to fail.

At least 90% of the cause for the financial crisis can be laid at the doorstep of the Federal Reserve. It is the manipulation of credit, the money supply, and interest rates that caused the various bubbles to form. Congress added fuel to the fire by various programs and institutions like the Community Reinvestment Act, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, FDIC, and HUD mandates, which were all backed up by aggressive court rulings.

The Fed has now doled out close to $2 trillion in subsidized loans to troubled banks and other financial institutions. The Federal Reserve and Treasury constantly brag about the need for “transparency” and “oversight,” but it’s all just talk – they want none of it. They want secrecy while the privileged are rescued at the expense of the middle class.

It is unimaginable that Congress could be so derelict in its duty. It does nothing but condone the arrogance of the Fed in its refusal to tell us where the $2 trillion has gone. All Members of Congress and all Americans should be outraged that conditions could deteriorate to this degree. It’s no wonder that a large and growing number of Americans are now demanding an end to the Fed.

The Federal Reserve created our problem, yet it manages to gain even more power in the socialization of the entire financial system. The whole bailout process this past year was characterized by no oversight, no limits, no concerns, no understanding, and no common sense.

Similar mistakes were made in the 1930s and ushered in the age of the New Deal, the Fair Deal, the Great Society and the supply-siders who convinced conservatives that deficits didn’t really matter after all, since they were anxious to finance a very expensive deficit-financed American empire.

All the programs since the Depression were meant to prevent recessions and depressions. Yet all that was done was to plant the seeds of the greatest financial bubble in all history. Because of this lack of understanding, the stage is now set for massive nationalization of the financial system and quite likely the means of production.

Although it is obvious that the Keynesians were all wrong and interventionism and central economic planning don’t work, whom are we listening to for advice on getting us out of this mess? Unfortunately, it’s the Keynesians, the socialists, and big-government proponents.

Who’s being ignored? The Austrian free-market economists – the very ones who predicted not only the Great Depression, but the calamity we’re dealing with today. If the crisis was predictable and is explainable, why did no one listen? It’s because too many politicians believed that a free lunch was possible and a new economic paradigm had arrived. But we’ve heard that one before – like the philosopher’s stone that could turn lead into gold. Prosperity without work is a dream of the ages.

Over and above this are those who understand that political power is controlled by those who control the money supply. Liberals and conservatives, Republicans and Democrats came to believe, as they were taught in our universities, that deficits don’t matter and that Federal Reserve accommodation by monetizing debt is legitimate and never harmful. The truth is otherwise. Central economic planning is always harmful. Inflating the money supply and purposely devaluing the dollar is always painful and dangerous.

The policies of big-government proponents are running out of steam. Their policies have failed and will continue to fail. Merely doing more of what caused the crisis can hardly provide a solution.

The good news is that Austrian economists are gaining more acceptance every day and have a greater chance of influencing our future than they’ve had for a long time.

The basic problem is that proponents of big government require a central bank in order to surreptitiously pay bills without direct taxation. Printing needed money delays the payment. Raising taxes would reveal the true cost of big government, and the people would revolt. But the piper will be paid, and that’s what this crisis is all about.

There are limits. A country cannot forever depend on a central bank to keep the economy afloat and the currency functionable through constant acceleration of money supply growth. Eventually the laws of economics will overrule the politicians, the bureaucrats and the central bankers. The system will fail to respond unless the excess debt and mal-investment is liquidated. If it goes too far and the wild extravagance is not arrested, runaway inflation will result, and an entirely new currency will be required to restore growth and reasonable political stability.

The choice we face is ominous: We either accept world-wide authoritarian government holding together a flawed system, OR we restore the principles of the Constitution, limit government power, restore commodity money without a Federal Reserve system, reject world government, and promote the cause of peace by protecting liberty equally for all persons. Freedom is the answer.

I had a great run down on Randy Dorn before the election and gave him my endorsement.  Not only has Bergeson become outdated,  her support of the WASL is outdated too.

Basically this test was to comply with the way to get Federal funds, teachers had been teaching to the test, and kids just weren’t learning.  I’ve been opposed to the WASL since its inception.

Tough to get people who have been ensconced in Olympia to move off dead center, get creative and restore some semblance of creative thinking and problem solving.

Dorn is a well liked fellow, more of an open door kinda guy, and an effective administrator.

Some so-called libertarians I know of refused to vote for Dorn because “he was the head of a union”.

In this case parents and children are lucky to have gotten a good candidate.  Sorry that some other voters were so closed minded.

Everett, Wash.

New leader plans overhaul of WASL

By Kaitlin Manry
Herald Writer

Randy Dorn has won the closest state schools chief race in two decades.Incumbent Terry Bergeson conceded defeat Thursday afternoon. She was trailing Dorn by about 3 percentage points three days into the ballot count.

“I’ve been watching the numbers and having people track for me and they’ve been getting worse as the hours have gone by,” Bergeson said Thursday. “I saw the 3 o’clock numbers and they were down again. I called Randy Dorn and congratulated him.”

Dorn didn’t pick up, so she left the union leader a message on his cell phone.

Bergeson, 66, has led Washington’s public schools for 12 years and had planned to step down after serving one more term as state superintendent of public instruction.

“It’s a great feeling,” Dorn said Thursday evening. “We saw the numbers on Tuesday night and felt good about those numbers and they’ve been moving our way. … But in politics it’s never over till it’s over. She conceded and it’s over.”

Dorn and Bergeson eventually spoke on Thursday and Dorn said they agreed to begin the transition quickly. He plans to work closely with her staff, starting next week.

The position pays $121,618 a year.

Throughout his campaign, Dorn criticized the Washington Assessment of Student Learning, a statewide exam Bergeson developed and backed during her tenure. As a legislator, Dorn supported the creation of the WASL, but he thinks Bergeson went astray and developed a test that is unfair and doesn’t accurately measure student knowledge.

He won the election by convincing voters to associate Bergeson with the test, said Cathy Allen, president and chief executive of The Connections Group consulting firm in Seattle. The company did not work on either candidate’s campaign.

Bergeson led five other candidates in the primary, but she didn’t want to speculate on what went wrong in the general election.

“There’s a whole bunch of things people think, and I have no idea,” she said. “I’m going to let people who analyze these things analyze that for me. I just know the voters have decided.”

Bergeson, a former teacher, counselor and administrator, is unsure what she’ll do next year. She said she’ll help Dorn get going in his new position over the next two and a half months, and then she hopes to stay involved in education.

Dorn, 55, is the executive director of the state union for classified school workers, including custodians, cafeteria workers and bus drivers.

A former teacher and principal, Dorn received a major boost in his campaign when the state teachers union endorsed him. Bergeson ran the union in the late ’80s, but she lost favor with many teachers over her support for the WASL.

Dorn said he plans to begin reshaping the test as soon as he takes office. He plans to shorten the high school WASL by a third to a half by spring 2010 and reduce the amount of writing required on the math portion of the test.

As schools chief, he can make some changes to the test, but in order to get rid of it, the Legislature would need to act. Passing the WASL, or another standardized test, will still be required for graduation, he said.

Though Bergeson has shortened the test in recent months, she has also defended it as a good way to prepare students for college or work. Many state business leaders support her and want to keep the test.

Bergeson acknowledges that Dorn could change the test but said much of the work she’s done over the last 12 years will live on.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen with the system overall, but I just accept the fact that the strong, good stuff will be sustained,” she said.

Reporter Kaitlin Manry: 425-339-3292 or kmanry@heraldnet.com.
© 2008The Daily Herald Co., Everett, WA

DISTRICT 2 In Nebraska “GOES BLUE” for the first time since 1964 and my friend in Omaha is ecstatic!

She says, “I can’t tell you how happy I am to live in a “blue ZONE” at least, in a state that’s considered red! I’m happy that we were able to at least send Obama one electoral vote! “

Things in Idaho could use a good rinsing of Blue-ing…

It gets cold on the plains where winter weather often comes early, and with a vengeance.

Battling 70 MPH wind gusts and heavy snow, South Dakota’s governor declares a state of emergency.

However, it appears that Michael Rounds excluded reservations hard hit by the storm.

This morning, volunteers loaded up food, water, diapers, blankets and other necessities, and took them to Wanblee to help people at a shelter set up at Crazy Horse School. Up to 200 people have stayed at the shelter since Wednesday night.

The Red Cross received the call for help late Friday.

According to Lacreek Electric, it’s expected to take two or three more days to restore power to Wanblee. It could take a week or longer to get electricity back to the outlying areas. The company has uncovered 120 downed poles around Wanblee, but expect to find more as snow is removed.

Right now is the time that “W” should be granting pardons.

Bill Clinton should have issued this pardon when he left office but instead some went to his cronies, one being a big campaign contributor with a criminal history.

One pardon long overdue is for a fellow who was the fall guy at Pine Ridge for allegedly killing two agents of the FBI.  Propaganda and spin does have its way to warp the truth, but also hide the facts.

Never forget Leonard Peltier.  Write the White House now, and call for his immediate release.

From the Writings of LEONARD PELTIER

Silence, they say, is the voice of complicity.
But silence is impossible.
Silence screams.
Silence is a message,
Just as doing nothing is an act.

Let who you are ring out and resonate
in every word and every deed.
Yes, become who you are.
There’s no sidestepping your own being
or your own responsibility.

What you do is who you are.
You are your own comeuppance.
You become your own message.

You are the message.

May the Great Spirit Make Sunrise in Your Heart . . .

Hoka Hey!

Leonard Peltier

learn more 

Glad to see Bill Sali, Idaho’s poor performing congressman, leaving D.C. for the potato state. 

It’s tough to elect a D in the reddest of red states, but I’m hoping Minnick will shine through the muck and mire of the ‘Brainless in Boise’ and put people first.

http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/democrat_minnick_wins_idahos_first_district/C559/L559/

The year I benefitted from the safe voter registration law I got passed an attorney from the town where I lived at that time sent me a congratulatory note:  “turning Idaho BLUE, one voter at a time!”

I’m really much more of an independent, not ever declaring a party preference, except in this year’s WA primary. (Had to in order to vote against Gregoire.)

Yes, I moved.  All those red rednecks are just too closed minded for me.

I had the experience of living in Idaho for about five years.  In my mind it was five years too many and that statement-should tell you something.

I did meet some terrific people, but very few, and far between.  Fitting though I guess because Idaho is sparsely populated.

Idaho does raise potatoes as probably everyone knows, but it also raises a lot of extremely closed minded folks who make it one of the most ultra conservative states in the nation.

I’m not referring to the neo-Nazi crowd that made the Coeur d’Alene area fairly famous.  I’m talking about the incestuous in-crowd that festers in the Treasure Valley, brainless in Boise.  Boise referring to the government hacks that do everything you can thing of, even if is is illegal, to cover their rears and keep the charade alive.  I came to call it “The Idaho Way”.

Idaho has a few skeletons in its closet.  The Idaho Tax Commission seems to be one of them. The Ag’s office  “investigated” when a long time employee of the tax commission blew the whistle.  Wonder if the legislators ever heard of conflict of interest?  Not in Idaho.

Of course the members of the legislature should had demanded an independent outside investigator but that probably isn’t “right for Idaho”.

You see (no surprise) the AAG decided that the appointed tax commissioners did no wrong and scapegoated the whistle-blower.

Unfortunately I’m very intimate with a case of corruption at the tax commission but it won’t get coverage because it shows how the law is ignored as well as the administrative rules by this bunch of yes men/women.  More like souls sold to the devil as cronies go, but you have to wonder for what.

There’s a few fellows on the ballot (yes, not too many women are legislators in or from Idaho) who really don’t deserve to be elected, but the blue brick road is pretty thin still.

Butch Otter was OK when he was in the House, but now as governor he’s back in with the good ol boys and the law to him is a joke.

Bill Sali bought his ticket to DC, but hopefully he won’t get a re-run.

Larry Craig’s seat is up for grabs and an ID insider, the Lieutenant governor is running.  Jim Risch is popular but he is not for the people, and even likes a higher sales tax on food.  Voters’ should give the nod to LaRocco (D).

Of course the tribes should have something to say since former gov Dirk Kempthorne sold out for favors to get to be Secretary of the Interior. 

Kempthorne’s well known to want the EPA out of Idaho over the heavy pollution in the Silver Valley, and now he runs it.  This political caper is pretty thick in the muck but that’s another story. 

Yes, Idaho is scenic.  Maybe that’s to cover the stink.

Stay tuned for more…

Welcome to Today.com and OUT-OF-THE-BOX.

I decided to start this blog to have a place to discuss political issues and bureaucratic bungling.  

I’ll start with some situations based on my experiences over the years, and decades of being an activist.  I’ll welcome your input, especially if you have something to expose and don’t quite believe you can do it yourself.

Just to let you know I do believe in protecting my sources, completely.  I recently had to teach this lesson to a 30 something mayor who wanted me to disclose sources about something he didn’t like.  He likes to think he is top dog just because of his family name; that sort of thing cuts little ice with me.

I’m not ‘red’ and I’m not ‘blue’.  Rather, as most who know me well, I have a deeply imbeded independent streak so I’ll try my best to be fair and unbiased, just raising issues that need to have a little light aimed in their direction.

I also want to use this venue to hone my writing skills.  I’ve been lucky to have a few professional journalists and journalism professors help me from time to time.  So if you’re in this category your constructive criticism is welcome. And, yes, I did hate creative writing in college, so who would have guessed?

I have over many years been very involved in politics and political environments of one kind or another. Whether it’s been tribal, federal, state, local or organizational (private or public) I’ve experienced a broad cross section of people and behavior. Probably it has been these experiences that led me to starting this blog.

It’s a reflective sort of thing and a place to put out some of the biting bytes that cross my mind.

Its also a place to address some of these issues and concerns in a way that might provide you with some knowledge. I think knowledge is missing or at least some effort to stop and think about what we are doing and how we go about it.

One long time friend, now as GS 13 with a federal agency, told me in a conversation we had a few year ago that I had truly had a beneficial effect on his life. None of it had to do with the critical thinking I tried to get him to implement, or helping him improve his writing and research skills. It was just interpersonal stuff.

This is just one example of many that is about as good as it can get in life. The issue here is just how do you get the control freaks to understand that their opinion or views just shouldn’t be rammed downed people’s throats so they can look good. Maybe that ‘looking good’ is just in their mind, to justify the bully behavior and their ad hominem attacks on others to to achieve their end, or boost missing self-esteem or what ever else seems to be nagging at them down deep in their core.

I think about this because I’ve recently experienced such interaction with a couple of fellows who can easily be defined by this definition.

I think its an interesting story, especially because one of the two really has it out for others and can’t seem to engage in any kind of interchange with others unless he is attacking them. He doesn’t mind stealing, lying, making false claims, attempting to coerce others to do the same, or even investigate the facts before he puts a foot in his mouth. He’ll also threaten you with things when he doesn’t even know it can’t hurt you and won’t bother you - because its just not the truth.

This guy’s some kind of a closed-minded philosophy student who always claims to be a libertarian but is a RED Voter on the farthest side of that fence.

I suppose he over looks his readings of John Stuart Mill and the definition of Libertarian.

The most common definition of libertarian is someone who believes that individuals should have the freedom to do whatever they wish so long as they do not hurt anyone in the process.

Mill said that the “sole end for which mankind are warranted, individually or collectively, in interfering with the liberty of action of any of their number, is self-protection. That the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not a sufficient warrant.”

Sadly this fellows motives in achieving his ends include harming others and often going out of his way, or use any means, to achieve this goal.

Today, after reading some of his rants against someone with a different philosophy made me wonder if he realizes how he is acting and what he is really doing. I’d say he did not. I’d also say he did not care and so it puts him in about the same category as Aryan Nation types.

I didn’t know that close-mindedness really helped any of us progress for the greater good; our own and others.

Now the other of the duo likes to let you know just how much he think he knows. He also doesn’t stop at actions that harm others after the fact. I watched this fellow frantically engage in a fraudulent process against another person who hadn’t done much different that he himself was doing as well as some of his other cronies. This guy just selected out his fall guy for his own bad decision making.

I suppose that’s not much different than the Wall Street sharks and derivative dealers that brought down the current financial markets.

Or did you forget that in organizational philosophy you need to calculate risk based on things going up and things coming down. Plus you’re supposed to watch for the signs and make corrections. Something I don’t think happened in this case.

I’ve more to say on politicians, government, bureaucrats, voting and other topics as this moves along.

In the interim keep your hands on the wheel.