I'm a Cool, Damp Clay

Because I believe in markets, it's impossible to ignore the pointlessness of carrying on with the ol' Kole Hard Facts. My message is freedom, and nobody's buying. What's worse is that the viewer doesn't even have to buy. And yet, 30 hits a day? Forget it.

It's been extremely discouraging to watch 2008 sink into the political abyss. One of my most recent posts captured it all, via a Reason column, pointing out that freedom was no part of the major party conventions. Only more and more government. And the people? They love it. They lap it up. 

Well, that is, when they even bother with policy. I found it hellish enough when it was all about the horse race. Now it's worse.  We have this tiresome game of 'gotcha', where a gaffe, or even a non-gaffe, or something someone associated with a candidate did is exploded and extrapolated into having the finger on the nuclear arsenal's button and dying to fire. Even my two favorite Hoosier non-libertarian blogs, Advance Indiana and Masson's Blog, have not spared us the dregs of the rancid vat of partisan slime. Both have become unreadable to me, and are indicative of most political blogs out there, whether statewide or nationally. Sadly enough, their hits have soared as the stench has wafted higher. So, I just find it pointless to continue in this climate.

The market has spoken. Mainly, there is no market for the Kole Hard Facts. Thank goodness there is a market for an effective right-of-way agent. 

See you near the equipment cabinets, or at the rink.

Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac Campaign Money Trail

(Carmel, IN)- Scanning the readers while in a waiting room, I found a blog post that helps me understand half of why John McCain (Maverick-AZ) and Barack Obama (Change-IL) are devoid of outrage and otherwise silent about the absurd bailout of the irresponsible lenders.

As always, follow the money. From OpenSecrets.org:

Both companies have poured money into lobbying and campaign contributions to federal candidates, parties and committees as a general tactic, but they've also directed those contributions strategically. In the 2006 election cycle, Fannie Mae was giving 53 percent of its total $1.3 million in contributions to Republicans, who controlled Congress at that time. This cycle, with Democrats in control, they've reversed course, giving the party 56 percent of their total $1.1 million in contributions. Similarly, Freddie Mac has given 53 percent of its $555,700 in contributions to Democrats this cycle, compared to the 44 percent it gave during 2006.

Well, Democrats took over the Congress after the 2006 elections. This all makes sense to the a) cynic, and/or b) astute observer. Here's the surprise:

1. Dodd, Christopher J S D-CT $133,900
2. Kerry, John S D-MA $111,000
3. Obama, Barack S D-IL $105,849
4. Clinton, Hillary S D-NY $75,550
5. Kanjorski, Paul E H D-PA $65,500
6. Bennett, Robert F S R-UT $61,499

I truly expected John McCain to be here with Obama.

Now, before anyone gets excited and wishes to point to this as some example of me finding fault with Obama and not McCain, let me offer a sharp skewer for the alleged maverick.

If it isn't the lobbying money that keeps you silent on the absurdity of this, what possible explanation can there be? Come on! You don't really have to be all that wise in the ways of economics to know this is stupid and damaging to the economy besides!

I get why Obama, the guy currently running ads about how McCain is tied to lobbyists, is silent on this. So, why is Bob Barr the only candidate issuing statements and condemnations? Anyone?

Link to Barr's recent statement.

I Am Channelled

I don't know how Steve Chapman got inside my brain and wrote the words that were in my mind, but he's pulled it off. Here is my November of Discontent:

This year's Republican National Convention had a different theme for each day. Monday was "Serving a Cause Greater than Self." Tuesday was "Service," Wednesday was "Reform," and Thursday was "Peace."

So what was missing? Only what used to be held up as the central ideal of the party. The heirs of Goldwater couldn't spare a day for freedom.

Neither could the Democrats. Their daily topics this year were "One Nation," "Renewing America's Promise," and "Securing America's Future." The party proclaimed "an agenda that emphasizes the security of our nation, strong economic growth, affordable health care for all Americans, retirement security, honest government, and civil rights." Expanding and upholding individual liberty? Not so much.

It's an excellent opinion. Read the whole thing here.

The Right Thing To Cut

In a time when budgets are tight, cuts must be made. You hear that a lot, but I'm of the opinion that it doesn't matter whether the budget is tight or not. Some things just shouldn't be purchased, no matter how flush you are with cash, because they aren't proper for you to buy.

I don't buy Russian language books. Even though I have a friend who is from Russia and could read them, I leave it to her to buy the Russian language books for herself.

So, I am thrilled that Indianapolis' mayor is putting the city's arts budget on the chopping block. From the Indy Star:

Mayor Greg Ballard's plan to cut public funding for the arts by a third, to $1 million, next year dominated the discussion by about 25 speakers in front of a crowd of roughly 100. The council is scheduled to vote on the budget Sept. 22 and is not expected to make major changes.

It's a shame the cut is only going to be around 33%, and not 100%. Socialized art is not a proper function of government. Public safety is. Courts are. Infrastructure is. These things should be fully funded before anything else is even considered. It seems this Mayor gets it, at least by a third, that public safety affects everyone, and that the arts are a private concern, because not only do they not affect everyone, but art is so specific to taste, that it really only benefits a few.

Is that what we want? Public policy that benefits the select few?

What was interesting about a previous outcry about the proposed cuts was to see the line of representatives of local museums at the podium. That told me a lot about the nature of the funding. Mainly, it isn't going to starving artists. It's going to well-funded institutions as a corporate welfare.

Is that what we want? Public policy that benefits corporations?

No, cutting the arts is the right thing to do. Our federal government could take note here.

Update: Indiana Barrister has the list of recipients of arts funding largesse.

Consolidation of Executive Power

(Fishers, IN)- I was thinking about the Bush presidency, and the correct complaints coming from the Bush critics, that the Executive Branch was acquiring too much power. They were also complaining that Bush is just, well, stupid.

So, Should Barack Obama could win the presidency for the Democrats, can I have my 'audacity of hope' that perhaps the Democrats will scale back Executive power, or, is it more a case of 'our team knows best what to do with wrong-headed power- especially since this is a 'smarter' man?

Penn Gillette's recent CNN.com column, while very funny, addresses the concerns of widespread Executive power, and a 'smarter' President on the way.

The idea, especially from the Democrats that I know, is, we just get a smarter guy in the White House, and all the problems will go away. We'll have smart speeches, smart high gas prices, smart bad economy, smart war on terrorism, smart war on drugs, smart hurricanes, smart global warming, smart war in Georgia -- smart, smart, smart.

Barack Obama is way smarter than Bush -- so way, way smarter than me. Obama is way more charismatic than me. He did his big speech for about 80,000 people; I'll do my show tonight in Vegas for about 1,000 people. He's more ambitious than I; he's going to be the next president of the United States, and I couldn't even get to week three of "Dancing with the Stars."

Link to full article.

Some Animals Are More Equal Than Others

(Broadview Heights, OH)- Bob Barr is an inch from being kicked off the Pennsylvania ballot. Why? He did the same thing Obama and McCain did in Texas- file post-deadline, because his party's convention nominated him post-deadline. Shane Cory of the Barr Campaign comments:

It's been clear that if you are running for office as a Republican or a Democrat, you are somehow above the law.

If you are a Libertarian or independent, you not only have to abide by the letter of the law but you have to be prepared when the law is twisted and turned to be used against you. (emphasis supplied, -ed)

Didn't McCain just encourage people to run for office? Isn't Obama's campaign about inclusion

How about both of them step up to the plate and show that their words have some meaning. McCain can be the maverick he purports to be. Obama can be the agent of change he purports to be. Playing the game of duopoly collusion is pure status quo.

But, ok ok. If the law is the law, very well. If the law is the law, then Obama and McCain are off the Texas ballot, because like Barr in PA, those two failed to file on time. Same law, same failure to comply. Same results? Here's some interesting stuff from a New York Times blog:

I am confident that the two parties will find a way around this problem, and that Texans will be able to vote for either major candidate. The polls show Senator McCain well ahead in Texas.

That's the typical commentary for this. McCain and Obama will 'find a way around this problem'. Barr will not.

Why should they get around it? Didn't Republicans and Democrats write election laws in this country? And, in Texas? Shouldn't they, as exemplars of fairness, abide by their own stinking laws?

I don't know how anybody supporting McCain or Obama, who has INTEGRITY, can know that their candidate's campaigns will do anything they can with regards to the law, to make sure it doesn't apply to them, but does apply to everyone else. How can you simply gloss over it, if you have any idealism, and consistency, any integrity, AT ALL, about you?

Or, is winning the only thing. The means be damned, the end is all that matters.

If that's what it's about, be scared if your side loses, because you can expect the victor to run roughshod over you when it becomes expedient to do so.

Oh, Smaller Government?

(Broadview Hts, OH)- As I listened to the Palin speech, and the Giuliani speech last night, the biggest thing that caught my attention were statements that this Republican ticket would result in smaller government, lower spending, and lower taxes.

Now, why should that be believed?

Sure, the Democratic ticket is going to increase spending, increase the size of government, and raise taxes. But, is that any reason to believe that Republicans won't do the same? It is what was done under the Bush Administration. While in the Senate, John McCain was writing legislation like McCain-Feingold, not legislation that would eliminate a bureaucracy or department, not legislation that would cap spending, not legislation that would significantly cut taxes.

It galls me endlessly that Republicans campaign like fiscal libertarians, and then govern like pale Democrats- except in the last eight years, where Republicans made Democrats look like a collection of Friedmans and von Miseses. Last night's speeches did nothing to reverse this. 

So, Sarah Palin's a bulldog. That's nice. Dennis Kucinich is a bulldog, and gives one hell of a speech. So what? It's about policy, and I just couldn't find it convincing.

Libertarians On Palin

(Fishers, IN)- Now, for the libertarian take on Sarah Palin. My own is that this was a cynical ploy by McCain, simply selecting due to identity politics. I don't care about identity. I care about policy. So, from that standpoint, it's unlikely to be a great pick, and that says something to me about McCain and his 'leadership' and executive methodology.

From Cato-At-Liberty:

Comparing her experience to Biden borders on ridiculous. Since when do libertarians find encouragement in government, much less someone who has spent 36 years in Washington funding programs like Amtrak and prosecuting the drug war? Link.

And, in another post:

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has a mixed record on taxes and spending. She’s clearly erred on a few fiscal decisions during her tenure as mayor of Wasilla and as governor. Palin seems to operate from a small government mindset, which makes her few heresies on economic issues puzzling.

Palin has come under fire for supporting the “Bridge to Nowhere” in Ketchikan before she was against it. Aides said the cost of the bridge soared from $223 million to almost $400 million, prompting her to consider alternatives. Link.

From Radley Balko:

By far the best thing Palin’s done thus far is get the usual suspects to don the others’ clothes. That is, the left’s screaming “affirmative action!” while the right’s screaming “sexism!” And both are doing it with a straight face. Makes it fun to be a libertarian.

and

Yes, Palin’s political resume is thin. That’s a plus in my book. “Experience” tends to mean “knows the ways of Washington,” which generally means more of the same old crap. If David Broder has praised you in one of his columns, you’re probably part of the problem. Frankly, I wish Obama had picked someone less “experienced” than Joe Biden, a guy that embodies everything loathesome about Washington. I also like that Palin’s not a career politician, and doesn’t genuflect before powerful interests. On the other hand, it doesn’t bode well that she has a history of also applying that same kick-ass-and-take-names style of governance to, for example, trying to ban books from the public library that she finds offensive.

From Reason's Matt Welch:

Sarah Palin is many interesting things, but she is decidedly not anyone who has done a single thing in her life indicating preparation to lead any kind of "transcendent" foreign policy challenge. In an election that will be fought over the issue of war, where McCain has noisily accused Barack Obama of putting politics before country on the issue of most import, it is McCain who is guilty of just that charge with the selection of perhaps the least-qualified candidate for vice-commander in chief in modern U.S. history. Choosing Palin makes for potentially great politics, but it makes a mockery of McCain's claim to be the national security adult in this race, especially considering that if he's elected, he'll be the oldest first-term president in American history.

Would John McCain, a genuine American hero, place his own political ambitions ahead of the good of the country? Indeed he has, at least according to an authority as knowledgeable on the subject as John McCain. In all five of his books he repeatedly warns us of precisely that tendency. "The worst decisions I have made, not just in politics but over the course of my entire life," he writes in Hard Call, "have been those I made to seek an advantage primarily or solely for myself."

There was initial excitement for some libertarians (not me), as Palin is a lifetime member of the NRA, but the more we learn, the more we find that she's a Republican, and not a Libertarian, for meaningful reasons. The commitment to smaller government only goes so far.

Extend the Evacuation

(Broadview Heights, OH)- Since the disaster of Hurricane Katrina some three years ago, the failures have been pinned squarely on government, generally upon two targets: FEMA, and the President. The has always struck me as odd, since New Orleans has a municipal government, and Louisiana a state government, and somehow they went relatively blameless. The argument usually goes that a disaster on that scale requires federal response. OK, so, should the National Guard have been sent to contain New Orleans' looters? Or, should the fleeing New Orleans police have borne some responsibility?

But, I digress into particulars.

In very few quarters were calls for personal responsibility tolerated. The poor people of New Orleans were just innocents facing the wrath of Mother Nature.

I once always thought that people should be permitted to live anywhere they want. If they choose to live below sea level, they can accept the responsibility of their choice.

No more. Americans have spoken. They do not believe in self-responsibility. They do not believe that they should accept the consequences of their choices.

Very well. If I, as a resident of Indiana, have to constantly see my tax dollars going towards the rebuilding of infrastructure for people who make incredibly dumb choices, such as living in an area that's going to be pounded by hurricanes every three years or so, as Gustave now illustrates, it's time to become practical and to adjust.

It's time for the federal government to ban all occupancy below sea level.

It just doesn't make any sense to be an idealist on the issue any longer. I'm all for liberty in tandem with self-responsibility. But liberty in tandem with collectivism is dangerous. We all have to pay for bad choices? What kind of stupidity is that? No, let's reduce the stupidity. Let's extend the evacuation of New Orleans through forever. No more living below sea level, or in flood plains- unless and until those who live in such places bear 100% full responsibility for such a choice.

Quick Thoughts on the Palin Pick

(Broadview Heights, OH)- The first thing I thought was, "Oh, come on. Michael Palin is British". But, I could get behind a Python for elected office. At the very least, he would be funny, and the satire of what a governing Python finds would be every bit as enlightening as it would be made hilarious.

This pick isn't funny. It's cynical. I know- all is fair in love, war, and politics, and this is a strategic pick just as sure as picking Biden was strategic in shoring up Obama's foreign policy shortcomings. But picking a candidate just because she's female and attractive? That's an abandoning of policy and worse- for some, it makes the election to come to this: Shall I vote based on the color of one candidate's skin, or, upon the gender of another?

Is that progress? No more than a sharp stick in the eye promotes long-range vision.

I observed quick hits on Palin's lack of experience. Well, nothing really prepares one for being President. CEO of a multinational corporation comes closest, for my money. But McCain, Obama, and Biden all have 100% less experience as an executive- because they have none. Palin does at least have executive branch experience, even if it can be counted the way an infant's life span is counted- in months.

I'll have a Libertarian round-up on Palin, just as I had for Biden.

Fear Not, Internet Radio Listeners

Yes, Pandora is nearly likely demised, but the substitute has arrived- Slacker. Here's the high point of the PC World review:

The strongest aspect of the Slacker Portable is the associated Slacker Web music service, which you can listen to for free without the player. I suggest that you do so right away, even if you don't plan on buying the player. As with the Pandora online music service, users can enter an artist's name on the Slacker site, click Enter, and create a custom "station" consisting of free music from that artist and others similar in sound or genre. The Slacker site does a great job of matching your demonstrated tastes to other music that you might enjoy, though Slacker's artist roster and music-matching abilities don't seem quite as deep as what I've experienced with Pandora's
service.

Here's where the Slacker Portable is unique: After entering an artist's name and creating a custom station at the site, you can sync your stations to the player, for free. As a result, you'll always have a pocket full of music that you like, plus the element of surprise as to what's coming next on your station's playlist.

I imagine Keith Newman & I will talk about this a bit, along with the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, Sunday night on WCSB, during my Cleveland visit.

Weekend Agenda

It's off to Cleveland for me, along with Isabel, for extended family visits. Cousins are coming in for my Uncle's 70th birthday party, and there will be general grandparent time for Isabel.

One non-family fun thing will be a trip up to ol' WCSB at Cleveland State. After being in the Rhodes Tower building for many years, the station is leaving the space it outgrew 15 years ago. This will be my last look at the place where I learned radio and management (some to greater extent than the other!), slept many nights in my old office and in the Listening Room, and otherwise have countless fond memories.

Keith Newman is good enough to suffer me the indulgence of having me up during his talk show. Check it out, Sunday at Midnight via live stream at www.wcsb.org.

Libertarians Weigh In On Biden

The reaction is pretty consistent- If Barack Obama wanted to court the civil liberties-minded left libertarians that Daily Kos was speaking of as available, he blew it with the pick of Biden. Here's a couple of reactions that got my attention.

From former DNC press secretary Terry Michael, his take on Biden:

In his first test of leadership, however, Sen. Obama tapped the man whose failure of judgment as the Democratic Party's front man on foreign affairs led congressional Democrats into collusion with, rather than principled opposition to, the neoconservatives and their criminal enterprise in Iraq. That decision reveals a politician without a compass.

Know thyself is a pretty good rule of thumb for judging leadership potential. By choosing Biden, Obama tells us he doesn't have much of a clue about himself.

From Radley Balko:

But from a policy perspective, it’s a disaster. Biden has sponsored more damaging drug war legislation than any Democrat in Congress. Hate the way federal prosecutors use RICO laws to take aim at drug offenders? Thank Biden. How about the abomination that is federal asset forfeiture laws? Thank Biden. Think federal prosecutors have too much power in drug cases? Thank Biden. Think the title of a “Drug Czar” is sanctimonious and silly? Thank Biden, who helped create the position (and still considers it an accomplishment worth boasting about). Tired of the ridiculous steroids hearings in Congress? Thank Biden, who led the effort to make steroids a Schedule 3 drug, and has been among the blowhardiest of the blowhards when it comes to sports and performance enhancing drugs. Biden voted in favor of using international development aid for drug control (think plan Columbia, plan Afghanistan, and other meddling anti-drug efforts that have only fostered loathing of America, backlash, and unintended consequences). Oh, and he was also the chief sponsor of 2004’s horrendous RAVE Act.

From Tyrrany Watch:

Barack Obama may be doing the one thing that might have seemed impossible: he’s picking a running mate whose ideas about Iraq are even worse than, and stupider than, John McCain’s.

Obama, whose mushy Iraq plan excites no one, is marrying his own’s flawed ideas — which mostly revolve around beefing up US forces in Afghanistan and unilaterally attacking Pakistan — with Biden’s discredited notion of partitioning Iraq into three squabbling mini-states.

My own reactions to Biden are that I remember him standing with McCain on Iraq issues; I remember him voting for the Patriot Act, twice; and it strikes me that we're going out of the frying pan and into the fire. George Bush picked Dick Cheney to shore up perceived weakness in foreign policy. Look how that worked out. So, we're going to have a foreign policy neo-con Dem who no doubt sees an opportunity to be as responsible for foreign policy design as the previous VP was? Not good.

Here's a $100 Wager

(Fishers, IN)- Let's see if there are any takers. Both McCain and Obama apparently have failed to file necessary papers in Texas to qualify for that state's ballot. This is because the filing deadline occurs prior to either of their parties' conventions.

So, does anyone want to take my bet that the law will be overlooked to accommodate McCain and Obama?

As we saw here recently in Marion County, when the slightest error is found on a form submitted by a Libertarian candidate the bi-partisan, ie: Republican and Democratic colluded Elections Board votes to strenuously uphold the letter of the law. As we see across the USA, those same bi-partisan Boards tend to wink at the law when it involves their own candidates.

For now, Bob Barr is on the Texas ballot. It would be pretty cool for Barr to scoop up all 34 of Texas' electoral votes. I think on this basis alone, Barr should now be brought into the debates... if the allegedly non-partisan Commission on Presidential Debates would hear of it.

(h/t Advance Indiana)

Left Talk Radio

(Woodstock, IL)- Being on the road today throughout the Chicagoland area, I've had the radio pegged to 820-AM, WCPT. It bills itself as Chicago's "progressive talk station". It's kind of novel to hear, what with the general absence of liberal talk radio in Central Indiana. A few observations:

It sounds just like conservative talk radio. Being at the Democratic convention yields a cast of hundreds to interview, from Dennis Kucinich onward. The hosts are utterly non-critical of their guests.

The hosts are full of rah-rah for the speakers thus far, but the callers haven't been. They wanted Hilary Clinton to attack John McCain and throw herself at the feet of Obama.

There are some of the same ads ("Facing foreclosure?" and "Credit card debt out of control?") but many others that are rather tailored for a liberal audience. The Teamsters had an ad, and there were ads from left interest non-profits. Conservative radio seems to lack this.

Same general result, though. I can listen for ten minutes before it gets tiresome, and the music is turned on. I repeated the process about 10 times throughout the day. All the same, I wish there was a liberal talk station in Indy. When it comes to dialogue, the more the merrier.

Update: So, I was driving home from Woodstock, and I turned to WCPT again for their coverage. Bill Clinton was giving his speech, when suddenly, at 8:15 local time, the station cut the former President off and announced that their broadcast day was over! With no further ado, they played the national anthem, gave the station's legal ID, and then there was static. I couldn't believe it.

The Blast of the Horn

(Valparaiso, IN)- My friend Greg put me up for the night in his home and treated me to the bounty of his garden- homemade pizza, complete with homemade sauce, fresh sliced tomatoes and other garden veggies piled high atop. The night was made complete with the blast of the horn every half-hour, thanks to three railroad mainlines to Chicago. Some people hate the sound, calling it "noise". I love it, and slept very well with the window thrown wide open.

At long last, some folks along the Nickel Plate corridor are weighing in with their concerns about railroad noise, plus pollution, declining property values, and eyesores in general that would inevitably come along with a light rail passenger service on the tracks between Noblesville and Indianapolis. 

An Indy Star report covers the concerns. Those who read regularly know that I've been advocating for a Nickel Plate greenway and trail for the last five years, on the basis that it would be the best overall use for the corridor. 

With a greenway and trail, property values go up. Look how the area around the Monon has become so vibrant. Pollution goes down. Tree lined corridor? Hello? And, it promotes healthy living besides, as locals flock to the trail to walk, jog, bike, or blade.

The public hearings are coming soon. Now, I believe these will largely be dog & pony shows, where disinterested public officials suffer through the hearing out of the NIMBYs. they've already made up their minds that this is going to happen. Still, I'm looking forward to seeing people come out to speak against this. Who knows, maybe it could make a difference.

Wither Gridlock?

Gridlock is my best hope for our federal elections- President of one party, Congress of another, they fight like cats and dogs and actually ponder some of the legislation before it sails through, jacking up our deficit. I don't think it's going to work out that way. I think that while both Obama and McCain are weak candidates, the Republican brand is so damaged by self-inflicted wounds that a can of Alpo could defeat McCain.

So, we're going to have one-party rule. As we saw recently with the Republicans, one-party rule is expensive and damaging. President Bush vetoed nothing his party in Congress presented him. Spending and deficits soared. Is there any reason to think that things will be different under a President Obama? Would he veto anything his party in Congress brings him?

What should give anyone pause is the evidence we can see with regards to one-party, Democratic Party rule. We have it in many major American cities. Washington DC, Detroit, Chicago, Cleveland- these are all examples of cities with Democratic Mayors and Democratic Councils. They have all had such majorities for at least 15 years (Cleveland) or much longer even. Democrats are supposed to be strong on their domestic agenda, addressing poverty and unemployment with their social programs.

So, why do these cities still have crushing poverty and high unemployment? Shouldn't these long-entrenched Democratic policies have reversed these problems by now? If 15 years isn't enough, what length of time is required?

The Republican brand is about to be soundly rejected upon the strong evidence provided- as it should be. But, with such large cities offering compelling evidence simultaneously, why should the Democratic brand not also be rejected? Is it merely the least offensive in the moment?

(h/t Melyssa Donaghey, for her comments at Indiana Barrister)

This Is A Warrantee?

I've learned some valuable lessons on data preservation and external hard drives.

I bought a Western Digital external hard drive, so that I could free up my computer hard drive. I would store three things on my external: Hockey video clips, digital photos, and music files. It gave me 500 gig of storage, which seemed like it should last me a while.

A few months ago, the external hard drive died. It was less than a year old, so it was under warrantee. I called WD and arranged not only for the replacement of my drive, but for the recovery of my data. It was a little complicated, but we made the arrangements. I shipped my stuff, they shipped theirs.

The data recovery company called a few weeks later to advise that everything was lost. All data completely gone. I almost threw up. The poor lady on the other end, from some call center, going on with the expected, "Is there anything else I can help you with?" futility that comes at the end of all of these calls.

So, time passes. I still haven't even used the new drive, because I'm not ready to use it unless and until I get a backup drive for it. Lesson learned.

Well, today I got my Visa bill, and there was a charge from Western Digital in the amount of $340.00. If my hands weren't such a mess, I'd go do 15 minutes on the heavy bag. (It's awful, not ever being able to really vent intense anger in satisfying ways, leaving it just to burn a hole in the gut instead, heh, or blogging.) So, I fumed until I calmed down and found my paperwork for the device, all meticulously saved.

I got on the line to India and the Western Digital call center. The man explained to me that I never sent the original, worthless, defective hunk of crap back to them, so they charged me full price, $340, for a new one.

Well, what the fuck kind of warrantee is that? I sent the defective thing to their preferred Data Recovery outfit, who issued a nice report saying how utterly ruined the goddamned thing was. Ain't that enough? I'm not scamming for a hard drive. The old one is W-O-R-T-H-L-E-S-S. Into the trash!

Honestly, the thing was deemed worthless by all involved, so I threw it in the trash.

Of course, this makes the warrantee null and void. It never even occurred to me that people might make bogus warrantee claims, so distraught was I over the loss of 5 years worth of irreplaceable digital pictures (Isabel's birth, trips to Europe to visit Alex, etc, &c). In retrospect, it makes sense, but how was I to divine this instruction? Might a nice piece of paper or an email telling me what to do next have been too much to ask?

So, the valuable lesson here really is to back everything up copiously and obsessively. I'll be buying a second hard drive soon- to back up the other hard drive- and put it in another place, in case there is damage to our home. What a pain in the ass.

The next drive is sure as fuck not going to be a Western Digital. Lesson learned there, too. A company that can't be bothered to make a product that lasts even nine months can go pound sand. And a scam of a warrantee like this cannot be rewarded.

Damn these fragile hands!

The Great Football Swindle

Oh, thanks, Indy Star. Way to be there for the citizens, telling them about the horse that has left the barn a couple of years ago. The Star published an in-depth story yesterday about where all the money generated at the new stadium will go. Mainly, it goes into Jim Irsay's pockets. This would have been information easy enough to suss out before the deal was done- you know, at a time important enough for the citizens to make it useful, before the votes.

But no. The Star prints it now. In all likelihood, the Star kept their mouths shut until after the raping, er, deal was long complete, so as not to have their football writers at risk for losing access to the team they cover.

It's infuriating to read about how the city of Indianapolis, which shouldn't be in the business of socialized sports anyhow, not merely helped build a palace for one man and his football team, but then gave this man the lion's share of the revenues. The man would have made out well if he built the stadium with his own money. Save me the boo-hoo-hoo for Jim Irsay. The guy inherited a football team.

I never really wonder at a man asking for the moon, stars, and sun, but I do wonder at a government that says, "Okay- no problem! You know what? Don't even bother giving us any Vaseline, either."

Fred Glass should go to jail. The Capital Improvement Board should be dissolved. It obviously has too much authority available, and clearly has no sense of priorties.

And the citizens! Where are Indiana's liberals who think inheritence taxes should strip away assets at death? Why weren't they at the fore of attacking this corporate welfare? I haven't heard them issue a peep about Jim Irsay and the Colts. Where are Indiana's conservatives, who are allegedly anti-tax? And, smaller government?

Socialized football... bread and circuses...

What? I'm Not Alone?

Well if this isn't like a cool drink of water in the scorching desert, I don't know what is. There is someone else out there who believes that there is more than one way to balance a budget! Obama says, "Raise taxes". Glenn Hubbard of Columbia University shares my view: drastically cut spending. From his Wall Street Journal op-ed:

In short, Mr. Obama has articulated a plan for higher federal spending, leaving open the question of what tax increases are next.

If Mr. Obama is going to increase spending, will he raise the money by higher business taxes instead? He has already distanced himself from John McCain's call to reduce America's corporate tax rate, and he is committed to raising tax rates on successful small business owners who pay individual as opposed to corporate income taxes. Does this mean he will raise tax burdens on individuals with annual incomes less than $250,000?

In a June 26 interview on the Fox Business channel, Mr. Obama said he wanted to roll back the Bush tax cuts for those in the top 5% of incomes -- that is, about $145,000 per year. He also voted for the Democrats' fiscal year 2009 Budget Resolution, which would raise taxes on individuals earning $42,000 or more.

There is another fiscal way. Balancing the federal budget without a tax increase is possible, but will require strong fiscal restraint. To achieve full-employment budget balance by the end of the next president's term in office, federal nondefense spending growth needs to be restrained to 2% per year instead of the currently projected 4.5%. And modest defense spending increases to fund costs of needed improvements in national security are possible.

That seems really simple, actually. Not even cut the budget, but have it grow more slowly, and you're on your way. Seems to me if an actual fiscal conservative were elected, we might be able to eradicate the deficit in four years or so.

Now, it's fair criticism to say that this man isn't likely to be listened to. After all, he was an advisor to George W. Bush, who grew spending like never before. But it's in the Wall Street Journal, and somebody's reading it. There's hope!

Now, while Hubbard is obviously saying these things in the hopes of boosting McCain, there's no reason for anyone who cares about policy to believe that McCain is going to be the fiscal conservative. He certainly hasn't been while in the Senate.

There is one candidate talking about cutting spending. Nudge, nudge.

More On Disenfranchisement

WISH-TV reported on the partisan booting-from-ballot of three Marion County Libertarian candidates for township office. From WISH-TV's report:

A look at the 2008 form shows that it can be mistaken for a dividing line instead of a line for information.

"We were properly nominated at our convention. This was simply a certification of that nomination and we missed a line. I don't think it hurts the voters to have more people on the ballot just for a technical glitch. And I actually think it hurts the voters to take people off the ballot," said Maguire.

The forms come from the state. I-Team 8 tried to find out why they're changed year to year. The Indiana Election Division did not respond.

Chris Ward of Lawrence Township was the other booted.

The Marion County Elections Board is comprised of two Democrats and one Republican. All in favor of booting? "Aye!" Interestingly, word was that in Chris Ward's particular race, both the Democrat and Republican were off the ballot for improper filing. Their parties were permitted to "fill their vacancies" in time to be certified. Hmm. Interesting that their parties were notified well enough that they could do that, but the Libertarian Party was not.

"The Indiana Election Division did not respond". Big surprise. Why are the forms changed from year to year? For the purpose of eliminating candidates from the ballot, plain and simple. That's not hte kind of music the Election Division wants to face, so they'll continue to not respond. That's a very convenient solution.

Tim Maguire makes the important point: Which is more key to our system of government? A pristine form, or the opportunity of the voters to have the widest choice?

The bi-partisan Marion County Election Board has spoken- in favor of maintaining their duopoly.

Links to previous posts about the unethical treatment of the ballot by Republicans and Democrats in Indiana:

8-23-2006: Election Follies #12 - LaPorte Republicans mess up forms, pay fines, stay on ballot. What was germaine here was "intent". Funny how that wasn't germaine for the Marion County Libertarians.
8-9-2006: Election Follies #11 - 10 Allen County Republican candidates fill out forms incorrectly, stay on ballot.
8-4-2006: Exclusion Coverage - My press conference and press reports on the Election Follies.
7-27-2006: Election Follies #7 - LaPorte Republicans mess up forms, pay fines, stay on ballot.
7-24-2006: Election Follies #5 - Legislature passes law designed to trip Libertarian candidates, and is successful.
7-23-2006: Election Follies #4 - 4 Hancock County Libertarians bounced on technicality, but a-ok to run instead as Democrats.

Disenfranchised

I got word today from two would-be Libertarian candidates that the Elections Board has found against them and some other LP candidates, barring them from the ballot.

It seems the State had changed the form yet again, and this handful of candidates missed the new location for entering the office being sought.

Curiously, no Republican or Democrat in Indiana seems to have been tossed from the ballot, even where some that weren't corrected missed the same data.

The forms are changed every year for just this purpose- to catch some candidates making a mistake, for the purpose of disqualifying them from the ballot.

Not very American, if you ask me. Doesn't really serve the people, to deprive them of choices, if you ask me.

This issue will get marginal news coverage, and even more marginal response by the masses of Hoosiers. The goddamned frustration just continues.

Total Frustration

I'm finding myself yet again at a point where I question the wisdom of putting time into this blog. There really isn't any readership. Looking at the stats is depressing. 

In fact, looking at the state of American politics is completely depressing, and largely unhealthy for me. Americans don't want liberty. They want one stripe of big government or other, controlling this aspect of life or other, and they're getting it. I would wish for them to get it good and hard, as Mencken did, but I'll be dragged along for the ride. On the whole, I'm better off ignoring it entirely, and putting my energy into my family and work.

I'll not delude myself: My voice isn't contributing to a change. What's the point?

Eating On The Road


One of the frustrating things about working on the road is eating on the road- until you find a decent restaurant that reliably serves good food.


I recently mentioned my anticipation for a stop in Woodstock, IL, to the Courthouse Grill. It was another great lunch, with a very nice buffet- coconut shrimp on a bed of pasta alfredo, chicken kiev, mashed redskin potatoes, corn chowder and a southwestern black bean soup, excellent salad bar. Because I always go for the buffet, I failed to notice the homage to the movie Groundhog Day. Next time.

Good food like this is greatly appreciated, especially when the alternatives are the usual boring fast foods.


Here are some other notables I always visit when near, in no particular order:


Decatur, IL- Guadalajara Mexican Restaurant. Amazing Enchiladas Suizas. I've had this dish in other Mexican restaurants, but nobody's compares to Guadalajara's, with three fat cheese enchiladas smothered in salsa verde and topped with succulent pulled pork.


Michigan City, IN- Swingbelly's. Being housed in an old New York Central train station and sitting trackside is enough for me, but the burgers are fantastic. I expect burgers to be a notch better at the average bar & grill, but they are two notches better at Swingbelly's.


Three Rivers, MI- Frankie's By The Tracks. Did I mention I like restaurants adjacent to the tracks? I rediscovered this one last year after first finding it in 1997 while working a railroad job. The food is as good and plentiful as ever, although sadly, they removed all the old Conrail train photos in favor of Norfolk Southern images. I like NS, but have fond memories of Big Blue hustling on this particular line.


West Lafayette, IN- Triple XXX Restuarant. I go there for the root beer, always served in a frosty mug. Every now and again, it seems I need to fill the tank near Lafayette, and if I'm going to have to get off I-65, I can always stop for a nice root beer. I stopped here every time I campaigned in Lafayette. The burgers are nice, but as you can see, it's not why I stop. Couldn't believe Reid Duffy's Guide to Indiana's Favorite Restaurants didn't even mention the root beer. Shame!


Fairview Heights, IL- Lotawata Creek Southern Grill. Absurdly huge comfort food meals, and fun, outdoorsie decor. When working earlier this year in East St. Louis, an AT&T engineer took me here. Awesome burgers.


Now, can you help me out with recommendations for Chicago's South Side?

Restrained Foreign Policy - Idealism or Realism?

Back in my college days, I took a political science course that had me tied up in knots, because it repeatedly asked the question, "was the particular policy idealistic or realistic"?

In most cases, I was tempted to label policy idealistic, because you could point to a president having laid out a plainly ideological campaign platform. But the more I looked, the more policy seemed informed by events, to the point that I wanted to call it reactionary. Two examples:

FDR condemned Hitler's invasion, but didn't declare war on Germany until after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, and Hitler declared war on the US subsequent to our declaration of war on Japan.

Lincoln was plainly an abolitionist candidate. But as president, he didn't talk about emancipation as a cause for war. It was in reaction to the Confederacy's attack on Fort Sumter, and an effort to preserve the Union. The Emancipation Proclamation isn't issued until after Gettysburg, and Lincoln the politician felt the time was at last right to bring it up.

I know that I even waver on the idealism/realism question with regard to my own foreign policy positions. Yes, I do subscribe to the 'no foreign entanglements, peaceful commerce with all' policy of George Washington as a matter of ideology. On the other hand, it seems to make so much sense to not pay out of American pockets to pay for the defense of Japan, Germany, and so many other nations capable of their own defense, merely as a practical matter- especially when the US is borrowing such vast sums from China and other nations, partly to pay for extra-national defense.

The Cato Daily Podcast for July 16th is an interesting listen. It mentions Russia in the pre-Georgia context, which really stirs up the idealism/realism consideration.

Here's the link to Cato's Daily Podcast archive. Click the item titled, "A Strategy of Restraint Overseas" to listen.

It just isn't easy to put these things into neat little categories.

Bob Barr Statement on Georgia & Russia

Barr points to a larger acceptance of alliances than meets my personal ideal, but I agree with the sentiments expressed here.

August 11, 2008 4:26 pm EST

Atlanta, GA -- “George Washington long ago warned America against ‘entangling alliances,’ and he was right,” says Bob Barr, the Libertarian Party candidate for president. “Russia and Georgia risk falling into a full-scale war in which the U.S. can and hopefully will avoid any involvement. But had Georgia been a member of NATO we would now be risking a full-scale confrontation with nuclear-armed Russia,” Barr observes.

“Obviously, America should encourage both countries to back down and resolve their differences peacefully,” explains Barr. But “the status of South Ossetia, as well as Abkhazia, another Russian-supported separatist zone within Georgia, matters a lot more to Russia, on which the two territories border, than to the U.S. Moreover, Washington itself set a precedent for Russia when it intervened in Kosovo a decade ago, attacking Serbia to win independence for the separatist ethnic-Albanian majority,” notes Barr.

“The purpose of alliances is to defend America,” says Barr. “We should not create or expand alliances where the U.S. does not have vital interests. If the Europeans want to defend distant countries like Georgia, they can do so—after all, the European Union has a larger population and bigger GDP than America, without any of Washington’s other global military commitments. It is time for Europe to accept responsibility for its own security.”

“Any war is tragic, but not every war requires American intervention,” explains Barr. “We can do our best to mediate between Russia and Georgia, but we should avoid any military involvement. It is time to put the defense of America back into America’s defense policy.”

Full release.

Now, Back To Obama

I returned from Chicago today and checked the mail. You guessed it- an irritating direct mail piece "from Obama", addressed to me.

I put "from Obama" in quotes, because the letter says, "Barack Obama" on the envelope's return space, and on the letterhead, but the back of the envelope has a return for the Democratic National Committee.

This mailing confirms another thing that irritates me. The conventions of the Ds & Rs are not what they were. They're press conferences. Coronations. Yawn.

The letter reads:

"As Democrats, you and I are united by the great traditions of our party, and bound by its longstanding commitment to social and economic justice for all of our citizens."

This is just as presumptuous and offensive as the McCain letter. I am a well-advertised Libertarian partisan. I just cannot think well of someone so sloppy that they would put their name on a letter as ill-informed as this. If you cannot be trusted to be in charge of an organization that acts on your behalf to get a basic fact or two correct, what can you be trusted with?

Beyond that, my break with the Democratic Party in 1995 occurred in large part because of my profound disagreement on the terms social justice, and economic justice. At the core of it, I do not believe it just to take the earnings of one person and give them to someone who has not earned them. It is a basic injustice, and a perversion of the meaning of the word justice. I simply cannot have anything to do with such bullshit merchants.

I could be a Democrat, if indeed the party was true to its' traditions- its' Jeffersonian traditions. Honor this quote, if you honor Democratic traditions:

A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor and bread it has earned - this is the sum of good government.

-Thomas Jefferson

Alas. Beyond this mailing, I then noticed Obama's tax plan, via Harvard economist Greg Mankiw's blog. In a nutshell, almost everyone will be paying more in taxes under Obama.

That's not a change I can believe in. So, I'm down on Obama right now, at least until I notice McCain again.

Chicago Again

We go where the work is, and for the next couple days, the work is in Chicago. I'll be in the western part of the city, right next to Oak Park, and then up north to Woodstock, in McHenry County. I'm really looking forward to another great lunch at the restaurant in the old jail at Woodstock. The last one was fantastic, with a pot of roasted root vegetables that was amazing.

Speaking of vegetables, here are some pics of the garden.

From left: sunflowers, seet basil, cilantro, simpson leaf lettuce, and two rosemary plants hidden in there.

We kept the bunnies out this year. This pic goes back 3 weeks. Amazing how fast it takes off!

Three weeks of rapid growth. I may tire of salad soon.

Picked three perfect cucumbers today. There will be about 50 more in three days.

A Test For The World's Cop

OK, my interventionist friends. Is Russia's bombing of Georgia important enough to warrant US intervention? Move the troops from Iraq and call up a hell of a lot more? Kick Putin's ass and let him know that war doesn't happen while on the USA's watch?

I say 'NO'. It isn't our problem. Our isolation from this area would be splendid.

I can't wait for statements from Obama, McCain, and Barr on this.

OK, Today It's McCain

Er, wait. I think it was McCain that torqued me off last time, so, it's still McCain.

Can you believe the depths some candidates will go to in order to 'salt the mine'? On McCain's website, the reader is urged to 'spread the word', as a spammer- using cut & paste talking points to load into blog comment sections.

Heh- he's even awarding points for successful spamming.

I can't stand McCain. With legislation bearing his name, he'll restrict the politcal speech of people who are forthright. For his campaign, the slimiest, lowest forms of signal jamming are a-ok.

(h/t Reason Hit & Run)

Trade Horses!

Some folks think the Republicans are full of nerve, asking Libertarians to withdraw from close races. I don't see it as a slap in the face, so much as an opportunity. From Foolocracy:

To no one’s surprise, except Hupp’s and whichever Republicans she conspired with, the Libertarians refused to drop from the race. It is surprising that she considers the Libertarian Party as a Republican lapdog to rollover as needed. Third party candidates rarely have expectations to win, but they do believe in elections as a forum. Hupp may do well to check out the differences in the two parties’ platforms next time.

One of the Libertarians said that while Hupp did not directly offer board seats on local commissions, it was left open as a possibility. Hupp denied anything of the sort.

Wes Benedict, head of the Libertarian Party for Texas, dismissed the Republican requests for Libertarians to drop out. “Republicans need to earn those votes,” Benedict said.

If I were the Texas LP state chair, I'd make a deal: We'll drop out of these three races, AFTER, the Republican Party drops its candidates out of up to six races that are two-party contests, Libertarian vs Republican, at the same level: state house. No appointments. No swapping state office for county office. Straight up. Electoral contests for electoral contests. But since they're asking and I'm in the driver's seat, my price is high. As a state chair, I'd take six sure electoral wins.

Elections are indeed great forums for discussing ideals, but hardly the best thing going. Nothing beats elected office as a forum for implementing the ideals, which is what really matters.

Budgets and Relative Belt Tightening

When the budget gets tight at the Kole house, the vacation budget is eliminated. It's a 100% budget cut, until such time as we can afford it. We eat out 75% less. Entertainment is little more than a trip to the library. New clothing purchases are halted. Etc. In sum, the cuts are pretty harsh.

Elected officials are therefore hilarious in comparison. They whine and moan about 3% or 4% budget cuts. Boo-friggin'-hoo!

Here's an interesting bit from Cato's David Boaz:

Time to stop spending, eh? That would be most people’s response to an unprecedented deficit. And they do mention “irresponsible spending” later in the piece. But somehow, it appears that the governors thought that was a good lead for an article in the Washington Post demanding more federal spending to subsidize state governments.

They lamented the the plight of the state budgets; New York, for instance, asked state agencies “to slash their state budgets by 3.35 percent.” Now, if I had to cut my budget for a new sofa, say, from $1,000 to $966.50, I don’t think I’d call that a “slash”; it’s more like margin of error.

Hilarious. And there are some who make it out that Grover Norquist has won the day, that fiscal conservatism has triumphed, with taxes almost nil, and the federal government shrunk to the size of that of the Polk Administration.

Reason has picked up on this willful ignorance, also, noting how some fans of larger government are tying the downward slide of the Republican Party to the idea that said slide is proof of the failure of fiscal conservatism. I took Balloon Juice to task on this just last week. From Reason's Matt Welch:

"...a strain of curious left-of-center analysis I'm seeing more and more this election: That the Republicans are losing because limited-government ideas don't work, and are no longer popular.

This critique requires a significant leap of logic − that George W. Bush, and his would-be GOP successor John McCain, practice and/or believe in limited government principles."

Fiscal conservatism wasn't even tried out by the Republicans. Tax cut, borrow and spend simply isn't a fiscally conservative ideal. McCain thinks cutting earmarks is a slash, just as NY's governor thinks a 3% nick is a draconian reversion to primitive barbarism.

At the Kole house, and I'm quite sure at many others across the land, when the money isn't there, we radically cut our spending, by as much as 40%. We don't take out loans so that we can keep spending. We don't commandeer from our neighbors under the premise of 'the common good'. We cut spending.

Want To Trade?

My garden is going nuts. It's a problem to have, but my family simply cannot eat all of what we are producing.

If you want to trade, here's what I have ready to go right now:

Cilantro
Italian Basil
Lemon Basil
Simpson Leaf Lettuce

If you are near Fishers and have bell peppers, tomatoes, zucchini, spinach, or other lettuce varieties, and want to trade, email me at mikekole (a) comcast.net .

In about a week, I'm going to have 50 or more cucumbers. Wow.

Today, It's McCain

It seems that McCain and Obama take turns irritating me. Today, I am irritated with John McCain and his campaign. Can you believe this presumptuous crap?

Dear John- You don't have my support. You have a commitment against you, however. Kindly fade into obscurity.

I've gotten some fairly presumptuous stuff from Obama before, back in April '07 in fact, and it irked me then. I was the Libertarian Party's candidate for Secretary of State in '06, for crying out loud. I'm a Libertarian partisan! It's not too hard to look up, and it suggested to me that Obama would make the kind of president that wouldn't be too interested in details or facts, just getting the win. I really don't like that.

Well, I like this less. This one came with a letter, addressed to me, not to 'occupant' but to me by name, and identified me as a 'grassroots leader'. It targeted me as one with 'conservative principles'- which is correct, insofar as 'conservative' relative to change means, with lineage to Thomas Jefferson. So, the McCain campaign must have looked me up enough to know that I kind of have some grassroots political involvement.

.

McCain is the co-author of McCain-Feingold, the badly misnamed campaign finance 'reform' law. I don't know the full scope of McCain-Feingold, but I do know this: It's illegal to troll campaign finance reports for potential donors. I'm not saying that's what the McCain campaign is doing when it lands a targeted beg package like this in the lap of a guy like me, but I wouldn't rule it out either.

.

I really don't like that in a president, either.

.

The letter reads, "I know that before I ask for your support, I must earn your respect."

The McCain 'honor' stuff has worn more than thin. It's a load of bunk. If you want my respect, call for the repeal of McCain-Feingold, reverse your Iraq policy, apologize for your FISA vote, up the call for budget cuts from measly earmarks to something substantial like 5% across-the-board, and maybe just fold your campaign. that would be a start towards earning my respect.

Excellent Game!

Funny enough, I nearly sat out last night's hockey, due to a broken 'pinky' toe, but I decided to play anyhow, figuring I could sit out if it started bothering me enough, or that I could shy away from contact if it was suspect. Turns out it felt fine, and I had a great game, scoring a goal on a redirection, and helping put a play together to get a winning goal with 45 seconds left in the game.

It was very satsifying. I've been noticing that with regards to my exercise, I tend to allow circumstances get in the way of consistent effort. I made up my mind that I was going to do everything I could to not let an understandable circumstance interfere. A busted toe is about as good an excuse as one could find.

Here's what a redirection looks like. I get in front of the goalie to screen his vision. A teammate shoots the puck, and as it approaches, I use my stick to deflect the puck. It changes direction, leaving the goalie little chance to stop it. Redirections are my favorite goals to score, because they're very hard to pull off. You have your back to the net and the goalie when you do it.

Hyper-Inflation in Zimbabwe

I'm happy to say that I have no experience with hyper-inflation. I do have a growing concern about our growing inflation, so it was interesting and frightening to hear a man from Zimbabwe tell what it is like to deal with money that loses value as the minutes pass.

We're all feeling the pinch with marginal increases in inflation. Can you imagine going to the store for something, being interrupted by errands, returning to the store only to find the price has gone up 4x? Can you imagine that as a daily occurrance? This is life in Zimbabwe, where inflation is on a genuine runaway course.

Check out the Cato Daily Podcast for July 29, 2008, titled, "How Inflation Robs Zimbabwe". Link to Cato's podcast archive.

While most of the Federal Reserve's tinkering fixes one thing while creating other problems, one thing it can do well is to help keep inflation at bay. We need to stop borrowing money from foreign nations, and stop printing more money.

Intellectual Dishonesty

I can't stand it when libertarians are linked with George W. Bush, lumped together as fiscal conservatives. George W. Bush is not a fiscal conservative. He is a borrow & spend fiscal liberal. No president has increased spending at a faster rate than George W. Bush- not FDR, not LBJ, no one.

So the post on the blog Balloon Juice, "Fiscal Conservatism, Part Two" made me go to the garage to hammer the heavy bag for a few minutes.

The Bush economic record is a disaster, for taking a surplus and turning into a monstrous deficit. It was due to spending into a tax cut.

That's where the intellectual dishonesty comes in- blaming the tax cut while putting the blinders on for the increased spending Bush signed into law.

Libertarians, who are fiscal conservatives, have been beating up Republicans for their out-of-control spending for the better part of the 8-year Bush Administration. He didn't use his veto pen for a single appropriations bill while the Republicans had control of Congress. I must have had 20 posts on the subject by myself.

I thought people on the right were suckers for accepting this batch of Republicans as fiscal conservatives. But that people on the left apparently also accept them as such indicates to me that nobody really has a grasp of what a fiscal conservative stands for. Either that, or there is widespread engagement in intellectual dishonesty.

So, allow me to fill the breach.

Fiscal conservative: lower taxes, lower spending
Fiscal liberal, tax & spend variety: higher taxes, higher spending
Fiscal liberal, borrow & spend variety: lower taxes, higher spending, higher borrowing, higher taxes tomorrow

George W. Bush, the Republican leadership of the 108th and 109th Congress- all are of the latter stripe. Libertarians having nothing to do with that.

By the way, now that the 110th Congress is in power, and writes the law, including the budget, it could aggressively attack the deficit by cutting spending. But that's something it is unwilling to consider. To Democrats, the only way to balance a budget bloated by spending is to tax more.

More than one way to skin a cat, folks. Cutting spending balances the budget, too.

If Democrats don't know where to start, allow this Libertarian to give you some hints:

Iraq
Iraq
Iraq

and, Iraq. At least live up to your rhetoric- even if Bush didn't live up to his on fiscal conservatism.

Old Kole posts on Republican spending, at various levels of government:

1-14-2006
9-29-2005
7-10-2005
6-29-2005
3-22-2005
1-18-2005

And, last but not least, here is my post from November 28, 2004. It was printed as a column in a few Indiana newspapers. It was a post-election analysis, on the Republican sweep, both nationally and here in Indiana. I warned fiscal conservatives that they would not be happy with the result of electing Republicans, hoping for spending cuts.

But, behind some of the grins, there is a group within the broad spectrum of conservatives that is gritting its clenched teeth behind a half-hearted smile. While excited for the possibilities Republican majorities bring, this group shares a great deal of the anxiety liberals have in anticipation of the first wave of new policy that will soon greet us. This group is the fiscal conservatives.

It was not a series of referendums on capping budgetary growth that swept George W. Bush to re-election. It was a series of referendums on gay marriage.

snip

If Republicans won't do the job of reducing spending this year, with their majorities at home and in Washington, fiscal conservatives will know that it is time to look for a new political home. They will have no choice but to conclude that if spending won't be cut this year, it never will so long as Republicans are in charge.

Republicans didn't cut a thing. Grover Norquist got nothing. I got nothing... except a bigger share of a deficit, for money spent on things I generally don't approve of. And, I have liberals calling George Bush a fiscal conservative, sullying the good name of fiscal conservatism?

You want to come over and kick my dog, too?

Change In Perception

There was a day back in the early 90s when I really thought living off the grid in some very isolated place, being as fully self-reliant as possible. This was before I knew what a libertarian was. Two things have changed since then: Turns out that I like living near people and interacting with them. Also, this notion has gone from being thought of as kook stuff, to being thought of as environmentally responsible.

It came to mind as I encountered a copy of 'Backwoods Home' magazine at the barber yesterday. There were tips on composting, small family farming and canning, cloth diapers, solar energy, survival and weaponry.

An interesting mix of crunchy granola and the militia frontier, oddly, happily coexisting- some 80 or more acres or so apart.

It was interesting to see how many of these things we've been doing on our suburban property: composting, raising an organic vegetable garden, and looking into alternative energy like solar panels. We did cloth diapers, stopped buying paper towels and napkins, and went to the flourescent bulbs long before there was a law about it. These things aren't merely more environment-friendly. They're cheaper!

Take Away My Gridlock?

Gridlock. It's my only hope for limiting the otherwise rampant growth of government. Talk of eliminating it is talk of taking away my one last realistic hope for the 2008 elections at the federal level. We saw how destructive and government-growing one party rule was under a nominally 'smaller government' party. What's it going to look like if the plainly bigger government Democrats get their wish for their own brand of one party rule?

No sooner had I stuffed the McCain business reply letter full of newspaper, did I get an Obama mailing. Obama has as a new objective the elimination of gridlock.

So, that's the audacity of hope? Hell, that's the elimination of hope for me. I can't vote for McCain or Obama, since neither of them is pro-smaller government. Barr isn't likely to win. Gridlock is the best I can hope for, but Obama wants to squash my hope.

Thanks for nothing. Here- have your own envelope full of shredded newspaper.

Worried About China?

I'm not, even though it seems to be poised to surpass the USA in so many meaningful ways, with GDP being just one such. To me, the meteoric rise of the Chinese economy is an fine example of what even a little capitalism can do to raise the standard of living anywhere- even within a farily totalitarian regime.

It should be a stark lesson to us, and easy to see: More capitalism = more wealth. More government = less wealth.

There is an interesting Washington Post article today that gives many reasons not to worry about China, despite our huge trade deficit with that country. Here's one:

One important nuance we keep forgetting is the sheer size of China's population: about 1.3 billion, more than four times that of the United States. China should have a big economy. But on a per capita basis, the country isn't a dragon; it's a medium-size lizard, sitting in 109th place on the International Monetary Fund's World Economic Outlook Database, squarely between Swaziland and Morocco. China's economy is large, but its average living standard is low, and it will stay that way for a very long time, even assuming that the economy continues to grow at impressive rates.

Remember what kept that economy down- the Communist regimes, beginning with Mao, and to the present.

I don't like the conclusion in the quote, though. The USA was once in the position China was, relative to Britain, as an economic power. The US was the up and coming low-tech, cheap production underdog, while Britain was the high-tech economic ruler of the day. The British once scoffed at America's position in the world, confident it would never be surpassed. The USA kept producing cheaply and innovating, eventually becoming the high-tech producer of the world.

Why was Britain surpassed by the US? Two things. The UK became increasingly regulated, and Britain had a worldwide empire. "The sun never sets..." That took enormous effort to sustain, and proved unsustainable. The British choked off innovation in their industries, via regulation.

Here we are in the USA, repeating the mistakes of history. We hyper-regulate our industry, driving the business to other countries. We are trying to play the world's cop, intervening in affairs that don't affect us directly, paying for bases and operations in most of the world's nations.

The US built its wealth under relative 'isolation'. Notice that China, once greatly involved in funding revolutionary forces in SE Asia, now is relatively isolationist itself. How about that? Increase capitalism, reduce interventionism, and China begins to assert itself as a growing financial power.

China is hardly perfect, but in some important ways, they are going in the right direction, while here in the USA, in those same important ways, we are going in the wrong direction.

IPS - Worst in the Nation

According to yet another study on the subject of public school graduation rates, Indianapolis Public Schools graduate 19% of its' students.

19%. From the Indy Star report:

Only about a quarter of public schoolchildren in Indianapolis attend IPS. And the district -- by big-city standards -- is not especially large, with 35,000 students, and shrinking.

It is shrinking, in part, because parents increasingly are sending their children to charter schools. Others move from the district or, in affluent neighborhoods, send children to schools outside the district.

It's pretty simple. If you have any means, and any hope for your children, you get them out of IPS. You move, you send them to private school- anything but send them to IPS.

This constitutes a near wholesale rejection of IPS. 75% of students and parents reject IPS. But of the 25% who settle on IPS, another 81% fail to graduate from it.

So, IPS graduates 4.75% of Marion County students. (19% of the 25%) That's about as dismal as could be imagined. Why does all this money continue to be sent down a rat hole? For this, the elderly are being displaced from their homes in the property tax war?

If 75% of Marion County rejects what is being given to them for free, and another 81% of the students who stay in IPS later reject what is being given to them for free, isn't it time to start questioning whether or not it is the great benefit it's touted as, and as importantly, should be given?

I think at this point, IPS should be scrapped entirely. If it should survive, then tuition should be charged. The people who value education will pay for it. Those who don't, well, 75%, plus another 81% percent of the remaining 25% are rejecting it for free anyway.

Here's a link to the Schott Foundation's most recently published study.

Human Nature Never Changes

One thing that irks me is to hear someone say, "Non-interventionist foreign policy may have been fine 200 years ago, but this is a different day and age.

Horsefeathers. I was reading Doug Masson's latest blog entry, called "War is a Racket". It featured a couple of lengthy citations about war, and the motive to transfer wealth from the Treasury to the businesses making war materiel.

This war in Iraq is foolish. Iraq was a threat to the USA? Iraq was hardly a threat to Iran, let alone the USA. It certainly wasn't planning to do anything to us, which is why we should have left Iraq alone. Yes, Saddam Hussein was a nasty, brutal dictator. That's our problem? Not a chance.

The longer this drags on, the more I begin to wonder why we're there.

Anyhow, Masson's quotables are from WWI, and Mark Twain. The idea of cashing in on war is not new. Human nature doesn't change. That's why ideology can be applied across eras, and why pragmatism is more like sticking your finger up in the air to see which way the wind blows.

I was also reminded of the great Dead Kennedys bit "Kinky Sex Makes the World Go Round".

Marion County Homicides in July

Last summer, in the run-up to the mayoral election in Indianapolis, then-Mayor Bart Peterson was widely assailed by critics for the astonishing murder rate in Marion County. The critics were largely Greg Ballard backers.

Well, here we are one year later, and the murder count in Marion County is once again astonishing. As of yesterday, 22 days, 15 murders, one associated suicide. Link to Indy Star article on the latest atrocity, with list of July homicides.

So, one new mayor really doesn't make a difference.

I'm sure there will be some petty partisan sniping, regarding the failure of the new Mayor to reverse the course. Certainly the Peterson critics set the table for that. But it wouldn't be any different today had Peterson been re-elected, had Libertarian Fred Peterson been elected instead, or had Ghandi been resurrected and made mayor.

There is a mindset within Marion County, and other major American urban centers that says that violence is the answer to problems. That has to change.

I am not calling for the banning of guns. Removing the legality around the ownership of a particular piece of machinery does not change the mindset. Besides, as we saw in Washington DC, guns were still being used in the commission of crimes there. DC's ban failed to make it a safer place.

I am not calling for the banning of hip-hop, which often glorifies gun violence. Removing the music and videos won't eliminate the angst and dissatisfaction in the minds of those who turn to violence Besides, even societies who explicitly have been in command of their people, such as the Soviet Bloc, had underground avenues through which counter-cultural materials were obtained.

This is going to require an unravelling of what made the mindset in the urban center. That is a task of such broad reach, that it's not worth going on in depth in with a blog post. I must confess that I am not part of the solution. I fled the city. (Not just Indy, but Cleveland before.) It's far easier to just vote with your feet and get out, especially when you feel like you have ideas to contribute that are rejected out of hand. 

I don't see it getting better in Indy any time soon. The election of a new Mayor and a new majority in the City-County Council is not akin to the waving of a magic wand. 

Foreclosure and Attendant Intellectual Bankruptcy

Another thing Steve forwarded to me was a link to a recent item by Bill Moyers on PBS, regarding foreclosures and sub-prime lending. It was of interest to him and to me, because we both once lived in Cleveland in the St. Hyacinthe neighborhood, which sits adjacent to Slavic Village. Friends always mistakenly referred to our home as Slavic Village. Turns out that Slavic Village has been hit harder by foreclosures than any other place in the US. The item infuriated me.

The bias shown by Moyers and so many others is astonishing. The rush to blame capitalists is profound. I understand they are blinded by their anti-capitalism ideology, but how can you miss that there are two parties in any given loan agreement?

Moyers refers to 'predatory lending'. I'm not sure exactly what this is supposed to mean, although it is clearly an attempt to paint a picture of the savagery by a powerful agent of a feckless innocent.

I call bullshit.

The person obtaining the loan knows his situation. He knows if he can afford to make payments or not. So, if someone knows the chances are good that they cannot make payments, and they take the money anyway, isn't that at the very least an act of fraud? Nobody forces the borrower to sign the documents. Certainly, nobody forces them to spend the money. They do this happily.

Cuyahoga County Treasurer Jim Rokakis gives two illuminating passages.

You'd tell them, "I don't have any money." "No problem, we don't, you don't require a down payment." Or, "I have a horrible credit score." "No problem, we're not gonna let that get in the way." "But I don't even have job." "No problem. We're not gonna document your income."

A couple of things come to mind. Collusion. Fraud. Two guilty parties who should go to jail. More Rokakis:

And the real victim here is the person that lives on that block, that person who pays their taxes, plays by the rules, has done nothing to deserve what they're facing today, which is a devastated neighborhood, with their most valuable asset, their home, now worth virtually nothing. That's the victim.

Government does have a legitimate role to play here- protecting the innocent homeowners Rokakis describes. I believe in the free market, but I no more support this savagery than I support warlordism on the basis of a 2nd Amendment defense.

Let those who took bad loans suffer the consequences fully. Let those lenders who issued bad loans also suffer the consequences fully. No bailouts for these bad actors. If the lenders have any assets left, that's where you turn to restore the properties, to the extent it can be done, in the name of protect the innocent neighboring property owners who did nothing wrong.

So, let's not merely call it 'predatory lending'. Let's also call it 'fraudulent borrowing', or even 'predatory borrowing'. It takes two to tango on this one.

Here's the piece. Try to stay with it, through all of the BS rhetoric. It ain't easy.



The item treats this area as though it was doing great, and then the sub-prime lending started, and suddenly the neighborhood began to ring the bowl. Nothing could be further from the truth. Slavic Village began it's decline immediately after WW2, when the Ferro Motor Company shuttered and moved out to suburban Brookpark, as did much of the increasingly affluent population. Slavic Village became an area of 'starter homes'- a place you bought your first home, but also a place you left as soon as you could trade up.

I left St. Hyacinthe in 2000- long before the sub-prime phenomenon was in anyone's awareness. I was offered the opportunity to buy the house across the street from me in 1998, as I was interested in working to build the neighborhood up. I declined. The asking price? $11,000. The problem was the horribly sunken foundation.

There was another house down the street I looked at. It was a double. I was told I couldn't go upstairs. Why? There was a family squatting there. I also couldn't go into the basement. I was told this right as I nearly fell down to the basement floor- because the staircase had collapsed, and silly me, I expected it to be in place. The living room floor was hard wood, but it had a hole in it about 3' in diameter. It looked like a cannon ball had been shot through it. But this wasn't the HMS Indomitable. What in the world caused that?

The asking price was $5,000. I laughed at the realtor and told her, "You can pay me $5,000 and I'll take it."

That realty check might have been nice, you know, to make the piece seem like it was dwelling in the real world, just a bit. In infuriated me to watch, knowing that millions of American views would be sitting and watching, going, "wow, look how the lenders wrecked that place". It just isn't true. It was largely wrecked already. that's why I gave up and left in 2000 for the suburbs myself.

Shoddy, shoddy journalism. Yet still of interest.

On a more positive final note, good to see my old college radio buddy Brian Davis. He's long had a passion for helping the homeless that I respect greatly.

Rex Bell's Excellent Travels

Being that I just got back from a week in the Yellowstone Park area, it's hard to imagine that I could possibly have travel envy for anyone, and yet I have just a bit for my friend Rex Bell.

It seems he just did a tour of Washington with other Indiana Libertarian candidates. Rex is a candidate for Indiana House, District 54, and he journeyed with Congressional candidate Dr. Eric Schansberg (9th District), Indiana Senate candidate Steve Keltner (District 30), and former Libertarian state chair Mark Rutherford.

Among those Rex and the group met with was Dick Heller, he of Heller vs DC, the landmark 2nd Amendment case just heard by the Supreme Court. Then he met with folks from the Cato Institute, the Libertarian Party's national HQ, David Weigel of Reason Magazine, and more.

Check out Rex's full post!

I kind of knew that Rex had met with Reason, thanks to a post on Reason's 'Hit & Run' by Weigel, mentioning the possibility of Bob Barr campaigning in Indiana in tandem with Hoosier Libertarians like Rex, Keltner, and Schansberg.

Whatever envy I feel just shows that no one vacation can satisfy every facet of one's being, great though the experiences may be. Congrats, Rex!