Friday, April 30, 2010

History



Blog For Arizona posted this history cartoon on their feed not too long ago and commented that "History is a b**ch!"  I would agree it is, because if you look into it a little more you'll find a zero percent income tax at all levels.  With socialism comes the warfare state.  Without the federal reserve it would be terribly difficult to have both of the those.  So for peace sake, end the fed!

Schools Don't Need More Money



A while back ago Chino Valley attempted an override.  After doing some research I determined that they seemed to be getting plenty of money, considering they were getting $1,500 more per pupil then private schools according to one commenter and according to the research I did (it was $5,500 for high school and $4,000 for grade school) and the private school could pay for athletics and music on this budget.  Part of the reason public schools cost more is due to the bureaucracy and mandates by legislation.

Chino Valley school district averaged the following per pupil for the following years:
Year            Average Daily Attendance            Expenditures/Pupil/Year
2001           2415.7                                         $5,732
2002           2430.9                                         $5,828
2003           2504.7                                         ?
2004           2523.2                                         $6,186
2005           2599.4                                         $7,039
2006           ?                                                   ?
2007           ?                                                   ?
2008           2680.7                                         $7,189
2009           2705.6                                         $7,003
2010           ?                                                  ?

Imagine a teacher getting that money directly, we wouldn't have poor teachers anymore!  This is a good case for privatizing schools and getting bureaucracy out of schools.  We would then see some really good teachers make 7 figures and the bad ones finding new jobs!

See the following from "Seeing Red AZ" for more on AZ schools.  Also, see this article for a compelling case to just have privatized schools.  Also, see this commentary video from a successful entrepreneur on schooling and ADD.

Vote no on proposition  100 the 1% sales tax increase this May!

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Beauchamp First to File in CD1

Beauchamp First to File in CD1

As the election gets closer I'll start giving my reviews for the republican primary candidates  in district 1.

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

AZ Tax Burden




I took the liberty of putting together the history of Arizona tax burden and put it in graphs. I got the information from Tax Foundation.  The data goes from 1977 - 2008.  The first graph shows the overall AZ tax rate (including local and state taxes).  It also includes the ranking for highest tax bracket compared to the other 50 states, the higher the number the less taxes your state paid.  The second graph shows the amount of taxes paid per capita and the amount earned per capita.  Overall I think AZ is doing pretty good.  Not any reason to do better though!  Say no to prop 100, the 1% sales tax increase this May.




Update:
Remember also that this doesn't count federal spending as part of Arizona's spending.  If you including that the effective tax in AZ would actually be higher.  See Goldwater Institute.

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

SB1070


Will Griggs take on the new anti-immigration law.

I know he can be a bit over the top but he also makes good points.  Just search for SB1070 where he talks about it half way through the article.

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Applauding the Stripping of Your Rights

In light of SB1070 and the gleeful backing of its passage I would like to demonstrate why it is bad.  I also thought it ironic that people eagerly dispossess their God given rights.

The Declaration of Indepence says that these rights are given us of God to All men equally.  It also says men have the right to dispose of governments that do not uphold these rights.

Thoughts by Will Griggs

Classic examples of what happens when you let government get out of control among others :
Waco Rules of Engagement
Missing .  The movie about the men that were killed with US government approval during the US backed coup in Chile.
The new assassination of Americans without due process.  It's one thing if there is a declared war but an entirely different thing without it (the US hasn't declared war since WWII).  Even then it's not OK if they are able to be captured instead of fighting in combat.
Holding of Americans in jail that have done no crime without cause or due process.
The greatest of all misdeeds by our government against its own people, the Civil War.

Doctrine and Covenants states 134:5 :
We believe that all men are bound to sustain and uphold the respective governments in which they reside, while protected in their inherent and inalienable rights by the laws of such governments; and that sedition and rebellion are unbecoming every citizen thus protected, and should be punished accordingly; and that all governments have a right to enact such laws as in their own judgments are best calculated to secure the public interest; at the same time, however, holding sacred the freedom of conscience.

This is my belief.

Update:

Just to clearify.  I don't desire a violent revolution.  I desire a peaceful one by the education of the people.  When the people our educated we can have a nonviolent revolution every 2-4 years.

Here's some websites that talk of the abuses of police officers:
Police officers abusing people that videotape them, story and main website.
Police abuses website.

Friday, April 23, 2010

Fear Mongering and Open Boarders

Many people in our country have feared open boarders throughout the history of the United States. The more I learn about history the more I realize all the debates that we have are the same as from the past. The best thing we can do is learn from the past and see if our fears really are valid or not. I've found some books that go over this history of our boarders and give inciteful perspectives on what we need to fear.

My dad told me that back when he was young (which really wasn't that long ago) you could cross the Mexican border without any problems, I don't even think he needed a passport or birth certificate. But now it is horrendous trying to pass the border as it becomes more and more locked up. That tells me that something has changed and the solution isn't to lock the borders up but to figure out what things have changed for the worse and to stop those changes and revert back or change to a better way of doing things. What has changed? I'm sure many things have changed one of them is the drug war. We have turned Mexico and other countries into war zones to keep drugs out of our country that we can't even keep out (we can't even keep them out of our schools and prisons, the most heavily guarded places), so this tells me that the problem is our laws and not the open border.


Cato has a book review forum that was interesting to listen to. In the review they even talk of the Benjamin Franklin anti-immigration quote.  


Below is a synopsis of the book review forum.  


"In a provocative new book, Jason Riley makes the case for welcoming more legal immigrants to the United States. Drawing on history, scholarly studies and first-hand reporting, Riley argues that today’s newcomers are fueling America’s prosperity and dynamism. He challenges the prevailing views on talk radio and cable TV that immigrants are overpopulating the country, stealing jobs, depressing wages, bankrupting social services, filling prisons, resisting assimilation and promoting big government. Comments will be provided by one of the nation’s leading political analysts."  


The books would be interesting to read for a historical perspective. Let Them In: The Case for Open Borders. 
There was also another book they reviewed. I'll see if I can get that one down here too.

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Collective Action, Singular Accomplishment

ASU alumni magazine has this article in it this month about how small community work is better than top down government work.  This article was written on the 2008 Nobel Laureate Elinor Ostrom.

Elinor showed how water sources can be managed locally and how higher up government will just screw things up.  Important studies for AZ and our water issues.  The state of AZ should learn from her studies and let us deal locally with our water issues.

Ostrom identifies eight "design principles" of stable local common pool resource management:

1. Clearly defined boundaries (effective exclusion of external unentitled parties);

2. Rules regarding the appropriation and provision of common resources are adapted to local conditions;

3. Collective-choice arrangements allow most resource appropriators to participate in the decision-making process;

4. Effective monitoring by monitors who are part of or accountable to the appropriators;

5. There is a scale of graduated sanctions for resource appropriators who violate community rules;

6. Mechanisms of conflict resolution are cheap and of easy access;

7. The self-determination of the community is recognized by higher-level authorities;

8. In the case of larger common-pool resources: organization in the form of multiple layers of nested enterprises, with small local CPRs at the base level.

Kathryn Muratore gives this example:

"I was pleasantly surprised when some of my students chose to investigate chemical basis for the claims of gluten-free foods for their class project. Despite my fascination with food labeling, I had absolutely no influence on these students’ choice of a research topic. Among the things that they learned was that the FDA gluten-related regulations appear to be worded so that any company with a good legal team can get around the laws. This has allegedly led to serious illness and death for celiacs. They also found that a consumer advocacy group has more stringent rules for getting their seal of approval on gluten-free foods than does the FDA.

This was a chemistry project, not a policy project, so we didn’t delve into these revelations further. But I hope it underscored for these students that the government is incapable of putting the safety of the consumer first. At the very least, it was another example for me to warn LRC readers about: if you are a celiac, please, please, please do your own research and look for private certification on your foods."

Entrepreneur

The need for school choice.

See this video from TEDx on why public schools can't manage for all kids.  Not all kids are created equal.

Friday, April 16, 2010

Another reason not to support Hayworth for Senate

A good reason not to support Hayworth for governor.

Hayworth supports Pearce’s enforcement bill; McMaverick mum

 Here's what Cato Institute says on the subject. 

 Here's my comments on the immigration issue. Let me know if you know the answers:

I think we need to nail this at the root of the problem. What is the root? We have had an open border historically w/ Mexico for a long time until the recent past. Why is that? Why do we need to close the border now? We need to find that out first. Is it because of the unsuccessful drug war that we keep throwing more and more money at? Maybe we should just legalize drugs and then we can monitor them more closely (like alcohol and cigarettes) the price would come down and then the cartels couldn’t be in business any more.

Could it be because of NAFTA? I talked w/ a geography student who said that NAFTA hasn’t produced fair trade and has caused many Mexicans who used to be farmers (who were booted off by big government subsidized corporate farmers) to move to the big city where they can’t find work and are then forced to cross the border and work in the US. Is it because of the corrupt Mexican government that this happened? Or because of US policies toward Mexico?

I just wanted everyone to think a little more deeply about this.

Also, the e-verify. Is that why border patrol let all these Mexicans pass the border? Is it because there are certain people in the government that want a national ID and use the immigration problem as a scapegoat to pass the legislation that would allow national ID?

We need to protect our freedom just as much from our own government as we need to protect ourselves from violent immigrants. This illegal immigrant stuff is all bull. Something else is going on and we need to figure it out. I wish someone out there knew what was really going on.

Sales Tax Increase

Here's some good comments on the new sales tax increase:

Sales Tax Increase? Easy Answer

State asks taxpayers for more money, but hasn’t cut out government waste

 Think about it this way. AZ schools average $7,000/student and if you say we should give them less they say they won't be able to pay for music, P.E., etc. The private schools charge $5,500/student and are easily able to pay for all of this. Time to privatize our schools, we should know socialism doesn't work by now.

Arizona Turns Immigrant Workers into Criminals

How our reps voted:

Lucy Mason Y
Andrew M. Tobin Y

Cato Institute comments on the recent immigration bill passed by AZ legislators.

http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/2010/04/15/arizona-turns-immigrant-workers-into-criminals/
http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/2010/04/22/papers-please-in-arizona/
The following article is well placed with this new legislation that has passed:
Papers Please: In attacking illegal immigration, Arizona transforms itself to a police state

SB1070: National ID for Arizonans
Here were my comments to Steve Pierce (Steve sponsored this bill):


Hi,

I disagree with this bill due to its anti-liberty stance and its affect on the common people, that being you and me. I would like to discourage you from voting for SB1070 for the following reasons:

11-1051.B & 11-1051.E --> Which can be abused to jail law abiding citizens.

11-1051.F --> This section takes away my right to privacy and establishes a defacto national ID.

11-1051.A, G --> This is in conflict with local control.

11-1051.I --> Law enforcement shouldn't be above the law causing abuses to the people that cannot then be reconciled.

13-1509 --> Duplication of law. There's no reason to make new laws when there are already laws to deal with the problems.

13-2319.E --> Police officers should not be able to pull a person over for anything other than reckless driving and speeding (which reckless driving).

13-2928 --> This takes away the rights of people to freedom of contract.

13-2929 --> This takes away the rights of people to freedom of contract.

23-212 --> This takes away the rights of people to freedom of contract.

Welcome to this New Blog

This blog will be about watching what our representatives are doing in Phoenix. Trying to keep up on the legislators websites seems to be impossibly difficult so this will be an attempt to rectify that.