AZ District 1 News & Reviews

The Philosophy of Liberty

2012-01-29T13:44:00.000-07:00

Very succinct. Pretty impressive.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQ3NsLr1al0&feature=share

Mitt Romney and 3 Ne 16:10

2011-12-21T23:37:00.000-07:00

And thus commandeth the Father that I should say unto you: At that day when the Gentiles shall sin against my gospel, and shall reject the fulness of my gospel, and shall be lifted up in the pride of their hearts above all nations, and above all the people of the whole earth, and shall be filled with all manner of lyings, and of deceits, and of mischiefs, and all manner of hypocrisy, and murders, and priestcrafts, and whoredoms, and of secret abominations; and if they shall do all those things, and shall reject the fulness of my gospel, behold, saith the Father, I will bring the fulness of my gospel from among them.

- That we know what is best for other nations to do.
- That we should force everyone what we think they should be doing.
- That we send mercenaries around the world to get countries to bend to our desires.
- That the murders will be done in secret. The sanctions will be done in secret without the will of those who wish to trade.
- That we reject the teachings of Christ found in D&C 98.

See the video starting at 4:30

Don't get me wrong. I am not nearly perfect, but neither would I support something like this.

There is a better way.

Alternative Pledge (First Draft)

2011-07-03T07:59:00.000-07:00

As a child of God,
I seek for the well being of my fellow countrymen.
I seek to uphold the eternal truths found in the constitution.
I pray to God for His guidance and blessings.

Pledge of Allegiance

2011-04-07T07:15:00.001-07:00

This article is on why I know longer will recite the Pledge of Allegiance.

Let's work through the pledge to try and understand its meaning.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America

This should get you thinking of the ten commandments. What do they say? In regards to this?

I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
If that is not enough let us remember our roots as a country, ...a democratic republic built on freedom of dissent should not require its citizens to pledge allegiance to it.

Also, should we not remember why the pledge was instituted? Was is not in direct conflict of the above statement?

The Pledge of Allegiance was written in 1892 by Francis Bellamy (1855–1931), who was a Baptist minister, a Christian socialist, and the cousin of socialist utopian novelist Edward Bellamy (1850–1898). Bellamy "viewed his Pledge as an 'inoculation' that would protect immigrants and native-born but insufficiently patriotic Americans from the 'virus' of radicalism and subversion."

Was not our country founded on "radicalism and subversion" of the British government? Do we truly want our citizens to be obeisance to the government? Which is in direct conflict to the scripture quoted above?

Let's move on to the next part of the pledge.

to the republic for which it stands

Do I want to pledge allegiance to the crooks in D.C.? Allegiance to the ungodly wars, mass slaughter of people around the world? To the oppression of people's wills in other countries, forcing them off the gold standard, and to oppress other nations through the drug war?

I agree, that a republic of freedom is good. But for which the US currently stands, I cannot and will not agree.

one nation under God

We should be a nation under God but currently we are a nation of sabbath breakers. Do the scriptures not say:

Ye shall make you no idols nor graven image, neither rear you up a standing image, neither shall ye set up any image of stone in your land, to bow down unto it: for I am the Lord your God.

Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am the Lord.

If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them; Then I will give you brain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. And your threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time: and ye shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely. And I will give peace in the land, and ye shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid: and I will rid evil beasts out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land. And ye shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword.

Let's move on to the next part.

indivisible

Is this not directly contradictory to what the founders believed in?

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
Is this not contrary to a people that are believe in freedom?

with liberty and justice for all.

I do desire liberty for all. I do desire justice and mercy for all. Is a highly centralized government the way to achieve this? No, and the founders were not keen on this either. Our current political system does not reflect this, and saying the pledge detracts from this important message.

Finally, having children recite the pledge is not a form of brain washing our children into believing that our current government is benevolent? Does it detract the individual from seeing the truth and create a false patriotism?

The next post I will create a new pledge to God and country.

New Boss Same as the Old Boss

2011-03-08T08:04:00.001-07:00

Hard Drugs for Little Kids

2011-03-07T10:12:00.000-07:00

If you are still debating why drugs should or should not be legalized here's a good argument for the former.

Christianity & War

2010-11-15T08:16:00.000-07:00

Christianity & Preemptive War

Christianity & War

Medical Marijuana Legalization May Pass

2010-11-13T06:25:00.000-07:00

Medical marijuana initiative heads toward passage

See the AZ results here and here.

Happy Armistice Day!

2010-11-11T11:06:00.002-07:00

Or not so happy since we are involved in so many wars right now.

Here's to peace.

Election Results

2010-11-03T08:30:00.000-07:00

From AZ Government Results

US Results

Statewide Results

Local Results

We Are Not Free: The Porno Scanners

2010-11-01T16:32:00.000-07:00

Michael Chertoff says:

“I don’t know why everybody is running to buy these expensive and useless machines. I can overcome the body scanners with enough explosives to bring down a Boeing 747. That’s why we haven’t put them in our airport.” — Rafi Sela, leading Israeli airport security expert, referring to Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion International Airport, which has some of the toughest security in the world.

Proof the Porno Scanners Are for Humiliation and Control

TSA Introduces New Pat-Down at Airport

Pat downs just got worse!

2010 General Election Resources

2010-10-22T22:28:00.000-07:00

From the AZ Secretary of State Website
General Election Info
Propositions
General Election People --> A more useful list with links to candidates websites: The Green Papers

The Freedom Index for National Politics (Look up Kirkpatrick & McCain, it's useful to look up McCain when he was working during Bush Era)

The Financial Scorecard. This is also for national politics.

The Report Card for local politics. For Bennett see this old report card from 2006. The 2005 was better but not by much.

Anti-war: War, Peace, and the State

2010-10-20T21:29:00.000-07:00

Murray Rothbard on war, peace, and the state.

Marijuana

2010-10-19T20:35:00.000-07:00

As Arizona votes to legalize medical marijuana it necessitates understanding how we can become free by making drugs freer.

Drug Decriminalization in Portugal: Lessons for Creating Fair and Successful Drug Policies

On July 1, 2001, a nationwide law in Portugal took effect that decriminalized all drugs, including cocaine and heroin. Under the new legal framework, all drugs were "decriminalized," not "legalized." Thus, drug possession for personal use and drug usage itself are still legally prohibited, but violations of those prohibitions are deemed to be exclusively administrative violations and are removed completely from the criminal realm. Drug trafficking continues to be prosecuted as a criminal offense.

While other states in the European Union have developed various forms of de facto decriminalization — whereby substances perceived to be less serious (such as cannabis) rarely lead to criminal prosecution — Portugal remains the only EU member state with a law explicitly declaring drugs to be "decriminalized." Because more than seven years have now elapsed since enactment of Portugal's decriminalization system, there are ample data enabling its effects to be assessed...

Anarchy = Practicality = Liberty?

2010-10-19T20:20:00.000-07:00

Jesus the Anarcho-capitalist?

James Redford makes an interesting case.

The Stateless Society: An Examination of Alternatives

The practicality of anarchy.

We Are Not Free: The War On Ourselves

2010-10-07T21:48:00.000-07:00

In the news we often see how the government is using scare tactics against its own citizens. You know the end of a great nation is coming when the government starts attacking its own citizens. We saw how the FBI has created "terrorists" groups in our own country and charge them with crimes and sometimes the people, if they're lucky, are acquitted. (See stories found in LewRockwell.com and http://freedominourtime.blogspot.com/).

The latest of these incidents was the witch hunt on anti-war protesters.

We Are Not Free: The System

2010-10-07T21:39:00.000-07:00

One of my arguments against government is the system within it works. It operates in a monopoly of force and hence enables people do that which they might otherwise not do.

When people become cogs in a wheel they tend to do things they otherwise wouldn't, like not use force on others to get them to do something that doesn't even have any consequence. Or hurt someone because they are in a position of power.

A great example of this is a recent fire fighting incident where the firemen refused to put out a fire because the person didn't pay the annual fee (the firefighters were city employees and the house was on county land, so if the person would have liked the service they could have paid the city $75/year). People blamed this incident on the free market. But they don't understand that this incident had nothing to do with the free market. The firefighters were city employees taking instruction from bureaucrats with no customer satisfaction incentive for them to put the fire out. Instead of acting with compassion or offering to put the fire out for a certain amount of money or having the customer pay full price they just let the house burn down. This is not an example against the free market but against government and bureaucracy. Just as we see this incident we will see similar incidents in the new universal health care as more and more people just follow orders and have no incentive (as found in the free market) to go above and beyond their station in life.

Power Corrupts
It's useful to keep this in mind because, while the overwhelming lesson of the last half century of social psychology is that situational influences can easily swamp the effect of individual differences in character, our political rhetoric takes scant account of this. Political campaigns focus heavily on questions of “character”—which especially in the case of “outsider” campaigns should be of limited predictive value. Republican candidates and officials try to portray Democrats as arrogant and out of touch, while Democrats cast Republicans as callous and greedy. In each case, the message is that these are bad people, and their character flaws are somehow related to their specific ideologies. The remedy is, invariably, to replace them in positions of power with better people from the other team. These social science results suggest that this is unlikely to work: The problem is power itself.

We Are Not Free: Why We Fight

2010-10-06T20:49:00.000-07:00

Watch at least the first segment!

We Are Not Free: Injustice Everywhere Update

2010-10-01T07:19:00.000-07:00

From Injustice Everywhere

We Are Not Free: The Secret Government - The Constitution in Crisis

2010-09-17T01:31:00.000-07:00

The Secret Government: The Constitution in Crisis, by Bill Moyers

History is so incredibly important to understand the world we live in. It let's us know the pattern of the world and how it repeats itself. In this video we see the recent history of the United States during the Iran Contra scandal. We see how the CIA and FBI are organizations that are counter to a free society. We see how war is truly the health of the state. We see how we are repeating ourselves.

The loss of liberty at home is to be charged to the provisions against danger, real or imagined, from abroad. - James Madison

Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended; its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied; and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force, of the people. . . . [There is also an] inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war, and . . . degeneracy of manners and of morals. . . . No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare. . . .

[It should be well understood] that the powers proposed to be surrendered [by the Third Congress] to the Executive were those which the Constitution has most jealously appropriated to the Legislature. . . .

The Constitution expressly and exclusively vests in the Legislature the power of declaring a state of war . . . the power of raising armies . . . the power of creating offices. . . .

A delegation of such powers [to the President] would have struck, not only at the fabric of our Constitution, but at the foundation of all well organized and well checked governments.

The separation of the power of declaring war from that of conducting it, is wisely contrived to exclude the danger of its being declared for the sake of its being conducted.

The separation of the power of raising armies from the power of commanding them, is intended to prevent the raising of armies for the sake of commanding them.

The separation of the power of creating offices from that of filling them, is an essential guard against the temptation to create offices for the sake of gratifying favourites or multiplying dependents. - James Madison from Letters and Other Writings of James Madison.

Excerpts from the film:

I wouldn't be here if my father and my brothers were involved in the secret war. I am here because I have no choice of being here...[The] CIA goofed up because they weren't willing to carry through with their goals. They think it's so simple that people are like pawns in a game like a chess game. In a game you can move them wherever you want but you have to understand that human life is very different from playing a game because a game once you lose there's nothing at stake, but when you lose a person's life or devastate a whole country, as they did to my country. - Hmong man from Laos

Can we have perpetual war and democracy? - Bill Moyers

If we continue these policies to rob ourselves in order to feed this national security monster we're going to continue to degrade American life. That's real national security. National security for the United States is making the United States a good place to live where people want to be active, intelligent, involved citizens. For people at the top to say this world is so complicated and so dangerous, just a few of us need to govern it and hold the secrets in, and we will tell you what's good for you. That is moving down the road to dictatorship. - Roger Wilkins

Oliver North was the Colonel who was spot lighted in the video. He believed in obeying orders of the president (king) regardless if they were legal or ethical.

The person that posted this video had the following commentary. Not all his beliefs are necessarily mine.

This is the full length 90 min. version of Bill Moyer's 1987 scathing critique of the criminal subterfuge carried out by the Executive Branch of the United States Government to carry out operations which are clearly contrary to the wishes and values of the American people. The ability to exercise this power with impunity is facilitated by the National Security Act of 1947. The thrust of the exposé is the Iran-Contra arms and drug-running operations which flooded the streets of our nation with crack cocaine. The significance of the documentary is probably greater today in 2007 than it was when it was made. We now have a situation in which these same forces have committed the most egregious terrorist attack on US soil and have declared a fraudulent so-called "War on Terror". The ruling regime in the US who have conducted the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, are now banging the war drum against Iran. We have the PATRIOT act which has stripped us of many of our basic civil rights justified by the terror of 9/11 which is their own doing.

National News & Blogs 9/9/2010

2010-09-09T07:12:00.001-07:00

Free market medicine vs. the AMA and government

My thoughts: The best argument I've heard so far against socialized medicine based on current regulations and not just principles.

Charts: College Tuition vs. Housing Bubble vs. Medical Costs

It's a story of an industry that may sound familiar. The buyers think what they’re buying will appreciate in value, making them rich in the future. The product grows more and more elaborate, and more and more expensive, but the expense is offset by cheap credit provided by sellers eager to encourage buyers to buy.

What kills you after an Economic Collapse

Poverty, crime, auto accidents, & stress.

The Simple Case for Limited Government or Ordered Anarchy

2010-09-08T09:03:00.000-07:00

The Two Party System

If you objectively compare the two parties they are pretty much the same. Lets see, Bush increased socialized health care more than any other previous president, he got us into two wars (one where all the reasons have been proven false), and he took away many of our civil liberties (patriot act, Guantanamo, etc.). Obama has increased socialized health care more than any previous president, he has continued two unpopular wars (after receiving the Nobel Peace prize) and has expanded or increased them to other countries (Yemen, Pakistan, Iran (economic sanctions is a form of war), etc.), he has taken away our civil liberties (made it possible to kill American citizens by presidential decree, etc.).

Governmental or Non-governmental Systems

God said, “Thou shalt not steal” and “Thou shalt not covet.” He has also given us commandments to help our neighbors and treat them well, these commandments are individual mandates, not group mandates.

What does it mean to steal? Wiktionary says this: "To illegally, or without the owner's permission, take possession of something by surreptitiously taking or carrying it away." What does it mean to covet? Again, Wiktionary says this: "To yearn, have or indulge inordinate desire, notably for another's possession."

So how does that equate to political philosophy? The government steals and covets the wealth of others. Therefore, the only moral government would be one that only taxes those who voluntarily contribute to its cause. This would necessarily create a small, limited government.

What about the golden role? It’s said in the scriptures "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." Government necessarily doesn't do this. I would not have someone come into my house, kill my dogs, terrorize my spouse and children all because I have an ounce of marijuana.

Government is a monopoly of violence and consequently will attract those who love violence. It is also a monopoly. Monopolies tend toward inefficiencies since they have no true competition. Hence the reason no matter how much we vote and care government will continue to grow and do things that no one can agree on. It's the nature of the beast, it can't be stopped.

Government also likes to take credit where credit isn't due. Take unions. They were once completely voluntary organizations (well, I don't know the entire history but they weren't forced to begin with) and they created great changes in how labor was done. The government first was against unions but then embraced them and said they were responsible for them and now create unions. This can be said for the civil rights movement too.

I know government isn't all bad, some things they do are good, but immoral actions will have immoral consequences. What's the best solution? I don't really know. If the necessary evil is true then give me limited governments that protects our individual rights. If the necessary evil is not true then give me voluntarism (ordered anarchy).

What do I worry about anarchy? Will it lead to tribalism? I think that depends on the righteousness of the people, just like any governmental system. Take the quakers of the 16th and 17th century. They had brief periods of anarchy (as mentioned in the book "Conceived in Liberty" by Murray Rothbard) and had a wonderful non-taxed people with little or no violence. The only thing that was bad about it is that they were unable to fend off the greedy men that wished to rule over them and take for themselves that which was not theirs. Apparently the Irish lived in anarchy for some time but I haven't read about it yet. Also, some Asians purposely lived a subsistence life in the mountains to avoid living under governmental control.

The Israelites at one point lived with less laws and compulsion as the scripture says "In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes." This scripture alludes to two things. That the people were free but that also the people were not united which caused great evils to occur. Anarchy needs a united and righteous people to function properly. But even with this great evil the Israelites were warned against kings.

Case study, Greece by Stefan Molyneux see also The Stateless Society: An Examination of Alternatives.

AZ US Representative Primaries (District 1)

2010-09-08T08:26:00.000-07:00

Wrote this some time ago but never posted it.

The number of candidates for the Republican nomination is quite amazing. I'll go through each one and give my opinions. I'll also give the resources where you can find more information about each candidate.

Bradley Beauchamp

Link to audio interview
Immigration: This guy wants a police state on our national border. He doesn't address the core issues, like the drug war (etc.) that is causing the border problems so it doesn't seem like he is a deep thinker when it comes to politics.
Member of the NRA. Not too conservative and not a freedom loving organization. There are other Rifle associations (like Gun Owner's of America , etc.) that actually supports the 2nd amendment. Listen to Ernest Hancock talk on the corrupt NRA with Sherriff Mack.
Government Healthcare: He says we shouldn't have nationalized healthcare but turns around and says we should keep medicare/medicaid. Where's the principled stand?
Energy: He says the government should be involved and that it shouldn't be led by the free market.
Overall view: I think Beauchamp doesn't understand the principles of freedom. Although he seems like a good guy I can see him losing his "principles" quickly once in Washington. Beauchamp doesn't stand for individual freedom.

Russell "Rusty" Bowers

Rusty was a state legislator for nine years starting in 1992 and state senate for five years. Here's what he has posted on his legislator record :

Growing Smarter Land Planning: That sounds bad but I don't know enough abou it to have an opinion.
Senate Appropriations Chairman and Senate Majority Leader: He sounds seasoned. Should I be afraid of this guy?

A Moral Movement of Absolute Individual Freedom

2010-08-18T13:53:00.001-07:00

Gold Dinar & Silver Dirham
...the dinar & dirham represent a moral movement of absolute individual freedom.
Watch the whole clip.

War with Libya because of the Dinar?

War & Social Security

2010-08-17T06:46:00.001-07:00

This is the desire of those who proclaim war
‘Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it’

...the chain of historical events which led up to today’s National Security State and the American empire. From Harry Truman to Barack Obama, we have seen an out-of-control executive branch wage unconstitutional, undeclared wars by centralizing power in the presidency. How did this all come about? Here are three exceptional documentaries which introduce that history. The first film is the 1987 PBS documentary, The Secret Government: The Constitution In Crisis, narrated by Bill Moyers. It explores the comprehensive background of the secret covert government established in 1947 by the National Security Act. In particular, this powerful video compares and contrasts the Iran-Contra affair of the Reagan era with that of the Watergate scandal of 12 years earlier which brought down Richard Nixon. The second documentary is the exceedingly rarely seen 1988 Coverup: Behind the Iran Contra Affair, narrated by Elizabeth Montgomery. As you watch this extraordinary story unfold, you will see precisely why this incredible film has been shoved down the Orwellian Memory Hole for many decades. It discusses not only the hidden dimensions of the Iran-Contra affair but also the October Surprise scandal of 1980; CIA complicity in the global narcotics trade; CIA assassinations and covert activities; and FEMA, REX84, and the suspension of the U. S. Constitution.
Many of the Reagan administration criminals and nefarious characters featured in both of these first two documentaries will later turn up in the George W. Bush administration — “continuity of government.” A key component to the Iran-Contra affair was the secret shipment of cocaine from Central America to the United States under the cover of the National Security State. One of the major delivery points of these narcotics was Mena, Arkansas. The third documentary, The Clinton Chronicles, details how then governor Bill Clinton and his administration were up to their eyeballs in these illegal covert activities. For more information on these matters, please consult this book list.
Get the links

Social Security & The Ponzi Scheme (by Christopher Manion)

In 1956, my father got Pearl-Harbored (one might say he was almost Hiroshima’d) for suggesting on his popular radio show that Social Security was a “Ponzi Scheme.” He told the story of Ponzi’s arrest, incarceration, and ultimate deportation to Italy — and then made some poignant observations about the Social Security program:

“Ironically, Ponzi was hardly out of the country before the same federal government that had imprisoned him for fraud proceeded to adopt the Ponzi “get rich easy” scheme as its very own. Ponzi had represented his financial jackpot as a “securities exchange.” The federal government proceeded to call it “Social Security.”

The federal government was able to add some important features to this bizarre shell-game that were unavailable to Ponzi. First of all, the federal government cannot be prosecuted for fraud. But more important than that is the exclusive governmental feature of compulsory participation.”

Today, 54 years later, Paul Krugman exonerates the Federal Ponzis, insisting that “cruel attacks” on its solvency are baseless because “Social Security has been running surpluses for the last quarter-century, banking those surpluses in a special account, the so-called trust fund.” But just in case — how could the Compassionate Krugman resist?—- he one-ups Ponzi with his usual bromide: tax the rich.

In the mid-1980′s, a stalwart senate staff colleague of mine decided to find this “Social Security Trust Fund.” She finally found it, literally, in the desk drawer of a mid-level federal bureaucrat somewhere in West Virginia — handwritten numbers representing the “value” of the “trust fund” for each passing year. Of course, the “bank account” had no money in it: Congress had already spent every penny.

Random News

2010-08-12T08:12:00.000-07:00

Researcher claims solution to P vs NP math problem

Vinay Deolalikar, a mathematician who works for HP Labs, claims to have proven that P is not equal to NP. The problem is the greatest unsolved problem in theoretical computer science and is one of seven problems in which the Clay Mathematics Institute has offered million dollar prizes to the solutions.

The question of whether P equals NP essentially asks whether there exist problems which take a long time to solve but whose solutions can be checked quickly. More formally, a problem is said to be in P if there is a program for a Turing machine, an ideal theoretical computer with unbounded amounts of memory, such that running instances of the problem through the program will always answer the question in polynomial time — time always bounded by some fixed polynomial power of the length of the input. A problem is said to be in NP, if the problem can be solved in polynomial time when instead of being run on a Turing machine, it is run on a non-deterministic Turing machine, which is like a Turing machine but is able to make copies of itself to try different approaches to the problem simultaneously.
My thoughts: It will be interesting how this turns out.

Early puberty for US girls raises health risk

According to a new study, US girls are reaching puberty earlier than ever, a trend that raises some health concerns.... Though the study didn't address why US girls were reaching breast development earlier, it found that heavier girls reached puberty earlier.... Scientists and researchers are also worried about chemicals like bisphenol A (BPA) and atrazine that could disrupt growth hormones. The chemical industry says that these chemicals are safe and are harmless to humans.

Herman-Giddens also said that it can be confusing to hit puberty at a young age. Girls reaching puberty at a younger age are more likely to attempt suicide. Also, earlier puberty can cause low self-esteem and depression and at adulthood, girls who reached puberty earlier are more likely to have breast cancer and endometrial cancer.

Religious Roots of Liberty

2010-08-11T22:49:00.000-07:00

Click on the link to read the whole thing.

Religious Roots of Liberty

Mises Daily: Wednesday, August 26, 2009 by Rev. Edmund A. Opitz

Every variety of tyranny rests upon the belief that some persons have a right — or even a duty — to impose their wills upon other people. Tyranny may be fastened upon others by the mere whim of one man, such as a king or dictator under various names. Or tyranny may be imposed upon a minority "for their own good" by a democratically elected majority. But in any case, tyranny is always a denial — or a misunderstanding — of the mandates of an authority or law higher than man himself.

Liberty rests upon the belief that all proper authority for man's relationships with his fellow men comes from a source higher than man — from the Creator. Liberty decrees that all men — subject and ruler alike — are bound by this higher authority which is above and beyond man-made law; that each person has a relation to his Maker with which no other person, not even the ruler, has any right to interfere. In order to make these conceptions effective for liberty, they must be deeply ingrained in the fundamental values of a people. That is to say, they must be part of the popular religion. There was one people of antiquity for whom this was true, the people who gave us our Old Testament. It was among the ancient Israelites that the conviction took hold and emerged into practice that there was a God of righteousness whose judgments applied even to rulers.

All over the Middle East, patient researchers have turned up monuments and vainglorious inscriptions carved into rock or pressed into clay at the behest of proud kings. Except in Palestine! [This remind you of DC and Mount Rushmore?]

An authority states that there is not a single royal inscription from any of the Bible kings. The Prophets saw to that! No boastful king in ancient Israel would have presumed to leave an inscription dedicated to his own glory, much as he felt he deserved such.

Now, no people live together without conforming to a commonly accepted code, and without having recourse at times to law. The people of ancient Palestine lived under authority, not in a condition of anarchy. If the king was not the source of their law, there must have been another and higher source. There is no doubt as to what their authority was: they looked to God as the source of their law.

Nearly every man was learned in this law, and also deeply involved in the religious relation to God in which the law was rooted — and liberty was a precious by-product of these conditions. Establish these conditions — that is, widely held religious values in which God is regarded as the source of authority and justice, superior to any earthly power — and they provide a firm foundation for political liberty.

In these circumstances there is a continuous check to tyranny, should any such attempt to raise its head. Neglect these conditions, and liberty has no roots. It is like a cut flower which has no vitality in itself and does not last beyond the life it derived from the plant. The way is prepared for tyranny.

Collectivist regimes, in the nature of things, must be profoundly irreligious, even to the extent of pressing a corrupted religion into service to shore up tyranny. Genuine religious experience entails the recognition of an inviolable essence in men, the human soul. It inculcates a sense of the worth and dignity of the person and breeds resistance to efforts to submerge individuals in the mass.

Men whose personal experience convinces them that they are creatures of God will not become willing creatures of the state, nor attempt to make creatures of other men. For them, God is the Lord, whose service is perfect freedom; and Caesar is the ruler, whom to serve is bondage.

It was upon such a faith that this country was founded. Those who migrated to these shores in the early days did not always see the full implications of their beliefs, and sometimes acted contrary to them. But in the end those beliefs prevailed, and they are recognizable in American institutions.

An experiment based on those principles was launched on these shores less than two centuries ago. It was the result of a conscious effort to forge an instrumentality of government in conformity with the higher law, based on the widely held conviction that God is the author of liberty.

So long as men accepted the basic affirmations of religion — that there is a God of all people with whom each individual has a personal relationship — our liberties were basically secure. Whenever there was a breach in them, we possessed a principle by which we could discover and repair the breach. But when there ceases to be a constant recurrence to fundamental principles, our political freedom is placed in jeopardy. Political liberty is not self-sustained; it rests upon a religious base.

All men desire to be free, and the will to be free is perpetually renewed in each individual who uses his faculties and affirms his manhood. But the mere desire to be free has never saved any people who did not know and establish the things on which freedom depends — and these are the things of religion. The God-concept, when cherished in the values of a people, is the universal solvent of tyranny, for, as Job said, "He looseth the bond of kings" (Job 12:18).

AZ New & Blogs 8/10/2010

2010-08-10T22:28:00.002-07:00

Goddard calls for end to private-school credits

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry Goddard is calling for the suspension of tax credits for private schools and the return of state funding for all-day kindergarten as part of an education plan released Thursday.

Goddard, the current attorney general, also called for more local control of education, saying state lawmakers spend too much time micromanaging classroom teachers.
My thoughts: We must fully brainwash your children. If we don't have them in schools 24/7 then we cannot properly do that. Oh, and we want you to have local control over your classrooms by making it so you can't give your hard earned money to the schools of your choice.

AZ Capitol Times 2010 Election Site
Federal Appeals Court Declares Connecticut's Matching Funds System Unconstitutional

Today, the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals barred the matching funds provisions of Connecticut's version of government funding for political candidates. The unanimous opinion mirrors the Goldwater Institute's arguments in a federal lawsuit that prompted the U.S. Supreme Court to block Arizona's matching funds provision on June 8, 2010.

"The First Amendment requires matching funds to be struck down," said Nick Dranias, Goldwater Institute director of constitutional studies and lead attorney in the lawsuit against Arizona's matching funds provision. "Political speech by one candidate cannot be silenced by the threat of government campaign subsidies to the opposing candidate."

A three-judge panel for the Second Circuit declared that Connecticut's matching funds "imposes a substantial burden on the exercise of the First Amendment right to use personal funds for campaign speech."

Escaped murderers kill NM couple, flee to Yellowstone National Park

Escaped murderers Tracy Province, 42, who was serving a life sentence for murder and robbery, and John McCluskey, 45, serving 15 years for second-degree murder, aggravated assault and discharge of a firearm; and Casslyn Mae Welch, 44, McCluskey's cousin and fiancee who helped the men escape from a medium-security prison near Kingman.

New Study: Speed Cameras Cause Bad Driving, Increase Crashes

We’ve known since they first appeared, but now it’s official: Speed cameras cause bad driving. A recent poll by UK car insurance provider Liverpool Victoria, 81% of drivers said they looked at the speedometer instead of the road when a camera appeared, and 5% admitted to braking suddenly when in sight of a camera. Liverpool Victoria managing director John O’Roarke was quoted as saying, “…while they may reduce speed they also appear to impair driving ability or, at the least, concentration on the road. As this report shows some drivers behave erratically and, at worst, dangerously around speed cameras.”
To prove the point that the opposite is true – that removing cameras reduces accidents – the Telegraph reported Saturday on newly reduced data from Swindon (UK). Swindon turned off their cameras 9 months ago, and similar to Arizona, experts predicted a bloodbath. Redflex’s Shoba Vaitheeswaran predicted, “…watch for a large increase in aggressive, dangerous driving” after Arizona ended its statewide contract. Instead, the opposite has happened. Since the cameras were turned off, injury and fatality crashes were down by 4% and 50% respectively in the entire area. At the camera sites themselves, fatalities dropped from 1 to 0 and non-injury accidents dropped from 13 to 12. We expect similar results in Arizona.

A good news local public school story

There's a wonderful story in today's Star about Principal Ray Chavez and Apollo Middle School in the Sunnyside district, and the positive changes since he took over a few years ago.

The story is so glowing, it almost sounds too good to be true, but I'm going to take it on face value.

The story it brings up that old question, if this school can do it, why can't others? My tentative answer is, others can do it as well, but it's not as simple as "Let's see what they're doing at Apollo and do it here." Educational success doesn't transport easily. Education isn't like McDonalds where you can drop a new, identical franchise and expect it to function just like the others around the country. Educational success is much more complicated and fragile. It takes a certain level of genius and determination from administration and staff, and a chemistry that works.

The story is well worth a read.
My thoughts: Public schools = Regression to the Mean

If you are really good at what you do, you have a problem. Some of your peers are gunning for you – not to beat you by outperforming you, but by taking you down or out. To understand why, you would be wise to know the story of Jaime Escalante.

U.S. Senate candidate Deakin facing foreclosure

Doh, Seeing Red, he has a recant! See Statement by Jim Deakin Campaign Regarding Foreclosure

CD1 Candidate Beauchamp Named in Lawsuit

The suit, filed in Gila County Superior Court on June 21, 2010 (CV2009-0340), charges Trent with intimidation and coercion against current and ex staff members at Globe High School. Beauchamp, a Globe attorney and former GUSD school board member, has been cited as conspiring with Trent to intimidate and cause the termination of staff members at GHS. In one case, Patrick A. Ward, a former teacher at GHS and defensive coordinator of the GHS football team, had 3 potential employment contracts either cancelled or rescinded after Beauchamp or Trent directly contacted the Superintendents of the schools in New Mexico which had offered Ward employment contracts.

Texas ranches overtaken by Mexican drug cartels

In a series of articles, the Cypress Times has reported that two ranches in Laredo, Texas were seized by armed members of the Los Zetas Mexican drug cartel. The initial report, with links to Diggers Realm, can be read here.

Today, it is confirmed that multiple ranches have been taken over by drug gangs.
My thoughts: Yep, solution is easy. Legalize the production, distribution, and consumption of all drugs.

Is Stuffing Lucrative Private Prisons with Immigrants the Real Motive Behind SB1070?

Channel 5 investigates and makes Governor Brewer flee in terror from their questions about links between her key advisors and the private prison industry.
My thoughts: Is this for real? Don't know. But neither would I be surprised.

Valedictorian speaks out against schooling in graduation speech

See the video.

The following speech was delivered by top of the class student Erica Goldson during the graduation ceremony at Coxsackie-Athens High School on June 25, 2010
...This is the dilemma I've faced within the American education system. We are so focused on a goal, whether it be passing a test, or graduating as first in the class. However, in this way, we do not really learn. We do whatever it takes to achieve our original objective.

Some of you may be thinking, "Well, if you pass a test, or become valedictorian, didn't you learn something? Well, yes, you learned something, but not all that you could have. Perhaps, you only learned how to memorize names, places, and dates to later on forget in order to clear your mind for the next test. School is not all that it can be. Right now, it is a place for most people to determine that their goal is to get out as soon as possible.

This was happening to me, and if it wasn't for the rare occurrence of an avant-garde tenth grade English teacher, Donna Bryan, who allowed me to open my mind and ask questions before accepting textbook doctrine, I would have been doomed. I am now enlightened, but my mind still feels disabled. I must retrain myself and constantly remember how insane this ostensibly sane place really is.
I am now supposed to say farewell to this institution, those who maintain it, and those who stand with me and behind me, but I hope this farewell is more of a "see you later" when we are all working together to rear a pedagogic movement. But first, let's go get those pieces of paper that tell us that we're smart enough to do so!

Grigori Rasputin Bailout

Sending billions of federal taxpayer dollars to teachers and other public school employees is the bailout that just won’t die. It’s been sliced, shot up in a firefight between Democrats, and even had a battle with food stamps, but it just can’t be killed!

Now, let’s be clear: This is not some wonderful crusade all about helping ”the children.” It is pure political evil, a naked ploy to appease teachers’ unions and other public school employees that Democrats need motivated for the mid-term elections. It has to be, because the data are crystal clear: We’ve been adding staff by the truckload for decades without improving achievement one bit. Since 1970 (see the charts below) public school employment has increased 10 times faster than enrollment, while test scores have stagnated.

Presidential Dictatorship: Not Thinking Things Through

In fact, Obama is not materially different from his predecessor in any significant way. Mssrs. Christian and Robbins depict Obama as a unique threat to our "Anglo-Saxon" tradition of liberty protected by law. But it was Bush -- acting under the influence of his Sith Master, Dick Cheney -- who disemboweled the habeas corpus guarantee, the foundation of common law protections of individual rights. Granted, Obama has embraced and enlarged on Bush's actions, but the damage was done before the "alien" occupied the Oval Office. Perhaps Christian and Robbins intend to intimate that the threat Obama poses to the "Anglo-Saxon" tradition is a matter of identity, rather than performance, given that the chief damage was done by Bush the All-American Boy, rather than Obama the "alien."

When Awlaki's father -- working with the ACLU and the Center for Constitutional Rights -- filed an emergency appeal for an injunction to prevent the extra-judicial state murder of his son, "a significant and extraordinary problem arose," notes Greenwald: Regulations issued by the Treasury Department under the Bush administration "prohibit U.S. persons from engaging in any transactions with individuals labeled by the Government as `Specially Designated Global Terrorists,' and those regulations specifically bar lawyers from providing legal services to such individuals without a special `license' from the Treasury Department specifically allowing such representation."

"On July 16, roughly two weeks after Awlaki's father retained the ACLU and CCR to file suit, the Treasury Department slapped that label on Awlaki," Greenwald continues. "That action would have made it a criminal offense for those organizations to file suit on behalf of Awlaki or otherwise provide legal representation to him without express permission from the U.S. Government."

Timothy Geithner, the career criminal in charge of the Treasury Department, has condescended to issue the requested license, thereby permitting Awlaki's father to press his legal challenge. This also preserves the supposed authority of the executive branch to grant or deny -- on any whimsical basis it considers appropriate -- permission to attorneys seeking to defend the legal rights of people on the president's "kill list."

Last January, after Awlaki was accused of inciting the attempted Christmas bombing of Northwest Flight 253, his father was asked why he didn't encourage his son to return to the United States to confront the charges.

"I will do my best to convince my son to do this," Awlaki told CNN, but he understandably doesn't trust a government that claims the right to execute his son without trial -- or even formal criminal charges.

"They want to kill my son," he pointed out. "How can the American government kill one of their own citizens?"

The unsettling answer to that troubling question is one terrifying word: "easily." Obama's conservative critics want to make this task even easier still. They really haven't thought this through, have they?

President of Mexico Calls for Debate on Legalization of Drugs

For the first time ever, Mexican President Felipe Calderón said yesterday that it was “fundamental” to have a debate on the legalization of drugs. Calderon, from the conservative National Action Party (PAN), had until now been reluctant to pay heed to the growing calls in Mexico and Latin America for a hemispheric debate on drug legalization. Once they left office, two of Calderón’s predecessors—Ernesto Zedillo and Vicente Fox—have also engaged in the debate, calling for the need to legalize drugs as a way to battle the drug violence that is crippling Mexico. Others, such as Jorge Castaneda, former foreign minister of Mexico, have also called for an end to prohibition.

Patriotism: What is it?

2010-08-06T11:25:00.000-07:00

Wikipedia defines it thus:
Patriotism is love and devotion to one's country or homeland.

My wife defines it like this:
A positive appreciation of those who came before you and a willingness to create a better community.

The first definition I have a problem with since it creates a blindness and unwillingness to create the better community (it is necessary to look at yourself with a critical eye in order to see what needs to be made better). The first definition creates the support for unjust wars, fallacious concepts, and continuance of policies that have proven to be false.

Under my wife's definition a patriot could be just about everyone and you lose the partisan politics. Both Bush and Obama could be patriots (to the consternation of their foes). It's difficult to see into the hearts of our leaders and be able to tell what they truly believe.

Under my wife's definition even I become a patriot since I truly am grateful for what the founders of our country did by creating the freest country, although not entirely free. But I am grateful that we are closer than ever before to becoming a free people. So what is it that I do to improve my community? Right now I'm trying to be productive by contributing to the market place (hopefully I'll finish my project soon) and I am also trying to help people think more critically and not fall back into partisan politics but think of the truly best way to fix our problems, you could say I'm trying to help free minds.

Sharing Political Views

2010-08-02T23:19:00.000-07:00

I can relate to the interviewer (whether I am right or wrong I do not know, but I like to think I am):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjbPZAMked0&feature=player_embedded

As Arizona Goes, So Goes the Nation: How Medicaid Ruins the States' Fiscal Health

2010-07-29T05:31:00.000-07:00

As Arizona Goes, So Goes the Nation: How Medicaid Ruins the States' Fiscal Health

No. 6, July 2008
All is not well in Senator John McCain's home state. Confronted with a general fund budget shortfall of more than $1.3 billion, the Arizona legislature in June enacted modest cuts (primarily in community college and prison budgets), a stepped-up traffic enforcement system to produce some $90 million in speeding tickets, and $2 billion in new debt--half of it to close the hole in the $10.9 billion budget. (The other half will fund university construction.) The budget is a stopgap measure that bodes ill both for next year's budget and for the state's fiscal future, and no Arizona politician pretends otherwise.
Measured as a percentage of the state's fiscal year 2008 general fund, Arizona's projected FY 2009 deficit was the most serious shortfall of any state, exceeding even California's....
Arizona's fiscal crisis is due chiefly to the state's expansion of its Medicaid programs. That decision, in turn, is largely attributable to the perverse incentives created by Medicaid's inordinately generous transfers to the states. To oversimplify slightly, states get into fiscal trouble not because the feds shirk their obligations, but because they have made promises to pay in the first place. While Arizona's problems are exacerbated by a dysfunctional political system, the state's predicament illustrates a pervasive structural crisis.
Despite a relatively conservative political climate, Arizona used to be a high-tax state. Over the decades, however, Arizona's tax burden has remained roughly constant, while that of many other states has risen. As a result, Arizona has improved its position relative to other states. By the most widely used measure (the Tax Foundation's index of state tax burdens), Arizona is now near the median in terms of combined state and local tax burden on citizens....
However, the fiscal effects of federal-to-state transfers are not unambiguously positive, even for net recipient states like Arizona. While federal grant programs may have some fiscal substitution effect, on balance they increase state and local taxation and spending. By making program expansions look cheap and making cuts look outrageously expensive, federal matching grants ratchet up spending and taxes and tend to exacerbate the states' boom-and-bust budget cycles. All else equal, those effects increase in proportion to the matching program's size and generosity....
Under Medicaid, the federal government reimburses between 50 and 77 percent of a state's qualifying expenditures, depending on the state's wealth. Put differently, a state can purchase a dollar's worth of Medicaid health services at a cost of less than fifty cents to itself. Less happily, it cannot cut a dollar from its domestic budget without "losing" federal transfers....
Some states now cover families with incomes of up to 275 percent of the poverty level. Almost all provide long-term care for the poor and low-income elderly. In a few states, one-third of the population is now on Medicaid. In Arizona, about one-fifth of the population receives health care coverage through AHCCCS [Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System]....
Unsurprisingly, Medicaid expenditures constitute an ever-growing share of state expenditures. In 1987, that share amounted to slightly more than 10 percent. In 1992, the number was 17.8 percent; in 2006, 22.2 percent....
In Arizona, the crowding-out has been far more severe and rapid. The state's involvement with Medicaid did not begin until 1982, with the creation of AHCCCS. Previously, Arizona had been the only state to reject federal Medicaid funds. (Individual counties provided a piecemeal system of health care for the state's indigent.) AHCCCS was the first statewide Medicaid program to use managed care, offering recipients a variety of private and public health plans that channeled them into private physicians' offices. As recently as 2002, AHCCCS was cited as a model Medicaid program.
But AHCCCS has since caused much fiscal and budgetary trouble. These difficulties can be traced to the enactment of Proposition 204 in 2000, which substantially expanded Medicaid-eligible populations and services. Proposition 204 significantly loosened eligibility requirements for several AHCCCS programs. (For example, it allowed persons with incomes above the poverty line to spend down their income on medical bills to qualify for coverage.)...
The option of finding offsets for increased Medicaid spending elsewhere in the budget is illusory. Only the general fund and "other appropriated funds"--less than half of all state expenditures combined--are actually subject to the legislature's appropriation authority. "Other" appropriated funds are earmarked, and even within the general fund, about 60 percent of spending is essentially nondiscretionary, as it is automatically set to increase or decrease each year.[9] Thus, short of closing down community colleges and state prisons (or, perhaps, launching an aggressive pro-smoking campaign to raise short-term revenues and long-term mortality rates among Medicaid consumers), the Arizona legislature can do only what it has, in fact, done: enact phony cuts, use traffic enforcement as a revenue device (not a tax and therefore not subject to the Proposition 108 two-thirds requirement), and issue a pile of new debt....
Arizona instead resorted to aping the Bush administration's major domestic policy innovation: the tax-free, debt-only finance of a major public health program.
No state can avoid the choice between more debt or rip-roaring tax hikes, combined in some way. The only plausible solutions to the states' Medicaid-induced fiscal troubles are to be found in Washington. Those solutions, however, have foundered and will continue to founder--paradoxically, due to the opposition of the states.

It is tempting but wrong to view Medicaid's stupendous, irresistible growth trends and its effects on state budgets as accidents. Medicaid is designed to be fiscally unsustainable--but politically self-sustaining....
Medicaid has created a political wonderland: to a man and woman, public officials who know the program to be ruinous to their states nonetheless clamor for more of the same. There is no will or incentive in Washington for a call to reality--not among Democrats, who rightly view Medicaid (and SCHIP) as HillaryCare on a bicycle, and not among Republicans, who are receptive to the intergovernmental lobby's call for "states' rights" and its clamor against "unfunded mandates" (and never mind that Medicaid is neither).
Eventually, Medicaid will fall victim to the late Herbert Stein's law: something that cannot go on will eventually stop. No one knows on what terms it will stop. We do know this, though: before it stops, there will be a lot more Arizonas.

My thoughts: ...And socialism sucks. I still can't excuse our legislatures for our debt. They are there to be leaders and to tell the truth not lie and be cowardly.

We Are Not Free: 40 Years of the Drug War

2010-07-28T06:01:00.000-07:00

On how, after 40 years, drugs are more plentiful, accessible, and cheaper than ever before. Also, on how we have become a police state because the war.

We Are Not Free: Politicians and their fear of the free man

2010-07-28T05:53:00.000-07:00

In light of Arizona politicians refusing to uphold the freedom of the individual mandate found in the Arizona constitution I thought it appropriate to explore this a bit further.
Arizona's constitutions says the following:
Article II.
Section 1. A frequent recurrence to fundamental principles is essential to the security of
individual rights and the perpetuity of free government.
Section 2. All political power is inherent in the people, and governments derive their
just powers from the consent of the governed, and are established to protect and maintain
individual rights.

It seems to find an honest politician is very rare as they seek power and not the defense of liberty. This story goes into how an Idaho politician has been berated by the system and his "fellow republicans" for not upholding the power of the state.

The Plunderbund's Persecution of Phil Hart
Rep. Hart's actual offense was not withholding payment of taxes, but rather refusing to surrender to the IRS the names and contact information of the thousands of people who purchased his self-published book Constitutional Income: Do You Have Any?, a detailed, scholarly examination of the history of the federal income tax.

"I read your book `Constitutional Income: Do You Have Any?'" Hart was notified in a letter from IRS agent Barbara Parks announcing that the state-sponsored terrorist clique employing her was beginning an "investigation" of the book. The purpose of that inquiry, she continued, was "to determine whether or not your statements are commercial speech and whether this activity causes harm to the government."

With the help of the Center for Individual Rights, Hart successfully sued the IRS to interdict the agency's demand that he turn over the names of everybody who had purchased his book. Four years later, the IRS retaliated against Hart by issuing a final audit report denying all of his business deductions for eight years, hitting him with an additional tax liability of roughly $125,000.

Already under siege by the world's most despicable terrorist syndicate (no, not al-Qaeda -- the IRS), Hart now has to contend with spurious charges of seeking "special treatment" and "financial gain." Yet state Rep. Ken Roberts remains secure within the Idaho Republican Party in spite of the fact, recently disclosed by the Lewiston Tribune, that Roberts has received nearly $370,000 in farm subsidies since 1995.

Roberts, who ritualistically reviles subsidies directed at others, insists that when he's on the receiving end of plunder he's not redistributing wealth, but rather "recycling wealth." Predictably, nobody in the state Republican leadership has proposed that Roberts be subjected to an ethics inquiry.

My thoughts: Typical of politicians. They have no moral grounding.

We Are Not Free: The kingship of the presidency

2010-07-28T05:40:00.000-07:00

Dan Carlin talks about how Vietnam proves that the Senate abdicated it's war power to the presidency and how the power of the purse given to the House of Representatives is a false power. Listen to the whole thing here.

Response to an Anti-immigration Forwarded E-mail

2010-07-26T07:06:00.000-07:00

Response:

Ha ha. Yes, it's great to know we live in a freer country by seeing what other authoritarian regimes do. It's a great reminder of how we should be, and not be. I never really understood the anti-illegal immigration thing since it's just people freely moving from one place to the next and the only thing that makes it illegal is some arbitrary law made by politicians that are bought and paid for by some special interest group. Did you know there that if we had more of an open border we would see up to 90% of the immigrants from Latin America return home (they would come for work and then leave)? Did you know that it wasn't until 1921 (the period of US history was one of the darkest with the creation of the federal reserve and income tax which led directly into the great depression) that the US even had a limit on immigration? Did you know it is really the responsibility of each individual state to have their policies on immigration (the constitution only says the federal government is only responsible for naturalization and stopping invasions, nothing about immigration)?

Now let me address the list:

1. Freedom of contract is the greatest thing that the people of this country have. We should be able to hire whomever we want at whatever terms we want. This right is slowly being taken away by people that don't love freedom.

2. Yes, the driver's license. The government should even own roads. This is a private matter that should be left to private businesses.

3. Yes, socialism sucks. It leads directly to an "us vs. them" mentality. Instead of people focusing on the root cause of the problem (socialism) they start fighting with their brothers and sisters in God that happen to have citizenship in other countries. Did you know because of socialism and the great immigration debate that a national ID is being pushed like never before? This is leading closer and closer to a police state where the government can ask for your papers. Representative Jeff Flake is calling for the SS card to have biometrics, which would lead us closer to a national ID. Is this what you really want, a police state? Oh, how soon do people forget what freedom really means.

4. See #3. Get to the root cause, get rid of socialism. How could we have nearly open borders for over 150 years? Because we didn't have the drug war, socialism, etc.

5. See #3 and 4.

6. Freedom of contract, ain't it grand?

7. Freedom of contract. Of course, we need to get rid of the federal reserve and Fannie and Freddie Mac so the contracts on truly free and not based on socialism.

8. See #3 & 4.

9. See #3 & 4.

10. If we lived in a truly free country the federal government would be so small that we wouldn't need lobbyists.

11. If we lived in a truly free country we would need so much permission to conduct business and live. Another sign of our freedoms being taken from us.

12. I think we've determined that we don't live in a constitutional free loving republic any more. Besides that. 99% of wars that are fought now days are not fought out of a search for freedom for the US but out politicians bloodlust and contractors love of money. The wars in Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan (the very beginning was but once we chased out the terrorists we should have left), and every other country we invade are not for our freedoms, the wars are anti-freedom.

13. If we lived in a free country I'm sure they would have more respect since they would be able to return to theirs after working here for a short period of time. If you look at immigration from the historical and from other countries points of view you would see that in every country the "us vs. them" mentality is alive and well, this is not a unique problem to the U.S.

Hope this addressed your concerns and fears. Remember if the government is telling you to fear something you know they have an agenda up their sleeves. In this case it is more power and national ID.

Original e-mail:

If you cross the North Korean border illegally you get 12 years hard
labor.

If you cross the Iranian border illegally you are detained indefinitely.

If you cross the Afghan border illegally, you get shot.

If you cross the Saudi Arabian border illegally you will be jailed.

If you cross the Chinese border illegally you may never be heard from
again.

If you cross the Venezuelan border illegally you will be branded a spy
and your fate will be sealed.

If you cross the Mexican borders illegally you will jailed for two years.

If you cross the Cuban border illegally you will be thrown into political
prison to rot.

If you cross the United States border illegally you get:

1 - A job
2 - A driver's license
3 - A Social Security card
4 - Welfare
5 - Food stamps
6 - Credit cards
7 - Subsidized rent or a loan to buy a house
8 - Free education
9 - Free health care
10 - A lobbyist in Washington
11 - Billions of dollars in public documents printed in your language
12 - Millions of servicemen and women who are willing to - and do - die
for your right to the ways and means of our constitution
13 - And the right to carry the flag of your country - the one you walked
out on - while you call America racist and protest that you don't get
enough respect.

AZ Historical Expenditures

2010-07-25T08:31:00.000-07:00

It's difficult to find data about how much AZ spends which makes it difficult for residents to make intelligent choices when voting. Fortunately we should start getting better information here soon according to Sunshine Review: Arizona currently has no statewide, official spending database online. However, a database will be placed online on or before January 1, 2011.

Below is a graph of how much the state spends each year with the GDP included. Thanks to US Government Spending and the Goldwater Institute via AZ Rural Times for the information. The spending estimates are based on Goldwater Institute (from AZ Rural Times) numbers.

We Are Not Free: The War on Milk

2010-07-25T06:42:00.000-07:00

The Regime's War on Food

"I drink raw milk, sold illegally on the underground black market," admits organic farmer and polymath Joel F. Salatin in the foreword to David Gumpert's book The Raw Milk Revolution: Behind America's Emerging Battle over Food Rights. "I grew up on raw milk, from our own Guernsey cows that our family hand-milked twice a day. We made yogurt, ice cream, butter and cottage cheese. All through high school in the early 1970s, I sold our homemade yogurt, butter, buttermilk, and cottage cheese at the curb market on Saturday mornings."

This was possible only because our rulers -- who plunder our earnings to subsidize production of government-approved toxins such as high fructose corn syrup, and don't hesitate to confer the "safe foods" label on Twinkies and other hydrogenated wads of incremental death -- hadn't yet decided to protect us from the scourge of unprocessed natural foods, such as raw milk.

That oversight has since been corrected. As a result, explains Salatin, home dairy producers like the family in which he grew up are forbidden to sell their products at a contemporary farmer's market.

My thoughts: Read the whole article it's interesting. This war has been going on for some time. I know it seems ridiculous (and it is) but this is a definite sign that government has grown far to large.

AZ New & Blogs 7/22/2010

2010-07-22T05:40:00.001-07:00

To Jim Deakin and his followers:

That said, he will NOT win. But he may be in a position to affect the outcome of the election. Staying in the race could make the difference between electing a new senator or sustaining the same-old-same old; that is, assuring that John McCain becomes the Republican candidate and probable US Senator for the State of Arizona for a third term.
My thoughts: Hhhmmm…vote for two guys that received the same freedom index score (~40%) from the New American website or vote for the outlier. I’ll vote for the outlier. If Deakin wasn’t in the primary election I would not vote for either. I’ll probably vote 3rd party in the general election. I only vote pro freedom. This compromising stuff is what has lead us down the path of tyranny. The comments about throwing your vote away by voting your what you believe instead of voting for the person you already know is going to win is ridiculous. Should I have voted for Obama because I knew ahead of time that he was going to win? I think not. Neither will I vote McCain or Hayworth, they’re the same.

Should the U.S. Restrict Immigration?

Recent debates about Arizona’s new immigration law have taken as self-evident that immigration restrictions are good policy, with the only question being which level of government should enforce the law, and how. Yet the case for immigration restrictions is far from convincing.
Advocates of these restrictions rely on four possible arguments. First, that immigration dilutes existing languages, religions, family values, cultural norms, and so on. Second, that immigrants flock to countries with generous social welfare programs, leading to urban slums and inundated social networks. Third, that immigration can harm the sending country if the departing immigrants are high-skilled labor. Fourth, that immigration lowers the income of native, low-skill workers.

A Top U.S. Government Murderer Admits He Likes Murdering

Well, duh, that’s why he got a job where he can get paid to indulge in his criminal pleasure. Of course, he’s been warned since he made this statement to keep the truth to himself if he wants to keep his job.

Buz Mills quits the race

What Mills is saying is that SB 1070 has sucked all the oxygen out of the room for any discussion of the serious problems facing Arizona: a depressed economy and the fiscal mismanagement of this state.
Jan Brewer cannot succeed as a demagogue on her own. It takes a complicit news media to allow her to focus attention on SB 1070 rather than to hold her accountable for her actions and inaction as governor.

Obamacare looks unhealthy for businesses

White Castle, which has offered health insurance to its employees since 1924, is considering dropping coverage entirely as one possible way of off-setting the expected financial hit. That would leave the company’s 10,000 formerly covered workers to seek health insurance on their own — most likely from the federal exchange. The feds will impose $2,000-per-person fines on companies that don’t offer coverage, and whose employees turn to federally subsidized insurance instead, but the article cites an IHOP franchise owner who expects the fines to cost roughly half what coverage costs under the new federal scheme.

The Immigration Problem Resolved

With all the efforts being made by states and cities to address the so-called “illegal immigration” problem — including making it a crime to rent to or employ such people — I wonder why the most obvious solution has not been offered. An Arizona statute gives the police power to stop and question those who, on the basis of skin color, might be such an “illegal.” But this raises too much uncertainty. Why not require every “illegal immigrant” to wear a symbol on their clothing — perhaps a yellow star would do the trick — and then the police would not have to resort to questionable “equal protection” practices. Later on, if the “problem” continues, those wearing the required yellow stars could be rounded up, put onto trains, and transported to “relocation centers” in Utah and Nevada — all in the interest of “national security,” of course.
BTW, for those who get upset that people who are emigrating to California do not speak the language of resident Californians, bear in mind that the early English-speaking immigrants entered a state in which Spanish was the prevailing language and culture!

Falling prices prompt concern over home values

Home prices in metropolitan Phoenix have been slipping during the past month, prompting concern about a double dip in the region's housing values.
The average price-per-square-foot of metro Phoenix home sales fell to $89.38 this week, according to Mike Orr's Cromford Report, which analyzes daily sales data from the Arizona Regional Multiple Listing Service and public records. Current sales prices are down about 4 percent from a month ago when the average square-foot sales price was $92.90. The low for the region's home prices during this downturn was $82.11 per square foot on April 6, 2009.
The housing market received a boost from the federal homebuyer tax credit. But most of those sales have now been recorded. Some housing-market analysts believe Arizona's new immigration law is impacting home sales and foreclosures in the state. But whether the impact is negative or positive isn't clear yet.

We Are Not Free: Ending Tyranny Without Violence

2010-07-17T10:28:00.000-07:00

This essay was first published under the title of The Political Thought of Étienne de La Boétie....

In the ferment of his law school days at Orléans, Étienne de La Boétie composed his brief but scintillating, profound and deeply radical Discourse of Voluntary Servitude (Discours de la Servitude Volontaire).[4] The Discourse was circulated in manuscript form and never published by La Boétie. One can speculate that its radical views were an important reason for the author's withholding it from publication. It achieved a considerable fame in local Périgordian intellectual circles, however....

In fact, however, La Boétie's concentration on abstract reasoning and on the universal rights of the individual might better be characterized as foreshadowing the political thinking of the eighteenth century. As J. W. Allen writes, the Discourse was an "essay on the natural liberty, equality and fraternity of man...."

The Discourse of Voluntary Servitude is lucidly and coherently structured around a single axiom, a single percipient insight into the nature not only of tyranny, but implicitly of the State apparatus itself. Many medieval writers had attacked tyranny, but La Boétie delves especially deeply into its nature, and into the nature of State rule itself. This fundamental insight was that every tyranny must necessarily be grounded upon general popular acceptance. In short, the bulk of the people themselves, for whatever reason, acquiesce in their own subjection. If this were not the case, no tyranny, indeed no governmental rule, could long endure. Hence, a government does not have to be popularly elected to enjoy general public support; for general public support is in the very nature of all governments that endure, including the most oppressive of tyrannies. The tyrant is but one person, and could scarcely command the obedience of another person, much less of an entire country, if most of the subjects did not grant their obedience by their own consent.

This, then, becomes for La Boétie the central problem of political theory: why in the world do people consent to their own enslavement? La Boétie cuts to the heart of what is, or rather should be, the central problem of political philosophy: the mystery of civil obedience. Why do people, in all times and places, obey the commands of the government, which always constitutes a small minority of the society?...

It is evident from the above passages that La Boétie is bitterly opposed to tyranny and to the public's consent to its own subjection. He makes clear also that this opposition is grounded on a theory of natural law and a natural right to liberty. In childhood, presumably because the rational faculties are not yet developed, we obey our parents; but when grown, we should follow our own reason, as free individuals. As La Boétie puts it: "If we led our lives according to the ways intended by nature and the lessons taught by her, we should be intuitively obedient to our parents; later we should adopt reason as our guide and become slaves to nobody." Reason is our guide to the facts and laws of nature and to humanity's proper path, and each of us has "in our souls some native seed of reason, which, if nourished by good counsel and training, flowers into virtue, but which, on the other hand, if unable to resist the vices surrounding it, is stifled and blighted." And reason, La Boétie adds, teaches us the justice of equal liberty for all. For reason shows us that nature has, among other things, granted us the common gift of voice and speech. Therefore, "there can be no further doubt that we are all naturally free," and hence it cannot be asserted that "nature has placed some of us in slavery." Even animals, he points out, display a natural instinct to be free. But then, what in the world "has so, denatured man that he, the only creature really born to be free, lacks the memory of his original condition and the desire to return to it?"

La Boétie's celebrated and creatively original call for civil disobedience, for mass non-violent resistance as a method for the overthrow of tyranny, stems directly from the above two premises: the fact that all rule rests on the consent of the subject masses, and the great value of natural liberty. For if tyranny really rests on mass consent, then the obvious means for its overthrow is simply by mass withdrawal of that consent. The weight of tyranny would quickly and suddenly collapse under such a non-violent revolution....

The more one yields to tyrants, La Boétie points out, the stronger and mightier they become. But if the tyrants "are simply not obeyed," they become "undone and as nothing." La Boétie then exhorts the "poor, wretched, and stupid peoples" to cast off their chains by refusing to supply the tyrant any further with the instruments of their own oppression. The tyrant, indeed, has nothing more than the power that you confer upon him to destroy you. Where has he acquired enough eyes to spy upon you, if you do not provide them yourselves? How can he have so many arms to beat you with, if he does not borrow them from you? The feet that trample down your cities, where does he get them if they are not your own? How does he have any power over you except through you? How would he dare assail you if he had not cooperation from you?

La Boétie concludes his exhortation by assuring the masses that to overthrow the tyrant they need not act, nor shed their blood. They can do so "merely by willing to be free." In short,

"Resolve to serve no more, and you are at once freed. I do not ask that you place hands upon the tyrant to topple him over, but simply that you support him no longer; then you will behold him, like a great Colossus whose pedestal has been pulled away, fall of his own weight and break in pieces."

For while the assassination of a tyrant is simply an isolated individual act within an existing political system, mass civil disobedience, being a direct act on the part of large masses of people, is far more revolutionary in launching a transformation of the system itself. It is also more elegant and profound in theoretical terms, flowing immediately as it does from La Boétie's insight about power necessarily resting on popular consent; for then the remedy to power is simply to withdraw that consent.

The call for mass civil disobedience was picked up by one of the more radical of the later Huguenot pamphlets, La France Turquie (1575), which advocated an association of towns and provinces for the purpose of refusing to pay all taxes to the State. But it is not surprising that among the most enthusiastic advocates of mass civil disobedience have been the anarchist thinkers, who simply extend both La Boétie's analysis and his conclusion from tyrannical rule to all governmental rule whatsoever. Prominent among the anarchist advocates of non-violent resistance have been Thoreau, Tolstoy, and Benjamin R. Tucker, all of the nineteenth century, and all, unsurprisingly, associated with the non-violent, pacifist branch of anarchism. Tolstoy, indeed, in setting forth his doctrine of non-violent anarchism, used a lengthy passage from the Discourse as the focal point for the development of his argument. In addition, Gustav Landauer, the leading German anarchist of the early twentieth century, after becoming converted to a pacifist approach, made a rousing summary of La Boétie's Discourse of Voluntary Servitude the central core of his anarchist work, Die Revolution (1919). A leading Dutch pacifist-anarchist of the twentieth century, Barthelemy de Ligt, not only devoted several pages of his Conquest of Violence to discussion and praise of La Boétie's Discourse; he also translated it into Dutch in 1933.

Read the rest with foot notes here.

My thoughts: To sum it up. Just ignore them and they'll go away. Of course, you need a critical amount of the population to do the ignoring, about 20% or more. So how to we get to the point where there will be a critical mass to resist tyranny? Education.

AZ New & Blogs 7/17/10

2010-07-17T06:28:00.001-07:00

Chino school board adopts budget, increases tax rate

Officials counter critics, say it's not a new tax; state delaying payments
My thoughts: Yep, officials always like to tell you it's the opposite of what it really is.

'Sovereign Citizens' claim freedom from Arizona, federal laws

They don't like taxes and they don't like government telling them what to do.
But unlike Tea Party protesters, a number of Arizona residents are acting on their beliefs in an unusual way, filing paperwork to become "sovereign," trying to declare themselves U.S. Nationals rather than U.S. citizens.

1.65 Million Properties Receive Foreclosure Filings in First Half of 2010

[RealtyTrac released its] midyear 2010 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report, which shows a total of 1,961,894 foreclosure filings — default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions — were reported on 1,654,634 U.S. properties in the first six months of 2010, a 5 percent decrease in total properties from the previous six months but an 8 percent increase in total properties from the first six months of 2009. The report also shows that 1.28 percent of all U.S. housing units (one in 78) received at least one foreclosure filing in the first half of the year.
Arizona registered the nation’s second highest state foreclosure rate in the first half of 2010, with 3.36 percent of its housing units (one in 30) receiving a foreclosure filing, and Florida registered the nation’s third highest state foreclosure rate, with 3.15 percent of its housing units (one in 32) receiving a foreclosure filing during the six months.

Mills Suspends Campaign

"I entered the race for governor because the solutions being proposed to solve the state budget and economic crisis were grossly misguided. Higher taxes, unsustainable spending, and more debt will continue to depress job creation in Arizona and delay a recovery. There is no doubt in my mind that fiscal and economic issues are the most important issues facing Arizonans."
"SB1070 has regrettably taken the focus off of job creation and fixing the state budget. So even though the chasm between Brewer’s policies and mine is dramatic, SB1070 has politically mitigated those issues. I have therefore decided to suspend the campaign."

Mills drops out of governor’s race

After spending $3.2 million of his own money on his campaign, Northern Arizona businessman Buz Mills bowed out of the governor’s race, leaving Jan Brewer virtually unopposed in the Republican primary.
My thoughts: Wow, I don't know if we truly are free anymore. The most likely person to win the governorship is a known liar and is not truly conservative (believes in raising taxes even though she has always says the opposite). Ernest Hancock is right, there is no true election process. How come we always get hard core statists as our governors?
“The choices before Arizona voters cannot be more clear between the advocates of bigger government, uncontrolled spending and unaccountable education policies and those of us committed to smaller government, job creation, fiscal discipline, and quality education,” Brewer said.
My thoughts: Um, you're a statist Jan.

Obamacare Begins -- In Idaho

When the Regime sets prices, this is called "applied compassion."
When producers organize to complain about price controls, and then freely decide not to offer their services at the artificially low price, this is called "a criminal conspiracy to fix prices."
This is the central claim of the "consent decree" inflicted, at gunpoint, on a group of Idaho orthopedic surgeons by the Obama Regime -- with the eager collaboration of the Idaho State Attorney General. Under the terms of that extorted agreement, it would be tantamount to a criminal offense for a doctor to complain to his peers about regulatory actions that may drive accomplished medical specialists out of business.

Restore Free Markets to Health Care

[Eline van den Broek] comments on how the American health care system was a mess even before Obamacare are particularly important and echo many of the points made by Mike Tanner and Michael Cannon.
She also talks about the Norwegian country where she is from got screwed by their national health care.

We Are Not Free: Election Fraud

2010-07-17T06:04:00.000-07:00

Ernest Hancock Interviews Bev Harris, the founder of Black Box Voting
Hour 1 , Hour 2

Ernest and Bev talk about the way government has stolen the election ballot through electronic voting machines and by not letting people count the ballots.

AZ New & Blogs

2010-07-13T06:27:00.000-07:00

John Stossel on Drugs and the Drug War
Immigration, Individual Rights, and the New Deal

In fact, until the 1930’s, the US was generally (though not perfectly) open to immigration, because we accepted the premise that someone who was born beyond our borders had no less right to find their fortune in this country than someone born in Boston or New York. I won’t rehash the history of immigration nor its importance to the building of this country, because I don’t want to slip from the philosophical to the pragmatic in my arguments for immigration.

My Immigration Reform Plan

For the first 150 years of this country’s history, our country was basically wide-open to immigration. Sure, there were those opposed (the riots in NYC in the 19th century come to mind) but the opposition was confined mainly to xenophobes and those whose job skills were so minimal that unskilled immigrants who could not speak English were perceived as a threat. It was only the redistributionist socialism-lite of the New Deal and later the Great Society that began to make unfettered immigration unpopular with a majority of Americans, who rightly did not wish to see the world’s poor migrate to the US seeking an indolent life of living off of government handouts.
This is phenomenal. After years of being stay-at-home moms or whatever, women in America decided it was time to go to work. This was roughly the equivalent of having 40,000,000 immigrants show up on our shores one day looking for work. And you know what? The American economy found jobs for all of them, despite oil embargos and stagflation and wars and "outsourcing".

Kobach’s Defense of SB1070

When our governor is saying that the majority of Arizona’s 500,000 illegal immigrants are all drug mules, that none of them are really looking for honest work, and that all they do is cause crime up to and including beheadings in the desert, I get angry to hear the same stupid arguments that many of our grandparents heard about their ethnic groups (though the beheading thing seems to lack historical precedent). (more on the immigration non-crime wave here).
The language of SB1070 has never matched the arguments supporting it. SB1070 mainly gives the police power to be more intrusive at certain traffic stops and harass day labor centers. What in the heck does this have anything to do with drug cartels and armed paramilitary gangs on the border? If, as our governor says, illegal immigrants are not really looking for legitimate work, then why is most of our enforcement via employers offering legitimate work?

No, the Arizona travel alert isn’t just a stunt

The American Civil Liberties Union is raising eyebrows with the travel alert it has issued for Arizona, even before the state’s infamous SB 1070 (PDF) goes into effect.
The ACLU points out that police, especially in Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s Venezuela-esque Maricopa County fiefdom, “are already beginning to act on provisions of the law” and their efforts are “meant to create a hostile enough environment for Latinos and other people of color that they voluntarily leave the state.”

July 7, 2010: "Guest Workers Aid Border Security" featuring Stuart Anderson

@7:14: What we saw in the past is that under the Pesero (sp) program, which is an agricultural labor program, we saw that what happened was the Mexican farm workers were able to come in legally to work. And when there was increase inforcement around 1953 -'54 what we saw happen was at the same time the US government made it easier for people to come in legally under the Pesero program and while 1953 approximately 880,000 people were apprehended at the border which is kind of a proxy for illegal entry by 1959 the numbers had fallen to well under 100,000, which all told represented approximately a 90% decrease in illegal entry. The Pesero program was later tightened up in terms of its rules and later abandoned altogether by congress by complaints from labor advocates in 1964 and we saw that that was the beginning of the great increases in illegal entry that we see up to the present day. End @8:39

Cartels using children to bring drugs to the US

Records kept by Customs and Border Protection show 130 minors were caught attempting to bring drugs through entry ports from Sonora into Arizona during fiscal year 2009, an 83 percent increase over the previous year.
My thoughts: Prohibition doesn't work. Where there is a demand you will get the services if people truly want it. This article is another good argument for legalizing drugs. Remember the government can't even keep drugs out of jails and away from children. What makes people think they can keep our borders safe from drug dealers?

True News Tucson debunks the closing of parts of AZ

Boldly risking certain death by decapitation at the hands of ubiquitous Mexican drug smugglers, "Real News Tucson" drives through the section of southern Arizona supposedly ceded to Mexico. Oddly enough, the only trouble they encounter comes at a Border Patrol checkpoint two dozen miles inside the border, where they are definitively told by a BP agent that the notion part of Arizona has been surrendered to Mexican control -- and are therefore inaccessible to Americans -- is "false information."

Addicted to the Warfare State

Retired Mesa police officer Bill Richardson, who worked in counter-narcotics task forces in several Arizona counties, believes that Babeu -- like Arpaio and Arizona state senator Russell Pearce (chief sponsor of SB 1070) -- is "fanning the flames of fear, that the undocumented are the root cause of crime in Arizona. In fact, they are not."

Feds Challenge Arizona Immigration Law

Yesterday, the Obama administration filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Arizona’s recently enacted law that is designed to curb illegal immigration. The Arizona law has not yet taken effect — that will occur on July 29. To generate more discussion and debate, Cato will be hosting a policy forum on the legal challenge and related issues on July 21. If the weather in DC continues to cooperate, it will feel like we are actually in Arizona.

Big Money Speaks

While there was some evidence of statistically significant changes in one of the five goals of Maine’s and Arizona’s public financing programs, we could not directly attribute these changes to the programs, nor did we find significant changes in the remaining four goals after program implementation. Specifically, there were statistically significant decreases in one measure of electoral competition—the winner’s margin of victory—in legislative races in both states. However, GAO could not directly attribute these decreases to the programs due to other factors, such as the popularity of candidates, which affect electoral outcomes. We found no change in two other measures of competition, and there were no observed changes in voter choice—the average number of legislative candidates per district race. In Maine, decreases in average candidate spending in House races were statistically significant, but a state official said this was likely due to reductions in the amounts given to participating candidates in 2008, while average spending in Maine Senate races did not change. In Arizona, average spending has increased in the five elections under the program. There is no indication the programs decreased perceived interest group influence, although some candidates and interest group officials GAO interviewed said campaign tactics changed, such as the timing of campaign spending.

Additional Medicaid funding stalls in Congress putting AZ in a bind (Subscriber)

Hope is fading that Congress will approve hundreds of millions of dollars that Arizona is counting on to operate its Medicaid program, and state lawmakers don’t know whether they’ll have to scrounge for cash, beg for help or drastically downsize the state-run health care system. In late May, the U.S. House of Representatives stripped $24 billion ...
My thoughts: More reason to stop socialism. There's no reason that AZ should be beholden so much to the federal government.

The DailyShow with Jon Stewart: Arizona's Photo Radar

Olivia Munn explores the debate between Arizona's highway safety and the invasion of privacy.

After Words with Judge Andrew Napolitano

The Libertarian commentator debates politics, history and what he considers to be the unconstitutional behavior of both the Bush and Obama administrations, with consumer advocate and four-time presidential candidate Ralph Nader.

My thoughts: This is very good. I would highly recommend watching it.

Is Yemen the Next Afghanistan?

Just before dawn on Dec. 24, an American cruise missile soared high over the southern coast of the Arabian peninsula, arced down toward the dark mountains above the Rafadh Valley in Yemen's Shabwa province and found its mark, crashing into a small stone house on a hillside where five young men were sleeping. Half a mile away, a 27-year-old Yemeni tribesman named Ali Muhammad Ahmed was awakened by the sound. Stumbling out of bed, he quickly dressed, slung his AK-47 over his shoulder and climbed down a footpath to the valley that shelters his village, two hours from the nearest paved road. He already sensed what had happened. A week earlier, an American airstrike killed dozens of people in a neighboring province as part of an expanded campaign against Al Qaeda militants. (Although the U.S. military has acknowledged playing a role in the airstrikes, it has never publicly confirmed that it fired the missiles.)

Rep. Jeff Flake Advocates National ID

2010-07-07T06:18:00.001-07:00

July 2, 2010: "Immigration Fact and Fiction" featuring Rep. Jeff Flake

@4:04:

Caleb Brown (B): You talked a little about the necessity to have a biometric identifier for people who are coming into this country to work.

Representative Jeff Flake (F): Yes.

B: Legally does that not in your view invite that type of federal document for all workers in the United States.

F: I don't think so. We have in theory a national identifier now in terms of work as it relates to work and that's a social security card. The problem is it is simply not secure. So we're not proposing legislation that we introduced does not propose a national ID it simply says that if you want to work then you should have a social security number that is tamper proof and biometric. And that would certainly help substantially employers who really don't know when they are presented with a document if it is genuine or not.

End @5:03

My thoughts: Representative Jeff Flake has been one of my favorite US representative. It's sad to hear him playing the world game on national ID. The social security card is a form of national ID that has become much more than it was originally was supposed to be for. Now Flake is proposing to increase it's importance in our daily lives.

This is what happens when you have socialism, an increase in state power and the police state. We need to get at the root of this problem and stamp out socialism in our country.

It's interesting to note that radio talk show host Ernest Hancock has been crying fowl on this issue for quite some time now.

AZ News & Blogs 7/6/2010

2010-07-06T07:07:00.001-07:00

Arizona Voters Should Decide If Secret Ballots Are Fundamental Right

Arizona voters will have the opportunity in November to decide if secret ballots should be a constitutional right during public elections and the creation of labor unions, unless a union succeeds in its bid to have the proposed amendment removed as a ballot measure.
In June 2009, the Legislature referred Proposition 108, also known as Save our Secret Ballot, to Arizona voters. The United Food and Commercial Workers union, which represents grocery store workers, went to court 11 months later and demanded that Prop.108 be struck down as a violation of the requirement in the Arizona Constitution that voters consider only one subject in each ballot measure.

State Keeps Spending at Record Levels Despite Huge Budget Shortfall

Arizona is still spending at record levels despite a $2.7 billion dollar budget deficit and an 18 percent state sales tax increase to help fix it. Today marks the start of Fiscal Year 2011 and, according to a spending clock sponsored by the Goldwater Institute and the Arizona Free Enterprise Club, Arizona is on track to spend $29.3 billion this year.
Even though Arizona has had a budget deficit for three years, spending is still on the rise. The state spent $888 per second in FY2009 and $920 per second in FY2010. Now Arizona is spending $929 per second in FY 2011.
"There goes the notion that government is doing more with less," said Steve Voeller, president of the Arizona Free Enterprise Club. "It's doing more because it has more."

Sheriff Joe, Sheriff Mack and Derek Sheriff: Three Views on Arizona’s New Immigration Law

Building Codes and Protectionism

I have written a lot about state licensing typically being more about protecting incumbents from competition than consumer protection. This is a story in a similar vein, where plumbers worked to stop the approval of waterless urinals because they required, well, fewer plumbers to install. In the end, there was a compromise — the plumbers would support waterless urinals in the code, BUT the code would also say that water still had to be piped to the urinals that don’t need water. I kid you not.

to Hyperinflate

This potential move gives the deflation versus inflation debate a new perspective. We have written in the past that we had questions about the Great Depression based on conflicting opinions of Murray Rothbard, Milton Friedman et. al. Living through the "Great Recession" has begun to clear them up. It is a little like being a lab rat; it is painful, but the experience gives you an insider's look at the scientific method. Or in this case a fiat-money economy.

Jan Brewer a Democrat or Neocon?

Jan Brewer Continues to Fabricate Position on Taxes

As Jan Brewer continues to portray herself as a conservative, her record on tax and budget matters tells a different story. Brewer’s record on fiscal policy is one of higher taxes, more spending, and budget deficits as far as the eye can see.
In 2009 Brewer increased property taxes in Arizona by $250 million by vetoing the permanent repeal of a state property tax....As a member of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, Brewer repeatedly voted for higher property taxes (Arizona Republic, 2002).

Brewer’s Idea on Jobs? Another Government Agency

Since Jan Brewer took office, Arizona’s unemployment rate has jumped from 7% to nearly 10%. Despite efforts from state lawmakers to cut taxes, Brewer simply raised them $3.25 billion.
Her latest idea is to create yet another government entity focusing on job creation. To kick-start the new Commerce Authority, she handed them a government check for $10 million.

Arizona’s Truth-Teller-in-Chief Eyes Tried-And-True Violation of Truth-In-Taxation Law to Balance Her Unbalanced Budget

The state’s Joint Legislative Budget Committee official estimates say Arizona is $368 million in deficit already and we’re only a week into the fiscal year. Add to that the $400 million in federal Medicare matching dollars that was counted on that’s not coming. That’s a budget out of whack by nearly three-quarters of a billion dollars and we really haven’t gotten started on this year’s faux-balanced budget fashioned under the flinty Governor Brewer last February.
Oh yeah, that Brewer budget is also predicated on passage of both Prop. 301 and Prop. 302 this November. The former steals $125 million from the Growing Smarter fund for land preservation and the latter steals $325 million from the First Things First fund for “the children”. Well-funded “no” campaigns are already gearing up to defeat those measures ironically consisting of many of the same interests behind Prop. 100’s grand coalition of multi-millionaire spenders.

Cato Institute & Immigration Papers

2010-06-29T07:17:00.000-07:00

Cato Institute has put out papers analyzing immigration (including illegal) to the U.S.

Immigration & Crime:

In general, we know that illegal immigrants do not exhibit violent resistance when
apprehended by U.S. Border Patrol Agents. In more than 10 million apprehensions since
2000 we have not seen much evidence of those entering illegally to work in the U.S. arming themselves to fight Border Patrol Agents. However, individuals linked to organized crime rings are likely to be armed, given their involvement in drug or human smuggling and the money involved. In the case of immigration, the lack of temporary work visas and the increased difficulty of entering illegally due to increased enforcement have compelled more illegal immigrants to turn to coyotes—middlemen who guide illegal immigrants across the border to
evade the Border Patrol. “According to U.S. and Mexican police, this is partly an unintended

consequence of a border crackdown. Making crossings more difficult drove up their cost,
attracting brutal Mexican crime rings that forced the small operators out of business.”9
Much of the lawlessness and the violation of the rights of property owners could be
eliminated with the introduction of increased legal means of entry for the foreign-born to
work in the U.S. Foreign-born workers do not wish to cross hazardous terrain or risk kidnapping
at the hands of smugglers any more than an American would. The best way to reduce lawlessness along the border is to put in place a work visa law that removes the profits from smugglers and thereby reduces the risks faced by would-be foreign workers and U.S. property owners.

A Look at the Senate Democratic Proposal for Immigration Reform: Is the Glass Half Empty, Half Full or Shattered on the Ground?

The best way to reduce illegal immigration is to provide more legal avenues to work in the United States.

Overall, the Democratic proposal represents a signal to both supporters and opponents. To supporters who value legalizing the status of those in the country illegally, the proposal would fulfill such desires if it became law. To supporters who wish to establish a commission or other mechanisms to restrict employer-sponsored temporary visas or green cards, then the proposal
fulfills their wishes as well.

Opponents of the measures would fall into different categories. Anti-immigrant organizations and a large bloc of members of Congress will oppose the legalization of those in the United States illegally, labeling it amnesty no matter what conditions are
established. Employers should be wary of even positive reforms offered in the proposal, since members of a commission eager to show their relevance to immigration policy could override such reforms. Whether the Democratic proposal should be viewed as a glass half empty or half full—or a glass shattered in pieces on the ground—must await the arrival of legislative language.

Do Gaps in E-Verify Justify a National ID?

U.S. legislators rarely abandon programs that don’t work well, despite the costs or the impact on law-abiding individuals.

When it comes to illegal immigration, policymakers often present conflicting narratives. Elected officials cannot decide whether the problem is that employers are unscrupulous or that they are honest but unable to verify documents. Most of the recent rhetoric emanating from Washington,
D.C., indicates elected officials think most employers are cheats.

But if employers are dishonest, then the easiest way to beat E-Verify, a National ID card, or any other combination of systems and documents is simply not to use them, hiring workers “under the table.” The costs and burdens then would fall on those who obey the law, not on those who break the law.

Few are asking the more obvious question: Wouldn’t the issue of unauthorized workers be resolved if employers were simply given access to a legal supply of workers who are willing and able to work in the United States? If a robust temporary visa program were operating, almost all employers would hire only legal and available workers. Such a policy is far preferable to requiring 97 percent of the population—legal immigrants, native-born and naturalized citizens—to carry National ID cards to make it more difficult for 3 percent of the population to work in the United States.

AZ News & Blogs 6/25/2010

2010-06-25T06:42:00.001-07:00

Drugs

All’s “normal” after Rocky Point police chief, bodyguard shot

Puerto Penasco, Mexico Police Chief Erick Francisco Landagaray, and his bodyguard Luis Huerta Ibarra, were gunned down over the weekend while patrolling the seaside city, also known as Rocky Point.

Mexican drug lords creating havoc in southern Arizona

Mexican drug cartels have set up shop on American soil, maintaining lookout bases in strategic locations in the hills of southern Arizona from which their scouts can monitor every move made by law enforcement officials, according to federal agents.

Possession of Any Recreational Drug Has Been Legal in Portugal Since 2001…

…and the country hasn’t fallen apart. (I know—you’re “shocked.”)
See the video.

Oh, Politics!

WSJ: “JD Huckster”

The Wall Street Journal has weighed in on the reality of JD Hayworth. Not the spin, not the shiny object, revisionist history campaign fluff…the real story. This reality is best personified in the portion of the infomercial starring the “former member of the powerful Weighs and Means Committee” where he uses the trust of the people who elected him to sway the hearts and minds of others into a complete and total scam.

Why Jim Deakin Should Support JD Hayworth for the US Senate

If anything, he brings lack of experience.
My thoughts: The one good thing.

What’s this? NRA rejects own board member Buz Mills, endorses Brewer

Arizona gubernatorial candidate Owen “Buz” Mills, a honcho with the National Rifle Association (NRA), got a rear-end full of buckshot as the organization endorsed his adversary, Gov. Jan Brewer.
Listen to Ernest Hancock talk on the corrupt NRA with Sheriff Mack.

Jan Brewer's new motto: "Damn the facts, full distort ahead!"

The example he cited involved her saying, during a debate between the R candidates for governor that the majority of undocumented immigrants were engaged in narcotics trafficking and extortion and that they are responsible for a massive crime wave in Arizona.
As this Think Progress piece from writer Andrea Nill points out, during a period in Arizona's history that has seen an increase in undocumented immigration, there has been an actual decrease in crime in AZ.

Oh, Politicians! Time to get rid of the welfare state!

Sells Islands?

On the surface it seems shocking that a nation would sell off parts its physical environment because of public sector debts. But this has been going on for a long time in impoverished nations. First profligate nations are lent a lot of money by private sector banks. Then the nation becomes over-extended revenue-wise. Finally the IMF is called in to provide a "loan" that must be paid back. The impoverished nation cuts its bloated public sector, raises taxes and sells of chunks of its public portfolio, maybe to the fraternity of banks that lent it money in the first place.
My thoughts: Et tu Arizona?

Living

Living on (a Lot) Less

I spent last weekend at a lake house in Maine with a broken water pump. For three days, we had no running water. Being beside the lake gave us ample access to water, but nothing flowed from the taps.
It turned out that five of us could live pretty comfortably on about five gallons of water a day.

AZ News & Blogs 6/19/2010

2010-06-19T07:28:00.000-07:00

Arizona Immigration Law = National ID for Arizonans

Despite protestations to the contrary from the law’s sponsor and others, this law turns the Arizona drivers license (actually any state license) into a national id.
It’s a common misconception to believe that the national id must be a card or a chip.
National ID not a card or a chip, but is the data that the federal government has on you. What the federal government has been attempting to do for many years, most notably under the Clinton administration, was to find a way to integrate all of the various data they have on American citizens into an easily searchable, easily sharable database and data exchange format.
My thoughts: Ernest Hancock has been talking about this for quite some time.

But They Are Politicians

Jacob Sullum writes about the gnashing of teeth among Arizona politicians that suddenly must rely on voluntary contributions rather than campaign funds taken by force from taxpayers who may not even support them.
But if they were reasonable people who considered long-term consequences and took responsibility for their own actions, would they even be politicians. Is it any surprise that a class of human beings who, in response to looming bankruptcy in Medicare, pass a trillion dollars of new health care spending commitments closed their eyes to what would likely happen when this campaign finance law reached the Supreme Court?
Court premature in stopping matching funds
My thoughts: Well, the coyote blog said it best.

Primary Election Debate Videos

Republican Candidates for Governor

Uptick in Violence Forces Closing of Parkland Along Mexico Border to Americans

Lawmaker Warns Parks Takeover by Mexican Cartels, Illegals 'Intensifying'
My thoughts: More reason to resolve the core issues: legalize drugs, get rid of NAFTA, etc.

Ernest Hancock interviews Nick Dranias of Goldwater Institute on Clean Elections

My thoughts: This is really good. Don't miss listening to it.

Ernest Hancock talks on local politics (Mesa)

AZ News & Blogs 6/15/2010

2010-06-15T07:00:00.000-07:00

Discussing Private Management of Public Parks

Coyote blog discusses private management of state parks, a way to keep them open.

Immigration Debate May Get Uglier (and Nuttier) Here in Arizona

But that was 1868. Today, Pearce says the 14th Amendment has been “hijacked” by illegal immigrants. “They use it as a wedge,” Pearce says. “This is an orchestrated effort by them to come here and have children to gain access to the great welfare state we’ve created.” Pearce says he is aware of the constitutional issues involved with the bill and vows to introduce it nevertheless. “We will write it right.”

Economic News From Far Away to Close to Home

Over in Mesa, the last citrus packing plant is shutting down due to reduced volumes. Fruit will now have to be trucked to Yuma at considerable expense to be processed. This will shut down most of the remaining groves in the area.
Finally, Arizona has sold the state Supreme Court building among others to raise $300 million in cash to help fund the budget. The state will buy the buildings back over the next 30 years.

AZ News & Blogs 6/12/2010

2010-06-12T07:29:00.000-07:00

Police and Accountability

I have written before that the inexpensive handheld video camera is perhaps the most important innovation in police accountability in my lifetime. So of course, the police want them banned.

Clean Elections Candidates Advised to Return Public Subsidies

At an emergency meeting Wednesday, the Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission declared that taxpayer-funded candidates who have accepted campaign subsidies cannot withdraw from the Clean Elections system and run with private fundraising. But the Commission is wrong, according to the lead attorney who convinced the U.S. Supreme Court to block the use of matching funds at this point.
“There is nothing in the law that prohibits withdrawal from the Clean Elections system – provided taxpayer-funded candidates return their government subsidies and run with private financing,” said Nick Dranias, the Goldwater Institute’s director of constitutional studies. “No provision in the Citizens Clean Elections Act addresses the issue of voluntary withdrawal from the system. And no rule prohibits the Commission from allowing candidates to withdraw from the system if they return their subsidies.”

Strange bedfellows

Mills' attorney told the commission that it should reject a request from Gov. Jan Brewer's campaign to invoke an emergency clause and release publicly funded candidates to raise private dollars. It's needed, Brewer's crew argued, because of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that bars the distribution of matching funds to publicly funded candidates.

Worries increase along with Arizona's debt

Paying off that debt will strain state budgets for years to come. For the fiscal year that starts July 1, the state must make a $232 million debt payment out of its general fund.

Abramoff Released From Prison; close ties to Hayworth linger in the minds of voters

This cannot be a good week for Team Hayworth, with reports his campaign is losing steam and this ugly little reminder of just how low some people will go. You would think after the whole Abramoff “thing”, taking a closer look at folks would have been a good idea. But, then…I guess some people never learn.

AZ News & Blogs 6/10/2010

2010-06-10T06:57:00.000-07:00

Clean Elections could allow emergency fundraising (Subscibers)

The Citizens Clean Elections Commission may consider enacting an emergency clause that would allow publicly funded candidates to raise additional campaign cash, a change that Gov. Jan Brewer's campaign is hoping can alleviate the sudden loss of matching funds. The commission will hold a special meeting at 2 p.m. June 9 to discuss the ramifications and ...

Munger: No regret on ending gov campaign

Tucson attorney John Munger says he doesn’t regret his decision to drop out of the governor’s race now that the U.S. Supreme Court has blocked matching funds for publicly funded candidates....And Munger says he’s not changing his mind now. He says he’s already laid off campaign staff and canceled fundraising events.

Ernest Hancock Interviews Shawn Dow of CameraFraud.com

The politicians are out to get us. What they do when we're not watching.

AZ News & Blogs 6/9/2010

2010-06-09T06:39:00.000-07:00

U.S. Supreme Court Blocks Release of Campaign Matching Funds

In a major victory for free speech, the U.S. Supreme Court this morning blocked the use of taxpayer money as campaign "matching funds." The Court will decide whether to review a ruling from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Cato Institute Reactions

When taxpayers underwrite the campaign expenses of candidates for public office, serious questions arise: Not least, why should taxpayers subsidize candidates or ideas they oppose? But when taxpayers subsidize only one side in a campaign, there should be outrage. Perhaps there was at the Supreme Court this morning, when the Court blocked an appalling opinion out of, not surprisingly, the oft-overturned Ninth Circuit.

Coyote Blog Reactions

I find many of the uses politicians make of the money they take from me to be irritating. But perhaps the worst of them all is to use my money to fund their own election campaigns when they can’t get enough people to voluntarily contribute. Which is why I am happy to see the Supreme Court put a injunction on Arizona’s politicians take tax money to re-elect themselves law.

Why We Need Fewer Public School Jobs, Not More

The first [of two charts] shows that employment has grown 10 times faster than enrollment over the past 40 years. The second chart shows how the total cost of sending a single child through the public school system has changed over the years, along with trends in student achievement.

AZ News & Blogs 6/5/2010

2010-06-05T06:31:00.001-07:00

AZ Does Financial Gimmickry for Elections

This means that the state is spending a lot of overtime money shifting income by 21 days just to make its current period look better — just like RJR or any other dynsfunctional [sic] private company....But what makes this even more short term is that it only works once — the first time. It will make the first year this trick is applied look better, but then every year after will go back to being the same, with July losses to the prior year offset by June gains from the forthcoming year.
My Thoughts: Fascinating article on the shenanigans of AZ policy, it's definitely worth reading the whole article. It would be nice to have real leadership in the AZ legislature.

White House Gibbs wants the old John McCain back

“John McCain was very instrumental in getting immigration reform to the point that it was in 2005, 2006 and 2007,” he told reporters during Thursday’s briefing. “I doubt we’re going to get comprehensive immigration reform if we don’t have John McCain doing — doing what he believed in, in those years.”
Memo to Robert Gibbs: The White House will get the old John McCain back if he gets re-elected.

Early History of the Prescott Arizona Elks Opera House

My Thoughts: Interesting 7 part series on Elks Opera House (up to part 3 is finished)

Arizona sets 2nd phase in sale of buildings

More state buildings go up for sale next week, as officials hope to raise $300 million by selling and then leasing back the schools for deaf and blind children, more state prisons and other structures.
My Thoughts: More financial gimmickry by our state. According to Goldwater Institute this is illegal, i.e., it's against the AZ constitution which states AZ can't go into too much debt.

The Dark Heart of the US Government: Did McCain Betray 600 POWs?

Six days ago, we released our cover story presenting Sydney Schanberg's stunning account of the American abandonment of hundreds of POWs in Vietnam, their presumed later death at Communist hands, and the decades-long governmental cover-up which thereafter ensued.
See also commentary by the Southern Avenger

AZ US Senate Primaries

2010-06-04T11:35:00.000-07:00

Reports used for national politicians

The Freedom Index

"The Freedom Index" rates congressmen based on their adherence to constitutional principles of limited government, fiscal responsibility, and a traditional foreign policy of avoiding foreign entanglements.

Congressional Scorecard

We conducted a comprehensive examination of each lawmaker’s record on pro-growth policies and computed an Economic Growth Score on a scale of 0 to 100. A score of 100 indicates the highest support for progrowth policies. Those lawmakers scoring 90 or higher receive the Defender of Economic Freedom award.

Republican Candidates

Jim Deakin

Deakin hasn't worked as a public employee so I will look at his issues to see how he appears.

Interstate Commerce

It appears he is for limiting the powers of congress with regards to the interstate commerce clause which has been abused by congress in the past.

Pro-life

It appears he would like to get the federal government out of abortion funding.

Limited government

It appears he is for congress only operating in its limited realm.

America is not a conquering nation and our forces should only be used to protect our interests and direct threats against our allies. We are not the world police and we need our men and women to protect our freedom.
Native Americans

Sovereignty and Freedom do not belong only to the immigrants of this continent. Native American Tribes can control their own trust funds and lands. They do not need our federal government interfering with their lives and traditions.

Taxes

Simplification of the tax laws must be a priority. One example is the Fair tax and repeal of the 16th amendment to the Constitution. Other options are possible, the goal is to simplify the taxing process and empower states by giving control of cash flow to State Government.

Immigration

We have so much opportunity that immigrants from all over the world have flocked to our shores. All of that changed starting in 1965 with the Immigration and Naturalization Services Act. The failed policies must be revoked.

Health Care

Federal Government should be hands off. The current federal regulations restrict the rights and freedoms of state regulatory agencies, individual insurance providers and individuals. Federal Government interference is the cause of the problems.

J.D. Hayworth

Freedom Index

110th Congress (January 3, 2007, and January 3, 2009)

40% Vote Record, 40% Score
110th Congress was used since it reflects the beliefs of the congress person during a republican president, which shows their true colors, not their bipartisanship.

Congressional Scorecard

2005/2006

Rank 40/30 Score 86/81
2005/2006 was used since those years covered Hayworth also (for some reason Hayworth doesn't appear in the other years.

John McCain (Incumbent)

Freedom Index

110th Congress (January 3, 2007, and January 3, 2009)

60% Vote Record, 44% Score
110th Congress was used since it reflects the beliefs of the congress person during a republican president, which shows their true colors, not their bipartisanship.

Congressional Scorecard

2005/2006

Rank 29/29 Score 76/76
2005/2006 was used since those years covered Hayworth also (for some reason Hayworth doesn't appear in the other years.
It should be noted for 2009 McCain had a perfect record. It could be because he knew he was coming up for election and an unpopular (for republicans) democratic president was elected.

My Thoughts:

From looking at the data it appears John McCain and J.D. Hayworth are pretty much the same. Their freedom indexes are both poor. I wouldn't want either of these guys to represent me.
Jim Deakin seems to be the most pro freedom candidate. Unless someone can give me good reason not to vote for him then I'm for Deakin.

Upcoming Elections

2010-06-03T08:18:00.000-07:00

August 24, 2010 - Primary Election

Candidate filing window: April 26-May 26 (Analysis will be done after May 26th)
The date for candidate filings has passed and the Secretary of State website has the final people that will be in the primary elections. Nows the time to start figuring out who you are going to vote for. I will be going over the Republican primary candidates since CD1 leans mostly Republican. Tomorrow I will post on US Senator and work my way down the list after that.

November 2, 2010 - General Election

Possible Propositions most are due by July 1, 2010 (Analysis will be done after that date)

Regulation and the State Part 1

2010-06-01T08:49:00.001-07:00

This was originally aired by Stefan Molyneux on his Sunday Show podcast FDR1663 this transcript starts at [15:03]. Note, this has been edited for language and content.

[T]his idea that we need control over private capitalist organizations is so completely irrational that...this is why i started looking at family stuff. [Since] there's just no way that anybody can look at a logical diagram and say the following, "We need control over social institutions and so let's a create one social institution arm it to the...teeth, have it be able to steal at will and imprison the population and the population has zero control economically at least over this entity and so we need to create an entity that is completely involuntary and is all powerful and has complete control over the citizenship and we need to create this entity because there are social agencies that the citizens are afraid of not having control over." I mean that is that is so completely insane that no rational human being with more than 4 1/2 brain cells to rub together would ever come up with that solution. It's like saying I’m afraid of dating so i want to get raped, i mean that just makes no sense at all, right?

So that's the first thing I would say [the] citizens have no control over the all powerful government so the idea that we create a government in order to control dangerous social institutions like free market companies is insane. [T]he huge difference between me dealing with some local grocery store is that if I don't like that grocery store I don't have to do [a] thing, I don't have to get off the couch, I don't have to take my finger out of my nose or my other hand off the remote let's say. I don't have to move a muscle or take a breath if I don't like the grocery store down the road because I just won't go there so an action going about my day everything that you do in a free market that is not involved in giving money or time or services to a particular organization is a complete vote against every other corporation in the world, right?

So if I go out and buy an iPad that is a vote against every other $600 worth of consumption that I could have made so if I am voting for an iPad I’m voting against every other possible use of that money including saving it…. I don't have to do anything if I don't approve of a particular corporation. On the other hand, with the government, if you don't agree with what the government does your [screwed]. If you don't like what the government does what are you going to do? Well you have to go marching, you have to try to get into office, you have to spend a lot of money, you have to risk going to jail if you don't want to pay your taxes. In other words, the government compels you to obey and the cost of disobedience is unbelievably high to the point most people, and I think reasonably so, won't risk it.

On the other hand, if I don't agree with what some corporation is doing I don't have to do anything. I can just sit there and suck up the Doritos dust from my chest as I continue watching another season of “Lost.” I don't have to do anything. [T]his difference between positive and negative action is something that people don't understand. The idea of creating a monopoly of violence in order to solve a multiplicity of voluntarism is completely mad….

[Also, it has to do with] this bizarre belief that corporations have something to do with the free market. That corporations exist somehow wildly independent of the government and that corporations are the spawn of the free market, they are the spawn of voluntarism, and they are controlling the government and bribing the government and influencing the government and all this that and the other and that is all complete ahistorical propagandized nonsense. [C]orporations are state created and state controlled ways of avoiding legal liability for your economic decisions.

So if you have a corporation and your corporation does well you take all the money if you have a corporation and your corporation does something stupid or illegal or dangerous or harms people then the corporation gets sued and you don't get touched. So for instance, this terrible gulf oil spill or this oil leak that is going on at the moment. That is just completely disastrous and is going to have effects on the ecosystem of the gulf for probably years if not decades to come….

[W]hy are they… drilling 400 miles below the earth below the surface of the sea? Because, according to environmental regulations, they are really not allowed to drill on land. Also, why we are we still so dependent on oil? It's because the

U.S.

government spends so much money propping up corrupt dictatorships in return for oil. [H]ow many tens of thousands of troops stationed in

Saudi Arabia

propping up that dictatorship to get access to oil. If none of that was occurring the price of oil would be higher or there would already have been reforms in

Saudi Arabia

and other countries that they prop up through

U.S.

militarism. There would have been reforms that would have lowered the price of oil by introducing more competition. [By] propping up oil based dictatorships, the U.S. is artificially driving up the price of oil and is reducing the incentives for other people to drill…. Now the government does not require the backup systems that might have contained this spill….

Do you think...that one oil executive is going to lose his house over this I mean if I crash into someone’s car without insurance I’m going to lose my house, assuming they get injured, they're going to take my house I don't think that's unfair but these oil executives hide behind these legal shields called corporations and they don't get any personal exposure to the actions of that corporation you can't go after their houses you can't go after their assets. So when they are weighing the calculations about whether to spend another 1/2 million dollars because they're drilling at the bottom of the ocean because of all the other government regulations, they're weighing that decision there's no personal stake in that decision. [T]hat's a bit of an overstatement they may want to keep working, they may want to keep their jobs, they might lose their jobs but their personal assets [won’t be lost]. The people at the top pool making these decisions are already making millions of dollars, have more than enough money to live on for generations. If they want, and there's no personal stake in any of that, so they make these decisions knowing that if there is a catastrophe it's not going to affect their personal wealth.

It's completely insane. It's like I have a fictional friend and if I do anything good I get all the benefits and if I do anything bad it's my fictional friend who goes to jail and I just get to make up another fictional friend if I want to. [I]f you could just invent your own personal alternate corporation hand puppet and if anything went wrong you said, “No, no, talk to the hand puppet.” [W]e wouldn't have a functioning system at all. If that's how it worked at a personal [level nothing would work]. But this how it works at a corporate level. [I]t has nothing to do with the free market. I guarantee you there would be no such thing as a corporation in the free market. A corporation is an entirely state generated entity and it's a way the government buys the votes of rich people and gets their donations by giving them legal immunity from the negative consequences of their bad decisions. [T]hat's what a corporation is. It's a bribe to the upper classes to excuse them from the liability of doing disastrous things like screwing up the entire ecosystem of the gulf with 12 billion barrels of oil...

...But if it was a free market how would they be regulated?

...In a DRO society if I wanted to go drill at the bottom of the ocean the DRO would have…insurance…. I would have to be able to prove in order to get that insurance…to whatever organization that would be responsible for paying out that insurance…that it is safe as humanly possible. [T]he gulf wasn't even remotely safe as humanly possible. BP is going to have to pay 1 1000th of the cost of the clean up. [N]o executives, I guarantee you, no executives will be personally liable one dime of that catastrophe. It will all get stuck on the tax payers. That would never happen in the free market because there are no tax payers in the free market.

...So you’re just changing the checks and balances from the government to the Dispute Resolution Organizations (DROs) ...

There are no checks and balances in the government, there's only excuses and predations....

[27:00]

The Daily Bell Interviews Dr. Wakefield

2010-06-01T07:19:00.001-07:00

Read the whole interview.

Firstly there is no ethical basis for mandatory vaccination at all. Ethics, the fundamental core of ethics, is fully informed consent; you cannot provide fully informed consent if your information is derelict; if your information is inadequate; and if the information you are providing is wrong. And in the case of the vaccines all three of those pertain.

I will give you a very recent example of this kind of problem. It was recently reported that a vaccine was found to contain two pig viruses, fragments of two pig viruses, one which caused a wasting-disease in pigs. This vaccine should have been withdrawn from the market immediately and indefinitely until the problem had been resolved. That the vaccine was allowed to be used on the market is absolutely unacceptable because the consequences are unknown. I am afraid that is the kind of extraordinary attitude towards safety that pervades the vaccine policy makers in this country at the moment.

Well certainly immunity can occur in other ways, through natural exposure. Vaccines are effective and I am in no way anti-vaccine. Again, I reiterate that I am for a safety-first vaccination policy.

There are certain vaccines which I see no use for whatsoever. They are purely there for commercial reasons, and in fact they have done more harm than good. We are in a state of some confusion because the safety studies have not been done properly from the onset. And by safely, what I mean is whether vaccines can be given in combination with the rest of the vaccine schedule – or whether they interact with or potentiate the reactions of those vaccines.

My thoughts: It makes it hard to know what to believe when science isn't based on science.

Soaring costs force Canada to reassess health model

2010-06-01T07:02:00.001-07:00

Read the whole article.

Pressured by an aging population and the need to rein in budget deficits, Canada's provinces are taking tough measures to curb healthcare costs, a trend that could erode the principles of the popular state-funded system.

...British Columbia is replacing block grants to hospitals with fee-for-procedure payments and Quebec has a new flat health tax and a proposal for payments on each medical visit -- an idea that critics say is an illegal user fee.

And a few provinces are also experimenting with private funding for procedures such as hip, knee and cataract surgery.

"...We can't continually see health spending growing above and beyond the growth rate in the economy because, at some point, it means crowding out of all the other government services.

"At some stage we're going to hit a breaking point."

"...Many of the advances in healthcare and life expectancy are due to the pharmaceutical industry so we should never demonize them," said U of T's Golden. "We need to ensure that they maintain a profitable business but our ability to make it very very profitable is constrained right now."

Scotia Capital's Webb said one cost-saving idea may be to make patients aware of how much it costs each time they visit a healthcare professional. "(The public) will use the services more wisely if they know how much it's costing," she said.

"If it's absolutely free with no information on the cost and the information of an alternative that would be have been more practical, then how can we expect the public to wisely use the service?"

My thoughts: Yes, a freer market would lower costs. A completely free market would make it really inexpensive.

But change may come slowly. Universal healthcare is central to Canada's national identity, and decisions are made as much on politics as economics.

"It's an area that Canadians don't want to see touched," said TD's Burleton. "Essentially it boils down the wishes of the population. But I think, from an economist's standpoint, we point to the fact that sometimes Canadians in the short term may not realize the cost."

My thoughts: No one is going to be willing to give up what they get for "free." Just witness the recent 1 cent sales tax increase in AZ. People don't want to give up their cash cow (i.e., pay check from the state) and "free" education. Socialism just doesn't work.

Everything You Love You Owe to Capitalism

2010-05-29T07:49:00.000-07:00

[This talk was delivered at the Mises Circle in Seattle on May 17, 2008.]

Read the whole article here.

I'm sure that you have had this experience before, or something similar to it....But then the topic turns to economics, and things change....Then the truth emerges in the form of a naïve if definitive announcement from one person: "Well, I suppose I'm really a socialist at heart." Others nod in agreement....On one hand there is nothing to say, really. You are surrounded by the blessings of capitalism....All of history has been defined by the struggle for food....The ancients, peering into this scene, might have assumed it to be Elysium....[W]e owe this scene to centuries of capital accumulation at the hands of free people who have put capital to work on behalf of economic innovations, at once competing with others for profit and cooperating with millions upon millions of people in an ever-expanding global network of the division of labor....

...And yet, sitting on the other side of the table are well-educated people who imagine that the way to end the world's woes is through socialism....[Their definition] might be as simple as the desire to put a cap on the salaries of CEOs, or it could be as extreme as the desire to abolish all private property, money, and even marriage....Whatever the specifics of the case in question, socialism always means overriding the free decisions of individuals and replacing that capacity for decision making with an overarching plan by the state. Taken far enough, this mode of thought won't just spell an end to opulent lunches. It will mean the end of what we all know as civilization itself....Nor is it possible to divorce socialism from totalitarianism, because if you are serious about ending private ownership of the means of production, you have to be serious about ending freedom and creativity too. You will have to make the whole of society, or what is left of it, into a prison.

In short, the wish for socialism is a wish for unparalleled human evil. If we really understood this, no one would express casual support for it in polite company. It would be like saying, you know, there is really something to be said for malaria and typhoid and dropping atom bombs on millions of innocents.

Do the people sitting across the table really wish for this? Certainly not. So what has gone wrong here? Why can these people not see what is obvious?

...What we have here is a failure of understanding. That is to say, a failure to connect causes with effects. This is a wholly abstract idea. Knowledge of cause and effect does not come to us by merely looking around a room, living in a certain kind of society, or observing statistics....

Let me take you back to the years 1989 and 1990. These were the years that most of us remember as the time when socialism collapsed in Eastern Europe and Russia. Events of that time flew in the face of all predictions on the Right that these were permanent regimes that would never change unless they were bombed back to the Stone Age. On the Left, it was widely believed, even in those times, that these societies were actually doing quite well and would eventually pass the United States and Western Europe in prosperity, and, by some measures, that they were already better off than us....And yet it collapsed....They may have all the guns and all the power, and the people have none of those, and yet, when the people themselves decide that they will no longer be governed, the state has few options left. It eventually collapses amid a society-wide refusal to believe its lies any longer.

When these closed societies suddenly became open, what did we see? We saw lands that time forgot. The technology was backwards and broken. The food was scarce and disgusting. The medical care was abysmal. The people were unhealthy. Property was polluted.

...This [collapse] is what anyone who had been exposed to the teachings of economics — to the elementary rules concerning cause and effect in society — saw....But this is not what the ideological Left saw. The headlines in the socialist publications themselves proclaimed the death of undemocratic Stalinism and looked forward to the creation of a new democratic socialism in these countries.

...Now, if the proper lessons of the collapse had been conveyed, we would have seen the error of all forms of government planning. We would have seen that a voluntary society will outperform a coerced one anytime. We might see how ultimately artificial and fragile are all systems of statism compared to the robust permanence of a society built on free exchange and capitalist ownership. And there is another point: the militarism of the Cold War had only ended up prolonging the period of socialism by providing these evil governments the chance to stimulate unfortunate nationalist impulses that distracted their domestic populations from the real problem....Not even an event as spectacular as the spontaneous meltdown of a superpower and all its client states was enough to impart the message of economic freedom.

...We are also inundated daily by the failures of the state. We complain constantly that the educational system is broken, that the medical sector is oddly distorted, that the post office is unaccountable, that the police abuse their power, that the politicians have lied to us, that tax dollars are stolen, that whatever bureaucracy we have to deal with is inhumanly unresponsive. We note all this. But far fewer are somehow able to connect the dots and see the myriad ways in which daily life confirms that the market radicals like Mises, Hayek, Hazlitt, and Rothbard were correct in their judgments.

What's more, this is not a new phenomenon that we can observe in our lifetimes only. We can look at any country in any period and note that every bit of wealth ever created in the history of mankind has been generated through some kind of market activity, and never by governments. Free people create; states destroy.

...The empirical truth has never been hard to come by. What matters are the theoretical eyes that see. This is what dictates the lesson we draw from events. Marx and Bastiat were writing at the same time. The former said capitalism was creating a calamity and that abolition of ownership was the solution. Bastiat saw that statism was creating a calamity and that the abolition of state plunder was the solution. What was the difference between them? They saw the same facts, but they saw them in very different ways. They had a different perception of cause and effect.

I suggest to you that there is an important lesson here as regards the methodology of the social sciences, as well as an agenda and strategy for the future. Concerning method, we need to recognize that Mises was precisely right concerning the relationship between facts and economic truth. If we have a solid theory in mind, the facts on the ground provide excellent illustrative material. They inform us about the application of theory in the world in which we live. They provided excellent anecdotes and revealing stories of how economic theory is confirmed in practice. But absent that theory of economics, facts alone are nothing but facts. They do not convey any information about cause and effect, and they do not point a way forward.

...Data points on their own convey no theory, suggest no conclusions, and offer no truths. To arrive at truth requires the most important step that we as human beings can ever take: thinking. Through this thinking, and with good teaching and reading, we can put together a coherent theoretical apparatus that helps us understand.

...In fact, what we have here is a simple mix-up of cause and effect. Bigger companies tend to be more likely to attract a kind of unpreventable unionization than smaller ones. The unions target them, with federal aid. It is no more or less complicated than that. It is for the same reason that developed economies have larger welfare states. The parasites prefer bigger hosts; that's all. We would be making a big mistake to assume that the welfare state causes the developed economy. That would be as much a fallacy as to believe that wearing $2,000 suits causes people to become rich.

...[T]he most important step economists or economic institutions can take is in the direction of public education in economic logic.

There is another important factor here. The state thrives on an economically ignorant public. This is the only way it can get away with blaming inflation or recession on consumers, or claiming that the government's fiscal problems are due to our paying too little in taxes. It is economic ignorance that permits the regulatory agencies to claim that they are protecting us as versus denying us choice. It is only by keeping us all in the dark that it can continue to start war after war — violating rights abroad and smashing liberties at home — in the name of spreading freedom.

Read the rest of this article.

AZ News & Blogs 5/29/2010

2010-05-29T07:11:00.001-07:00

Immigration Law — Up Close

The police are going to ask questions and request to see papers in a variety of circumstances — whether they have reasonable suspicion or not. From a legal, constitutional, and practical perspective, the key issue is this: What are the consequences, if any, for the person who stands his ground and declines to answer questions or declines to produce identification papers? If a person declines, will the police back off and say, “Well, that is your right, sir, you may go” or will the police escalate the situation by ordering the person to answer questions, ordering the production of identification, detaining the person, or threaten the person with arrest on bogus charges?
The police are trained to blur the line between “voluntary” interactions with people (perfectly lawful) and “involuntary” interactions with people (where police power is limited by the Constitution)....
Man gets by check point without having to give them what they want. As opposed to this incident .

Quelland’s bills against Clean Elections went nowhere

A package of bills sponsored by Rep. Doug Quelland reads like a list of grievances against the Clean Elections system he’s fought for the past two years.
Quelland sponsored only six bills in the 2010 legislative session, five of which were intended to expand the rights of candidates accused of violating Clean Elections laws.
All five of the bills failed to receive a committee hearing, but they left little doubt about the Phoenix Republican’s feelings about the Clean Elections system that once helped him get elected and later called for his removal from office.

US warns AZ on park closures; could lose funds

In addition to loss of federal funds, park closures will bring a host of liability and public safety problems due to the state’s inability to secure park lands from spreading wildfires, drug cultivation, violent crimes and injuries.... “Even California has learned that closing state parks is the epitome of a penny-wise-pound-foolish economy."
My thoughts: Goldwater Institute has told us before the state can privatize it and make money on the venture...too bad they don't listen.
See also: Private companies can manage state parks , New tax for state parks would entrench wrong approach to funding , and Look for a business partner to fund state parks.

AZ News & Blogs 5/28/2010

2010-05-28T07:26:00.000-07:00

Goldwater Institute appeals matching funds ruling

With less than a month to go before Clean Elections candidates start getting matching funds, the Goldwater Institute is falling back on its last line of defense to scrap the public financing system for the 2010 elections. The Goldwater Institute on May 25 filed an emergency motion with U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, requesting that ...

School Vouchers vs. Tax Credits

Under a constitutional tax credit program such as Arizona’s, the state has no power to pressure/encourage taxpayers to do anything that the state could not do directly. Taxpayers can choose to give no money to religious charities, or to give all their money to them. The state is unable to affect their decisions in any way.

Vouchers, Tax Credits, and Social Conflict

Yesterday, I contended that education tax credits substantially avoid the compulsion inherent in school voucher programs — that vouchers compel all taxpayers to fund every kind of schooling (including ones they may strongly object to) whereas tax credits do not.

‘All Your Income Are Belong to the State’

It would be fine for the Arizona Republic to report that critics refuse to accept the Arizona Supreme Court’s interpretation, and that they are hoping the U.S. Supreme Court will see things their way (FYI: not gonna happen). But it is not okay for the Republic, on its “news” pages, to take sides in a case now before the U.S. Supreme Court by adopting the legal assumptions of the program’s critics.

Update on the Arizona Immigration Issue

First, it seems that I wasn’t working off the latest version of the bill — which I should add is awfully hard to find.
Well, we at Cato certainly agree that Arizona’s law will not solve a problem that demands a comprehensive federal solution, but that doesn’t mean federal officials can simply decline to perform their duties under the law as it exists.
My thoughts: Yes, it is difficult to navigate Arizona's websites to find bills and track them. It would be nice if they came up with a more transparent system.

AZ News & Blogs 5/25/2010

2010-05-25T08:35:00.001-07:00

A Legal Analysis of the New Arizona Immigration Law

None of these provisions, on their face, appear to be unconstitutional, in the sense of Arizona intruding on federal authority over immigration policy...just because the law is constitutional doesn’t necessarily mean it’s good policy...the boycotts of Arizona adopted by city councils around the country...are likely themselves unconstitutional.
In short, the Arizona immigration law presents a tremendously complex issue, as the Arizona Republic has recognized, that does not lend itself to easy calls or soundbites. I myself am not certain how I would have voted if I didn’t have the third option (as Arizona doesn’t) of imminent federal reform — to the disconsolation of state legislators around the country who have asked me what they can do to placate a (legitimately) aggrieved public besides enactiong Arizona-style laws.
My thoughts: Nice and balanced. It would be nice if I didn't get so emotional about all of this!

Supreme Court Will Hear Appeal of School Choice Case

The SCOTUS Blog reports this morning that the United States Supreme Court has agreed to hear an appeal of the Ninth Circuit’s ruling in the Arizona k-12 scholarship tax credit case.

For further reading see:

Death-penalty cases put county public defender’s office $8M over budget

A Maricopa County agency that contracts with private attorneys to represent indigent criminal defendants is going to end the fiscal year over budget by more than $8 million, or about 63 percent. County managers attribute the overspending to a glut of death-penalty cases and the high cost of defending them. The Office of Public Defense Services has ...
My thoughts: Is it worth the money, or would it be worth just keeping them in prison without even worrying about the death penalty? Not to mention the moral implications of all the innocents we've putting in jail (listen to The Perfect Evidence).
I said in the past how it's not necessarily the people that are the problem but the institutions themselves. Just like the schools.

AZ News & Blogs 5/22/2010

2010-05-22T06:31:00.002-07:00

How You Gonna Keep them Down on the Farm?

Immigration within Cuba, Not Allowed!

Mission Accomplished!

Barack Obama has now been president for 16 months. Congratulations once again to my fellow Americans for demanding change and electing a man with the guts to stand up to the Bush war machine!

Board votes to keep 5 state parks open

The Arizona State Parks Board voted Wednesday to keep open five more parks slated for closure next month, leaving only four on the chopping block just months after the board voted to close nearly all state parks.
“The parks that we have in our system are the crown jewels of this state, and we have the responsibility to protect those assets for future generation of Arizonans,” said Chip Davis, a supervisor on Yavapai County, which raised $50,000 and hopes to raise another $110,000 to keep open Red Rock State Park near Sedona.
See also: Private companies can manage state parks , New tax for state parks would entrench wrong approach to funding , and Look for a business partner to fund state parks .

The Police State We Live In, We Are Not Free

2010-05-20T07:58:00.001-07:00

This is the story of Pastor Anderson who was beat down by the police for nothing more than exerting his rights. Hear his story. See what happened here.

See the full trial here.

Hear the interview with Pastor Anderson's trial lawyer here.

AZ News & Blogs 5/20/2010

2010-05-20T07:29:00.000-07:00

The Ninth Circuit as a Denial of Service Attack on American Justice

The Supreme Court is expected to decide [today] whether to summarily overturn a Ninth Circuit Court ruling, hear an appeal of that ruling, or let the Ninth Circuit’s decision stand. The case involves Arizona’s k-12 scholarship tax credit program that helps families afford private schooling, which the Ninth Circuit found last year to violate the First Amendment.

Supreme Court Should Call Out Ninth Circuit in Education Case

The case concerns an Arizona school choice program that has been serving low- and middle-income families for 13 years. The state grants a tax credit to individuals who donate to nonprofit entities that award scholarships for children to attend private schools — including religious schools. Yes, here we go again.
The question — if a question that has been redundantly answered remains a real question — is whether this violates the First Amendment proscription of any measure amounting to government “establishment of religion.” The incorrigible 9th Circuit has declared Arizona’s program unconstitutional, even though there is no government involvement in any parent’s decision to use a scholarship at a religious school.

Milking the cash cow: Sales tax hike sails through in fear-based campaign

Special interest groups including the Arizona Chamber of Commerce, and police, firefighter and teachers unions, spending more than $2 million on fear-inducing advertising, were able to defeat the anti-tax hike crusaders who had a mere $1,200 to wage their campaign.

My quick takes on AZ Prop 100 sales tax hike

TUCSON -- In the State House I voted against referring Prop 100 to ballot, instead preferring a real budget solution, such as what I and House Democrats offered. I stand by that vote.

Statement from Buz Mills on Passage of Prop 100 see also this video

For more than a year, 28-year career politician Jan Brewer called for the largest three-year tax increase in Arizona history - $3 billion. Tonight, Gov. Brewer got her wish. In the process, the governor solidified her legacy as the governor who raised taxes.
The people were told that this sales tax hike would prevent large budget cuts. I’m afraid it won’t. The state still faces a $3.5 billion deficit. In order to fix that problem, across-the-board spending cuts are required, not tax increases.

AZ News & Blogs 5/19/2010

2010-05-19T06:51:00.001-07:00

The law of unintended consequences: Russell Pearce’s guest-worker program

The arrest-and-release policy is a little-known part of federal immigration law that allows illegal immigrants to challenge deportation and obtain legal residency, and a driver’s license, as long as they meet certain conditions. If more illegal immigrants are apprehended and processed through the federal system – which is expected to happen after Arizona’s immigration law takes effect on July 29 – then an even greater number would qualify for legal status.
My Thoughts: The bright side of things :).

S.B. 1070: Your Driver's License May Not Be Adequate I.D.

A PERSON IS PRESUMED TO NOT BE AN ALIEN WHO IS UNLAWFULLY PRESENT IN THE UNITED STATES IF THE PERSON PROVIDES TO THE LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER OR AGENCY ANY OF THE FOLLOWING:
1. A VALID ARIZONA DRIVER LICENSE.
2. A VALID ARIZONA NONOPERATING IDENTIFICATION LICENSE.
3. A VALID TRIBAL ENROLLMENT CARD OR OTHER FORM OF TRIBAL IDENTIFICATION.
4. IF THE ENTITY REQUIRES PROOF OF LEGAL PRESENCE IN THE UNITED STATES BEFORE ISSUANCE, ANY VALID UNITED STATES FEDERAL, STATE OR LOCAL GOVERNMENT ISSUED IDENTIFICATION.

"Arizona and Immigration" featuring Daniel Griswold

Audio Podcast from Dan Griswold. On how the immigration law is anti-freedom.

Arizona Seeks to Preserve Role of Parents in Raising Children

The opening passage of the bill is clear: “The liberty of parents to direct the upbringing, education, health care and mental health of their children is a fundamental right.” State and local governments “shall not infringe these rights without demonstrating that the compelling governmental interest as applied to the child involved is of the highest order, is narrowly tailored and is not otherwise served by a less restrictive means.”

Arizona Corporation Commission Exceeds Constitutional Limits

The Arizona Corporation Commission has over-stepped its constitutional boundaries by making rules and regulations in areas our state founders never intended it to control, according to a new report from the Goldwater Institute.
"The ACC has usurped the Legislature's role to set energy policy and it will cost consumers $2.4 billion over the next 15 years," said Nick Dranias, director of constitutional policy at the Goldwater Institute.

Government transparency has bright future in Arizona

On Monday, Governor Jan Brewer signed House Bill 2282 , which will require most local governments to post on the Internet extensive budget information including individual spending items. In addition, the state will have a website where a street address can be entered and, at the touch of a button, links to every unit of government with authority over that address will pop up. Each of those governments must, in turn, post information about taxes, upcoming elections, and how to contact officials for more information.

Arizona's Charles Goyett who wrote The Dollar Meltdown: Surviving The Impending Currency Crisis With Gold, Oil, and Other Unconventional Investments Interviewed by Lew Rockwell and Ernest Hancock listen to the second half.

Sheeple of AZ Steal More Money from their Neighbors

2010-05-19T06:36:00.001-07:00

HornIt said it best:
People don't need to vote to "tax themselves". They can tax themselves whenever they want to by writing a check and sending it to the state. But nobody ever actually votes to tax themselves, they vote to tax others. They vote themselves the property of others. They are free to give their up to others any time they want to..........but they don't of course. Well, actually some do. Conservatives do it at twice the rate of liberals. It's called charitable giving as opposed to the kind of coerced government taking you and your ilk are so found of.

EX18C said:
It is what it is. Anytime I hear about "the children", "the teachers", cops or firefighters I immediately think B.S......scare tactics. I used to work for the government......there is plenty of waste that can be eliminated without raising taxes to pay for stuff.

See the analysis of the election here and here.

See how many sheeple live in your county with the results here.

AZ News & Blogs 5/18/2010 (Sales Tax Vote is Today)

2010-05-18T09:20:00.000-07:00

If the government tells you to be afraid, then you know you need not be afraid

Rejection would trigger $862 million of contingency spending cuts beyond those already included in the budget due to the state’s loss of 30 percent of its revenue.
Most of the contingency cuts were aimed at education. Those include $428.6 million for K-12 schools, $107.1 million for universities and $15.2 million for community colleges and $4.7 million for other programs.
Budget and school officials said rejection of the tax increase would produce larger class sizes, reductions in specialized instruction and layoffs and furloughs for teachers and other school workers.
Elsewhere in government, predicted cutbacks tied to rejection of Proposition 100 included layoffs of Highway Patrol officers, transfers of 3,000 to 5,000 prison inmates to county jails, new reductions of payments to hospitals and other health care providers, and reduced services for developmentally disabled adults and disabled children.
Proposition 100 opponents argued that the state hadn’t cut spending deep enough and that passage of the measure would keep spending at levels that the state cannot afford. They also said a tax increase would throttle the state’s ailing economy by stifling retail trade.
My Thoughts: Notice how the government always uses fear tactics to get what they want? That's the way it's always been, they use these tactics to take our freedom away and they will continue to use the tactics to take our freedoms away. Note how they did this with the anti-illegal immigration law that recently passed, they slipped into the law the ability to send all our personal ID information to the federal government and to stop us and ask for papers with no true cause. Lets stop the anti-freedom politicians and vote no on 100.

Where's all the money going for schools for the recent rise in taxes?

Most schools received a 10% increase in Maintenance and Operating (M&O) funding from higher 2009 primary property taxes.
In March special elections were held so schools could add an additional 15% override to their M&O funding. Overrides are part of secondary property taxes and are calculated on Full Cash Value.
We need to find out where all the money is going before we raise taxes, worsen the recession, and further depress much needed economic growth.
My Thoughts: There is no end to the money hungry politicians!

Lessons From Venezuela’s 21st Century Socialism

The accomplishments of Venezuela’s “Socialism of the 21st Century” are looking very much like those of old-fashioned socialism with basic goods shortages, high inflation, negative growth, blackouts, water rationing, the persecution of Hugo Chávez’s critics, plus skyrocketing crime.
My Thoughts: Socialism just doesn't work...the public schooling system in the US is socialism and has proven not to work. It only dumbs down the population and recreates an anti-freedom-loving people.

Supreme Court Further Reduces Constitutional Limits on Federal Power

”turned an instrumental power, dependent on Congress’s other powers, into an independent power.”
the Court did further damage to principled constitutional interpretation in citing foreign law as support for its holding that life-without-parole (LWOP) sentences are unconstitutional as applied to juveniles committing non-homicide crimes.
My Thoughts: The government can now hold you forever in prison without due process and after you've served your entire sentence. Wait, the government could already do that. Time to wake up I suppose.

AZ News & Blogs 5/17/2010 (Sales Tax Reminder)

2010-05-17T07:41:00.000-07:00

Shocking Brewer Verbal Assault Video Should End Her Political Career see also this article.

This video is guaranteed to motivate the apathetic voter to rally to the “NO on 100” side and show up to cast their ballot in person on Tuesday.
My Thoughts: This article and video are bit inflammatory and you question the video makers intent but it does show the true colors of a statist. A statist will never think the government has enough money and will always ask for more and beg for more if you ask them to cut the fat and lower taxes. Why has AZ been able to lower taxes the last few years? As seen in this post. I don't know but it could be because of the increase in federal government funding to the state coffers? They make us think we are paying less but truly are paying more. It's been shown that the free market works better than government and that communities can figure out local problems for cheaper, so why do we keep giving big government more money to waste? I don't know all the answers, all I know is that we don't need to be taxed any higher, we need to set ourselves free and the only way to do that is by lowering the vice grip that the government has over us.
See this video on what else could be cut from the AZ budget.

Glass Houses (Coyote Blog on Illegal Immigration and Trash)

I was forwarded an email today, and I can’t honestly figure out the source since it is one of those that has been forwarded a zillion times, but at some point it passed through the Arizona 2010 Project. It consisted mainly of pictures of desert areas along major immigration routes that had been trashed by illegal immigrants. This picture is pretty typical....Well, it so happens my life is spent cleaning up public parks. My company’s mission is to privately operate public parks. A lot of that job is picking up and hauling away the trash. And I can tell you something with absolute certainty: This is exactly what a highly trafficked area in our great Northwest Forests or Seashore National Parks would look like if someone wasn’t there to pick up. Here is one example from a northwest forest, in Oregon....

Lopsided campaigns await Prop. 100 vote

2010-05-14T08:59:00.001-07:00

Lopsided campaigns await Prop. 100 vote

On one side of the Proposition 100 debate is a broad coalition with a seven-figure budget, organized rallies, signs on virtually every intersection and TV ads running statewide. On the other side is a group of vocal opponents with few resources, less than $100 in the bank and some “NO on 100” buttons.
My Thoughts: The article later on talks about how when the people don't want something it doesn't matter what money is spent, it will be voted down. I hope that is true.
Yes on 100 and the other campaigns supporting the ballot proposition have raised at least $1.6 million, according to the Secretary of State’s Office. Groups as disparate as the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Arizona Education Association, the Professional Fire Fighters Association, the Gila River Indian Community and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona have all made sizeable contributions to Yes on 100 and have lent their names and support to the campaign.
My Thoughts: All these organizations must be tax feeders, I don't understand why else they would want to pay more taxes. That brings up the question, if you are receiving money from the government and this proposition would cut that money off should you be allowed to vote on it? I don't think you could morally vote on it unless you were voting no since you are basically voting to have the gestapo steal other people's money for your own gain.

AZ News & Blogs 5/13/2010

2010-05-13T07:46:00.000-07:00

New Law Reins In Property Tax Break Favored by Cities

Cities will no longer be able to give lucrative property tax breaks lasting a half century or more to hand-picked developers because of a new law signed Tuesday by Gov. Jan Brewer....The reforms will roughly double the payments that designated builders provide instead of property taxes and will cut in half the normal length of leases with cities, which have already taken developments valued at more than $2 billion throughout Arizona off the property tax rolls.
Critics have pushed since 2008 to scale back or scrap the law, arguing a better approach than doling out tax breaks to a few large developers is to lower everyone’s property taxes. However, opposition from cities and developers with GPLET properties had stalled reform talks.

It's Time to End Policing for Profit in Arizona

In Arizona, police can seize your property, sell it, and keep the money to fund their own budgets without so much as charging you with a crime. Under civil forfeiture laws, police and prosecutors can even seize your property after you've been found not guilty of a crime.

Who Is Fighting (Or Helping) Whom In Mexico’s Drug Wars?

“Plata o plomo” (which literally means “silver or lead” and refers to how officials are either corrupted or killed by drug lords) has long been a common feature of the drug war in Latin America. It is not surprising that multi-billion dollar cartels corrupt the officials who are supposed to fight them. What is surprising is some people in Washington still believe that this is a winnable war.

ICE rescues 3 Salvadoran kids held in Phoenix area

Federal authorities say they have rescued three Salvadoran children who were being held hostage by suspected human smugglers in the Phoenix metropolitan area.

Brewer: No tax cuts while asking for tax hike

“I’ve been on the record saying that there is no way that we’re going to ask the people of the state of Arizona to vote for a temporary tax, and then come back and do business tax cuts,” Brewer said.

Brewer vetoes light bulb bill, signs dozens more

Here are the bills Brewer signed:

H2627; county transportation excise tax; transit
H2629; self-defense; political subdivisions; weapon records
H2653; intergovernmental agreements; separate legal entities
H2661; statewide water augmentation authority; study
H2668; voting information; postsecondary students
H2722; schools; funding; nonresidents
H2725; education; omnibus
H2731; high schools; graduation; board examinations
H2733; department of education; data collection
H2003; revitalization districts
H2037; secretary of state; business services
H2113; provisional community colleges; property transfer
H2133; air quality nonattainment areas; designation
H2257; municipalities; counties; taxes; fees; notice
H2281; prohibited courses; discipline; schools
H2287; accommodation schools; levy limit recalculation
H2385; schools; ADM calculation
H2428; county zoning hearings; appeal
H2450; water and wastewater charges; payment
H2504; GPLET; lease records and reporting
H2545; professions; dismissed complaints; records
H2596; free exercise of religion
H2618; trustees; release and reconveyance deed
H2626; deeds of trust; foreclosure procedures
S1254; research; development; production; tax credit
S1308; schools; instruction; dating abuse
S1351; appraisal management companies
S1375; contractor payments
S1411; dairy farms; zoning; agricultural purpose

Brewer vetoed the following bills:

H2337; Arizona manufactured incandescent lightbulbs; regulation
H2462; private property trespass towers
H2475; riding between lanes; motorcycle operations
H2240; recovery audits; public funds
H2502; taxation of solar energy property
S1154; underground storage tanks

AZ News & Blogs 5/12/2010

2010-05-12T07:43:00.002-07:00

Speed Cameras
Ernest Hancock Interviews camerafraud.com
Taxes

Taxes Truly Are High
Households across America are spending more on taxes per year than they ever have in history.
Unemployment Benefits Create Unemployment

In Detroit: In a state with the nation's highest jobless rate, landscaping companies are finding some job applicants are rejecting work offers so they can continue collecting unemployment benefits.
National ID

The Left the Right and National ID
The left has wanted Americans to register with the federal government and obtain a national id card ever since Franklin Roosevelt tried (and failed initially, until he stacked the court in 1937) to get the Supreme Court to rule that the Social Security system was constitutional.
Illegal Immigration

Border towns say violent crime rates are low

FBI Uniform Crime Reports and statistics provided by police agencies, in fact, show that the crime rates in Nogales, Douglas, Yuma and other Arizona border towns have remained essentially flat for the past decade, even as drug-related violence has spiraled out of control on the other side of the international line. Statewide, rates of violent crime also are down.

While smugglers have become more aggressive in their encounters with authorities, as evidenced by the April 30 shooting of a Pinal County deputy, allegedly by illegal-immigrant drug runners, they do not routinely target residents of border towns.

Large share of illegal immigrants entered on visas, not across border

The Pew Hispanic Center, a research group that studies issues, attitudes and trends among the Hispanic population, estimated in 2006 that almost half of the 10.8 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. came here with visas and stayed after they expired....By and large, individuals who remain in the U.S. after their visas expire are more educated than those who cross the border illegally, in part because they must demonstrate proof of completing higher education, having a skilled job or being economically stable, said Giovanni Peri, an economist at the University of California, Davis....As legal immigrants, many in this group would work in better-paying jobs, Peri said, but without documentation most wind up competing for low-paying jobs along with those who entered the country illegally.

Kirkpatrick to propose 3,500 more border agents

Upcoming Votes

2010-05-11T07:38:00.001-07:00

Upcoming Elections

May 18, 2010 - Prop 100

TEMPORARY TRANSACTION PRIVILEGE AND USE TAXES
A CONCURRENT RESOLUTION PROPOSING AN AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION OF ARIZONA; AMENDING ARTICLE IX, CONSTITUTION OF ARIZONA, BY ADDING SECTION 12.1; RELATING TO TEMPORARY TRANSACTION PRIVILEGE AND USE TAXES.

August 24, 2010 - Primary Election

Candidate filing window: April 26-May 26 (Analysis will be done after May 26th)

November 2, 2010 - General Election

Possible Propositions most are due by July 1, 2010 (Analysis will be done after that date)

AZ School Changes

2010-05-11T06:55:00.000-07:00

Arizona Legislature Adopts Sweeping Education Reforms

This session Arizona lawmakers enacted some of the most far-reaching K-12 education reforms in state history. The changes have received little attention from any Arizona media so far. But you can bet you'll hear much more as the state implements the new laws.

Ten years ago Florida implemented a set of education reforms that transformed their schools from among the worst performers on national tests to among the best. Several of the bills that Governor Brewer has signed into law are modeled on Florida’s success.

Further in the article a list is given with changes that have been implemented in this last legislative session.
My Thoughts: "Don't let a crisis go to waste." Good words when it means less government, more accountability for government, and more freedom for the people.

National News Monday 5/10/2010

2010-05-10T08:33:00.002-07:00

Libertarianism:

An Inconvenient Tax

National Politics

Obama Doesn't Like that People Can Know the Truth see also Comments by Lew Rockwell
Thoughts on Elena Kagan the New Nomination to the US Supreme Court see also this article and this article
National Debt

This Week in Abuses by the State

Kent State Killings and New Information Released from FBI
- My Thoughts: Don't trust the government to ever give you enough information to make a reasonable decision on policy and reactions to disasters.
Joe Lieberman vs. Citizen Shahzad see also this Times Opinion Piece and Terrorists and Over Blown Fear

Update: Joe Introduces Bill to Back His Words
US Military Special Forces May Have Been Involved In Capture

My Thoughts: Ernest Hancock talks about taking away of your citizenship in context of civil liberties. It's interesting to see politicians actually talk about it. It defeats the purpose of having civil liberties if we can arbitrarily take them away at a persons whim. It's interesting that this already happens with President Obama being able to sentence Americans to death without due process.

How Many Laws Are Useful? Consider the consequences.
Suspicious Package: TSA Worker Jailed After Junk Joke
Pulling away from a Federal officer is an assault (Listen to video)

My Thoughts: I was question the veracity of things I read and listen to. Even with main stream media (MSM) I have to question it since I know I've been lied to so much. But assuming this video is true it makes me ask the question, what are we doing? This is not congruent to a free society.

Gregory Girard: Political Prisoner

AZ Brief Blogs and News 05/07/10

2010-05-07T09:58:00.000-07:00

Immigration

Mormons and Anti-Illegal Immigration Bill see also Comment on SB 1070 by a Mormon from Mesa
Dan Carlin on the recent immigration bill in AZ and how it makes no difference or Show 175
Alianza Hispano-Americana (by W. Lane Rogers)

Speed Cameras

Highway Cameras Contract Canceled see also Kudos to Camerafraud.com

Sales Tax Increase

Yes On 100: Support Schools and Public Safety

My Thoughts: It is interesting to see the signs every where. When Chino Valley School District was trying to do the over ride they also had plenty of "yes for the over ride" signs but none against. The over ride was still voted down. I think that shows the great independent and anti-tax/government sentiment of rural Arizonans. Let's hope the whole state feels the same when it comes to proposition 100 and that it is voted down. The last thing we need is more money stolen from the people. As the sign mentions the support of schools and public safety...these two things are already supported. We don't need to pay more for things that already receive enough money.

Arizona needs tax cuts, not increases, to boost economy (Opinion by John Munger)
Tax Increase (Prop. 100) would create larger deficit according to Joint Legislative Budget Committee

Blog for AZ has this analysis link on AZ taxes (BFA says we need more taxes)
My Thoughts: Since the federal government makes up 36% of Arizona's budget you can say our tax burden is that much higher. So adding in 36% we have x as the share of the federal government's tax burden on us, so x/(8.5+x)=36% (where 8.5% is the average Arizonan tax burden, including cities). The federal tax burden comes to 4.78%. Adding those two numbers comes to 13.28%. I know I make a lot of assumptions that are false to come to this number but it gives a very rough estimate of what are true state tax burden is. What is the right amount? I'll post that later. Also, see my previous post on taxes here.

Ethnic Bill

More on ban of ethnic studies bill

Climate Change

Ernest Hancock & Dr. Timothy Ball Talk on Climate Change & Politics

Sine Die

Sprint toward sine die

Of the 352 bills approved by lawmakers in the 2010 regular session, nearly 40 percent of them got their final thumbs-up during the two-day sprint toward sine die that saw lawmakers work late into the night in order to wrap up the year’s work.

AZ Brief Blogs and News

2010-05-04T09:33:00.001-07:00

Promise That Higher Taxes Will “Protect Education” Rings Hollow

Apparently 10 years ago the state asked us to do the same thing we are doing now but all it lead to was a bloated bureaucracy. Also, watch the short video included in the above link.
My Comments: In a free market school system we would see more aids than teachers but not wastefully like we see in AZ. See this article on public school systems and regression to the mean.

Raza Studies

Apparently down in the Tucson area students receive special education on how Latinos are hated. Legislation HB 2281 is being proposed to stop this type of education.

Here's the summary "HB 2281 prohibits a school district or charter school from including courses or classes that either promote the overthrow of the United States government or promote resentment toward a race or class of people."

My Comments: It would be interesting to hear the other side of the coin for this one, sorry I don't have any links for you, if anyone has one please put it in the comment section. In a free society, or education, people would be left to alone to learn what they want to learn, or what their parents would want them to learn. To truly fix the problem we need to have private schooling across the board and government needs to stay out of education.

Dr. Gosar Calls on Congress to Enact Law Limiting Citizenship

"the legislation would limit citizenship to children born to parents who are (1) a U.S. citizens or nationals; (2) a lawful permanent resident alien whose residence is in the United States; or (3) an alien performing active service in the U.S. Armed Forces."
Backers of the bill includes: Dr. Paul Gosar, CD1 Republican primary frontrunner, Trent Franks and John Shadegg.
My Comments: I'll have to look up the 14th amendment and remind myself it's ramifications for citizenship. I remembered I don't have my constitution book right now. Maybe I'll offer an opinion some other time on this one.

Anti-illegal-immigration bill is still alight in the blogs

Seeing Red criticizes a newspaper for it's comments on the killing of Bob Krentz. Krentz was killed on his ranch near the Mexican border it was appears to be drug war related violence.
Coyote Blog shows graphs on the lower crime rate even with the higher illegal immigration in his post Chicken Little: The Supposed Arizona Immigrant-Led Crime Wave.
Coyote blog has a link to Cato on the new national ID legislation in DC. National ID has been tried to be passed for many years now, previous attempts have been nullified by the states.
Cato comments on AZ Republics comments on the new bill.
My Comments: In a free society we would have open borders like we have had in the past. The government has really screwed things up and now are trying to put a band-aid on it instead of fixing the core problems which cause the illegal immigration problem like the drug war, NAFTA, etc.

More than 130 Clean Elections Candidates this Year

My Comments: The headline should read: 130 candidate vie for theft of taxpayers money.

National News Monday

2010-05-03T07:48:00.001-07:00

I was going to keep out of the national politics scene but figured I could do a single post on Monday for national politics. This post includes:

1. What's going on in the economics scene with recent new on "Government Motors" paying off its debt, which of course is false.

2. 9/11 conspiracies & Building 7

3. President Obama's speech on civil politics and Cato Institutes comments.

4. Ayn Rand on compromise.

1. State of Economics:
Jack Spirko, an audio podcaster, has these comments and these on recent economics trends. Please don't confuse him with any of the conspiracy people in the following post below.

2. Conspiracy & Building number 7:
The conspiracy blogs are alight with comments from Jeffrey Scott Shapiro from Fox News on Building 7.

"Shortly before the building collapsed, several NYPD officers and Con-Edison workers told me that Larry Silverstein, the property developer of One World Financial Center was on the phone with his insurance carrier to see if they would authorize the controlled demolition of the building – since its foundation was already unstable and expected to fall."

I don't know if this really means anything.

3. Obama calls for "civil debate" in speech:

Of course, Obama's logic is flawed. The blogs have been ablaze on this speech since he's hitting anarcho-libertarians and conservatives alike. Here's an analysis:

Moreover, democracy in a nation of more than three hundred million people is inherently difficult. It has always been noisy and messy; contentious and complicated. We have been fighting about the proper size and role of government since the day the Framers gathered in Philadelphia. We have battled over the meaning of individual freedom and equality since the Bill of Rights was drafted.

Of course, the politics have always been hotly debated. Any time you are trying to control someone else's life you should expect contention. Especially when you are trying to do it at a national level over 300 million people. Obama made a good point here for small localized government.

"A Republic, if you can keep it...."Well, for more than two hundred years, we have kept it.

This can be argued (more on that below). And why does he keep calling it a democracy after defining it as a republic?

But the other strand is the belief that there are some things we can only do together, as one nation - and that our government must keep pace with the times....This notion hasn't always been partisan. It was the first Republican President, Abraham Lincoln, who said that the role of government is to do for the people what they cannot do better for themselves.

Yes, some things the federal government does need to do. Like those things enumerated in the constitution. They don't need to build roads, give charity, and a plethora of other things.

For many years, we had a welfare system that too often discouraged people from taking responsibility for their own upward mobility.

Yep, still does.

Throwing around phrases like "socialist" and "Soviet-style takeover;" "fascist" and "right-wing nut" may grab headlines, but it also has the effect of comparing our government, or our political opponents, to authoritarian, and even murderous regimes.

True, we need to be civil but we also need to to call an apple an apple and an orange an orange. The US is not a socialist nation. It can be argued that it is moving closer and closer (if not already there) to a mercantilist, corporatist, or fascist system.

Still, if you're someone who only reads the editorial page of The New York Times, try glancing at the page of The Wall Street Journal once in awhile. If you're a fan of Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh, try reading a few columns on the Huffington Post website.

A better comparison would be. If you read NYT then read the Drudge Report. If you read Huffington Post then you should also read Lew Rockwell and Cato Institute. If you read WSJ then you should read Mises Institute.

This democracy we have is a precious thing. For all the arguments and all the doubts and all the cynicism that's out there today, we should never forget that as Americans, we enjoy more freedoms and opportunities than citizens in any other nation on Earth. We are free to speak our mind and worship as we please; to choose our leaders and criticize them if they let us down. We have the chance to get an education, work hard, and give our children a better life.

It is true our republic is precious thing. That's why we need to stop the government from taking our rights away. As Franklin said. We are not holding onto it and many of the freedoms we have enjoyed are gone or are passing away. We need not compromise on our individual freedoms. As Ayn Rand said in the post below.

4. Ayn Rand on compromise.

Updates on Recent Laws Passed

2010-05-01T17:53:00.000-07:00

The legislative session is now over. Maybe by the next session I figure out how to follow all the bills sponsored by our legislators.
Blog for AZ has some good posts on recent laws passed. Here's just a few:
Update: It's over! Predatory Payday Loans to Sunset July 1
Legislature restores funding to Kids Care and AHCCCS
This piece has a nice summary of the changes of the new anti-illegal immigration bill:
SB 1070 Amended less than a week after being signed by the Accidental Governor
Coyote Blog has this summary for the changes in SB1070.

History

2010-04-30T07:36:00.002-07:00

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

2010-04-30T07:27:00.002-07:00

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!

Beauchamp First to File in CD1

2010-04-29T09:52:00.000-07:00

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.

AZ Tax Burden

2010-04-28T21:26:00.004-07:00

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.

SB1070

2010-04-27T07:56:00.000-07:00

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.

Applauding the Stripping of Your Rights

2010-04-25T19:18:00.004-07:00

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.

Fear Mongering and Open Boarders

2010-04-23T07:56:00.002-07:00

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.

Senate to consider ban on kids in open truck beds

2010-04-21T07:21:00.000-07:00

Senate to consider ban on kids in open truck beds

Can't I be left alone?

Collective Action, Singular Accomplishment

2010-04-17T05:56:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-17T05:51:00.000-07:00

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.

Another reason not to support Hayworth for Senate

2010-04-16T06:48:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-16T06:04:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-16T05:53:00.001-07:00

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

2010-04-16T05:49:00.000-07:00

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.