This radio ad from the Ohio FOP is to me one of the most disgusting I have ever heard. It’s disgusting because it assumes that the public in general are truly weak, and docile. While there are some who are, there are many who are not, and this ad is an insult to the intelligence and courage of the average Ohioan.
My answer to that ad is, police officers, keep your fat asses home. Stay at the coffee dispenser in Dunkin Donuts talking to the cashier. If some punk comes to my house and duplicates the encounter you recreated in that ad, this will be what that criminal encounters.
It’ll be nice and simple. I’ll even video tape it for testimony in court, so it will be without question within my Second Amendment rights to protect my property. And with that gun, there won’t even be a need for the first responders to show up. All you need is the meat wagon. I wouldn’t want to interrupt your card game around the firehouse. I’ll take care of the whole thing myself. I don’t need you.
I am willing to pay a certain price in taxes for my friends and neighbors who aren’t so self-reliant. But I am not willing to pay too much. I am not willing to support the unions which these employees are a part, because I do not support progressive politics, and the AFL-CIO is a progressive organization as defined by Richard Trumka. I do not want my money in his pocket, and if I give too much money to police, firefighters, and teachers who then give with union dues money to any group backed by the AFL-CIO, my money ends up in his pocket, which is theft from me. I see all progressive groups as detrimental to the kind of America I want to live in.
Read my article on Richard Trumka specifically here. This will explain to all my readers why the collectivism of union behavior is dangerous for America, and is unsustainable.
I am sick and tired of listening to moochers declare what heroes they are because they stand between criminals and the public, how they run into a fire when I run out. Such people are no different from the soldier who says to a naive 19-year-old girl in a bar just before he goes oversees, “I may be killed tomorrow, so will you sleep with me tonight?”
“Oh, you’re such a hero,” says the young girl. “Yes, I would love to be your last time.”
The soldier doesn’t say to the girl who he’s going oversees to be a cook in the mess hall, and will never see any danger. But he uses the mask of hero-worship to get laid. I see many public servants using the same tactic to garner higher wages for themselves. And that type of message doesn’t fly with those who know better, so let me make it clear. Heroes do not consider money before heroics. Heroes do not strike; they do not walk off the job. They do not cry when they are shot at, and they get back on their feet when tragedy strikes, which in dangerous occupations happens often. A mercenary does do work for money, which isn’t a problem, because many people do. But call it what it is.
For instance, when the firefighters of Monroe, Ohio in June of 2011 haggled over a contract demanding a 5% increase in wages for a three-year period, those are not heroes, they are mercenaries. When a union like police and firefighters negotiate over health care benefits, wages, and retirement benefits, they are mercenaries. Not heroes. You are not a hero just because you put on a uniform. You are a hero when you act heroically.
The confusion that society has on this issue is obvious. Click the link below to see how much police and firefighters make in my community and consider how that happened. If you’ll look at that list, there are many employees who make 70K to 80K per year. Teachers in my community make an average of 63K per year. Now compare that to the list below which shows what jobs all across the country make, including teachers, firefighters and police.
This is what people make in America on average by salary range.
Salary range: $20,000-$29,999
1. Personal home and care aides: $20,280
2. Manicurists and pedicurists: $22,150
3. Funeral attendants: $23,880
4. Landscaping and groundskeeping workers: $25,340
5. Dietetic technicians: $28,530
Salary range: $30,000-$39,999
6. Veterinary technologists and technicians: $30,580
7. Travel agents: $32,450
8. Dental assistants: $34,000
9. Police, fire and ambulance dispatchers: $36,470
10. Massage therapists: $39,780
Salary range: $40,000-$49,999
11. Surgical technologists: $40,710
12. Law clerks: $41,960
13. Flight attendants: $43,350
14. Firefighters: $47,270
15. Health educators: $49,060
Salary range: $50,000-$59,999
16. Food service technicians: $50,850
17. Respiratory therapists: $54,200
18. Anthropologists and archaeologists: $57,230
19. Editors: $58,440
20. Public relations specialists: $59,370
Salary range: $60,000-$69,999
21. Zoologists and wildlife biologists: $60,670
22. Insurance underwriters: $63,300
23. Registered nurses: $66,530
24. Audiologists: $66,850
25. Budget analysts: $69,240
Salary range: $70,000-$79,999
26. Microbiologists: $71,980
27. Computer programmers: $74,690
28. Sociologists: $76,190
29. Radiation therapists: $77,340
30. Marine engineers and naval architects: $79,240
Salary range: $80,000-$89,999
31. Chiropractors: $80,390
32. Administrative services managers: $81,530
33. Financial analysts: $85,240
34. Producers and directors: $86,870
35. Biochemists and biophysicists: $88,550
Salary range: $90,000-$99,999
36. Art directors: $91,520
37. Construction managers: $93,290
38. Compensation and benefits managers: $95,230
39. Purchasing managers: $96,910
40. Advertising and promotions managers: $97,670
Salary range: $100,000-$109,999
41. Political scientists: $101,050
42. Astronomers: $102,740
43. Judges, magistrate judges and magistrates: $103,990
44. Air traffic controllers: $106,990
45. Law teachers, post-secondary: $109,150
*Salaries are the according to the National Compensation Survey.
You can see the source link article here:
When I tell some of these local public workers that they make too much, and they used emotion, the heroics of others to get it from the public in the form of tax increases, I hear back that I’m being cheap. “Can’t you afford just $24 a month more to support your local public servants?”
“I would if they were broke, or even making a middle-class wage, but they are doing exceptionally well. They don’t need an increase. I need that money to pay for my Netflix account. That’s more important to me than giving someone who has too much even more.” Is that selfish? No, because for many, some people may not be able to pay their cable bill, or the cell phone bill, or may have to give up Netflix so a public worker can have a 2 to 3% increase on a top salary of over 70K per year. Give me a break!
Even if you take two of the highest paid communities in the country, the cops, firefighters and teachers in Southern Ohio are making an enormous sum of money, which every dollar must be funded with tax money.
The U.S. capital has swapped top spots with Silicon Valley, according to recent Census Bureau figures, with the typical household in the Washington metro area earning $84,523 last year. The national median income for 2010 was $50,046. Silicon Valley has an average household income of $83,944. That’s HOUSEHOLD income. The figures indicated for the public workers are for individual salaries, not households. The only people who don’t think these salaries are out of control are people who have lost touch with reality.
See the source article for those numbers here:
That brings up the next question, why are these salaries so high? Why, especially in the southern part of Ohio? Well, southern Ohio is a particularly conservative part of the country and the people tend to vote in a conservative fashion. So the progressive unions know that to purchase the loyalty of those who would otherwise vote for Republicans they need to provide a service they wouldn’t get any other way, so the AFL-CIO has managed to obtain for their members very high wages, which they collect money in the form of union dues to fuel their progressive organization. The conservative police officers, firefighters, and teachers put on blinders to the progressive direction of the union because the pay is so good. They are mercenaries and the unions know it. The wages are so high to purchase the loyalty of the members, because those employees would not make wages that are so high under natural competition. Only by artificially increasing the wages, which are paid for by us with tax increases, the unions can then maintain a progressive army that they purchase with threats of panic and intimidation.
What else is that ad from the Ohio FOP but a fear tactic? They are declaring that we should vote to repeal Issue 2 so that there is a police officer available if someone is breaking into our homes.
I would expect a higher standard from a police force, and am disappointed that they think in such shallow terms. In my life I have no value for public employees who are so petty, have such high expectations and are assisting a progressive political agenda. I’d rather deal with the cop who has told the AFL-CIO to get out of their life. I don’t want a firefighter employed in my district that is in a group headed by Richard Trumka, and endorsed by Barack Obama. I want no part of these organizations. And I certainly don’t want to pay a teacher to preach disastrous leftist doctrines in a school that I pay for, such as I learned about a few days ago which is covered in greater detail at this article:
I would rather do the job myself than pay too much for a group endorsed by any union. The extremism shown by the Ohio FOP solidifies my distrust in the process which says all public workers should be in a public union. I would say none of them should be. Unions should be illegal in public service, and if there is no Issue 2 this year, the next step is to rid ourselves of unions all together in Ohio. We tried to be nice, and we are given insulting ads such as what the Ohio FOP created. That shows what they think of people in Ohio and that sentiment is not rooted in respect. It’s an insult!
For the answer to everything click the link below!
Rich Hoffman
https://overmanwarrior.wordpress.com/2010/12/04/ten-rules-to-live-by/
http://twitter.com/#!/overmanwarrior
www.overmanwarrior.com
“Vote for anybody but Jamie Green or Julie Shaffer for the Lakota School Board! I don’t care if it’s for a dog, don’t vote for those two, because they are tax and spenders and will set Lakota back to what caused this financial problem to begin with.” That’s what I told an audience at the West Chester Tea Party in a fiery excerpt from my 30 minute presentation. Earlier in the day Doc Thompson and I spoke about Lakota and the revelation of a “Deep Throat” who has been feeding the No Lakota Campaign sensitive information including the quick tip to Joan Powell’s endorsement letter asking people from her “inner circle” to endorse those two school board candidates over the others, including an incumbent who’s trying to hold her seat in Linda O’Conner. You can see more about that situation at this link:
The video below starts with the short segment Doc and I did together on 700 WLW then ends with the West Chester Tea Party speech. Doc couldn’t attend since he had to speak at an Empour U event about trade with China. And I couldn’t attend his event because I had to speak in West Chester. But this issue over the Lakota Levy is an important one because it’s happening in our own back yard. So go pop some popcorn, grab a drink and sit down and watch the video below by clicking on it. You’ll hear all about why you should VOTE NO on the Lakota Levy, and all the reasons that Issue 2 (the collective bargaining reform bill) is such a wonderful bill that you should VOTE YES on. I cover a lot of ground, so have a seat and fasten your seat belt.
Afterwards I was told by a few people that they enjoyed my passionate speech. It’s a statement I hear a lot. Well there’s a reason for that, because when it comes to public schools and the unions, I see a bully, and that bully is attempting to use our children to enrich themselves. I do not see the activity between the unions, especially the education unions, to be any different from the behavior of Al Capone and other syndicates. (YES I SAID THAT! STUDY YOUR HISTORY BEFORE YOU OPEN YOUR MOUTH) The difference is, the education unions don’t take the extra intimidation methods of actually killing people, but they certainly participate in thuggish behavior, extortion, public manipulation, and political exploitation and I don’t like it and find NO social value in their behavior. The wrongs committed to our communities are so obvious to me that it drives me into a fury, and I want my community to be free of their dominance.
Is that too bold of a statement? Am I over-exaggerating the level of these crimes, and yes, they are crimes? No. When Wisconsin was going through its collective-bargaining reforms, the unions were saying much of the same things they are in Ohio. But guess what, Wisconsin is thriving as a result of their reforms. Have a look for yourself.
http://washingtonexaminer.com/politics/2011/07/wisconsin-schools-buck-union-cut-health-costs
Virtually everything the unions are saying about Issue 2 is a complete distortion of the truth. In the speech I gave there were several people who asked questions, which are hard to hear, but I saw in the eyes of an audience of well over a hundred people a hunger for the truth. And they were responding to what I said. They have seen for themselves that our lives would be greatly improved without the union domination of our public schools and our other public services.
As I said during the speech toward the end, “After Issue 2 holds we will still have teachers, we will still have cops and firefighters. We as a community will still employ those people. But we are not going to do it completely on their terms.”
An example of the thuggish behavior that comes from the unions and their apologists can be seen in the letter below, which I read to the audience. I get several of these letters each day, and I used this one because it was one of the cleaner, and better articulated letters I had received. So I place it here to view for yourself.
_______________________________________________
Union Apologist to Rich Hoffman:
• You know what a-hole. My kids are now suffering because the Levy didn’t pass and a-hole’s like you will probably cause the next levy to fail which means they will suffer even more. No buses for HS – limited for junior high and elementary. Honors, sports and any type of arts cut or extreme costs to parents. I bet your kids are out of the house. Do you give a damn about the kids! They suffer. Our schools decline and property value’s decrease. That last one might interest a greedy SOB like you
My response, to the union apologist:
• You want to know why your kids are suffering…………………..look in the mirror. If you are going to endorse this kind of behavior, you are clearly part of the problem.
• If your kids grow up to be not what you expected, you can blame yourself. Don’t push it off on me that you are an insecure parent.
________________________________________________
Many of these so-called “great teachers” that people like Julie Shaffer, Jamie Green and Joan Powell advocate is actually quite worthless. They cost too much money, spend too much time pushing leftist ideology onto our children and have an extremely inflated impression of their value to society. I know of many instances of this going on by some teachers, because the kids are coming home and telling their parents who are then telling us in the No Lakota Levy group.
The threat that Lakota would lose its best teachers unless we throw money at them is preposterous and a flat-out lie. I would argue that Lakota lost some of its best teachers in the lay-offs of the teachers who were at the bottom of the seniority base. We keep the older, expensive and complacent teachers by a union contract, and we let go of the bright-eyed new teachers who are much cheaper, because the union contract says to. When I was giving my speech I forgot to mention this, even though it was on the tip of my mind, the myth that just because a teacher has experience it automatically makes a teacher “better” is just that, a myth. All it does is make that employee expensive, and if an employee prices themselves out of their market value, that’s their problem, not the tax payers. Under no circumstances should the public be required to subsidize inflated value because the law says to!!!!! The law was created under this “mob” mentality of the union lobby, and holds no water in my mind! NONE! And I will fight it! I will not be robbed of my money to fulfill myths without a fight! Thus, my passion over this issue!
The newest threats in this theft are candidates like Jamie Green and Julie Shaffer. Taken as individuals, they are nice people; at least I think Julie is. But ideologically, they are dangerous, because their beliefs help feed the monster that is union labor and its syndicate style rule over the state of Ohio. The extortion that takes place to rob us of our money, and prevents management of that money is a crime to me, and my anger at witnessing those crimes drives me in a passion that people notice when they are around me. I have fought bullies all my life and I will so long as I live. And the most recent bully is those from these public sector unions who are given power by the complacent minds of people like Jamie Green, Julie Shaffer, and Joan Powell. People like that should never be given responsibility in a community setting, let alone the important job of school board. So I’ll say it again, vote for anyone to the school board but those names, even if the only option is a dog, because you’d do better for the community to have a member wag its tail and do nothing, than electing radical activists who eat out of the hand of the teachers union to the public demise.
For the answer to everything click the link below!
Rich Hoffman
https://overmanwarrior.wordpress.com/2010/12/04/ten-rules-to-live-by/
http://twitter.com/#!/overmanwarrior
www.overmanwarrior.com
The West Chester Police did a good thing and that’s act quickly on an internal investigation of one of their own. The nine-year veteran 37-year-old David Busemeyer was investigated and indicted by a grand jury of three felony charges, obstruction of official business, obstruction of justice and attempted tampering with evidence. Busemeyer is of course innocent until proven guilty, but this entire internal investigation is a reminder that public servants are not perfect. And I don’t expect them to be. What I expect is for West Chester to do exactly as it did, and that is bring about justice even when it involves their own.
However, in light of Issue 2, where the rhetoric has been turned up, and those pandering types use public servants to prop up their own political positions, I keep hearing that public servants do not make very much money, that police start at 35K a year, and that firefighters make 55K per year, and that teachers are not getting rich off their jobs. Well, I’ve shown at this site that teachers at Lakota make an average of $63K per year and are doing very well relative to the rest of the community. The police and firefighters in my community are also doing quite well, which I wasn’t aware of till the last levy was approved. After the approval of that levy I started looking at the numbers which resulted in the below spreadsheet.
Because this officer had been named and indicted by a grand jury, I was curious how much this particular police officer made, because according to Bill Cunningham and many others who are supporters of collective bargaining and union labor, these guys don’t make very much money. So I took a look at the spreadsheet below and sure enough, David Busemeyer is on there. At only 37 years old and nine years on the force he is making $70,032.20 as of 2010 numbers, since I received that information during the winter of 2011.
That’s not bad money. In fact, that’s quite a bit more than the average tax payer, even in West Chester. Have a look at my list.
To see my original article on this spreadsheet click here:
The trouble with “collective begging” which is the union term that Cunningham has adopted to refer to the “collective bargaining” reform bill of Issue 2 is that “collective bargaining” is not practical, is expensive, and allows employees who can’t achieve large wage levels under their own merit to make excellent wages under that system. Using West Chester purely as an example since it’s my community it’s not a big deal if David Busemeyer makes $70,032.20 if there was some sort of evaluation procedure that delivered him that type of wage. Maybe he does a lot of high risk work, or maybe he can speak in several languages and act as a translator for illegal immigration busts. But under collective bargaining, EVERYONE makes that kind of money. All a public employee has to do is show up for work, do what they are told within the union rules, and keep their nose clean, somewhat, and they will receive an automatic increase based on their collective bargaining contract. And instead of one employee making great money, you have hundreds making that kind of money and every bit of it must come from the tax payer.
Cunningham’s comments are the same as the typical politician. He’s pandering to the masses, which is no different from when Barry Obama does it, or Jessie Jackson, or Bill Clinton. Cunningham knows that many of his listeners during the day are public servants. Cops have on 700 WLW in their cars as they sit on the side of the road watching for speeders. Teachers have it on in the teacher’s lounge, and firefighters having it on in the firehouses. Cunningham seems to have always cared more for pandering than the actual truth which used to make me mad, but like one of my readers told me the other day, Willie Springer has no credibility. He lost that a long time ago. It’s important to know that Willie is a brand name to a creation. He is a lawyer. He has a restaurant in West Chester where many teachers, PTA members, and coaches of sports teams for Lakota attend, so there is profit in pandering. That seems to be why he supports a levy in my district even though he doesn’t live there. He’ll pay the extra tax for his business because the school pandering will fill the seats at his sports bar. I often assumed that what he said he believed, because I would, but he’s no different from an actor in a movie or on a TV show. He’s a radio personality who has attached his role as a lawyer to the public sector worker as his listeners, the “voice of the common man” even though he is wearing a Mercedes shirt, which tells much of the story in itself. It’s a cute gig until he starts taking official positions, where he comes out sounding as foolish as Sean Penn or some other radicle actor.
I hired Willie about 15 years ago to be my spokesman for a line of T-shirts I was producing to help get out a message I had which stated, “TAKE AN AX TO OUR TAX.” We were making the shirts at cost during the 1996 election season to bring high taxes to people’s attention. Rob Portman actually bought one from me, and I took one down to city hall and gave it to Roxanne Quals, the mayor of Cincinnati at the time. Willie was hired to do our commercial which we ran on 700 WLW.
I was set to go on with Bill Cunningham during his 9 PM show on a summer Friday night. As I was headed to the station Cunningham had on a segment where he had strippers on doing a live strip show while Cunningham did play-by-play commentary. My wife told me, “This is the guy you’ve hired to be your spokesman?”
I said, “No, he’s a conservative. Willie is just doing this for ratings.”
My wife said, “And you’re going to go on behind this?”
I shrugged my shoulders.
“Doesn’t this compromise your message?” My wife said. “You hate Howard Stern because he has no ethics. You hate Jerry Springer because he’ll do anything for money. How is this guy any different? And you’re going to go on his show and let him pretend he’s a conservative. You’re going to acknowledge his existence? You’re going to even give him the time of day?”
I knew she was right, so we turned around and went home. I called his producer and told him that I wasn’t going to go on behind a room full of strippers. So Cunningham kept the girls in the studio till midnight, and they had a grand old-time laughing and carrying on. And from that day on, I knew that Cunningham the personality was not the same as Cunningham the man, which was very disappointing, because I wanted to believe in him.
In the video above, Cunningham has fantasies that his words actually carry weight, and there is a certain percentage of the population out there who would listen to advice from Jerry Springer, Howard Stern, or Bill Cunningham. Those types of personalities try to be everything to everybody, and actually believe in nothing. But then again, most lawyers are that way. They’ll believe whatever you tell them to, so long as the money is green.
However, this business of Issue 2 is serious, and people like Cunningham just muddy up the water with the revelation that he has always been a Democrat, and was only a conservative for the benefit of his show. They take advantage of the ignorance of the masses who are too busy with their lives to look into anything for themselves. Yet the spreadsheet above shows what the union supporters don’t want you to know, and that is “collective bargaining” has allowed too many people to make too much money. Getting pay increases in large groups is a concept that could only work in government. In the private sector it puts companies out of business. In government it causes tax increases.
Apologists attempt to pander to everyone so they hope to divert our attention to the corruption of the federal government and the war in Afghanistan which is terribly expensive, rather than what’s going on in our communities. All they are doing is trying to divert attention from the immediate problems. I can’t do much about those federal issues, but I can in my backyard. And getting these public employee costs under control is my obligation to my community, not to get side-tracked on some diatribe by a radio/television personality. People like that are no different from politicians who will do anything or say anything for a vote.
In the end, whatever happens to Issue 2, the collective bargaining system will collapse on itself. If the unions get their way, they will be solely responsible for the catastrophe that follows. School levies won’t go away, and neither will police and fire levies they’ll keep asking for money to satisfy their collective bargaining contracts while the rest of us suffer through stagnate wages that have topped out. Issue 2 isn’t about fairness, it’s about survival, and those that are trying to get rid of it are no different from those soccer players who crashed in the Andes mountains portrayed in the movie ALIVE.
They ate their dead…………………and became cannibals.
SEE MY ARTICLE ON ALIVE HERE:
I wonder what that officer really did to have the investigation actually bring about an indictment. My question was why did that officer make so much money? What was the evaluation process? How many times was his life in danger the previous year? What does he do from the start of his shift to the end? The answer is we don’t know, because collective bargaining gives pay increases to all employees equally, so the evaluations done are just customary, since they have very little meaning to actual wages. And that probably had something to do with why this officer wasn’t detected as a potential problem by his management, until something bad happened. And that system will continue because people like Bill Cunningham are willing to give people like this a blank check of entitlement, which empowers these groups of public workers to believe they are far more important, and valuable than they actually are.
For the answer to everything click the link below!
Rich Hoffman
https://overmanwarrior.wordpress.com/2010/12/04/ten-rules-to-live-by/
http://twitter.com/#!/overmanwarrior
www.overmanwarrior.com
A controversy erupted over a new ad regarding Issue 2. The grandmother of a young girl named Zoey did a repeal ad for Issue 2 asking people to vote No so there will be firefighters available to save future Zoey’s. The pro group who wants a YES VOTE on ISSUE 2 took the contents of the ad and used it in a different cut to explain why keeping Senate Bill 5, by voting YES on ISSUE 2 will also help future Zoey’s. Well, the grandmother didn’t like having her words used out of context. She was giving an interview in the ad which precisely articulated the bullet points of the repeal campaign of the pro union movement, so the Better Ohio marketing people felt that ad was fair game to turn against the repeal attempt.
Doc Thompson did a segment about this controversy and I came on toward the end of it to provide some background about how S.B.5 was born and why all public workers were placed under the umbrella of Issue 2, which Doc felt was causing much of the problems that are starting to emerge. Both sides are getting furious and undermining each other with dirty tricks.
I explained that part of me understood why the people who want to keep ISSUE 2 by voting YES enjoyed punching back at the union rhetoric for a change. After all, the repeal campaign was attempting to exploit the older woman and the catastrophe of her granddaughter. The unions have a long history of distorting facts to play off the emotion of the public in order to negotiate for themselves results to their liking. But I also explained that this wasn’t needed, since the ISSUE 2 YES people of which I represent don’t need to stoop to the level of the unions, since the facts work in our favor. So I thought the ad was unnecessary. You can see the original ad at the link below.
Obviously, the repeal attempt is attempting to manipulate the public, and they haven’t even thought about what will happen if Issue 2 gets repealed. The overwhelming amount of selfishness exhibited by the Repeal People is even bewildering to me. Collective bargaining has never been a “right” yet the government employee culture has come to expect disproportionate benefits from the tax payer and they have shown they will do anything to get them, even if the benefits come at the expense of their co-workers who are under them in seniority. Without Issue 2 there will be no legal way to balance our budgets, and massive layoffs will occur, and we will lose teachers, firefighters and police. So the YES ISSUE 2 people put together the ad you see below which turns the first ad back around on that same group with truth, which caused the controversy.
To make matters even worse the issue is very confusing as it’s worded on the ballot. I spoke to many people who think they are quite intelligent who thought they were supposed to vote NO to implement the collective-bargaining reform, and I spoke to people who thought they were supposed to vote YES to get rid of it. So who knows what will happen on Election Day.
At the core of this problem the union leadership knows that most people don’t care very much about anything to truly understand any situation. People are lazy, let’s face it, and politicians and unions have taken advantage of lazy people for years.
What many people don’t realize is that if their taxes were less, they’d be quite wealthy. Because the taxes come out of their checks without their knowledge, they don’t see how much they actually spend. They of course lose money each week in their pay checks, but they also pay tax every time they buy something. They pay tax on their properties if they own them, and they pay tax when they die. For virtually every movement they make, they are taxed, and they never take the time to contemplate the merit of the taxes. Is the money actually needed, or could the organizations that consume our tax money do more with less? Why should we do with less, so others can have?
A few days ago I spelled out my thoughts on taxes, and you can read them at the link below. I use almost nothing in government service, and would be happy if government stayed out of my life. I don’t want what the bureaucrat creates.
I was at a GameStop the other day buying a new video game and a woman about my age was at the counter talking to the staff member who was trying to explain to the woman who if she used a special promotional offer that GameStop was offering, the woman could save $15 dollars on the game she was buying for her son. To my shock the woman said, “Do I look like I need to save money!” I took note of her large diamond rings, her very nice attire, her manicured hands, her hair, and her ear rings. I had heard her say earlier that she lived in Blue Ash so it was important to her that people saw that she made a lot of money. I have heard the same thing from parents who want me to support the school levies. “Can’t you afford $40 more a month? What’s wrong with you?” It is the same mentality.
I see such a thought process as a disease. Insecure people who use their income as a way to prove their worth to the world have helped create the terrible problem we are currently facing, because it is those people who these union ads target, and traditionally, people like that woman voted YES for everything over many years as far as tax increases. The motive was to prove how much money she made, and people like her have been taken advantage of.
I have asked many people, why does you wife have to work? Why do you work such long hours? Why do you work two jobs? Why do you give up a night on the town with your wife or husband? Most of the time, the answer is, “I can’t afford it.” But these same people feel they must approve another tax levy so they don’t have to admit that money is short. I’ve actually seen people take on extra jobs just to pay their taxes.
But with the economy being what it is, the easy money is gone, so there are far fewer people than that woman these days, and the taxes have finally caught up to all of us. We are all working far too hard to pay taxes that we can see with our own eyes are wasted. The money is consumed like logs on a raging fire and we are continuously asked to make more logs to burn.
The much better ad about Issue 2 can be seen below. To my experience, this is what I see to be the state of our situation regarding public employee finance, and there is a real risk of those services being dilapidated because those at the top of the public pay scale will destroy it for those at the bottom.
In my own life, I have always watched where every dime goes. That’s why paying taxes to me is a painful experience, because I watch where the money is spent and how much comes out, and don’t numb my mind with senseless television shows and pop music to make me forget. I actually enjoy asking the hard questions. I enjoy being awake. And it is frustrating to me to see so many people asleep, willingly asleep. I don’t wish to run on a tread mill like some gerbil on a wheel of taxation, for the amusement of government. I do not wish to put my wife to work in order to pay our taxes; rather I’d have her shop at Victoria Secret at the Kenwood Mall to buy something to greet me at the door with. And that’s our business, not the affairs of anyone in government. I do not consider it a badge of honor to “afford” my taxes because that is the position of a fool. As of now I can do both, but if at some point the looters of government continue to take, and take and take my money and the money of my neighbors and friends, then such an option may not be possible in the future.
And many people are already at that point. My wife and I were dining at Chili’s recently and I studied the people at the bar while we ate. Many of the couples there were watching the baseball playoff games being shown and were drinking large quantities of alcohol. I knew a few of them, and knew that they were putting the bill on their credit cards and that their wives secretly resented their own jobs and wished they had the ability to stay home as my wife does. But those couples came to Chili’s to meet with other friends and keep up appearances because it’s important to them to be able to say they dined out and did some socializing. I’ve told those same men that you are working too hard to pay too much tax that if you paid less tax, you could enjoy coming to Chili’s and have the money to pay for it without worry.
“But I have plenty of money. I’ll pay of the American Express in full when it comes. No problem.”
Meanwhile the large government advocates, progressives, and unions seek to feed off this tendency with misleading ads like the Zoey clip. The entire ad contains virtually no truth, but does appeal to the greed in everyone, the greed in taking too much, and the greed in those who want the world to believe they can afford anything. That leaves the rest of us who actually pay attention to shake our heads. Yes, we want to lash-out when we have the chance, and our side should have taken the high ground and not stooped to that level of the union advocates, because we don’t need to. But, for a moment in time, it felt good to give back to those thieves and tax moochers a bit of their own medicine, even if it was the wrong thing to do. However, as we go forward, I suggest sticking to the facts and not wallowing in the defecation from which such corrosive minds preside. Keep the argument on the high plains of truth instead, because that’s where we are trying to lead people anyway. Getting in the mud with them doesn’t accomplish that.
The way I see it, for every tax increase, the quality of life for all people, except a government worker, goes down just a little bit each time. Because decisions must be made to either make more money to pay the tax, or to give up things you enjoy to pay the tax, and such a decision should not even be considered. And those who expect us to consider it are simply selfish, and are out for their own lifestyle increase and don’t care one bit what it costs us. It has nothing to do with safety, children, or future security, but has everything to do with losses in quality of life. Without a YES VOTE on ISSUE 2 we will have to make the hard decision to see those public services decline, because we won’t have the opportunity to legally keep them and afford them at the same time. Issue 2 gives us the ability to do both, which is what this whole fight comes down to in the end.
For the answer to everything click the link below!
Rich Hoffman
https://overmanwarrior.wordpress.com/2010/12/04/ten-rules-to-live-by/
http://twitter.com/#!/overmanwarrior
www.overmanwarrior.com
Darryl Parks of 700 WLW had my friends and me on to discuss many of the local school tax levies in order to compete on which school will get the full fury of the 50,000 Watt Flame Thrower known as The Big One in Cincinnati. That Flame Thrower of a radio station reaches 38 states and part of Canada so the prize is obvious. If you want to get out your message of a school system which needs to defeat its school levy, you want The Big One to broadcast your message. Listen to that broadcast here, which contains many very good points from school districts all over Southern Ohio.
At Lakota while this broadcast was roaming across the Eastern United States, mailmen were putting the letter you see below into the mail boxes of “select” supporters of Joan Powell, the school board president. Have a look at that letter for yourself. The first thing that should send an alarm up your spine is that Joan chose to put pictures of her grandchildren on the letter, that always means there is something hidden underneath the surface of the message. 
I get a lot of material from “school insiders.” In this business of digging for the truth you need such people to give you new information. Last year we had a few such people and they provided very valuable information such as the letter at the link contained here, which came from a principal at one of the schools after the levy was defeated.
It is always interesting to see what people who work for the district think when they believe that nobody is looking. Anyway, the “insiders” are a growing number of people who see that the situation they are employed under is wrong and they’d like out of the straight jacket they are forced to work under. Many of them do not want to be in a union and if Issue 2 holds up this repeal attempt, they can opt out of the union to be free to be employed without membership. But until that day arrives, they will achieve a level of rebellion against a system they disagree with by sending me information. This year there are more than a handful of such people. In fact, I have so many that I can hardly keep up with the material they send me.
And that’s how I got Joan’s letter, which went to selected members and staff who Joan thinks are her friends. The letter taken alone is not bad or illegal. But what it does show is that Joan is blaming many of the problems at Lakota on the school board “not getting along” and “divisiveness.” The letter is an endorsement letter for two members running for seats. Joan wants to see Julie Shaffer who has worked on the Pro Levy Campaigns in recent years including this latest one, and Jamie Green who actually used to be on the board and served as its president during the years of 2005-2009. (wait a minute…….isn’t that the period of time where the unions walked all over the school board during the labor dispute which caused this current financial crises?)…….YES!
I find this letter a very bad decision on behalf of Joan. As president she should understand that she is responsible for developing a “team” and playing games by eliminating other board members in favor of her “hand-picked” candidates is bound to cause trouble. As president of the board, it’s her job to build that unification, not blame members on their divisiveness. That’s called management. You may not like the people you are working with, but as president, it’s the job of leadership to pull everyone together. Not blast them apart. Chances are the new school board members will be Mark Etterling and Lynda O’Conner. I personally like Luke Hall in that mix if not this time, then for one of the next three seats that are coming available, Joan’s included. My question is what does Joan think will happen when Lynda gets re-elected and has to sit at the table with her, knowing that Joan attempted to get her booted off the board? Does Joan think that Jamie Green won’t become power-hungry for the presidency again, and won’t challenge Joan for leadership? What about Julie, who is quite smart, but is a tax and spend candidate? Joan knows where the problems are yet she picks two candidates who are pro levy candidates. She wants to go backwards. Does Lakota need more school board candidates to eat out of the hand of the union? Isn’t that what caused the whole budget crises? YES!!!!!!!!! It is!!!!!!! When $165 million dollars, (which is unofficially $250 million dollars) is not enough money and we have a school board president that says that’s not enough, and is openly campaigning for candidates who think just like her, I’d say the source of the problem is clear.
At a recent “meet the candidates” event I gave a review of who I’d like to see for school board, and Jamie and Julie are at the bottom of the list. They are not business friendly and believe that more taxes are the fix for problems they are tasked to manage, which isn’t managing at all. Anyone can balance a check book if the answer is to always inject more money, because what’s there to balance? You ask for more money till you meet your expenses. That’s their thinking, when it should really be to reduce expenses until the books are balanced, and that must come from the uncomfortable task of reducing the average salary at Lakota that is over $63K to the mid $50’s. That is hard, and it is obvious that Joan and her “pick of the litter” don’t have the mind to do it. (See my review here)
Worst of all though from Joan is that short-sighted politicking she is engaging in for a job that pays little money, just pocket change for each meeting the school board has. Why? Are these people so desperate for attention that the title of school board president actually means something to them? Is it the power to control a multi-million dollar budget, probably? But I would have hoped that after all that has been discussed over these last two levy attempts that somebody would have learned something, and instead Joan is clinging to the failed model of the past which delivered us to this time and place. And that’s why not only her two picks need to be defeated, but Joan herself when her seat comes up in 2013. Only by electing good school board members who aren’t power hungry for the presidency and political games, can Lakota get its arms around the budget problems. The last thing we should do is tax ourselves more to put into the lap more money for these people to squabble over. The real answer is in systematically replacing these chatter boxes with legitimate, and caring people who will put the entire district into focus with good management, and not treat the school board like a girls club of levy supporters.
VOTE NO on the LAKOTA SCHOOL LEVY. Vote for any candidates except for Jamie Green and Julie Shaffer. And VOTE YES on Issue 2 so this school board can actually manage its costs in the future and not keep asking us to pass school levies while people like Joan toss that money into a bottomless pit called the Teachers Union.
Listen to Julie Shaffer on WLW discuss the teaches contract that Joan Powell and Jamie Green negotiated which we have to pay for. CLICK THE VIDEO!
Rich Hoffman
https://overmanwarrior.wordpress.com/2010/12/04/ten-rules-to-live-by/
http://twitter.com/#!/overmanwarrior
www.overmanwarrior.com
I can understand a society needing public workers to handle policing activities, firefighting and emergency services, but only to a limit. I have been in many dangerous situations yet the only time I have had to call 911 was for employees I had to provide first response care to, and that was simply procedural. Every time I’ve ever found myself in a fix, even when death seemed like the next option, I worked the problem out myself.
But apparently, there are people out there who aren’t so self-reliant, and these are the types of people who when danger breaths deathly whispers into their ears, they dial 911 for emergency services to save them. These are the types of people who the ads for Issue 2 are targeting, because the fear tactics work on these people since they are prone to be the next 911 call.
Who are these people, these emotionally shaky individuals who cannot muster enough strength to solve problems on their own? Well, the video below contains a few of these apparently fragile people who have called 911 over issues that most of us would never consider. One is from a couple who became lost in a corn maze, and needed help getting out. The other is from Bill Cunningham of 700 WLW who became stuck on the roof of his house. After listening to these calls, it is easy to have sympathy for the type of individual who might typically vote for against Issue 2 in Ohio. Such people can’t fathom life without a safety net no matter what the cost of that net, because these types of people will throw infinite amounts of money at public workers to ensure their safety. It’s not enough for these types to have police and firefighters nearby for assistance in matters of catastrophic circumstance. The trouble is that seemingly minor incidents to the fragile mind constitute catastrophe. Listen for yourself! (CLICK THE VIDEO)
I truly feel sorry for these people since it is obvious their parameters for danger are much, much, much more narrow than my own, and it is because of people like this that government has expanded to the levels they have. It is these types of people who vote for politicians who will provide safety to them. It is these types of people who burden down our public employees with needless endeavor. But it is also these types of individuals that public workers prop up when their unions are looking for more money. It is these people who are exploited at my expense, which drives up taxes on the self-reliant who do not wish to pay the extra fees for services they will never render.
I had a very fragile individual write me the other day very upset over my work with the Lakota School Levy, and Issue 2. His argument was “What about that special teacher who helped you become who you are today? What about that police officer who keeps criminals from your family? What about the nurse who cares for you in the hospital or the professor who leads you through college?” The man writing me was obviously like the people in the 911 recordings heard above, and to answer him would have required a book of explanation because his view of the world and mine are much different from one another. But in the context of the above 911 calls I believe I can now provide a summary reflecting my displeasure at having so many members of society, my neighbors, community members and fellow countrymen that are prone to identical panic attacks, let me now pontificate my frustration at your burden:
• No, I never had a teacher that guided me through a tough time. They tried, but I rejected them, so not to rob me of the benefit of self-reliance. If they helped me, I did not get the benefit of discovery. They get the benefit of teaching, so the act is more about them, which becomes a selfish gesture. I have been that way my entire life and have never once felt lesser for it. Too often moochers in life do things like building a road, or forcing through law that you take their education class, even if you are already beyond them, and then when you are successful, they attempt to take credit for your success as if to justify their work, which they imposed on you to begin with. I have little tolerance for this behavior. I put up with it for the good of my community, because not everyone is able to see things as I do, and I understand that. I pay my taxes to support those activities for my neighbors, but my children and grandchildren will be taught by better instructors under my tutelage, and that is in the instructions of self-reliance.
• I have never in my life turned away from a dangerous situation when it was in front of me. I’ve been shot at, hunted, threatened in just about every conceivable way, schemed against, virtually every human folly that the imagination can produce has found its way against my wits. And all of those attempts were initiated by the other party in anger because I would not subscribe to their system of doing things, but instead relied on self-reliance. I have seen the fury of those who claim to be brave, but still seek the safety of peer numbers which consciously justify their meager existence (thus my hatred of unions and all collectivism). I have been trapped in cave on my belly unable to move in any direction but forward into a darkened abyss with no light. I have been trapped in a tree of great height (over 50’) alone as the extended ladder fell to the ground and the trunk was so large I couldn’t even begin to put my arms around to shimmy down. The branches of the tree alone were the size of a large man’s torso. I have been in several severe car accidents. I’ve suffered broken bones, severe lacerations, and much blunt trauma such as concussions and skin that ripped open because the pressure of the blood beneath could not move away fast enough but to explode upon impact. Yet you can count on two hands the times I’ve been to a doctor or surgeon. I only attend medical professionals to patch me up or fix an ailment which I have diagnosed. Most of my serious injuries I’ve fixed myself including a broken ankle I suffered in Panama City jumping off a 20’ peer onto a not so sandy beach. My health is supreme, my blood pressure, and all such concerns stout. I take absolutely no drugs of any kind, except when they are needed to finish a work day and I need the boost to complete the task at hand. I’ve been to some of the most remote places on the plant yet never, ever been lost. In fact, I couldn’t get lost if I were dropped into the middle of Siberia blind folded. I do not need a compass, GPS, or even a map to find my way anywhere in this world. When I hear from the people of the world that they are doing something to save me, to help me, I say back, “I do not need your help. You are not more qualified at anything than me. You mind your business and leave me to mine. If you need help ask, but you will never hear me ask for it.”
• Most of the taxes I pay are not for my benefit. If there was no road, I’d make my own or not use one. I would walk, ride a bicycle, or build a helicopter in my back yard to take me where I wish to go, because if I want to go someplace, I’ll go. Terrain or other terrestrial objects will not stop me. Government builds things with my money and I use them because they are there. But my life is not dependent upon them. As to my safety, I have the Second Amendment. I pity the person who attempts to bring harm to my family or to me. It’s been tried before, and it will be tried again and those that discover the wrath of that ill-fated enterprise have been warned. I have represented myself in court more than once since I do not trust lawyers for the most part, and I have been successful many more times than once. So virtually every tax dollar I spend is not for me, it is for mankind and I cringe to watch them waste my money on neurosis. I will never take a Social Security check yet I pay it. And Medicare is not an option. I’d go bankrupt first before accepting Medicare. I’d be willing to do that because I know that as long as I breathe, I can always rebuild myself. I’ve lost everything only to start completely over again at least three times and I’d do it 30 more times before I took a government check, a government job, or help from a neighbor.
Needless to say I do not understand the mind of the people who call 911 to get out of a corn maze, or to be rescued from their roof. If a broken leg was the cost of jumping from the roof I’d take it as payment for putting myself in a foolish position, but I’d never call to be rescued. Never!
Now to many my position appears extreme, but that is only relative to the rest of society, who has bought into this whole collectivism thing. They have forgotten to look first to themselves to solve their problems because it has been taught out of them by those same public workers.
I’ve stated that I put up with it for the sake of societies majority, whom I view as weak, mentally reduced, impudent, and hopeless, I pay my taxes so those people can have their care, their social welfare. To those people I appear as “anti-social” or even “cold hearted,” because they measure social success in acts of weakness, or masked kindness. The proof that society is wrong in its measure can be heard in those 911 calls, collectivism as shown in the video below disgust me because they produce future 911 callers and higher taxes to support their public safety net philosophy.
When a couple, especially where the man is 42 years old can bring a young child into this world and then cannot lead his family out of a corn maze because he’s “scared” becomes an issue of so much media coverage I would say a social breaking point has been achieved. I know what causes such a condition as those fearful people suffer yet I am constantly asked to spend more and more tax money to fund producing more of these people. And more money will not solve the problem, it makes it worse. For each time you place something easily in front of a human being and keep them from working for it, you make them weaker physically, and their minds go to mush. All you’ve done in your compassion is making them dependent on you, which is devastating to the human soul. My point is made at the 10:40 mark of the below video. Words from a person who doesn’t get it. If he wasn’t president he’d be another 911 call.
So utter dear reader how “cold hearted,” “selfish,” and “anti-social,” I am relative to
your position. But ask yourself why you spend so much time at Walgreens for prescriptions you do not need, or becoming intoxicated for the sake of mind-numbing euphoria, (getting drunk) why you eat till you are fat, or spend money on things you don’t need. Why you work a job that provides only money, and watch television shows that are foolish. When you’ve done to your mind and body a thousand dumb things then find yourself stuck on a roof, or in a corn maze unable to process a way out but to call 911, the fault is yours. And you make yourself my problem when you ask me to pay for your incompetence since it was your responsibility not to allow your mind to become mushy. It is you who drive up taxes by asking for things you do not need to satisfy the insecurity you have breed within your timid bodies. And it is because of you that government grows, and why people like me despise you. I take care of my business, but you haven’t done the same.
It is those types of people, the helpless, the meek, the unimaginative, who support repealing the reform bill Issue 2. Those are the people who won’t risk injury to remove themselves from a roof because it “might hurt,” or are afraid to walk “through the corn” because they have a little baby in their arms. These are the union members who lack personal courage and walk arm and arm for collective bargaining, the neurotic mother hauling around a mini-van full of kids to sports games in hopes that one of those kids will win a scholarship and save their parents the high cost of college tuition. These are the same people who go to the doctor for a note to get them out of work so they can sit on their ass and watch some silly program on television or play on their computers while the world marches by through their windows. When an emergency happens, these timid creatures are not ready to face danger, instead they call 911. They are not the people who will VOTE YES on Issue 2, as they fear the very concept of change, because doubt lingers in their minds as to their own ability which they seek to supplement with tax dollars on services provided at the expense of the self-reliant.
For the answer to everything click the link below!
Rich Hoffman
https://overmanwarrior.wordpress.com/2010/12/04/ten-rules-to-live-by/
http://twitter.com/#!/overmanwarrior
www.overmanwarrior.com
There was a lot of dispute about the removal of Senator Bill Seitz from a key committee during the final days of the vote on Senate Bill 5 which would become Issue 2. See an interview from Seitz with Channel 9 who is from the Cincinnati area.
I’ve known a lot of attorneys, and one of the common tactics they use when they have a weak case is to drag their feet and extend out a case. And Seitz obviously blindly loyal to labor interests even though he sells himself as a conservative was not able to see Senate Bill 5 for what it was, a good healthy culture change for public sector employment. Seitz, the labor attorney, listed as one of the best in America, as you can see at the link below, looks to have sabotaged and watered down the impact of Issue 2 from the very beginning by loading it down with unnecessary politics, which went against the kind of reform Kasich and many in the house and senate were looking for.
http://www.taftlaw.com/attorneys/78-william-j-seitz-iii
To hear the real Bill Seitz, not the one that Bill Cunningham, a fellow attorney in brotherhood propped up as a champion in such high esteem, Brian Thomas asked far more probing questions. You can hear Bill Cunningham’s pandering interview with Seitz at this hot link. Just click on it. To listen to the Brian Thomas interview, click the video below. This video is just over an hour and right after the Seitz interview there is about a 30 second pause. Don’t worry about it; just let the video play, because the calls that follow are worth listening to. What was revealed later in the discussion was that in order to get Seitz booked for this Brian Thomas interview the NEA out of New Jersey had to be contacted to set it up. If that doesn’t send up the alarm flags, I don’t know what would? Seitz is heavily involved in unions and supports them completely. In the strategy of war, I’d refer to Seitz as a Trojan Horse.
When we talk among each other in plan talk around the water cooler, or around the grill, we refer to people who employ double talk as clowns because those entertainers clearly wear a mask to entertain, but when they aren’t in a circus, they take off their makeup to reveal who they truly are. Clowns are intended to be a derogatory term to imply that someone we are supposed to trust speaks out of both sides of their mouth. This isn’t a new concept. Betrayal of this kind is as old as human society.
In my opinion one of the greatest threats to our modern society has been the extraordinary quantity of attorneys our universities have produced. Those young attorneys encouraged into those fields by parents who wanted better for their children breed a society of legal professions with little to do but attempt to advance the divorce rate, which has destroyed the American family, create endless litigation from law suites which has driven up production costs, and created mountains and mountains of legal provisions of which only the attorneys can translate in government. They have destroyed “common sense.” Since many attorneys move into politics for stable income and networking opportunities, we have seen an endless stream of complicated laws created to provide future opportunities for professionals in the legal profession to serve as council in future court cases. It is the attorneys who have virtually destroyed America with paperwork and compliance.
It is the attorneys who are most against tax reform, because it was they who created all the deductions in the voluminous compliance code currently controlled by the Internal Revenue Service. The complicated tax code is on purpose. It is so that tax attorneys can sell their services to large companies to lower their tax rates by knowing what the dedications are. Having the tax code so large and complicated is to make it so only the attorneys can understand it. Attorneys hold the keys and must be hired to unlock the secrets.
When it comes to union reforms, which are greatly needed, it is now obvious that labor attorneys are more than willing to put their own self-interests above any reforms. In Seitz case, he openly agrees that there is a need for reform, but his underlining motive is to drag the situation out so he can play at reforming, but all the while continue to do his legal work for public employees. By reforming collective bargaining, it gives professional attorneys like Seitz less to do, and threatens their livelihood.
This is where the clown idea comes to play. While dressed as a clown, I cannot see the face behind the masks a politician wears and neither can most people. And it is not beyond comprehension that a liberal minded person may play at being a Republican in most facets of their life in order to secure a living for themselves. But you can see what the true motive of a person is by studying their behavior and in Bill Seitz situation, he is an attorney for labor, and is not about to go against his client base with Senate Bill 5. So Seitz needing to maintain the illusion of his act spoke in public that he supported 85% of Senate Bill 5, but he disagreed with 15%. But in actuality, he sought to lawyer the issue into years and years of discussion, gradually wearing down the initial reform until what ended up as a law that was a labor friendly bill and satisfied the objectives of his clients. The senate realizing this is what Seitz was doing removed him from the panel, so the bill could proceed.
At a recent debate over Issue 2, which you can see for yourself by CLICKING ON THIS HOTLINK, the firefighters brought up Seitz as a rally cry for their cause of repeal. They did this because Seitz is the “Republican” representative in the Senate. Seitz in the greater game of politics allowed conservative police and firefighters to also believe in the socialist tendencies of big labor, so they choose to fixate on his treatment during the passage of Senate Bill 5 as an unfair tendency of the collective-bargaining reform. But in reality Seitz planned to drag out the bill till his retirement, since as an attorney he doesn’t wish for any true reform since his first alliance is to that brotherhood of attorneys who represent public unions.
And this explains the behavior of Bill Cunningham on 700 WLW as well. In the brotherhood of attorneys, it is the mask of conservatism that they use for their act, but in reality when the make-up is taken off to who the individual truly is, the union of attorney brotherhood speaks of the true actions and now that Issue 2 for the first time in my adult life attempts REAL reform, it scares the people who have built their lives around the chaos of litigation.
This makes the modern attorney just as much an opposition to smaller government and any reform as any obvious threat like labor unions and other progressive organizations. In reality Issue 2 is summed up nicely in the below video.
Such a reform seems too good to be true, yet it is there, on the ballot. To have it all we have to do is to VOTE YES and finally some type of reform will be granted to us. For the people who signed their name to Senate Bill 5 which is Issue 2 on Ohio ballots, they did the first courageous act I can recall by any politician. Issue 2 is a way to cut out those who create a mess out of our public positions so they can skim money off the system. Of course those who have built their livings off that system will be angry, and those are the people who are against the bill and want to repeal it. But to keep Issue 2 all you have to do is vote YES, and see for yourselves that the world the attorneys would have you believe will not end, but will in fact be born again with better accountability and fairness for all, not just public worker unions and their attorneys.
For the answer to everything click the link below!
Rich Hoffman
https://overmanwarrior.wordpress.com/2010/12/04/ten-rules-to-live-by/
http://twitter.com/#!/overmanwarrior
www.overmanwarrior.com
Shannon Jones was on recently with Brian Thomas of 55 KRC to speak about the benefits of Issue 2. One of the important parts of the conversation centered on the typical contract of most workers where the previous contract serves as the baseline for the next one, this practice has served to unrealistically drive up costs which in many cases far exceed the CPI index of the average tax payer. Most public workers don’t concern themselves with such measures because they are conditioned by government to act as baby birds and wait for mother government to drop food into their mouths if they chirp incessantly which has become their irritating mode of operation.
Brian and Shannon have a wonderful conversation about this very important bill. Be sure to listen to the entire broadcast especially the callers after the interview.
As I was sitting down for dinner with my wife, there was a knock on the door. The dogs were going nuts as they peered through the windows at a person they did not recognize. So I went out to meet the guy through the garage to avoid trying to talk while holding back the dogs.
“Hi!” the man said enthusiastically. “I wanted to talk to you about Issue 2.”
I smiled as he handed me the literature which was in favor of the repeal attempt. My wife had come out behind me and grabbed her forehead when she heard that a spokesman from the “other side” was in our driveway. “You came to the wrong house” she said.
The man’s smile disappeared as he studied our faces. “Why’s that?”
My wife gently pointed at me, “that’s Rich Hoffman.”
“Crap………..Well, you never know who’s door you’re going to knock on.”
I put my arm around the guy and said, “Dude, it’s alright. We’re definitely on opposite sides of this situation, but we can still get along…..even if you’re wrong.”
The man was holding out the literature for the repeal attempt, which I took. “Thanks,” I said, “I was wondering what you guys were handing out to people.”
The man smiled slightly and shook my hand. “Well, thanks for your time, and have a good day.”
“You too,” I said as the man turned and headed back to his car. I could feel my wife burning a hole in my back with her gaze.“What? I was nice.”
“Suspiciously nice,” she said. “What are you up to?”
I feigned surprise. “Now what makes you think I’m up to something?”
“Because I’ve been married to you for over 20 years.”
I held up the literature from We Are Ohio. “Because it’s nice to have the other side bring you information and place it on your doorstep. It saves me some research time. I’m grateful to the fellow, as time is a precious commodity.”
My wife and I finished our dinner with a hearty laugh at the literature and how terribly misleading it was. The emotional appeals that school levies and labor unions employ to their cause are traditionally pathetic and this literature was no different.
In bullet points the literature read like this:
• Issue 2 strips away important Collective Bargaining Rights. This was hilarious since there isn’t anything anywhere which states that collective bargaining is a “right.” It is a privilege that has been abused. Click on this article to see how.
https://overmanwarrior.wordpress.com/2011/10/06/issue-2-debate-in-ohio-the-spoiled-class/
• Issue 2 Endangers us All. This is another one that brings about laughter. It’s the old “panic” trick which schools use to trick people into more tax money spent. “You’ll be safer if you pay us more money.” This behavior actually equates to mob type extortion, because the only real danger comes from the public employees themselves, because if they walk off the job, homes could burn down, criminals might roam with impunity, and kids would be in a classroom that has no teacher because they are on strike. The only danger is that if Issue 2, the public employees in a fit might retaliate by laying down on the job. It’s even documented that some public employees have actually burned down the homes of their tax opponents in the past or encouraged violence in other “indirect” ways.
• Issue 2 Hurts our Economy. This comes from people who most probably have difficulty balancing their check book if they didn’t have a 43.4% wage and benefit advantage over the private sector. They are people who have little knowledge of production, but are simply service oriented employees who think they know the miracle of money and production. It is these types of individuals who think that “job creation” is done by government and not the wealthy.
• Issue 2 is an Unfair Political Giveaway. Here comes the classic class warfare ploy. It’s “us (the worker) against them (the management).” In the minds of the radicalized public worker “management” is always against them and they treat negotiations like a football game, where you gain yards against the defense which is management. It doesn’t matter who is on management’s side, they are all villains to the radicalized union member, and this especially true of public workers represented by a union.
We finished our dinner with our stomachs sore from the laughter and again contemplated the public employees who have grown over time to become entitled, to expect everything in their lives to move forward, but to never give anything up. Their idea of giving back to the community is to take wage freezes and giving back personal days, which many in the private sector don’t get and never will. Giving back things you have not yet received is not giving back. But to the public employee, it is! As a group the public employee is desperately out of touch and they have no plan on what to do with the day after the election if they succeed in a repeal attempt. Their plan is to raise taxes to deal with the budget deficits, and that’s why we laughed so hard over our dinner. The idea of just how out-of-touch these people are is something that might be unbelievable on a stand-up comedy act. Yet, with a straight face, they hand out literature and protest with silly signs in the back of pickup truck to “repeal Issue 2, so we can keep everything the same for us, the public employee.” But they have no plan other than taxing the rich. Their argument is one of shallow water in a jagged stream filled with a dye that discolors the water which they applied so that nobody can see just how shallow their water is, and what they hide just under the surface. The answers to most of the reasons we need Issue 2 is articulated in the Brian Thomas, Shannon Jones interview. But also, all the reasons we should vote for Issue 2 also comes from the literature of We Are Ohio. Upon examination it is clear there is no helping these people since their perspective is tinted with extremely high expectations. And only time will heal them while we must help them put their feet upon the ground of reality once again after decades of neglect and pay-offs.
In the meantime all we can do is laugh and vote YES for Issue 2 on November 8, 2011.
For the answer to everything click the link below!
Rich Hoffman
https://overmanwarrior.wordpress.com/2010/12/04/ten-rules-to-live-by/
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