Yes Lakota is Misleading People: Painting over the dirt

Georgetta
voteyeslakota@aol.com
75.185.0.41
Submitted on 2011/01/20 at 11:14 pm
 Evil prevails when good people do nothing. I am a good person and I am about good education. I am doing something: speaking out. Rich Hoffman is misleading people. Teachers teach children so they DON’T end up working themselves into an early grave and barely making payments on a lot in a trailer park. The good teachers will go elsewhere in order to make a living wage. Rich Hoffman raised children and his wife didn’t work. Apparently he is making too much money. Yet, I hear no one attacking him. Some of us have to have both parents work in order to put food on the table.

Georgetta here reflects many of the comments that I get from people who think just like her. The premise is this, that education is a right, they hide the actual numbers in the scribble of government bureaucracy, and if you show that you don’t support it, or if you even question their reasoning, they use “peer pressure” to shape the community to their will, just like kids on a playground. That’s the mentality. They end up sounding like children with their minds wrapped up in extreme assertions to make their points seem to carry more weight.

The first thing they do is attack you “the tax payer” and your ability to pay the increase in tax. They’ll say, “Public education was there for your children, but now that you don’t have children in the school, you don’t want to pay.” They do the same with business leaders, “We built the good schools and you provided the homes, and now you don’t want to pay.” What doesn’t get said is that as all this growth was going on, the LEA, the teachers union at Lakota, negotiated an aggressive contract in October of 2008 that was focused on wages and that contract is bankrupting the community because at the same time, indications were that state funding was on a decreasing trend. So the contract was irresponsible, and what is happening now, is the community is establishing the parameters of future contract negotiations, because we can’t trust school officials to do the job, otherwise it wouldn’t have gotten this far out of control.

These pro levy people will attempt to proclaim that nobody but them can look at the numbers and understand the situation. They sadly put out apologist groups to plead the case like what you will hear in the below interview. What they don’t want to discuss is why there is a financial crises. They simply discuss finance as if it were beyond their control. When listening to this interview ask these questions, if cutting only a million here, or there isn’t much because the numbers are so large, then why is it such a large savings that cutting busing to 9000 students will only save $600,000, then why cut busing? And how has Lakota done everything it can do before cutting busing. Did the LEA come to the bargaining table to renegotiate their contract? And how does the tax dollars stay in the district when the union spends the union dues on political candidates. One of the reasons the LEA wants its teachers to make so much is so that the teachers will want to pay their union dues without hardship. But nobody talks about any of that here. The sum of this discussion is that there isn’t an answer. These are nice parents that just want the system to work long enough for their children to get an education. Nobody wants to play the hot potato game when the music stops, and the music is stopping. All they can really do in an interview like this is paint over the dirt.

All businesses whether they are service oriented or manufacturing oriented have a responsibility to keep their costs in line. One way that businesses do that is to use the 10-80-10 rule as it’s applied to labor. That rule states that 10% of your workforce will be your typical “top” performers, and they will get the most dramatic increases, 4% to 15% depending on the situation. 80% of your workers are average, and will typically get a standard 2% to 3% increase, otherwise considered a “cost of living” increase. And of course every place of business has approximately 10% that are poor performers and they won’t get an increase of any kind. Why? Because those bottom 10% you want to look for another job, and you want them to leave so you don’t have to pay them. It gives you a chance to hire somebody that might want to compete for the top 10% percentile. If you manage things correctly, your bottom 10% are the kind of people that your competition is hiring at the middle 80%, and you want that so you can maintain a competitive edge.

What you don’t do is uniformly advance everyone in your place of business with some socialist “everybody is equal” policy like what we have in school systems, and unions advocate. That’s a disastrous concept and gives employees like Ryan Fahrenkemp time and the luxury of job security to participate in an evil deed like child pornography. I would argue from experience that if Ryan had to fear for his job, and didn’t feel comfortable hiding in the muddy 80%, he probably would have not indulged in his warped perversion while at school. He might have done it in hiding, or in his mother’s basement, but not with his students, and not with school equipment. And he certainly wouldn’t have been making 70K at only age 42 no matter how much experience he had with the amount of tenure he’d accumulated in a relatively short time.

I used Fahrenkemp as an example because he belonged in the bottom 10% and somebody didn’t do their job in the review process of weeding him out. And that didn’t happen because he was protected by the complicated process created by the OEA which the president of the LEA had been a big part of, and knew how to manipulate the system to the advantage of her members.

So I’d say to you Yes Lakota people, who say that I am misleading people. Who is doing the misleading?

I’d say you are, by telling the tax payers that the budget just “grows” on its own. That the school system had no way to deal with people like Fahrenkemp, and that all teachers are worth over 62K, and if the community doesn’t pay it, those beloved teachers will leave the district for another one.

I would say any teacher that would leave Lakota is only in it for the money, and those are personalities that I would rate low on a review, and may be tempted to put them on the bottom 10% anyway, so for them to leave would be desirable.

All the Yes Lakota people have to argue with is emotion,
• “The money is for the kids.” No it’s not, if it was, the LEA wouldn’t have threatened to strike in 2008 to get more money, and again in the spring of 2010.
• “We have to offer top pay for top teachers or they will leave.” No they won’t because the other districts are broke too and are getting ready to go through the same process Lakota is.
• “We have to protect property values by voting for the schools.” No you don’t. If taxes keep increasing that will kill real estate values anyway, tax payers in the district already pay $11 per $1000 assessment on their property.
• “I’m for education.” No you’re not. If you were, you’d keep the budget under $160 million. Throwing money at something doesn’t mean you’re for education. It means you don’t value the source of the money but want what the money can buy.
• “We have had explosive growth and must adjust to it.” Growth, like budgets can be controlled. If the cost is too high, growth will slow down, and growth will slow down because of the economy. Growth will also slow down from parents wanting to go to Lakota who aren’t willing to pay for the extra things they want, too. One of the reasons Yes People want sports and extracurricular activities is so enrollment will increase, so parents looking for those items can move to the district and participate cheaply. It’s all about job creating and getting parents used to programs that the district tax payers fund collectively. No different from colleges with NCAA programs that are nationally known for their sports, will see increases in enrollment. It’s always about increased enrollment so money can be justified.
• “The state is forcing us to all-day kindergarten.” No, the OEA lobbied to get all-day kindergarten passed, and the Republicans in the state house are getting ready to eliminate that unfunded mandate along with many other mandates lacking funding. So that anticipated requirement will be taken away from district budgets.
• “We have to spend $50,000 dollars to get the best superintendent we can get.” No, you are throwing money at the situation like you do everything else. It’s that kind of mentality that locked us into the contract with the LEA that is causing the current financial crises. Money does not equal quality. It seldom does. Money can be used to create competition, but it is useless without competition. If money is not getting you dramatic results, it is simply killing your budget.
• “Paying for a school levy keeps your money in the community.” No it doesn’t. The union dues collected by school unions are directly applied to liberal politicians that further perpetuate the bureaucratic mess creating expensive economic necessity. The OEA had revenue of over $62 million dollars in 2008. Where did that money come from? They don’t make any products that they can sell? Check the info for yourself here. http://teachersunionexposed.com/state.cfm?state=OH All that money comes from union dues, paid from the salaries of teachers that are paid exceptionally well by the local tax payers. The average pay at Lakota for teachers is 62K per year. So the money doesn’t stay in the community.

Those are just some examples of how the Yes Lakota people are misleading the good people of the Lakota District. And they will continue to treat the voters like the fools they believe they are as long as it works.

Get ready for the next levy announcement for May. They’ll do it because they don’t know how to do anything else but ask for more money.

And you Yes Lakota people go ahead and leave your comments. I’ll post them, and I’ll use them. People need to see your thoughts. For those of you wanting to see some of them, read the comments here. I am quite aware that there are many people at many levels reading all the posts I’ve put up here and you’re looking for a way to spin it to your advantage. For an example, have a look at the work David Little from Progress Ohio attempted. I’m happy to fight your sloppy facts with the truth and if you want to spin the community around and make them so dizzy they can’t tell which way is up or down, I’ll continue to prevent it, as I have. And I’ll do it because I love my community, and I want to see education continue to be an option for families in the future. But it won’t be in a form controlled by organized labor. Those days are over.

Don’t believe me; read this from your parent union the OEA, this is how bad the financial situation is. Even the union staff is threatening to strike and the union itself is participating in union busting strategies.

The Ohio Education Association and Its Goose

The executives of the Ohio Education Association sent a memo informing local presidents that if the union gave in to striking staffers’ demands, it would require an $80 to $90 dues increase per member. Such an increase would raise roughly $10 million. That sounded familiar to me, so I checked the archives and found this, in the May 8, 2000 EIA Communiqué:
Ohio Education Association in Severe Financial Straits. The last time the Ohio Education Association negotiated a staff contract, in September 1997, it resulted in a two-week strike, restraining orders against picketers, and a lot of bad publicity. That contract expires this year and it’s bad financial news all around for OEA, its members, and the staff. OEA recently informed its local presidents that the union is facing a projected deficit of $6.3 million for next year. The union is asking staff to accept benefit cuts totaling $4 million. The rest of the deficit would be eliminated through a dues increase of up to $25 per member.

“Specifically, and regrettably, we can no longer afford to sustain the current number of OEA employees at their current level of compensation and benefits and continue to provide the expected level of services and programs without significantly raising OEA dues for you and every other member,” reads a memo from OEA President Mike Billirakis and Executive Director Robert Barkley.

Read the rest of the article here:
http://www.eiaonline.com/intercepts/2010/09/03/the-ohio-education-association-and-its-goose/

If our community is going to continue to be a “great” and “excellent” district, we have to get in front of this problem. Not avoid it by tossing more money at the problem. And the Yes Lakota people need to listen to the No Lakota People, because the solution is in good business strategy. The same tired old bullet points won’t be valid any longer. I’ll make sure of it.

Rich Hoffman
http://twitter.com/#!/overmanwarrior
www.overmanwarrior.com

The Lakota Busing Cuts: Going Forward in Reverse

Seeing miles and miles of backed up traffic the morning that Lakota’s busing cuts were implemented was like watching a world of sanity coming undone and going backwards into a time of primeval foolishness. Scott Sloan and Tracy Jones capture the lunacy wonderfully.

It was the day after the dreaded “B Day” busing cuts at Lakota when I discussed the aftermath on The Big One with Doc Thompson.

So what’s the next step? Without question, the school system is poised to put another levy issue on the ballot targeting the roughly 10% that are anti-tax but only moderately. Those people will have to decide if they will be steadfast, or buckle under the pressure extorted by the busing cut strategy, because it’s all about converting a few percentage points in voter turnout, into a “yes” vote.

Oh, and click here to get a taste of what Doc was talking about regarding college education.

Rich Hoffman
http://twitter.com/#!/overmanwarrior
www.overmanwarrior.com

China and the Cincinnati Bengals: Being tough, winning and losing.

When you talk to just about anybody about sports they are quick to declare what their favorite team should do in order to win. “Get rid of T.O. He costs too much and is a pain in the ass!” Or, “get rid of Chad, he runs his mouth too much, he’s too expensive and they can’t even win with him.” I am refereeing to a couple of players for the Cincinnati Bengals, and I hear comments to that effect all the time.

But speak to those same people about how to deal with Social Security, or Education, or any number of social programs, and people clam up and refuse to commit an opinion. I suppose that’s because the game under which politics is played is just too complicated for many of them, or they are taking something out of the systems in question, and lack the courage to assert an opinion.

And that’s the beauty of sports. Sports allow people to become arm-chair coaches because they don’t have anything invested in the team other than committing to an occasional game or a sport jersey. So they can be objective as to the possible problems with the team they’re watching.

People like Doc Thompson, and myself, can be objective about social issues, because we aren’t expecting government to do anything for us. I wrote off Social Security a long time ago, along with all the other entitlements that are floating around out there. So I particularly enjoyed Doc’s show on January 18, 2011 where he laid it on the line as to what the real problems are. Listen to that here.

Hey, he’s not exaggerating. The issue truly is whether or not the United States will stay on top of the heap in world affairs. We won’t do it complaining about silly issues as to whether or not Native American bones are returned to their graves, or whether or not the entire Constitution can be read because of our internal guilt over slavery. The rest of the world is not hindered by that type of restrictive guilt, and we have to compete with them economically.

My team, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are not in the playoffs, but I am proud of how they played over the 2010 season. I watched how management approached the off-season last year and I believe they are on the march to winning ways going forward. But the team in my home town, the Cincinnati Bengals continue to be a bad team no matter how much money they spend.

Now you can go to any sports bar in America and even a drunken fool could tell you why the Bengals can’t win. And the same holds true for our county. Everybody knows how to fix the problems. But we won’t win if we don’t toughen up. It’s that simple.

What Doc talks about in that clip is a perfectly articulated synopsis of our counties problem. It sounds easy to hear him say it, but he has the luxury of seeing things clearly, because he doesn’t want anything from government. People like Thompson rely on themselves first to do most things, so the problems are easy to see.

So America, you better get tough quick. Because being tough is how you win.

Rich Hoffman
http://twitter.com/#!/overmanwarrior
www.overmanwarrior.com

A Gaze Back and Looking Forward: Education Funding is Changing Forever

The gravy days are over. The citizens are paying attention to many aspects of education that were never discussed, like teacher salaries being excessively high, and buildings with luxurious amenities. In a recent survey from Braun Research Inc. who conducted phone interviews with more than 3,400 Hoosier registered voters November 12-17, 2010, that firm’s president, Paul Braun, expressed confidence in the accuracy of the study’s results, due to “thorough briefings stressing objectivity, heavy monitoring, sample performance reviews, verifications and post-data-collection checks on each survey by interviewer and phone center.” Of the many conclusions of that survey Indiana voters lacked awareness and information about how much is spent in public schools. Nearly two out of three respondents (64 percent) underestimated per-student spending in the public schools.

As usual, Doc Thompson did some great work on this topic that he covered on the January 12, 2011 broadcast that is worth listening to. It is refreshing to have real discussions about these issues now. The gist of this discussion is that things are going to change, and change rapidly for public education funding.

But know the door has been opened. I know how difficult it was and I felt the wrath of attacks when I first started the enterprise of enlightening the public about education funding. The organized labor behind these tax levies attempted to apply The Delphi Technique on me, like they do everyone who speaks against wasteful spending, so I understand first-hand how the information has been kept quiet all over the nation for such a long time.

I countered that technique by using aspects of my personality that are entertainment oriented, something I’ve developed over the years performing in wild west shows and interviews for other projects, to throw a curve-ball at their strategy and start the ball rolling so others could hold the door open, and then others behind them could start pouring in to get control of the out-of-control spending that has been occurring in schools. It took that initial surprise from the organized unions by my approach to pry the door open. They really believed that by painting me as some hick cowboy running around with a whip that I would be made into something of a fool, which they counted on. What they didn’t know was that I have a business background, and I’m better at understanding difficult concepts than I am with the whip work. So because of their one-dimensional understanding of people, they were unprepared. And much to my surprise, people enjoyed the image I was projecting, of rugged individualism, and standing firm in overwhelming odds.

The truth of the matter was that it felt that way to me, like I was against the world. But I actually had hundreds of people behind me supporting the structure of everything, people who put up the money for the yard signs, people who went to all the meetings and took notes that they’d pass to me. People from inside the school system that was tipping us off to what was going on, and people who were going door to door to pass out literature. There were other people who worked the email campaign, and helped in so many other ways. But since I was the face of it, the wrath came at me, and I deflected it with the cowboy image while the business side worked with some very smart people to crunch numbers and get to the truth.

At the end of the day, that cowboy image says more about me than the business side. My children and grandchildren won’t discuss someday how good I was at working with numbers in a spreadsheet or negotiated a contentious point in a dispute. They’ll talk about the speed and accuracy competitions at cowboy events, and the many times I’ve shocked audiences with my fire whip displays, including professional stuntmen. So that image is far from just some conjured up image for marketing reasons. But it did help in this case, to overcome the opposition in a unique way.

What usually happens in management is that once you show people how to do something, they’ll then take that information and put their own spin on it. And that’s what’s happening by people who are far more passionate about education reform than I am. I have discovered now through correspondence from people who have been fighting this fight for many, many years, that all some of these people needed was a crack in the door. And they understand more about how the game is played than ever, now that we’ve started having really intelligent conversations on WLW.

Darryl Parks has been talking this talk much longer than I have, so it wasn’t difficult for him and me to feel some passion about the shake-down that occurs. But I think everyone was surprised when I went on WLW with our treasurer, Dan Varney and discussed the wage levels back in September, because that information was straight out of the newspaper. But the game that is played is that information is released in March, when the last things people are thinking about are schools or elections. Spring is on their minds, and coming out of a long winter. So most people would wad up the paper and toss it in the trash.

But my good buddy Graham George, who is a senior citizen, and is always organized kept that paper from March of 2010, and we went on the air at WLW and discussed it with Scott Sloan. The reaction from the public was so violent and sudden that I was surprised that nobody had done this kind of thing before.

Fortunately I had scheduled with the Cincinnati Enquire to have a backyard interview with me because of my YouTube video, A Whip Trick to Save America the very next day, and they wanted to do a feature about that and how it applied to my resistance to the school levy. So when that story came out, the gloves came off. The progressives all over the state that were listening to WLW decided to make me out to be some illiterate cowboy, which of course didn’t fit the facts I was able to put out on the radio broadcasts. People saw how the game was played and when I didn’t turn away and hide, but only increased my activity, it allowed people to see the structure of the game.

Now that the deed is done, the School Board is struggling to figure out what to do next. They are talking about solar panels, which is fine, but still doesn’t address the largest cost to the budget which is wages, and should be explored regardless of a budget crisis. The board is now fighting for the president position arguing over who should lead. Ray Murry is talking the right type of issues, discussing whether or not the district should have spent 90K on an employment search for a new treasure and superintendent. Those are nice discussions and I’m happy to hear the debate on both sides, but in reality, it’s just politics because the numbers are just peanuts compared to the elephant eating them.

However, the problems will only get tougher, so while the School Board is struggling with each other to figure out what the community wants, they would be very “wise” to accept the help of our local business leaders that have offered to assist.

I have placed the offer to the board and was told that “most business people would probably become frustrated by the restrictions.” That was a polite way to say that the situation is too complicated for most businessmen to deal with. Well, that complication has been made complicated for a reason, and it’s to prevent “outsiders” from being able to offer fixes. It’s all part of the organized labor strategy, and the community knows it.

And I can promise that the education of those types of methods will only increase as more and more people send me information hoping that I’ll articulate it on the radio or on this blog.

So it is advisable that the games stop now. Grab the hands that are offering to help and be ready to do things you’d consider unthinkable 6 months ago. If you do it now, you can save the district and yourselves, and many, many jobs. If you don’t we will go off a cliff as a district.

The next levy attempt will not be about Rich Hoffman the cowboy whip cracker. Too many people want to be involved and I will gladly accept their help. I have enough personality and success that I don’t need the attention. I’ll put myself out there if people don’t feel comfortable doing it themselves, but I don’t see that being a problem in 2011. Because I see a wave of volunteerism, and other people who can speak coming boldly forth to push that door open even wider. So the decision doesn’t just sit on the shoulders of Lakota, but every public school everywhere.

So stop the games. Embrace the public, because they are your employers anyway, and be ready to do what’s right. Things are at a point where many things can be fixed and nobody has to be contentious enemies. It’s just business, and there are people who can offer that assistance for free, and once it’s done, Lakota could serve as a bright light of hope for all others to follow. But it takes one school to courageously step forward and be the first to open the door. Everything else will take care of itself.

But cling to the way things have been done, and the world will soon swallow you up. So make a decision…..quick!

Rich Hoffman
http://twitter.com/#!/overmanwarrior
www.overmanwarrior.com

School Choice is a New Choice: Education Funding for the Future

Doc Thompson had on Chad from School Choice Ohio on 700WLW. If you don’t know what School Choice is, listen to the conversation with Chad below. Not only do they talk about School Choice, but there is some great discussion of several incidents of gross waste from districts surrounding Cincinnati.

I’m a tremendous supporter of School Choice, because people are thinking and it is working where it’s being used. So why isn’t it being implemented? Well, organized labor is very much against it, because they have to maintain the current structure in order to support the collective bargaining agreements they’ve negotiated for themselves.

School Choice is being tossed around by a new group of several representatives from districts all over Ohio that have been meeting to implement educational changes, called Educate Ohio, which I’m a proud part of.

There are options out there. We don’t have to just do the same old thing time and time again, which are just to put funding issues on a ballot for a school levy against our property taxes.

I spoke recently on WLW about how both my kids took online classes during their senior years and finished their entire senior year before Christmas. Now my kids are smart kids. They had been on the honor roll a number of times all through their education and tested well above average on their SAT tests. They attended Mason for about half their youth, were home schooled by their mother for about a year, and then spent their high school years at Lakota. During their entire education lives they excelled. But once they got past their junior years, they wanted to move on, which they get from their father, not having the patience to just cruise through life held back by the shackles of people happy with a mundane existence. Both my children spent their remaining years of their senior years traveling Europe, camping at Stonehenge and exploring places like the British Museum, and I’m eternally proud of them, while the other kids their age were spending their Friday and Saturday nights drunk and puking at mindless parties and wasting away while they waited for college classes to start in the fall of the following year.

The system we’ve had in my opinion is broken. I’m happy to go along with things as long as all those mediocre enablers called school officials don’t ask for more money than we already pay in property tax.

But they are asking for more money, and asking for us to pay for their communist leaning tendencies, and yes, they do have a communist leaning. If you don’t know that, or can’t understand that, or don’t want to call it that, go do some reading, then get back to me. I’m not going to waste my time giving you an education that you should already have.

Meanwhile, it’s time to explore other options that bring out the best in our individuality, and we reject the collectivism that has emerged with the current, “expensive” system, because we can’t afford it, financially, or intellectually.

Check out the below article from Indiana. This is the way things will be done in the future. The sooner we get started, the better.

New Poll: Indiana Voters Support Choice in Education, Substantially Underestimate Public Education Spending
INDIANAPOLIS, IN – Voters in Indiana decidedly favor school vouchers and charter schools, and desire a balanced variety of options when it comes to educating their children, according to a poll released today by the Indianapolis-based Foundation for Educational Choice.

The poll-“Indiana K-12 & School Choice Survey”-also reveals that Indiana voters are unaware of how much is spent in public schools; most respondents substantially underestimated per-student spending.

“Hoosiers see the tremendous value in giving families options,” said Robert Enlow, President and CEO of The Foundation for Educational Choice. “If a school voucher, charter school, private, or home school can give a child an effective, personalized education, that child has a right to receive it. This poll shows Indiana voters agree.”

Braun Research Inc. conducted phone interviews with more than 3,400 Hoosier registered voters November 12-17, 2010.That firm’s president, Paul Braun, expressed confidence in the accuracy of the study’s results, due to “thorough briefings stressing objectivity, heavy monitoring, sample performance reviews, verifications and post-data-collection checks on each survey by interviewer and phone center.”

The following are the poll’s key findings:

Indiana voters are unsatisfied with the current public education system. On average, registered voters in Indiana are more likely to think K-12 education is on the “wrong track” (51 percent) compared to the “right direction” (31 percent). Indiana voters describe the state’s public school system more often as “fair” or “poor” (55 percent) versus “good” or “excellent” (42 percent).

Indiana voters lack awareness and information about how much is spent in public schools. Nearly two out of three respondents (64 percent) underestimated per-student spending in the public schools.

Hoosiers support charter schools. Indiana voters are far more likely to favor charter schools (66 percent) than to oppose such schools (16 percent). Respondents who said they “strongly favor” charter schools outnumber those who say they “strongly oppose” by a four-to-one ratio.

Hoosiers support school vouchers. Indiana voters are far more likely to favor school vouchers (66 percent) than to oppose them (24 percent).

Indiana voters indicate they should have a variety of schooling options. If they had the option to select any type of school to obtain the best education for their child, 41 percent said they would choose a private school, 10 percent a charter school, and 7 percent a home school.

“This poll shows most Indiana voters do not realize how many of their tax dollars are being spent on an education system they do not even consider effective,” said Enlow. “Giving families the freedom to choose the education that’s best for their children would ensure funds were spent more effectively, and it would give every child access to the education they deserve.”

To see a summary of survey results, a series of PowerPoint slides highlighting key findings, and description of the methodology, visit http://www.EdChoice.org/IN-Survey.
Braun Research callers interviewed 1,017 registered voters in Indiana to produce an initial statewide sample. Braun Research then made additional phone calls to achieve at least 350 total completed interviews in each of eight counties. The margin of sampling error for the statewide survey is ±3.1 percentage points and approximately ± 5.4 percentage points for each of the eight countywide samples.

About The Foundation for Educational Choice

The Foundation for Educational Choice is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and nonpartisan organization, solely dedicated to advancing Milton and Rose Friedman’s vision of school choice for all children. First established as the Milton and Rose D. Friedman Foundation in 1996, the Foundation continues to promote school choice as the most effective and equitable way to improve the quality of K-12 education in America. The Foundation is dedicated to research, education, and outreach on the vital issues and implications related to choice and competition in K-12 education.

Please visit our website to read the full study at http://www.EdChoice.org/IN-Survey.

Rich Hoffman
http://twitter.com/#!/overmanwarrior
www.overmanwarrior.com

Thanks For Reading: Over 10,000 Views in December!

Since I began this web log, a lot has changed. The intent was to provide some conservative views to combat the numerous liberal sites that are out there. One thing the left is good at is selling their position. Conservatives tend to trust the law and keep themselves out of some of the crazy rhetoric that one must engage in to combat the radicalism of the left’s strategy. Conservatives have great ideas, and often have history on their side. They just need to become better at selling it, and have lost over the last two decades terribly to the radical left at communicating ideas.

There have been great strides at the top-level of communication, to sell logic and traditional principles. Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Bill O’Reilly, Rush Limbaugh and many others have emerged to fill the market void that exists due to many Americans that lean-to the right. Only a small percentage lean left, yet it is the left, because they are more aggressive that is shaping the world in a way the majority of Americans don’t want. But those top names can’t due it on their own. The left has managed to be very successful at having their own big names at the top, people like Michael Moore, Sean Penn, George Clooney, Keith Obermann, and James Carvel do their work, but they also have active grass-roots to carry the baton MoveOn.org and the Huffington Post along with many, many others to lead an active online campaign that occurs daily and fills millions of email boxes with a leftist spin that partially inquiring minds have difficulty combating.

There is a radical left that has an agenda and wants to reshape the world. They showed themselves quickly when the terrible tragedy in Arizona took place. That is why I decided to take steps over the summer of 2010 to begin my own site that could grow over time and capture great radio, and commentary from the conservative side in an attempt to off-set the aggression of the radical left and the direction they want to take the country.

Radio like what Doc Thompson does locally on WLW is particularly powerful, and while those sounds broadcast over 50,000 watts to hundreds of thousands of ears, people often forget what they heard just a few hours later. It is my intent to capture some of those moments so people can return to them later and listen at their convenience. Stations like WLW makes it available for complete podcasts of these programs, but I seek to make it easier for people to filter out the important moments, so I am going to the trouble to provide some professional editorial help for the convenience of the curious listener. One such example is the below section of Doc’s show from January 10, 2011, the first time he was on the air after the Arizona Shooting.

There are other conservative blog sites out there. I particularly like American Thinker, and The Blaze.com. But, I have found that I have some abilities that are particularly beneficial to the blog medium, experience in video, editorial training, and the ability to write thousands of fresh words each day that is pertinent to current events and complimentary to the other work within the conservative movement. I also understand the value of entertainment, and live a colorful life that people find inspiring. It is a pleasure to share that with people to use in their own lives. In other words, not all conservatives are suit-and-tie men and work in the law profession. So I have a unique position to speak from and I’ve found that people enjoy it because it loosens up the seriousness of some of the topics.

Currently I’m drooling over my copy of Colonel Roosevelt, the new book just released by Edmund Morris and given to me by my youngest daughter for Christmas. I had some things to finish up before being able to jump into that book. Roosevelt back then read a voracious amount, and I share with him a childlike curiosity for everything. I adored the previous two books on Roosevelt by Morris called The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt and Theodore Rex so I understand his ravenous appetite for fun and knowledge that only children seem able to combine. I have often wondered what a man like that would be like in today’s culture where a person can read on a digital pad, write on a keyboard as fast as his mind can produce the information, and be exposed to thousands of various media in television, radio, and the internet.

I can imagine because in my own life I often write while walking, read whenever I’m sitting, and if I get pinned down in my living room I watch two televisions at the same time while scanning the internet on a lap top, and playing Xbox. My wife has gotten used to my multimedia abilities even though she is accustomed to reading 12 to 16 hours per day in the same spot without any noise, which is how she prefers it. She often cringes when I come home and “power up” plugging myself into the world. She prefers to turn off the world so she can see it clearly. But as for personalities I can relate to, Roosevelt is one of them. He was a Republican. He was a lot more power-hungry than I am, but his adventurous nature and insatiable appetite for knowledge I share with him. I was very disappointed to hear Glenn Beck proclaim that Roosevelt was the creator of the Progressive Movement, which anyone who has read my stuff here knows I despise. But those events had not yet been explored in Theodore Rex, and would not be revealed until this Colonel Roosevelt volume. I am hungry to see how those events transpired.

Glenn Beck I think feels the same as me about Roosevelt, because Beck himself appears to be a similar personality, always plugged in and learning and doing it with a childlike curiosity. And he knows that the creation of the Progressive Party, which Roosevelt ran against the Republican Party, ushered in Woodrow Wilson.

I don’t personally know Beck. I’ve only been around him, so I can only make assessments about him based on the work he does, which is the volumes of books he reads, he is writing about three books a year, does three hours of radio, one hour of television and still values time with his family. Roosevelt did much the same, while President he wrote books, read many more, and still had time for all his interests. And I’ve been getting the same type of comments, “how do you have time to write all this.” And, “how do you scan all those videos, and listen to all that radio content, and read too. Is your wife lonely? What do you do for a living?”

All I can really say is that it has something to do with never really growing up. If more people took into their adulthood the energy of their childhoods, they’d find they can do a lot more with their lives. And they’d be less prone to chemical abuse such as smoking, over-eating, and drinking. An active mind is a happy mind, and that is what will be finding its way to this web log.

What makes me happy is sharing with people who things can be different. WordPress sent me the December numbers and seemed shocked that there were over 10,000 readers of my articles, which WordPress seemed to be very impressed with. And in just one business quarter I can see that many, many people want to help with the Lakota School Levy next time, which will make it a lot easier on me and the other people who worked hard on that campaign. Back in August you couldn’t find anyone wanting to even stick their name next to a controversial idea like saying no to the levy. And people are reading the stuff that is more libertarian and those articles are getting passed from email to email and is having an effect, even if it is only encouraging people to get involved in their local Tea Party, or the 9/12 Project and any of the movements emerging. It is a useful service to offer, which is to provide a place for people to meditate on some of these ideas at their leisure.

After putting topics on this web log, such as the pay rate of the teachers at Lakota, and the governor pay rates, and the amount of people that did not go to college, but are successful anyway, it has allowed people to openly question sacred cows that have simply been glazed over in the past, and I feel very privileged to have been able to provide that.

For the third No Lakota Campaign, there is now a line of people that want to be a part of the campaign. People heard me on the radio, and read what I wrote, and they saw that the levy failed, and now they are drooling to be a part of the next victory campaign, and not just at Lakota. There are districts all over Ohio that feel empowered to act. And that is much to my delight. A group called Educate Ohio is emerging from some of those curious minds, and that is something which brings me great delight.

I feel I can inspire more people to action the way I have been doing, which ultimately puts more troops on the battlefield. I avoid long drawn out meetings like the School Board Meetings at Lakota because they are very inefficient meetings. I tend to rely on “eyes and ears” for the important stuff. I attend when absolutely needed, which is something I’ve learned to do in management work. What’s coming is something that people who see clearly need to be free to articulate. So I will keep myself free of peril with tenacious equanimity. I welcome those who want to help and ad their names to the great fight to jump on board and help anyway possible. For it is the dream of all artists that their work inspires some didactic reaction to move beyond ones previous limits, and it gives me great pleasure to see that happening as a result of the work done at this site. Such a reaction is more important to me than money, fame, or any form of orthodox social acceptance. There is room for everyone that wants to cast an arrow on behalf of truth, justice, and the American Way!

So enjoy the ride! Much, much, much more to come.

Rich Hoffman
http://twitter.com/#!/overmanwarrior
www.overmanwarrior.com

Defend Ohio Rally in Columbus was Organized by Socialists

The shooting in Arizona is tragic. But at this time, the facts are still coming in, and there is other news going on at the same time that needs attention. One of those news stories is the impact of the man who structured the Defend Ohio rally up in Columbus to protest John Kasich’s position on organized labor is a Socialist!

Meet him here:

Doc Thompson had a great banter with a spokesman from Defend Ohio, a group I had never heard of because it was apparently formed just last weekend to attack John Kasich’s Administration before it could even get started. But the fellow came on WLW to discuss his position, and for that I give him credit. Listen to that conversation here:

If these people weren’t so dangerous, in trying to compete legitimately in the battlefield of ideas, I might just pat them on the head and encourage them to keep learning and trying. But, as I’ve discussed on this forum many times and in many ways, socialism, communism, progressivism, imperialism, and on and on, are infantile mutterings of the lazy, collective oriented that lack true courage, because they seek to hide their ambition behind a government entity that they wish to use as a bargaining chip.

I have news for those childish minds. The country was built on capitalist principles. Not socialist principles and unions. In fact, the growth of our nation has stopped since socialist started penetrating our political culture and used the aspects of American Culture we collectively feel guilty about, like slavery, like our treatment of women, and the handling of the poor, to manipulate the political spectrum in a way that has made the United States less competitive. For people who believe such things, their minds are like shallow streams and their recollections of American History are just as deep. American History may only be as deep as a mighty river, but there is much more under the surface that makes up the contents of the river. America is not just simple poor against rich, working man against the white-collar man, black against white, men against women, its swirls of all those things and a lot more to add. Such duality in thinking is only useful to small-minded souls that can’t see beyond their individual cages.

When I heard the interview above on Doc Thompson’s show, I thought the man from Defend Ohio was naive, but well-intentioned, and I had figured he just needed to think things through a lot deeper. But now I know after a little research, that the people behind this rally are socialists! No wonder they don’t like Kasich!

Before 2010, I thought communists and socialists in our American society was something that was attempted during the McCarthy era, and even then, I actually thought that McCarthy was far-reaching in his pursuit to weed out communists. I thought that because I believed what the media told me, that Joseph McCarthy was a right-winged-paranoid-do-gooder. I started to question the media when I saw that they used the same approach to attack Kenneth Star, when he investigated Bill Clinton. Star was just doing his job. Clinton had flat-out lied in federal court. It happened right in front of our faces, so that made me question the reporting of the socialists in the McCarthy hearings.

Now, the evidence is everywhere. Socialists have their own party. They try to put up candidates, they have infiltrated unions, newspapers, television, Hollywood, publishing. They are a legitimate competitor for political ideas and they have done it under the radar.

So now they have met at the capital of Ohio on January 8, 2011 to protest a Governor that is trying to bring capitalism oriented ideas back to a state to attempt to save that great state from the damage done by socialist that have infiltrated the political culture for decades. The difference between now, and when they originally started, is it’s out in the open who and what they are. And America has to make the decision about what they want to do about it.

It’s ok to be wrong. And socialist are out-of-their-minds wrong. But it’s not OK to wreck American Culture to pursue the infant diatribes of half-baked minds.

Now, to understand what is behind Defend Ohio, read this article. I put it up here so it doesn’t disappear after this rally turns out embarrassing for the organizers.

U.S. | Labor & Workers
SOCIALIST CANDIDATE’S BACKERS FOUND NEW ORGANIZATION TO FIGHT TO DEFEND OHIO JOBS AND SER
by Dan La Botz
Tuesday Dec 7th, 2010 8:33 AM
Ohio leftists create Defend Ohio campaign and launch Stop Kasich movement against new government’s radically anti-worker program

Supporters of the Dan La Botz, Socialist for Senate campaign of 2010 met in Columbus, Ohio over the weekend to found a new organization and launch a campaign to fight for jobs and public services in Ohio—and they pledged to resist the policies of Republic Governor-elect John Kasich. Dan La Botz was the Socialist Party candidate for the U.S. Senate in Ohio in November 2010 and received 25,000 votes.

The labor and movement activists from cities throughout Ohio created the Buckeye Socialist Network (there will soon be a BuckeyeSocialist.org website). The Network’s first campaign is called DEFEND OHIO and will focus on defending public employees’ jobs and public services.

“Governor Kasich has unleashed a class war in Ohio,” said Dan La Botz. “And we intend to fight back. Kasich’s inauguration is the ideal occasion for Ohio’s working people to protest in at the Capital in Columbus and to show the governor that he is going to face four years of fierce resistance by unions and social movements.

“Kasich,” said La Botz, “pledged to revoke the union organizing rights of home care and child care workers in Ohio. This is a vicious and despicable attack on the some of the state’s hardest working and lowest paid workers. And it is not so different from President Obama’s recent promise to freeze the wages of Federal employees. These attacks on public employees parallel the private employers drive for two-tier labor contracts intended to lower wages and they parallel attacks on social programs for low-income people in our society.

“We will be organizing working people to fight to defend public employees’ jobs, their wages, and their right to unionize. We will be fighting to defend all of the many services that these workers—teachers, social workers, water workers, garbage collectors, and so many others—provide. In doing so, we will be beginning the fight to rebuild the power of unions in Ohio.”

Union members from the Teamsters, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, American Federation of Government Employees, Communication Workers of America, and United Food and Commercial Workers were among those in attendance at the founding meeting of the Buckeye Socialist Network. Representatives from Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Dayton/Yellow Springs, Canton, and New Philadelphia attended the half-day meeting.

…………………………………………….

Hey, you can’t make this stuff up. Progress Ohio has their name all over this. These “types” of people are in the minority, but because they are motivated radicals, they must be dealt with equal passion from those of us that think correctly. And yes, there is a correct way to think and an incorrect way to think. Individuality and the power of the individual are correct. Collectivism is wrong. It allows the worst of people to live in a state of mediocrity. This popular video of the New York Public worker wrecking a car on a snowy street is a perfect example of what you get when you allow people to live in that state of mediocrity. This is your typical union employee. And I say that from lots of experience.

Don’t ever ask me to pay for people like this with tax dollars.

Rich Hoffman
http://twitter.com/#!/overmanwarrior
www.overmanwarrior.com

“B” Day is Coming!!!!!! Lakota’s dreaded busing cuts!

“B” Day is coming! “B” Day is the day that the school busing cuts are implemented.

On January 18th, Lakota will proceed to cut busing to students K through 8th grade within a mile radius. And all high school students will lose their busing.

I remember in 2005 when the same program was implemented except it was only half as tough, the radius was only a half mile. My wife had already been driving my kids to school each day so we didn’t think life would change much.

On January 7, 2011 I went on WLW to talk about this experience with Doc Thompson along with a number of other issues that center around the growing budget problems regarding school funding. We had a great discussion that covered a lot of ground. Worth listening to!

Instantly, the day of the “B” Day in 2005, the roads filled students trying to get to school, and what used to take 15 minutes turned into 30 to 40 minutes of roads loaded with the extra traffic. Accidents happened and my wife was an unfortunate victim. She had a collision with an inexperienced young driver that was cast into a situation he wasn’t prepared for. The boy didn’t have enough experience to be driving, and had been rushed through his licensing process because his parents couldn’t drive him to school.

The airbags deployed in the collision to our beloved Jeep Grand Cherokee which was paid off and a wonderful vehicle which totaled the vehicle even though it only sustained a damaged bumper. Because of the air bag deployment the cost of repair exceeded what insurance agreed to pay for the repair.

That Jeep Cherokee was an unfortunate victim to the “B” Day of 2005.

The “B” Day of 2011 will be equally devastating for some unfortunate victim, because when you put that many people on the road at the same time, bad things are bound to happen. And when it does, remember that cutting busing which only saves $600,000 this year, and 2.8 million next year only represents a fraction of the overall operating budget. For every bus they keep off the road the school system saves $70K.

Also remember that the school system was paying Ryan Fahrenkamp, the Lakota teacher busted in January for child pornography with a school computer involving students of his class, 70K a year. That teacher cost the same as operating a bus for one year. I think a bus is more valuable than a pervert teacher that stayed hidden behind layers of union protections for the last 2 years. But that’s just my opinion.

The leadership of Lakota thinks it’s more efficient to take away buses. That’s why we have budget problems. Just so everyone remembers the last levy attempt and the numbers numbers involved, here is a collection of the media blitz in the final days prior to the vote.

It’s important to remember how we got here, and the smoke screens that get put in place to make you forget.

Rich Hoffman
http://twitter.com/#!/overmanwarrior
www.overmanwarrior.com

Oh Let’s Be Sensitive: The power of manipulated guilt

My wife and I were discussing over dinner the fact that in the times of Lincoln, Washington DC actually had liveries in town to tie up their slaves like horses. I thought about how far we’ve all come since then, and I thought about how instrumental Lincoln was in changing those opinions people had, on the “culture” of slavery. Lincoln was an uneducated white man, and he used the Constitutional rights of the great United States to put in front of people the fact that American society wanted slavery because they wanted to protect their pocket books. Lincoln wrote and spoke about that issue to a huge degree, and it made him very unpopular for a while, because it was affecting people’s comfort level. But history shows the result. Lincoln was openly hostile about slavery in his letters and over time he came to realize how terrible slavery was as an institution, and eventually, under his watch, slavery was abolished, and the United States has lead the way to religious and racial tolerance all over the world since then

But that’s not what you hear among our radical press that has an agenda for a political power grab. Civil rights, even though we all agree is the right thing to think about is big business, and power grabs for the party that rides the wave of emotion behind it.

Religion, like race relations is one of the longest forms of political power grabs known to mankind. Doc Thompson did a great bit of radio poking fun at Katie Couric’s suggestion of creating a television show based on the Muslim faith.

What a lot of people have a hard time understanding is how devious some political, and religious groups are in achieving their personal goals. We’ve studied how communism and other socialist principles have grown under our collective watchful, yet naive eyes. The same thing occurs under the umbrella of religious fervor.

A great example of this is the current Islamic possession of the Temple Mount while Jews resort to their practices at the Wailing Wall and the continuous tension that exists between those two religions at the Temple.

To a guy like me, I look at those religious icons and I see the artifacts of King Solomon’s Temple. It is a baffling concept that one particular religious entity or another would even consider “fighting” over rights to such things. But that is the state of our minds.

And that is why we can’t even joke about certain religious issues, such as the mosque in New York, because the debate is not one of life after death. It’s about control and power while here on earth. Our current debate on whether or not we should have a mosque in New York is really just a diversion to weaken an enemy, and to many in the world that crave power, the United States is an enemy to their goals.

It is difficult for many people to get their minds around devious concepts, even though many people unconsciously participate in devious behavior. So it is hard for people to see that there are still, in the 21st century, groups of people that want power, and they hide their desire for that power behind religion in order to unite the minds of their armies to help them achieve those goals. So I’m going to put this situation in a way that people can understand, because virtually everyone can relate.

Family is one of the most basic building blocks we all share with one another. Family problems are a great way to personalize some of these larger religious, and sensitivity issues, because we all have those problems. So let’s look at a hypothetical situation that occurs in many families and explore the hidden motives behind those actions so as to comprehend how religious leaders and civil rights advocates manipulate our emotions for the same basic end result.

Marriage is supposed to be a wonderful institution where typically a woman marries a man who is the son of someone. Usually, the mother of that man will look at the new woman as her “replacement” and because she has never in her mind made the correct breaking away from her son, still craves the love of her son over his wife. Now that new wife may actually like the brother of that husband, but that brother is already married to another woman. This “like” may not be sexually based, but just might be some deep seated psychological reaction because the brother is very similar to her husband, but benefits from having the traits the wife likes, but not the disadvantage that living with the husband has, so myths are allowed to form in the mind of the wife about the brother because she doesn’t live with him, and she sees the brother in a holier-than image.

Now this wife may actually be quite pretty, so the father who is married to the mother may be jealous of this son, the husband to the new wife. This might occur because the son is not his biological son, and is a bad memory of the man that came before him. Of course around the dinner table he is friendly, but his insecurities are great being the “second” man. Seeing his wife’s son marry a beautiful woman and having a fresh start in life with a fresh and unmolested “new” woman is enough to drive him to private madness, so he eats more, drinks more, and in general craves the attention of women half his age. The mother knowing that the husband feels this way deep down inside resents even more the new wife because she is a convenient target. This being her second marriage, she isn’t ready to admit to herself that her second husband is a creep. Because such a revelation may actually reveal to her extended family that she makes bad decisions, and the real problem may actually originate deep inside her and her desire to affiliate with bad people. So the mother befriends the brother’s wife to conspire against the new wife. Not openly mind you, but subtly.

Now our new husband and wife live well for a couple of years. The husband gets a few promotions and is making decent money which causes jealousy with his brother who hasn’t had such good luck. So he starts befriending the husband of his mother, who is just a step-father to him. And this step father uses this young man’s jealously to incite anger, and get the brother to do his bidding, so that his own wife doesn’t discover that he is trying to bring secret harm to her favorite son. A couple of kids are born to the son and his wife, and the wife has maintained her figure while the brother’s wife gets fat with boredom. The new wife dislikes the brother’s wife because she sees that the woman’s weight is embarrassing to the brother and she can see that the brother she likes so much isn’t enjoying sex because he has a fat wife, so she feels sorry for him and develops more anger at the brother’s wife.

The whole family has a get together to celebrate the 5th birthday of the oldest child of this marriage. The brother and his wife don’t really want to come, because they’ve been trying to have kids for a while, but can’t. The real reason they don’t have children yet is they don’t have sex enough because the brother isn’t interested in his own fat wife. The brother’s wife knows this, and resents her husband and her brother-in-law’s children more each time she sees them.

To make matters worse for the sister-in-law, and the mother, is the son’s wife has managed to find a way to stay home with her children so she has time to make a cake for her child’s birthday. The cake is a really fancy and personal cake that you couldn’t get in a bakery, because it’s actually made with love. Now you’d think the mother would be proud of her son for finding a wife that could and would make a cake for their child on their 5th birthday, but that’s not the case. Unfulfilled dreams and the mother’s own past mistakes of having her first marriage fail permeates her thoughts when she sees the cake, so in private she decides to instigate the brother’s fat wife into talking about what a prissy little bitch her son’s wife has become. Feeling empowered, the fat brother’s wife makes fun of the color of the cake right in front of the son’s wife, which breaks the heart of the wife who truly wants the appreciation of her mother-in-law. But what she sees in that moment of grief is great joy on the mothers face at the pain the son’s wife experienced at the antagonism of the brothers wife.

And the two women have a vicious argument right in the kitchen.

Meanwhile the son comes to break it up, and he insults his brother’s wife by calling her a spiteful, fat bitch! That gives his brother the opportunity to seize his anger that had been built up by his step-father, and now brother and brother fight it out right there in the kitchen.

The children are horrified to see all this going on. And the child that is turning 5 never forgets the images of everyone fighting, and makes the personal proclamation to never marry.

20 years later the elderly mother is asking her favorite son why he doesn’t come around more often, and that she misses him. The son doesn’t want to hurt his mother’s feelings and explain how destructive her beliefs have been to the family. His brother had long since divorced his fat wife. His mother lost her second husband to a chubby woman that was 21 who worked at the Waffle House. And he just didn’t have the heart to explain to his mother that her only grand children did not want to have children of their own, because they believe all families are dysfunctional.

The kids move out and the son and the wife live on alone, because the family had never really bonded. They tried over the years to go through the motions, but in the end, nobody really liked each other, so everyone found themselves alone and unhappy in the later years, meeting only in weddings and funerals.

Now what’s the point of that story? Well, the mother created the original sin by wanting power over her son. She didn’t want to face her own mistakes, and she desired to shape the lives of those around her to hide her own deficiencies from herself. The result of her divine leadership is she basically ruined the lives of everyone attached to her.

The same thing happens politically for much the same reasons. Our inability to see through the intentions of our enemies or to even name an enemy to our nation often allows corruption to migrate and fester over a long period of time into something that could ruin our lives. And it happens because we won’t even allow ourselves to be critical of something.

The resistance to slavery was because so many people made money off slavery. Lincoln did the good work of making people look at themselves, and that’s where slavery ended, in people’s hearts. It wasn’t just legislated. It changed inside people and it happened in America by a Republican.

Religion is supposed to be a personal thing, so you always have to be cautious when a religious group desires to “impose” itself on society. Because when they do, they are looking for power not spiritual understanding. And when they get caught doing so, they deserve to be ridiculed for the potential corruption they could bring to our society.

Call it what it is, so you can avoid a lifetime of pain.

Rich Hoffman
http://twitter.com/#!/overmanwarrior
www.overmanwarrior.com

Gas Over $3 Per Gallon is the Fault of Politics and Nothing Else

Many people forget that during the summer of 2008 fuel costs were up over $4 per gallon. What happened was all the money that Americans normally spent on McDonalds, Walmart, and other consumer outlets, suddenly went to the excessive fuel costs and a long way to creating the recession we are currently in. Americans were using their expendable income on fuel costs, not on other items in the economy.

And here we go again. Doc Thompson has on a guest that discusses this very issue.

It is unacceptable to have fuel costs higher than what they are now. If fuel costs go up, it is entirely due to the ineptness of our political structures. Americans should not be “nudged” into other forms of energy while our economic competitors fuel their economic engines with unregulated drilling. In America we have regulated ourselves into a poor strategic position.

It is not my fault that our politicians screwed up and stood with weak backs to environmentalists that are in actuality communists at heart and crave an end to American Imperialism by crushing their great independent “car culture.” I will not spend the extra money on fuel. Instead, I will spend less. I will ride my motorcycle when I’d normally take a car. I’ll ride a bicycle or even walk before I use my extra money on a tank of fuel.

America would be wise to only use the fuel it needs, and respond to these price increases by hurting the revenue of all the government hands that have their hands in the cookie jar that is fuel industry. If you want to punch back the government that screwed all this up to begin with, hurt the money they take in with each gallon of gas that you buy. Below is some information on how much we pay in taxes by state for each gallon of gas.

State	Gasoline	Diesel	Additional Sales Tax	Comment
State	(¢/g)	(¢/g)	(%)	Comment
Alabama	18	19	4	The gasoline gasohol and diesel rates include a 2 cents per gallon inspection fee. Alabama-registered LPG vehicles pay an annual fee based on vehicle type in lieu of the volume tax.
Alaska	8	8	0
Arizona	18	19	5	The fuel tax on diesel remains at 18 cents per gallon for light and exempt vehicles but is set at 27 cents per gallon if used to propel a truck with more than two axles or with a declared gross weight over 26 000 pounds.
Arkansas	21.5	22.5	4.5	The gasoline gasohol and diesel rates include 0.4 cents per gallon Environmental Assurance Fee. Applicants for LPG user permits must pay a fee in lieu of the volume tax.
California	18	18	6	LPG users may pay an annual fee in lieu of the volume tax.
Colorado	22	20.5	3	Owners of LPG vehicles registered in the State must pay an annual fee in lieu of the volume tax.
Connecticut	25	45.1	5	The tax is computed at 5% of the gross earnings from the first sale of a petroleum product in the State.
Delaware	23	22	0	The tax rate varies annually based on the average wholesale price of gasoline for the previous year.
Dist. of Columbia	23.5	20	5.8
Florida	16	16	0	Tax rates are variable, adjusted annually. For gasoline and gasohol, in addition to the rates shown, there is a State-imposed State Comprehensive Enhanced Transportation System (SCETS) tax that varies by the county from 0-5.0 cents per gallon. All counties levy the SCETS tax on gasoline, but a few levy less than the maximum rate. LPG vehicles registered in the State pay an annual fee in lieu of the tax on alternative fuels and the SCETS tax.
Georgia	7.5	7.5	4
Hawaii	17	17	4	Effective 01/01/02, alternative fuels pay an amount proportional to the diesel tax as follows: .29 for ethanol, .5 for bio-diesel, and .33 for LPG. An additional 1 cent is added to these amounts, and then rounded to the nearest 1 cent.
Idaho	25	25	5	LPG users may pay an annual fee based on vehicle weight in lieu of volume tax.
Illinois	19	21.5		Motor carriers pay an additional 6.3 cents per gallon on gasoline, 6.5 cents on diesel, and 5.9 cents on LPG.
Indiana	18	16	5	Motor carriers pay an additional 11 cents per gallon. LPG vehicles pay an annual fee.
Iowa	21	22.5	5	Effective 07/01/02, motor fuel tax rates will be adjusted annually based on the amounts of ethanol blended gasoline being sold and distributed annually.
Kansas	24	26	4.9	LPG users may pay an annual fee based on mileage and gross vehicle weight in lieu of the volume tax.
Kentucky	24.1	21.1	6	Tax rates are variable, adjusted quarterly. A 2 percent surtax is imposed on gasoline and 4.7 percent on special fuels for any vehicle with 3 or more axles. The gasoline, gasohol, and diesel rates include 1.4 cents per gallon Petroleum Environmental Assurance Fee.
Louisiana	20	20	0
Maine	29.5	30.7	0	Rates are variable, adjusted every February based on past years Consumer Price Index. Rates are effective on the following July 1.
Maryland	23.5	24.25	5
Massachusetts	21	21	5
Michigan	19	15	6	For vehicles defined under the Motor Carrier Fuel Tax Act, diesel fuel is discounted 6 cents per gallon at the pump; and assessed a 12 cents per gallon surcharge on a quarterly return, with a provision for a 6 cent per gallon refund on fuel purchased in Michigan.
Minnesota	27.1	27.1	6	There is a credit to the wholesaler of 15 cents per gallon of alcohol used to make gasohol.
Mississippi	18.4	18.4		The gasoline, gasohol, and diesel rates include 0.4 cents per gallon dedicated to the Groundwater Protection Trust Fund.
Missouri	17	17	0	LPG vehicles 18,000 pounds or less gross vehicle weight registered in the State pay an annual fee in lieu of the volume tax.
Montana	27.75	27.75	0	LPG vehicles registed in the State pay an annual fee based on gross weight in lieu of the volume tax. Out-of-State vehicles purchase trip permits. There is an alcohol distiller credit of 30 cents per gallon of alcohol produced in the State with State agricultural products and used to make gasohol.
Nebraska	26.8	26.8	5	Rates are variable, adjusted quarterly. The gasoline and gasohol include 0.6 cents per gallon and diesel rate includes 0.2 cents per gallon Petroleum Release Remedial Action Fee. Effective 01/01/02, new Nebraska ethanol production facilities may receive an ethanol production credit equal to 18 cents per gallon of ethanol used to fuel motor vehicles.
Nevada	24	27	0
New Hampshire	18	18	0	The gasoline, gasohol, and diesel rates include 1.5 cents per gallon Oil Discharge and Disposal Cleanup Fee. Alternative fuel vehicles pay twice the usual registration fee in lieu of the volume tax.
New Jersey	10.5	13.5	0	In addition to the rates shown, there is a Petroleum Products Gross Receipts Tax. The tax is computed on a cents-per-gallon basis and is applicable to a wide variety of petroleum products.
New Mexico	18.875	22.875	5	The gasoline, gasohol, and diesel rates include the Petroleum Products Loading Fee of $150 per 8,000 gallons (1.875 cents per gallon). Owners of LPG-powered vehicles up to 54,000 pounds gross vehicle weight may pay an annual fee in lieu of the volume tax.
New York	24.35	22.55	4	Rates are variable, adjusted annually. Rates include the Petroleum Business Tax of 14.6 cents per gallon. The gasoline rate includes a 0.5 mill (0.05 cents) per gallon Petroleum Testing Fee.
North Carolina	30.55	30.55	0	Rates are variable, adjusted semiannually.
North Dakota	22	22	5	Rates are variable, adjusted semiannually.
Ohio	28	28	5	Commercial vehicles formerly subject to the highway use tax pay an additional 3 cents per gallon. Dealers are refunded 10 cents per gallon of each qualified fuel (ethanol or methanol) blended with unleaded gasoline.
Oklahoma	17	14	4.5	Rates shown include 1 cent per gallon tax dedicated to the Petroleum Underground Tank Release Environmental Cleanup Indemnity Fund. When the Fund reaches specified balance, future tax revenues will be deposited in a highway fund. The gasoline, gasohol, and LPG rates include 0.08 cents for fuel inspection. LPG users may pay an annual fee in lieu of the volume tax.
Oregon	24	24	0	The diesel and LPG rates shown are paid by users for vehicles not under the jurisdiction of Public Utility Commissioner. Vehicles under the jurisdiction of the Public Utilities Commissioner and paying motor-carrier fees are exempt from payment of the motor-fuel tax.
Pennsylvania	31.2	38.1	6	The rates include the Oil Franchise Tax for Maintenance and Construction, a variable rate tax adjusted annually. LPG rate is based on the gasolie gallon equivalent.
Rhode Island	33	33		Rates includes 1 cent per gallon tax for the Underground Storage Tank Financial Responsibility Fund.
South Carolina	16	16	5
South Dakota	22	22	4	As of 7/1/2009, South Dakota taxes gasoline at 22 cents and ethyl alcohol at 8 cents.
Tennessee	20	17	6	LPG users without permits must pay in advance at the beginning of the fiscal year, others pay quarterly. Fee is based on vehice weight and fuel efficiency.
Texas	20	20	6.3	Owners of LPG vehicles registered in the State must pay an annual fee in lieu of the volume tax.
Utah	24.5	24.5	4.9	LPG is tax exempt if user purchases annual exemption certificate.
Vermont	20	29	0	Diesel vehicles 10,000 pounds and over pay 26 cents per gallon. LPG vehicles are subject to a registration fee 1.75 times the usual fee. The gasoline, gasohol, and diesel rates include 1 cents per gallon for the Petroleum Cleanup Fund.
Virginia	17.5	17.5	0	Vehicles weighing 26,000 pounds or more having 3 or more axles pay an additional 3.5 cents per gallon.
Washington	37.5	37.5	6.5	Owners of LPG vehicles pay an annual fee.
West Virginia	32.2	32.2	0	Rates are variable, adjusted annually.
Wisconsin	30.9	30.9	5	Rates are variable, adjusted annually.
Wyoming	14	14	4	LPG is subject to sales tax. The gasoline, gasohol, and diesel rates include 1 cent for the Underground Storage Tank Corrective Action Account.

There is no reason for gas to go over $3 a gallon. If you put up with it, it’s your own fault. Our economy has not yet recovered from the last recession. The arrogance of politicians who believe Americans have enough expendable income to ride the fuel price hikes are at best out of touch. And the best way to hurt a politician is to take away the money they rely on. So lower your consumption and therefore the revenue politicians collect at the gas pumps.

Rich Hoffman
http://twitter.com/#!/overmanwarrior
www.overmanwarrior.com

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