Sheriff Jones, Spokesman for the S.B.5 Repeal: Speaks at the West Chester Tea Party????

Years of dealing with prison inmates prepared Sheriff Jones well as he faced a Tea Party crowd with his arms crossed, mustache pointed out to the multitude of more than 350 who deeply support his position on immigration reform, but were heart-broken with the knowledge that Jones was set to be an anti-S.B.5 spokesman. The controversial bill passed by Governor Kasich early in 2011 takes major steps into limiting the monopoly control of public sector unions against the tax payer, and the Sheriff being a public worker himself is against such reforms. 

I went on 700 WLW with Doc Thompson July 20, 2011, the day after, to discuss the monumental event which felt more like a civil war where family member against family member were fighting it out from ideological differences and in this case only one side is right, and one side wants to keep the status quo to their benefit. 

The West Chester Tea Party has a great group, and this was the first time I had been to one of their meetings which was held in the phenomenal Entertrainment Junction situated right of I-75 at the Taylorsville exit.  Entertrainment Junction is one of the largest indoor train displays in the world and the entrance is a replication of Old West Chester and would be just as home at the Epcot Center in Disney World as it is in the heart of West Chester.  Visually, it is one of the most visually spectacular venues to hold a Tea Party meeting that exists anywhere. So it didn’t take much to convince me to attend, since I look for excuses to be near model trains and displays of creativity which permeate from every orifice of this incredible venue which is the home of the West Chester Tea Party on a regular basis.  The tipping point for me was the Sheriff himself. 

Sheriff Jones worked with a group of us from the Liberty Twp Tea Party on a video that we did about immigration reform.  You can see that video below.  I’ve seen the Sheriff on several occasions since then and respect him for his love to fight, because we share that love. But he’s been on the opposite side of arguments with the Tea Party before, so this S.B.5 issue isn’t the first.  During the winter of 2011 he was pushing for a sales tax increase in Butler County that I and other members of the Tea Party resisted him on.  You can read that article here:  CLICK.

But this event was different, because Sheriff Jones represents exactly what the problems are in reforming government to a smaller, more accountable organization.  He epitomizes the best of what the public employee has to offer, so the opponents of S.B.5, which includes Progress Ohio, the exact opposite type of organization as that from the Tea Party is using the Sheriff and his reputation to hide their malicious intentions with budget breaking government expansion.  So that makes Sheriff Jones the enemy to reform which hurts. 

But that didn’t stop many of my friends, all readers of this forum, some I had met, some I had met for the first time in person at this venue, from coming to this meeting ready for a fight.  My friends are at all different levels of political involvement, and it was fun for me to be near so many of them in one place.  As my wife and I parked our motorcycle when we arrived, we were instantly hit up by a couple of them who had their cars decorated with symbols of FREEDOM.  There was no shyness in these people, as they were poised for battle not with guns and bayonets, but hand-made signs, T-shirts, bumper stickers, and books, which are in many ways more powerful than actual weapons.  Knowledge is power!  I barely put my kickstand down before I found an armful of patriotic T-shirts and reading material that will find their way into future posts on these pages.

The deeper I proceeded into Entertrainment Junction toward the meeting, the more it felt like a family reunion from Overmanwarrior’s Wisdom.  I knew I had a lot of readers, but I had been assuming that many of them were people angry with me.  As I signed in, I realized how much this web forum had grown, and I had a new idea of just how many people are reading it everyday, which I take as an extreme compliment.  I started this site not to represent any particular Tea Party group, or any group of any kind.  I wanted it to be the purest voice I could offer, without money involved to corrupt it, to feed the many Tea Party’s and others out there who want information that the newspapers won’t or can’t cover.  So I was very enchanted to find so many people wanting to shake my hand and tell me how much this forum means to them.  As I took a seat in the front of the room, I was surrounded by over a dozen direct fans and many others that I had just had the pleasure of putting a face to.  Two of my friends, (two crazy women) took a seat on the opposite side of me from my wife and were very vocal during the meeting, especially with Sheriff Jones. 

Cyd is a name that contributes frequent comments to Overmanwarrior’s Wisdom, and had never met Sheriff Jones before when she walked up before the event began and said, “Hi, I’m Cyd, and we are going to kick your ass on S.B.5.”

The Sheriff being well-trained at threats and opposition looked at her for a moment calculating the best response.  “Go ahead and kick it,” he said.  “We’ll see.” 

In the middle of the large conference room were hundreds of seats surrounded in every direction by model train displays. I couldn’t help but be impressed.  As the meeting progressed and it was time for Jones to speak he stated his position on immigration reform, which is a no-brainer with a group like this.  Then he spoke about S.B.5. 

“I know everyone in this room is probably for Senate Bill 5,” Jones said, over his crossed arms, feet positioned confidently to match the width of his shoulders, projecting a willingness to fight anyone who cared to challenge him, which I’m sure was the intended effect.  “My wife doesn’t agree with 100% of what I say, so you guys aren’t any different.”  With that statement the Sheriff had skillfully taken the edge off an otherwise hostile crowd.  The women on my right, Cyd and her best buddy Jorjann were very rambunctious standing up at times to cheer or protest what they were hearing. 

After the Sheriff’s speech he took questions which I was one of the first in the form of an open debate.  I expressed my mixed feelings about him and Bill Cunningham and how they had wanted change, but are now resisting change because they think the change was too much?  I said I thought they’d be the first to stand behind a hard-nosed governor who made a tough clear-cut decision that was knowingly unpopular but much-needed for the necessary reforms in government.  I also said to him that I thought it was unfortunate that he was being used by organized labor as a spokesman to hide all the terrible situations in the state teachers unions that are the real target of S.B.5. 

His response was that he could only speak for himself, and he stated that whatever his budget is, he lives with.  If he has too many officers, he lays them off, but he meets his budget. 

This prompted another question from another friend of mine, who stated, “Sheriff, it is obvious that you are the exception to the rule, but the rule is that many do not operate as you do, especially in education.  They do not make the hard decisions that you make and this is why we need S.B.5, to protect us from cost overruns by governments less skilled than you.”

This appealed to Sheriff Jones and he took that more as a complement and didn’t dispute the fact.  All he could really say in response is, “I’m just the Sheriff.” 

There were many other questions along those lines with similar answers.  But for me the climax of the evening came from a teacher who stood proudly and proclaimed, “Sheriff, something must be done.  I am forced by my union to pay dues to things I do not support.  I must watch as principals and administrators who are corrupt get away with excessive dishonesty and we all know it.  The teachers union is all about power and I want out of it.  What am I to do?”  She went on for quite some time like that and the room had grown so quiet that a spider crawling on the wall behind the Sheriff could almost be heard.  The Sheriff really didn’t have anything to say to all that. “I’m just the Sheriff,” he offered. 

At the end of the meeting everyone shook hands.  “Good luck,” the Sheriff said to me as he stepped from the front to leave toward the back of the room.  I believe he sincerely meant it.  I think if he wasn’t a public employee himself responsible for many personal friends and family members who are in law enforcement; he’d be on the same side as I am.  He is a victim of circumstance.  But that still doesn’t change the fact that he’s on the “other” side on this issue and is unfortunately a figure that must be dealt with because of his proudly self-proclaimed, “BIG MOUTH.” 

The teacher and I found each other after the meeting and had a long talk.  “Thank you for your blog,” she said.  “I read it everyday and I love it.” 

That took me by surprise a bit.  She went on to tell me stories about how she teaches her students about Atlas Shrugged, and Lord of the Rings, which left me wondering how many other teachers were out there just like this woman, caught in a terrible system, wanting to break out and excel….to be great, and to really teach their students things instead of some union enterprise dictating her stamina.

I asked her why so many teachers were willing to pack up on a bus and carry a sign against S.B.5.  “They are scared to death,” she said.   

“Of what,” I asked. 

“Of the unions.  Nobody wants to step forward, it’s very risky.” 

In a nutshell she had just made the statement of why we need S.B.5.  Sheriff Jones and those like him in the public sector are just protecting the status quo.  They don’t want change because that change will be painful to them.  But S.B.5 is needed for women like the brave teacher who stood up at a Tea Party meeting and proclaimed that change was needed, that she wanted to be free of the tyranny by a terrible union that is holding her back as an employee so that the average can flourish and the best can be suppressed.  And her union dues are used to purchase political influence, against the teachers will, and she wants out of it. 

S.B.5 will not only help tax payers control their local costs more effectively, but it will be the first step into freeing good teachers like the woman who spoke up in a model train filled room full of eager, heart-broken patriots, facing a Sheriff who is the spokesman for big labor and getting back the non-committal answer……..”I’m just the Sheriff.” 

After the meeting some of my other friends, people who have been with me for a long time, back when we did the video with Sheriff Jones for the Liberty Twp Tea Party, invited my wife and I to Graeters to have some ice cream.  We met them there as the sun set and heat storms dotted the horizon.  We ate our ice cream outside on the patio by a cleaver looking fountain.  My friends wanted updates on all my wife and I’s recent activities and we swapped stories as the wind picked up and cooled down a day that had been well over the 100’s in heat index during the day.  Warm air was rapidly escaping into the emerging clouds building in the darkness above.  I could smell rain building in those clouds but I didn’t care.  As I finished my hot fudge sundae I thought about the Sheriff and how soon he’d be on TV, speaking against S.B.5 on spots already purchased by groups like Progress Ohio.  The Sheriff would be speaking based on his limited experience as “Just the Sheriff.”  But millions of voters would believe everything he said because they are too lazy to get the facts.  Meanwhile, there are many thousands of teachers stuck in a bad system just like the woman who spoke, and I wondered if people would come to their rescue.  Would they have the courage?  Would they do the right thing? 

The remainder of our friends left for the night leaving my wife and I to ride home in the sputtering rain on our motorcycle.  My wife pushed her head against my back to prevent some of the heavy rain drops from pelting her, because at speeds over 40 MPH each strike of rain is like being jabbed with a needle.  But for me, there is no place to hide, to tuck my head away for protection, which appeared to be the appropriate metaphor for what was happening.  S.B.5 will be painful for many people.  It will be painful for the public sector unions.  It is painful for people like me who have to go against people who would otherwise be friends if not for their position on repealing the bill.  But the right thing to do in protecting S.B.5, and that is for the benefit of all society, is to take the pain and trudge ahead, to not become distracted and crash with indecision. 

As I pulled the motorcycle into the safety of our garage from the lightning filled skies and pouring rain, my wife and I were soaking wet, but happy to have arrived home intact.  And the day after the election in November will bring a similar emotion even though the pain in getting there will be difficult.  Because in the game of politics, the statement, “I’m just the sheriff,” means “we will not dispute facts, but argue emotion, in the pursuit of a political system that has been built by generations and it won’t end on my watch.”  But it has to end now or later, and at some point in the very near future it will end whether we decide for ourselves to act, or circumstances force it upon us, because the rain clouds are forming and it will rain.

Rich Hoffman

https://overmanwarrior.wordpress.com/2010/12/04/ten-rules-to-live-by/
http://twitter.com/#!/overmanwarrior
www.overmanwarrior.com

Learning what a Republic is: The Continued Lessons of Star Wars

I could not help but notice at my favorite book store that many of the works that I used to only find online, are now in stock, on the shelf. Work by Thomas Paine, John Locke, and all the works of Ayn Rand are easy to find, and this is fantastic news because people are hungry for knowledge. The Federalist Papers are even now stocked on the shelf in abundance. Ten years ago it was only law students who bought copies of it, now it’s an older man in his upper 60’s as I watched him thumb through it’s pages prior to purchase.

Political discussion is often not just about the topics on the nightly news. Recently, a friend of mine gave me a copy of The Original Argument, which was endorsed by Glenn Beck as a way to explain in today’s language the meaning of The Federalist Papers. I enjoyed The Original Argument so much that I read it twice while on vacation recently, and it occurred to me that The Original Argument was not a rule book so to speak intended for lawyers, but it is a political philosophy that speaks a truth established by 4000 years of human history. It does not belong in the political science section in a book store, but in the philosophy section.

But as a friend of mine uttered in frustration the other day, “what are we to do about all this!” The frustration of thinking all their lives that everything was OK in the world, and that politicians were sleazy, but not considered downright evil, and finding out that in fact there are many things that have been going on that people are just learning about because they are reading again, can be very overwhelming. Catching up on 200 years of American history in the span of a year or two like many Tea Party enthusiast are doing can send a person to burn out quick. So it’s important that people remember to have fun along the way. It’s even better if people can learn while they are having fun. Fans of Glenn Beck will notice that Beck is an obvious Star Wars fan. It will also be noticed that there are a lot of Tea Party patriots who are increasingly creating Twitter accounts along the lines of “Jedi Patriot” and “Empire Fighter” in an obvious homage to Star Wars. In our modern age, Star Wars has become a form of modern philosophy, not just simply entertainment. Star Wars is a great way to think about all the things that are going on in the world around us, while also taking a vacation from the intensity of those revelations. After all, the film The Phantom Menace was not about a young boy who grew up and became Darth Vader. That is just one of the sub plots. The Phantom Menace was all about a senator who wants to be emperor, and he uses many people in obscure ways to create the circumstances that will allow him to grab power for himself. It’s all in good old-fashioned fun, but the sincerity behind The Phantom Menace is actually incredibly sophisticated, which is the genius of Star Wars.

The films of Star Wars consist of only 6 two-hour movies and that is what a majority of the fans think of when they hear the name of Star Wars. But for fans who wish to dig deeper, Star Wars tackles many of the problems of our modern times using the language of mythology and the latest entry to that mythology is the MMO computer game called The Old Republic due out later this year and it’s something my wife and I are looking very much forward to.

Glenn Beck uses Star Wars metaphors to explain many of the complicated topics of our day because Star Wars is the only work of art in modern times which attempts to tackle the complicated nature of human failure and evolution as a species. Star Wars is a basic tale of good and evil, but it goes much deeper. With over 100 books, the 6 movies, cartoons, video games, comic books, amusement park rides, Star Wars is a formidable aspect of modern culture which I’ve written about in detail at this article: CLICK HERE

What is even bolder within this Star Wars mythology is this whole new path the franchise is taking in exploring The Old Republic. There are now two novels and two videos games with the addition of the computer game being previewed here, which explores what life was like in The Old Republic which takes place over a thousand years before the events shown in the films most people are familiar with. The idea of the Sith, the villains in Star Wars is to explore the influence of evil and this is done not just in a spiritual way in these stories, but also in a political way. It is the first work of art that I can think of which has mass appeal that attempts to do anything like this. It does not limit itself as an examination of religious influence, or political study, but as an all-encompassing investigation through the story lines of what causes the rise and fall of civilizations.

I am a fan of the works of writers like Thomas Mann and his Magic Mountain, and Oswald Spengler’s The Decline of the West, and I will state in that context the collected works of Star Wars are every bit as sophisticated and meaningful. In Star Wars the entire galaxy is part of a republic. Not a democracy, but a republic. This is similar to what planet Earth is facing in whose political philosophy will emerge as the world shrinks, will it be a republic like what the United States has had so much success with, or will it be various degrees of socialism similar to what Europe and many eastern countries have experimented with.

The most important contribution is that in the galactic government of Star Wars, it’s a republic that is pursued, and provides an interesting model for how Earth should proceed. It is the Republic of the United States of America that should teach the rest of the world how to be a free people, produce their goods under the umbrella of capitalism, and interact with one another with respect under that accepted philosophy.

What gives me hope is that Star Wars is the best education device that young people have to counter what they are learning in public education, and politicians who crave socialism where the philosophy of a republic is not taught to them. It is entertainment that is providing the best education to society, and because of the popularity of Star Wars it is evidence that many people are learning about it.

Glenn Beck understands that Star Wars is a modern work of political philosophy and science. When people who love freedom want to know how America is supposed to function, books like The Original Argument are fantastic. But it cannot be disputed that free life will always stay within the confines of the United States borders. As the evidence of illegal immigration have shown, millions of people all over the world want to become a part of the Republic of the United States and we owe it to those people in America to help not just open our borders to them, but to expand the freedom we experience to those far reaches of the globe so that there can be a grand Republic of Earth. And to get an idea of how to do that, Star Wars is the best work of art available to help show how that process should look, and what type of hurdles will stand in the way, so that freedom can be experienced by anything that breathes world-wide.

So before going crazy, choking on all this information that has always been there, but is being re-discovered, it is good to have a device that can give your mind a vacation. For me, it’s a love of pirates, and Star Wars. Star Wars allows the mind to swell without limits without becoming lost in the fantasy. And I look very much forward to the age when the kids who are growing up with this expanded universe of Star Wars start to run the country, because that is a time when things will dramatically change for the better, because they will understand that America is a republic and not a democracy and the only hope the entire world has for freedom.

Rich Hoffman

https://overmanwarrior.wordpress.com/2010/12/04/ten-rules-to-live-by/
http://twitter.com/#!/overmanwarrior
www.overmanwarrior.com

S.B.5 IS UNDER ATTACK: Do you have the courage to keep it?

That video created a hail fire of anger among the public sector union class over the weekend because it was evidence to them that the side protecting Senate Bill 5 is able to muster up the support of high-profile national names too, like they have been doing.  Unions hate competition!

The public union sector class, which is what we should call them, as they claim to be the entire middle class for voter identity, was able to gather 1.3 million signatures to repeal Senate Bill 5 after John Kasich signed the bill into law that went into effect on July 1st 2011.  It is because of S.B.5 that the OEA (Ohio Education Association) all over the state of Ohio scrambled to pass their teachers union contracts, so they would be grandfathered in when the bill became effective.  The union knew that they needed to appeal to the masses if they hoped to successfully repeal the bill in the fall election by putting on a softer, more cooperative face.  But even more important, they needed to protect their members from budget cuts before S.B.5 could be used against their tyrannical grip on local tax budgets.  The effect of these contract negotiations placed districts like Lakota, which is the 7th largest district in the state of Ohio into financial solvency again where before the contract negotiations the finances were grim. 

That is just a sample of what S.B.5 as a bill will be able to do for the tax payer.  The out of control costs that are currently at play in all government positions, especially teaching positions, can be managed finally by the local district.  There is a lot more costs that must be managed which will continue to make school districts fiscally viable. 

The same people against Senate Bill 5 are used to push environmental issues. Notice how it’s always about children.  Progress Ohio, who has produced many videos like the Anti S.B.5 videos shown here is a progressive group which seeks to “progress” society into the progressive trends that we have been traveling down, and they are at the front of the labor movement politically.  You can learn a lot about these types of people by studying what they think is important.  The children are put in the front row used as props, and the topics are always emotional.  This is why these people cannot be allowed to give themselves pay increases, which is what has been happening.  They have no monetary discipline.  It’s ok to hire people like this to be a park ranger, but they are an overly emotional group that exaggerate everything, and are not capable of firm business decisions.  Anytime money is at play, business decisions must be firm, and understood.  

Saturday I received this email from a friend of mine with thoughts about the upcoming Lakota levy, which even though the school board solved their immediate problems with the new contract is looking to cover the cost difference lost in state funding and federal allocations in the upcoming years, and they seek a tax increase instead of the options sent to me in the email by my friend.

_______________________________________________________________________

Rich,

I hope you are well.  I continue to track the ridiculous actions of your district.  What is not making sense is why deficit spending platform is not the main theme against a levy.  In addition, there is no need for a levy, even under their current June assumptions until 2014.  Therefore, there is more time to make them:

1.       Updated and renegotiate health care and not continue to carry such egregious increases in assumptions upwards of 9.5%

2.       Change the split of health coverage with employees

3.       Remove pickups for employees

4.       Remove administrators raises

5.       Remove step raises

6.       Look more closely at their revenue assumptions

a.       2010 the district collected over $75.6 million – 2011, they say they will only collect $71.4 million.  Ask for a “BUDGET TO ACTUAL” NOW THAT YOU HAVE YEAR END TO SEE IF THEY UNDERSTATED REVENUES BY $5.1 MILLION.

b.      If they understated revenue in 2011 by $5.1 million, you need to carry that forward for 5 years and you pick up $25 million in revenues

7.       Benefits are not impacted at all, yet the community is suffering.  That MAKES NO SENSE

My thoughts for your day.  Let me know if I can help!

________________________________________________________

I have a lot of people who work in various education positions all over the state who send me information like this.   They are frustrated with the way the system works and want to see changes made.  This guy is one of them. 

My response to him was that until school boards use S.B.5 to bring their costs down, the real costs such as what he assessed in his email to me, then this school tax levy game will continue.  As of right now, the school board knows the unions will never go for removing step increases, taking real pay cuts to bring labor wages in line with the private sector, change the health care coverage, the union won’t agree to even one thing on his list, let alone all of them.  That is why Ohio needed S.B.5, because collective bargaining has driven up public employee costs since 1983 to such an extent that now it is abusive to the tax payer, and has been for some time. 

It is these same public sector unions who have tried to label John Kasich as a Wall Street Stooge, as though Wall Street were the ultimate evil in the world.  And they of course hate Newt Gingrich who is a presidential candidate who has advocated unpopular big government warnings. 

Many forget, because their memories are shallow that it was Newt and Kasich who balanced the budget in the 90’s in the Federal government which Bill Clinton reluctantly went along with.  And these are the guys who are involved in solving Ohio’s budget problems which can be seen as a microcosm of the nation’s problems. 

The public union, big government types know this and they have their own weapons they plan to use.  Of those, is Bill Cunningham of 700 WLW who has for a long time considered himself a libertarian/conservative, but is mysteriously in favor of big public unions.  Bill is the guy at the end of the above Kasich video shaking his hand.  Cunningham seems to only advocate change so long as it doesn’t interfere with his income where his real allegiance appears to be his law practice, which of course employees many public employees who work hand in hand with public sector union employees every day and has made him personally wealthy.  One of those is his own wife, who is a current judge in Cincinnati.  Sheriff Jones of Butler County, who is my neighbor and a fellow Tea Party supporter over immigration reform, is one of the charismatic Republicans who the unions have targeted to help lead the march in repealing S.B.5 this fall.  The TV spots are being planned for this as I write this article featuring all the great feats that your local police and firefighters are doing for your community, kissing babies, helping old ladies across the street, and why they need S.B.5 repealed. 

Sheriff Jones is the same guy who has openly stated that he doesn’t understand where all the jobs in Hamilton have gone, as he marches to the FOP drum of union brotherhood.  So economics is not his strongest topic, but using emotion to win elections is.  After all, this is the same guy who wants to sue Mexico for all the illegal drugs coming into America.  Here’s a hint Sheriff Jones, they left because union wages closed down Fisher Body in Hamilton, Norwood and other places.  The union’s wages and benefits were just too steep to cover those costs, so they left.  My grandfather worked there, and I know what kind of pension he had, and even when I was a little kid, I wondered who was paying for him and his friends when they were in retirement.  It didn’t add up.  In fact many people in my family were or are union people.  And they are wrong to blindly follow union mandates just to protect their pay check.   They’ve all been told. 

The union strategy of course is they think people like Bill Cunningham, Bill Seitz, and Sheriff Jones who are Republicans with connections to Fox News can somehow offset swing voters into doubting the validity of S.B.5 into a repeal.  What is forgotten is that these Republicans are the types who have built their lives around public sector service, so they do not have an objective opinion.  To them politics as usual is the only politics there is. 

To people like me, politics as usual is simply too expensive, and cannot endure.  It is a shame that the police and firefighters unions have jumped in front of the teachers unions to shield them and muddy up the fight for reform, because it will also expose how bloated those services are  in the dispute.  Emotion will not win this battle, this time.

Listen to Glenn Beck explain the pension pyramid at about the 7 minute mark to understand the beginning of the problem.  Glenn Beck is 100% right when he says that these problems can only be sustained for one generation.  Politicians like Sheriff Jones and Bill Cunningham are part of that generation who voted for the whole thing, and it is difficult for them to admit to themselves that they brought us to this terrible crises.  So they defend their mistakes just like a person caught in a lie tries to justify what they’ve done.  But the facts are the facts. 

There is no question with 1.3 million signatures public union membership has tipped the balance of power perilously close to ending what the American republic was founded on.  When employees can vote themselves raises, which public sector unions have notoriously abused at the expense of the tax payer for years, even the big government President FDR himself cautioned us against it.  President Kennedy was the man who through executive order, made public sector unions legal, which should have never been done. 

Click here to read President Kennedy’s fatal error:

If you want to know the truth, of why these public sector unions want to maintain the status quo, all you have to do is follow the money. 

Click here to see what West Chester police and firefighters make, which is within Butler County, Sheriff Jones’s territory and FOP brothers, to see what they are protecting…………………

…………..go ahead, you want to know the truth don’t you.  CLICK HERE:

And Lakota, one of the largest schools in the state of Ohio also located in Butler County.   Why do you think the OEA wants S.B.5 repealed?  Go ahead, CLICK HERE:

It will take a very high voter turn out to protect Senate Bill 5.  Nobody is asking anybody to take a rifle into a field and defend their liberty from tyranny……….not yet.  You still have the opportunity to protect yourself from an ever-expanding government by simply showing up to vote.  The unions will certainly show up, because their income which they get exclusively from the tax payer depends on it.  So they will be there.  It must be expected that they will have almost 2 million voters who will show up and cast a ballot in November.  This is why it is dangerous to have too many government workers.  When they outnumber the tax payers, they can enact policies on their own at tax payer expense.  They can vote themselves raises, which is why they make so much money, and management is powerless to do anything about it, because Ohio Revised Code created under union lobby power has prevented management controls and driven up the costs.  

So in November, If you don’t see through the smoke and mirrors and allow yourselves to be conned, you will not only be responsible for higher taxes which will come your way in order to pay for all these elaborate public employee salaries and pensions as the system collapses on itself, but you will have turned away from an opportunity to march toward the America as it was intended to be in favor of an American headed in the direction of Europe.  And it will be your fault, because John Kasich along with the house and senate did exactly what they said they would do, and that is stare the problem in the eye and do the hard thing even when the status quo makes threats and harasses them. 

Click Here to read about how the SEIU threatened Ohio Senators in a restaurant, to attempt to threaten them into not voting in favor of S.B.5.  CLICK HERE!

They gave Ohio S.B.5.  The question is now, as a tax payer, do you have the courage to keep it?

Rich Hoffman

https://overmanwarrior.wordpress.com/2010/12/04/ten-rules-to-live-by/
http://twitter.com/#!/overmanwarrior
www.overmanwarrior.com

TAKE AWAY THE CREDIT CARD OF CONGRESS: Yes, Obama actually blamed the current congress for the debt crises

If you are concerned about the direction of this country, and want to contribute to the solutions, the first thing you should do while reading this article is give yourself the time and watch all these videos completely at least once.  Then take your time and let it soak in.   Then send this link to your friends in an email and spread the word. 

I started my Saturday morning like almost all of them, at 4:30 AM where I catch up on my reading, emails, news I missed, etc.  My daughter sent the a picture she took of herself before she and her friends went to see the new Harry Potter film on Thursday.  In the picture she is magically levitating all her favorite things, the mask her mom and I gave her from the Yucatan, a can of Coke, a toy of Yoshi, and her XBox controller.  Her picture was intended to be fun but it made me think of President Obama, how he seems to believe that everything can be solved with the wave of some magic wand.  I spent some time reviewing material from a friend of mine in Ann Arbor, Matt Clark who does a radio show on WAAM and was hitting some very good points on his podcasts about the federal problems with the debt limit, which can be heard below.  Then Darryl Parks of 700 WLW really impressed me with his dead-on take of the same situation.  I mean he nailed the situation precisely!  Listen to that here:

While I was listening to Darryl, I received an email notification by David Plouffe on his new blog post from the White House website.   View it for yourself:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/07/15/compromise-isn-t-dirty-word?utm_source=email121&utm_medium=graphic&utm_campaign=compromise

It told me to watch a video that President Obama did several months ago where he was sitting down with a group of students to explain the merits of compromise.  In that video I saw a man who shows what he is really good at, being a teacher.  And that’s where he belongs. 

What is happening in that video is The White House is trying to do damage control to the mess the President has created for himself.   They dusted off a video from a few months ago where the president is very likeable, and speaking honestly, and they released it today to build him up politically so he can establish consensus against the Republicans in this most recent budget battle.  What the video, and blog post is in essence is more of the same kind of politics that have buried this nation in debt with smoke and mirrors and side-show acts.  The facts cannot be ignored with emotion, which is what The White House is attempting on the heels of the very arrogant press conference given by the President yesterday. 

Did he really say that? Obama at the beginning of the press conference below said that congress had run up the credit card so the debt ceiling needs to be raised? What congress is he talking about, because that debt hasn’t been ran up in the last 6 months? How misleading…………………………

President Obama wants to raise taxes on the rich and he thinks that he is one of those “rich guys.” Twice in the President Obama’s speech Friday, July 15, 2011 he stated in his official statement regarding the debt ceiling negotiations “A person in my position,” as though the wealth he has he created himself. He thinks he is equal to all the job creators out there who actually take risks with their money to create an industry. There is a vast difference between a well paid politician like Obama, and a job creator, and he doesn’t understand that difference.

This tendency of politicians to believe that they are “special” in some way, or even equal to people who actually create jobs is preposterous. At Hollywood parties, which tend to lean toward the left politically, people like Steven Spielberg and Jeffery Katzenberg usually donate large sums of money to the presidential campaigns of people like Obama. And what they pay for with their donations is the ability to be close to the President. They get to sit up close in fund-raisers, and they get to shake hands with him, and usually get a picture taken with him.

Back in the 90’s Bill Clinton used to rent out the Lincoln Bedroom to his celebrity friends as a way to raise money for the DNC. The cost of that access is expensive. The problem is the White House is not the Presidents to sell, especially for political reasons. It wasn’t under Clinton, Bush, or Obama. The White House is the people’s house, and we let the President live there while they do the countries business.

One of the problems in America is this tendency of the rich and powerful, to desire to be close to a powerful politician. This doesn’t make any sense. Because the rich and powerful like Spielberg and others who create things from nothing, and employee thousands and thousands of people with their efforts are different from the politicians, and under no circumstances should have to pay to see their elected representatives.

America goes wrong by letting Presidents like Obama think they are royalty of some sort. When powerful people pay money to see a President something is wrong.

Could President Obama produce a film like Transformers? Could President Obama run a manufacturing facility? Could he even make payroll for the employees who count on him to make good decisions for their livelihood. No.

Obama should be the one to pay to see people like Spielberg. President Obama doesn’t make anything, he doesn’t do anything. He doesn’t even make decisions. Why do we honor him by throwing money in his direction? What does he have of any value but the title of President?

How valuable is the title of President?

It’s not valuable at all. It’s ceremonial, but otherwise virtually worthless. Politicians do not create jobs. Presidents don’t, governors don’t, no senators or congressman, none of them do. They are simply managers hired by the public to manage. They are not leaders. They are not lords, or elites. They are certainly not royalty. Anything they do make they take from a tax payer. It is not “they” who make it. It is someone else. The politician simply gives it away.

It is laughable that Barack Obama thinks that somehow he is equal or even superior to the other wealthy people he is calling for to pay the taxes he wants to increase. How hard is it for Barack Obama, who gets paid to do a management job, to ask for more money? The money comes easy to people like Obama now that he’s president. And like a lot of politicians, they have lost touch with reality because real money makers throw money at politicians hoping for a legislative favor later. That is because the politician has the power to legislate, to create new rules.

Those new rules are often the kind we don’t need. The politician makes legislation to pay back his contributors. Where the process fails is that the politician believes that there is value in their legislation. They begin to believe that they actually produce something, which of course they don’t.

Nobody should be idolized who creates nothing. Yet this is the culture of politics. When you shake the hand of one of these creatures, they almost seem to expect you to kiss their hand. They all sound like Barack Obama when he says, “I’m one of the elites. I’m willing to make the sacrifice. I’m not asking people to do anything I’m not willing to do myself.” They are willing to make that sacrifice because they didn’t earn the money to begin with. Everything they have has been given to them by someone else and they are like spoiled children who arrive at adulthood without a concept in their brains of the value of anything, because everything came easy to them.

It is easy for such valueless people to insist on more taxes because for them, all they have to do is agree to let Steven Spielberg take a picture with them and they generate millions of dollars. What they forget is that they are no different from the parent who pays money to have their child take a picture with Santa at Christmas, or the Easter Bunny. They are just props of authority that have symbolic meaning. They are employees in a costume and that costume can be taken off and put on another without the children being any wiser.

The President of the United States does not have a right to demand taxes for the rich. Nobody can even make a case for why tax payers should fund the current level of government. I’m looking for a tax cut, not a tax increase. How is the President taking money from me and giving it to some program that supports his political base my responsibility. That’s theft. All this talk about people paying their “fair share” is coming from the type of people who have no value and steal money from people to begin with, then tell us that the richest of all must pay more…………….for what reason, to pay for what? Medicare fraud, Social Security retirement benefits when the age of retirement is going to be going up for my generation to 70 perhaps 80? To pay for a Department of Education that is a complete waste of money, or an EPA that is driving up the cost of energy, a Department of Justice that is abusive and is picking winners and losers? What about the FCC who is advocating Net Neutrality. Why would I want my hard-earned money spent on any of that government waste? Why is supporting that waste my responsibility in paying my “fair share?”

Only a person who has no value for anything can make such requests. And President Obama is such a person. He’s a token representative of the same value as the guy we hire to play Santa Clause at Christmas time. The trouble starts when Santa starts believing that he actually lives in the North Pole and can circle the globe in a single night giving everyone presents. President Obama is suffering from his own delusions believing that he has such power and it is sadly revealing to hear him speak with an attempt at authority. Why doesn’t someone tell him he’s wearing the clown costume and is in a circus, and he’s only being laughed at. Because he doesn’t seem to know that’s what he actually is. He at least needs to understand the occasion that he’s entertaining for. Because his idea of raising taxes in even the slightest degree belongs in a carnival with the rest of the scams of a summer time festival complete with cotton candy, popcorn and hot dogs.

I hate to rub it in, because a lot of people in the establishment do not like John Kasich, who is the current governor of Ohio.  But you balance a budget doing what he has done, granted he’s not very popular, but then again most real managers aren’t. 

It doesn’t take magic, it just takes guts, and the will to do the hard things even when they may be unpopular, or hurt people’s feelings. The nation needs politicians to do what we hired them for, and that’s to manage the government, not think about how they can keep a job on the gravy train to the carnival.

Rich Hoffman

https://overmanwarrior.wordpress.com/2010/12/04/ten-rules-to-live-by/
http://twitter.com/#!/overmanwarrior
www.overmanwarrior.com

All About the Stacy Schuler Sex Case: Who’s responsible?

For all those who think that the Stacy Schuler case is about sex, or the advantage that young high school boys had in being able to have sex with a teacher, a representative of authority for the Mason School District, one of the most prestigious in all of Ohio, you are mistaken.  The Stacy Schuler incident which she has now admitted to being guilty, and is now trying to prove that she was insane when the offenses were committed, is all about the cover-up.  You can hear all about the Stacy Schuler case from 700 WLW. 

On this site I have an article that was published just prior to the levy attempt in 2010 of which Stacy Schuler was interviewed, promoting emotional health and well-being.  You can read that article here:  Just click to view. 

It is clear that the school district did not judge Stacy Schuler as insane otherwise they would have been reckless in their employment of her, and they certainly wouldn’t have let her give interviews as a school employee to help promote the good will of the school district and participate as a face of the school to the community.  Maybe that’s because her boss, George Coates the assistant principal was sexting her himself.  After all, how did nude pictures of him end up on her school computer?  Other students were aware of what was going on, and this behavior went on for quite a long time but nobody did anything about it.  The superintendent himself, Kevin Bright, left town to take a job up in Cleveland, as an assistant.  Why?  George Coates resigned from the Bahamas when he learned Stacy had been arrested, and now he is working down in North Carolina.  Why? 

There is more to the story than just a sex addict that was being taken advantage of by sex hungry football players.  The facts of this case are that Schuler has admitted to the offenses, they took place in her home, at least most of the time, possibly on school grounds at times, and more than one sex partner was involved at the same time on occasion.  The problem was, if Schuler was insane, inviting young men to her house to satisfy her sex addiction, then why did the school district allow Schuler to be a representative of the district?  Are they going to claim they didn’t know, because they did?  George Coates knew because he was involved in a relationship with Schuler while all this was going on.  The district knew Coates was guilty of involvement with Schuler when he resigned, yet they pretended that this was all an isolated issue. So the acts of Schuler were known by other students because word had gotten around that she loved sex, and those kinds of rumors don’t get around without administrators knowing about it. If the administrators didn’t know about it then they are completely incompetent to administer anything.  If they did know about it, then they are guilty of doing nothing about it, which is even worse.

So which is it?

The reason for the anger which has emerged around this issue is that people suspect that Stacy Schuler is pleading insanity because she is so guilty that she has no other choice.  But the anger runs deeper than that.  Apologists will argue that if young men want to have sex with a sex starved teacher then they should be able to.  But that’s not the issue.  What we pay for in a teacher, a professional, who will frustrate the efforts of sex hungry young men, which nearly every high school aged male student is, is a person who will instill value into their students.  For the school district to knowingly allow a teacher like Stacy Schuler to be in a position of power with these students and to allow them to use her for their own pleasure is not what the schools are selling as a service to the community. 

When we send a child to school, we expect an education of some degree. We also expect our kids to be safe.  When a school teacher invites students to her house for sex, and buys them beer so they are partially intoxicated while doing the act, and these arrangements are made at school, the school itself has failed to employee a suitable representative. 

It is the job of the school, when it finds out about these kinds of issues, to act on the safety and behalf of the students and the parents who send their children to the school.  Allowing a teacher to seduce the sexual whims of young boys who should be learning to conduct themselves properly in the care of the school is an improper use of resources.  If it is discovered that the teacher employed by the district is in fact insane, then she should have never been used as a spokesman for The Cronline magazine where the district used Schuler as an example of their bright staff.  Schuler gave a competent interview about physical and mental health of all issues.  Who would even imagine that within 9 months of that article this person would be pleading insanity on a sex case.  But the worst issue of all to me is that when George Coates, her boss and superior administrator didn’t try to help Stacy.  Instead, he wanted a piece of the action and helped perpetuate the behavior. 

I understand that these things will happen.  Humans are after all human.  But when we are told by school districts that we need to spend more money on education, because these hired professionals, who are teachers and administrators, know what’s best for our children, and all we have to do is pay more money, and all our problems will be solved forever, the facts are misleading. 

I expect out of the tax money we spend on schools to not have activity like this going on.  Is that too much to ask?  We have a teacher who was a star at Mason High School pleading insanity in a trial that involved students and administrators at that school.   This case is not about the sex itself, it’s about accountability and responsibility, and when the school district simply moves around some staff members to shove all the dirt under the rug, and spins the whole situation around to play themselves as a victim, my question is, who is responsible for this woman’s actions?  If not herself, if not her employer, then who?  Are we to believe the students of the school itself are to blame?  Who’s going to take responsibility, because a lot of money is spent on education, and results are expected.  Not what we are seeing in this case, which reveals much of what is wrong and why it must be reformed before it’s too late. 

This is not isolated to the Mason School System.  Lakota, the other big prestigious school in theCincinnatiarea had an even worse case during 2010.  Click here to read all about that incident which was successfully contained before the story swelled to the level the Stacy Schuler case has.

Rich Hoffman

https://overmanwarrior.wordpress.com/2010/12/04/ten-rules-to-live-by/
http://twitter.com/#!/overmanwarrior
www.overmanwarrior.com

Liberty Twp Tea Party Turns Two Years Old: The Rise of a New Guard

The evening July 11,2011 sun beat hard upon the converted barn at the Niederman Farm where the Liberty Twp Tea Party met to celebrate their 2nd year.  There have been a lot of battles over the last couple of years, and as we gathered for the pot luck dinner it was evident that there would be a lot more. 

As this meeting was taking place Obama and the local Speaker of the House John Boehner were battling over the budget and the debt ceiling.  Obama is approaching the negotiations as though various sides, Tea Party Republicans, moderate Republicans, Rhino Republicans, Blue Dog Democrats, Progressive Democrats, and far left radical Democrats all are committed to 100% of their particular positions, and must be prepared to give a little so everyone can agree.  As I scooped up some potato salad that my wife had made I wondered how a person like Obama could ever become president and even say such a thing.  There’s only one right answer, and the president is missing it.  There isn’t money for the programs his party have given away to buy votes.  That’s the bottom line folks.  All those various politicians have for years purchased votes using our tax money, and now those fools are stuck trying to explain why they’ve bankrupted the system. 

The people around me at this gathering are all there for the same reason, we recognize that the government has let us down and taken the nation on a path it doesn’t want to go.  Not everyone has come to that realization yet, because they still hope that somewhere, there is a magical golden egg that will be laid by some golden goose.  Increasingly, these elected representatives are being seen not as leaders, but as con artists and thieves who have stolen from each of us and sold us back bath water claiming it to be an elixir of life. 

While the various ceremonies of this event were going on the Lakota School System was voting for yet another school levy attempt literally right down the road, not more than 3 miles from our location.  In this meeting, everything that is wrong with the government can be seen in the microcosm of public education funding.  Public sector unions, politicians using their education support for votes, and school administrators hoping to use school boards as a political launch pad to become noticed by leaders of one of the two parties have bought into Keynesian economics, like the rest of the government, and they were wrong. 

When John Keynes introduced his Keynesian economics model from the ever-increasing socialist tendencies of the rest of the world, politicians saw an opportunity to exploit that model for their own accents to public supported power.  Keynes was wrong, and every system using it is failing, including schools.  The correct answer is not more of the same theory, but something else completely.  In schools, the task is to convert over to that system without destroying the opportunities of the kids and parents who support the school.  But in education, just like all things in government, the prices of labor, of the services created by labor, and the revenue which supports the entire foundation are artificially inflated, because competition is not allowed to kill off the waste, because government protects those enterprises.  This drives up the costs everywhere for everybody.  And presidents like Obama and school boards like what we have at Lakota, only know to close that inflated value with increased taxes.  They can’t understand any other option because their brains are not wired to accept anything else. 

At Lakota they are going for a tax rate that is less than what they’ve asked for in the past. This is consistent with President Obama’s comments to Speaker Boehner, “You can’t get everything you’ve asked for.”  In the minds of these people bending a little on their political position is what the process is all about. 

But it’s not.  There is only one right answer, not a mixed drink of many tastes.  With something like a budget deficit whether you’re talking about a local school district, or a Federal government, there is a way you got there, and to get out, you must do the opposite of what put you in that position.  That’s the only way.  If you spent a lot of money-making political promises that you didn’t have the authority to commit the tax payers to, or you are a school district that allowed a public sector teachers union to drive up your labor costs recklessly, then you have to admit that you were wrong, that you spent money that wasn’t yours just as a person addicted to gambling must admit that they have a problem before they can get help. You can’t throw more money at the addict, because they’ll never get better.  You have to take away their money so they can’t go to the casino anymore to throw away our money on some jackpot they hope will fix all their problems. 

As I sat among friends and family I thought about the worst issue in the news of them all, and that’s the case of the murdered little girl in Florida, the Casey Anthony trial where the mother appears to have accidentally killed her little girl with an overdose of chloroform and drove around Florida with the body in the trunk for everyone to smell the decomposing body.  The girl was a reckless young woman, and the prosecution went for the death penalty for the severity of the crime.  Last week, Casey was found not guilty; the jurors didn’t have the inner compass of morality to be able to pass judgment on a peer.  Society has lost their ability to judge. 

Most have anyway, except for the people having diner in a country barn with me on that hot July evening. Of American society, these people who the radicals advocating Keynesian economics, progressive global government without borders, and idealists who have never found their way out of the soviet fueled radicalism of the 60’s, those people call my friends here “teabaggers.”  “Teabaggers, meant to be a term of peer pressure, of insult, an attempt by those who are advocating evil openly, to keep society functioning with their eyes closed and hope that somehow their failed theories will somehow come true in the final hour, and if they don’t, they’ll be remembered for their compassion, and not as the thieves they truly are. 

I feel privileged that after two years, the Liberty Twp Tea Party is still here, and it’s growing.  And it refreshes the soul to partake in these events, as the aroma of barn yard animals and community prepared food mixes in a unique waltz of perpetuity.  Because this is how it was in the beginning, and this is the way of the American, to always be ready for a fight, to roll up the sleeves and eat well before a hard day’s work, or the battle that looms on the horizon.  Because only by the path of those in this barn, is the path to liberty and freedom.  And the only right answer in the entire nation is present on the tongues of those in attendance, because they are the last of their kind and Americais waiting for them to fix the nation that has been hijacked by tyrants of good intention.

Rich Hoffman

https://overmanwarrior.wordpress.com/2010/12/04/ten-rules-to-live-by/
http://twitter.com/#!/overmanwarrior
www.overmanwarrior.com

Lebanon Looters Strike Again: Notes from a progressive school board meeting

Matt Clark did an interesting program about Democratic Senators who believe that Tea Partiers don’t deserve constitutional rights.  This is indicative of how progressives think, and this same mentality finds its way into our local school board meetings. 

Recently a former school board member that speaks to me often gave me a report of what happened at her recent school board meeting in Lebanon.  She was particularly outraged, being that she has been a board member, and knows the kinds of things that go on behind the scenes.  This meeting, right after a levy failure that was very divisive showed that the district was proceeding with a business as usual approach. 

I enjoyed her comments so much that I’m putting them up here so others can see that their districts are going through exactly the same things.  School districts are all following the same directions, and will continue so long as they are funded blindly by well-intentioned tax payers that don’t care to dig into the real issues. 

_____________________________________________

What happened tonight was typical of every school board meeting.   No one sits on the board that represents the taxpayers.    There is absolutely zero negotiating going on.   All of the board members were “crying” about how bad they feel about having to make any cuts.   They managed to approve an entirely new contract.  (Remember they approved a one year contract at the April board meeting.)  Unfortunately, we did not receive a copy of the contract that was voted on tonight.  It did sound (by what they said)  identical to the ones being passed by every other district.  Direct orders from the OEA.  They didn’t even say if it was for one, two or three years.
 
The room was full of teachers and one Lebanon police officer.   It was disappointing that not one of the Tea Party members were there.  
 
They did vote to purchase some new history books that sent chills up my spine.   Red flags flying every which way.  I have been reading about the elimination of U.S. history being taught prior to the Civil War. (Nothing about the founders or our exceptional history.)  This is exactly what was approved.  Text for United States History:  “Reconstruction to the Present.” 
 
They didn’t list a grade level for the four books they approved.   They did vote to get rid of books that North said were “100 years old.”  I do know that they haven’t budgeted money for books for at least seven years.  Maybe more.    They built a new high school and elementary and never budgeted a dime for textbooks.
          
(Lakota has hired a new superintendent “that has super skills transitioning the district’s curriculum to the Global Integration Model.”  This curriculum is to prepare this country for the “New World Order.”   She is from Pickering and won a $10,000.00 check from the Jennings Foundation – Educators Retreat.    Many people in Pickering are not happy with Ms. Mantia.  I was hoping Mark North would announce that he was moving to Pickering, but no such luck.  I almost got up and told him that he should apply, but didn’t.
 
They said they were cutting costs in a three tier scheme due to the non-passage of the levy.   They have to figure some way to cut $6.5 million that the levy would have produced.   (I think this is per year.)  They said they already cut $10 million.  (Over what time period was not clear.)   Donna said that the administrators have not received a raise in four or five years.  She said, “Not one of them (board) wanted to do these cuts, but this is just where we are.” They all declared that they appreciated the staff so much and couldn’t have gotten this far without “the association.”  We need to there there as a community –  we’re very conservative.  We can’t do more.”
 
Chip asked how many students affected by the busing changes.  North had no idea. (Then why is this a necessary cut?)  Laura asked about the gifted and North said they were working on a “strategy” used in other districts in the area.  Something about “clustering.”   (They have their own language, Educationese.)  They do have a “Gifted Building Coordinator” so I guess they can keep this nebulous position . . . . . and voted to keep many others with supplemental pay.   In fact there were pages of additional duties that require supplemental contracts.   They really didn’t have any numbers.  Just threats and tears about the affect on “the children.”  it is so bad that the “per pupil spending will be less than Little Miami.”  Everybody will be affected.  Quote was, “Cutting deep into the muscle.”  “We have to address this.”  “To be honest with you, there was a lot of fighting and arguing with the administrative staff.”  “We have to make the best of it.”   The community has spoken.” Per North.
 
Stage I:  Cut four teachers.  (One math, one music, one elementary, one Spanish.)   $450,000.00 (Divide that number by four and tell me they are not overpaid.)
 
Stage II:  Bulk concessions by the LEA – Hard freeze on the base, step increase frozen (legal council provided information two weeks ago)
Allowed to provide for the staff – 3% pay reduction (no explanation on that one.)
Eliminate YMCA athletics
All forms to be electronic (saves paper)
15% reduction in supplies (counting paper clips)
Three gifted teachers go back into the classroom
Bus stops 1/4 mile and 1/2 mile  (for some in subdivisions)
Increase in “Pay to Participate” $250.00 per sport per student for high school and $175.00 for Jr. High
 
Phase II will cut $3M plus Phase I at $450,000 only equals $3.5 million so Phase III will be next. ????????  According to them they have a $5 Million reserve.  But they are talking about cutting $3 Million more.
 
I am sure we’ll be seeing some of these threats and more in the paper.   The reporter was there from the Western Star.    He was talking to the head of the LEA.
 
Sorry so many missed the fireworks.    You’d be so proud of your elected officials.     NOT!!!!!!!!!

__________________________________________________

I’m sorry people missed the fireworks too.  You can’t see the excitement unless you show up for these things.  All I can say is that it won’t fix itself people.  You have to at least show up to the fight. 

Rich Hoffman

https://overmanwarrior.wordpress.com/2010/12/04/ten-rules-to-live-by/
http://twitter.com/#!/overmanwarrior
www.overmanwarrior.com

Just Earn Less Money: The history of progressive insurance and power grabs

One of the things that has come up over the Obama Care debate, particularly in Ohio is that since the state requires mandatory automobile insurance for drivers in the state, than isn’t it natural for the state, and the government to force residents to purchase health care.

Anyone who wishes to argue the merit of Ayn Rand’s classic novel Atlas Shrugged will feel betrayed when the representative for the government arguing the constitutionality of Obama Care in front of Ohio’s 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati will find the shocking revelation admitted confidently that the way to get out of the mandate of buying insurance is to simply make less money. Doc Thompson explores this devastating view into the minds of a government looter in these action packed clips from the floor of the debate. Listen to that clip here:

The looters of the government, and to my view, most every employee in government is a looter, because they take from producers, so their entire value is contingent upon those of the producers, including those in law enforcement, have progressively robbed us all of freedoms in order to fill themselves over a long period of time. When in the late 1980’s Ohio made it mandatory to have automotive insurance in order to drive a car, people didn’t understand why I was so upset.

Making it a law to have every driver in Ohio have insurance seemed like a good idea. After all, it made sense from a legal point of view. If you wanted to drive a car, then you must show responsibility for the damage you could do on the road. This was an idea that started in Massachusetts in 1927 and progressively moved to most every state in the nation. To date, New Hampshire is the only state to not have compulsory auto liability insurance. Every other state has adopted the mandate.

The reason this was a bad thing is it created an oligopoly in the insurance industry, meaning insurance companies were guaranteed that out of every driver in the state of Ohio, the insurance companies were assured that all they’d have to do by way of competition was simply divide up all the residents in the state and compete with each other for those people. All drivers had to have insurance so choice was no longer an option. This of course drove up costs and was the intended goal of the insurance lobby in the state and nation. Under the umbrella of safety, a powerful organization used law enforcement to obtain for the insurance industry revenue literally under the force of law. The power behind the force of the law is imprisonment or the barrel of the gun so this was quite tyrannical legislation, which is why it upset me so much.

A few years later it became mandatory to wear a seat belt. At first it was only a finable offense if a driver were pulled over for another driving violation. But just a few years later, it became law that all an officer had to do was pull over a driver for not wearing a seat belt. It’s called the “Click it or ticket,” campaign. I discussed this in great detail in an article I wrote about Memorial Day weekend where there were driving check points that were citing specifically for seat belt violations.

It takes time, but since the very first person in the nation purchased auto insurance in Dayton Ohio in 1897 progressives and government looters have used such devices as insurance to propel their grabs for power.

Now, we see the same thing happening with Obama Care where the government is making a huge grab for power in dictating what people must and must not do. It is the ultimate first step to a complete loss of any kind of freedom envisioned by the architects of America. Obama Care was created on the backs of all the other progressive legal movements, such as the auto insurance mandates. And it’s all summed up in the words spoke on the floor of the testimony. “If you don’t want the manadate, then make less money.” In other words, produce less so you can qualify for assistance.

It’s no wonder welfare doesn’t work because like all government programs the philosophy is just the same, make everything affordable for the poor and do nothing to reward the producers. And if the government imposition is too great, then become a dependent. The failure is that government never seems to consider that if they create a society of dependents, who will do the producing?

Obama Care is laced with these infantile thinkers and looters of productive resources, and the truth is difficult to hear even among those with ears experienced enough to hear it. It is truly shocking to consider that the very people we employee to run the government are so devastatingly stupid that it is contemptible to even fathom as relevant behavior, yet it is.

Rich Hoffman
https://overmanwarrior.wordpress.com/2010/12/04/ten-rules-to-live-by/
http://twitter.com/#!/overmanwarrior
www.overmanwarrior.com

Laura Sanders: My answer to your waltz of words in The Pulse Journal

Just like many people didn’t want to believe that anything was wrong with Ohio State football, Jim Tressel resigned amid a wave of controversy.  Our statewide school funding issue isn’t far off from the Jim Tressel controversy where little white lies that is in the context of the program, insignificant, the evil is in the cover-up.  And with school budgets, the cover-up is in the contracts extorted by the teachers unions. 

The apologists were out again in this past week’s Pulse Journal.  Another letter attacking me was placed in that paper proving the vast intellectual deficiencies of a certain percentage of the population.  When reading these things I almost feel sorry for those people.  I mean how do they live?  How do they make decisions?  Surely they aren’t so mentally challenged, because if you read letters from apologists like the author of the editorial below, that is the only conclusion a person that can actually think would conclude. 

Before I tear this letter to pieces, read it for yourself.  It isn’t my intention to make these people feel bad, but they do it to themselves.  They vote after all, and it is through apologists like the author of this letter that the teachers union uses to propel their strategy, which has worked because people like me couldn’t believe that there are actually people who can’t think critically enough to see through the façade of deceit. 

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Teachers aren’t just educators

Dear Richard Hoffman: You can rejoice now that Lakota’s teachers have agreed to a three-year freeze in step raises and a much less comprehensive health care plan. Or, is that not going far enough? Oh, that’s right…you believe our teachers are overpaid, even though 100 percent have bachelor’s degrees, and 68 percent of those have master’s degrees. I guess with six-hour workdays and summers off, they really aren’t deserving, huh? Those daily lesson plans and graded papers must magically appear on their desks each morning. 

I have friends who are teachers, and let me tell you, they are worth every penny they earn. Not only are they educators; they are counselors, role models, mediators, chaperones and disciplinarians. They perform a balancing act every day in the classroom, having to be assertive yet compassionate; formidable yet sensitive; strict yet respectful.

Instead of recognizing the commitments to our children put forth by Lakota staff members, you, Mr. Hoffman, are spending all of your time blaming unions, threatening school board members and charging “overpaid” teachers with taxpayer abuse. Your arguments are weak at best, accusing school administrators and board members of mismanaging school funds when it is well-documented that Lakota only spent $9,806 per pupil during the 2009-10 school year — less than most other comparable statewide districts. As a matter of fact,Westervilleschool Superintendent Dan Good was quoted in a February 2011 article as saying, “We’re going to be looking at what’s going on in those communities (Lakota and Fairfield) that’s allowing them to keep those high ratings along with such a low-cost per pupil.”

Our school system relies solely on levies being passed so that our teachers can be compensated. The reason for Lakota’s continued success is because of our teachers. They should be lauded, not punished.    

Laura Sanders

LibertyTwp.

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Ok, where to start? There are so many problems with this letter.  First off, I am not spending all my time blaming the unions.  I spend about 2% of my time fighting taxes, which began about 9 months ago.  The other 98% percent of my time is quite productive.  Of the 2% of my time I do spend on fighting higher taxes, it is the reasonable conclusion that unions are to blame for the overall funding problems.  They didn’t give themselves any budget limits.  Unions aren’t any different from teenagers, if you give them a $100 dollars, they’ll want $200.  You can never give enough because the teenager hasn’t learned the value of money. They don’t value what comes easily.  And neither do union members.  As a producer, and a capitalist, I don’t like unions.  I don’t want my money supporting them.  I’m fine if they can exist in the free market, but they can’t.  They have succeeded in driving up wages to the point that China,India, and Indonesia are now doing jobs that used to be done in the United States.  I blame the unions for that.  Labor costs are the unifying factor in the overall manufacturing problems our country is facing.  I think people should be paid a fair wage, but if it’s excessive, and drives up the cost of the product to where the consumer won’t buy it, or simply can’t afford it, then the victor of that wage level negotiation is not the union that extorted the higher wage, because the union killed the job in the long run. 

This is what the teachers union has done to the cost of education.  They have driven up the cost without a care in the world to the end result.  Their solution to everything is simply to raise more taxes, which isn’t a successful formula for prosperity.  That mentality has run the Norwood General Motors plant out-of-town, it shut down Fisher Body in Hamilton.  In fact it has practically decimated the economy of Hamilton.  It drove up the costs at Cincinnati Milacron down in Oakley.  The list goes on and on and on.  Those were all production jobs, and most of that work is now out of the county. 

I’ve employed people who worked for AK Steel in Middletown, several of them that wanted jobs while they were on strike during their labor dispute that went on for over a year back in 2006-2007.  I learned a great deal about the hard union mentality from those employees, since AK Steel is one of those mob type unions where they actually beat-up people who crossed the picket line during labor disputes.  A lot of my local motorcycle friends in and around town are big time union types.  I have made my feelings known to these guys.  I have told them, “You wouldn’t have a boat, and you wouldn’t have a Harley Davidson parked in the garage if not for the union, because you guys are too stupid to earn that kind of money on your own.”

“We ain’t got those head smarts like you do, brother,” is what they say to me.  “Thank God for the union.”

“You’re working yourself out of a job with the wages you guys demand.”

“Just so long as it don’t happen till after I retire.”  (they typically laugh at this point.)

Teachers are absolutely no different.  They are like anyone else.  They believe their job is the most important job on the face of the planet.  It’s up to someone like me, (in management) to let them know that their job isn’t quite so important, that someone else can do their job, and the show will go on without them if need be.  It’s my job in management to not be liked, because nobody likes to be told they aren’t that valuable. 

But for a manager to know the value of a job, they need to know something about the job.  I’ve worked in just about every endeavor someone could imagine and I know how difficult teaching is.  To me, teaching is worth a range of about 40K to 60K tops, because it is a degree position.  But a master’s degree has no value to me.  A doctorate has no value to me, not in public education.  I just want kids to be able to read, write and be productive citizens.  If parents want all that other stuff they can hire a private tutor, or a private school, and make sure that kid gets to college.  It’s an insane law to pay 68% of the teachers at Lakota more money because they have a master’s degree.  What’s the value in that?  Does it make them better?  The union will tell you it does, so where are the results?  Where are the test results that prove otherwise?  There aren’t any, its pure speculation.  What do a master’s and doctorate degree do to justify higher labor costs? 

I know a woman who is going for her doctorate.  I asked her, “why is that so important to you?” 

She said to me, “I’m a professional student.”  At least she was honest.  This particular woman is the really cautious type.  She is the kind that will put her kids in a helmet when they are riding their bicycles, and in her professional life, she doesn’t care much for competition, so she enjoys the security and pace of academia.  I know personally, as I look down the list of the top 625 highly paid teachers at Lakota that many of those teachers fit the same description.  Only in government does their vision for reality work, because the tax payer picks up the bill. 

The only reason a lot of the laws that school boards are constrained with regarding school budgets exists, like the run-a-way labor costs mentioned with the master’s degree ratio are because the OEA lobbied to get laws passed that completely benefited them. 

It is insane to create policies that drive up your labor costs then turn around and continue to ask for more money from tax payers to fund them.  With as much money as I spend in taxes, I expect Lakota to be the greatest districts in the state.  But don’t be a fool and ask me to pay for infinite amounts of money for it.  That doesn’t make any sense.  At some point there’s a diminishing marginal return and we’ve hit that point. 

As to grading papers, what?  A teacher is under contract for 7.5 hours.  Grading papers if a teacher has to do it every single day shouldn’t take more than 4 hours per day.  So that’s a 11.5 hour day.  So what.  Why was such a statement spoke about as though it were something special?  I average a lot more than that per day. I’m on call 24 hours a day, and most of the time 6 days a week, or 7 if I have people working all weekend.  And I don’t have summers off.  I would expect any employee that I hired for over 40K per year to do everything said in that letter and more.  I don’t understand the emotion.  Is all that money needed to pay these employees and a pat on the back too required?  What kind of fragile people are these teachers that think such talking points even dictate special merit?  It’s expected! 

It is well-documented that Lakota only spent $9,806 per pupil, but so what.  That’s too high. How do I know it’s too high?  What criteria?  Well, if the district asks for more money for a levy, that means they aren’t working within their budget.  When the average tax bill in the Lakota School District is between $3000 to $4000 per year and the district is still asking for more money which does not mean Lakota has done a good job.  It doesn’t change anything if another district in the state thinks Lakota is doing well.  All that tells me is that education costs everywhere are too high.  The teachers union and the school board need to find a way to bring that number down to $8,000 per student, or even $6,000 per student.  If it were up to me, and I were running the district I wouldn’t be happy till the cost per pupil was under $5000.  We’re talking simply about labor costs here.  Not helping children. 

The union is solely responsible for pricing themselves out of the market.  It is unreasonable to ask tax payers to fund this ridiculous perception that these radical teachers union members have about their value.  Are teachers valuable, sure.  But they aren’t more important than the kid’s parents, and many of the traits listed are not the job of the teacher.   If they wish to be mentors, that’s the teacher’s choice.  If they chose to be counselors, role models, mediators, chaperones and disciplinarians, that’s fine. But they are paid to teach the basics.  I don’t want to hear about all those other traits, because those are the aspects of living that kids should be getting from their parents.  The union types will say that the parents are not doing the job.  Well, who are they to say?  Who are they to take it upon themselves?  Who are they to impose on the sanctity of a family?  Is it their job to impose on every parent the policing that only a fraction of truly bad parents deserve?  Is it justice to extend those traits outside the classroom, which is what a lot of teachers mistakenly believe they have an obligation to indulge in.  No, because all those tasks cost money, money that is inflated for a role that is overly dramatized in order to justify the money spent. 

So to answer the question, am I happy?  No, because the contract was a ploy to gain an edge with the public to over-turn Senate Bill 5.  It was not genuine; otherwise the union would look at the financial situation with more intelligence.  It would have advised its members to reduce their cost to the district.  They would have sought to make themselves more marketable. 

I was happy to see the superintendent and school board members happy for a change.  It was nice to see them feeling good about their jobs.  I did like that.  But I know what they don’t want to admit to themselves, because they are stuck dealing with that crazy union every day, that this concession is just another manipulative scheme orchestrated by the union. 

I see through this labor debate.  I have employees that constantly lobby for more overtime, raises, less work hours, you name it.  I’ve heard every over dramatized excuse in the human vocabulary for why an employee thinks they are valuable.  The trick is knowing which ones are telling the truth, and which ones aren’t. 

I hope to God that the author of this letter about me is not a teacher, but is in fact just another neurotic mother that is overly emotional about all topics in her life.  I really hope that’s the case.  Because if this person represents the kind of employees that we are paying over 60K per year, which is the average wage at Lakota, then we are wasting our money much worse than even I have pointed out. 

 I see from experience that the labor situation at Lakota needs to be dealt with, in order for Lakota to remain excellent.  Labor does not make a school great.  Management of resources does.  Lakota has shown that it can manage resources better than other schools, but that’s not enough if it is asking for more money.  If the state cuts it’s funding, if the federal government cuts its money, and there’s less money to go around, then the school needs to find a way to do more with even less.  It’s insane, and highly ignorant to assume that the tax payer will shoulder that responsibility directly.  I’ve heard it said that Lakota needs new sources of revenue.  Well, how’s it going to do that when it doesn’t produce anything?  The product is the education of children, and the results of that education have not placed the United States in first place in the world, so why would we spend more than what we’ve spent at this point?  Why should personal property taxes go up over $4000 per property, what is the value?  So a public teacher can take a 5K vacation on their 3 months off?  Isn’t that what it really comes down to?  Because if it wasn’t, the union would have been more responsible in what they demanded, and we are where we are because of the demands on the community.  When the school levy passed, it wasn’t asked for, it was demanded. 

In 2005 I fought the school levy back then too.  For all the same reasons.  The money kicked in during 2006.  As soon as the money hit the district, and the union knew the receipts were in from assessed property value, after owners paid their taxes, they threatened to strike in 2008.  The teachers union pushed its members to strike, to walk off the job.  I will never forget that.  The strike was over money.  As soon as positive cash flow was shown to the district because of the levy passing, the union went after the excess money.  That is the path that brought us to the financial situation we’re currently in.  It’s my money they want, and it’s my money they squandered away like drunken sailors. 

Unlike a lot of people who live in the district, I have lived in the Lakota district for a long time, and I plan to stick around.  And I have a great memory.  I know that these are people who are attempting to scam my neighbors and children that I genuinely care for.  And that’s bullying, it makes me very, very angry.  And I will not stand for it!

So you apologists can figure out where you want to be on this position, but remember, there isn’t any negotiation.  There is right and wrong.  I’m right, and those asking for more money are wrong.  And that’s the end of the story.  Live with it……get an education and learn a couple of things, then talk to me when you figure out that you agree with me.

 

Rich Hoffman
https://overmanwarrior.wordpress.com/2010/12/04/ten-rules-to-live-by/
http://twitter.com/#!/overmanwarrior
www.overmanwarrior.com

We are UNDER ATTACK: United Nations supporters show their cards in a strategy tax payers fund

We are continuing this policy in bleeding America to the point of bankruptcy. Allah willing and nothing is too great for Allah.
Osama bin Laden

Bin Laden is not the only terrorist that looks at the United States with jealous eyes, because in the US, the Constitution works better than any document for any nation in the history of the world, and those that wish to be kings, presidents and other leaders of eternal reputation desire as many parasites in world history have, to become the next great leader, and in order to do that they must destroy what the United States is to the rest of the world. Because in the United States the desire is freedom, not compliance to a leader, Americans don’t make very good subjects.

The following documentary was filmed in 1997. I ran across this information back then when I was a member of Ross Perot’s Reform Party. This video pre-dates the 9/11 Attacks, the George W. Bush presidency and the Obama Presidency. It predates the Tea Party, the 9/12 Gr…oups, it predates anything Glenn Beck has ever written or said. This video proves much of what Beck and many like him have been saying for a long time, America is under attack, but not with guns, but from economic terrorists. To understand fully where we are today, listen to the ghosts of the past as they speak a warning that was meant to be heard, but was ignored resulting in the crises we are currently on. The documentary is just under an hour, so go pop some popcorn, grab a nice beverage and make yourself comfortable……I’ll wait………………………………………………………………………………Go ahead…………………………..this is important…………………………………………………………

This video will show you how the green movement led by people like Al Gore, Bill Clinton, George Soros (not named in this video since he was still flying under the radar back then) were working for a power grab to strengthen the United Nations that is set to crush the United States through regulation and to redistribute wealth to the rest of the world and create power for themselves. It is interesting to see how the policies put in place over a decade ago have turned out to be true. The goal, as Osama bin Laden stated was to destroy the United States not with weapons, or direct occupation, but to drain America of its wealth, and therefore its strength by bleeding it to death to be resurrected under a UN flag.

We have seen through the NEA, (National Education Association; the national teachers union) that they have done their part in the last decade of adopting many of the United Nations policies. The radical teachers in both colleges and public education have been extremely well documented at this site. Just pick an article. We have also seen the activity of people like Bill Ayers, Cass Sunstein, Michael Moore and many other left-winged radicals acting just as dangerous as the terrorist who wishes to hijack a plane and run it into the symbols of America’s economic power, to undermine the United States in favor of a stronger United Nations to achieve their vision of a new world order constructed around liberal philosophy. We have seen in the wake of such devastating actions the radical undertone of American civilization that is actively seeking to bring down America as a nation from the inside through education, taxation, and regulation policy.

Many of those global rulers understand that the key to such a conquest is wrapped up in our entitlement programs such as Medicare, Social Security, and excessively high pay for public employees. They understood that by sponsoring entitlement programs they accomplish two things as a military attack strategy, they buy the votes of the American people who are all too willing to support politicians willing to give them something for literally nothing. This strategy then accomplishes the second thing which is put radicals into positions of power with the ability to influence legislation.

This has led to the current economic crises, which was created by design to place our nation exactly where it is. We all see it and are now concerned with the debt problems our nation is facing. Paul Ryan has figured out how to solve the problem, which can be seen here in his budget plan video.

However, the people who created this crisis will fight tooth and nail to prevent Ryan’s plan. These people want the financial crash to occur. They are not interested in positions of government in the United States. They are already maneuvering themselves for a position in the United Nations of tomorrow. Bill Clinton has already done his two terms as President of the United States, and he is one of the many that are currently lobbying to be the first President of the United Nations.

Programs created at the United Nations, just like local school levy issues, are done for purely the political capital of the politician and funded with the money they take from tax payers. That makes them simple looters by definition. In the case of the United Nations the United States is responsible for 22 percent of the United Nation’s regular budget, an amount that in 2009 was $598,292,101, according to a report from the United Nations Secretariat on member states’ contributions to the U.N. regular budget for 2009. So to put it simply, all the tax payers of the United States are funding our own destruction, and the rise of political power to those that seek to undermine our way of life and redistribute our resources where they see fit.

The intention established by the documentary at the beginning of this article is now nearly 15 years old, and much of what they said then has occurred right on schedule. But it doesn’t need to continue. Americans have the right and obligation to defend themselves from the elusive enemies that seek its destruction. America is the only hope for the greater good because it is the United States that is the only working model for freedom. The members of the United Nations are just as infantile as the local school boards, township trustees, kings, queens, and European nobility that simply want to make names for their worthless lives behind the plastic meaning of an engraved nameplate and an “important” position.
On July 4th 1821 John Quincy Adams explained America’s role in the world like this:

America goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own….She well knows that by once enlisting under other banners than her own, were they even the banners of foreign independence, she would involve herself, beyond the power of extrication, in all the wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy, and ambition, which assumes the colors and usurp the standard of freedom.

By the way, if you aren’t sure who John Quincy Adam’s is meet him here played by Anthony Hopkins in Steven Spielberg’s Amistad. The speech in this film sums up nicely the foundation principles of the United States. It is only in the United States that such speeches would be made and such thoughts considered. And if America is wiped away by a United Nations that it created, then such speeches will be extinguished for possibly centuries, maybe millenniums until the courage to create a new America can rise again.

And rise again freedom will. It may not be on the continent of the United States, it may be in China, or Russia, or Australia. It may even be on a star ship headed for some distant plant by some future humans on a quest for freedom, because such quests are forever in the minds of man. And the only place it truly has ever existed is in the United States, and this is the source of the world jealousy, and the target of tyrants who wish to prove to their subjects that the mighty America can be brought down.

America still has freedom, but we must fight to keep it, because the effort to get it back again will look like these battle scenes. This is how badly people are willing to fight for freedom once they’ve lost it.


This is the Europe that has been striving to suppress freedom for ages and freedom has attempted many times to overcome it.

Freedom is an elusive quality that a majority of mankind strives for, but only a few have the courage to protect.

In this current fight, where foreign invaders are using the greed and ineptitude of our own public servants to destroy American culture, it is not required to gather up your arms and fight in battle. Not yet. What is required in this battle is to beat the enemy the way they have been beating us, with economics.

Take away the funding to such organizations. Watch where your taxes are spent and turn off the supply that feeds those organizations so that they may dry up and die away, and retreat to a place where they are no longer a threat to our national sovereignty. In this day and age, the vote and your tax money are far more powerful than the bullet from a gun.

So use your taxes and vote, so actual bloodshed isn’t required later. Use them now while you still can. Cut the funding, kill the threat. Keep funding them, and you will lose your freedom. It’s that simple.

 

Rich Hoffman
https://overmanwarrior.wordpress.com/2010/12/04/ten-rules-to-live-by/
http://twitter.com/#!/overmanwarrior
www.overmanwarrior.com