Category: National Debt

S.B.5 My Testimony to the Senate: Protests Erupt but only one side is right

February 17, 2011 marked the third day of testimony in Columbus over Senate Bill 5. It has been a contentious debate, but the facts are all on one side. The union influence is centered completely on emotions and clinging to the past and they can’t argue any facts of a financial nature. Most of the people promoting the bill are people of reason, thought, business sense and tea party supporters. Doc Thompson covered the issue live as the protests escalated prior to testimony. If you want to hear the facts, Doc lays them out there for your convenience at around the 10 minute mark.

Below is my own testimony for the record that I’ll include here in its entirety. It can’t be stressed enough how important this bill is to Ohio and the future of our financial strength. As the union groups attempt to fluff their feathers to appear larger than they truly are while real working people continue on with their jobs, too busy to attend such protests, feel free to make your voice in favor of this bill known by sending your support to Senator Bacon at the email address displayed.

2/17/2011

kevin.bacon@senate.state.oh.us

Senator Kevin Bacon
Ohio State Senate
Columbus, OH

Re: SB 5 – For the Record

During the year of 2010 I was heavily involved in a resistance group to oppose the requested levy increases by the school district of Lakota, from South Western Ohio located in Butler County.

There are many reasons that I can see for the implementation of a collective bargaining reform bill such as Senate Bill 5. It is obvious to me and many of the voters that participated in defeating the Lakota Levy on both 2010 occasions that unions under the collective bargaining bill of 1983 have done what they accused business of doing, and that is acting greedily and knowing no limit to the impositions of their demands. Nor did they show any sign of caring what the cost off those impositions where to the tax payer. The result has been an unfair system that has formed between the public sector worker and the tax payer.

My focus of this testimony is on what I consider to be the most pertinent of the many benefits of S.B.5 and that is the elimination of “step increase” as a hidden cost that is deceiving communities all across Ohio. As much of the talk from Fire and Police Unions has centered on their lack of ability to strike, teachers can, and do. “Step Increases” are an ominous appeasement to those potential strikes that is largely hidden from the eyes of tax payers.

In October of 2008 the LEA (Lakota Education Association) threatened to strike and staged a demonstration against the school board. Their reasons for the strike were increased wages and benefits. In the small hours of the morning on the final day of contract talks a settlement was reached, and the LEA achieved its objective.

Two years later Lakota had an operating budget of $160 million dollars even with the declining revenue imposed under the Strickland Administration which favored allocation of state funds to poorer districts. Lakota saw a decline in state funding but through their property taxes, which saw approximately $11 dollars per $1,000 in home evaluation going directly to the schools, still maintained the large budget mentioned.

In the spring of 2010 again the LEA was pushing for a renewed contract and threatened to strike. They did this just months before a new levy request was being placed on the ballot in May. This was a reckless enterprise on their behalf and showed incredible arrogance in an economy that was already weakened. The residence of the Lakota District easily defeated that levy in May.

By August the LEA had announced that they would take a “pay freeze” in order to work with the school board on bringing down their costs as the announcement came from that same board that another levy attempt would be coming in November.

As I looked at the financial situation I realized that the reason the Lakota District was in trouble was because nearly 80% of their budget allocation was tied up in salaries and benefits, so it was obvious to me that the LEA should renegotiate their contract to fit the needs of the community. The average salary of a teacher at Lakota had been during much of 2010 $59,000 per year. As the new school year started that fall, those salaries on average had crept up to $62,000, and this was a baffling statistic. After all, the LEA had just agreed to a pay freeze.

I had loosely understood what “step increases” were but didn’t really give it much thought as to the impact on community budgets. I learned through the campaign that fall how devastating they truly are to financial forecasts. The reason is that often communities only consider the finances of their local districts. They don’t concern themselves with the affairs of their neighboring districts. However, the teachers unions do. The LEA is an arm of the OEA (Ohio Education Association) and they do have a statewide strategy that they impose district by district. It’s a game communities have been unaware was occurring, until now.

Knowing the game was larger than just the situation at Lakota I took my story to WLW radio in Cincinnati and engaged in many debates on the air hoping to get input from school districts around the region, and that’s how I learned about the terrible cost and manipulative nature of “step increases.”

As the facts that are known to many of the law makers that have graced Columbus for many years became apparent to me and a small army of tax protesters that were gathering in Southern Ohio and pockets all over the state, it became evident that communities were being selfishly misled intentionally and action would be needed to return real management power to the district where we elect members of the community to manage our resources.

School Boards under the current system have no choice but to just keep asking for increases in funding because they are so constrained by legislation lobbied and secured by the same forces that have collected themselves to protest this bill S.B.5 and the people who fund this activity have been manipulated and outright lied to regarding the intentions and motives of collective bargaining agreements.

This education funding issue that has plagued Ohio for decades is an unsustainable path, and collective bargaining is at the heart of the problem. I have planned to stand in the way of every single levy initiative for every district that wants my help until true reform is initiated from our State Representation. I consider any further property tax increases for any district in Ohio to be as good as throwing money on a fire. The money will not go to improving test scores for kids, or making children more comparable to students in the international stage. The entire nation is seeing the same story from its public education system, and it has failed in its current form. No amount of union rhetoric can hide that fact now. A majority of the voting public is now ready to admit it to themselves. Putting this bill on the table for discussion is a bold move by this legislative body and hopefully is a sign of things to come, for I do not believe if S.B.5 goes far enough. Many, many reforms will need to be implemented to give the State of Ohio the competitive advantage it needs to step out in front of the nation in education.

There are programs available that could save the State of Ohio a lot of money and make it a premiere state of education reform in the country. Representative Bill Coley from my district has started that process in the last session of congress with a technology bill which allows students to use technology to greater effect, and take away some of the “brick and mortar” costs imposed on school districts currently. There is also “School Choice” which is a phenomenal program utilizing all the best traits of competition to make education better, that will trickle down to the culture of the children attending those education systems.

But all those programs will take courage and they start by dealing with the type of resistance organized by groups like SEIU who have flown in protestors to lobby against this bill. They are applying their work to Wisconsin also where the governor there is also trying to reform their collective bargaining issues, only to be degraded as the villain from the Austin Powers films.

Such actions have taken our state through the collective bargaining process to extort millions of dollars from the intended target of those dollars and it has been to a loss of the entire state not only in being disingenuous to the tax payer, but to the competitive nature of the state as a whole. Over the next decade, the states which become swifter or most innovative will become the guardians of prosperity. Collective bargaining is a failed system that does nothing but help the people on one side of that bargaining, which leaves everyone else feeling depleted and used.

Innovation in most every category is available to Ohio ripe for the picking. But we have to have the courage to reach beyond the fence of collective bargaining to pick our harvest and unleash the true potential that resides among the true labor of Ohio.

Thank you for your service.

Sincerely,

Rich Hoffman

…………………………………………………………………………..

Now, have a look at the below video and compare the union comments to what you heard from Doc Thompson above and make a decision on your own. I can speak for myself; I support completely Governor Kasich and the Senators that stand behind Senate Bill 5. We can no longer afford to allow emotion and luxury to govern our actions.

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

Even Presidents Break the Law: The cost of not having value.

It never ceases to amaze me that the immigration issue isn’t a clear-cut issue. The Arizona law SB1070 was an attempt by Arizona to get its problems under control. Yet, when it was enacted the violent reaction to it by portions of our demographic society was alarmingly coordinated.

For all the advocates of “open borders” they are quick to call people like the man in the video below as a “conspiracy theorist” or a “radical” because that man sees that it’s wrong to not have a border that is enforced with some authority. And he is angry that the federal government had the audacity to initiate legal action against a state, just for trying to protect its border from another country.

Anyone that has went to an exclusive nightclub, or a restaurant or even the latest and greatest ride at your local amusement park understands that good things often have a line. Good things come to those that wait. When someone works hard for something they often appreciated it.

Let me use another example. Sex used to have more value when women made men work for it. We live in a society that has cheapened everything, so it is difficult for people to see clearly the issue of border enforcement.

It is also difficult for people to understand that the Federal Government has no right to “sue” Arizona for even writing such a law as SB1070. Doing such a thing is a clear violation of the 10th Amendment. Look at this video that I did with some friends of mine to explain the Tenth Amendment. I’ve put this video on another blog, but felt I should repeat it here in the context of the Federal Government imposing itself upon Arizona.

Over the summer of 2010 I interviewed Sheriff Jones of Butler County, Ohio who has been trying to convince Ohio to enact similar legislation as Arizona’s SB1070. He has gone so far to explore the possibility of suing the entire country of Mexico for the terrible cost it imposes on the United States. Why? Well, I’ll let the Sheriff explain it himself.

The ideology of the more liberal of America’s population want the border issue cheapened, which is why they are so upset that people like Sheriff Jones, and states like Arizona that are trying to bring value back to what being an American Citizen is.

If only all people would see that being an American should have continued value, and advocating a one world “Open Society” is a foolish enterprise. Making something less valuable so that other places won’t seem so bad is a terribly naive strategy.
And it’s not only bad policy, but it’s technically illegal. The danger is the parties involved in forcing Arizona to back off SB1070 are doing so with the assumption that they can actually bend the will of law to their philosophy through the coercion of imposed case-law.

What brought all this to my mind is that Ohio is about to implement S.B.5 which will end collective bargaining in Ohio, and the behavior of “progressive groups” are already attempting to apply pressure in order to maintain the years of coercion they have imposed on the state through legislation, which is bankrupting the state. And now that the state is trying to get things under control, the forces of power are showing themselves.

It’s important that Americans understand what their rights are and how things are supposed to work. Because there are groups that will manipulate the truth to suit their own selfish needs, or political ideology and they’ll do it without any regard for the law.

SB1070 proves that not even the President of the United States is immune to such an act. And for that we should all be extremely cautious.

Rich Hoffman

https://overmanwarrior.wordpress.com/2010/12/04/ten-rules-to-live-by/

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

The End of America, an interview of Porter Standsberry: and why S.B 5 is so important

Porter Standsberry had a great interview with Darryl Parks on 700 WLW. Standsberry has been accused of conspiracy theories and fear mongering. But in my experience those accusations come from people who can’t or don’t want to fathom the possibility of financial collapse in the United States. Listen to that great interview here:

Here is Porter Standsberry’s video referenced in the interview.

The State of Ohio is making a move to deal with its own 8 billion dollar deficit without even considering the possibility of a collapse of the US Dollar. Just last week Senator Jones introduces S.B 5 which will help the state deal with escalating labor costs and hidden raises called “step increases” which are currently entwined in Ohio Revised Code, and makes school boards powerless to control their finances. The opposition to that bill however reveals the same type of people who call Porter names like “tin hat” and they are the same people that make fun of Glenn Beck. They’ve even tried to say the same thing about me when I’m looking directly at the numbers and reporting them on the radio. Those powerful groups cry out not to look or listen to those conspiracy theorist.

Listen to this interview of Speaker John Boehner by Bill Cunningham of 700 WLW. John is my congressman and lives down the road. He’s a good guy that is in a unique position. Listening to him speak here gives me some hope that he’ll get his arms around some of the problems Standsberry is talking about.

But as all these cuts are made, the groups that currently are funded by those dollars on the chopping block will wail in pain, and they’ll make it sound as if their world is falling apart. We’re already hearing the cries from S.B 5, and this is just the tip of the ice berg as to what will be cut in 2011 in order to stay ahead of the problems we know are coming.

Check out this link to see the debt clock currently.

http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/

The best way to describe the situation of powerful interests screaming with all the air their lungs can hold and pointing to visionaries that are proclaiming that there is danger just ahead, or the promise of a new world just around the corner, I resort to one of my best friends, literature.

Plato has the best explanation I’ve ever heard of this matter, from his book The Republic. He has a metaphor called The Allegory of the Cave. The text below is from the website: http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/platoscave.html
Plato

Book VII of The Republic

The Allegory of the Cave

Here’s a little story from Plato’s most famous book, The Republic. Socrates is talking to a young follower of his named Glaucon, and is telling him this fable to illustrate what it’s like to be a philosopher — a lover of wisdom: Most people, including ourselves, live in a world of relative ignorance. We are even comfortable with that ignorance, because it is all we know. When we first start facing truth, the process may be frightening, and many people run back to their old lives. But if you continue to seek truth, you will eventually be able to handle it better. In fact, you want more! It’s true that many people around you now may think you are weird or even a danger to society, but you don’t care. Once you’ve tasted the truth, you won’t ever want to go back to being ignorant!

________________________________________
[Socrates is speaking with Glaucon]

[Socrates:] And now, I said, let me show in a figure how far our nature is enlightened or unenlightened: –Behold! human beings living in a underground den, which has a mouth open towards the light and reaching all along the den; here they have been from their childhood, and have their legs and necks chained so that they cannot move, and can only see before them, being prevented by the chains from turning round their heads. Above and behind them a fire is blazing at a distance, and between the fire and the prisoners there is a raised way; and you will see, if you look, a low wall built along the way, like the screen which marionette players have in front of them, over which they show the puppets.

[Glaucon:] I see.

And do you see, I said, men passing along the wall carrying all sorts of vessels, and statues and figures of animals made of wood and stone and various materials, which appear over the wall? Some of them are talking, others silent.
You have shown me a strange image, and they are strange prisoners.

Like ourselves, I replied; and they see only their own shadows, or the shadows of one another, which the fire throws on the opposite wall of the cave?

True, he said; how could they see anything but the shadows if they were never allowed to move their heads?
And of the objects which are being carried in like manner they would only see the shadows?

Yes, he said.

And if they were able to converse with one another, would they not suppose that they were naming what was actually before them?

Very true.

And suppose further that the prison had an echo which came from the other side, would they not be sure to fancy when one of the passers-by spoke that the voice which they heard came from the passing shadow?

No question, he replied.

To them, I said, the truth would be literally nothing but the shadows of the images.

That is certain.

And now look again, and see what will naturally follow if the prisoners are released and disabused of their error. At first, when any of them is liberated and compelled suddenly to stand up and turn his neck round and walk and look towards the light, he will suffer sharp pains; the glare will distress him, and he will be unable to see the realities of which in his former state he had seen the shadows; and then conceive some one saying to him, that what he saw before was an illusion, but that now, when he is approaching nearer to being and his eye is turned towards more real existence, he has a clearer vision, -what will be his reply? And you may further imagine that his instructor is pointing to the objects as they pass and requiring him to name them, — will he not be perplexed? Will he not fancy that the shadows which he formerly saw are truer than the objects which are now shown to him?

Far truer.

And if he is compelled to look straight at the light, will he not have a pain in his eyes which will make him turn away to take and take in the objects of vision which he can see, and which he will conceive to be in reality clearer than the things which are now being shown to him?

True, he said.

And suppose once more, that he is reluctantly dragged up a steep and rugged ascent, and held fast until he ‘s forced into the presence of the sun himself, is he not likely to be pained and irritated? When he approaches the light his eyes will be dazzled, and he will not be able to see anything at all of what are now called realities.

Not all in a moment, he said.

He will require to grow accustomed to the sight of the upper world. And first he will see the shadows best, next the reflections of men and other objects in the water, and then the objects themselves; then he will gaze upon the light of the moon and the stars and the spangled heaven; and he will see the sky and the stars by night better than the sun or the light of the sun by day?

Certainly.

Last of he will be able to see the sun, and not mere reflections of him in the water, but he will see him in his own proper place, and not in another; and he will contemplate him as he is.

Certainly.

He will then proceed to argue that this is he who gives the season and the years, and is the guardian of all that is in the visible world, and in a certain way the cause of all things which he and his fellows have been accustomed to behold?
Clearly, he said, he would first see the sun and then reason about him.

And when he remembered his old habitation, and the wisdom of the den and his fellow-prisoners, do you not suppose that he would felicitate himself on the change, and pity them?

Certainly, he would.

And if they were in the habit of conferring honors among themselves on those who were quickest to observe the passing shadows and to remark which of them went before, and which followed after, and which were together; and who were therefore best able to draw conclusions as to the future, do you think that he would care for such honors and glories, or envy the possessors of them? Would he not say with Homer,

Better to be the poor servant of a poor master, and to endure anything, rather than think as they do and live after their manner?

Yes, he said, I think that he would rather suffer anything than entertain these false notions and live in this miserable manner.
Imagine once more, I said, such as one coming suddenly out of the sun to be replaced in his old situation; would he not be certain to have his eyes full of darkness?

To be sure, he said.

And if there were a contest, and he had to compete in measuring the shadows with the prisoners who had never moved out of the den, while his sight was still weak, and before his eyes had become steady (and the time which would be needed to acquire this new habit of sight might be very considerable) would he not be ridiculous? Men would say of him that up he went and down he came without his eyes; and that it was better not even to think of ascending; and if any one tried to loose another and lead him up to the light, let them only catch the offender, and they would put him to death.
No question, he said.

This entire allegory, I said, you may now append, dear Glaucon, to the previous argument; the prison-house is the world of sight, the light of the fire is the sun, and you will not misapprehend me if you interpret the journey upwards to be the ascent of the soul into the intellectual world according to my poor belief, which, at your desire, I have expressed whether rightly or wrongly God knows. But, whether true or false, my opinion is that in the world of knowledge the idea of good appears last of all, and is seen only with an effort; and, when seen, is also inferred to be the universal author of all things beautiful and right, parent of light and of the lord of light in this visible world, and the immediate source of reason and truth in the intellectual; and that this is the power upon which he who would act rationally, either in public or private life must have his eye fixed.

If you didn’t understand the literary explaination feel free to watch this video:

The union leaders and politicians are in many cases identical to the masters in the cave which have learned to identify the shapes on the wall and developed the ability to predict their comings and goings. In that world they are the masters and they have no desire for the truth which the visionary can report. That’s what I see in the faces of these protestors, a clamoring to ignorance in favor of their feeble grip on power. Many of them would rather stayed tied to a stake with their heads faced in one direction, yet masters of their one useful skill than knower’s of the truth, able to turn their heads and see what makes the shadows, because once that happened, they’d no longer be masters. Most ignorant people will trade freedom for power, and that’s what resistance to budget cuts represents. That’s why I despise unions and the cost they impose on civilization.

As for the financial information, attack your personal situations boldly and with intelligence. And when someone tells you what’s causing the shadows, you should listen.

Rich Hoffman

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

Collective Bargaining by the Numbers: The impact on state budgets

Here is some video from the House Floor involving Senate Bill 5.

Should these union employees be upset? No, public sector jobs have for a long time been immune to the economic pressures imposed on the communities that must pay for them. Over the last decade taxpayers have watched a majority of the public sector jobs, particularly teachers, police officers, and others outpace their own wages. And with the union contracts strain on budgets, management has their hands tied on how to deal with the issue, when it’s discovered that the contracts are too costly.   What’s happened is because nobody was able to manage the run-away increases in wages and step-increases, costs have exploded, making it very difficult for taxpayers to fund the expectations created by collective bargaining. Look at these figures below to understand the problem.

Source Page for data:  http://sunshinereview.org/index.php/Public_v._private_sector_salaries

There is no question that employees of the public sector have been promised great pay, benefits and security well into the future.  But what has happened is they were lied to by their unions that recklessly negotiated contracts then prevented any sort of management of those contracts by the taxpayer.  And this is why Senate Bill 5 is needed, to bring balance back into the equation of budget allocation.  Because what these charts show is that left to their own devices public sector unions will take everything they can get, and have become what they accused big business of being, and that’s a greedy entity seduced by power, and not caring what the impact to the tax payer is, so long as they get what they want. 

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

Senate Bill 5 and Francis Fox Piven: Rise of the Entitlement Culture in American History

As I’m writing this article, Senate Bill 5 is making its way through the legislature of Ohio. Listen to Doc Thompson speak to Ray Warrick of the Mason Tea Party from Warren County talk about the courageous bill proposed by Senator Shannon Jones.

Senate Bill 5 will start the process of taking the shackles off the State of Ohio that confine it by collective bargaining. The rhetoric provided by the sector of the population that is “addicted” to collective bargaining which has grown in influence since 1983, so long that many of those people don’t know any other form of life, is sickening. So sickening it makes me question completely the validity of public education, because these people didn’t learn the basics of American life. Their basic premise seems to be that if you can get a job, have a union protect that job for your life-time, then they are willing to sacrifice a life-time of freedom for some mundane “average” life. I personally find their view of the world repulsive and un-American. What I see in those crowded halls of protest at the State House is a group of people protecting their right to be “average.”

It’s no question that “average” people are attracted to collective bargaining agreements negotiated by unions. I made decisions in my own life to avoid such confinements. I’ve spoke often about unions being too similar to “tribal councils” and that isn’t something that’s attractive to me at all. I’m the type of person that would never listen to some “old man” who is the “chief” of a community like Native American nomads had, or exists in many countries to this day, particularly in Africa. I’m also the type of person that would never have found peace in Europe, even to this modern day, because they have kings, and queens, nobility and all that nonsense that I have no value for.

America was founded by people that wanted to be free of that kind of thing, and the Constitution reflected their view of what America should be based on the ideas at the end of the 1700’s. The Constitution worked and America quickly became a place of prosperity. So more moderate Europeans came to America to get on the good thing that was happening here, but they brought with them a certain love for Europe, and the new ideas bouncing around involving Marxism. So around the turn of the 20th century progressivism, rooted in a European love for status symbols and ruling classes penetrated the Republican Party through Teddy Roosevelt wanting revenge on President Taft, which split the party, and through Woodrow Wilson of the democrats. It was in this progressivism that many of our ills in American Government started.

Old college professor hippies such as Francis Pivan, who has spent her entire life perpetuating progressivism is upset at the countries sudden desire to turn back to the Constitution, now that we know we’ve been scammed by people like her for decades.

Pivan is an old lady but she was around in the early days of all this change and she’s always been active in politics. And she opened herself to these name calling tirades when she said. “The strange stories that Glenn Beck creates with his chalkboard gain traction with Americans, who are made anxious by the large changes that have overtaken the United States, including the election of a black president and the increasing racial diversity of the population, deindustrialization and the decline of American power abroad, as well as cultural changes in sexual and family norms.”

Well, of course Americans are upset. Americans, because they are self-reliant or at least have a desire to be, don’t work well in groups. Collective behavior is however an innate instinct and public education goes a long way to developing that behavior, and progressivism has used public education and higher education, through professors like Pivan to apply their philosophy using the peer pressure of group acceptance. America has watched the experiments of these mad progressive social scientists and we did it with an open mind. We don’t like the Frankenstein monster they’ve created. We don’t like the breakdown of sexual and family structure, the deindustrialization and decline of American power abroad because it makes us less safe at home. We were used by the hippie movement to accomplish worse than the ravages of war right under our very noses while we watched with open eyes, but minds that refused to register the audacious lack of respect of progressives for what America is. You hear how proud she is of those accomplishments in her quote. This is a woman that associates with Bill and Hillery Clinton. Bill being the same man that had “sexual relations,” lied to a grand jury, and told us to our face that he wasn’t doing that. These are scam artists that have taken advantage of America’s good nature and preservation of freedom.

Now why are so many teachers subscribers to progressivism? Is it a conspiracy? No. It is a strategy that was implemented from the early days. Teachers need college to get their certificates and people attracted to progressivism became professors in college, so recruitment and training is that simple. Not all of them, but in general, that’s how it happens. These elitist of progressive values have a disconnect between the world in academia and the real world the rest of us live in. I’ve worked with and met many people that have gone through public education and college without become a bunch of brainless hippies. But the weak ones, the people who aren’t firm in their beliefs, or come from families that have strong moral foundations, they are seduced by people like Pivan.

Union leaders are made up of the same kind of stuff as Pivan. Many of them learned from her strategies and other left-winged pundits, and people attracted to unions tend to be happy to trade their free-will for financial security. For these people government officials are our “leaders,” because they see themselves as sheep in need of a shepherd.

So when Pivan rationalizes Glenn Beck and people like him, that have for a long time bounced around in society scratching their heads and wondering why everything is so screwed up, and says they are just paranoid, dumb people that are racist, homophobes, it makes a guy like me very, very angry, because I’ve always been one of those guys that questioned the validity of everything told to me, even religious ideology. I have lived my whole life avoiding groups, pack mentality, even jobs that were very high paying because they would limit my freedom. I recognize no person on this planet as my leader. Only myself.

That’s why it disgusts me to see groups like Progress Ohio say the same type of demeaning terms as Pivan is using to demean everyone questioning her philosophy. See, here’s the thing, people attracted to herd mentality are the ones not very intelligent. And America as independent loving people have allowed the radical left to capture the intellectual ground. But in reality, they are a simple minded group. That’s why they like to break things down to little terms that are easy to understand, like “right winged bloggers,” “cutting taxes for the rich,” “taking rights away from workers,” and that kind of elementary rhetoric. The reason is to get people moving in the direction they desire.

Ross Perot was using charts and boards on TV to show people the same kinds of things that Glenn Beck is using now. Beck isn’t the first to do it. But Beck is a guy able to think outside the box, and he’s not alone. There are millions out there that can too, but Beck has been given the opportunity to have a TV show, write books and talk on the radio. And he is on a personal crusade that exempts him from corruption. He’s had his fall, and he’s rebuilding himself. Put those things together and you have Glenn Beck, and what a great gift. He’s using his ability to see, and his good fortune to help make things better.

But when I watch Glenn Beck I’m not watching my leader. Quite the opposite. I usually am thankful that he’s saying things I’ve always wanted to say, but didn’t have a platform to speak from, because people like Pivan, left-winged radicals, sit in positions of power within the entertainment industry and keep voices like mine on the side-line and on the radical fringe because they control the radical fringe. They control the definition of what is radical because they control the media devices. Again, that’s not a conspiracy theory. It’s been a long slowly growing tendency that filtered through our education institutions and has brought us to the place we’re at today. Americans are looking around and we don’t like the poor qualities of our youth. We don’t like our complacent government. We don’t care if the president is black or yellow or blue. We don’t look at the president as our leader! And for the record, I would have voted for Alan Keys for president in less than a second, but nobody supported him when he wanted to run, because he was a conservative, not a progressive.

The things old lady Frances says are tired old commands that a cowboy might yell out at a cow that migrates away from the herd. Progress Ohio, the OEA, NEA, SEIU and thousands of other organizations want to be our shepherds, and I want them off public funding of any kind. This is America, and they have a right to speak their mind. But they don’t have a right to ANY public money funded to continue their growth. Any tax money that gets funneled directly or indirectly to progressive groups is completely unacceptable.

Sorry Frances, but getting rid of Glenn Beck won’t stop this onslaught, because he’s not the leader. There’s a reason the Tea Party doesn’t have a leader. It’s because American’s despise the term. We love individuals.

Don’t believe me. Go watch a hundred Hollywood films and study the lead characters. How many of those lead characters were “strong” individualists. Then study how many of those characters promoted “teamwork” in their rolls. You won’t find many. American’s vote at the box office and those results say a lot about what the nature of our country is. And it’s not what Frances and her gang of progressives wants America to be. If they can’t handle that fact, they need to go to a country where herd mentality is still popular.

Progressives wish very much for America to go back to sleep, because while we slept, and trusted, they manipulated our world into the mess we are living in now. The proud changes that Frances mentioned in her quote were implemented, but we won’t be fooled twice, and we’re not going back to sleep. We’re going to fix things back to how we want them, and once completed, we’ll stand guard more skeptically and be mindful of the cancer that is progressivism.

Who are these people that I’m talking about? Is it just people like me, Doc Thompson, Ray Warrick, Glenn Beck or anybody else? No. It’s people like the comment below. This comment came to me from a woman that only knows me from these epic pages. And her comment speaks volumes of who exactly those Americans are that have now been awakened and will not sleep so soundly again. She was commenting on an article I did about John Meyer.

There are people in my life that move me. I mean…REALLY move me. They are few. My father, who gave me the tools to navigate through life..now and then as he was right when he said what I believe would waiver with experience. So right. My husband for letting me move in the direction that drives my heart and soul no matter what. Glenn Beck. Say what you may…he’s my people. He’s been saying what I’ve felt for years. Yes..I cry. All the time. And Rich, who has given strength and voice to those of us out there that share his passion and need for serious change on so many venues. We need you and those that stand by you in the fight for the simple morale and values we were taught to respect. I never thought in a million years I would be here. Last but not least…to John. Kudos to you for just handing it to them. I’m honored that you live in my county and Country. God Bless. You ARE a Warrior! Today..I am blessed.

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

Progress Ohio Spin Machine Calls Senate Bill 5 Anti-Worker.

The following is from the Progress Ohio website, including the pictures. I will provide a short commentary afterward. I put it here in its entirety so more people can see how these types of people spin issues to suit their needs.  But one thing to notice as you read this, look how they assume that the reader of their comments are not very intelligent.  People who read a lot will notice right away the demeaning nature of the sentence structures.  But the members of these “public worker organizations” are typically not very motivated, and tend not to educate themselves with books.  They let “leaders” do their thinking for them.  So the press releases end up sounding like some trible council order from the village chief.   And anybody who understands the nature of the United States and it’s people, we don’t like to live in villages, and we don’t want leaders.  We want to lead ourselves.  Only the very lazy crave to surrender their freedom for the security of a “leader.”

COLUMBUS, OHIO – An overflow crowd of over 800 concerned Ohioans packed the halls of the Ohio Statehouse today in opposition of Senate Bill 5, a job-killing, anti-worker bill that would silence the voice of Ohio’s public servants. If passed by the Ohio legislature, Senate Bill 5 would eliminate collective bargaining for Ohio’s public employees and make it more difficult to attract and retain quality staff.

“Today, Senator Shannon Jones and her anti-worker allies jump-started their job-killing vendetta against Ohio’s middle class,” said Becky Williams, President of SEIU District 1199 which represents over 9,000 public sector workers in Ohio. “Reducing government, cutting taxes for the rich, and taking rights away from workers might sound good to Jones, but when you talk about taking safety forces off of our streets, educators out of our communities and leaving criminals unsupervised in our towns – it’s just not practical.”

While working under the misrepresented premise of “transparency” and “reducing the size and scope of government,” Jones openly admits that there will be no direct financial benefit to the taxpayers after her exhaustive one-year research of collective bargaining. To the contrary, a report published by Policy Matters Ohio found that “allowing public sector workers to bargain collectively reduces labor strife, reduce the likelihood of strikes and can lead to better training and higher productivity for public sector workers.”

……………………………………………………………….

This type of rhetoric is dangerous, and extremely misleading.  Their use of terminology such as Anti-worker and the such are manipulations of the basic facts.  I know many hard-working people who routinely work circles around public workers as far as quality and it angers me greatly to hear that union represented workers are “working families.”  It’s that kind of discussion that has created our bankrupt conditions that began 27 years ago. 

There will be a lot more on this later as the facts come in.  You can read more details from me that I’ve written so far at this link.

Notice how many people showed up for this event.  Those are your working families.  The reason their voices get heard and the “real” working families get ignored are because the real workers are working.  These people are just paid lobbyists.  Groups like the OEA, Progress Ohio and many others have their members take off work to participate in these lobby events, and that’s how things became so messed up to begin with. 

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

The Sexy Senate Seduction of S.B.5: An introduction to collective bargaining reform in Ohio

What’s better than sex?  I’m talking about the kind of sex that people fantasize about in their deepest darkest secrets. It’s Senate Bill 5 otherwise known as SB5

Oh yes, SB5 is one of the most exotic, sexy pieces of legislation ever to grace paper and to come from the lips of a State Senator Shannon Jones. The dialogue and beauty of the text is enough to turn the coldest heart into a lavish, promiscuous, insidious romantic.

So what is this salacious document that I’m speaking so highly of? It’s the first, most aggressive legislation since the infamous 1983 act in favor of collective bargaining implementation, to be enacted in an attempt to stop the bleeding that public employees represented by unions are imposing on tax payers. For more than 27 years this law has remained unchanged and has strangled the State of Ohio in being able to create a positive business atmosphere that will attract business and bring jobs to Ohio. The organizations that stand behind the collective bargaining law of 1983 have little understanding of business and have over those 27 years helped create a complex puzzle that is straining the states pension system and a host of other labor related issues.

This bill is proposed by Senator Shannon Jones of Clearcreek Twp of the 7th District has the direct support of Governor Kasich and will take a major step in the direction of solving that puzzle by taking off the shackles that are draining the tax revenue flowing to the state from the caretakers of Ohio, the tax payers.

Listen to this guy. He’s why we need SB5. It’s people like him that go to those collective bargining rallies.

Among the many items in the bill the primary reforms are:

• Eliminates collective bargaining for state employees and employees of higher education institutions
• Existing collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) covering those employees expire according to their terms
• Eliminates salary schedules and step increases and replaces them with a merit pay system
• Eliminates continuing contracts for teachers after the bill’s effective date
• Eliminates teacher leave policies in statute and requires local school boards to determine leave time
• Eliminates seniority as a sole criterion for Reductions In Force (RIFs)
• Removes healthcare from bargaining and instead permits school boards to govern healthcare benefit plans for employees
• Requires employees to pay at least 20% of their healthcare costs
• Allows public employers to hire permanent replacement workers during a strike
• Limits bargaining for local government employees (including school districts) to issues of wages, hours and terms and conditions of employment
• Eliminates binding arbitration for police and fire
• Abolishes the School Employee Healthcare Board
• Prohibits school districts from picking up any portion of the employee’s contribution to the pension system
• Allows a public employer in “fiscal emergency” to serve notice to terminate, modify or negotiate a CBA
While much of this bill will focus on the state, it will immediately bring transparency to localities. No longer will local school boards be able to blame the state for policies created and imposed on the districts. Step increases by teachers will now be considered raises, as they should be and school boards will be given much more independence on solving their own problems. Immediately SB5 will make changes to teacher’s contracts and benefits:
• S.B.5 eliminates new continuing, contracts after the bill’s effective date.
• The bill eliminates teacher leave polices from statute and instead requires local boards of education to establish general leave policies for employees who are not covered by a CBA.
• The bill abolishes the School Employee Health Care board and instead permits boards of education to govern health care benefits for employees.

For all these reasons and more SB5 is a bold bill that has the kind of power to seduce business back to Ohio and once again make attractive enterprise not only in bringing jobs back to the state, but to reduce the impact of the syndicate style unions that feed directly off tax payer funds, particularly in education, and allows the money to go where it’s needed. Such a step has been needed for many years but lacked legislators and a governor with the kind of courage needed to implement it.

But like any great romance, there is always a jealous lover, the overly dependent jealous spouse that lives like a leech off the life it professes to love. Below is the press release from just such a jealous, over imposing leech of the state, the OEA. They quickly seek support from their members to attempt to strong arm the bold legislative movement occurring in Columbus. Read for yourself their words and bullet points below.

OHIO EDUCATION ASSOCIATION OPPOSES SENATE BILL FIVE

For Immediate Release
Contact: Michele Prater
614-227-3071; cell 614-378-0469
Ohio Education Association opposes Senate Bill Five
Legislation will weaken public service to Ohio’s children
February 9, 2011
(Columbus) – The Ohio Education Association (OEA) is gravely concerned that the Ohio Senate is not making Ohio’s children a priority. In a tough economy and facing a major budget deficit, Ohio must focus on the essentials, and nothing is more essential than giving our children a quality education that prepares them for good jobs.
Sen. Shannon Jones’ legislation, Senate Bill 5 (SB 5), proposes to drastically curtail collective bargaining rights, ban public employee strikes, end collectively bargained salary schedules for public employees. SB 5 targets all state workers and all Ohio higher education employees, including OEA members at Columbus State, Youngstown State and other public colleges and community colleges, as well as OEA’s State Council of Professional Educators (SCOPE) bargaining unit whose members educate incarcerated adults and youths.
OEA believes collective bargaining helps educators pursue the classroom conditions, tools and support that contribute to the kind of high quality 21st century education essential to preparing students for jobs and successful careers.
Collective bargaining is a problem solving tool that shapes working conditions and improves learning conditions. Since 1983, Ohio’s collective bargaining law has created a framework that has made strikes rare and short in duration. OEA affiliates negotiate effectively to avoid strikes and disruption for student learning.
Senate Bill 5 serves to weaken Ohio’s entire middle class. Rather than creating jobs in Ohio, this legislation will hurt local communities stifling job growth.

OEA’s asks you to remember that:
• Collective bargaining allows educators a voice in improving opportunities for Ohio’s students, better classroom resources and improved teaching and learning conditions
• Teachers know best what’s needed to improve student learning , and collective bargaining gives them the opportunity to focus on teaching rather than time consuming employment issues
• Educators, like all public employees, are an integral part of the fabric of Ohio’s communities. Senate Bill 5 weakens Ohio. Rather than creating jobs, this legislation will hurt local communities, reversing Ohio’s positive economic outlook
• Ohio’s collective bargaining law has created a framework for problem-solving that has made strikes rare. OEA affiliates negotiate effectively to avoid disruption for student learning
• In a tough economy, with Ohio facing a major budget deficit, we must focus on the essentials. Nothing is more essential than giving our children a quality education that prepares them for good jobs.

I have heard in the course of my involvement in education reform virtually every one of those bullet points provided above. They use words like “weaken” and “children” and “hurt” as an attempt to stir up the thoughtless escapades of their followers who will repeat those same lines to the papers and other news organizations. However, the architects of those words have zero experience in creating jobs and creating prosperity. All they have experience in is feeding off society and convincing them that their services are so central to the jobs they are employed by that their reality can’t see the truth. But they have to believe it before they can convince taxpayers how important they are. What they don’t understand is that the regulations they have brought to the State of Ohio have only increased in the last 27 years and the monster they’ve created shows no sign of getting smaller. Under the path of collective bargaining, that monster will require more and more tax money until the system will collapse under the weight of their impositions.

There isn’t a successful formula for collective bargaining in the entire world that has sustained itself over time. The attempts tried have everywhere proved dismal failures, and under SB5 our state government has taken the first bold step to get the state healthy again. The rhetoric of the shallow rooted, selfish protectionists of the status quo will continue to rant the statements similar to the OEA Press Release. But none of them have a real plan. They are scrambling instead to find a way to keep the ponzi schemes going just a little longer because the tragedy for them is that they built their whole lives around those ponzi schemes, and it’s evident now that they won’t get out of the scheme what they invested.

For the rest of us, that chose to work outside that insidious system, and work for ourselves, or companies not tied to collective bargaining, our investment in long term longevity over short term gain proved the wise path. And it is our strategy that must be passed on to the rest of the state for the state’s health and future fortune.

Like all good love-making, sex is best when not rooted in selfish aims, but the mutual benefit of both partners. And the good lover knows what their partner needs even if the partner is obscure to the fact. So the sex is best when not done for the benefit of the giver, but for the receiver.

And that’s why this bill is so sexy. It’s what’s needed even when all parties aren’t aware that they need it. When the bill SB5 is thrust forward into the canvas of Ohio History much to the dismay of the intended object, the real impact will be felt only when selfishness flees the proceedings and both parties work together for mutual bliss.

They’ll thank you later………………..

But as many of you reading this know, sex is not good when third parties are involved and act as agents and matchmakers. That has been the role of collective bargaining in the State of Ohio. And that’s why we need to bypass the matchmakers and head straight for the bed.

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

Trolley Car of Terror: Breaking the Budget of Cincinnati Soon

One of the problems with a representative government is if the per capita population is of a certain class, or political persuasion then the representatives will likely represent those people in political ideology. And if those values of the population are built on entitlements, and liberal ideas, it is no surprise that the city councils and mayors will seem to reflect that hand-out culture.

Cities for decades have lost some of their best and brightest residents to the suburbs while the percentage of the population that embraces welfare policies have migrated to the cities where protection of their entitlements are safe from public scrutiny.

The Streetcar in Cincinnati is just one such project that is supported by a clueless city council and liberal mayor. To them, the 50 million the project will cost comes from some giant government entity in the land of Obama where the money grows on trees and is handed out to needy citizens, so the streetcar cost is not of consequence.

Instead, the mayor and liberal council members are looking at old data of their favorite cities and wanting to bring the nostalgia of a streetcar to the streets of Cincinnati.

Listen to Doc Thompson discuss this issue with Chris Finney of COAST.

What these political representatives admit by endorsing this streetcar is that they have no idea of how to lure talent and corporations back to the city. They cling to silly ideas like a trolley car and think young people and companies will find it an attractive magnet to industrious behavior within the city. When the reality is it is just another example of ignorant politicians grabbing for straws while they blow their own horns of accomplishment. True reform to a city can’t happen in an election cycle, and the residents they represent may not understand good business practice. A trolley car is something that people can see, so it gives the elected officials something to take credit for.

How many projects like this trolley car project have been implemented over the years for just such a silly reason? How many bridges were built for the same reason? How many ridiculously expensive projects implemented only for the protection of a political seat.

That’s all this $50 million trolley car in Cincinnati is. It’s a waste of money. It’s an appeasement to a population with a short attention span and it is actually technically going backwards instead of forward with use of technology.

If this project was regulated to only Cincinnati and these clueless politicians end up bankrupting the city continuing to drive away companies and talented people leaving only the portion of the population desiring entitlements, then Cincinnati will become bankrupt, and will fail as a city. The problem, in the end is that the state of Ohio won’t be able to let a city fail, so the tax payers of Ohio will have to bail this city out even though the politicians have shown they don’t have fiscal understanding and can’t manage their own finances. So the Ohio tax payer will compensate for the politicians bad, foolish decisions.

That’s why I’m a huge “NO” on the trolley car in downtown Ohio. There are other forms of transportation and if the Cincinnati Reds, or the Cincinnati Bengals or the new Casino wants a way to get young people transported from Clifton to the Riverfront, well then let them pay for it. Cincinnati built to stadiums that are putting serious financial strain on the city. $50 million more for a useless form of transportation that is only attractive to the entitlement culture is not a wise use of taxpayer funds.

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

An Act Suitable for Las Vegas: The Public Education Money Scam

On February 8, 2011 Stacy Schuler will resign from the Mason School District at the 7 pm school board meeting. Kevin Bright has made the announcement that he will recommend Stacy be fired, and the board will of course act on that request.  And to make matters easier on herself, Stacy is resigning, much the way George Coates did.  George so far has stayed under the radar even though his actions may be technically much worse. 

Now, it would seem that the firing of Stacy Schuler should be a forgone conclusion. It shouldn’t even be a question.  George Coates the assistant principal felt bold enough to take cell phones from students, apparently in search of nude pictures of the student body from text messages sent to boy friends and girl friends known as sexting. And we know that the assistant principal was sending Stacy nude pictures of himself, at a minimum. These employees felt so untouchable that they abused their positions audaciously. The union provides an unprecedented level of job security, and that leads all too often to various degrees of abuse.

So the announcement of firing Stacy Schuler sounds all too similar to me. The proceedings from superintendent to school board are extremely reminiscent of how levies are introduced to a ballot issue, or how busing and other services are reduced. The formal proceedings are only formalities designed to make the public feel like they are a part of the process, when in fact the real decisions have already been made.

And that’s what’s wrong with education broken down into its most simplified form, and why many people are looking to School Choice as an option to this kind of tyrannical monopoly. It’s the kind of issue I’ve spent thousands of words discussing here in a hope that this chronicle can provide others questioning public education, some sense of support, and a blueprint to defeat their own school levies in other districts.

The things I’ve brought up for years are not only coming out of my mind however. Traditionally the union strong-arm methods have successfully isolated dissent to a defensive position and used the press to radicalize those dissidents in the eyes of the public. Meanwhile those same political thugs capture the high ground of “defending the children,” and use that platform to negotiate lucrative contracts from the public. Doc Thompson had on a guest from the Kato Institute that validates with a professional opinion what many of us in the trenches are feeling. It’s a great interview so enjoy it.

This whole public education game works until someone like Stacy or Ryan Fahrenkemp from Lakota get busted doing something despicable and are caught abusing their positions under union protection. Because the existence of the union is so formidable, it prevents the kind of probing that common sense would naturally question. So questions that might be leveled at a teacher goes by the way side because the perceived fight to act on such questions would be too great and not worth the wrath of the union.

When Stacy goes to court, it will be revealed that the activity within the Mason School System should be on a nationally syndicated soap opera of provocative tradition, not taken as a serious institution that has the aim of educating our students. When board members are engaged in affairs that are publicly known, and other teachers are caught doing despicable, and immoral acts that are known by many in positions of power, the public faces the moral dilemma as to what to do.

What often happens is parents kick the can down the road because their kids are only in the school system for a relatively short time and those same parents just want the system to stay in tact long enough for their children to get what they need from the system. The union knows this, and they calculate that each year some kids leave, and new ones enter and since nobody cares truly for the health of their neighbor, and their communities, unions use that sense of selfishness to conduct a stage play full of smoke and mirrors.

So when Kevin Bright makes his announcement, and publicly chastises Stacy Schuler for her terrible behavior, know that he and the school board are aware of much worse than what Stacy has been involved with. But they will throw Stacy to the wolves like a Roman Emperor throwing a thief to the lions in a gladiator arena to appease the crowd. Their intent is to get past this terrible episode so people forget and get back to their lives, and the school can put another levy on the ballot in November to cover the step increases that the union contract requires.

Ironically, and this gives you an idea how big this story is, this is a video from China showing the Mason School System attempting to distance itself from Stacy when just months ago all was well, cover ups and all.

I say cover ups because these stories were very well-known, and for the superintendent to not know about it is one of two things. He’s really out of touch and isn’t listening to anybody. Or he is just trying to keep the bad stuff hidden so there isn’t any interruption in revenue flowing into the school system. Both options are bad.

We do have choices. It’s up to us to see them and act with courage for the benefit of our children, and leave the adults that have built empires off our tax dollars to find a new scam, preferably in a venue more suitable to their natures, somewhere like Las Vegas.

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

So What are you Going to Do About it? Sex, Money and Public Schools

In the face of such scandals as what is being dealt with currently at the Mason School System, and one month ago at the Lakota School System, thousands of rank and file participants within the teachers union crave to put these episodes of unpleasantness behind them. The worst thing in their eyes is for public debate to occur beyond a two-day news cycle. If a story lingers for too long, the value for the service they want to offer diminishes in the eyes of the taxpayer.

But that’s the real problem, isn’t it? For decades public debate has been limited and it was easy for spin doctors and spokesman to proclaim that “it’s just sex, these things happen in every workplace. We’re taking precautions.”

The downfall of those status quo protectionists however is technology. No longer can a spokesman tell a group of friendly reporters a controlled diatribe of manipulation intended to diffuse a crisis till it falls from people’s minds as their busy lives consume commitment to a righteous cause. Now with text messaging, and blog sites like this one, information moves freely without the control mechanism of political machines, and is why the FCC is pushing Net Neutrality.

That’s why what happened on 700 WLW February 4th of 2011 was unique as a story broke on that station throughout the day preceding a major indictment from a prosecutor’s office. It started with Sharon Poe speaking about the crises with Doc Thompson and ended 9 hours later after the indictments were announced and attorneys started to chime in with legal discussion. The story is basically this, a teacher Stacy Schuler of the Mason School System was indicted for 16 counts of sexual battery with 5 students. She is also involved in a sexual way with a separate issue involving the assistant principal George Coates. George called in his resignation on February 2, 2011. The story arch was fascinating and is captured in the video below. It is recommended that you activate the video and finish this article while listening if you are fortunate enough to be able to do both. If not, then give yourself some time. It’s a video that is 2 hours and 7 minutes long but condenses 9 hours of radio news breaking evolution over the day and is a compelling story in itself. So turn off the TV and let the video play and enjoy the theater of the mind without commercial interruption for the drama is as good if not better than any movie available to rent.

Sharon (the woman in the interview) and I have known, as most in the Mason community and in neighboring Lakota have known for some time that serious sexual allocations were transpiring in Mason. In fact I have the list of many improprieties, most of them taking place with consenting adults within the system and not directly effecting students. But the number and rank of the participants is alarming for any workplace. This teacher is just the most obvious participant because she got caught. Her actions since they involved students that posted information on Facebook and other online forums could not be quieted by the spin doctors and the info got out into the community.

Check these links for information on all the soap opera issues going on in Mason. There are several articles on those pages. Scroll down to the “Sex and Drugs for All” School Districts section to read the information. This information was published by Charles Foster Kane.

Here are the links:

http://thecincinnatusstandard.com/Whistleblower_Newswire_Friday_February_4_2011.mht
http://thecincinnatusstandard.com/Whistleblower_Newswire_Thursday_February_3_2011.mht
http://thecincinnatusstandard.com/Whistleblower_Newswire_Wednesday_February_2_2011.mht

Home for Kane’s work can be found here: http://www.thecincinnatusstandard.com/The_Whistleblower_Newswire.html

Scott Sloan came on after Sharon and had been working with the same information we all had but Scott had the guts to act on it. After he went off the air with Doc, a caller from Mason came on and defended the district and proclaimed that WLW was behind on the story and it wasn’t a big deal. WLW was in fact the only news organization running with the story. All the other outlets were waiting for the indictment to come down and reacted predictably once the story broke. That particular caller reflected a huge part of the population that just doesn’t want to deal with bad news.

It is because of people like the caller that these problems in schools have continued. They empower the perpetuation of illicit behavior in public institutions with the same careless abandon that a large portion of the population accepted the seductress explanations from former President Clinton.

The target audience of complacency which Clinton, Obama and teachers unions, along with others, speak to know what they’re doing. They hope to solicit more recruits to their thinking by encouraging public drunkenness, sexual exploits and other forms of decadent behavior because in such personalities are future apologists that won’t have the courage or fortitude to confront difficult issues when they present themselves. And on the backs of such weak souls were built the corruption we are finding in public education. In fact, as I was writing this article I received this comment from a reader which fits in the category just discussed.

Author : thompson (IP: 72.173.182.116 , 72-173-182-116.cust.wildblue.net)
URL :
Whois : http://whois.arin.net/rest/ip/72.173.182.116
Comment:
you’re nuts. Salaries have nothing do to with morality. And for the record, teaching salaries are NOT I sugges you collect your thoughts before you put them out there to be read. Hope I don’t stumble onto anything else you rant, I mean write.

That is a guy that doesn’t see how things connect. The misspellings are because that’s how he wrote it, I duplicated it the way I received it. And to respond to that guy, being nuts is to take things at face value, like he obviously does.

You see, it’s not just the sex that is going on with some of the teachers, and administrators. Or principles and assistants that think it’s acceptable to send naked pictures of themselves to co-workers on computers owned by the school. Or child pornography obsessed teachers taking pictures of kids with their shirts off in the classroom. This is about the wholesome advertising of public education services to the community to justify extraordinarily high salaries negotiated by public sector unions. It’s like most things in life, in the end it’s about money.

During the levy campaign back in September after I had made a couple of appearances on WLW the Pro Lakota Campaign had flooded the station with protest letters and accused the station of being disingenuous to teachers and rationalized my questing of the amount of wages being imposed on our community budget as hateful. Their assertion is that because of their educational background and the fact that many of them have master’s degrees that they are better positioned to teach our children and that spending more and more money on public education will yield increased results. Or in the case of Lakota and Mason, it was to keep those districts excellent by approving a tax levy on our properties. We were told, “Wouldn’t you spend just 20 bucks a month to keep your kids safe.”

However, what we are finding is that these people in public positions are just as human as anybody. And these teachers and administrators in these schools are no more qualified to raise our children than our average citizens. This whole issue comes back to the topic of wages and whether or not public education officials should be paid so much and communities should be required to supported collective bargaining agreements.

My day on this historic date started as one of my employees told me about his experience of dropping off his son at Lakota because of the busing cuts. Lakota had stopped using police to guide traffic at the entrance my employee was using as a drop off. Instead a school official named by his son as an assistant principal was directing traffic. That assistant audaciously knocked on my employee’s window and told him to use a different entrance. “You can’t pull in that lot. You have to go to the other side.”

My employee told him that they had a paid parking spot in that particular lot and he had a right to be where he was.

The assistant principal directing traffic told him again to use the other lot.

My employee asked what he was supposed to do about his paid lot, the assistant said; “you should have passed the levy.”

I have instance upon instance given to me about principles at Lakota taking active roles in creating an environment of hostility that if they occurred in my work place, I’d be obligated to address the issue before the behavior corrupted my workforce, but not in public education. They live by different rules than the rest of us. And that becomes evident when you get to know some of them.

That’s why the sex scandals in Mason are important. Even if the teacher is innocent of all 16 counts we know that there is inappropriate behavior that went on between the teacher and the assistant principal at a minimum. As a society do we put up with it, because the taxpayers are the boss in this situation? Or do we just look away? Do we just approve the next levy while the bloated, corrupt monster of public education lingers on under collective bargaining agreements negotiated under school board members trained by the OSBA to carry out to the letter policies created by the teachers unions which are bankrupting communities?

I remember specifically when Lakota threatened to go on strike in 2008. What was their sticking point? Wages. They tried the same general tactic floating the strike word around back in March of 2010. It wasn’t about kids. It was money. Watch that video here. They got what they wanted. It didn’t matter to them if the community could afford it or not.

For those that don’t want to discuss the issue of cost and whether we get the value for the money we spend, I put the blame squarely on your shoulders for the current state of things, public education being just one, but very costly issue. When I hear stories like this sex case, and again, I know there is a lot more to the story which will be revealed, I get angry. I can’t understand why stories like this wouldn’t make people angry. But I also tend to view the world from the perspective of an employer. People that just want to punch their time card and cruise through life tend to look the other way when trouble comes or when taxes are too high and harming the community.

The underlining issue is arrogance. These Mason school employees that are currently in trouble have so little appreciation and respect for their community and where the money comes from that supplies their income that they participate in these reckless sexual activities. That behavior speaks volumes of how public education views the public they serve and it comes out when they are pressed.

The ultimate audacity is revealed in the Mason spokesman Tracy Carson when she was on with Tracy Jones and Scott Sloan putting on a happy face for the Mason District on January 26th, the same day that Stacy Schuler was put on leave. No doubt Mrs. Carson will say that she didn’t know about the teachers coming legal trouble, but what kind of spokesman wouldn’t know about this story, because I was hearing about it, and it’s not even my job to know. I find it hard to believe Tracy didn’t know. The story was out well before implementing the leave and if the spokesman knew anything about what was happening in the school, she’d know about this teacher, because everyone else did.

Yet, listen to her words on WLW. Do you think she actually thought the Mason school system could contain this story? Depending on how you answer that question will determine your ability to think critically. Because the bet from these people is this, you can’t think critically even when the evidence is right in front of you.

So, what are you going to do about it?

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