Belle of Liberty

Letting Freedom Ring

Friday, October 14, 2011

Divide and Conquer

How does an organization go about enslaving a nation?  As the witch in The Wizard of Oz said, “These things must be done delicately…”   You start out by gradually unionizing the manufacturing industry out of business, until one day, businesses can no longer afford the extravagant health benefits and pensions.  Once upon a time, all that businesses were called upon to do was provide for hospitalization and accidental work injury.  If you got the sniffles, you were on your own.

Meanwhile, you must go about dividing up the family unit.  Not only do you want to outlaw inheritances by imposing estate and death taxes, but you want to reduce the number of potential future workers.  Fewer workers will command higher wages, and eventually drive corporations to poorer, more populous nations willing to work for much less than the average American worker.  Onerous taxes and regulations will push companies to that brink where they at last seek out foreign shores, leave the field wide open for Progressives to finish the job of taking over the country with economic and social Communism, in all its many flavors:  socialist, Leninist, Stalinist, Maoist.

On his radio show yesterday, Glenn Beck played audio from an interview Jesse Jackson, Jr. gave a reporter for The Daily Caller.  Jackson said that Obama should not only circumvent Congress to get accomplish his agenda, but use tax dollars to employ every in the country who needs a job.
In the video Jackson said:
“I believe quite frankly in the direct hiring of 15 million unemployed Americans. At $40,000 a head, some more than $40,000, some less than 40,000, that’s a $600 billion stimulus. It could be a five‑year program. For another $104 billion, we bail out all of the states. The problem within the states ends tomorrow for 104 billion. For another 100 billion, we bail out all of the cities. For about $804 billion, we put 15 million Americans to work, we bail out the states and we bail out the cities but we do it through direct hire. We put people to work cleaning up communities, we put people to work through a Civilian Conservation Corps, through a Works Progress Administration because the hour demands it. And as more people work, they pay taxes, they pay taxes into the fourth quarter, they buy wares, they buy homes.”
Worse still, he proposed that Obama implement his agenda by fiat:

“I hope the president continues to exercise extraordinary constitutional means, based on the history of Congresses that have been in rebellion in the past,” Jackson said. “He’s looking administratively for ways to advance the causes of the American people, because this Congress is completely dysfunctional.”

Beck was appalled, as we all should be.  To say that this is disturbing and dangerous is no exaggeration, no matter how much Glenn is given to emotional theatrics.  Later, he played video of Obama announcing to an audience that he thought it might be time to circumvent an ‘obstructionist’ Congress that wasn’t getting anything done.  Octavian Augustus Obama Caesar.
According to Edward Gibbon (“Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”), who made an extensive study of the waning years of the Roman Empire, beginning with Augustus (a name ‘forced’ upon the potentate by the Senate of Rome), the popular Assembly (that would be the House of Representatives for us) was completely dissolved.  Then Augustus set to work on gaining control of the Roman Senate.

“The reformation of the senate was one of the first steps in which Augustus laid aside the tyrant and professed himself the father of his country.  He was elected censor; and, in concert with his faithful Agrippa [his general], he examined the list of the senators, expelled a few members whose vices or whose obstinacy required a public example, persuaded nearly two hundred to prevent the shame of an expulsion by a voluntary retreat, raised the qualification of a senator to about ten thousand pounds, created a sufficient number of patrician families, and accepted for himself the honourable title of Prince of the Senate, which had always been bestowed by the censors on the citizen the most eminent for his honours and services.  But whilst he thus restored the dignity, he destroyed the independence of the senate.  The principles of a free constitution are irrevocably lost when the legislative power is nominated by the executive.”

Or in our case, completely dismissed and ignored by him.  Gibbon notes that the senators realized “it was dangerous to trust the sincerity of Augustus; to seem to distrust it was still more dangerous.”  Augustus was offering to step down as emperor, even though he scrupled not to remind them, that he had saved the republic.  “Amidst this confusion of sentiments,” Gibbon tells us, “the answer of the senate was unanimous and decisive.  They refused to accept the resignation of Augustus; they conjured him not to desert the republic, which he had saved.  After a decent resistance, the crafty tyrant submitted to the orders of the senate and consented to receive the government of the provinces and the general command of the Roman armies under the well-known names of pro-consul and imperator.”

Augustus vowed to keep the title only for ten years, at which time he professed to hope that the Republic would be “healed” under his ministrations.  Of course, it wasn’t, and to the very end of the empire, Rome underwent a regular, ten-year ritual of “electing” its emperors.  Under some emperors like Hadrian, the empire flourished.  Others like Commodus (he’s one of the emperors in “Gladiator) brought shame to Rome through his butchery, and others through debauchery.  When the barbarians arrived at the Gate, Rome no longer had the will or the power to fight them off.  Instead, they tried to buy Alaric off.  But why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?

The barbarians at Zuccotti Park merely need to bide their time, while their commanders put the iron bars of their laws around us.  We will be the slaves, the prisoners, the inmates, while the inmates run the asylum, as the saying goes.   A disbelieving public is reluctant to listen to someone like Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh or even Mark Stein.  As history repeats itself, we will watch as the House of Representatives eventually loses its power and the Senate is commanded by the Executive branch and the President’s crony advisors.  As we’ve seen today, New York City and the property owner are reluctant to use force on the barbarian students, aided as they are by various union goon organizations. 

Rome didn’t want a violent confrontation with the Visigoths, either.  They tried to “negotiate” with Alaric.  But Rome fell, all the same.


Thursday, October 13, 2011

All Politics Are Local - Even in N.J.

All politics are local.  New Jersey’s legislative elections are coming up in a few weeks.  So we must take time off from Occupy Wall Street and the antics of the 99 percent mental deficient to report on the New Jersey elections.

Roland Straten ran for Congress from New Jersey’s 8th district, a tough, union-permeated district.  He lost but that doesn’t mean he’s finished with politics.  His insights are invaluable to embattled, 8th district Conservatives and those across the state.

“In my last set of emails, I concentrated on national issues. After one or two brief comments on national issues, it is time to switch to the local elections. We are having an election in less than a month and, as always, it is hard to find out anything about the local candidates.

Obama's Job Plan

While this is a bit of old news, I listened to the President's speech. He was going to create a bunch of new jobs with more stimulus spending. I am sure everyone noticed, while he said it would be paid for, he did not mention how. Then a few weeks later, he told us:  Raise our taxes!

Christie and the news media

I had been sure all along that Governor Christie was not going to run for President. I believe very strongly that one of his greatest strengths was to actually do what he says he is going to do. If he had run for President, he would have been confronted with 1,000 sound bites when he said he would not run. I am convinced that the entire Christie for President was news media hype to sell stories and if I were a bit cynical to discredit Chris Christie. Again, Christie showed us what he is made of and did the right thing, a real positive for New Jersey.

NEW JERSEY ELECTIONS

This November's State Elections

The entire State legislature is up for re-election. In the 8th congressional district, there are six state legislation districts. It took awhile, but I have gathered the basic information about each district below (* indicates incumbents. Highlighted in red means I have personally met the candidate and recommend highly. I also endorse all Republican candidates. Below I will also make comments in italics).

District 27

Old District: Caldwell, Essex Fells, Fairfield, Livingston, Maplewood, Newark, North Caldwell, Orange, Roseland, South Orange, West Caldwell, West Orange

Incumbents: Senate: Richard Codey(Dem) -- Assembly: Mila Jasey (Dem) John McKeon (Dem)

New District: Caldwell, Chatham, East Hanover, Essex Fells, Florham Park, Hanover, Harding, Livingston, Madison, Maplewood, Millburn, Roseland, South Orange, & West Orange

Candidates:
Senate: William Eames (Rep) - Richard Codey (Dem)*
Assembly: Nicole Hagner (Rep) - Lee Holtzman (Rep)
Mila Jasey (Dem)* -- John McKeon (Dem)*

Straten's Comments: This will be an extremely interesting election. If I got it right, this district lost part of Newark, North Caldwell, Orange, West Caldwell and Fairfield. It gained Chatham, East Hanover, Madison, Millburn, Florham Park Hanover, and Harding. On the face of it, this appears to be a much more Republican district than it was. There was obviously something going on with Dick Codey. Losing Newark and Orange has to make a big difference. Bill Eames, a Tea Party challenger, beat the regular Republican organization candidate in the primary. This could be a major gain and all of the Republican candidates need your help. The only towns in the 8th Congressional district are Livingston, South Orange, and West Orange. Livingston, because of gross overspending by the Democrats, now has a Republican-leaning town council.

District 28

Old District: Belleville, Bloomfield, Irvington, Newark
Incumbents: Senate: Ronald Rice (Dem) -- Assembly: Ralph Caputo (Dem) Cleopatra Tucker (Dem)

New District: Glen Ridge, Irvington, Part of Newark, Nutley, Bloomfield

Candidates:
Senate: Russell Mollica (Rep) - Ronald Rice (Dem)*
Assembly: Carol Humprheys (Rep) - David Pinckney (Rep)
Ralph Caputo (Dem)* -- Cleopatra Tucker (Dem)*

Straten's Comments: Since this district covers a good part of Newark and Irvington, it will be a very difficult district for us to win. But we have some terrific candidates and they really deserve your support. Dave Pinckney from Irvington could be a real force in this district. I have met all the candidates and it would be terrific if they represented us in Trenton.

District 34

Old District: East Orange, Glen Ridge Montclair, Clifton, Woodland Park
Incumbents: Senate: Nia Gill (Dem) - Assembly: Thomas Giblin (Dem), Sheila Oliver (Dem)

New District: Orange, Clifton, East Orange, Montclair

Candidates:
Senate: Ralph Bartnik (Rep) - Nia Gill (Dem)*
Assembly: Joan Salensky (Rep) - Steve Farrell (Rep)
Sheila Oliver (Dem)* - Thomas Giblin (Dem)*

Straten's Comments: This is my home district and it is unfortunate that we are represented by three hard core liberals who are very much to blame for the condition our State is currently in. Tom Giblin gets around to almost every event in the area, but is a classic case of a "nice guy" who always votes the wrong way. We have traded Woodland Park and Glen Ridge for Orange which I assume makes the district more Democrat. Montclair and Clifton should be Republican towns (I know they are not, but they should be) and we have to make inroads into East Orange and Orange.

District 35

Glen Rock, Haledon, Hawthorne, North Haledon, Paterson, Prospect Park, Totowa

Incumbents: Senate: John Girgenti (Dem) Assembly: Elease Evans (Dem) Nellie Pou (Dem)

New District: Elmwood Park, Garfield, Haledon, North Haledon, Paterson City, Prospect Park

Candidates:
Senate: Ken Pengtore (Rep) - Nellie Pou (Dem)
Assembly: William Connolly (Rep) - Donna Puglisi (Rep)
Benjiee Wimberly (Dem) - Shavonda Sumter (Dem)

Straten's Comments: Paterson, the 500-pound gorilla in the district, makes this another Democrat district disenfranchising the voters from North Haledon, Elmwood Park, and Garfield. This is also a district where someone played games by moving John Girgenti's Hawthorne out of the district allowing Nellie Pou to move up to Senate. I heard Benjiee Wimberly and Shavonda Sumter speak. Their whole platform was to get and spend more money from Trenton. If you want tax-and-spend liberals, here they are. They had the audacity to say that Paterson's school system was underfunded and should get more State money. Paterson spends around $25,000 per pupil compared to $15,000 for most other towns, has free pre-K (by the way, it is a voucher system), and has wasted millions of dollars because of corruption and incompetence. At least John Girgenti pretended to be fair. No, unless a miracle happens, we will have incompetent left wing liberals representing this district.

District 36

Old District: Carlstadt, East Rutherford, Garfield, Lyndhurst, Moonachie, North Arlington, Rutherford, Wallington, Wood Ridge, Nutley, & Passaic.
Incumbents: Senate: Paul A. Sarlo (Dem) --Assembly: Kevin J. Ryan (Dem) Gary S. Schaer

New District: Carlstadt, Cliffside Park, East Rutherford, Little Ferry, Lyndhurst, Moonachie, North Arlington, Passaic, Ridgefield

Candidates:
Senate: Donald DiOrio (Rep) - Paul Sarlo (Dem)*
Assembly: Sara Rosengarten (Rep) - John Genovesi (Rep)
Gary Schaer (Dem)* -- Marlene Caride (Dem)

Straten's Comments: The only city in the 36th district is Passaic so I do not know much about the district. I have met Don DiOria and Sara Rosengarten and I think they have a real chance. I do know that Gary Schaer runs Passaic with an iron hand. He and Ralph Caputo are two of the "grandfathered" politicos who are allowed to "double dip"; that is hold two offices. Schaer is an assemblyman as well as Passaic City council President. Caputo is an assemblyman as well as an Essex County freeholder. Both should have resigned from one position voluntarily when the law against double dipping came out. Since they have not, the voters should do it for them.

District 40

Old District: Franklin Lakes, Mahwah, Midland Park, Oakland, Ridgewood, Wyckoff, Cedar Grove, Verona, Little Falls, Ringwood, Wanaque, Wayne
Incumbents: Senate Kevin J. O'Toole (Rep) Assembly: Scott T. Rumana (Rep) David C. Russo

New District: Allendale, Cedar Grove, Franklin Lakes, Ho-Ho-Kus, Little Falls, Midland Park, Pequannock, Pompton Lakes, Ridgewood, Riverdale, Totowa, Waldwick, Wayne, Woodland Park, Wyckoff

Candidates:
Senate: Kevin O'Toole (Rep)* -- John Zunic (Dem)
Assembly: Scott Rumana (Rep)* -- David Russo (Rep)*
Cassandra Lazzara (Dem) - William Brennan (Dem)

Straten's Comments: Well, well, a Republican district. If you live in this district, please give Kevin, Scott, and Dave a resounding victory. Make sure you vote. While not required by the double dipping law, Kevin voluntarily stepped down as Essex County Republican Chair so that he could devote full time to the NJ Senate as opposed to the Democrats in the 8th congressional district.

Wow this was a bit of work. Please send me any corrections.  The next issue will be on the freeholder and possible local races.

If you have any additional info on these candidates or if you are one of them and want me to send out addresses or requests for funds, please email me the info and I will include it in the next email.

Please do what you can to elect our candidates!!!



Roland Straten
Montclair, NJ
www.rolandstraten.com
RStraten@RolandStraten.com

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Will OWS Protestors Clean Up Their Act?

Mom told us that if you wanted to succeed in life, the key was to make yourself useful, or make something useful.
“Like toilet paper,” she said.  “Everyone needs toilet paper.”
The Occupy Wall Street squatters, bored with chanting slogans, littering Zuccotti Park, making out in sleeping bags, and getting stoned in the same old place, plan to parade up to the East Side to picket the homes of millionaires, including billionaire businessman David H. Koch (pronounced “coke”), whose parents apparently taught David and his siblings the same lesson about making themselves “useful.”
How ironic that the defecating protestors are planning to protest – and probably defecate - in front of Koch’s home.  They couldn’t have picked a better mansion.  This “evil” capitalist businessman and his family have made their fortune producing toilet paper.  Toilet paper, paper towels, napkins:   Angel Soft, Mardi Gras, Quilted Northern, Sparkle, Soft N Gentle, Brawny, Sparkle.  They also produce Dixie products and are the owners of Chiquita Brands, the famous banana grower.  The protestors will be right at home squatting in front of Koch’s home; as far as Koch will know, the protestors are just another bunch of bananas.
Koch is actually sympathetic to one of their causes.  When he ran on the Libertarian ticket as Vice President in 1980, with Ed Clark, one of their platforms was to legalize marijuana.  The Clark–Koch ticket also promised to abolish Social Security, the Federal Reserve Board, welfare, minimum-wage laws, corporate taxes, agricultural and business price supports and subsidies, and U.S. Federal Agencies, including the SEC, EPA, ICC, FTC, OSHA, FBI, CIA, and DOE.
Koch, the second-richest New York City resident, is a noted philanthropist.  Since 2000, David H. Koch Charitable Foundation has pledged or contributed more than $750 million to further cancer research, enhance medical centers, support educational institutions, sustain arts and cultural institutions, and conduct public policy studies.   Since 2006, the Chronicle of Philanthrophy has listed Koch as one of the world's top 50 philanthropists.
He contributed $7 million to PBS’ show, Nova.  He’s a contributor to the Smithsonian Institution, including a $20 million donation to the American Museum of Natural History in New York for its dinosaur exhibit and $15 million to the National Museum of Natural History in Washington for the David H. Koch Hall of Human Origins.   Perhaps the current protestors will pose for a performance artist exhibit on arrested development.
Among other charities, he has contributed to Lincoln Center, Sloan-Kettering, The New York State Theater at Lincoln Center, home of the New York City Opera and the New York City Ballet.  He donated a cool $100 million to Lincoln Center, although the anthropologically correct progressives would not approve.  They disapprove of Western composers in general, and operas in particular, because operas tell stories of foreign lands in the audience’s own language (well, back in the 18th and 19th century they did), exploiting the foreign culture, set to music the Progressives absolutely detest.  Not even Carmen moves them.
Koch was born in Wichita, Kansas.  His father was a chemical engineer and David went on to earn his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in chemical engineering at MIT in 1963.  He became president of Koch Engineering in 1971.
According to Koch, he gave his own Vice Presidential campaign $100,000 a month after being chosen as Ed Clark’s's running mate. “We'd like to abolish the FEC and all the limits on campaign spending anyway," Koch told New York magazine's Rinker Buck in 1980. When asked why he ran, Koch replied: "Lord knows I didn't need a job, but I believe in what the Libertarians are saying. I suppose if they hadn't come along, I could have been a big Republican from Wichita. But hell—everybody from Kansas is a Republican.”
He broke with the Libertarian Party in 1984 when it supported eliminating all taxes and Koch has since been a Republican.  David Koch supports policies that promote individual liberty and free market principles. He supports gay marriage and stem-cell research. He is against the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) and was against the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.  He’s skeptical about anthropogenic global warming.
He opposed the Iraq war, saying that the war has "cost a lot of money, and it's taken so many American lives.  I question whether that was the right thing to do. In hindsight that looks like it was not a good policy,” he told an interviewer.
David Koch dislikes President Obama's policies. “He's the most radical president we've ever had as a nation... and has done more damage to the free enterprise system and long-term prosperity than any president we've ever had.”   Koch believes that Obama's father's economic socialism explains what Koch views as Obama's belief in “antibusiness, anti-free enterprise influences.”  He believes Obama himself is a “hardcore socialist” who is “marvelous at pretending to be something other than that.”
Halloween is the most useful time to pretend to be what you’re not.  But by all means, let them hike up to the East Side and have a chat with Koch.  He can teach them what it means to be a useful citizen rather than a useless idiot and clean up their act.
If they want something for free, maybe he’ll donate free toilet paper to their cause.



Genetic Mutants

In 1967, watching the Hippie movement, the sit-ins, the protests, and the riots on television, my father said it felt just like 1932.  He mentioned something about an education doctrine invoked by the then-recently formed teachers unions at CCNY and the pact they’d made to change the education system, generation by generation.

A good friend was in his thirties in 1967, a solid working citizen, though not yet married.  A young lady convinced him and his friends to go to a party in New York City’s Greenwich Village.  He says it might have been hosted by Abbie Hoffman, but if Hoffman was there, it was hard to tell through the haze of marijuana smoke.  There was serious talk of a violent overthrow of the government, of bombings and assassinations.

“What are you going to do with your life,” my friend asked a party-goer.  “What are you going to do for a living?”

“I dunno,” came the glassy-eyed response.

“How are you going to work?”

Again, “I dunno.”

“Don’t you care about your future?” my friend persisted.

“I don’t care,” he said.  “All I know is, I’m high!  Wheeeeee!”  The student whirled around in a circle, his hippie beads swinging.

My friend didn’t like what he was seeing and hearing.  He called to his other friends and told them they needed to get out of there; that it was dangerous.

Aside from the OWS generation’s proclivity for imitating their grandparents, is it possible that the grandparents also passed on damaged genetic material from their Woodstock drug days?  Not only did they damage their own brains with a rainbow of hallucinogenic drugs, but those of their off-spring’s off-spring as well?  The Sixties took up the tribal chant, but at least they were capable of issuing a different response, or at least memorizing what they were taught by the Thirties Generation.  Generation Zzzzz can only repeat what they hear.  Their memories are evidently so impaired that in a space of few moments, they forget what they were told.

A documentary-maker filmed the Zurcotti Park crowd.  He tried to test their knowledge of economics but received only blank stares to his questions.  Even Economics for Dummies would be beyond their ken, it seems.  One complained about the trend of technology replacing human workers; a trend as old as the Industrial Revolution.  It’s called “progress.”  Real progress, not “Progressive” progress which, according to one young lady, would have us all living on communal farms worshipping pagan gods and wearing animal skins for clothes.

A simpler life for simple people.  If you’re not smart enough to know how to invest in the stock market, or at least save some of your earnings for the future, then a commune is thebest  place for you.  They used to send useless idiots to the asylum, where the inmates lived on bread and water, believed they were masters of the universe, slept on straw, and defecated on the floor to their hearts’ content.

Forty years of socialist “progress” and this is what we have to show for it:  mental defectives squatting in a New York City park demanding free food, clothing and shelter.  Violent, unprincipled, and brain-damaged, their keepers have connived New York’s mayor into allowing them to stay there, so long as they don’t hurt anyone.  Eventually, they’ll be so doped out that the city can build a nuthouse around them.  The bad weather is coming and New York’s canyons are a wind-swept wasteland in the winter.  Put up some iron bars on the windows – for their protection, naturally – put a padlock on the door, and once a week, have the Hazmat team go in and clear out the fouled straw.

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

"Keep the Change"

Hank Williams Jr. was on Fox and Friends and made the politically “insensitive” faux pas of making an analogy between Obama and Hitler.  He wasn’t calling Obama “Hitler”, only comparing his behavior to that of the Nazi dictator.

For this, Williams was denounced and lost his job as the entertainment specialist on Monday Night Football.  But like his father, Williams not only has a way with words, but with lyrics and music, and wrote a song about the direction our nation is taking.

A generation ago, such censure would have meant a death sentence for any entertainer’s career.  But with social media, particularly YouTube, and enough of us who listen to Glenn Beck’s radio program, it’s possible to spread the word – and the music.

Not only is it a great freedom of speech anthem, it’s a terrific song.  Here is the link to Glenn Beck’s new site, The Blaze, and the Hank Williams Jr. video.  Enjoy!


Monday, October 10, 2011

For the Happiness of The Party

Thanks to the website, Chicks on the Right, for revealing the Occupy Wall Street movement’s manifesto, what OWS calls “The American People’s New Economic Charter.”  The Charter Collaborative wrote back to The Chicks that their proposal, all very inclusive and based on some new scientific method they call “crowd-sourcing.”

Among their many interesting proposals is this one on education:

“Teach character-building classes from grade one, measure success based on drive/cooperation/interactions with others, not only final outcome.  Impose universal morality for parents who do not participate in raising their children. Remove children from households with parents who refuse to educate them properly.  Provide for re-education of parents in how to properly raise their children for the happiness of the Party.”

The whole conservative blogosphere is abuzz with their serious gibberish.  We should take it seriously.  Fifteen years ago, no one would have believed that we would really be forced into universal health care.  Forty years ago, Mom said there would be times like this.
Impose universal morality on parents who don’t participate in raising their own kids?  Remove kids whose parents refuse to educate them “properly” and re-educate those parents in the ways of proper child-rearing for the happiness of The Party.  The Party?!

Did we miss the news?  Did someone resurrect Josef Stalin from the dead?  The old hippies must have figured enough time has gone by that the current generation knows nothing about his re-education camps, or China’s, and that they won’t listen to the descendants of those who lived during those times.  They conveniently ignore the fact that it was the Liberal Feminist moved to encourage women, Soviet-style, to pursue careers rather than motherhood, allowing strangers to raise and educate their children, and to take the proper offensive if anyone challenged them.

Can these people get any more Anti-Family?

1. Financial institutions like Goldman Sachs will be required “to redirect funds from their profit sheets on a regular basis to community bank start-ups or credit unions to assure economic diversity within the nation to state and county regulations. Actually, banks are already required to contribute to the Community Reinvestment Act.
Here’s more on education:
2. “Education should be funded with some of the $2 billion/week that goes to war-funding. At least 50 percent  of it.  This will weaken our millitary (sic) by 50 percent at least, forcing the rest of the world to pick up the slack.  This will in turn cause their economies to tank, taking ours with it. But at least we’ll be highly educated.”  And the Progressives would have it that the Tea Parties want to take down their own country.  This is something with which Mom would agree (remember, she’s half-related to RJ Wagner).  “Why don’t those other countries pay their fair share?  Why is it always America?” 
This is an argument that’s big amongst Conservatives and Libertarians.  The problem is a particular quandary:  we can disband our standing Armed Forces, which are, indeed, almost ruinously expensive to keep.  But if we disband them, we won’t be prepared if we’re attacked.  During World War II, the U.S. Army had to be quickly (a mere three years before Pearl Harbor) trained on World War I equipment and according to Dad, WWI rations.  The cost of education has nothing to do with disbanding the Army.  We should be disbanding the federal Department of Education.  That, indeed, would make the world safer for federal republics.
The manifesto also suggests this: “Socialize undergraduate level college. Make failing impossible to assure that everyone has the same chance in the work place post-college.  Free education for all.  Use former war expenses and equitable taxation of the rich to develop free public schools, free text books, free higher education. Assure that every student educated in the United States has a guaranteed job or can perform service in some way that recompenses their education. Forgive all current student loans.”
In the really old Soviet Union, “socialized” children were taught to snitch on their parents.  If Mom and Dad didn’t reinforce the party line, little Ivan or little Ninotchka would rat the parents out at school the next day.  By the time the little dear got home, Mom and Dad were gone, shipped off to some “re-education camp” in Siberia, never to be seen again. Just read Alexander Sozhnitzyn.
Mom and Dad were also wary of franchised nursery schools (not that the private kind turned out any better; it was worse, in fact).  Mom listened as younger women dreamed of launching careers, and hiring someone else to change the dirty diapers and dole out the discipline.  Working was much easier than raising kids.  Like mowing the lawn, it’s much easier to pay someone else to do the dirty work.  Eventually, Mom predicted that parents wouldn’t even know their children (or care) and that at a tender age, the communists could begin indoctrinating the young.
We won’t get into the energy proposals.  We’re already sort of “hip” to that boondoggle.  Nikita Kruschev promised our young people would tear down our own flag – and apparently, our own Constitution.  Here’s what the Charter Collaborative says about the Constitution
Extend constitutional rights to anyone taken into custody by American Officials. Always abide by Habius (sic) Corpus and such human rights treaties. Permanently shut down Guantanamo Bay. Give every prisoner, everywhere, a fair trial by Their Own Peers (not just randomly selected citizens or court marshals.)”
To ensure that our government is addressing the needs of its tax paying citizens, it should be held accountable for achieving specific Gross National Happiness index target values.”
The OWS has thought of everything. They’ve created “New Salary Range Recommendations Based on Concepts of Economic Sustainability and Right Livelihood.”
Bankers $20,000
Lawyers $27,500
Realtors $25,000
Doctors $28,000
Nurses $27,500
Teachers/Librarians/Train Engineers/Bridge Maintenance/Ship Pilots, etc. $35,000
Police $36,000
Public Servants $28,500
Laborers $20,000
Other public sector $30,000
Other private sector $29,000
Technical/Research/Academic $36,000
Entrepreneurs/Business Owners $10,000
Congress $30,000
President 40,000
Soldiers N/A
Defense workers $25,000
All jobs include full health benefit for worker and family, full retirement benefits, full free education for children.”
Notice how teachers not only make more money than anyone else, but they list themselves twice.  Once under “Teachers” and again under “Academic Research.”  Soldiers are not applicable but Defense Workers are.  If we have no soldiers, what exactly will the Defense Workers be doing?
Meanwhile, business owners will only be allowed to keep up to $10,000 of their profits.  My community band, a non-profit organization, makes more money than that.  The listing of Realtors is rather amazing since the Communists admit they plan to do away with property rights.  What will we need realtors for if the government owns everything?  Clearly, they didn’t think everything through.
The collaborators admit their manifesto is still in its infancy – as are they.  This was their response to The Chicks on the Right:
  1. The Charter Collaborative October 10, 2011 at 12:32 pm ·
Dear Chicks on the Right,
Thanks for the notoriety, and you’re welcome for the laughs at our expense.
Let’s get straight what the New Economic Charter is and what it isn’t.
Here’s the disclaimer we just posted at http://bit.ly/pg5PN7, in response to your skewering, below. Serious contributions are welcome. We admit that it’s “in its infancy, not yet ready for release” as you write. No kidding. It needs major work. What it will eventually be is an action plan supported by broad-based opinion – progressive, yes, but not the product of any think tank or well-financed, rich-guy supported PAC, and hopefully a balance of governmental and libertarian solutions to a serious national crisis that nobody at this point can deny.
DISCLAIMER
The contents of this document, “The American People’s New Economic Charter” (hereafter APNEC) and the statements, positions, arguments, etc. contained herein do not represent the views of any legal entity or registered organization.
At present, due to the crowd-sourcing nature of the drafting process so far, the contents of the APNEC reflect the direct input of a wide variety and large number of individuals, and can therefore be expected to be contradictory, of uneven editorial quality, ideologically diverse, academically more or less qualified, and of varying degrees of seriousness and commitment. Such characteristics are inherent to the process of crowd-sourcing at this stage.
In the spirit of democracy, inclusiveness, respect for our diversity, and our patriotic duty as Americans to advocate for what we individually believe will serve the common good of our nation, we will continue for a time to welcome input to the APNEC in the crowd-sourcing method described above, and will in a subsequent phase endeavor to collaboratively edit it so that a practical, responsible action plan emerges that fairly and reasonably reflects the hopes and needs of the 99%, responds to the Declaration of the Occupation of New York City, and charts a course for our nation away from its current crises and toward a better future.
- The Charter Collaborative, Monday, October 10, 2011

Adam Smith’s Invisible Hand philosophy holds that people work for their own interests, and in the great scheme of things, others ultimately benefit.  The only other way to compel them to meet society’s “needs” is through regulation, conscription, and punishment.  Violent punishment if they don’t comply with the rules for the Happy State.  In this, the religion of Islam is very much in agreement.  They are using class envy, warfare and psychology on an ignorant populace to herd them into the socialist pasture.

We cannot be timid in countering and denouncing their efforts, no matter how ridiculous they appear at the moment.  Remember:  there's nothing unconstitutional about criticizing what someone says or writes.  They can't, and shouldn't, be punished; but they can certainly be proven wrong.  During the Great Depression, when the demarcation line of poverty was much lower, accepting charity, even that given freely, was considered a dishonor.  Going on the dole lowered your status as a citizen; it was considered a disgrace.  You first went to your family if you were in trouble, then your church.  Then you pulled yourself up by your bootstraps.  Being on the dole was equivalent to being a ne’er-do-well, a thief.  Moral relativism and political correctness have banished individual responsibility to the dust bin.  Greed has ever been a villain; but so has envy, at least until modern times.

If only everybody had everything everybody else had.  The Socialists would have it that we would all be better off if everyone made the same salary and we all had the same possessions.  The Bible tells us that we’re better off being humble and not craving what everybody else has.  If our neighbor has more than we do, it should not be for us to curse them, or steal from them, but rather to content with whatever we have.  Those who do have are encouraged by the Bible to share what they have.  But it is for God, not the Government or other people, to judge what the wealthy do or do not share.  We think far too much of material wealth, none more so than the Socialists.  They use that wealth to cause more misery and dissension among people than any lack of wealth could ever do.  Their interference with the natural course of things could very well bring about the end of the world.

Ninety-Nine and Three-Quarters Percent Fake

The secret of the Occupy Wall Street organizers is that you would have to be over 50 to actually remember the protests of the Sixties.  This is all 1960s redux.  Their main theme was the Vietnam War.  But they were also all about racial justice, feminism, and redistribution of wealth.  They won a huge victory with the introduction of the Welfare State.

Saul Alinsky was known for beating down on the businesses in Rochester, N.Y., until they were willing to negotiate the hiring of uneducated minorities.  Nancy Pelosi was on one of the Sunday talk shows cheerleading for the Occupy Wall Street crowd.  “We’re the 99 percent,” they cry, of Middle America.

What they actually are is a composite of liberal student activists and union members.  They had a picture of a little boy holding up a sign claiming that his mommy cried because she couldn’t afford to buy him a birthday present.  Of course, the sign never said just what that birthday present was that he wanted:  a $350 X-box, perhaps?

Occupy Wall Street’s main street complaint is that they can’t live in the style to which they want to be accustomed.  Ninety-percent of Americans own a refrigerator, a stove, a telephone (a landline phone, that is) and a television.  In addition, a slightly lower number own a washing machine, an air conditioner, and have cable television.  Meanwhile, those dastardly wealthy (including Democrats in Congress) are flying off to Caribbean Islands in private jets.

The greatest rewards go to those who take the greatest risks.  From those great risks, there are sometimes great failures, but also great inventions and discoveries.  No one can guarantee the future.  Big Brother was just talking about job security.  “Those last 15 years fly by the fastest,” said he, “and that’s when you make the most in pension, but also need to be careful in how you spend so you’ll actually have something when you retire.”

The stocks and bonds of Wall Street were America’s best means for preparing for future retirement and also for the country’s future prosperity.  Americans invested in company’s, which were then able to use the capital to build businesses and jobs.  In return, retiring Americans could count on the dividends to help them in their golden years.

The system was quite fair and positive.  Sometimes it’s risky, but the old saw was true – that the stock market always goes up in the long-run.  At periods, like now, it’s volatile, but generally dependable, if you a) didn’t panic and b) diversified your portfolio; didn’t put all your eggs in one basket.

The government employee unions,  like the train robbers of old, saw a much better way:  hold a legal gun to taxpayers’ heads.  Those union employees, boasting about being part of Middle America?  They’ve got to be kidding.  They live much better than the average American, and why shouldn’t they?  They’re doing it on our dimes, our savings, our retirement funds, and they want more.  Then they have the nerve to “sympathize” with us?

They’re comparing themselves to the Tea Parties; taking notes from our book.  There’s one word missing from their book, however: freedom.  The modern Tea Parties – heck, even the 1773 Tea Parties (after Boston, others followed) – were about freedom and free market capitalism.  The freedom to make it on your own.  The freedom to choose the object of your charity.

Occupy Wall Street is about servitude.  Some foolish starlet called for beheadings?  That’s not the American Revolution; that’s the French revolution.  Such invectives are meant to frighten and intimidate Middle Class American, not join in solidarity.  Reports from the park in New York City are that it’s turning into an urban Woodstock, with Occupiers fouling the streets and openly doing drugs.

If you go to school in New York City, you either have to live there and attend CUNY or you have to have some nice little family trust fund to support you.  Being vagrants, they have the time to “occupy” Wall Street, or rather, lay siege to its neighborhood since they’re not actually allowed on Wall Street itself.  We working people, and even those of us who may be on the verge of unemployment or are already there, would confront them peacefully, but we still have to work or look for employment.

This is what comes of “compromise.”  There is no compromising with those who argue for social issues.  In the end, welfare, bailouts, unemployment, government healthcare, are all an unproductive, economic drain on our economy.  Capitalists provide the best chance for secure employment; it is the government – a socialist government – that destroys opportunity, hinders creativity, punishes achievement, and robs the productive of their own gains, place those gains into the hands of the corrupt, the wicked, and the lazy.

Food, clothing, and shelter are the traditional primary needs and the baseline for poverty.  Even on a minimum income, a family could procure these three necessities.  The rest is icing on the cake.  The refrigerator, the stove, and the air conditioner (at least for the elderly) are the minimum.  Some of the extras are so low-cost these days, like a microwave oven, that even a working-class “poor” family could afford one.

If Occupy Wall Street and its backers really want security for their minions, then they need to support Wall Street, not tear it down.  Stop encouraging the poor towards illusory, unrealistic dreams.  Renting isn’t pleasant, but it’s not the end of the world.  Teach them to save what money they have, to be economical.  Encourage their children to learn to read and write.  Forget about the cable television.  Let the kids wear hand-me-downs.  Don’t drink or smoke; aside from the obvious health problems, those are expensive habits.  Speaking of expensive habits, they should also cut up ther credit cards and take away the kids’ cell phones.  The working poor should abandon those dream vacations to Acapulco or the Bahamas.  They shouldn’t be taking expensive holidays when they don’t know where their next paycheck is coming from. 

Life is tough; stop whining and get used to it.  If you plan wisely and carefully, you can get through it.  Give in to this occupation, and you’ll be beggars forever.