Wall Street Values-Do you really think our legislators understand this?

I have very little faith in our elected officials in Washington, DC. There is a song about rearranging chairs on a ship that is going down. That is how I feel sometimes about the state of our economic disaster--and our politicians' ability to deal with the problems. If anyone really doubts who is making our decisions for us--just look at the intellectual firepower of the Democrats in the NAACP.

But here is an article on how the price of wheat moved from $3-6 per bushel to over $20 per bushel--all while the world produced more wheat than ever before in the history of the world!!!

What caused this mess? Wall Street, of course!

Do you think your elected Representative understands, let alone, has the foresight and wisdom (and is capable of writing legislation) to protect us from this happening again?

Short Term Borrowing--Big Time Problem

This is where we are headed--and fast. The world is living on short term borrowing and when interest rates rise, watch out!!

Read this great article here.

The Arrogance of Power

I didn't realize how arrogant career politicians can become, but this video is alarming. As you watch the video, remember that estimates of illegal aliens coming in from Mexico approach 2 million per year. Listen to the tone of this Democrat Congressman's voice as he shows complete disdain for people asking for border control. Then listen to the people--the legal immigrants give a compassionate defense of enforcing the law.

Congressman Stephanie Herseth Sandlin must cringe when she has to defend the actions of her Democrat colleagues!!!

Tax Increases are coming for 2011

Tax increases are going to wreak havoc on corporate profits, stock market and US Gov't tax reciepts...The tax increases go into effect for 2011. Brace yourselves for the DOUBLE DIP!

Read the article by Arthur Laffer here...

The Decline of the Euro

Just one year ago, the euro, we were told, was going to be the world reserve currency. Today, a prominent US Senator predicts the death of the euro. Which is it?

Or is this just an orchestrated attempt of Europe to increase their exports to the US by making their goods cheaper here?

Or does the 20% decline in the euro to the dollar have sinister motives from currency traders such as George Soros?

Who knows anymore.

Illegal Immigration -- The First and Only Problem We Should Care About

Even if we identify an illegal immigrant, all we do is deport them.

Every dollar we spend when this is the punishment is a dollar wasted.

Watch this video and find out what this policy encourages.

Printing Money? This should be a fun ride!

Republicans vs. Democrats

I have had a very difficult time coming up with the differences between the Republican Party and the Democrat Party. They simply have too much in common. Because both political parties continually seek control of Congress, the Presidency and the political agenda, they continually compromise their values until they are so diluted you really can't recognize who they are.

Independents, being in the middle, simply don't believe in principles and are willing to compromise consistent, principled values to gain power.

But why do people identify with being Republican? Why do people identify with being Democrat?

What are the principles that a Republican shares with other Republicans and a Democrat shares with other Democrats?

A moderate (Republican or Democrat) is simply a person that relates with the principles of their party, but would compromise almost all of those principles in order to get along (the less sinister outlook) or to cling to power (the more sinister (and the more realistic) outlook)).

An Independent chooses to not stand firm on any principle, but rather would like to compromise on a case by case basis. They look at themselves as a judge between two opposing and unrealistic principles. Their entire belief system requires them to believe all principles are wrong. Their principles and beliefs are based on human reason and political expediency based on how to get along.

This behavior rarely works long term. As much as people would like to get along, there comes a point where you must stand for something. You must draw the line somewhere.

There are no easy answers on any issue. In order to understand nearly any complex issue is to be a dog chasing his own tail. If and when the dog finally does catch his own tail, he soon realizes that to bite his tail is to hurt himself.

To understand why issues become increasingly complex, one simply has to understand mathematics. I can ask the question, "what number plus six equals twenty?" Very quickly we can determine the answer. But, if I say, "what two numbers plus six equals twenty?" The equation gets a little more difficult--and there is more than one answer. To make it even more confusing, if I add that of the two numbers, one is 2 more than the other one, you slowly make things more confusing.

This is illustrative of political issues. There are hundreds, thousands and even millions of variables. Nobody can really figure out the real answers, so people must start to figure out things by using principles that can be extrapolated onto the whole.

In this vein, I will try to explain the difference between a Republican and a Democrat.

A Democrat simply wishes things were different and believes that government can help make things better. A Democrat, for example, looks at millions of people born into poverty. A Democrat looks to government to try to eliminate poverty. If a Democrat is born into poverty, they know that it is in their power to change things. But if someone else is born into poverty, it is up to the government to help that person.

A Republican understands why things aren't different and believes that if things are to change, it can only change on an individual basis. For example, millions of people are born into poverty. A Republican can't do anything about that. But if I am born into poverty and want to get out, there are steps that I must take. If you are born into poverty, there are steps you must take.

Do you agree with this statement? If I want something, I must do certain things to get it.

Or do you agree with this statement? I am entitled to certain things.

This statement? I serve coffee at a coffee shop at the beach. My employer should pay me a livable wage so I can drive a Lexus, live in a nice apartment and have health care. If my employer can't pay for it, the government should pay for it.

Or this statement? I know nobody could afford a cup of coffee if my employer payed all of his employees enough money to drive a Lexus, live in a nice apartment on the beach and have health care.

This statement? It is not fair doctors gets paid so much money.

Or this statement? If I sacrifice, get really good grades so I can get accepted into medical school, attend school for 11 years, take out $235,000 worth of debt, I could become a doctor.

This statement? Insurance companies are greedy.

Or this statement? If competition drives down prices, and insurance companies are making so much money, wouldn't it make sense more businesses would sell insurance, thereby reducing the price of insurance for everyone?

This statement? Government should provide health care for everyone.

Or this statement? If competition lowers prices, encourages invention and increases efficiency, how could removing all competition lower prices, encourage invention and increase efficiency?

It is my contention Republicans are more logical and reasonable in approaching problems. We recognize that there are some problems that are not possible to solve--like poverty. Democrats believe that there are problems that only government can eliminate the role of government is to eliminate these problems.

The thing everyone has to understand is that government must take money from someone against their will and give it to someone else to solve problems. Republicans believe this is not the proper role of government. Democrats think it is. Independents and moderate Republicans believe as Democrats, only they wouldn't give as much as Democrats.

So where do you stand?

More Government Sponsored Deceit..GM Style

General Motors paid back the government (and (future) taxpayers) in full...with interest!!!

Except it is nothing but a public relations LIE...

read the details here...

Are Non-Partisan Mayoral Elections Possible?

For those people living in Sioux Falls that believe running for mayor of Sioux Falls is a non-partisan endeavor, I'd like to interrupt your play party with Puff the Magic Dragon just long enough to read this article about his "non-partisan campaign manager"...

Sioux Falls Needs a Real Pro Business Mayor

Do you believe the powerful hand of government is stronger than the invisible hand of a free market? That is the simple question in the Sioux Falls mayoral election.

Kermit Staggers believes in the principled philosophy of limited government while Mike Huether will seldom see a problem government can’t fix. For Huether to argue Staggers is opposed to growth and progress because of his belief that we should live within our means is to believe in Heuther and his fellow Democrats’ illogical belief that our country must spend ourselves out of bankruptcy. The problem is not that Huether is a Democrat. It is that he is an Obama-Hildebrand Democrat.

Another great contortion of logic is that Huether is pro-business. People making this charge are entrenched interests that believe in fiscal discipline, only after their special interest is well funded by city, state and federal government programs.

Through discreet arrangements using political connections, they agree to grow their portion of government, by forging “compromise” with people that would like benefits of their own. In their vision of government, everybody gets along—and gets what they want.

Except the taxpayer. The average senior citizen living on a fixed income or the laborer who works 60 hours a week to get ahead doesn’t get to take part of the special interest government free for all.

Heuther and the Democrats would lead you to believe they are pro-business, while they simultaneously push to increase the size and scope of government at every level—city, county, state and federal. Today, Democrats have demonstrated the government takeover of health care and even believe in global government through the international taxation of carbon dioxide in the form of the anti-business scheme called cap and trade.

Mike Huether touts his business experience, but his business practices are the very reason government is expected to increase regulation against corporate greed. A staunch Democrat, Mike Huether has made his living taking advantage of poor people and it is for this reason Democrat politicians are disingenuous and opportunistic.

At the beginning of 2007, First Premiere Bank, led by Mike Huether, was at the epicenter of the sub prime lending implosion. Under Mike’s leadership, First Premiere charged extraordinary over-limit fees, late charges, and triple digit interest rates and was charged by bank regulators with unfair lending practices. Huether claims to be looking out for the poor while stepping on them to pad his own bank account. Mike’s business succeeds when the customer loses. These values are not what we want from our next mayor.

Kermit Staggers has fought on a local level when principle was needed most. Had he not fought so hard to control the insatiable appetite of government and to prevent good-intentioned but ill-conceived regulation, Sioux Falls would be in worse financial shape and would not be prepared to take advantage of opportunities brought on by the failures of government in other cities and states. Detroit is just one city that bowed down to special interests and labor unions. Today, those same labor unions support Huether for Mayor.

Kermit Staggers believes the greatest progress is found with the greatest freedom. Kermit is not about get rich quick schemes that take advantage of the poor and nearly bankrupt the world’s financial system. He believes in the tried and true principles that have lasted throughout time. He believes government should provide a safe community to live and work, should empower people to provide for themselves and set fair rules for all citizens by removing the chains and shackles of government taxation and regulation.

If you are concerned about putting trust back into government, it begins right here in Sioux Falls.

You can trust Kermit Staggers for Mayor. Polls close today at 7pm.

Government Supported Green Jobs are a Scam

I think everyone should read this article and listen with skepticism the next time you hear a politician talking about "good paying" green jobs.

As long as we have global competition, we will not have good paying jobs because we have to compete with lower paying laborers with lower living standards. Further, we will continue to rely on natural resources mined in other countries and will always be at the will of the market (controlled by global demand and international monopolist supply).

Oh, and green jobs are a pipe dream...

Wall Street Values

Imagine if you set up a business and sold a product specifically designed to fail. Then you sold the product to unsuspecting people by telling them how great the product was and how much money they could make if they bought it.

That is exactly what Goldman Sachs did. Not only did Goldman Sachs make money selling the product. They made money selling products to people that were betting they were going to fail. Chances are, the company even bet against their own product.

This is not right. People should be in jail.

Read it here in the NY Times.

Union Card Check--Why is Herseth For This?

This is the only information you need to know about unions...

Watch this video.

Budget Deficit Update

If only a person could close their eyes and the nations budget deficit would go away. But here is the latest predictions of the budget deficit--the highest total ever--and 2011 is only going to get worse...

As a quick reminder, this has nothing to do with the fact that Social Security and Medicare is going bankrupt, and that states are going broke due to out of control Medicaid--which is to provide health care to people below 65 and poor...

Ohh, to be a politician these days. They definitely need more than their 10 fingers and 10 toes to plug the holes in this damn that is leaking...

Read it here.

Paygo is a "paper tiger"

Blue Dog Democrats, moderate Democrats and Paygo is simply political posturing and pandering.

Stephanie Herseth Sandlin believes that by talking about being a Blue Dog Democrat and pushing through legislation that appears to be responsible, she will be able to get reelected. But this op-ed by Sen. Jim Bunning highlighting the phoniness of 'PAYGO' legislation is so prescient. It explains exactly how Democrat proposals are political in nature, just to buy votes...

Read it here...

More is Paid to Americans than taken in form of taxes

Government is broken. But the interesting part of this article is that more money is paid out to Americans than they are sending in taxes for the first time in our history.

This article summarizes the concern we have about being dependent on government for our well being...Eventually the well dries up.

Waterboarding is Bad, Assassinations, on the Other Hand...

I have always been amazed at by the righteous indignation of "torture" on our enemy, but the lack of concern that we "assassinate" our enemy all the time. It must be hard to live between the justification and recognition of neutralizing our enemy on one hand, yet not wanting to "hurt" them on the other...

Here is a great article outlining our nations policy on assassination...

Now Just a Minute

Now Just a Minute - with Neal Tapio

Overview--For the last twenty years, I have been involved in politics and have been disgusted by the two party system. Very little education of voters actually takes place. Instead, demonization of opponents, demagogy and pandering have become the norm and negative advertising has become the form

Who--To reach people politicians ordinarily wouldn't talk to and steer them into becoming more conservative

What--A one minute commentary pointing out the absurdity, ridiculousness, and wrongheaded thought processes of a larger, more liberal government because it defies the basic common sense principles of hard work, personal responsibility and risk/reward competitive behavior

When--Every morning for one minute

Where--On every possible radio station and every possible format, from top 40, classical to talk radio

How--In order to reach people that don't pay much attention to politics, it is important to talk to them in parables--just as Jesus did. Instead of talking in accusations and inflammatory political rhetoric, we would speak to them, over time, by subtly pointing out the error of liberalism and big government solutions.

We would scour the globe for illustrations of liberal ideas gone awry, point out how well intentioned they were, but how the results went off track. The punch line would always be...

but wait just a minute...(e.g. what happens when the more one spends on helping people, the more they expect?)

Money Potential-I would hope that we could get these on every radio station in the country. Because we don't want to be blatantly controversial, but rather subtly and gently questioning, we should be able to appeal to local businesspeople who, 1) want to grow there business, and 2) want to support our mission of reaching and educating the masses of people, who were educated in a school system that indoctrinated people in liberal thought.

The idea is that we would buy 2 minutes of space from the radio station and sell 1 minute of advertising to support our radio minute. If we could double the cost of radio advertising by selling local advertising who would like to sponsor our mission, we could move from market to market growing our business.

More information and background material on our conversation topic would be found at our website. Here we could slowly build a brand, (and a loyal following) where we could reach them to sell other things (e.g. songs, books, speaking engagements, bumper stickers, pins, etc.) We could also have advertising from our local providers if we had a large enough following.

Cellulosic Ethanol is a Crock

For anybody thinking the Federal Government should be spending money on researching cellulosic ethanol, please read this.

The bureaucrats at the Department of Energy are in the process of spending $32 billion on alternative energy. When you read this, you will understand why I am opposed to the government giving private industry money to "study" any alternative energy. We are wasting taxpayer money on a scale that has never been seen before.

This is why we are running a $1.5 trillion ANNUAL budget deficit.

How Washington Proposes Creating Jobs

If this wasn't so scary, it would actually be funny.

There is a "jobs" bill floated by a Democrat lawmaker in Washington that would create a million new jobs. Now most of us would rightly believe that Washington isn't really good at creating jobs, mostly because common sense tells us that government isn't designed to produce anything of value. Also, most of us understand for government to create a job, they have to take money from someone else to do it. So then, is it really a job?

Well, here is the proposal...lower the retirement age to 60 for six months. This would have the effect of creating openings of the people that are retiring.

Read it here.

I try not to be partisan, but if a Republican ever tried to float such a dumb idea, I promise you, they would get laughed out of the town by other Republicans. Unfortunately, other Democrats might just actually embrace it.

EPA Proposal

The Obama Administration and the EPA are filled with a bunch of social engineers that believe they have the control and power to affect the world's temperature by a half degree over the next fifty years.

To do this, they want to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 70% over the next 20 years. Hmmm. Which leads me to my new proposal.

We should try to reduce the size of government by 70% over the next 20 years. We can start by immediately cutting all funding for global climate studies and environmental scientists at the EPA immediately.

It is good to have goals.

National Debt Explained Again

Maybe Tom Brokaw was more right than he thought when he named the WWII generation "the Greatest Generation."

Through their sacrifice and work, they secured the freedom and liberty of half of the Western world. (the other half was locked into a time warp called communism)

But what Brokaw probably didn't realize is that during their lifetime, they oversaw a "standard of living" bubble that inflated from just over nothing in the 1930's to reach the peak in around 2016. Unfortunately, the bubble is about to burst.

There is no way for a population to consume more than is produced. And that is where we find ourselves today.

Read this article here...

Federal Reserve:Printing Money-Buying MBS's

As we continue to hear the political drival coming out of politicians mouths about the economy coming around and prepared to grow, we get this great article from the Kansas City Federal Reserve President.

We are in serious trouble and it is going to be painful to get out of it! These little stories get buried because politicians don't want to hear (or tell) the truth. Politicians understand that "confidence" will get the economy moving. Unfortunately, politicians don't care if it is real confidence or false confidence. This article talks about the 'real' confidence...

Crony Capitalism

Government involvement in free enterprise is nothing new. At my most recent position within the ethanol industry, the entire industry is beholden to Washington policy.

This story by John Stossel sums up the real problems with Washington. Politicians are picking winners and losers and they shouldn't be...

Watch it here.

Lets Spend More Money!

Quick. Who would most likely say the following?

"The only way we are going to get out of this recession [that was created by spending money we didn't have] is to spend more money."

A Democrat? or a Republican.

I know. It is a dumb question. But here is the answer.

Bringing Reason, Logic and Common Sense to Government

I often think about running for Congress and I wonder what slogan I would want to summarize why I am running. Some people think you run on smaller government, lower taxes and eventually a slogan appears--such as, "It's time" was for John Thune's run against Tom Daschle.

But a slogan can help build momentum as well, and I have now come up with a slogan for my upcoming run for the US Congress.

"Bringing Reason, Logic and Common Sense back to Government"

What inspired me is watching this video by John Stossel regarding Anne Rayndes book Atlas Shrugged. He interviewed a bank president who ran his bank with the principles of self reliance and "selfishness." that is espoused in the book.

Watch the video here.

Now think about some of the businesses in South Dakota and see if they match the classic definition of a "win-win" and "lose-lose" scenarios involving businesses and customers. There are numerous businesses in South Dakota who don't subscribe to these scenarios. They really believe that if the customers lose, the businesses will win. I will name names at another time.

The ag community in SD needs to sharpen their opposition to cap and trade. The SD Corngrowers Association, at their annual Stephanie Herseth Sandlin Promotion Convention positively declared that they don't oppose cap and trade. Big mistake.

This is a good article here.

Republicans Must Propose Solutions

I have recently become frightened by professional Republicans. It was just yesterday I had the overwhelming feeling the Republicans were only capitalizing on the Democrat overreaching and not proposing any solutions to real problems our country is facing.

Now I read Peggy Noonan today and she feels the same way.

Don't get me wrong, to defeat health care and cap and trade would be major victories--and Republicans had a hand in their defeat. But I am concerned about the lack of ideas coming from Republicans--proactive ideas that identify and solve problems. I am concerned about the lack of proposals to significantly and immediately reduce the size of the budget deficit.

I am also concerned about a lack of understanding about the peril of our economy. I think Beltway staffers really believe the government reports that the economy is at the bottom and ready to rebound. Nothing could be further from the truth.

We are not at the bottom. We are not at the proverbial crossroads. Our country is teetering on the abyss, and one false move and we don't just lose some jobs, we lose our position in the world as a superpower, a leader, and the moral compass for those that dream of freedom.

In order to return from the abyss, we must act boldly and confidently. We must reduce the size and scope of government, and we must return to fundamentals. Now is not the time to talk about tax cuts. It is a time to oppose tax increases. Now is not the time to spend more money. Now is the time to freeze spending.

In a phrase, now is the time to reduce volatility in the marketplace. Set in place a tax code that will not change, which people can count on. This will encourage investment much more than promises of lower taxes. Set in place a comprehensive energy policy that encourages all forms of energy, including coal, nuclear and drilling. The next ten years isn't going to destroy the environment, but it could destroy the American place in the world.

Finally, Republicans must act with urgency and foresight. We can not afford to react in a crisis. We must be proactive and confident in our positions. We must promise to reduce the size of the deficits immediately--through the use of across the board cuts. This must be the law of the land until we have the courage to debate where we can agree to cut.