DE Conservative

A New Source in the First State

2012-02-17T09:17:00.003-05:00

Delaware media has been traditionally controlled by apologists and elitists but no more. There's a new game in town when it comes to media. First State Media Group has formed to bring you the things that the other guys won't. They will cover news stories that the others won't and give you opinions and perspectives that you won't get anywhere else. The best part? It's all done by regular Delawareans. No elites, no uppity holier than thous and your opinions are not only welcomed but encouraged. They thrive on comments by Delawareans and they need your stories, your upcoming events, your suggestions for new designs, stories and service offerings and of course your financial support. Stop by and visit First State News and make sure you leave a comment, let them know what you think good or bad. They can take it.

http://firststatenews.wordpress.com/

The News Journal Dutifully Defends Fisker

2012-02-14T10:02:00.000-05:00

The News Journal has a story yesterday on Fisker Automotive's survivability. In it they defend the start-up against every question and call any comment that questions the ideas of the company and the government "politically motivated". I'm sorry News Journal, but what's politically motivated, is your fish wrap paper. This is the longest government propaganda piece I have ever read. When the Caesar Rodney Institute looked at the Fisker business model, it questioned whether or not the company could meet rather lofty sales goals. Since then, Fisker has twice drastically revised their sales goals as production delays, cash flow problems and problems with the vehicles battery system. I wouldn't call that "politically motivated" questioning. I'd call it looking at the facts and asking questions that make sense instead of blindly buying whatever line of bull that the government throws at you. Let's tackle some of the problems with the News Journal's defenses of Fisker (why a NEWS organization can't just report the facts and call a spade a spade, I'll never understand).

Fisker's Funding

One of the knocks against Fisker is that it has drawn more support from the government than from private capital. The News Journal claims in their piece that Fisker has raised $850 million in private capital compared with $528 million in Federal loans, $21.5 million in Delaware direct aid (grants that will not be paid back), a sweetheart no bid land deal on the old GM Boxwood Road plant (saving them tens of millions of dollars on property costs) and untold amounts in California state aid to the start-up company. USA Today however, gathered different information from the Department of Energy who reviews the funding of companies to whom they give grant and loan money. They say that Fisker has only brought in $650 million in private equity compared to at least $550 million in government promised aid. That's a 54% private funding ratio which no other industry could survive under. That means 46% of the company is subsidized by government funding.

Talking Points

As is typical from the News Journal, they sought out as many left wing sources as they could. Not hard in Delaware where the far left has bought up every office they can find. In fact, the only alternative voice they found was Delaware GOP Chairman John Sigler and they took his quotes out of context. Let's cover some of the more ridiculous statements:
Josh Freed - The Third Way (Progressive Soros funded group)

“Frankly, it would be the equivalent of the Internet sector finding themselves under political attack in the early ’90s as they emerged or automobile companies coming under attack in the early 1900s as they were becoming competitive with horse-drawn carriages and trains as a mode of transportation,” said Josh Freed, vice president for clean energy at Third Way, a centrist Washington, D.C., think tank.

Now this sounds incredibly thought provoking but it's not the first time we've heard it...Obama's Delaware bred messaging czar David Plouffe said this:

“Well, let’s step back for a minute. We have to win this race, you know, we–if we don’t win the clean energy race in terms of technology, innovation, and jobs, and cede it to other countries, we’re not going to have the century–we need this. It’d be like us ceding the automotive industry race or the Internet and computer race.”

Similar points, same problems. Here they are.

Auto companies - The automobile industry wasn't subsidized by the government in the 1900's. Henry Ford didn't get government help to develop the assembly line and even the oil and gas industry didn't receive government tax breaks until 50 years after it launched. So if we want to treat the green energy industry like the auto companies, we should remove all funding.
Internet - The internet's backbone was indeed created by the government but that was in the 50's and 60's when the government was using it as a defense network. By the 1990's, the backbone existed and there was little to no government funding for private internet companies. In fact, the 90's internet boom was such a boom because the government WASN'T pocketing profits. The money was changing hands in the private sector.

Senator Anthony DeLuca

Senator DeLuca was quoted as saying that "tax incentives and government backed loans are not new" concepts. Well Senator DeLuca is right but that doesn't mean that tax incentives and government backed loans are right and proper simply because we've been doing them for a while. Holding individuals as slaves wasn't any more right in 1860 than it was in 1776 simply because it wasn't a new idea. It was wrong all along the way because it's wrong. The government picking winners and losers is simply a losing proposition and Delaware has proven that first with Blue Water Wind and now with Fisker. Both are government supported programs and both have or are failing.

Alan Levin

Alan Levin, DEDO Chief and resident Markell Administration "Republican" whose very presence on the staff deflects most criticism of the Markell Administration's failed economic policy from Republicans, said that the "shortest way to fail is to not try". An awesome bumper sticker for sure but light on substance. In this case, you don't have people saying do nothing. You have people saying that what you're doing doesn't make sense and that you should look to solid, tried and true methods to lift us out of the depression we are in. You have people who understand that when the chips are down, every dollar counts. You don't spend your last dollar on a lottery ticket. Mr. Levin is known locally for creating "Happy Harry's" a discount drug store that was eventually bought for millions of dollars by Walgreens. Mr. Levin knows better than anyone, how businesses should work. It's curious then, that someone so steeped in business acumen would not understand the simple fact that a start-up company with no name recognition, no long term reputation and little to no advertising who plans to immediately leap frog two well funded, long established rivals and capture 20% of the market within 2 years is a little far-fetched. Either Mr. Levin isn't as smart as we think he is (unlikely) or he's schilling for the Governor to score political points.

The above points are just a few examples of truth over the fiction of the News Journal puff piece. Folks, we're dealing with a lack of responsibility here. From the top of our government to the media who props them up we have a machine that just keeps wasting more and more money, time and prosperity on their friends and campaign donors. We've got to wake up. Here's an exercise for you, read the News Journal piece and see if you can find the inconsistencies with reality then post them here.

Fisker’s folly costs Delaware more than tax dollars

2012-02-07T15:13:00.000-05:00

Brian Selander responded to harsh criticism from DelawareGOP chairman John Sigler about the Fisker layoffs. He cited Congressman Castle and PresidentBush as Republicans who joined the Democrats in their scheme to pick winnersand losers with taxpayer dollars. Perhaps Mr. Selander wasn’t paying attention last year but Delawarereplaced Congressman Castle BECAUSE of support for plans like this, Cap andTrade and universal healthcare (which Castle voted against after spending morethan a year campaigning in FAVOR of it). Perhaps Mr. Selander has been too busy holding on to Governor Markell’scoat tails to see that a majority of Delaware Republicans have rejected the biggovernment/massive spending by the Bush Administration. The bottom line is that there are alwaysgoing to be the Olympia Snowe’s and the Mike Castle’s of the world who willside with bad ideas. Picking a handfulof people who don’t see the forest through the trees is laughably short citedand unfortunate to come from someone in the Governor’s office.

The reality is that Fisker, like Blue Water Wind before itand Bloom Energy in the future is another in a string of government greenenergy busts that will in the end cost taxpayers hundreds of billions ofdollars. Fisker was touted to be one ofthe biggest and best opportunities that will revive our state’s economy. It was supposed to be a success story in theAmerican Green Energy plan but it’s been plagued with a series offailures. Now, 26 employees in Delaware(40 more in California) and a number of subcontractors are being let go. This after Fisker fell behind its productionschedule and poor sales results, after experiencing exploding battery problemssimilar to that of the Volt, after being “unable to find a suitable contractmanufacturer in America” and moving operations to Finland “temporarily” and allthis AFTER receiving a promise of $529 million from the Department of Elections($193 million paid out thus far). Evenindustry experts and alternative energy supporters are pointing to Fisker as anexample of what NOT to sink money into. WDELnews reports that Chelsea Sexton, an alternative fuel advocate, has beencritical of the Fisker “investment”:

"We have yet to see enough substance from Fisker at anypoint to justify the investments that have been made. So as frustrating as itis to see people lose their jobs, I also can't condone the DOE revising theirloan, when they haven't met what they're supposed to do,"

The Blaze news service sums it up quite well:

So,let’s see if we got this straight:
Fisker Automotive is given $193 million of a $529 million DOE loan to produce two lines of plug-in hybrid cars and, presumably, create jobs
The company is unable to find a contract manufacturer in the United States, so it outsources manufacturing jobs to Finland (the company vehemently denies charges that it has used any part of the federal loan to fund manufacturing operations in Finland)
The automaker falls behind its production schedule and experiences“delays” in its sales (i.e. poor sales), depleting its capital
But to qualify for the rest of the $529 million loan guarantee, the company has to maintain a certain amount of capital
Therefore, in order to meet this DOE benchmark, Fisker Automotive decides it will save money by laying off an “undisclosed number” of employees
Considering thatthis is yet another government-sponsored clean energy investmentthat has experienced layoffs, and contrary to what Energy Secretary StevenChu’s says, Fisker Automotive hardly seems like “proof positive” that the WhiteHouse’s efforts to create new jobs are working.

In the end, who is hurt by this? The Delaware (and American) taxpayers for oneas hundreds of millions of dollars are once again squandered on yet anothermassive government failure. Also beatenabout the head and neck are the Delaware UAW members whose jobs were snatchedfrom them by the failures of Chrysler and GM. They were promised new opportunities with Fisker and that has beensnatched from them. Delawareans who arealready facing a crisis of confidence have also been hurt. Who are they to trust? Our government has failed them time and againby simply overstretching their role and reaching into the private market. It’s time we stopped that and focusedgovernment on what it should be focused on, which is creating a climate thatpromotes business expansion in the private market, encourages competition andensure that the market customers have unfettered access to the products theywant need and desire.

Governor Markell and DEDO head Alan Levin have shown that good intentions alonewill not fix our economic problems. Ihave no doubt that they want to see jobs back in Delaware but there can be nodoubt that they’ve failed to deliver them. Why? Because instead of allowingthe customers and the citizens to decide what businesses come to Delaware andthrive and what businesses leave, they’ve taken to picking the winners andlosers themselves. The results?…BlueWater Wind and Fisker. It’s about timewe sent a message that what we need is a new direction.

Fisker is the Second Shoe to Drop

2012-02-06T20:13:00.000-05:00

A story on Delaware Online today (sorry, I refuse to subscribe to the death of another tree in order to boost News Journal sales so I am not sure if it was actually printed in the paper version) displays the folly of American green energy policy. Just a month after Blue Water Wind failed and cost us untold millions of dollars and just over a month after Fisker announced that their car faced similar battery problems as the Chevy Volt, the embattled car company, who has pushed back their production dates more than 2 years, has laid off 25 workers and cut contracts with a number of subcontractors. Fisker has been touted as the next big thing to prove that the government's green energy strategy works. Yet from it's inception it has needed massive government subsidies and government assistance in the form of sweetheart land deals to stay afloat. After promising Delaware's largely union autoworkers big payouts if they could just hold on through the retooling of the former GM plant, the company has all but dashed those hopes. Thousands of Delaware autoworkers who have been home after being laid off by GM and Chrysler and waiting for Fisker to start up now have little hope for a return to automobile manufacturing in Delaware.

On this blog back in September, we talked about Delaware's Solyndra lesson. We pointed out the problems with Fisker's numbers and we referenced a number of other articles that had similar concerns. The bottom line, many of us saw this coming but the government ignored us at best and made fun of us at worst. They called us crazy and yet here you can see the results of government attempting to pick winners and losers. In the end the taxpayers lose when their money is taken and wasted, the employees lose when they end up out of work and the communities lose when businesses close their doors and the ancillary jobs leave town.

Mark this date. In December of 2011, I gave a talk at a meeting of concerned citizens where we covered a range of topics including green energy, fracking and the cost of our government's green waste. You can see the presentation from that meeting here. The next green energy disaster to rock Delaware will be Bloom Energy who is relying on Delmarva Power to subsidize its Bloom Boxes by tacking on a $2-$4 charge to each bill. Government cannot and should not pick winners and losers. This is yet another reason why we simply MUST put people who understand our markets and the design of our government in the places currently occupied by corrupt officials more interested in cronyism than their constituents.

And The Winner Is...

2012-01-31T08:09:00.000-05:00

For those who don't know, the Delaware Republican Party has reorganized following the redistricting after the census. The party structure has condensed in New Castle County from 5 regions down to 3 and so the old Newark Region has merged with the majority of the old Christiana/Millcreek region to form the new "Western New Castle Region". Last night, January 30th was the first meeting of the newly structured region and officers were elected. Dave Gilefski is the new Chairman, Ken James the new Vice Chairman and Robin Broomall is the new Treasurer. Future meetings were set on the last Monday of every month to accommodate a wide range of schedules. There were also many candidates at the event from U.S. Senate candidate Kevin Wade, Gubernatorial candidate Jeff Cragg, Lt. Gov. candidate Sher Valenzuela, Jim VanHoutten running for Insurance Commissioner, myself (running for State Senate in the 11th District) and a couple of candidates vying for County Executive. There were also a number of current elected officials at the event. Finally, there was a Presidential Straw Poll taken...and the winner is...Rick Santorum! Santorum's win came signals a shift in the thinking within Newark area Republicans. Previously the poll would have been dominated by Mitt Romney or Newt Gingrich but as we go into 2012, this is a clear sign that Newark area voters value conservative principles now more than ever. This was no eek out win either, here is the break down:

Rick Santorum - 21 - 43%
Mitt Romney - 15 - 31%
Newt Gingrich - 10 - 20%
Ron Paul - 2 - 4%

Congratulations to Rick Santorum for providing a message that Republican voters can appreciate. Congratulations to the new officers of the Western New Castle Region.
Good luck to all of the Republican candidates, especially those who come from the Western New Castle Region.

Our next meeting is on Monday, February 27th and we urge all area Republicans to attend.

Obama's SOTU as compared to Emperor Palpatine

2012-01-25T12:49:00.000-05:00

Emperor Palpatine in italics
Barack Obama in Bold

Citizens of the civilized galaxy, on this day we mark a transition. For a thousand years, the Republic stood as the crowning achievement of civilized beings. But there were those who would set us against one another, and we took arms to defend of way of life against the Sepratists. In doing so, we never suspected that the greatest threat came from within.

The greatest blow to confidence in our economy last year didn’t come from events beyond our control. It came from a debate in Washington over whether the United States would pay its bills or not. Who benefited from that fiasco?
I’ve talked tonight about the deficit of trust between Main Street and Wall Street. But the divide between this city and the rest of the country is at least as bad – and it seems to get worse every year.

The Jedi, and some within our own Senate, had conspired to create the shadow of Separatism using one of their own as the enemy's leader. They had hoped to grind the Republic into ruin. But the hatred in their hearts could not be hidden forever. As last, there came a day when our enemies showed their true natures.
The Jedi hoped to unleash their destructive power against the Republic by assassinating the head of government and assuming control of the clone army. But the aims of the would-be tyrants were valiantly opposed by those without elitist, dangerous powers. Our loyal clone troopers contained the insurrection within the Jedi Temple and quelled uprisings on a thousand worlds.
The remaining Jedi will be hunted down and defeated. Any collaborators will suffer the same fate. These have been trying times, but we have passed the test.
The attempt on my life has left me scarred and deformed, but I assure you my resolve has never been stronger. The war is over. The Sepratists have been defeated, and the Jedi rebellion has been foiled. We stand on the threshold of a new beginning.

We gather tonight knowing that this generation of heroes has made the United States safer and more respected around the world. For the first time in nine years, there are no Americans fighting in Iraq. For the first time in two decades, Osama bin Laden is not a threat to this country. Most of al Qaeda’s top lieutenants have been defeated. The Taliban’s momentum has been broken, and some troops in Afghanistan have begun to come home.
These achievements are a testament to the courage, selflessness, and teamwork of America’s Armed Forces. At a time when too many of our institutions have let us down, they exceed all expectations. They’re not consumed with personal ambition. They don’t obsess over their differences. They focus on the mission at hand. They work together.

In order to ensure the security and continuing stability, the Republic will be reorganized into the first Galactic Empire, for a safe and secure
society, which I assure you will last for 10,000 years. An Empire that will be continue to be ruled by this august body and a sovereign ruler chosen for life. An Empire ruled by the majority, ruled by a new constitution.
By bringing the entire galaxy under one law, one language, and the enlightened guidance of one individual, the corruption that plagued the Republic in its later years will never take root. Regional governors will eliminate the bureaucracy that allowed the Separatist movement to grow unchecked. A strong and growing military will ensure the rule of law.

The executive branch also needs to change. Too often, it’s inefficient, outdated and remote. That’s why I’ve asked this Congress to grant me the authority to consolidate the federal bureaucracy so that our Government is leaner, quicker, and more responsive to the needs of the American people.

Under the Empire's New Order, our most cherished beliefs will be safeguarded. We will defend our ideals by force of arms. We will give no ground to our enemies and we will stand together against attacks from with or without. Let the enemies of the Empire take heed: Those who challenge Imperial resolve will be crushed.

We have taken on a task that will be difficult, but the people of the Empire are ready for the challenge. Because of our efforts, the galaxy has traded war for peace and anarchy for stability. Billions of beings now look forward to a secure future. The Empire will grow as more planets feel the call, from the Rim to the wilds of unknown space.

And we will safeguard America’s own security against those who threaten our citizens, our friends, and our interests. Look at Iran. Through the power of our diplomacy, a world that was once divided about how to deal with Iran’s nuclear program now stands as one. The regime is more isolated than ever before; its leaders are faced with crippling sanctions, and as long as they shirk their responsibilities, this pressure will not relent. Let there be no doubt: America is determined to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, and I will take no options off the table to achieve that goal. But a peaceful resolution of this issue is still possible, and far better, and if Iran changes course and meets its obligations, it can rejoin the community of nations.
The renewal of American leadership can be felt across the globe. Our oldest alliances in Europe and Asia are stronger than ever. Our ties to the Americas are deeper. Our iron-clad commitment to Israel’s security has meant the closest military cooperation between our two countries in history. We’ve made it clear that America is a Pacific power, and a new beginning in Burma has lit a new hope. From the coalitions we’ve built to secure nuclear materials, to the missions we’ve led against hunger and disease; from the blows we’ve dealt to our enemies; to the enduring power of our moral example, America is back.

Imperial citizens must do their part. Join our grand star fleet. Become the eyes of the Empire by reportingsuspected insurrectionists. Travel to the corners of the galaxy to spread the principles of the New Order to barbarians. Build monuments and technical wonders that will speak of our glory for generations to come.
The clone troopers, and proudly wearing the name of Imperial stormtroopers, have tackled
the dangerous work of fighting our enemies on the front lines. Many have died in their devotion to the Empire. Imperial citizens would do well to remember their example.

Which brings me back to where I began. Those of us who’ve been sent here to serve can learn from the service of our troops. When you put on that uniform, it doesn’t matter if you’re black or white; Asian or Latino; conservative or liberal; rich or poor; gay or straight. When you’re marching into battle, you look out for the person next to you, or the mission fails. When you’re in the thick of the fight, you rise or fall as one unit, serving one Nation, leaving no one behind.
One of my proudest possessions is the flag that the SEAL Team took with them on the mission to get bin Laden. On it are each of their names. Some may be Democrats. Some may be Republicans. But that doesn’t matter. Just like it didn’t matter that day in the Situation Room, when I sat next to Bob Gates – a man who was George Bush’s defense secretary; and Hillary Clinton, a woman who ran against me for president.
All that mattered that day was the mission. No one thought about politics. No one thought about themselves. One of the young men involved in the raid later told me that he didn’t deserve credit for the mission. It only succeeded, he said, because every single member of that unit did their job – the pilot who landed the helicopter that spun out of control; the translator who kept others from entering the compound; the troops who separated the women and children from the fight; the SEALs who charged up the stairs. More than that, the mission only succeeded because every member of that unit trusted each other – because you can’t charge up those stairs, into darkness and danger, unless you know that there’s someone behind you, watching your back.

The New Order of peace has triumphed over the shadowy secrecy of shameful magicians. The direction of our course is clear. I will lead the Empire to glories beyond imagination.
We have been tested, but we have emerged stronger. We moved forward as one people - the Imperial citizens of the first Galactic Empire. We will prevail. Ten thousand years of peace begins today.

So it is with America. Each time I look at that flag, I’m reminded that our destiny is stitched together like those fifty stars and those thirteen stripes. No one built this country on their own. This Nation is great because we built it together. This Nation is great because we worked as a team. This Nation is great because we get each other’s backs. And if we hold fast to that truth, in this moment of trial, there is no challenge too great; no mission too hard. As long as we’re joined in common purpose, as long as we maintain our common resolve, our journey moves forward, our future is hopeful, and the state of our Union will always be strong.

Evan Queitsch promises to be a reform leader

2012-01-22T16:06:00.000-05:00

Press Release

Evan Queitsch promises to be a reform leader

11^th District Republican candidate promisesrepeals, cuts and reforms

Newark, DE, January 21, 2012: In a speech before dozens of supporters and leaders of Delaware’s Senate Minority Caucus and the Republican Party of Delaware who braved a snow and ice storm to stand with him, Evan Queitsch formally announced his candidacy for the State Senate in the 11th District. In his speech to supporters, he promised to restore fiscal responsibility by shrinking government, promoting private sector job growth and cutting taxes. He also promised reforms in education including consolidating school districts, ending models that lead teachers to teach to tests and allowing student spending to follow the student wherever the parents choose. He promised a new and aggressive focus on job creation that means cutting taxes across the board, incentivizing the hiring of Delaware workers, targeting growth areas like Wilmington and Newark that have been hit hard by the economic downturn and reducing the harmful effects of regulations like Obamacare, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and the Renewable Portfolio Standards. Finally, Evan called for a more open and transparent government. He called for General Assembly and Committee Meetings to be streamed live and podcast on the internet to bring the government to the people. Evan promised to lead the effort himself by offering that if he could not find the money to make the stream and podcasts revenue neutral, he would pay the difference out of his own legislative salary. He promised to meet monthly with his constituents and to author the bill that would prohibit state employees from holding public office.

Evan also addressed Governor Markell’s State of the State speech and took the Governor to task for playing loose with his facts and for his plans to expand government intervention in education. He closed by saying, “I don’t desire the prestige, the recognition or the power of the office. I don’t yearn for the extra salary and I don’t need the constant badgering of the special interest groups. I want to serve the people of the 11th Senate District, my friends and neighbors who are currently so underserved in Dover. I want to bring reality back to Dover. See, unlike many of those who make our laws, I’ve lived the average life. I know what it’s like to lose your job and struggle and to wonder how you’re going to put food on the table. In 2011, I lost my job due to budget cuts. I found myself on the unemployment line. I know the feeling. I also know that we are blessed to live in a nation and in a state where opportunity exists even when it shouldn’t. We live in a nation where people are always dreaming and where those dreams give others a chance to grow and continue their dreams. I want to go to Dover to represent you, the everyday Delawarean who is the hero of this American story. The men and women who everyday make the extraordinary happen by doing what they do best, deserve someone representing them who believes in them. I’m running to serve, not to be served.”

-End-

Below is a transcript of Evan’s speech. The video will be posted on his campaign website www.evanqforde.com later this month.

I’d like to tell you a little bit about who I am and what I believe. I was born and raised in Delaware. I grew up in North Wilmington, I graduated from Mount Pleasant High School in 1998 and I joined the U.S. Marine Corps in 2000. My father was a superintendent for a major commercial construction company and he taught me the values of hard work, honesty and commitment to duty.   My father and my grandfather were history buffs and they instilled within me a deep respect for the history and the foundations of America. My mother taught me the values of love and diligence. She taught me that no mountain was too high to climb and I suppose that’s why I chose such a tall one this time. I was stationed at Camp Lejeune North Carolina on 9/11 and I volunteered to deploy in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003. I am proud of my military service and it taught me so much about life, about who I am and about whom I should be. I am married to a wonderful woman who moved with me into the 11th Senate District 5 years ago. We have 4 beautiful children ranging in age from 9 years old down to 17 months. We have attended Love of Christ Church in Bear for the last year and we strive every day to let our faith guide us to be more kind, generous, understanding and responsible.

Like many people, I have made mistake in my life but I work every day to make sure that I correct them, that I make fewer of them going forward and that I learn from them.   Every day presents new challenges and it is through the strength of my family and my faith that I draw the ability to carry on. I believe that sometimes, we are simply SUPPOSED to do things whether we want to or not. George Washington is a perfect example. He was a reluctant servant. See, he had no desire to be the nation’s commanding General. In fact, he begged them to find someone else to do it. But when the call came to serve his country, and make no mistake, were a country long before we made it official, he served. After he had returned home and was prepared to be finished with public service, he was again called to unite the nation and again he did so reluctantly. The answer to the question, “Have I not yet done enough for my country?” was no, you have not. Until 2009 I was just a husband and a father. I went to work every weekday as a IT consultant, I came home to the family each night, I enjoyed sporting events and I only followed the news enough to be informed about what affected my life directly. In short, I was the average American who just wanted to go about my life and be left alone. 2009 changed that.

I became more informed and aware after the 2008 election about the direction of the country. Having grown up surrounded by history buffs, I knew that direction was not in keeping with our history and so I went back and I read and I studied the founders and their writings. I looked back across our history and found both good and bad but still I knew the direction we were heading in was wrong. I studied both George Washington on the good side and Andrew Jackson on the bad side. I joined other citizens in creating Founders Values, a group of concerned and educated citizens who seek to educate children and the electorate on the original principles of our Founders and on the foundational principles of our nation. We held town hall meetings, forums, debates, and brought in speakers from all over the country to discuss the issues of the day as well as those original founding principles.

It became clear that those of us who believe in the values of our founders had to be willing to stand for them and that our current group of legislators in Dover and Washington are out of touch. I looked at elected officials like Senator DeLuca who holds a job in the legislature AND in the executive branch at the Department of Labor, who has been the primary sponsor of much of the legislation that has led to so much of the economic troubles in Delaware and who simply does not believe in open and transparent government. Kevin Wade said at his announcement that if Senator Carper had done his job, he wouldn’t have been standing there and I submit that the same is true here. If Senator DeLuca had performed his job of representing the people of the 11th District, I would not be compelled to challenge him.

I realized that folks like that were corrupting our government and our state. I saw the massive growth of government and how that just didn’t jive with the way our nation was created, to be a land where the PEOPLE made things happen, not governments. I saw our education system falling apart and more than 30% of our children not graduating from public schools. I saw our state and our national finances going completely out of control. I knew that it was time to act.

So today, I announce my candidacy for the 11th State Senate District seat. It’s time to return this seat to the people and fix the problems Delaware faces. Here’s how we are going to do it:

1.)    Restore Fiscal Responsibility

We’re going to reduce spending and limit the size of our government. We’re going to cut taxes and regulations to stimulate private sector growth and we’re going invest in companies that invest in Delaware.

2.)    Fix Education

In this district alone we spend more than $15,000 per student per year and only 69% of them actually graduate. We’ll consolidate our school districts from 19 down to 4, one for each county and one for the city of Wilmington and we’ll localize our schools to put parents more in control. We’ve got to start teaching our kids HOW to think not WHAT to think and stop forcing our teachers to teach to tests. Finally, we have to institute a voucher system that will let the parents have full control over their child’s education. These things will reduce costs, improve results and bring teachers and parents together.

3.)    Enable Job Creation

More than 30,000 Delawareans are out of work and if you spend any time talking to the people, you’ll find that those who are underemployed or chronically unemployed is more than double that number. We’ve got to cut taxes to spur growth in the private sector. We’ve got to cut corporate taxes, personal income taxes, gross receipts taxes, capital gains taxes and can we please abolish the death tax? We’re going to invest in companies that invest in Delaware. Delaware workers are among the best in the world and we saw that with Chrysler and GM whose plants were closed not because of the quality of the work but because of the fault of the company and union leaders to make sound business decisions. Unfortunately, open ended tax credits, especially in New Castle County often lead to as many workers coming from New Jersey, Maryland and Pennsylvania as from Delaware. That’s fine, companies should be allowed to hire whomever they want, but let’s incentivize Delaware companies to hire Delaware citizens. We’ll incentivize companies to use existing infrastructure and rebuild target growth areas like the College Square Shopping Center and the City of Wilmington where help is desperately needed. We’ve got to reduce regulations and that’s why I will work with my colleagues in the legislature to author, sponsor and promote a bill that will repeal the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and the Renewable Portfolio Standards that cost us millions of dollars with zero benefit to our state. Since we already meet the standards of the RGGI, we spend tens of millions of dollars on other states who fail to meet them. Finally, I’ll work with legislators like Representative Hudson to opt Delaware out of Obamacare. We have the right as a state to do that and I will make sure that we do.

4.)    Demand Open Government and Transparency

Finally, we’ve got to have an open and transparent government. We have a small state but still our citizens cannot take off every Tuesday through Thursday to spend the day in Dover. We’ve got to podcast or stream the General Assembly and Committee meetings online to bring government to the people. In fact, being in Information Technology, I can tell you that the cost is minimal and if I can’t find someone to pay for this to make the cost neutral to the taxpayers, I will pay for it out of my own legislative salary. It’s that important. We also have to post simple text copies of legislation alongside the legal text bill. Simply, you shouldn’t have to be a lawyer to read the laws of the land. Also, unlike Senator DeLuca, I will not be an unaccountable legislator; I will hold meetings with my constituents every month. Finally, I will write the bill that prohibits state employees from holding public office and that prohibits those who receive state funding from serving on money committees.

Let me now turn to addressing a couple of things from Governor Markell’s State of the State Address. First, he said that legislators “worked together to confront the unsustainable long term costs of state employee pension and health plans, saving more than $480 million over the next 15 years.” That sounds impressive until you break it down and I did. Over 15 years, $480 million breaks down to $32 million per year on an annual budget of $4 Billion or more. Markell just a few sentences later ate up more than half of those savings with his $21.7 million Medicaid increase and if you include his $13 million bike trails, our state is back in the red by $3 million. I don’t believe that this administration or the Democrat leadership understand how to actually save money. He also said that he did not want to return to the schools that we had twenty years ago. Finally, something we agree on. Yet, while Governor Markell wants to tighten the government grip that strangles our education system and shuts out parents, I would like to return to the schools of 220 or 120 years ago when we were world leaders in education, when we produced the students that led the Industrial Revolution and the Roaring 20’s and when parents controlled nearly every aspect of their child’s education.

People ask me, “Why do you want to be Senator?” The answer is “I don’t.” Now, that’s not to say that I don’t want to win or replace Senator DeLuca. I certainly do and I’m here to win but I don’t desire the prestige, the recognition or the power of the office. I don’t yearn for the extra salary and I don’t need the constant badgering of the special interest groups. I want to serve the people of the 11th Senate District, my friends and neighbors who are currently so underserved in Dover. I want to bring reality back to Dover. See, unlike many of those who make our laws, I’ve lived the average life. I know what it’s like to lose your job and struggle and to wonder how you’re going to put food on the table. In 2011, I lost my job due to budget cuts. I found myself on the unemployment line. I know the feeling. I also know that we are blessed to live in a nation and in a state where opportunity exists even when it shouldn’t. We live in a nation where people are always dreaming and where those dreams give others a chance to grow and continue their dreams. I want to go to Dover to represent you, the everyday Delawarean who is the hero of this American story. The men and women who everyday make the extraordinary happen by doing what they do best, deserve someone representing them who believes in them. I’m running to serve, not to be served. I hope you’ll join me and I look forward to working with you to make Delaware better. God Bless all of you, God Bless Delaware and God Bless the United States of America.

Fisker's Aptly Named Car Shows the Folly of Government

2011-12-30T10:47:00.000-05:00

For the last 6 years, Delawareans have been barraged with promises from so-called "Green companies", most of which promised lofty job numbers and economic booms. Blue Water Wind came to town with a plan to provide wind energy that would be clean and green and could even eliminate the need for dirty coal fired plants. Their scheme turned out to be one that would produce far less energy than expected, one that required the government to enforce a mandate on Delmarva Power which forced them to pay more, one that required the federal government to give the company a non-compete contract for the off-shore wind farm location and one that ultimately failed just days ago when the project did not receive MORE government assistance in the form of more direct subsides. Despite receiving awards of more than $800 million (although we can't be sure how much of it was spent on the project, how much went into the pockets of government cronies or how much the government still has, if Solyndra is any example, that money is long gone) of which we know that enough was used to pay at least 6 executives making 6 figures plus their assistants for 6 years (likely around $4 million) plus the cost of lobbyists, legislators (this is not a typo), architects, lawyers and surveyors for the ramp up to production (which likely cost Delmarva ratepayers millions more), Blue Water Wind needed MORE government funding just to begin production on a surveying tower to see if their idea would ever generate a single kilowatt of power! After Solyndra, the government realized that green energy problems (like those that plagued Spain, the nation whose green jobs plan bankrupted their nation and after whom Obama's green jobs plan is modeled) would cause more scrutiny and so they decided to cut funding to this off shore wind disaster. Subsequently, Blue Water Wind folded because they were unable to secure private backing (despite the assurances of company leaders who promised that it would be able to function without government support) for their venture. Their contract with Delmarva ended 2 days ago at the stroke of midnight and along with it, any chance that we'd see a dime from the investment returned.

More recently, the buzz has been about the Obama crony run car company, Fisker. You might remember Fisker (or more likely not) as the start-up company who out muscled Tesla as the Obama Administrations favorite in the Plug-in electric car market. It bought (on the cheap) the Boxwood Road site formerly owned by GM and has been rehabbing it in preparation to begin production on the "cheaper" of its two offerings, the Nina (the more expensive Karma is made in Finland because Fisker says that no one in America can do the job...) in 2013. The Karma is offered for sale at Union Park's family of dealerships in Wilmington. A friend of mine recently tried to secure a test drive of one of the Fisker Karma's at Union Park only to find each time that he came by, that the vehicle was "in the shop" for some kind of software upgrade or maintenance issue (odd for a showroom car that is never driven). Now, this friend may or may not have the means to purchase the vehicle, I don't get into that kind of thing but if I had to guess, I would say his credit record and history would warrant at least a test drive of almost any vehicle ever built. The Karma retails for more than $102,000 and less than 300 have yet been sold. Now remember, the Fisker business model actually called for them to own a significant portion of the hybrid/electric car market in just the first couple of years of production. They would have to beat to market shares of GM, Toyota (who owns the largest share with the Prius), Nissan and Honda to name a few. Delaware's Caesar Rodney Institute highlighted the bold plan years ago:

Competition in the hybrid market is fierce. All the major automobile producers are moving into the hybrid market. By 2015 GM plans for 26 out of 33 models to be some form of hybrid. Chrysler plans to have 8 hybrid or electric vehicles by that year. The current U.S. hybrid market averages across the business cycle 25,000 cars per month (300,000 per year). Three quarters of the sales are Toyota's Prius or Lexus, with Prius accounting for 55% of the total hybrid market. Ford and Mercury (Fusion, Milan) currently have a 9% market share, with Honda at 8% and GM at 5%. Sales have dipped during the recession and are directly influenced by the price of gas.

Will the market support Fisker's 2014 sales projection? U.S. car sales should top 8 million by 2014. If the hybrids share of cars rises from its current 1% and climbs to 5%, hybrid sales in 2014 will be around 400,000. This means that Fisker, with a limited retail and service network and no established reputation, will capture 19% to 25% of the U.S. hybrid market. Should 50% of Fisker's cars be sold as exports, the highest proportion of exports for any current American company, Fisker is assuming a U.S. hybrid market share of 9% to 13%, greater than the current shares of Honda and GM.

The likelihood of such a plan working was also a subject of the Institute and it found that the plan left far more questions on the table than it answered. Fisker has had to hike the prices of the Karma to keep the company afloat, pushed back production and start-up plans, has sought more taxpayer funding and still has only delivered a relative handful of vehicles. It's certainly not competitive in the market with companies like Toyota, Honda and Nissan. Which bring us now to the news of today which is also a blow to sales of the start-up car makers most expensive model. It turns out that the battery packs inside the Fisker Karma's can catch fire (much like the Chevy Volt which was recalled earlier this year) and cause explosions. Battery fires have plagued the electric car industry largely due to government's force behind the implementation of the unproven and untested technology to save face in its quest for green energy goals. The bottom line is, do we want to pin our hopes to another Pinto or Yugo? Fisker is already north of $600 million in government subsidies, some have said it's closing in on $1 billion and now with these setbacks, business will suffer. There can be no doubt that the $50,000 Nina, which is planned to be built in Delaware will suffer from these setbacks if it comes online in 2013 as promised and many good folks, like the people at Union Park and the many contractors who embraced this green energy plan will be affected by these pains. The fact is that electric cars aren't ready for prime time and no amount of government force will make it so. In fact, I say, when the private market venture capitalists start investing THAT is when you will see the rise of the electric car.

Government picks for winners and losers, Solyndra, Blue Water Wind and Fisker are proving what conservatives have been saying for a long time, that private markets should be dictating the products in the market place. Government wastes untold billions of dollars every year that could be used to pay down or deficit on misguided attempts to solve every problem when the reality is that it just can't do it. Government solutions rely on mandates, cash subsidies and risky gambles with other people's money that more often than not lead to disaster. Look at the latest deal with Bloom energy. Delmarva Power ratepayers are now venture capitalists (don't get excited, you get no return on this investment) in a company that markets unproven emergency backups to major corporations. Better still, not only did the government have to force Delmarva Ratepayers to subsidize Bloom but it also forced subsequent governments to have to stick with the plan. That's right, future General Assemblies MUST remain in the agreement with Bloom for 21 years. TWENTY ONE YEARS! No matter how much it costs, how effective it is or how many jobs it produces. Further, they had to compromise their own leftist principles to do it! In 2011, the General Assembly passed a bill that redefined the term "Renewable Energy" to include Natural Gas (a fossil fuel considered dirty by the left) because the Bloom boxes need natural gas to operate and because anything not classified as renewable under Delaware's Renewable Energy Portfolio costs Delmarva more money to use. UNREAL! We've got to stop this madness. We need someone with an ounce of common sense to make some changes.

Delaware ranks 6th worst in employment since 2006

2011-12-27T10:35:00.003-05:00

According to The Business Journals, Delaware lost anet total of more than 28,500 (21st in total jobs lost/gained) jobs from 2006 to 2011. That’s a netdownturn of 6.5% and ranks Delaware 45^th (out of 51 including D.C.) in the nation. That puts Delaware behind states like NewYork, New Jersey and California whose economic woes have been made quite plainand it puts them just ahead of states like Michigan, Arizona and Florida whohave often been highlighted as the poster states for a recessionaryAmerica. This is despite a“pro-business” governor in Jack Markell whose policies have clearly hurtDelaware. Despite suggestions to thecontrary, Delaware has failed under Jack Markell’s leadership, to create jobsand expand economic opportunities. Ourgovernment has tried every trick and scheme in the book to create a green jobsfocused economy and even those attempts, which cost Delaware taxpayers millionsof dollars have failed. Recently, BlueWater Wind, who won government subsidies in excess of $800 million went underand took with it untold millions in wasted taxpayer dollars. Before that, Fisker announced that it wouldbegin making its cars in Finland, not in Wilmington. That’s despite more than $650 million instate and federal aid plus a sweet discount deal on the former GM plant atBoxwood Rd. The fact is that JackMarkell and his economic team have simply failed to create any jobs since hiselection in 2008 because he’s continued the same failed economic policies ofRuth Ann Minner. In fact, since Markellcame to us FROM the Minner Administration, it’s pretty clear that we’vebasically reelected Minner to a 3^rd term at least as far as theeconomic policies go. It’s time we gotserious about putting Delawareans back to work.

We’ve got to cut taxes on businesses and ease theircost of doing business, reduce regulations to encourage hiring and expansionand target incentives at companies that focus their economic attentions onDelaware. The fact is that businessesare leaving Delaware for Florida, Arizona and other states who have made theirbusiness laws and taxes more attractive. We MUST win them back to Delaware. We can cut the gross receipts tax (which taxes each transaction at eachlevel, effectively compounding the tax burden on an item 3 or 4 times before itreaches the customer) by 8%, reduce the corporate tax rate to 5% and match itwith the best Chancery Court in the nation to regain our status as America’sbusiness capital. This will not onlybring back corporate business like banks and credit cards but also blue collarmanufacturing jobs which are SORELY needed in places like Wilmington where thereal unemployment rate is nearing 20%. We need to repeal the RGGI and RPS to reduce the electric premium onblue collar job creators. The fact isthat Delaware already far exceeds the RGGI standards and the regional cap andtrade scheme only succeeds in stealing tens of millions of dollars fromDelaware rate payers. Meanwhile,renewable portfolio standards only drive up the cost of energy for bothindividuals and businesses by demanding that they pay more for their electricitythan they need to for less efficient and less reliable energy. Next, we must opt Delaware out of Obamacareby asserting our 10^th Amendment rights and joining the 28 states whoare suing over the nationalized healthcare bill’s overreach of authority. Exempting Delaware businesses and residentsfrom the enormous costs of Obamacare and opening up the state to morecompetition in the insurance market will create tens of thousands of jobs andget Delaware back on the road to economic recovery. Finally, it’s time we started investing inbusinesses that invest in Delaware. We’vegot to target subsidies at companies that rebuild existing structures, hireDelawareans and invest in the communities where they do business. No more open ended blank checks for blanketjob creation that employ as many (if not more) out of state workers as they doin-state workers.

If we do these things, we can grow Delaware out ofthe recession and become a leader in the American emergence. If we fail to do these things, Delaware isdoomed to be at the bottom of the pack and stuck in a long term recession. I think Delaware can lead. I think Delaware can be a job creator, an innovatorand a leader but we’ve got to act rightaway.

Christine O'Donnell Comes Full Circle

2011-12-13T23:49:00.001-05:00

Full disclosure on a couple of things here:

I did in fact endorse and work for Christine O'Donnell in 2010. I thought she was the best available candidate for the job and she stood for the alternative to the establishment good old boys network that has sold our country down the river.
I will support the eventual Republican nominee in the General Election because any of the available GOP candidates are far better than President Obama and will undo many of his most dangerous and harmful policies.

With those things said, let me say that this move by O'Donnell is not a surprise. Months ago she all but endorsed Romney with campaign donations and made it quite clear that Romney was her guy. Many of us told her that this was a bad move. Christine rallied the grassroots, the anti-establishment, the rank and file conservatives who believe that the system is corrupted by the establishment elites who have much of the money. It was her willingness to challenge the establishment and their figurehead, Mike Castle, that drove many new voters to the polls with hope for a change in the system. I must admit, I'm disappointed in this move to endorse Romney. I watched her interview with Sean Hannity where she made a lukewarm case for how the "TEA Party" has a misplaced dislike of Uncle Mitt (yes, he really is a distant uncle of mine). She claimed (as did Ann Coulter before her...you might remember Ann Coulter as the one who said in February of 2011 that if Mitt Romney were the nominee, the GOP would lose) that Romney was clearly the most conservative candidate. So let's take a look at Romney's conservatism:

He's also a global warming believer...

Romney Care...

Pro-Choice in Mass...but Pro-Life in Iowa?

The Romney RINO scorecard...
“He can argue any side of a question. And sometimes you think he’s really believing his argument, but he’s not.” – Ann Romney, the wife of Mitt Romney

Ronald Reagan said:

“We don’t intend to turn the Republican Party over to the traitors in the battle just ended. We will have no more of those candidates who are pledged to the same goals as our opposition and who seek our support. Turning the Party over to the so-called moderates wouldn’t make any sense at all.”
“A political party cannot be all things to all people. It must represent certain fundamental beliefs which must not be compromised to political expediency or simply to swell its numbers. “Let our banner proclaim… and if there are those who cannot subscribe to these [conservative] principles, then let them go their own way.”
Don’t give up your ideals, don’t compromise, don’t turn to expediency — and don’t, for heaven’s sake, having seen the inner workings of the watch — don’t get cynical.”

Ms. O'Donnell (and Ms. Coulter for that matter), I would submit to you that calling Romney "the most conservative candidate" and lecturing the TEA Party groups who have bought your books, supported your campaigns and listened to your viewpoints, is...well poor form (I'm sure you can come up with your own analogy here). Do not insult our intelligence by trying to claim conservative credentials that don't exist. And further more, Ms. O'Donnell, as someone who shed more blood, sweat and tears for you in 2010 than almost anyone else, how DARE you trade on the influence and political star power that your supporters bought you with their diligence and hard work? How DARE you insult our intelligence by pretending like we haven't looked at the mans record. We looked at yours and we looked at Mike Castle's record. WE displayed them both prominently and WE overlooked the silly things you said as a young woman because they were silly. We highlighted the offenses Castle committed because they were offensive. This endorsement is of course your own business but where you upset us was when you lectured the TEA Party groups who have pushed back at this announcement (which let's face it, was as transparent as glass long ago).

I submit that this move will only serve to portray you in the following light:
That you have now sold out to the same establishment forces (Mitt Romney, Karl Rove) who you spent all of 2010 fighting against when you defeated Mike Castle. It took 1 year for you to go from the People's champion (despite losing the General Election) to the Establishment whipping post.

At this point, I'm not knocking you for your endorsement (again, if Uncle Mitt is the nominee, and he likely will be, I would support him against Obama) but for your lecturing of the very folks who made your run the sensation that it was...the TEA Party. Shame...shame...shame.

NRG is OUTTTTTTTA HEEEEEERRREEE

2011-12-13T10:17:00.001-05:00

The News Journal has a new piece out today about NRG Energy's plans to drop the Bluewater wind power-purchase contract with Delmarva Power at the end of the year. It turns out that the project simply cannot move forward without massive help from the Federal government (not a surprise to many of us who have been upset about this contract from the beginning). As the news Journal reports:

The contract is widely seen as Bluewater's most valuable asset, and observers said it would be difficult to build the project without one.

NRG has struggled to secure financing for the massive project and failed to secure federal loan guarantee

Since the first plans hit the table, critics have questioned whether or not the massive wind farm off the Delaware coast would ever even get off the ground, much less live up to its lofty expectations. Back in 2010, Resolute Determination contributor Steve Larrimore highlighted the bits of truth that began to trickle out that the Bluewater Wind project wasn't all it was cracked up to be.

“Deepwater consultant David Nickerson further explained that the Delaware price was arrived at partly through some regulatory sleight of hand. The lower price, he said, was reached by offsetting costs with potential revenue coming from renewable energy credits that accompany renewable projects. The value attached to those credits was allowed to be inflated in Delaware, Nickerson suggested, providing the illusion of “an extra revenue stream,” which artificially brought down the apparent cost of the project.” (I did the highlighting)

Whoops, guess he didn't think back in 2010, that we Delaware folk would get information from a Rhode Island newspaper...and he's supposed to be the genius behind a new energy source? The predictions didn't start or end there, the Caesar Rodney Institute has been hard on Bluewater Wind from day one and have been a leader in pointing out the flaws in their model. Back in Feb. of this year on the CRI blog, the Bluewater Wind model was highlighted by David Stevenson. Even then there were questions about whether the massive subsidies needed to sustain the new "green energy technology" would even get approved by the federal government. In fact, it might surprise rate payers to know that Delmarva Power was forced to sign an agreement to pay premium prices for energy (That would cost consumers between $90 and $220 million per year) that wouldn't even get started until 2016 (and now probably never). What will really infuriate people is that NRG Bluewater Wind cost the taxpayers $800 million and will produce absolutely no power for that price.

But this isn't just about a bad business model of failed green energy plans, it's about cronyism of the highest order. There is no market for green energy with prices that are more than 8 times as much as conventional sources. Not only were Delaware General Assembly members like Senator Anthony DeLuca and Representative John Kowalko in the tank for this debacle in waiting, but even Congressman John Carney (Then Lt. Governor) was caught up in what will now become a scandalous account of government cronyism.

Carney, amid his 2008 campaign for governor, said in a release then that the offshore wind developer pledged to him to “make Delaware its regional hub for offshore wind development and maintenance.”

How's that hub working out for us now Congressman? I mean politicians will say just about ANYTHING to win a race. Experts cited in the News Journal piece today admit that without government forcing power companies to buy power at much higher rates from offshore wind, there's no way that the ocean based windmills could work!

Offshore wind power is among the more expensive forms of renewable energy.

"If your project doesn't have a PPA, a lot of the value is gone. And I'm sure they know that," Grace said of the power purchase agreement.

So there we have it folks, Delmarva, the PSC, the General Assembly, the Markell/Minner Administrations and Bluewater Wind all knew that the value of the energy source was gone if Delmarva didn't pay more (and charge you more). Wrapping up the column, Aaron Nathans points out that Bluewater Wind is all but gone and so is our $800 million:

The six employees of Bluewater, including Mandelstam, would see their positions eliminated in January unless a buyer comes forward, Mandelstam said. NRG would retain the Bluewater brand.

NRG plans to suspend its offshore wind operations in New Jersey as well, Gaier said.
Despite the move, Mandelstam spoke highly of NRG on Monday, praising its commitment to solar energy.

It's likely that Congress will extend the wind tax credits, but "you can't take that to the bank," which Mandelstam said gave NRG pause.

The market for offshore wind has matured in Europe, but in the United States, "it's just one of those situations where policy really does affect the way business people allocate their money," Mandelstam said.

So folks, I have to ask you, given what has happened here with Bluewater Wind's collapse and the revelations that Fisker is finding it too costly and difficult to build their electric cars here in America, Do you trust them with Bloom? Further, do think that these folks really deserve to continue to represent you? Finally, do you think that the PSC, which is "supposed" to be doing things "in your best interest" really ought to be making decisions in the background? Why don't you call them?

Senator DeLuca has a FIOIA problem

2011-12-08T11:05:00.001-05:00

Senator Anthony DeLuca seems to have a problem with FOIA requests. Namely, he doesn’t feel like they apply to him. The embattled Senator has escaped prosecution under the HATCH Act for his roles as both an administrator in the Office of Labor Law Enforcement and as State Senator and been challenged for his leadership position by his own party for his ethics and transparency problems. Earlier this year, Senator DeLuca refused to give an account of the time he spent working each of these taxpayer funded jobs. Despite pressure from the News Journal and other journalists, to turn over his timecard records and show that there was no overlap between his work in the executive branch and his work in the legislative branch, DeLuca carried on holding back his timecards for more than six months. When he finally did release them, the records indicated no conflict (of course) but the fact that he allowed the Attorney General’s office to make the case that the release of his time records were a matter of national security is evidence that he simply doesn’t respect the offices he holds. As an elected official who holds a job in both the legislative branch and the executive branch, it’s his duty to disclose to the public when he discharges his duties in each arena. Today, the News Journal is reporting that Senator DeLuca’s office is once again in violation of FOIA compliance and this time he’s not being protected by the Attorney General’s office. His office has once again refused to show the taxpayers of Delaware the records of his department’s work investigating the labor practices of Delaware businesses. For some reason, Senator DeLuca believes that he lives above the law. Maybe it’s the fact that in the 12 years that he has been in office, he has never faced an opponent, maybe it’s that he’s survived leadership challenges in the State Senate or maybe it’s just a complex that he has now that he’s spent more than a decade in the legislature but whatever the case, it’s about time we went ahead and shattered this worldview that he doesn’t need to be accountable to the people who elected him or to the people who entrust him with the ability to govern them.

Delaware voters,
Though you and I may not agree on everything, I think we can all agree on one thing, it’s time for Senator DeLuca to be replaced. He doesn’t feel like the rules apply to him. Whether it’s spending money for extra security doors for his office (as if that REALLY had something to do with his “safety”), failing to comply with the initial FOIA request for his timecards and ACTUALLY ALLOWING the AG to make a ridiculous claim that it would be a national security risk for us to know if there was any overlap in his work with the executive and legislative branches or this latest refusal to comply with FOIA and ethics laws, it’s clear that Senator DeLuca just doesn’t get it. We need a cleaner government with people who value the rules of the system and who genuinely WANT the people to see what goes on in Dover. I’m that person. I will do everything in the open and with complete transparency. I’ll tear the security door down myself, comply with FOIA requests BEFORE the deadlines and make sure that you all know what I’m doing before you even HAVE to ask. Also, I can promise you this, should I be fortunate enough to win, I would only seek two terms. That’s it, just two terms. No dynasty here, won’t have enough time to earn a pension, won’t need lifetime medical benefits or any of the other legislative retiree perks. Save that and give it to the folks who need it. I just want to go to Dover and shed some light and spread some truth. I’m even willing to put this pledge in writing. We have absolutely GOT to change the way business is done in Dover if we’re EVER going to achieve our shared goals of prosperity, transparency and openness.

Sincerely,
Evan Queitsch
Candidate 11th Senate District - http://www.evanqforde.com/

Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T10:12:00.001-05:00

Thanksgiving means something special to me this year. I've recently completed a genealogy of part of my family tree that as it turns out, harkens back to some of the first folks to come to America, the Pilgrims. It was not only news to me but news to some member of my family as well. It turns out that my 10th Great Grandfather, Edward Bompasse was born in England in 1605 and sailed to America on the Good Ship Fortune in 1622. The Mayflower is of course the ship that we all think about when we think about the Pilgrims. The Pilgrims of course, were separatists from the Church of England who were persecuted for their attempts to change the church (like asking for English translations of the Bible which was still read in Latin at the time) who fled first to Holland and then across the Atlantic to "The New World".The first colonists to land in Massachusetts came over on the Mayflower which embarked from England in 1620 and landed at Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1621. 103 passengers set out on the Mayflower but only half of them made it through the first winter at Plymouth. Along the way, they signed "The Mayflower Compact" which declared certain necessary laws and government offices:

THE MAYFLOWER COMPACT

In the name of God, Amen. We whose names are under-written, the loyal subjects of our dread sovereign Lord, King James, by the grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland King, Defender of the Faith, etc.
Having undertaken, for the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian faith, and honor of our King and Country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia, do by these presents solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God, and one of another, covenant and combine our selves together into a civil body politic, for our better ordering and preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute, and frame such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions and offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the Colony, unto which we promise all due submission and obedience. In witness whereof we have hereunder subscribed our names at Cape Cod, the eleventh of November [New Style, November 21], in the year of the reign of our sovereign lord, King James, of England, France, and Ireland, the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth. Anno Dom. 1620.

In 1621, the Pilgrims planted their crops in the spring and harvested them in the fall. Once the harvest was brought in, they had a feast intended to thank God for the bounty they'd received and for the Providence bestowed on them with regards to the Indians. Below are the only two primary sources of the story of the first Thanksgiving:

Edward Winslow, Mourt's Relation :

(In modern day spelling)
"our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a special manner rejoice together, after we had gathered the fruits of our labors; they four in one day killed as much fowl, as with a little help beside, served the Company almost a week, at which time amongst other Recreations, we exercised our Arms, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and amongst the rest their greatest king Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five Deer, which they brought to the Plantation and bestowed on our Governor, and upon the Captain and others. And although it be not always so plentiful, as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want, that we often wish you partakers of our plenty."William Bradford, Of Plimoth Plantation :

In modern spelling
"They began now to gather in the small harvest they had, and to fit up their houses and dwellings against winter, being all well recovered in health and strength and had all things in good plenty. For as some were thus employed in affairs abroad, others were exercised in fishing, about cod and bass and other fish, of which they took good store, of which every family had their portion. All the summer there was no want; and now began to come in store of fowl, as winter approached, of which this place did abound when they came first (but afterward decreased by degrees). And besides waterfowl there was great store of wild turkeys, of which they took many, besides venison, etc. Besides, they had about a peck of meal a week to a person, or now since harvest, Indian corn to that proportion. Which made many afterwards write so largely of their plenty here to their friends in England, which were not feigned but true reports."

The stories both talk about the struggles that the Pilgrims faced in that first year. Reading more of the stories that these excerpts are taken from, you will learn that the Pilgrims dug graves for their friends and families upon their first arrival in America. They buried their friends and family who'd died on the long journey from England across the Atlantic Ocean and set to surviving while the Mayflower returned to England with news of the landing and the loss of life. The Pilgrims had limited supplies, had to build their homes from scratch and only a limited defense force to deploy against wild animals or Indian attackers. The first harvest would determine the survival of the colony as Bradford writes in "Of Plymouth Plantation":

"They also found two of the Indian's houses covered with mats, and some of their implements in them; but the people had run away and could not be seen. They also found more corn, and beans of various colours. These they brought away, intending to give them full satisfaction (repayment) when they should meet with any of them, - as about six months afterwards they did.
"And it is to be noted as a special providence of God, and a great mercy to this poor people, that they thus got seed to plant corn the next year, or they might have starved; for they had none, nor any likelihood of getting any, till too late for the planting season."

Monument to the settlers of Marshfield
including Edward Bompasse

The first Thanksgiving was a feast intended to thank God for His Providence and also to celebrate the good that God had done for the Pilgrims. It was also a prayer for future good to befall them and God delivered on his promise to protect them. Days after the first Thanksgiving celebration, The Good Ship Fortune landed at Plymouth with the second wave of settlers including the necessary Tradesmen, families and the rest of the original settlers. Among them was Edward Bompasse, my ancestor, who was among the original separatists and who was a farmer and land owner in America. This refreshment of people and supplies ensured that the colony would not only survive but thrive and it's hard to imagine this taking place without the finger of God in support of the cause of the Pilgrims. So when you give thanks today, remember to give thanks for God's providence in 1621.

Fracking the Delaware River Basin

2011-11-22T21:37:00.001-05:00

Listeners to Delaware's most popular local talk radio show, the Rick Jensen Show on WDEL (weekdays 1pm-4pm) recently heard Democratic Representative John Kowalko (Newark) go on a rant about fracking in the Delaware River Basin in which he insinuated some things that are, to be frank, simply untrue. Before we get to Rep. Kowalko's comments, let me give you a little history on what we're talking about. After the successful and uneventful fracking of the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania, energy companies have turned their attention to the rest of the 500 Trillion cubic ft of natural gas that is stewing among the rest of the shale. Some of that oil lies in the northern end of the Delaware River Basin in Northeastern Pennsylvania and Southeastern New York. Those plans could potentially affect not only N.Y. and PA but also NJ and Delaware. So the issue of fracking was brought before the Delaware River Basin Commission which is a panel of the Governors from each of the Delaware River Basin states and the lead engineer of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that meets to determine the potential impact vs. the potential benefits of any policy that affects the Delaware River Basin. Once these companies began to look into the DRB and the DRBC began meeting about it, the environmentalists began their assault on fracking.

What is fracking?

Fracking refers to a method used to extract oil or natural gas from a well in which a substance called "fracking fluid" is pumped into the pipe and ultimately into the shale rock to stimulate oil and natural gas wells inside the shale. During the practice, piping is encased in cement and drilled 6,000 feet into the ground. The cement casing is in place to protect groundwater and to contain the fracking fluid. The fracking fluid is composed of the following materials:
90% Water
9.5% Sand
.5% Chemicals as follows - Sodium Chloride (used in table salt), Ethelyne Glycol (used in Windex), Borate salts (used in lipstick), Sodium Carbonate (used in detergents), Guar Gum (used to make Ice Cream) and Isopropanol (used in deodorant)

Environmentalist scare tactics often point out that more than a half dozen deadly chemicals are used in fracking and pumped directly into the groundwater. In fact, this is the first of the outright untruths that Kowalko mentioned. The reality is that unless salt, ice cream and water are deadly, the number is 3 chemicals (+ sand) and the fluid is pumped into the shale thousands of feet below the water table. In fact, despite the propaganda in the film "Gasland", in all the fracking operations in Pennsylvania, there has been no proven affect to groundwater.

Another favorite of the environmentalist scare mongers is that fracking causes earthquakes. This is another absurdity that Kowalko was peddling on the Jensen show. Earthquakes are caused by the sliding of tectonic plates. Now, there is some debate over what causes the plates to move but the majority of scientists believe that the movement is related to the earths gravity, and the rotation of the Earth. What's clear, is that explosions on the surface of the earth, or even thousands of feet below the surface do NOT cause earthquakes. In fact, the USGS among other agencies around the world have experimented with detonating nuclear weapons below the surface of the Earth and they have found that even a 5 megaton nuke (5 times the size of the largest active weapon in the U.S. arsenal), detonated 5,000 ft below the surface couldn't cause an earthquake.

My Take

As a candidate for the Delaware State Senate, I believe that I should make my opinions known on the issue. Given the factual evidence of the benefits and risks involved in fracking the ground in the Delaware River Basin, if asked, I would strongly consider the idea. Should hard factual evidence of groundwater contamination or real danger to the water table be brought to my attention, I could consider a different position but given the current reality, I don't see any reason why we shouldn't look at safe ways to increase our domestic supply of many different sources of energy.

The simple truth is that the best, cheapest and most effective way to not only reduce our reliance on foreign oil but to boost our economy is to develop a sound energy strategy. For all the talk about the outrageous "subsidies" for oil and natural gas, renewable sources take far more for far less output. Renewable energy accounts for just 8% of all sources of energy in the United States and even the most optimistic outlooks only expect it to account for a maximum of 12% of U.S. demand in coming years. Invest more money to grow them? According to the U.S Energy Information Agency, in Fiscal Year 2010, Wind got $5 Billion in direct subsidies while oil and natural gas received $654 Million in tax write-offs. Solar, received 33% MORE than wind energy did. Let me just address the issue of subsidy type here, we're talking about direct subsidies vs. tax incentives. Direct subsidies are cash payments to producers to make their product cheaper than it would normally be. This can be done through loans or grants (the more common form) and is a way that government selects the companies and industries it wants to make profitable regardless of their market value. Tax incentives are generally available to most businesses/individuals and in the case of the oil and gas companies they come in the form of write-offs for land depreciation. It's simple, the land is worth a certain amount with a certain amount of oil on it. As you remove that oil, from the ground, the land devalues. it's only practical to then allow that land owner to write-off the excess taxes on land no longer worth the original value. The argument that oil and natural gas have had their own time of direct subsidies is also not valid. There is no history of any direct subsidies to oil and gas companies, even when the industry was just getting started in the late 1800's. In fact, even the tax write-offs didn't start until 50 years AFTER the industry was born. Meanwhile, renewable sources have needed direct subsidies just to remain afloat and as we've seen with Solyndra and Fisker, even that is hit or miss.

So in the end, we need to be smart as a nation and Delaware can ill afford even higher energy costs. The Marcellus Shale and other shale formations give America a distinct advantage and a real opportunity at not only energy independence but also to reduce the cost of energy. Lowering costs to businesses and consumers would create jobs, lower the burden on families and increase our safety and security. The danger of soap, water and sand thousands of feet below the surface is minimal given the positive economic impact that would result from the fracking.

I'll give the final word to the EPA:

Occupy Wall Street Protestors Only Have Themselves to Blame

2011-11-04T20:00:00.002-04:00

We’ve all seen the Occupy Wall Street protests on the news. Whether it is the images of college aged children prancing through tent cities, marches with hundreds and thousands of protestors or even the riotous actions in places like Oakland, reactionto it has been mixed and has cut across party lines. What began as a seemingly homogenous ball of anger has now begun to define itself. Their demands are as mixed as their support though and it continues to feed the idea that they are a disorganized band of rebels. That comes in part, from the MANY factions involved and in part from the fact that most of them are radical groups. The images themselves lend us to wonder, where do we stand while the many different demands are perplexing as well.

But what it really all comes down to is this, these Occupy Wall Street folks are protesting the wrong thing. They should be protesting…themselves.

Huh? I know, stay with me here.

What is it the Occupy Wall Street crowd is consistently saying? It’s all the fault of those greedy Wall Street bankers and the corrupt corporations right? They’re consistent in saying that this banking crisis is due to Wall Street greed. That the banking crisis we have today is because of Wall Street greed.

So we’ve established that the problem, at least in their eyes, is greed mixed with corruption, right? And what’s the leading cause of greed and corruption? A lack of ethics and morality is the answer to that question. Clearly, if Wall Street was ethically and morally grounded, there wouldn’t be deliberate over speculation intended to drive the price of products up, loans made without proof of income, residency or identification and you wouldn’t see mortgage backed securities packaged in those Credit Default Swaps. You wouldn’t see these things, all labeled as the culprits of the fall of the market in 2008 because quite simply, they’re not ethical or moral. You wouldn’t see Fannie and Freddie aligning with the Unions and ACORN to send thousands of protestors to stand on the lawns of bank CEO’s and managers chanting to make more risky loans and you wouldn’t see the bankers cutting a deal with Chris Dodd and Barney Frank to ensure their losses on these risky mortgage loans would be covered with taxpayer dollars. And what, of all things, is the largest driving factor of positive morals and ethics? The answer is clear again, religion and faith. You can argue about individuals here and there buy by and large, of the hundreds of millions of Americans who believe in God and who truly live that lifestyle out, you will see morals and ethics prevail. And who are the leaders in the fight to get rid of faith and push God out of the way? The same people at Occupy Wall Street...

So these same people who have destroyed morality and ethics in America by attacking faith and trying to destroy God, are now protesting the fruits of their own labors! You’d think they would be happy with these results since they were the only possible result of their battle against God. You would think that the folks protesting this greed and corruption would be those who have been fighting FOR faith and FOR God but instead, those people, many of whom found themselves at home in the TEA Party where morals and ethics are at the forefront, have largely come out AGAINST the movement whose means are over the top and misdirected at best or mean-spirited and evil at worst. These people, who created a culture of corruption, are now upset at the corruption. Hard to wrap your head around it until you realize that…creating the crisis was the whole point to begin with.

Yanno, like tear down capitalism, the American Republican and our financial system and replace it with One World Socialism.

Herman Cain's 9-9-9 Plan Explained

2011-10-19T14:04:00.001-04:00

It's no secret that I am a big supporter of Herman Cain. If someone were to ask who I was endorsing, I would say Mr. Cain and there are a number of reasons for that. I think he is the most qualified candidate in the room to fix the economy, get us out of debt and lead us in the right direction. Fellow blogger Ted Belman over at Israpundit lays out Cain's impressive resume of accomplishments. To put it simply, he has the educational pedigree of Obama (a Masters in Comp. Sci), better business experience than Romney, the family background of Santorum, the TEA Party fire of Bachmann and dare I say it the gall to say what he means that Ron Paul has! What he DOESN'T have, are the chains of a lifetime of politics dragging him down. He doesn't have the baggage of being a politician. He's been a citizen, a problem solver, a military man and yes, he's been a rocket scientist! So while it doesn't take a rocket scientist to solve our problems, I'd feel better having someone who is one working on the solutions!

With that said, Cain's often attacked over his controversial 9-9-9 plan by people who either don't understand it or are misrepresenting it for political gain. While I don't have the credentials to pretend I know everything, this plan is one that I feel comfortable speaking about because it's just that simple. For many years now, our government has increasingly tried to make things more complicated than they are in an effort to get us to turn away and "leave it to them to deal with". The fact is that it's really NOT that complicated. The economy of the nation is no different than the economy at home. They've over time convinced us that deficit spending is OK, that we don't need to even have a budget and that our nations credit would never be questioned. Well that wall of straw came crashing down when America lost her AAA rating with S&P. While the politicians will demonize S&P for their downgrade, the real fault lies with those politicians who have run up $18 Trillion in debt, treated our Constitution like a wet rag and played fast and loose with the rules. Cain's plan is not a political plan, but a practical business solution to the problem. He started by identifying the problem, which we will do below.

In our homes, if the bills come up off and we owe more than we take in, maybe we get away with that for a month or two but eventually the bills come due. It's no different for government, no matter what they say, the rules of physics, mathematics and accounting are the same. At home, when you see debt you look for ways to pay it off, either you cut down on spending to even it out or you have to find a way to make more money, either with a second job, a raise or some other increase in "revenue". For government, "revenue" (what we call "income" at home) is taxes and fees that citizens are charged to ensure that the bills are met. Government has to take in enough to provide a benefit to the people and cover the cost of the projects. What's happened over time is that as government has convinced us that deficit spending (a.k.a. running up credit card debt) is OK, we've added another cost to the list, interest. So now, government has to spend enough to provide a benefit, cover costs AND pay interest on the debt. Their answer? Borrow more money. It's like at home, instead of cutting back on spending or picking up that part time job, you went out and got another credit card with a higher limit. When it gets really bad, they authorize the Fed to print more money (which we would go to prison for) which really is just borrowing from one hand to pay another, a little like using your rent payment to pay your electric bill. The rent will still come due, you've just kicked the can down the road except when you print MORE money, you decrease the value of it and so you need more of it to pay your bills. Fast forward a little and what you have is the equivalent of the government maxing out credit cards at all of the nations banks, the major international banks, local credit unions and now looking for even MORE. If it sounds insane, it is. This is what the government has done behind our backs and NOW, when their scheme is finally exposed, they look at the banks (credit card lenders) and say "Why did you give us all this MONEY!?" or they look at big business (which eventually becomes small businesses) and say "HEY! You're stealing from us because you have money and we need money!"(like demanding a raise from your boss because you're overspending at home). One day they will look at all of us as taxpayers and demand a raise. So we know the problem, spending, debt and an inability to make the tough choice due to moral and ethical bankruptcy. Why is 9-9-9 such a great solution?

The genius is in the simplicity. The current tax code is more than 60,000 pages of loopholes, legalese and special interest giveaways that confuse, confound and distract from the fact that there are a dozen major federal taxes not to mention the fees charged to people and businesses as a result of our regulatory climate. Cain's plan doesn't tinker around the edges of the code, delete a few loopholes or monkey around with the language. It throws the old system out (and good riddance!) and replaces it with 3 simple taxes for us to follow. No more chasing the other hand and looking for the many hands. It's divided up into 3 parts, a corporate tax of 9% which lowers our current corporate tax from the highest in the world at 35% down to one of the lowest in the world and which will stimulate growth (more on this tax later); an income tax of 9% (currently those making between $0 and $8,500 are taxed at 10% so EVEN those Americans get a tax cut); and finally a 9% national sales tax (this seems to give people the most heartburn but as I'll explain, this is actually far closer to the principles of America's founding than the income tax is). That's it folks, all other taxes go away, no Capital Gains taxes, dividend taxes, death taxes, payroll taxes, medicare taxes, social security taxes, zip,zilch NADA. It's GONE! And we are left with just 3 taxes to keep an eye on. So let's look at those taxes and how they compare to the current system.

9% Corporate Tax
As I mentioned above, America's corporate tax rate is 35% which makes it the highest in the world. This is a tax put on businesses of a certain size that basically allows them to do business in America. It's also the main factor behind these corporations "shipping jobs overseas" (well this and regulations like Obamacare...but I digress) and putting Americans out of work. So next time Barack Obama starts yapping about the evil corporations, ask him why the country taxes them so high as compared to the rest of the world and what he would do if he were running that business. Another thing we know about corporate taxes is that they are "regressive" and passed along to consumers in the price of goods and services. This is a word you'll hear Ron Paul supporters and the left use a lot to frighten the poor (we'll cover regressive taxes later when we talk about the national sales tax). So we know that 35% corporate tax gets pushed through on the price of everything you buy, which means there is an automatic 35% markup in pretty much everything you buy. Cain's plan slashes that tax rate from 35% down to 9% which will make it one of the worlds lowest rates and encourage businesses to return to America and employ American workers. That will strengthen the economy, widen the tax base, put more people back to work and generally create MORE revenue and more prosperity. It will also lower the cost of goods, no longer will there be a 35% markup on every product, it will be reduced to 9% which will make everything you buy cheaper and lower the threshold for poverty. These are improvements we can all get behind.

9% National Sales Tax
Now let's talk about he boogieman in the room, the National Sales Tax. As I said above, the far left AND the far right, the Obama supporters and the Ron Paul supporters are already running around calling this a "regressive tax". Basically, a regressive tax is one that affects the poor more than the rich and it's usually used to discourage sales taxes. The idea is that the poor spend a higher percentage of their income on necessities than the rich do. Perhaps this is true on paper BUT in reality the rich spend far MORE in terms of dollars (and often percentage as well) on products than the poor do. The rich buy bigger and more expensive houses, cars, boats, etc. They often spend more on their clothes, eat more expensive food and require more (and higher costing) utilities than the poor. With that said, keep in mind that the slashing of the corporate tax will also drive down the PRICE of goods and stretch American dollars that much farther. Now, a national sales tax is a scary proposition, especially with a Congress like we have. With that said, almost every state in the nation has a state sales tax and have since the beginning of the country so it can't be too bad for the poor or no one would live in a state with a sales tax! The reality is that the corporate taxes DO get passed on but really a sales tax is fair, not regressive. It allows each of us to contribute to our nation's future and with the boost to the economy that the corporate tax reduction would grant, the impact would be far less than it might be if say they were to institute it now with no other changes. Given the savings of all the other taxes that are being dropped completely, this works out in almost every ones favor. In fact, without loopholes, the only people who might be hurt by this are government and the corporations who rely on loopholes to dodge their tax burden today.

FAQ/Myths
1.) Isn't this just a tax increase? - The answer is no. This is not a tax increase. Let's do some simple calculations. As we discussed, you pay a 35% tax on everything you buy today PLUS your income tax of at least 10% (I know that SOME people pay 0 tax but those are anomalies easily dealt with) so your total tax burden is a minimum of 45% of your total income and expenses. Under Cain's plan, with the 9% sales tax, 9% income tax and 9% corporate tax, your total tax burden is just 27% which results in at least a net 18% cut for even the lowest paid Americans.
2.) Won't the politicians just increase the taxes from say 9-9-9 to 15-15-15 and drive our burden up? - The answer is maybe. See, the reason our taxes are so high today is because we have allowed them to get out of control and take more and more and spend more and more without holding them accountable. Our government is not designed to run on auto pilot. We MUST be vigilant and while that requires work on our part, the upside is that WE have the power and control to get them OUT of office. So theoretically, yes they could increase the taxes but with only three to look at, it would be hard to hide an increase and protections in Cain's plan make it harder. #1 Since this is Cain's plan, he would be President and thus would have to sign any increases. Veto anyone? #2 It requires 2/3 majority in both houses to pass and as we've seen in 2011, you try herding these cats to do anything by 2/3rds majority!
3.) How will the poor be protected? - Rick Santorum, Mitt Romney and Rick Perry all brought this up during the last CNN debate and quite honestly I think Cain missed an opportunity here. He talked about the fact that there is no sales tax on used goods and since poor people buy more used goods than new goods (cars, houses, etc.) there is less opportunity for those folks to pay the sales tax. He also talked about the Empowerment zones which will be areas in which his plan would focus to rebuild struggling communities. I'm thinking about places like Detroit and other such places devastated throughout the years. What he missed hitting on was the simplest face of all. His plan will drive DOWN the price of goods DRAMATICALLY. Think about this a second, the difference in the cost of an item under his plan in terms of the corporate tax is this, under the current system an item worth $100 ends up being marked up 35% ($35 for every $100) and the total cost to the consumer is $135. Under Cain's plan, the markup drops to 9% making that same $100 item cost $109. That's a savings of $16 in this example. The results are even better in almost every case, when you factor in all of the current taxes vs. Cain's whole plan.
4.) Will this affect Social Security/Medicare revenues? - No, these revenues will be collected from the pool created by the 9-9-9 plan so the only difference will be that they are not going to be separate taxes. Also, Herman would lock those funds back up and make sure Congress stops spending them on wars, roads and welfare.
5.) How will this affect underground consumer markets? - It will bring underground markets back into the tax fold. How? Consider this, today, an illegal immigrant worker is paid under the table where they pay no taxes on the income. They can then go to a state with no sales tax and buy a product off the shelf only paying the 35% markup meanwhile, you and I pay10% percent on income, then the additional 35% markup. Under Cain's plan, the incentive for companies to hire illegal workers under the table is reduced and these illegal workers are then paying into the national tax system via the national sales tax.
6.) What about states who don't have a sales tax like New Hampshire and Delaware? - This is another question that came up in the debate that I think ALL of the other candidates are disingenuous about. #1 - Cain is right when he says that comparing the national sales tax to the state tax is like comparing apples to oranges. They are entirely different things and state taxes will ALWAYS exist. They will exist with the current plan OR with a new plan and so there is no reason to count them. With the national sales tax or without it, Delaware for instance, will not show a state sales tax on the receipt but Pennsylvania, Maryland and New Jersey all will. The price of products will STILL be lower. In fact, there is some talk about not itemizing the national sales tax on the receipt but that will be fleshed out as we go along.
7.) How come no one else has thought of this if it's such a good idea? -These are not necessarily brand new ideas but what Herman has that the others don't is a a lack of political fear. He is not, as I said earlier, shackled to politics like the others. He's a business man and a problem solver and he designs programs to solve problems. 9-9-9 is not a perfect end solution and Herman freely admits that he wants to transition to a Fair Tax system, eliminate the corporate and income taxes all together and get America's engine humming again. This is a stepping stone that takes the best elements from the Flat Tax, the Fair Tax and corporate taxes (if there are any) and rolls them together in a transitional ball.
8) Can this pass the Congress? - The answer is yes. Such sweeping changes to the current system have met with opposition from both sides yes, but there is enough support on the right and among moderates that an election mandate would allow Cain's plan some traction. That's not to say that he would force it through or that he would need a super-majority to pass it the way Obama did to pass his healthcare bill (but it wouldn't hurt to swing the balance of power to the GOP!) but rather that he would be able to present it. Sure the plan will be argued, debated and potentially modified but the upside to that, with Herman Cain in the White House, if it doesn't make sense, he ain't signing it! And, if we don't like it, we throw the bums out and move on!

I know this is long and so I won't take up anymore time. If I haven't convinced you by now, I'm not sure what else I can do BUT if you have a question, drop a comment and I'll get back to you.
*Updates*
10/20/2011 - My good friend Charlie Copeland, who is widely considered one of the smartest guys in Delaware, looks at the 9-9-9 plan from the perspective of economic growth and the drop in prices as a result of the reduced costs on business. http://resolutedetermination.wordpress.com/2011/10/19/9-9-9-if-taxes-are-higher-but-costs-are-lower-americans-are-happier/

Recap of my Speech to Founders Values

2011-10-18T21:31:00.001-04:00

On Wednesday September 28th I gave a speech about our rights and responsibilities as citizens. If you missed it, you can click here to read a copy of it. To summarize, I called on each of us to look at the life of our First President, George Washington who served his God and his nation for the majority of his life, even when he didn’t want to. Below is an excerpt from the speech:

“Each of us has the responsibility to take charge of our government and to ensure that those around us are doing the same. We MUST go where we are called even when we don’t want to. Washington didn’t WANT to serve but he did and at great personal cost. It’s in the teachings of the Bible, the Torah and Qur’an to obey God’s Will and His commands even when it conflicts with our desires. This goes for politics too. We HAVE to get engaged. We can no longer be the “Silent Majority” we must be the active and vocal majority. We have a responsibility to go out and find our inner George Washington It’s time to actively find people to run for office who think like we do or…if we can’t find someone where we live …we have a responsibility to do it ourselves. We have a responsibility to run for office if no one else well. Even when it isn’t something we WANT to do.

I don’t say this with anything short of a direct engagement myself. As some of you know, I have relented to the pressures from within and from without and decided that I can no longer sit on the sideline as a bystander. I can’t watch anymore as jobs drift away and companies stop hiring. I can’t stand by as our children continue in failing schools. I can’t allow the corruption in Dover to continue unopposed any longer. I have decided to stand; I have decided that I must put my case forward. I have decided to run for office.”

And so I have decided to run for the 11th District State Senate seat currently held by Senator Tony DeLuca. Senator DeLuca is also the current President Pro-Tempore of the Senate and the 3rd most powerful person in Dover. I do not enter into this race alone. My family will be by my side, as well good and close friends but I am also counting on you. As supporters of Founders Values, you have given me the courage and the strength to stand up and be counted. You’ve shown me that I am indeed NOT alone and that the values and principles that I hold dear are valued and held by many Delawareans.

When I go to Dover in 2012 I will not just be opposing Senator DeLuca, I have goals. I will work to restore fiscal responsibility, fix education, enable job creation and demand open and ethical government. I will spotlight the corruption in deals like the Bloom Energy debacle, Delaware’s very own Solyndra and I will fight to reduce the size and scope of government. You can read more about what I plan to do when I go to Dover by visiting my website here.

Your commitment to our cause has given me hope that we can indeed turn Delaware around and now, I’m asking for one more commitment. Will you help me defeat Tony DeLuca in 2012? Will you join our team as we go door to door, make phone calls, send letters and contact local businesses for support? Please click here to join my campaign mailing list. Also, if you can help with a donation of as little as $5, any amount will help me to get the message out, I would be grateful. My opponent is a powerful leader in Dover. He is connected to special interest groups, backed by unions and will get much of the lobbyist money in Dover. I will need every dollar that I can raise to defeat him. I can assure you that I will be careful with every dollar and make sure that it goes to defeating what I consider to be the poster boy for the problems in Dover and “The Delaware Way”. If you’re willing and able to contribute as little as $5 (or as much as $600) to help me defeat Delaware’s 3rd most powerful Democrat in Senator Tony DeLuca, please consider clicking her and contributing what you can. Together, we can take back Dover and reclaim Delaware with common sense and conservative values.

Rebuttal To An Occupy Wall Street Protest Supporter

2011-10-11T22:18:00.001-04:00

This is a copy of a letter I received from a fellow conservative who has been swept up in the Occupy Wall Street Protests and my response to his statements and assertions (My comments are in Red). Names have been changed to protect the innocent.

Subject: Occupy Wall Street Has Some Bad News For The Rich Residents Of The Upper East Side

There's a lot here today, and I hope it's not too much. A few short videos and some musings, that's all.

Look at Occupy Wall Street's 33-sec TV commercial on YouTube. Quite frankly, I don't find anything objectionable about it, and I agree with a lot of it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5O_Ao9w1u7c&feature=player_embedded

I want to make a couple of points here Tim, first let me say that I can make a 33 second commercial that makes dog poo look appetizing. Please look a little beyond the rhetoric. Here are my direct points in reference to the video:

1.) These are the least vomit inducing members of the protests but still they clearly lack some fundamental knowledge about what’s caused the problems we see today. I will explain in detail what I mean as we go.

2 “ "I want to see more serious political conversations starting to happen.” – Right, because discussing whether we want to be a debtor nation or a nation who lives within her means isn’t serious? I think that the TEA Party has exposed the “serious conversations” in this country but this is a slogan that the “Occupiers” have been using and it means something specific. What they want is to have a “conversation” in which they intend to ignore the conservative position and focus on not IF we should redistribute wealth but HOW MUCH wealth we should redistribute.

3.) “I want corporations out of the government and I want people back in.” – Well I don’t necessarily disagree with this in principle except…corporations are governed by laws as much as people are and so I’m not against them having A SAY…what we have now is them BUYING POLITICIANS…now, the problem is that the politicians are corrupt…because if they didn’t take the money and didn’t act on behalf of their cronies…there wouldn’t be any problem…we elect our representatives, no matter what the corporations do, they CANNOT vote…WE THE PEOPLE can and so the people ARE in the process. WE should be electing people with the spine, integrity and ability to do the right thing.

4.) “I want peace rather than militarization.” – So do I…BUT I recognize that there are people out there who don’t like us very much. There’s some debate on what caused that dislike but for me, the overall theme is just our success and our way of life. More than anything else that we do, living free, having equal rights and tolerance and creating a prosperous nation that exposes the evils of leftist countries is the source of most of the hate directed at America. Knowing this, I would prefer to be over prepared for an attack rather than under prepared. There are some strategic withdrawals and moves that our military leaders have suggested that we can do. Further, focusing on missile shields and other hi-tech responses as opposed to ground troops is more cost effective and less invasive and potentially more beneficiary.

5.) “I want the top wealthiest Americans to be taxed higher and that money to go to education.” – The top 1% of Americans pay 38% of the taxes in America and the top 10% pay 70% of the taxes. I’m sorry Tim but for me THIS IS MORE THAN ENOUGH! In fact, they should have spoken up for themselves a LONG time ago and asked the bottom 50% of earners in this country to pay THEIR fair share. And by the way, we don’t have a spending problem on education in America. We SPEND more than enough but we get crappy results. Our problem isn’t a lack of money, it’s a lack of results. I contend it’s because we no longer teach out kids HOW to think but rather WHAT to think.

6.) “I want economic justice.” – Oh let me count the ways that this is wrong. Anytime you hear anything with “justice” in it you should be concerned, economic justice, environmental justice, social justice, etc. In this case, economic justice means that those who HAVE succeeded and made more money, should have that money taken and given to those who “need it”. It’s redistribution of wealth plain and simple.

7.) “I want to be able to speak my voice without jeopardizing my job.” – When this kid stands up for Hank Williams, I’ll buy his crap. There’s nothing stopping anyone from speaking their mind outside of work. Now, you can’t wear lip rings and mohawks at every job and I think employers have a right to determine if that is acceptable or not.

8.) “I want a greater regulation of the banks and the markets.” – Ok, I get it that the CDO’s were a big cause of the meltdown BUT this was NOT due to “deregulation” as these leftists want you to believe. Banks and other major corporations were/are regulated by the Sarbanes/Oxley bill which requires compliance and testing for NUMEROUS things from finance (assets, receivables, etc.) to IT (including number of user accounts, disaster plans, backups and power supplies, etc.), facilities maintenance and even more. These companies are probably OVER REGULATED and not under regulated. The problem is that the regulation is in the wrong place. It’s not on the financial products that the bankers are selling but rather on the minutiae of corporate governance.

9.) “I want my kids to have a job and healthcare.” – So do I BUT it’s not the government’s job to provide it. It’s THEIR job to provide it for themselves. Government should get as far out of the way is it can and allow my kids to follow their dreams and realize success. Government should make sure that IT is not the cause of job losses (which it currently is).

10 “I want true Democracy for the 99% of us who don’t have it anymore.” – Well I disagree with this on fundamental levels. 1.) America has NEVER been a true Democracy…we’ve been a Republic. There is a difference. A true democracy is majority rule, the 51% get what they want and the 49% can go pound sand…bupkis! We have a representative republic where we elect people to represent us in a Congress where each of them get a vote. By that consensus we get our say in the laws. 2.) We’ve never LOST our representative democracy, we’ve just failed to follow through on OUR PART which is the voting out of those who don’t represent us.

And that’s all I have to say…about that.

The notion that the Occupy Wall Street protest was somehow organized by obama and the democrats is misguided. The dumbocrats and the unions joined just recently. The protest was announced several months ago by the "AdBusters" group from Canada, that was soon joined by the "We Are Anonymous" group of worldwide "hacktivists", a group who initially began as a support group for WikiLeaks. Here's the AdBusters Campaign page from their website:

http://www.adbusters.org/campaigns

Ok so AdBusters is an “anti-consumerist” (Anti-consumerism refers to the socio-political movement against the equating of personal happiness with consumption and the purchase of material possessions.) from Canada who is leading a political movement in America and you’re ok with this? Anti-Consumerism itself is an anarchist movement here is a list of some of the folks associated with anti-consumerism: Adbusters · Freecycle · Ralph Nader · Green party · John Zerzan · Noam Chomsky · Ron English · Naomi Klein · CrimethInc. · Thorstein Veblen · Hugo Chavez · Abbie Hoffman · Guy Debord · Michael Moore · José Bové · Michel Foucault · RTMark · Rage Against the Machine · Jello Biafra · The Yes Men · Fidel Castro · Democracy Now · Reverend Billy · Vandana Shiva · Bill Hicks. Not exactly a list of people or groups that I would want to be associated with. AdBusters is also pro-environmentalist which is fine I guess except that the whole point of environmentalism is to use government to fight things like global warming which have no basis in fact. Like most liberal ideas, there’s not clear cut plan for HOW to go about striking an “ecological balance”. Besides, it’s short on real evidence anyway (hockey stick graph?) Anywho, this group you promote, AdBusters, is HEAVILY entrenched in the Obama Administration AND The DNC and any number of leftist causes. As for the assertion that the Unions and others joined late...how do you explain this? http://www.theblaze.com/stories/seius-stephen-lerner-invokes-bill-ayers-days-of-rage-to-take-down-wall-street-this-september/ or this http://www.theblaze.com/stories/we-are-heroes-who-need-to-create-a-crisis-seiu-stephen-lerner-at-progressive-summit-tells-unions-community-organizers-and-students-they-need-to-escalate-protests-break-laws-occupy-abandon-houses/

"We Are Anonymous" has expanded from its original beginning into financial and government malfeasance. They have released many videos on YouTube. Here is a 1-min, 41-sec video aimed at obama that was released on Feb 6th, 2011. As you can see, they do not support obama.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXE8lj-HywA&feature=related

And now we sing the praises of Anonymous, a worldwide collection of hax0rs and 1337’s who spend their time breaking down the Pentagon’s Internet security, hacking municipal and state governments, stealing customer data from Fortune 500 companies and generally causing Internet havoc all over the world. They’re technological terrorists and Internet anarchists. They’re dangerously brilliant on the one hand and complete morons on the other. They engage in theft, identity theft, treason and even in some cases murder (they’ve been rumored to have disrupted communication networks that led to the deaths of American troops in combat) and you really think they are someone we ought to be championing? (Your mention of Wikileaks is likewise concerning to me…I do NOT believe that our Classified military documents ought to be leaked to outside groups and then released to the public en masse in such a way as to endanger our men and women (and it has in many ways)…that’s TREASON and an act of espionage).

Also, today "the Occupy Wall Street protesters will leave Zuccotti Park at 11 AM and head to the Upper East Side to see how "the 1%" live. They're calling it, "NYC Billionaires Walking Tour" and they'll start marching at 59th and 5th Avenue around 12:30 PM."

You can check out the link to their Facebook invitation. Here's a snippet...

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Wanna "see how the 1% lives"? Then join us on a walking tour of the homes of some of the bank and corporate executives who don't pay taxes, cut jobs, engaged in mortgage fraud, tanked our economy.....all while giving themselves record setting bonuses!

Occupy wall street will join community groups fighting for economic justice.

#1 The 1% DO pay taxes, they pay more than the bottom 50%, I’ve addressed this above

#2 Government regulations cut jobs, profits create them

#3 They engaged in mortgage fraud and indeed it tanked our economy BUT they did it with the willing partnership of Fannie and Freddie, ACORN and SEIU who all FORCED these banks to make risky loans to people without verifying employment or even collecting IDENTIFICATION in many cases. How about you recognize THAT?

You can meet at Liberty Square/Zuccotti Park at 11:00 am and we will take the subway together or you can meet at 59th and 5th ave at 12:30pm. (please indicate if you will travel with us from the square)

We'll be meeting at 59th Street and 5th Avenue at 12:30 pm, and then march from house to house, demanding accountability for Wall Street crimes, and an extension of the Millionaire's tax
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Hmm...59th & 5th. I think that's where Tiffany's flagship store is located, right on the SE corner, if I'm not mistaken. A great place for them to begin. They can spread-out in a northeasterly direction. Just like a plague on the Upper East Side. Perfect.

These protesters are walking to the HOMES of the bank executives and you think this is OK. This is an acceptable means of protest? At their HOMES? Where they can frighten their wives and children who’ve done NOTHING? Not only is this tasteless, I find it rather disgusting that you would support such a strong arm tactic. And who are these protesters to judge who is guilty of these crimes? None of these folks were convicted, who did what? What about the guy who DIDN’T participate in the bundling of mortgage backed securities trading? Does he get a pass or is he guilty because he’s a banker? (Reminds of that old movie “Nothing but Trouble” with Dan Akyroid and Chevy Chase except a lot less funny when you consider the terrified wives and children)

Read the below article from "Business Insider", a site that I stumbled upon 3-1/2 years ago when I was researching the collapse of Bear Stearns. It's run by former Wall-Streeters who now post news and who write blogs about business in general, and about Wall-Street corruption in particular. I like it, and I'm on their mailing list. Look at all the anti-Wall-Street comments. Financial people visit this site; it's not very well known outside that community.

I particularly like this comment: "Now that is awesome... bring it right to where they live... I love it."

http://www.businessinsider.com/occupy-wall-street-plans-billionaires-walking-tour-of-upper-east-side-2011-10?

Business Insider is a lefty version of the Wall Street Journal and a weak one at that. It was started with the intent to compete directly and “expose Wall Street” but really it’s just a place for the radical left to refine and regurgitate their talking points in the hopes that Libertarians and moderate-Liberals will pick up the lexicon. Henry Blodget is the CEO and Editor-In-Chief, a Yale graduate who previously worked on Wall Street before being barred from the securities industry after a conviction for securities fraud. Hmmmm securities fraud…yea that’s the guy I’m gonna trust. Especially when he owes the exchange $4 million for his crimes.

BTW, I am in solidarity with the "Occupy Wall Street" crowd in three respects:

1) The need to punish Wall-Street criminals by taking-away their freewheeling, gambling casino that consists of Naked Credit Default Swaps and Unrestrained, Commodities-Futures Speculation. Neither of these so-called investments is readily available to the retail investor. Call your investment advisor and see if you can buy some Credit Default Swaps. They're the things that killed Bear Stearns, Lehman Bros, Merrill Lynch, AIG, and that are also what the $787 Billion, Too-Big-To-Fail, TARP bailout was used to pay for, back in Sept 2008. Currently, the European debt crisis has the hoof prints of Credit Default Swaps all over it. I challenge anyone to tell me I'm wrong about this.

I agree with the idea of killing off the CDO’s (Credit default swaps) and extreme futures speculation. Now, speculation is and always will be PART of the market. Anyone who invests in anything from Orange Juice to Gold to a start-up company speculates. The problem is that while it was definitely immoral, it wasn’t ILLEGAL to do some of these things. Those things that ARE fraud, should be prosecuted as such but that is up to the Federal Justice department NOT the banks. So tell you what Occupiers…take your protest to 950 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, D.C. 20530-0001 then I’ll join with you.

2) The need to induce Corporate America to stop closing factories in America and to stop sending jobs overseas, and then to encourage Corporate America to bring those Jobs and Factories back.

Want to induce corporate America? Protesting for them to have MORE of their profits taken isn’t going to do that. How about you lower the corporate tax rate from 35% (which the HIGHEST IN THE WORLD) to say 10% and see how many jobs and factories come back to America. How about you repeal Obamacare and reduce the gazillion regulations foisted on American businesses that NO OTHER NATION saddles their businesses with? How about you simply back down government so that business tomorrow can transact the way it does today without variation and provide CONSISTENCY? THAT will bring jobs FLOODING back to America.

3) The corrupt, tone-deaf politicians in Washington DC, who have been enabling the greed and amorality of Wall Street and of Corporate America all along, must stop enabling the scum.

100% agree but you don’t do THIS on a street corner. The TEA Party found this out in 2009-2010. You do THIS at the ballot box. These people are uninformed and radically WRONG in their thinking which is why they continue to support Obama, Reid, Schumer, Pelosi and the rest of those GOONS in Congress that keep in turn ramming the ever growing arm of government into the American gut. In 2010, we got rid of bank supporter Mike Castle who over the years actively helped these banks and financial institutions gouge the American people and along the way we replaced a good chunk of lefty Democrats AND Republicans who did the same. 2012 will be no different DESPITE the efforts of these Wall Street goons to diminish the power of the TEA Party movement.

When you add in anger at the clowns in Washington DC, who have enabled the greed and the amorality of Wall-Street criminals and big-business opportunists, and who have allowed them to flourish and to thrive unchecked, you have a potent mix of intense anger on Main Street. The expression,"Crony Capitalism" just about sums that up.

In summary, I’m not sure if any of these insights are going to matter to you or make sense but when I strip out your name and publish it on the web. I HOPE and I PRAY that it does matter to someone who is looking at these protests as if they are really helpful or encouraging. I hope it wakes someone up.

Sincerely,

Evan Queitsch

The New French Revolution

2011-10-05T10:25:00.000-04:00

For 3 weeks now, protesters have converged on Wall Street under the banner of Occupy Wall Street. The protests began with a handful of hippies, college students and anarchists who demonstrated, chanted and marched near (the NYPD had blocked off Wall Street itself) Americas financial center. There were no clear demands, no leaders and no definition to the movement but there were some themes.

1. The banks are to blame - Nevermind that it's the politicians, from both party establishments who give the "banksters" the power and access. Also, they're not limiting their angst to those who are responsible for the crisies we face. Their calls are to bring down ALL of the banks. And not just bring down the institutions but "behead the bankers" too.

2. Capitalism is the problem - They're only partly right. Pure Capitalism could NOT have caused these problems, only crony Capitalism can. That's the corrupt, pay to play that we have seen throughout the years from the establishment progressives in both parties. Ask them what they'd replace Capitalism with and they'll say that they don't know BUT press them some and you will find them talking about things like " a more equitable system", "maximum salaries", "wealth redistribution" and "a system based on empathy".

3. If we don't go willingly, force us - While the organizers and spokespeople call for "non-violence" at the protest, the means to their fluid ends include the use of force. This force includes but is not limited to: beheading bankers who do not cooperate, forcing the wealthy to give "their excess" to the middle class and "taking down Capitalism".

Now, some of what these protesters are saying makes sense. They say it's time to "end the Fed" and return to sound money backed by gold and you know what, they are right but then they jump to "and we should bring down Capitalism too!" and we have to stop and say...No...don't bring it down, FIX IT! You see, this is the difference between the Wall Street protesters and the TEA Party.

The TEA Party began in 2009 with a call to return to the principles of American liberty through political and ethical reform. THIS is why it mirrored the American Revolution. The war against England came only as a last result and only after England had repeatedly murdered American colonists. Heck, some of our founders would have had us remain the King's subjects if only he'd listen to our grievances and act to rectify them. The TEA Party likewise didn't seek to destroy the American system of government or replace it. It sought to rebuild it and strengthen it by improving ethics, getting the fiscal house in order and returning the power of the government to the people where it belongs.

By contrast, the Occupy Wall Street protesters are seeking to tear down the current system, break the new bourgeoisie (as defined by the Marxists, the 19th century French would have combined the bourgeoisie (capitalists) and the aristocracy to create what we consider to be the "new bourgeoisie" today) and implement a centrally planned economic and governmental system. This is EXACTLY why it mirrors the French Revolution. The French saw what happened in America and the lower class, led by radicals, socialists and budding communists led a revolt that they intended to be based on the American Revolution. Americans like Thomas Paine and to a lesser extent Thomas Jefferson supported the early stages of the French Revolution because the fires of liberty burned so strong in them. The problem is that there was a difference, the American Revolution came about after an enlightenment and a religious awakening while the French Revolution was a result of chaotic anarchy. So while the French Revolution may have had the same goal of liberty as the American Revolution, the means were different and the devil is in the details. Even the details of the Occupy Wall Street protests mirror the French Revolution:

Accusations tossed about with little or no proof or as out right lies - Like the protestor who claimed Chase Bank was "taking" his parents home when in fact they are choosing to sell it and move on their own.
Storming or "Occupying" cities and buildings to force the system to shut down until their demands are met.
Maximum earnings limits with the rest being redistributed to the populace by central planning of the government.
Violence if their demands are not met - including the specific act of "beheading" which was a staple of the French Revolution and has been touted by supporters of the Occupy Wall Street protests.

So you have to ask yourself this question, do you believe in tearing down the system with no clear replacement but presumably one based on the Marxist/Communist routes of the protesters? Do you agree with storming and occupying buildings and shutting down the system a la Wisconsin and Wall Street? Do you agree with capping an individuals earnings and beheading them if they choose not to participate? If your answer is yes, join the Marxists on Wall St. If your answer is no, REFUSE to stand with them. The enemy of my enemy is NOT my friend.

Capital One replaces lost HSBC jobs

2011-09-26T17:43:00.001-04:00

Governor Jack Markell’s office announced today that Capital One is bringing 500 jobs to Delaware. This comes as Capital One acquires both HSBC’s credit card business and ING Direct. While Markell, DEDO and the Democrat leadership in Delaware is hyping the news, a look at the actual numbers offers a sobering view of reality.

Jobs lost or planned to be lost:
Wilmington Trust (M&T Bank) – 700 jobs lost
HSBC – 500 jobs lost
AIG/MetLife – 150 jobs lost
CIGNA – 500 jobs planned to be lost in Delaware
Bank of America – 30,000 nationwide layoffs, potentially 3,000 in Delaware alone

Mass layoffs by month (these #’s do not reflect smaller layoffs):
Apr 2011 – 8,000 jobs lost
May 2011 – 5,000 jobs lost
Jun 2011 – 6,000 jobs lost
Jul 2011 – 3,000 jobs lost
Total 4 mths – 22,000 jobs lost

http://www.bls.gov/eag/eag.de.htm

In just 4 months we have lost 44 times as many jobs as Capital One plans to add by the end of 2013 (more than 24 months away). Rich Heffron, VP of the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce says we are “ahead” in the jobs race now. Really Rich? Really? With business leaders who add like this, is it a wonder we are so far BEHIND in job creation

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2011/9/prweb8827004.htm - DEDO & Markell release on Capital One jobs

A Broadband Expansion Plan That Works

2011-09-19T16:10:00.000-04:00

Delaware is known as “The First State” for its role as the first state to ratify the U.S. Constitution. It could also be known as “The First State” for its position leading the country in access and adoption of broadband internet, with 100 percent of Delaware citizens having access to broadband from at least one provider (National Broadband Map).

Like all advances in communications technology, broadband Internet means faster, wider and cheaper access to information. For individuals this means being able to do research for school from the comfort of your home, and for businesses it can mean reaching new markets with products, tracking shipments and deliveries, and paying bills online. Whether for individuals or businesses, broadband access means being able to work more quickly and efficiently.

Any economist will tell you that with greater efficiency come greater profits, and greater profits means having the capital to grow and create jobs, which is exactly what we need in today’s slumping economy. Broadband access is the single most important investment businesses can make in order to increase revenues and create jobs. Unfortunately, many areas in the country lack any kind of broadband access and are unable to take advantage of its many benefits.

According to the Internet Innovation Alliance, many Americans in rural areas lack access to broadband Internet, or even any Internet at all. For businesses, this means being unable to compete in an ever increasingly global economy, and for individuals, it means starting at a disadvantage to those who have access. Currently in Washington there is a lot of debate about the best way to increase access to broadband through government programs and loans. But, clearly, a private market solution is preferable to an approach that once again taps the American taxpayer.

A few months ago AT&T announced that it was seeking to merge with T-Mobile USA, a German-owned wireless company. In information provided to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), AT&T has committed to build out its promises to expand 4G broadband wireless network to cover more than 97 percent of the country if allowed to merge with T-Mobile. Additionally, AT&T has announced that with the merger, they would bring 5,000 outsourced call center jobs back to the U.S. as well as maintaining the 25,000 T-Mobile call center jobs here already.

With the benefits of the merger, coupled with the general benefits of broadband for the economy and jobs (10 Facts About Broadband and Jobs) it is hard to see why the Federal government has not already approved the merger and started getting Americans back to work. The T-Mobile/AT&T merger sounds like common sense to me and Delaware could be a place where AT&T could put those 5,000 new American jobs. We have the facilities and the infrastructure to facilitate that kind of work and we have people well versed in both technology and customer service.

As a candidate for the Delaware General Assembly, I’m calling on fellow candidates, my opponent, Rep. John Viola and current legislators to join me in supporting this private sector venture and to call on Congress to end its hostility towards business.

Solyndra should wake up Delaware

2011-09-14T10:51:00.003-04:00

Delaware must learn a lesson from Solyndra that even Spain couldn’t teach us. A study of Spain’s focus on “green jobs” found that for every “green job” created, it cost Spain more than 2.5 jobs. The study also found that the “green jobs” plan in Spain added so much to the debt that it actually delayed their exit from the economic crisis. Spain’s model of green job creation is the model that President Obama used to create his plan for a new green economy. This is the model that Jack Markell has embraced here in Delaware.

Delaware is seeing the effects of this policy although the blame is being laid on the economy. The truth is that “green jobs” and alternative energy are nothing more than limited alternatives to be added to the arsenal of energy alternatives for a nation. Solyndra is a perfect example of a “green jobs” company that could not compete within the market place. The Obama touted company brought in $1 Billion (including $535 million in taxpayer funds) from investors and employed 1100 workers (that’s just over $909,000 per job) yet the solar power manufacturer failed and filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy this week. The results of the Spanish policy show why this occurs in the alternative energy market.

The climate change and alternative energy supporters often clamor for more subsidies for their products and they complain about the massive payouts to fossil fuel companies. The truth is that solar and wind each receives more than 50x the amount of subsidies as the coal industry does yet coal provides more than 43% of America’s power while alternatives muster just over 5% of our needs. So we see that alternatives are far better funded than admitted and for far less output. Where is the money going? Well the answer is that not all of it is graft or misuse but some of it is. Alternative energy, despite its lifespan to date, is still lacking some technological breakthroughs that would make it more viable. These include finding a way to create a long term power storage plan and finding more effective ways to transport the energy to the places that need the power. Offshore and onshore wind farms can generate massive amounts of energy but that energy is short term kinetic power that must be used right away or lost. They are also built far away from the place where the power is needed and much of the energy is lost in the transmission of the energy. So these logistical problems contribute to the trouble that alternative energy has with becoming a competing source of power. Massive wind and solar farms must be constructed to provide even the most basic power needs in order to compensate for the unreliable and ineffective power generation. Remember this, the wind is not always blowing nor the sun always shining and so even in places like Delaware, where we have a Renewable Portfolio Standard that mandates usage of a certain percentage of renewable energy, we also have 100% of that alternative power backed up by conventional sources (nuclear, coal, natural gas). Sort of defeats the purpose and it greatly increases the cost.

It’s also worth pointing out that the Spanish study found subsidies “multiplied by five” in Spain between 2004 and 2010 while the companies charge 12x what it costs conventional energy to make the same power. Government subsidies in the alternative energy field are direct payouts, not “tax breaks” as they are in conventional energy sectors. You see, oil, gas and coal companies are allowed to write off the depreciation of equipment and land as the real value of those assets decreases (this is a standard deduction for any business from the local bakery to Exxon/Mobil) while Solyndra and Fisker receive checks from the government to subsidize the cost of their products. These direct subsidies actually COST the American taxpayer while tax breaks simply allow the company to keep more of what they earned based on a loss of value in another area.

A perfect example is Fisker. When GM closed their Boxwood Road plant in Wilmington, Delaware leaders scrambled around for a replacement. While companies like Hyundai, Nissan and Toyota expressed interest in the plant, Delaware’s alliance with the autoworker’s unions and the added costs scared them off but not Fisker. Fisker is a 4 yr old auto company that only recently built and delivered the first of its all electric plug in vehicles. The first thing that Fisker did is to design plans for a the plug in vehicle and the second was to begin begging the government for subsidies and look for places where they could get free room and board. They found Delaware and our government was all too willing to accommodate them. All told, Fisker has gotten more than $1 Billion in state, local and federal subsidies to build their cars. Their first car, rumored a year ago to be set around $80,000 is priced from $96,850-$109,850 which makes it about as affordable as a home in the Greenville hills. These will of course, be snapped up by environmentally conscious uber rich folks who can afford to have the charger installed at home and at their office but that won’t work for the average Joe which makes Fiskers plans to build an “affordable” version (rumors had it retailing around $40,000 last year but it’s more likely to be near $60,000) that Fisker plans to take over the car market with. The problem, as noted by the folks at the Caesar Rodney Institute is that the numbers don’t quite add up for Fisker, especially in this economy. Fisker is relying on their vehicle getting “98 miles to the gallon” to justify the cost of the car and the charging system (which we hope will be installed everywhere we park otherwise we might not make it home) and also hoping that you don’t notice the $1 Billion that you the taxpayer have already given them to build this car that they will now charge you a year’s salary to own. The problem with that is that there are now DOZENS of high quality hybrids like the Hyundai Sonata Hybrid, the Prius and the Leaf at nearly half the cost who get similar mileage out of gas/electric engines. That makes it unlikely that Fisker will own as much of the market as they expect to. Hybrid sales average around 300,000 cars per year and Fisker plans to sell 100,000 of their electric cars in a year. That means commanding 1/3 of the American hybrid market with a vehicle that is more than twice the cost of the hybrid sales leader, the Toyota Prius.

Any business owner can tell you, as a new company, expecting to compete with a well-known and well respected existing company right away is a fools folly. This is especially true when your product is more expensive and less proven than the competitor. Yet this is the “investment” that Obama/Markell’s “green energy” plan makes. A company with no evidence that their product is viable in the long term or in the long run is given $1 Billion to produce it. Meanwhile, conventional vehicles are being forced into higher costs to allow this new “investment” to compete. The truth of the American car market is that fuel efficiency is important but American families are large and we enjoy comfort which means we like our vehicles larger than Europeans for instance. The most recent list of top selling Ford vehicles did include the Fiesta but it also included the Explorer and the F-150. Instead of driving these vehicles out of existence, we should be looking at ways to make them more efficient.

Delaware had a unique opportunity to lead in the auto market when Chrysler and GM closed their doors. Both plants were setup to manufacture cars and SUV’s that Americans want to drive and both would have taken minimal effort to adjust for companies like Hyundai and Toyota to begin producing those vehicles with hybrid engines right here in Delaware. It’s time for new leadership in Dover that will use common sense when confronted with these kinds of problems and that will look for ways to create jobs for Delawareans regardless of the effect on unions. Delaware has turned away more jobs because we refuse to be a right to work state than we’ve lost due to the economic crisis. This has to stop. We need LEADERS in Dover who understand what the people want and need, not puppets who are beholden to special interest groups. When I get to Dover, I’ll make sure that we get government out of the way so that businesses can thrive and create jobs. Delaware deserves no less than that.

Reference:
http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/leaked-spanish-report-obamas-model-green-economy-a-disaster-pjm-exclusive/ - Spanish government documents show that study of Spanish green jobs initiative was generous, damage to Spanish economy worse than previously thought.

http://www.eia.gov/cneaf/electricity/epm/epm_sum.html - energy sources

http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/stifling-innovation-with-subsidies/ - Fisker shenanigans

http://www.caesarrodney.org/pdfs/Fisker_revisited.pdf - Fiskers numbers don’t add up

9-11-2001 - Heroes Among Us

2011-09-11T13:49:00.000-04:00

On September 11^th 2001, hijackers cowardly took control of 4 planes along the eastern seaboard of the United States. Two of them flew into the two World Trade Center towers in New York City, 1 was flown into the Pentagon and the 4^th was crashed into the ground in Shanksville, PA. 2,977 people were killed and more than 6,000 were injured in the attacks including those of United Flight 93 who did NOT allow the hijackers on their plane to reach their destination (believed to be either the Capitol Building or the White House). Todd Beamer’s words “Let’s Roll!” were felt and understood long before they were ever heard by most Americans.

As the news reports came fast and furious over the airwaves, my fellow Marines and I stood in a state of shock. How could they have hit us here…at home? I remember that I was ordering parts for a tank engine rebuild when the initial reports came over the radio. I thought it was a joke because the show I was listening to, Lex and Terry was that kind of show. When the news broke in to cover it we knew it was for real. It took less than two hours for the towers to fall and for us to really get a grip on what happened. Almost immediately, every Marine looked at one another and you could hear the words of Todd Beamer without even knowing that he’d said them, the Marines were ready, “Let’s Roll”.

By 10:00AM there was a signup sheet for volunteers to deploy whenever and wherever we were needed. My name was the 3^rd on the list and within the next 20 mins every member of my unit had joined me. We might have been mechanics and not war fighters but we were ready to do our part and put our lives on the line because we knew it was the right thing to do. Some of those names on the list left in the weeks and months following for Afghanistan but the majority of those of us who were called upon from GSM Co., 2^nd Maintenance Battalion, 2^nd Force Service Support Group left in December of 2002 and January of 2003 for Iraq.

Some of those names never made it home. They were my friends and my brothers. I consider them casualties of 9-11 as I do all of the Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines who gave their lives so that we could all be free. I think every day, but especially on this day about my brothers and sisters in the police, fire and EMS fields, the first responders who run INTO the burning buildings as most of us run out of them and who stand in the line of fire to ensure that we don’t get hit. Our military and our first responders are heroes to be sure but let us never, EVER forget that if it weren’t for 40 brave men and women who woke up on 9-11-2001 and get on an airplane, there would be another building destroyed. 40 men and women who understood that THEY had the opportunity to save thousands of lives and who made the decision to sacrifice their own to save the lives of countless others. For me, Flight 93’s passenger list is a list of absolute heroes. I will never forget, WE will never forget.
Please visit the following link and give what you can to build a memorial honoring the passengers of Flight 93 for their heroism and sacrifice: http://www.honorflight93.org/

Every Race Matters

2011-08-31T14:47:00.001-04:00

If 2010 taught us anything, it’s that in Delaware, we can’t win statewide or make headway in Dover until we change New Castle County. Even if we won every race in Kent and Sussex County we could not control the General Assembly in Dover without New Castle County and that is why every race matters in 2012. We have a rare opportunity to turn the tide in Delaware with almost every seat up for grabs. What we must do is look outside of our own districts for places where we can find solid conservatives who can pick up seats that we will need to regain control of the General Assembly.

How can we affect races in districts we don’t live in? Consider this, across the state there are 174,545 registered Republican voters. If half of these voters contributed just $10 to each of the 51 seats up for election in 2012, each candidate would have $872,725 and each donor would spend just $510 (the max contribution limit to each race is $600 so this is 51 for the price of 1). Even the most difficult races in Delaware should be quite winnable with those kinds of dollars. Given the results, it’s really a small price to pay to achieve these kinds of victories in Delaware and to save our state from our current disastrous course.

So when you’re looking out at the races this year, consider spreading a little cash around to races throughout the state to make 2012 a wave election and regain control of Dover. We can and we will make a difference in Delaware

Time to Dump the Double Dippers

2011-08-31T14:36:00.000-04:00

Delaware is a small state but not as small as our General Assembly makeup might have you believe. Many legislators work for government, are a product of a public union or work in places that receive taxpayer funding. This is simply unacceptable. While tens of thousands of Delawareans are struggling to find work, our state General Assembly members hold two cushy government jobs paying full-time wages. Some legislators have complained about their current salaries which average over $42,750 (Plus a separate stipend of more than $7,000 added to their paychecks for constituent communications), saying that the number is not sufficient to find “decent people”. I’m not sure where these folks are working but for me, $50,000 is full time pay and I know plenty of decent people making at or below that for 12 months of work. Our General Assembly is the 12th highest paid state legislature and among the 41 states whose legislative bodies meet for part time sessions, Delaware ranks 3rd in legislative pay. They serve in Dover from Jan 8th – July 1st and during that time they are actually in Dover on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from around 2PM to 6PM (with a few exceptions when they stay later). The final days of session are usually the most hectic and legislators have been known to stay in Dover well into the night, sometimes till 1AM working on Delaware’s spending bills and budgets. Even with the gravity of their jobs and the rare late hours, I find it hard to justify ANY increase in their already over generous “part-time” pay.

Yet, after State Senator Tony DeLuca’s work records with the Department of Labor were sealed from the News Journal, a spotlight was shone on a problem that is rampant in Dover and the call for higher pay for legislators has begun to grow louder. Senator DeLuca , Representative John Viola and Representative Helene Keeley (all Democrats) are all merit employees within the Department of Labor and Attorney General Beau Biden has run cover for them by citing “national security” concerns among other wild reasons why we the public shouldn’t know what hours merit employees work at their state jobs. In total, 10 of Delaware’s 62 state legislators have jobs within the state government. More than half of our state legislators are either current or former employees of the state or have a job with an entity that relies on state dollars. Delaware is a small state but aren’t large enough that we don’t need to employ our elected officials in other areas of government? Also, how many of these “double dippers” are involved in voting for bills that provide money to their employers or their agency? This is an issue that works across party lines and something that Republicans, Democrats and Independents are and should be upset about.

Delaware is facing an employment crisis and meanwhile our legislators complain that a salary that many of the more than 30,000 unemployed would love to have is too little as a part time salary. This shows just how out of touch our legislators are with the real world, even such a small state. We can change things and we start by changing our representation. Our first stop, the double dippers, let’s tell them to pick a job or we’ll pick it for them. Finally, when I get to Dover I'll support a bill that precludes state employees from holding office or seeking reelection if they become employed by the state while in office (as Sen. DeLuca did) and I will also seek legislation that precludes legislators who represent entities that rely on state money from serving on committees that fund their employers.

http://deleditor.posterous.com/does-anthony-delucas-job-at-the-states-dept-o - Tony DeLuca's job history

http://www.delawarefirst.org/1_government_and_politics/many-legislators-and-hopefuls-dont-quit-their-day-jobs/ - Part time jobs

http://www.delawareliberal.net/2011/06/02/delcogs-and-pdds-joint-statement-to-senator-deluca/ - the issue of double dipping transcends party lines

Reduce Regulations - Create Jobs

2011-08-31T14:29:00.001-04:00

Delaware needs jobs and we need to look no further than Texas to see how to get them, reduce regulations, lower taxes and encourage small businesses to grow and expand. There are two practical ways that the General Assembly and Governor Markell can get Delaware on the fast track to recovery: Pull out of RGGI and Obamacare. Representative Jack Peterman had a bill (H.B. 86) last year that would have accomplished the first part of this and Representative Deborah Hudson submitted a bill, the Delaware Health Freedom Act (identical to H.B. 353 from 2010) that would have allowed Delaware citizens and businesses to opt out of Obamacare.

What stopped these bills? In the case of Rep. Hudson's bill, it was killed in committee two years in a row by the House leadership. The split was along party lines with Democrats objecting and Republicans supporting. In the case of Rep. Peterman's bill, it was tabled by John Kowalko's energy committee which is made up of 5 Democrats and 3 Republicans.

The bottom line here is that in 2011, Delaware Democrats killed two bills that would have immediately ADDED jobs in Delaware and instead relegated us to massive layoffs and barely hanging on to our already too high unemployment rate. The fact is that nothing is going to change until we change it and what needs to change is the leadership in Dover. We've got too many legislators who are really nothing more than glorified lobbyists for unions, state & local governments and special interest groups. It's time to replace double dippers like John Viola (my opponent) with fresh ideas and people who aren't beholden to special interest groups.

If you help me get to Dover, I will cast my first vote for NEW leadership in Dover. I'll vote for fresh ideas and a new approach to job creation and with enough other like-minded representatives from around the state, we'll build a new leadership team and we'll work with our colleagues and with Jack Markell to make sure that these things get done and that Delaware moves forward on job creation and economic growth. Delaware needs us, let's work together to make sure that we put Delaware back to work.

http://legis.delaware.gov/LIS/lis146.nsf/vwLegislation/HB+86/$file/legis.html?open – HB 86

http://legis.delaware.gov/LIS/lis145.nsf/vwLegislation/HB+353/$file/legis.html?open – HB 353

CREW Under Investigation by the IRS

2011-08-26T09:30:00.001-04:00

My how the tables have turned between O’Donnell and CREW. Only a couple of months ago, CREW was calling O’Donnell a thief and a liar and had pending investigations with the U.S. Attorney and the FEC. Now, all the charges against O’Donnell have been dismissed as false on their face and CREW is being investigated by the IRS for their violations of their 501(c)3 charter. Here is a press release from O’Donnell’s PAC detailing the latest move by the IRS:

Complaint Against Soros-Funded
CREW Moves Forward in IRS
Left-Wing Organization has Long History of Targeting Republicans
Wilmington, DE—This week, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) notified ChristinePAC that it has referred the group’s complaint against Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) to its Dallas office for further review. ChristinePAC has asked the IRS to strip CREW of its tax exempt charitable status for engaging in partisan political activities in violation of federal law.
Christine O'Donnell and ChristinePAC filed an official complaint against the organization with the IRS, asking the agency to revoke CREW's tax-exempt status. Acting as a "charitable organization," CREW is barred from intervening in political campaigns ("electioneering") as well as participating in discriminatory activities. Over a period of several election cycles, however, CREW has misused its tax-exempt status by acting on behalf of the Democratic Party as well as establishing a pattern of racially discriminatory activities.
“The justice system should not be used as a political weapon, and CREW's partisan campaign intervention in my US Senate election are well documented. Taxpayers should not be forced to subsidize an organization that acts in blatant violation of the law. CREW has illegally posed as a non-partisan political watchdog keeping Washington politicians in check. However, in reality, CREW has misused and abused its tax exempt status by intervening in partisan political campaigns and disproportionately targeted attacks against Republican candidates and officeholders, while outright ignoring scandals involving Democratic candidates and officeholders,” said former Delaware Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell.
ChristinePAC has also called for an investigation of CREW’s Executive Director Melanie Sloan for knowingly filing a false federal claim against Ms. O’Donnell, a claim that was later dismissed. Ms. Sloan has worked for some of the most strident liberals in Congress, including Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY). She also failed to disclose using her own father, a Delaware voter and major Biden donor, as her complainant against O’Donnell in CREW’s FEC Complaint filed only days after Christine O’Donnell won the Republican nomination for the US Senate in 2010.
“The IRS must scrutinize CREW’s expenditures and will find a history of CREW’s blatant political activities, supported by its liberal sources of funding, which include George Soros’ Open Society Foundation and the Tides Foundation,” said Cleta Mitchell, Attorney for ChristinePAC. “There is no question that CREW has forfeited its charitable status and the IRS can draw no other conclusion.”

For more information on the case it has mounted, please visit http://www.christinepac.com/CREW
ChristinePAC is committed to values that strengthen our country as a whole and to empowering Americans to become more involved in the political process. It seeks to empower Americans through voter education, in which voters learn more about the election process, voter fraud, and how to harness the great responsibility we have as Americans to vote for the leaders of our country.

O’Donnell has already taken down one giant in former longtime Congressman Mike Castle and now is poised to strike a blow against the Soros funded CREW organization that has taken on every conservative from Andrew Breitbart to Sarah Palin. In fact, O’Donnell has already succeeded where no one else has. CREW has not been investigated before but now, with criminal charges pending in both the State of Delaware and at the federal level for CREW’s lies against O’Donnell and their filing of false reports, the IRS has decided to move forward on their investigation. The Capital Research Center details CREW’s left leanings in both staff and monetary support, their focus on conservatives over liberals and their ethics problems in a recent report. An excerpt from their report details the real purpose for why CREW was built:

“Sakol alerted Hillary and her staff about the newly forming group and its need for ‘Democratic progressive money,’” the book says. “The hope was that CREW would prove to be a perfect counterbalance to Judicial Watch, the corruption watchdog that had tormented the Clintons with lawsuits and press conferences throughout the 1990s.”

“CREW could do things the senators couldn’t do,” Sakol said, according to the book. “And once CREW’s charges ‘were out in the press,’ Sakol noted, other people could cite the findings of the group, which was usually portrayed as nonpartisan in news accounts.”

Its point was to be a left wing attack group and it’s certainly succeeded in that goal but it’s done so while pretending to be non-partisan. Now, they are finally being investigated and face serious ethics and criminal charges for their filing of false affidavits and their violations of their 501(C)3 charter. Even those on the right who have attacked O’Donnell should be thankful for her response to CREW and supportive of her fight against their attacks. She is once again leading the charge against a giant and once again her stones are landing.

O’Donnell tells Piers Where to Stick it

2011-08-17T23:14:00.001-04:00

No doubt the News Journal “reporters” are hammering away at their keyboards after Christine O’Donnell’s appearance on Piers Morgan’s CNN show. O’Donnell was on to promote her book and the interview started out fairly well. She was amiable and Piers was nice enough but throughout the interview, Morgan continued to turn the topics away from the subject matter of the book, which is a return to our founding principles and an embrace of fiscal responsibility, limited government and a breakup of the crony capitalist system. Now, CNN’s website only shows the last few minutes of the exchange but for those of us who watched the show, Piers went on and on throughout the interview about witches, masturbation and gay marriage which were simply not the topics he brought her on to discuss. Here’s the end of what was at least 15-18 mins of O’Donnell tying to redirect Piers who was acting like a lovesick teenager fresh into puberty.

I say “Good Job Christine!” Piers has a history of asking ridiculous questions of his guests, especially women:

Piers Grills Condoleeza Rice for Being Single - "Are you high maintenance?"

Piers Morgan asks English Prime Minister Gordon Brown about the “mile high club”

Piers attacks Ann Coulter with Personal Questions

So Christine, after 15 mins of deflecting the engorged Morgan from discussions about sex and witches, decided that the interview was not worth continuing as she had other engagements to attend to. I say good for her and while I know that the News Journal will print something filthy and that her political opponents will trash her over it but I say let them talk. It’s time these elitist pricks in our media system realized that they are not only replaceable but EASILY replaceable. Oh, and one more thing, why do we keep accepting the rejects from overseas? Piers Morgan, Farid Zakaria…is it really such a thought desert on the American left that our national media outlets can’t even pull from OUR pool of idiots?

*UPDATE*I recieved a quote from Christine O'Donnell on the interview with Piers:

"If you watch the full interview, you'll see I was more than a good sport with his prior inappropriate/double standard line of questions. We had already gone over our time limit and were late for a Women's National Republican Club speech being shown on C-SPAN. Piers' is a liberal host with his own agenda, so no hard feelings and I wish him all the best in his future endeavors. There are major crisis in our country and in our world today. Those are the discussioins we try to address in Troublemaker and everyday Americans want to talk about, not Piers admitting he is a pro-masturbation talk show host (or something to that effect)."

Reviewing a Troublemaker

2011-08-17T10:16:00.000-04:00

So the News Journal got their copy of Troublemaker and true to form they set out on a campaign to not only destroy the book but to destroy the author. I was mad, REALLY mad, but just moments before I started writing this post, I read the following hit piece from Chad Livengood at the News Journal. It should have made me mad. Should have…but it didn’t. As I read through the piece, through the long list of backstabbers and second guessers. Through the list of names of people who campaigned for Mike Castle, who developed the “Kill the girl” strategy that the Delaware GOP imployed in a vain attempt to stop O’Donnell from taking down the most liberal member (former) of the U.S. House of Representative, a guy who had destroyed the credibility of every candidate he’d run against and not their policies, I realized something. These are sad examples of what politics has become. Some of these people were great success stories. Some have TREMENDOUS talents. Others are just corrupt political scoundrels. None of them have escaped with their souls intact.

I’ll tell you, I could go on and on about Maria Evans’ failed career in media (I bet most of you have never even heard of Delaware Talk Radio have you?), Priscilla Rakestraw’s record of making false allegations to the employers of candidates she doesn’t like and Tom Ross’ outright sabotage. I could go on about the failure of the Delaware GOP to hold on to their seats long before the TEA Party came along. I could point out that in politics, it’s apparent that NO ONE is trustworthy or decent. I could…but I won’t because it doesn’t matter.

Ken Grant can enjoy his time on stage tearing down the work of one of the finest human beings I have ever met (thanks for the extra book sale), laughing it up with all of the Delaware political monsters in the crowd. Priscilla Rakestraw can live out the rest of her short time on Earth being as mean and nasty as she wants to be. Maria Evans can take solace in the fact that she’s assisted in the personal destruction of someone just trying to make a difference. Steve Grossman can sleep well tonight knowing that he stabbed a person that he supported in the General Election in the back. Chad Livengood can rest easy knowing that he has taken an impressive career and splattered it with a huge black spot. Tom Ross can smile knowing that he, as Chairman, ensured she’d never win and Mike Castle, king of Delaware kings, can sit up on his throne in Chateau Country with Chablis and some brie and be content knowing that Christine has been beaten down.

The bottom line here is that all of this, from Day 1 of her getting into the race till now was predictable. Anyone who is anyone saw this coming. The News Journal has always been just a tin can and string away from the DNC HQ and let’s face it, the Delaware GOP elites have long ago realized that “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em”. Nothing I can say, no evil words, no backroom truth, no startling revelations about these cats is going to undo what they’ve done. So none of these people (except Mr. Grant…again, thanks for the book sale) is going to read Christine’s book. That’s fine, she didn’t expect you to. She didn’t write it for you. She wrote it for the people who TRULY supported her, not the ones who showed up just for the paychecks. She wrote it for the people who bucked the establishment trends, not those who buckle underneath it because they were born into it. She wrote it for the people who want to CHANGE politics, not the people who are desperately trying to keep it the same. She wrote it for conservatives and independents, not for progressives and liberals.

Truth be told, Delaware is the small town of states. Just like any small town upstart who challenges the lifelong political culture of a backwoods North Carolina town, a challenger to the Delaware establishment will be ostracized and beat up. If that North Carolina challenger wrote a book, after facing down a popular Mayor in a heated election, it’s unlikely many town members would buy their book. The same thing is happening here. I don’t believe that many people in Delaware will buy Christine’s book, not because it’s bad, but because they are too closed-minded to see beyond their own irrational hatred of a true patriot. They hate me too and I just don’t care. Because you see, I know something they don’t know. I know that for every plank they tear out from underneath our feet, we receive yet another Blessing from God. By the time they have ripped all the planks out, we’ll be able to float away.

So the title of this blog said “Reviewing a Troublemaker” and we’ve spent a lot of time reviewing Chad Livengood’s predictable and sad hit piece. Now I’d like to take some time to do what a decent reporter in Chad’s shoes would have done which is to review the book. I’m not going to pluck out a sentence here or there about the most damaging parts of it though. I think Chad’s covered that, thanks Chad! What I’m going to do is tell you what you’re going to see in the other 350 pages that Chad didn’t bother to read.

“Troublemaker: Let’s do what it takes to make America great again” is a fantastic book that really brings you into the struggle that the TEA Party faces. For those of you who don’t know who the TEA Party are and what they stand for, Christine shows you who they are: They’re you. You’re frustrated by the lack of jobs, so is the TEA Party. You’re upset at the down economy, so is the TEA Party. You’re angry at the corrupt political class in Washington, so is the TEA Party. You’re worried about the future for your kids, so is the TEA Party. You’re scared that out nation is going in the wrong direction, so is the TEA Party and so is Christine O’Donnell. You see, Christine got one thing right in the infamous “Witch Ad”, she is you. We’ve all said things that we wish we hadn’t, we’ve all quoted something kooky from a story we read and we’ve all questioned authority. The difference is that the TEA Party has simply acted on that questioning and so has Christine O’Donnell. She stood up, like the TEA Party did and said “Enough is enough, we want our country back from the political elites and the special interest groups.” That’s why she took on her own party first. You see, Christine ran a write in campaign in 2006 when she was asked by some of the political establishment and some close friends (for different reasons) to do so. Her write-in candidacy was designed by the political establishment to do one thing, stop Mike Protack (another person who bucks the establishment trend and scares the crap out of the elites). For Christine, it was an eye opening look at politics in America. In 2008, she had think long and hard but she decided to seek the party’s nomination to challenge Joe Biden. Not because she liked the smears and lies and distortions from the 2006 campaign but because she loved Delaware, loved America and thought that Joe Biden was not the right answer for either one. Truth be told, most people in Delaware agree with her but elections here are more about WHO you know than WHAT you know (a simple glance through the current and recent Delaware political class will prove that).

For a girl who grew up in a small house with a big family, Christine is surprisingly outgoing in public. Behind the scenes, as I came to know her, she’s quiet and thoughtful. She reminds of, well of me to be quite honest. She’s dealing now with what I dealt with throughout Jr. High and most of High School. She’s right on the edge of cool, right on the edge of being part of the crowd but there’s one problem, she won’t go along with their dastardly plans. She won’t drink that vodka or take that hit. She’s got one thing I didn’t have though, the willpower to see through convictions. See I eventually took that hit, drank that vodka and drove the getaway car. She won’t. I think that’s what inspires me about her. It’s what makes me want to defend her every chance I get, whether it’s using the left’s own science against them (Mice with human brain cells: Live Science & National Geographic) or calling them to task for using the same tactics against her that they rail against. The fact of the matter is that, as Christine explains in her book, she’s a Troublemaker because she won’t play ball their way. Yea, you’ll read about her childhood, her father as Bozo the Clown (and what a great guy he is) and her reversal from political liberal and pro-choice to pro-life conservative. She’ll walk you through her 2008 Senate campaign against Joe Biden and her 2010 Senate campaign against Mike Castle and Chris Coons. Sure, you’ll read a little about the infamous “Witch Ad” but you’ll also read about the real sad shame of the Widener debate when Chris Coons, a long time lawyer and a crowd of up and coming lawyers in the auditorium had trouble explaining the First Amendment to the Constitution. You’ll see how the political class will stop at nothing to derail those who it sees as obstructions to their goals and how they really just don’t care who they affect or how. I am personally well aware of this fact, their false accusations against me, labeled me a campaign finance violator and have cost me employment outside of politics. The book isn’t exclusive to political campaigning though. Christine offers some real solutions to Americas problems and many of them harken back to the original problem solvers, America’s founding fathers. While some will question these policy suggestions, those in the TEA Party and those with common sense will see them as excellent ways to move our country forward while returning our nation to the timeless principles of liberty that our founders held dear.

Christine tells a story that many of us in the TEA Party could tell but there are so many different reasons to read this account. For TEA Party members, it will validate much of what you’ve felt over the last 10 years. For those going into politics, it really runs down the problems that you are going to face with taking on the established political class. For women, Christine shows the incredible double standard among not only the politicians but among the liberal media as well. If I had to summarize that part, I would say that the women’s lib[eration] movement only works if the woman in question is a lib[eral]. If she’s a conservative, feel free to bash away. Christine doesn’t come away whiney or downtrodden but rather stronger for the criticism she’s faced and wiser for the experience. She comes away more convinced than ever that conservatism is the right answer to America’s problems and you will too. The book is a must read for TEA Partiers, political novices and young women. It’s a snapshot of what Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann and even Hillary Clinton to some extent, have faced over the years and it’s evidence that the political class is running in abject fear of the TEA Party and conservative thought.

Chad Livengood: Lies Packed In with More Lies

2011-08-16T08:43:00.001-04:00

If you've been reading over the last few days, it's not secret that Chad Livengood of the news journal is nothing more than a Democrat smear machine. His latest blog piece, posted as though fact, is more evidence that journalism is dead. Unfortunately, Livengood relies on the political stylings of the well travelled Maria Evans, who, desperate to remain relevant, is writing a book about Christine O'Donnell. It should be pointed out that Maria Evans doesn't know Christine O'Donnell and certainly doesn't know enough to write a book but if the rest of the Delaware political establishment are any means test, I imagine there will be fewer words than pictures. The Delaware political establishment culture talking or writing about something they know nothing about is really just par for the course.

Chad Livengood, a once decent reporter whose story on timecards shed light on the dirty Democrats in Dover, now has a history of leaving facts out of stories, smearing candidates and now, flat out lying. The crux of Livengood's latest piece is an audio tape provided by the same people who were found yesterday to have flat out LIED to the FEC about Christine O'Donnell. I'm sure Chad didn't know that though, he takes their word for the gospel. His argument for believing them? Maria Evans provides audio...oh well, gee, audio has never ben doctored before, and because Maria Evans (who helped develop the failed strategy of attacking O'Donnell with lies during the 2010 election) provided it, well why not take it for the gospel right? Well Chad might get a pass on this, he clearly doesn't know what the heck he's talking about. In his blog, he cites a blog as "conservative" but for those of us who know "Hube", we know he is anything BUT conservative. He's one of the Maria Evans, Mike Castle, Tom Ross RINO's. In fact, here's video of one of their buddies, Mike Stafford, who was discredited during the 2010 campaign for being a liar and one of the most corrupt people in the party, siding with the liberal progressives. For someone who calls themselves "conservative" I think this is pretty radically leftist. I guess we should be wary of allowing people to define themselves huh?

The reality is that I would trust Christine O'Donnell's version of events over the establishment Republicans version 7 days a week and twice on Sunday but I don't have to do that. Why? Well because Haley Barbour's own words in print, back up O'Donnell's claims.

The truth is that when O'Donnell says that it took Haley Barbour to introduce her, it's factual. When she says she wasn't invited, DESPITE being the U.S. Senate candidate, it's TRUE. When she says that Haley Barbour gave her accolades, well this letter proves that he's certainly done that. Meanwhile, Maria Evans and the Delaware GOP leadership claimed that O'Donnell violated campaign finance laws and THAT was a lie, as the FEC reveals in their finding of NO WRONG DOING...I'd like to point out that I have not seen this reported by Mr. Chad Livengood at the News Journal. Wonder why that is, maybe I should ask Maria Evans to send it to him.

Where do I go to get my Reputation Back?

2011-08-15T21:46:00.001-04:00

Today I recieved some news that is just, well vindication that the Truth shall set us free. After being publicly smeared as a campaign finance violator by the Delaware Republican Party simply for supporting Christine O'Donnell over Mike Castle. The FEC had previously reached a split decision on the matter but the investigative committee found no reason to believe that the O'Donnell campaign nor I had done anything wrong. Here is a link to the entire report and here is the excerpt that vindicates me.

Finally, the complainant alleges that the O'Donnell Committee's press secretary stated on his Facebook page that he speaks to TPAC "daily. The complainant also states that TPAC was planning a radiothon during which O'Donnell would make an appearance. OGC recommended finding reason to believe that violations of the Act occurred based on those facts. We disagreed.

We note again that "opening an investigation to determine whether we could discover a basis for those suspicions runs counter to the statutory constraints imposed on the Commission. That "reason to believe" requires more than mere speculation has been established in prior enforcement matters. For example, in MUR 4960 (Hillary Clinton), the Commission summarized the requirements as follows:
The Commission may find "reason to believe" only if a complaint sets forth sufficient specific facts, which, if proven true, would constitute a violation of the FECA. Complaints not based upon personal knowledge must identify a source of information that reasonably gives rise to a belief in the truth of the allegations presented...

Unwarranted legal conclusions firom asserted facts, see SOR in MUR 4869 (American Postal Workers Union), or mere speculation, see SOR of Chairman Wold and Commissioners Mason and Thomas in MUR 4850 (Fossella), will not be accepted as true. In addition,... a complaint may jbe dismissed if it consists of factual allegations that are refiited with sufficiently compelling evidence provided in the response to the complaint...

Similarly, in MUR S467 (Michael Moore), the Commission stated that "[purely speculative charges, especially when accompanied by a direct refutation, do not form an adequate basis to find a reason to believe that a violation of the FECA has occurred." Therefore, under the Act, before making a reason-to-believe determination, the Commission must assess both the law and the credibility of the facts alleged. To do so, the Commission must identify the sources of information and examine the facts and reliability of those sources to determine whether they 'reasonably [give] rise to a belief in the truth of the allegations presented." Only if this standard is met may the Commission investigate whether a violation occurred. These requirements are not met here.

Assuming that the radiothon was paid for by TPAC, mentioned the candidate, and was broadcast shortly before the primary election, the available information, including the Facebook posts at issue, provides insufficient basis for a reason-to-believe finding. First, the Facebook posting for the event does not indicate whether or not O'Donnell was set to appear. While a Facebook post by Evan Queitsch, apparently directed to a WDEL radio station employee, reads "@Jensen 1150 WDEL let me know if you want to know about the Tea Party Express as I speak w/them daily," OCiC states that the posts on their face do not satisfy the conduct prong. We agree. And even if TPAC and the O'DonnellConmiittee were in daily contact, such contacts would not be sufficient to meet the conduct threshold. More specific information is necessary.

Our unwillingness to find reason to believe a violation occurred based on the O'Donnell Committee's original response is bolstered by later confirmation that Mr. Queitsch was not a member of the O'Donnell campaign during the primary campaign. Therefore, the complainant's accusations in this matter, including one of which was based on tiie incorrect factual implication that Evan Queitsch was the O'Donnell Committee's press secretary, provide insufficient basis to find reason to believe.

My question is, where do I go to get my reputation back? When do I get to repair the damage that this false complaint has done to my career and potential political aspirations? Mr. Tom Ross, do you even care that you've destroyed the career of an innocent person? What about you Michael Toner? Do you care that your false allegations have impacted my career?

Also, to the media, you were quick to print my name in your articles alledging that there was wrong doing involved here. Now that Christine, TEA Party Express and I have been cleared of wrong doing, will you print your retraction and apology on page A-1?

More Shoddy Reporting at the News Journal (yea, again)

2011-08-15T13:47:00.000-04:00

Fresh off his enlightening piece about links on Amazon.com’s website that lead to porn when Christine O’Donnell is searched, the News Journal’s intrepid reporter Chad Livengood enlightens us with his review of the first few pages of Christine O’Donnell’s book. Chad has apparently gotten the Gannett memo “Kill the girl, kill the girl, yes master, yes master, tee hee, tee hee, tee hee hee hee hee.” (Thanks to Bill Cosby for that quote by the way). One could ask (and I have) why Chad chose to focus his last blog posting on research surrounding her Amazon.com store instead of say, the partisanship of CREW who has literally a more than 3-1 bias of attacking conservatives and Republicans vs. Democrats OR the fact that CREW violated their 501(c)3 mandate to remain apolitical when they attacked Christine O’Donnell during the campaign season. Agree or disagree with their (lies) position, the fact is that they broke the law. He’s not yet provided an answer. I assume he was busy with his latest concoction. This Sunday he released his review of O’Donnell’s book (or at least the first few pages) and WOW are there factual errors. I’m going to go through his piece (you can read the full piece here) and tackle some of the more egregious errors.

“Just like in her campaign, the impact of the witch ad is a central theme of her 358-page book, which combines O'Donnell's life story with reflections on her three failed Senate campaigns in Delaware and a tea-party-inspired manifesto for changing the country's direction.”

The ad is discussed in the book on a few pages but it’s not what one would consider a “central theme”. The “Witch Ad” as it is known, is so well known, to leave out the story surrounding it would have been disingenuous.

“O'Donnell claims someone from Hollywood-based television producer Fred Davis' staff "leaked" the "I'm not a witch" ad to the press and Internet without her permission.

"Within one day, it became the most-watched video on the Internet ... all before I'd seen any footage, let alone approved the final cut," O'Donnell wrote…

…O'Donnell's version of events that transpired last fall are already being disputed by Republican consultants who dealt with the campaign and contradicted by emails her own campaign manager sent to Davis and his staff.”

If I may, I was a campaign worker after the Primary election (clarified for legal reasons) for Christine O’Donnell and I performed many duties. On the day of the commercial shoot, one of the things I was asked to do was to help track down supporters who would like to be in ads for O’Donnell. I knew that the campaign had been directed by the NRSC to utilize Fred Davis, a famous and highly touted Hollywood producer as their campaign ad man. Given Davis’ endorsements, I thought it was odd to be getting a call the day of the shoot and not sooner to allow us time to find people. Fortunately, Christine had a lot of VERY good supporters and we were able to find a number of people. Another staffer and I rode with the participants to a Philadelphia studio that was apparently once a warehouse of some sort. After some snacks and some time spent in the Green Room while Christine shot her portions of the ad we were called in. Only later did I find out why we were called so late. Oh I had heard the rumblings that they were concerned with the potential content of the ad Davis had planned to create but I had so many other duties to attend to that I didn’t delve further into that. I figured that this guy was a professional (and he is) and that it would all work out in the end. Like Christine, I was a little concerned that going with a high end Hollywood producer was a little over the top but I was just a regular guy and what did I know. I should have spoken up, I should have said something. I feel like part of this is my fault for not confirming Christine’s own thoughts. Of course, I couldn’t know what she was thinking but still, I could have said something. When we finally entered the studio, Mr. Davis had each participant sit and answer some basic questions like why they supported Christine and what they thought of her and Mr. Coons. Mr. Davis and his staff were nice but there was something weird, they were almost TOO nice. After now having been around politicians and media types, I know the feeling for what it is a divine warning that the person talking to you is a slime ball. The supporters that had come to be in the commercial were impressive and their words were powerful. I felt uplifted hearing Bob, Melissa, Councilman Brown and Mike (a lifelong Democrat) speak and I remember saying to myself that given Fred’s talent and the supporters words, this was going to be an incredible set of ads. It was raining out and so after chatting with Christine, the supporters and some of the crew from the shoot I pulled the campaign truck (talk about grassroots, the “campaign truck” was my 1997 GMC Sierra 1500 which I had decked out with yard signs taped on the back and sides…we were truly “grassroots” and yet, we’d just hobnobbed with people from Hollywood) around to the door and loaded up the gear. I noticed a person I hadn’t seen earlier and I asked who they were. I was told that the person was a New York Times reporter and that they’d wanted to do a story about Fred working with Christine but that the content of the commercials was still unknown to them.

What’s weird is on the way back, the tension in the truck was such that you could literally feel the air being sucked out. We lightened it with some discussions about faith (yea, it was THAT tight) and some small talk. Later, as I was in and out of what I called “The War Room” where the review of the ads was taking place, I found out that the NYT reporter had apparently been leaked a copy of the “Witch Ad” which to that point had not been approved or even SEEN by the candidate.

“Kyle Roberts, a media buyer from Alexandria, Va., who purchased O'Donnell's TV time, said "proper procedure was followed for all advertisements aired on behalf of the campaign."

"This includes creative approval by campaign officials," Roberts said in a statement.”

Unfortunately, Chad’s reporting here is shoddy and to be honest, he knows it. I’ve seen the emails sent by Campaign Manager Matt Moran to Chad about this exact issue and the fact is that Kyle, the media buyer did follow procedure. However, Kyle had NOTHING to do with the creative side. He had nothing to do with which ad ran. THAT is the crux of the issue. Of all the ads that were shot that night, Fred Davis and his team only prepared the ad that Christine had specifically told him that she did NOT want to run. The problem was that there was no time to wait for the other ads, the ones she’d specifically said she wanted to run with, to be delivered. Hundreds of thousands of dollars in media buys had already been spent and there was a deadline. The campaign was up against the wall and with Christine on the campaign trail; Matt was forced to pull the trigger on an ad he knew was trouble. The alternative was to literally piss away hundreds of thousands of dollars. Chad Livengood was made acutely aware of these facts but somehow they didn’t make it in. Then again, there’s a lot that Chad knows that isn’t in the piece.

“Emails obtained by The News Journal show O’Donnell’s campaign manager, Matt Moran, approved the witch ad, telling Davis “solid message Fred … well scripted and delivered despite the horrible hair (assume that was intentional to help reverse her negatives with women?).””

Having been in the room when some of these discussions took place, I can attest that NOONE was happy about the ad and that of all the people involved, *I* was the most positive about it. I thought if nothing else, it addressed the issue and that if there were other, stronger ads backing it up, like those cut by her supporters that fateful night, that it really wouldn’t be that big of a deal. Of course then I realized it had gone viral on the internet. I can attest to the sarcasm in Matt’s voice and emails. He was FAR from even content with the situation but he had no choice. Even the AP’s Randall Chase reported Matt’s sarcasm while Chad decided to leave that part out.

"No media company is going to leak the ad on behalf of a campaign," said one Republican consultant, who declined to be named because of what he said was O'Donnell's history of retaliating against critics. "If that actually happened, Fred's firm would no longer be working with O'Donnell…

... Moran and O'Donnell would not explain why Davis' firm continued to work for the campaign if they felt sabotaged by the airing of the witch ad as O'Donnell claims in the book."

Anyone else a little tired of reading about anonymous sources that more times than not, don’t have the foggiest idea what they’re talking about? Chad seems to take issue with the fact that Christine paid Davis despite this problem and that she continued to work with him. Moran explained in his email to Chad that the situation around “The Witch Ad” was not good and they there were backed into a corner. Remember also that Christine O’Donnell had been all but TOLD to use Fred Davis by the NRSC and she was between a rock and a hard place. To put it simply, she was the Republican nominee and she needed the support of the party. She was rebuilding her name within the party and doing all she could to repair bridges that had been burned during the contentious primary with RINO Mike Castle. So Christine took some advice that he gut told her was flat out wrong. She took a few thing on “hope” and given the money on the line, she really didn’t have a ton of choices. Moran went on to explain to Chad that after that initial disagreement on strategy, Davis’ firm worked quite well with the campaign and created some really great ads like “Principles”, “Tax Man”, “Shame on You Chris” and “What I’m Made Of”. Emails obtained by this blogger show that Chad Livengood was made ACUTELY aware of these facts and these ads before he published his piece. Why didn’t they make it into the story Chad?

“Throughout the book, O'Donnell continues to show her distrust of the media and what she calls "unscrupulous reporters," though she doesn't take any to task by name.”

Christine didn’t take them to task by name but I will. One is Randall Chase at the AP who has a history of leaving facts out of stories, another is Ginger Gibson whose reporting during the campaign was shoddy at best and flat out hit pieces and Democrat propaganda at worst and another is Mr. Livengood himself. Between his report on porn while ignoring CREW’s political bias and their violation of the law and his seriously flawed “book review”, Chad is more than making the case for his inclusion as an “unscrupulous reporter”. That’s really a shame too because his tenacity on the timecards of Tony DeLuca and other double dippers was much appreciated. I’m disappointed in such tabloid journalism.

“With some of her campaign apparatus still intact, O'Donnell also has continued to deal with allegations from her past two campaigns that she used donations for personal expenses. At the same time, O'Donnell's campaign has gone after her accusers, filing complaints with the Internal Revenue Service, U.S. Attorney's Office and District of Columbia Bar Association against attorneys and a political watchdog who have called into question her campaign ethics.”

Actually Chad, as you are WELL aware, the U.S. Attorney in Delaware has cleared O’Donnell of any wrong doing and the FEC has found no anomalies with her campaign finances. O’Donnell has launched investigations into the outright lies by her accusers and asked the IRS to look at CREW’s blatant violation of their 501(C)3 charter. She’s also filed complaints to have CREW Executive Director and bar member Melanie Sloan investigated for her role in filing knowingly false affidavits on behalf of admitted liar David Keegan. The so called “watchdog group” has a more than 8-1 record of accusing Republicans over Democrats while historically, more Democrats have been investigated for ethics violations than have Republicans.

“O'Donnell uses the book to settle a few scores with her political adversaries in the Delaware political establishment, claiming "the state party didn't lift a finger to help our campaign" in 2008 and sabotaged her bid for the seat long held by Joe Biden in 2010…

"…It shows how ill-informed Christine O'Donnell is about the history of our party, its leadership and the pro-life candidates in Delaware," said Rakestraw, who added that she doesn't plan to buy O'Donnell's book.”

The reality is that O’Donnell is right. In 2008, O’Donnell was “endorsed” by the state party but the party did not feel confident that anyone could beat Joe Biden. That has been the MO of the Delaware GOP for 10 years now since the Democrats took control of Dover. The Delaware GOP has been running defeatist campaigns ever since and to be quite honest, I have questioned the dedication of the Delaware GOP leadership. The fact is that the following video more than sums up what the Delaware elites think. In the video, National Committeewoman Priscilla Rakestraw is very candid about Christine O’Donnell and Glen Urquhart:

Christine raised a reported $7 million during her campaign however, she beat Mike Castle by raising far less than $2 million. Perhaps this video shows you a little bit more about who Priscilla Rakestraw is:

The bottom line here is that the leadership in the Delaware GOP is not committed to winning. It’s my SINCERE desire to see John Sigler change things but let’s call a spade what it is. The Delaware GOP leadership simply has not been committed to winning. The folly of the 2010 election really needs no recount but to remind you, former Delaware GOP Chairman Tom Ross, who was in fact the active chair at the time, said that Christine O’Donnell could not be elected dogcatcher and as you can see above, Priscilla sure had some strong words about Christine O’Donnell as well. In fact, it’s well known inside party circles that Priscilla Rakestraw orchestrated the smear campaign against O’Donnell. Rakestraw has also been implicated in a smear campaign against State Party chair candidate and Delta Airlines Pilot Mike Protack that resulted in trouble with Protack’s private market employer. Protack is considering taking legal action against those who used their influence to attack him with unfounded allegations.

“O'Donnell also alleges that Biden and Castle personally warned a supporter of the "consequences" of raising money for her in the 2008 Senate race against Biden. Like many of O'Donnell's allegations of campaign dirty tricks detailed in the book, the individual involved is not named.

Castle said O'Donnell's claim is "wholly inaccurate" and "the figment of somebody's imagination."

"I don't remember doing anything of that nature," Castle said Saturday.”

First of all, the “I don’t remember” line is not exactly smacking of surety of his statements. The fact is that evidence suggests that Mike Castle did actively work to sabotage her campaign, that Karl Rove (a key advisor to Castle) actively worked to sabotage her campaign and that there is a long held understanding that Castle, Biden and Carper are thick as thieves.

“She accuses Ross of abusing party funds by paying for robo phone calls against her in the primary.

Ross said there was nothing illegal about spending state party funds to help elect Castle, who won the party's backing at the state convention last May before losing the primary to O'Donnell.”

Sure is odd that the RNC’s position has been to stay out of primary races while Tom Ross and the rest of his leadership decided to inject themselves into this one in an UNPRECEDENTED manner. It may not be illegal to spend the money on those robo-calls but it sure is an abuse of party funds especially now that we know if they’d saved that money, they would have had more to spend on electing Republicans.

“After GOP delegates endorsed Castle, the party decided to launch a negative campaign against O'Donnell because it seemed the best option for helping Castle breeze to victory for the U.S. Senate seat and make gains in the state Legislature, Ross said.

"While my dogcatcher statement may have been a little harsh, the truth of the matter remains, Christine O'Donnell is not a viable statewide candidate in the state of Delaware," Ross said in an interview. "We had the biggest Republican year in a hundred years, and she lost by a very, very wide margin, while bringing down the rest of the ticket."”

Well Mr. Ross is continuing to double down on his stupidity from the 2010 campaign. This is a guy who named ME as Christine O’Donnell’s Press Secretary when I wasn’t even part of the campaign until AFTER the primary campaign was over. Also, this is apparently a guy who ignores the facts. You see, Ross claims that O’Donnell brought down the rest of the party but the facts actually bear out the OPPOSITE as the case. You see exit polling from the Delaware Senate race shows that O’Donnell actually HELPED down ticket Republicans. You see O’Donnell drew more Republicans and Independents to the polls and fewer Democrats by percentage than the registration gap bore out. It's interesting that 18% of Delaware Republicans cost Christine the election and likewise, 18% of Delaware Republicans consider themselves more liberal than moderate. I wonder if THAT is the reason those Republicans down ticket lost…because of Tom Ross’ failure to put together a Republican Party that represents Republican values.

TEA Party leaders to debate progressives on "Community Crossfire" with Norman Oliver

2011-08-14T13:47:00.000-04:00

Greetings!
Founders Values leaders Evan Queitsch and Lee Tirado are proud to have been asked by Mr. Norman Oliver to appear on his television show "Community Crossfire" again this Sunday August 14th at 9PM. The show will be broadcast on Comcast Cable channel 22 (or perhaps 28 depending on where you live) and will stream live on www.witn22.org.

Norman Oliver (right) and his son Norman Oliver Jr.
FV on TV

Delaware Today has a great piece on Mr. Norman Oliver, a self made man in every sense of the word.

When he was in eighth grade, Norman and his younger brother, Alonzo, rounded the corner of their block in Southbridge one day to find their mother in the street, surrounded by their belongings. They had been evicted. "But we persevered," he says. "We were a strong-knit family."

Oliver has not only persevered, he has prevailed, overcoming a childhood of poverty and steering a precarious course through Wilmington politics to become a successful entrepreneur and leader in the black community. His years as a city councilman-from 1992 to 2003-were especially controversial. Back then, Oliver, a man who has an affinity for the spotlight, stopped taking calls from reporters after making headlines for the wrong reasons.

I urge you to read the entire story of "Stormin Norman". You'll see his ups and downs and his brush with corruption. I see Mr. Oliver as a triumph of conservatism and capitalism and as a stark reminder of how close corruption is to everyone in the government. A single bad choice or misjudgment can result in epic consequences.

Our last appearance on the show went a long way in beginning a dialogue in inner city communities about the true intentions of the TEA Party. There were callers concerned about TEA Party racism, about education in Delaware and about how we can improve America. We addressed all of those concerns and we showed that the TEA Party has nothing to do with race and is concerned about the long term welfare of both Delaware and the United States. This time, we hope that the debate will focus on specific steps that we can take to restore America and policy ideas from a TEA Party perspective. I hope you will all tune in as well to hear the dialogue and to get a better understanding of where we stand and what we can do to clear up misconceptions about the TEA Party - 9/12 - Patriot movement.

Time: 9PM
Date: Sunday 8/14/11
Channel: 22 - WITN in the city and surrounding area. The program MAY be available in other parts of NCC on channel 22 or it may not. If it is not, you can stream it live from www.witn22.org. Update: The show may also be broadcast on channel 28 on Comcast cable outside the city. In Newark for instance, the program can be seen on Local Channel 28.

Mr. Oliver has informed us that progressive Nancy Willing, author of The Delaware Way will be debating us and we are sure that Norman will be opening up the show to calls and he would like you to call in as well. Please call in and show support for our mission to return to Constitutional values! We hope to hear from all of you during the show. Thank you for your support!

Sincerely,

Evan Queitsch
Founders Values

Republicans Outshine Preseason Opener

2011-08-12T12:29:00.001-04:00

Some of you may know, I’m a HUGE Philly sports fan and so I was in a quandary when I realized that the Eagles Preseason opener and the Ames Debate in Iowa were the same night. My plan was to record the debate and come back to it after the game but to my surprise, my WIFE decided at halftime that the 4th and 5th string Eagles didn’t matter. Boy was she right. It was well worth watching the Ames Debate live, especially with my new HTC EVO Shift 4G by my side and Tweetdeck feeding me the live stream of tweets to the hashtag #AmesDebate (not that I could read most of them as the stream was flying by, it must have been 100 tweets per second). The pulse of the Twitter verse centered on two candidates who have really utilized Social Media and it’s multiplying force to its advantage. Both Herman Cain and Michele Bachmann got A LOT of attention on the streams as the debate went on. Gingrich and Romney each shared some space among the Twitterverse while most of the Ron Paul and T-Paw mentions were at best backhanded compliments and at worst pimp hand smacks. I know Rick Santorum participated but I don’t think I even saw his name mentioned on the Social Media landscape. I know that Frank Luntz, “Lord of the Dials” as I call him, is doing his own focus groups and word testing and he knows far more than I do about the pulse of the people I am sure but I wanted to break down what WE saw from each candidate and what our mood was here at home. As young(er) parents of 4 children we have a unique and different perspective on life but yet it straddles that line between the young, just out of college kid making it on their own and the worldly parent of young children trying to help them grow up right. I think our experience, youthfulness and wisdom will translate well to many people. You be the judge.

I’ll first cover each candidate from our perspective (in no particular order), pro’s, con’s and memorable zingers. Then I will tell you who we thought stood out and finally rank them in our current leaderboard with one line as to why they are where they are. Here we go:

Mitt Romney

Romney came into the debate with a lot of questions. Now I will admit, that I already had a slightly inflated opinion of Romney after watching his handling of hecklers during a rally in Iowa that was posted on TheBlaze earlier that day but my wife was under no such delusions and in the interest of fairness, we’ll weight this toward her opinion. Romney was the frontrunner in many polls but for us, he wasn’t our first choice (despite my recent discovery that he is a VERY distant uncle of mine…hey Uncle Mitt…share that wealth over here partner!). He’s polished, he doesn’t make many mistakes and he’s got a good business sense which makes him formidable when talking about the economy. I thought he also did a good job of talking about the need to restrain the growth of government. He did not appear to WOW or impress my wife much except in that he knows what he wants to do with the job and he didn’t dance around too many questions. The line that I think stood out for me was in response to an attack by Tim Pawlenty on Romney’s signing of a universal healthcare bill in Massachussetts. Pawlenty was once again asked about a statement he made earlier in the campaign season about Romney’s plan in Mass. and comparing it to Obamacare, he called it Obamneycare. Tim Pawlenty had previously ducked the question at another debate but this time doubled down on his answer to which Mitt responded “I think I’ liked Tim’s answer in the last debate better” then he proceeded to defend his actions in Mass. as follows, “There’s some similarities between what we did in Massachusetts and what President Obama did, but there’s some big differences,” Romney said. “We put together a plan that was right for Massachusetts. The president took the power of the people and the states away from them and put in place a one-size-fits-all plan. It’s bad law. It’s bad constitutional law. It’s bad medicine.” He also promised to grant all 50 states (not 57 states) waivers to Obamacare on his first day in office to give Congress a chance to repeal the bill and allow the states to opt out if they chose to. All in all, I think Romney sounded Presidential (as did Frank Luntz) and so did my wife but we expected that. This is not his first rodeo and so I think he could have been a little more substantive in his answers. We did like the fact that he spent more time comparing himself to Obama than to the other candidates which I feel shows leadership and an ability to run on ones record rather than personal attacks. We thought Mitt did well in the debate.

Newt Gingrich

Newt came into this debate as one of my least favorites based on his ability (or lack thereof) to beat Obama and his lack of commitment to the race. I’m also not a huge fan of some of his potential policy ideas but as debates go, he really had some zingers last night and he took on a media that focuses too much on personal destruction and less on policy. Gingrich said what a lot of us have been thinking over the last few years (decades in some cases). He also had some unflattering words for a Congress hell bent on NOT making a decision until the final minutes of a deal and then making a bad one. His overall performance wasn’t bad, as former Speaker of the House, I expect him to be able to think on his feet but I was really impressed with the fight he took to the current Congress. When asked about the debt reduction deal, and after zinging the press corps (and moderators Brett Bair, Byron York, Susan Ferrechio and Chris Wallace) for their focus on “campaign minutiae” over substantive policy arguments, Gingrich called the Super Committee “as dumb an idea as Washington has come up with,” and many of us would agree with that assessment. In this house we sure did. Gingrich was able to raise his stock a bit during the debate by not being afraid to take on the media, the moderators, the current Congress and Obama but he has a higher climb than many others because of some of his personal issues and because of his attacks on the Ryan Plan and his previous support of TARP, Medicare Part D and others. With that said, we thought Gingrich did well and we thought he picked up a few spots on our board but he didn’t wow us.

Herman Cain

It’s no secret (take a glance to the right of the screen) that Herman Cain was at the top of my board going into the debate. Now, the entrance of Michele Bachmann into the race and some of Herman’s slip-ups in the media have given me pause and reason to consider other candidates but he still hadn’t been passed. Cain is one of those rare candidates who don’t SOUND like politicians. He sounds real and he knows what he’s talking about. His business skills were on display last night as he talked about businesses and regulations. Herman had a great line about growth when he said “I don’t know one company that sits around trying to figure out how to stand still, it’s about growth!” Likewise, he rightly tied America’s energy policy to our national security and lightened the mood when asked about a comment he made in response to Obama’s mocking of calls for border enforcement. His response was “America needs to learn to take a joke.” He also said that he thought the federal government should be out of the business of educating our children and he also pointed out that “people should be committed to the Constitution of the United States first” before they are appointed to the federal government. Cain presented a real regular persons perspective sans political correctness and he really laid things out the way they are. He didn’t get a lot of time to make his points but he capitalized on that time well. We felt like he stood above the fray in the same way that Romney did and that he utilized his shortened chances to speak well. He reacted well to questions about things he said on the campaign trail and he didn’t flame out during the debate.

Tim Pawlenty

Pawlenty was one of the weaker candidates going into the debate and he did not disappoint from that perspective. He remained as one of the worst performers and really has made his name by being an attack dog on the other candidates. This time T-Paw as he’s known in the Twitterverse, found that he wasn’t just going to attack Mitt Romney for what he describes as the “Obamneycare” but he would also include fellow Minnesotan Congresswoman Michele Bachmann who he described as failing in her leadership on issues like stopping Obamacare, stopping the debt ceiling increase and reducing government spending. In fact, at one point the debate between them got so heated that T-Paw actually asked Bachmann to stop leading because she was “killing us”. T-Paw’s defense of his own record as someone who not only supported but pushed through Cap and Trade and who supported an individual mandate to buy health insurance (one of the key problems with Obamacare) was shoddy, weak and he danced around those issues while throwing every dart he could at Bachmann. He looked more like a bully trying desperately to remain relevant (a la Mike Castle in the 2010 Delaware U.S. Senate race than he did like a Presidential candidate. He was off putting both to me and to my wife and he was not convincing. He did NOT increase his stock last night but I’m not exactly sure he could have given his record.

Rick Santorum

So Rick had a podium…and he spoke…and I can’t say I disagreed with most of what he said. He’s principled and he didn’t back down from Ron Paul on the Middle East. As the author of a bill sanctioning Iran, Santorum was clearly on the right side of the debate over whether to let Iran do whatever it wants with regards to its nuclear program and the threat they pose to the U.S. with terror cells working with Mexican drug cartels to setup terrorist training camps just across the border and their use of drug smuggling tunnels to transport weapons, ammo, terrorists and more into the U.S. Paul could muster little more than calling Santorum nothing short of a war propagandist and called for us to talk to the Iranians who have consistently said that they desire both the United States and Israel to be destroyed. Santorum stung Paul with the following comments, “Iran is not Iceland, Ron. Iran is a country that has been at war with us since 1979. Iran is a country that has killed more American men and women in uniform in Iraq and Afghanistan than the Iraqis and the Afghans have. The Iranians are the existential threat to the state of Israel.” He followed with this, “He sees it exactly as Barack Obama sees it. That we have to go around and apologize for the fact that we've gone out and exerted our influence to create freedom around the world. I don't apologize for that. I don't apologize for the Iranian people being free for a long time, and now they're under a mullahcracy [sic] that tramples the rights of women, tramples the rights of gays, tramples the rights of people all throughout their society and is the greatest supporter of terrorism in the Middle East and around the world — and — is setting up training camps and is working with Venezuela and other countries south of our border to threaten us.” He also had a good call on political compromise and how you can do it without losing your principles.

His biggest slip in our home was on the abortion issue. My wife and I are STAUNCHLY pro-life but we recognize the care and attention that MUST be paid in the cases of rape and incest specifically. Personally our positions are in favor of life at every turn but we struggle with how it’s our right to decide that for a woman who’s been raped or who’s body has been violated by a relative. In our opinon, if the baby will be healthy then we should look to adoption over abortion but that is a VERY tense situation. So Santorum’s principled stand even on those rough issues is both refreshing on the one hand and potentially over the top on the other. We like Santorum but can he transfer to those in America who are less conservative than we are? My argument is that he was once a PA Senator, a large state with two large cities (Pittsburgh and Philadelphia) but my wife argues that it would be similar to the O’Donnell race in Delaware where the media smeared everything and made every issue relate to these contentious issues. I can’t disagree with her position entirely.

Ron Paul

Dr. Paul is a traditional Libertarian and when it comes to monetary policy there is none better in my opinion. My concerns with him are and have always been with regards to foreign policy and domestic social issues. His open support of the legalization of drugs is dangerous to American society and to the American way of life. He touched on that issue during the debate although it was not a major focus. I thought Paul LOOKED a little frail and shaky and didn’t get a ton of time to talk (as usual for the lower tier candidates) but his fiscal policy was strong as always. Where Paul completely lost the debate (and in my opinion all chance of winning the nomination) was in his exchange with Santorum (from above) and Bachmann. Paul is flat out wrong to discount Iran and to blame America for the hatred of the Iranian regime. He misses the deep seeded hatred of the Iranian leaders for the freedoms and liberties that we have in the U.S. and his policy suggestions with regards to Iran are scary bad. I thought last night was a bad night for him and he certainly dropped a spot or two because of it.

Michele Bachmann

Michele was the subject of ire from Ron Paul and from Tim Pawlenty and she weathered the storm. She even handled perhaps the most disrespectful question asked of a candidate since the 2010 U.S. Senate campaign in Delaware. Byron York from the Washington Examiner, presumably in an attempt to prepare Bachmann for a run in the mainstream media (as if she doesn’t know what they are saying about her) asked Michele if she would be “submissive” to her husband if she is elected President of the United States which implied, of course, that her HUSBAND would somehow be running the country instead of her simply because she believes in the Bible. Bachmann handled the situation well and responded after a long pause (to allow the boo’s to cascade down on Mr. York). The clip below illustrates the nights most uncomfortable moment:

Now Bachmann also had some exchanges with Tim Pawlenty (as mentioned above) and while Pawlenty came across as obtuse, abrasive and rude; Bachmann was cool and measured in her responses. She challenged Pawlenty on his support and push for a Cap and Trade law in Minnesota as well as his support for an individual mandate for healthcare like what’s in Obamacare. Her blows landed sharply and Pawlenty had no real defense for his positions. Meanwhile, Bachmann showed herself to be a leader on key issues that matter to the American people and someone willing to fight for principle even against dramatically high odds. She came out of the debate really unmarred and better for it in our opinion. She didn’t dance around the questions and she defended herself well. She did get bogged down in combat with Pawlenty who was clearly beneath her but we thought she handled it well and zinged him right back.

Jon Huntsman

Huntsman ducked a few questions and that immediately turned my wife off. He’s not the traditional Republican and if we needed to see what a RINO looks like as compared to the current crop of candidates, he certainly presents that option. Frankly, it’s a bad option and one that I hope few people choose but it’s a voice for those who think that “Hey, Obama’s not such a bad guy.” He didn’t do himself any favors last night.

Ok so that’s our analysis. Winners and losers: Cain and Bachmann were big winners in our opinion, Romney was as expected and Gingrich had a few zingers so they are the winners last night. Paul, Huntsman and Pawlenty really dropped their stock and Rick Santorum did what he could.

Here’s our list to this date:

1. Herman Cain – Cain is a real pragmatic candidate who is more of a regular guy than a politician. He’s a plain talker who speaks the truth and who is unafraid of being politically incorrect but he doesn’t come across as overly abrasive.

2. Michele Bachmann – Bachmann is tough and she’s not going to take any guff from Obama or the liberal media. She’s a fighter who doesn’t get frazzled (as we saw with the York question) in the heat of battle and she’s very smart and very right on the issues.

3. Mitt Romney – Ok, so this one was close but Mitt is showing us something lately. He sounds Presidential and he’s been saying the right things and he’s doing well in the debates but that is to be expected from a guy with so much experience.

4. Rick Santorum – We like Rick. He’s conservative, he’s smart and he’s got the right thought process. The only problem we see is that his conservatism may turn off swing voters and Democrats.

5. Newt Gingrich – We had Newt at the bottom before the debate but last night he really made strides to convince us that he deserves a shot. We still feel more like he’s running for Speaker of the House than President BUT his zinger on the Super Committee and his attacks levied at the media for their focus on campaign minutiae vs. substantive issues was also great. Questions still remain about his personal ethics, support for Bush era progressive policies like Medicare Part D and TARP and his attack on Paul Ryan’s plan to reform entitlements.

6. Tim Pawlenty – Personally I think everyone from Pawlenty down should get out of the race and look for slots in the administration but in the grand scheme of things, if we had to pick someone from the bottom, Pawlenty is the pick over Paul, Johnson and Huntsman.

7. Ron Paul – Paul has dropped below Gingrich and Pawlenty because of his foreign policy alone. Anyone that doesn’t understand the threat of IRAN is clearly incapable of leading America in 2012.

8. Gary Johnson – Pot head votes are going here. Great.

9. Jon Huntsman – If we wanted Barack Obama, we’d vote for him.

CREW Exposed

2011-08-11T10:06:00.000-04:00

A new website out today delves into the realm of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW). You may remember CREW from previous posts on this blog as well as from the recently dismissed charges against Christine O’Donnell. Like most CREW complaints, the one against O’Donnell was dismissed by the U.S. Attorney because they were completely fabricated. As we broke here on this blog, CREW violated their IRS mandate to remain non-political when they attacked Christine O’Donnell during the campaign and they violated federal law when they filed a knowingly false affidavit signed by David Keegan whose entire smear campaign of lies was simply designed to keep Christine from running again.

The new website also delves into the partisanship of CREW. A quick look over the founders of CREW shows the partisan angle. Norm Eisen who was Deputy General Counsel to Obama’s transition team joined Daniel Berger, a massive donor to Democrat campaigns (including Christine O’Donnell’s opponent Chris Coons) and Clinton pollster Mark Penn to start CREW in 2003 as a way to compete with the conservative ethics groups that had questioned Bill Clinton’s philandering in the White House. They needed a face for the organization and so they tapped another ultra-liberal Democrat to head up CREW, Melanie Sloan. Sloan came with plenty of leftist credentials, she’d worked for Representative John “Read the bill” Conyers in the House, she then worked for Senator (now VP) Joe “Stand up Chuck” Biden and she also worked for NY Democrat Chuck “3 branches of government?” Schumer when he was in the House of Representatives. Sloan isn’t the only leftist in the mix, in fact, the website finds that “there isn't a single current or former CREW staffer with comparable experience working for a conservative organization or Republican politician.”

As if that weren’t enough, the new site exposes CREW’s record of attacks against Republicans over Democrats. The chart below clearly shows that CREW files more complaints against Republicans than Democrats and it clearly shows that the actions taken by the ethics committees lean more toward Democrats than Republicans. What does that mean? It means that CREW is either REALLY ineffective as a “watchdog” or it’s just out to be a Democrat Attackdog.

Let’s look at the Senate ethics complaints as an example. As you can see above CREW’s Senate ethics complaints are around 90% against Republicans. Meanwhile, the Senate ethics committee actions are 60% against Democrats 40% against Republicans. This is simply a perfect illustration of the reason why Christine O’Donnell’s complaints about CREW are entirely valid. They are a partisan group out to destroy Republicans, prop up Democrats and do the bidding of radical leftist donors like George Soros. Their list of donors reads like a Who’s Who of radical leftwing groups. The Open Society Institute, the Democracy Alliance, the Tides Foundation and the Silberstein Foundation to name just a few are all major donors to CREW. Interestingly, CREW was also a MAJOR advocate for the DISCLOSE Act (written by Delaware’s own Mike Castle) which would have required groups to disclose their donors if they engaged in any political activity. However, CREW refuses to disclose its own list of donors.

In the end, the new site shows the bias and hypocrisy of CREW at a time when their legal status has come into question. With O’Donnell fighting back against their lies, this new website exposing CREW’s left wing motivations is yet more evidence that CREW is everything O’Donnell says they are. Mean, nasty, partisan hacks doing the bidding of left wing billionaire extremists like George Soros and left wing political machines like the Democrat Party. Kudo’s to The Center for Consumer Freedom for standing up to CREW and calling them out on their hypocrisy.

American Spectator Interviews a Troublemaker

2011-08-09T18:05:00.002-04:00

Jeff Lord at the American Spectator recently sat down with a real troublemaker for an interview. 2010 U.S. Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell sat down with Jeff and the first copy of her new book “Troublemaker” for a chat. I’ll let you read most of Jeff’s piece over at the American Spectator but I thought that the following excerpt aptly described O’Donnell’s campaign.

THE REAL POINT HERE, as more and more Americans get with every passing day, is that this is precisely the game played with non-Establishment politicians right from the get-go. A viewing of the 1939 classic film Mr. Smith Goes to Washingtonstarring Jimmy Stewart -- this scene

from the film gets to the guts of O'Donnell's 2010 race and then some with the exception that in the end Mr. Smith wins and O'Donnell loses -- says only in cinematic fashion what O'Donnell has lived in real life.

O’Donnell faced down Mr. Potter and all his friends in former Congressman Mike Castle who she defeated in the 2010 Primary. They tried their best to take her down and they wounded her enough that she was unable to win the war but she made sure to take down Goliath along the way. It took dive bombs from Karl “Tokyo” Rove, smears by the Delaware Republican Party leadership, the withholding of support by the national party and constant insults from high powered magazine editors like Bill Kristol from the Weekly Standard to try and stop her but still, the respectable members of Delaware’s Republican Party were undeterred and selected her as their nominee.

Still the party know-it-alls like the ancient and detestable National Committeewoman Priscilla Rakestraw, whose reign will hopefully mercifully come to an end in 2012, refused to support O’Donnell. Likewise, the crotchety Castle refused to hold to his promise to support Christine if she did “somehow” win the nomination. Even when asked by O’Donnell’s father, to whom Castle had promised to support her, Castle refused. He claimed he was insulted by an attack on his sexuality launched by a former campaign vendor to the O’Donnell campaign but the truth is that King Castle had never lost an election and he simply didn’t know how to lose.

O’Donnell spills the beans on this and many other Republican Party secrets in her tell-all. She explains the push to use certain vendors once she’s secured the nomination discusses the shenanigans behind the infamous “Witch Ad” and points fingers at the puppet masters who balked at a nominee whose strings they couldn’t pull. She’ll talk about a once grand old party, with names at the top like DuPont and Roth who in 2006 nominated Jan Ting to run against Tom Carper. Ting would go on to not only switch parties, but become state coordinator for the Obama campaign in 2008.

Oh, she lays it down…and this is just the beginning. Get your copy of what is sure to be, a New York Time Bestseller (whether they like it or not) today!

The Talking Points Are Out

2011-08-07T17:13:00.000-04:00

Friday, Standard & Poor’s, one of the largest credit rating agencies, downgraded America’s credit rating from AAA to AA+. This was the first time in history that America’s credit rating has been downgraded. Downgrades are a sign that the credit rating agencies are losing faith in a nation’s ability to repay its debts. It didn’t take long for the Democrat Party to cobble together talking points and protect President Obama either. By Sunday the Democrats were on message and blaming the downgrade on the TEA Party. Both David Axelrod and John Kerry were out publicly calling this a TEA Party downgrade on the Sunday talk shows.

For the last few months, the Democrats, President Obama and the Republicans (led by the TEA Party Freshmen) have argued over raising America’s debt ceiling. Democrats and Republicans battled over the actual debt ceiling increase while the TEA Party freshmen focused on lowering the actual debt numbers instead of increasing the borrowing limit. Marco Rubio implored the Congress to focus on lowering the debt instead of raising the debt ceiling and the TEA Party Republicans put forth a Cut, Cap and Balance plan that called for $4 Trillion dollars in cuts to the more than $14 Trillion national debt, a cap on future spending and a Balanced Budget Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

S&P issued the following statement with its downgrade of the U.S. credit rating:

– We have lowered our long-term sovereign credit rating on the United States of America to ‘AA+’ from ‘AAA’ and affirmed the ‘A-1+’ short-term rating.

– We have also removed both the short- and long-term ratings from CreditWatch negative.

– The downgrade reflects our opinion that the fiscal consolidation plan that Congress and the Administration recently agreed to falls short of what, in our view, would be necessary to stabilize the government’s medium-term debt dynamics.

– More broadly, the downgrade reflects our view that the effectiveness, stability, and predictability of American policymaking and political institutions have weakened at a time of ongoing fiscal and economic challenges to a degree more than we envisioned when we assigned a negative outlook to the rating on April 18, 2011.

– Since then, we have changed our view of the difficulties in bridging the gulf between the political parties over fiscal policy, which makes us pessimistic about the capacity of Congress and the Administration to be able to leverage their agreement this week into a broader fiscal consolidation plan that stabilizes the government’s debt dynamics any time soon.

– The outlook on the long-term rating is negative. We could lower the long-term rating to ‘AA’ within the next two years if we see that less reduction in spending than agreed to, higher interest rates, or new fiscal pressures during the period result in a higher general government debt trajectory than we currently assume in our base case…

We lowered our long-term rating on the U.S. because we believe that the prolonged controversy over raising the statutory debt ceiling and the related fiscal policy debate indicate that further near-term progress containing the growth in public spending, especially on entitlements, or on reaching an agreement on raising revenues is less likely than we previously assumed and will remain a contentious and fitful process. We also believe that the fiscal consolidation plan that Congress and the Administration agreed to this week falls short of the amount that we believe is necessary to stabilize the general government debt burden by the middle of the decade.

As you can see, S&P plays the fence on the exact answer to the debt crisis but their focus is in fact on the debt burden and not the borrowing limit. They suggest a need for “progress containing the growth in public spending, especially on entitlements, or on reaching an agreement on raising revenues”. Now, each of us has to make a decision on whether we believe that raising taxes or cutting spending is the right answer but for those who look objectively at all of the facts, the best course of action is clear. We’ve absolutely GOT to reduce our spending and reform entitlements. Interestingly, the CBO released a report this weekend that shows that Social Security outlays already exceed collected revenues and in fact, without major reforms, our Social Security system is in jeopardy of complete collapse within the next 30 years or so. For current recipients, this means nothing at all if ones view is only of what directly affects them. If you look at it more broadly, that means people who are 30 years of age today and who have paid and still pay into the Social Security system may not see the fruits of their labors. Raising revenues instead of reforming entitlements or cutting spending is a feel good discussion. Sticking it to those who have more than we do is always more palatable than reducing our own comfort levels but if life teaches us anything, it’s that the easy way is hardly ever the right way. Even the most extreme of revenue increase plans does absolutely nothing substantial in the long term.

Check out this video from Bill Whittle and then you tell me, address spending or “raise revenues” (a.k.a increase taxes, especially on the rich)?

Why O’Donnell’s Fight Matters

2011-08-05T12:08:00.000-04:00

Over the last year, I have maintained Christine O’Donnell innocence. Whether on the payroll or off, I have consistently defended her against many of the charges against her. In June and July of this year, both complaints against O’Donnell were found to be lacking any evidence and we subsequently dismissed. In June, the FEC dismissed a complaint against O’Donnell that she colluded with the TEA Party Express because the key evidence against her was simply an outright lie. That didn’t stop the lame stream media from continuing to attack her, despite the dismissal and the facts of the case. They claimed that the 3-3 split decision was a political boon from 3 Republicans on the FEC committee but there are a few holes in that story if you understand the complaint. First, Christine O’Donnell may have won the Republican nomination by slaying the dragon that was Mike Castle but she was not well accepted by the establishment elites. In fact, she spent almost the entire Primary and General election campaign running AGAINST the Republican establishment. It was Republican elitist lawyers who pushed Mike Castle, Republican elite pundits like Karl “Tokyo” Rove, Bill “Don’t break the” Kristol and Charles Krauthammer who pounded on O’Donnell almost as much as Bill Mahr did and even the Delaware Republican Party Chairman said she “couldn’t be elected dogcatcher”. Second, the complaint was filed by the Delaware GOP and GOP elite lawyer Michael Toner (and former FEC chairman) who, according to former GOP Chairman Tom Ross, was sent to file the claim by the NRSC. It seems strange that 3 Republican FEC attorneys would turn around and side with the anti-Republican establishment, TEA Party backed candidate over one of their own and their establishment friends. In July, the U.S. Attorney in Delaware (a Democrat) dismissed a complaint filed by the partisan hack group CREW. The George Soros funded attack organization specializes in attacking conservatives like Sarah Palin, who they pursued for her wardrobe. That complaint was found to be frivolous, as are most complaints that CREW files. Similar to the complaint about Palin, CREW’s attack on O’Donnell was based on lies and fabrications and came DURING an election. This is a clear violation of their IRS mandate to remain apolitical as a 501c3 and CREW’s Executive Director, Melanie Sloan is on record saying that she hopes the voters take into account her accusations when they go to the ballot box. Now, O’Donnell has filed to have the IRS revoke CREW’s 501(c)(3) status, she’s asked Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden to bring charges of perjury against accuser David Keegan who admitted to lying in the affidavit that CREW filed on his behalf in which he alleged that O’Donnell committed theft from her campaign funds and she has filed with the U.S. Attorney in Delaware and Obama Justice Department to have CREW held accountable for knowingly filing a false complaint against O’Donnell.

Here is O'Donnell and her attorney explaining their case:

So, why does her fight matter? Her fight is our fight. The TEA Party uprising in America that turned the tide of politics in America and gave voice to the silent majority of Americans who believe in the American Dream of our founders is a struggle to regain our voice. Our nation was designed so that WE the people would maintain control of our government and so that it would not grow outside of our control. That design required us to be vocal, engaged and active with our votes. We stopped doing that in the 20th century. Since 1960, voter engagement has fallen in Presidential election years from 61.3% in 1960 to 56.8% in 2008 and it’s plummeted in non-Presidential years from 48.4% in 1966 to just 37.8% in 2010. In 2010, the voting age population was 235,809,266 while only 90,682,968 voters actually turned out. The historic 2008 elections produced a much higher than normal turnout and still just 56.8% of America’s voting-age population turned out. In 2006, an off year election, only 37.1% of voting-age Americans turned out to vote for the national elections. 80,588,000 people turned out to vote out of 220,660,000 Americans of voting age. Voter registration numbers show that 84,710,400 voting age Americans never even bothered to register to vote. 38.4% of voting age American never registered to vote and only 59.3% of registered voters decided to turn out to vote. We as Americans have walked away from politics because we believe we are too small for it. We don’t believe our voice is being heard and we don’t believe that we can stop the big money, big influence, big government from taking over our nation. O’Donnell is showing us that we CAN stop the rich, the powerful and the connected from running roughshod over us. She’s trying to help us understand that America’s system of government is still rooted in the defense of the innocent and that no one is above the law. Her fight is our fight. Her story is our story. She grew up in a small house with 5 brothers and sisters. Her father worked three jobs at times to make ends meet and she has faced adversity in her lives the same as many Americans have. She was caught in the housing crisis, financed her college education and has searched for her true faith throughout her life. She’s really no different than many of us and she’s under attack from billionaire currency killer George Soros and his left wing attack group CREW. We’ve GOT to support her.

It’s VITAL that O’Donnell defeat these forces and that she expose them for the frauds they are. I say, if you agree with what you’ve read here, if you believe in government of the people, by the people and for the people, please support Christine by reserving your own copy of her new book “Troublemaker”. In it you will hear her personal story and experience her battle against the Mike Castle machine, the liberal media and the political establishment. It’s an inspiring story of perseverance, determination and faith. Pick up a copy today and support a real citizen who took on the establishment.

Open Letter to Vice President Biden from a Delaware TEA Party leader

2011-08-03T14:34:00.002-04:00

Dear Vice President Biden:

I wanted to introduce myself to you. My name is Evan Queitsch and I am a member of the TEA Party in Delaware. I know that you served as one of Delaware’s two U.S. Senators for 36 years. You have become a figure head for the State and our state is often looked at with you as its poster child. I know that you have raised your family here, including a son who has become Delaware’s Attorney General. I have not agreed with your positions very often and some of your comments have been embarrassing (“Stand up Chuck” comes to mind) but I have never referred to you as “a terrorist”. I do however; understand that you have referred to me and the thousands of Delawareans who consider themselves part of the TEA Party as terrorists. It sounds to me like we have a misunderstanding about what we stand for and so I wanted to clear that up for you.

We the TEA Party stand for the following ideals; Limited Government, Fiscal Responsibility, Free Markets and Government Accountability. I know that these are fairly broad topics, so let me quickly explain each one for you.

Limited Government – Despite the talking points, limited government means a government restrained by our Constitution and in the spirit of our Founding Fathers. And just so we’re clear, I have yet to meet a TEA Partier who believes in slavery. What we mean is that our Founders designed a government that WE THE PEOPLE could serve in and could control through our votes. It means a government that involves itself in the fewest parts of our lives and that protects our individual rights without trampling them.

Fiscal Responsibility – This means ensuring that Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid are solvent and can continue to function for those in society who truly need these safety nets. It means paying down our debts before charging up new ones. It means understanding that raising taxes on anyone during a recession is a bad idea. It means understanding that job creation fixes the economy and that job creation happens in the private sector. It means understanding that we must balance our budget.

Free Markets – The TEA Party understands that it is the private sector that creates jobs and drives the American economy. We understand that the freedom to try, the freedom to buy and the freedom to sell are as important as the freedom to fail. We know that sometimes our ideas are flawed and that the people are capable of determining what goods and services work best for them without the government telling them what to do. We also understand the need for simple regulations to ensure that businesses do not violate the law but we want to free the markets from burdensome regulations that drive up prices and nudge people away from things that the government has determined are bad for us. We believe in the entrepreneurial spirit and we believe that the government should allow that spirit to prosper by allowing individuals to prosper.

Government Accountability – We in the TEA Party believe that government should be open and transparent. We believe that every agent of the government answers to the populace of the country. We believe that those who write our regulations, enforce our tax code and otherwise create the laws and ordinances we live by ought to be confirmed in an open and transparent process and that they ought to believe in American values and free market ideals. We are against the idea of appointed “Czars” who write executive actions behind the scenes and do so without congressional approval.

In short Mr. Biden, I must ask you, do we sound like terrorists? We call, we write, and yes, we exercise our Constitutional right to assemble peaceably to demand a redress of grievances when government refuses to listen to our pleas. We are grandparents, great grandparents, fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers and children. We are African-American, Caucasian, Hispanic, Asian and many other races. We believe in being good stewards of the planet, taking care of one another and being tolerant. We are Republicans, Democrats and Independents. We are men and women. We are Christians, Muslims, Catholics and even Atheist. Mr. Vice President, we are voters from all walks of life, rich and poor, sick and healthy but most importantly sir, we are Americans.

We can (and will) disagree on policy but as fellow Americans, I find it distasteful that you refer to me and my fellow TEA Party Americans as “terrorists”. There has not been a single episode of violence by a TEA Party member at any rally that I have ever been to and our weapons are words and ideas, not roadside bombs and guns. Please Mr. Vice President, don’t disrespect our founders, the Constitution and the American people by calling those who support public involvement in government “terrorists”.

Sincerely,

Evan Queitsch