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When I took microeconomics my sophomore year in college, the professor asserted that teachers make bad economists because they live in a world where the concept of limited resources doesn’t exist. The Rhode Island public school system is certainly giving credibility to that theory.

That concept of limited resources is rearing its ugly head in Rhode Island. In protest to prospective budget cuts, public school teachers are acting like the children they instruct every day:  refusing to do anything beyond show up and teach for six hours until the state forks over the money. But some in the state legislature are fighting back by pushing through a constitutional amendment that would financially penalize striking teachers.

The people of Rhode Island do not deserve to be gaffed out of more of their money because the public schools want it. The Rhode Island State Legislature deserves credit for not folding up like a cheap two-dollar suitcase in the face of the educational establishment and defending citizens’ right to their income.

Welcome to beautiful Wisconsin—home of cheese, beer and, hopefully, tighter voting laws.

Three years after an initial probe into the 2004 voting problems in Milwaukee, the police have issued a report recommending the elimination of same-day voter registration and requiring photo ID of voters.

The governor of Wisconsin, Jim Doyle, isn’t a big fan of the recommendations:  “I’m not sure why the Milwaukee Police Department should be the one deciding what the voting policy is of the State of Wisconsin.”

The report attributes blame to poor record keeping and error-prone poll workers. Keep in mind this is the state where, back in January, a Milwaukee man was sentenced with a felony charge for voting while still on probation from a previous felony charge. Such mix-ups would happen less often if states like Milwaukee would just get their voting systems in shape. 

A big part of my day consists of reading and scanning news items and policy research from all over the country and around the world. Far more often than I would like, I come across a report of something that sounds like it came from the pages of one of my favorite novels, George Orwell's 1984. Plans by Kansas City, KS police to install cameras to record citizens on city streets is one of those reports.

In 2008, we are not too far from that:  in many cities all across the country we are recorded nearly everywhere we go by various private and public surveillance systems. In addition to the cameras in office and apartment buildings, gas stations, parking lots, shopping malls, and virtually every other type of private establishment, there is now a growing number of government cameras that monitor activities on public streets. Kansas City is merely following a trend set by New York, Washington, Chicago and other cities.

As one Kansas City official says, "It is just a tool that law enforcement can use to not only locate and identify criminals, but it is the wave of the future." He is right, it is the wave of the future; unfortunately, like the world portrayed in 1984, that future might not be so bright. The cameras are always put in place in the name of public safety and security, but are we really so unsafe as to need our moves monitored by the government? Does such monitoring make us safer or perhaps less safe? One thing is for sure:  police monitoring of individual citizens in public space can only be a threat to liberty, not an aid to it.

 

When you think of small-town America, do visions of the friendly mayor and policemen on the Andy Griffith Show typically spring to mind

Not so in Eastover, SC, where a suspended mayor and police chief are standing trial for conspiring to intimidate witnesses in a town council race where absentee ballots changed the results. Six people were running for two positions, and two days after the winners were announced, a review of challenged ballots knocked one of the winners out of the race, with a completely different candidate taking their place by a substantial margin. The court hearing should take about a week to decide. 

While Mayberry only exists in TV Land these days, it’s not too much to expect that our government officials be fair and disinterested when it comes to races for elected offices.   

As John said yesterday, Michigan joins California, New York and Pennsylvania as the only states with full-time legislatures. John also highlighted the work of the Detroit Free Press’ Henry Woloson, who is advocating scaling Michigan’s legislature back to part-time. Woloson isn’t alone—with the passage of a ballot initiative crafted by a father-son pair of attorneys, a part-time Michigan legislature could be a reality. 

Allan and Gregory Schmid are in the process of collecting the nearly 372,000 signatures they need to place an initiative on the November ballot that will limit Michigan's legislative session to no more than half of a year and cut members salaries in half. The aim is to return the body to a group of citizen-legislators who live in their districts instead of representatives who live distantly in the capital.

With salaries of $79,650, Michigan has one of the highest paid legislatures; under the proposed amendment, that salary would be slashed to $40,000 and members would be docked for being absent. The state's governor would also be required to submit a balanced budget on time.

The Schmids are no strangers to Michigan's I&R process; Allan wrote initiatives to cap property taxes that were passed in the 1970s, as well as legislative term limits that were passed in 1992. His son Greg is heading this initiative to allow citizens to take even further control of their state legislature, and he has also written an amendment that would require all tax hikes be brought to a vote.

Civil service was never intended to be a full-time job; indeed, most of the founders never imagined that government would busy itself with so much of the people’s business that legislating required all of the legislator's time. Term limits are one tool to contain this problem; let’s hope this initiative is Michigan's next tool.

Michigan is one of only four states in the country that has a full-time legislature. If you live in Michigan, however, you’re probably aware that our lawmakers aren’t making the best use of their excessive time in Lansing. Consider this fine observation by Henry Woloson, in the Detroit Free Press:

“The 46 states with part-time legislatures managed to pass their required budgets on schedule. Michigan's 148 full-time lawmakers, with extensive recesses and vacations, needed 30-day emergency budget extensions, midnight madness sessions, and special-interest coordinated tax sales to produce the budget mess that is likely to be at least partially repealed.”

Woloson is leading a drive to switch Michigan’s legislature back to part time, saying that the current system wastes money and doesn’t get much done that’s useful.

Naturally, some citizens continue to support a full-time Senate and House (though we may suppose legislators support the status quo at a higher ratio than do the citizens who pay them). And the legislature needs sufficient time to govern the nation’s eighth most populous state.

But when northern regions of the state have unemployment rates approaching 9%, national credit ratings have been downgraded, roads are in uniformly poor condition and few graduates think they have any good reason to stay, it’s clear that the legislature hasn’t been part of any solution.

There may still be some reason to keep things the way they are, however: this column from the Jackson Citizen-Patriot has an amusing take on the situation.

Michigan’s in an economic funk. Manufacturing jobs are leaving, and unemployment is at 7.6%, the highest in the nation. Actually, the state’s been in a funk since 2003, when Governor Jennifer Granholm asked citizens to “give us five years” to fix the state’s economic problems, and “you’ll be blown away.”

Do you think she meant it in the other sense?

While it’s naïve to think that a government is directly responsible for reducing unemployment or commerce, Governor Granholm and the state legislature are responsible for creating a suitable business climate. In the 2007 report “Rich States, Poor States,” economists Arthur B. Laffer and Stephen Moore rank Michigan:

-28th in corporate taxation

-43rd in net migration

-34th in recent tax increases

-38th in minimum wage rates.

On top of all that, unions’ long dominance of Michigan’s heavy industry means that it’s not a right-to-work state. So firms must compete with or succumb to inflated union wages, and workers have to contend with union dues and the high natural unemployment that accompanies a unionized work force.

All these ingredients form a fine recipe for commercial malaise, and only more economic freedom can fix the problem. Michigan legislators need to remember that far-off outsourcing is not the only difficulty to worry about. With state rankings as rank as this, business can find a better area to sell and produce just a state away.

How does your state rank? Read this great report here.

The Great and General Court of the Commonwealth (for non-New Englanders out there, that’s the State of Massachusetts) is pushing through a bill that would allow voters to register the day they go to the polls. Asked to talk about his rationale behind the system, Sen. Edward Augustus (D-Worcester) said:

"'It's a recognition that people live very busy and much more mobile lives,' Augustus said. 'The fact is that they didn't realize when registering their kid and closing on their new house that they need to register to vote. This reflects the reality of a lot of citizens.'"

Sen. Augustus is right. The fact that people are too busy to register does reflect the reality of citizens. It reflects the reality that voting is obviously not important enough to them to register before Election Day.

If someone doesn’t care enough about voting to ask, “Hey, while I’m registering my car could I register to vote too?” do we really want them voting? It takes all of 10 minutes to complete a voter registration form. If you’re too busy to do that, chances are you’re also too busy to have any clue what you’re voting for. Do we really want people who have no idea what’s going on in public affairs to choose those who govern those affairs? I, for one, do not. Once again, in an effort to solve a problem, the government is perpetuating it.

As the conventions come and go, the chaos never fades. Clark County, Nevada, ended up not sending any delegates to either Clinton or Obama after a chaotic Democrat national convention. About 8,000 delegates showed up at a Las Vegas Casino for the convention, causing the fire marshal to shut down a ballroom. The disorganized nature of the proceedings has caused delegates to be shut out from supporting the candidate of their choice. Both campaigns asked that the proceedings be called off after monumental turnout swelled the county’s capacities. The result is that nothing was completed, and the event will have to be rescheduled.

With such a crucial decision awaiting the Democrat National Convention in the summer, the organized running of these preliminary conventions is more important than before.

Even in Texas, one of the most conservative states in the Union, government still sometimes needs to be slapped around a bit. Fortunately, the Homeschool Legal Defense Association is there to do it.

Last year, a family in compliance with all laws set forth by the El Paso school district faced $7000 in fines for homeschooling their seven children. They also filed charges of truancy against four of the children.

Now, thanks to HSLDA, the charges have been dropped. The McIntyres can continue to educate their children as they see fit and another little piece of educational freedom has been preserved.

Congratulations to the HSLDA for this victory. And to Mrs. McIntyre, for homeschooling all those kids.

It was Reagan who once said that, "Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it." Apparently the Virginia locksmith industry just wouldn't stop moving.

Del. Dave Albo, who "represents" my district in Springfield, is pushing a bill to regulate locksmiths. Apparently the industry is incapable of policing itself and this is necessary to prevent just anyone from becoming a locksmith.

The Virginian Federalist blog hit the nail on the head: "To my knowledge there are no studies or findings to show the need for such regulation. A politician found an unregulated, free market industry and had to fix it." Very rarely are regulatory and licensing schemes cooked up in the "public interest." They are usually a tool, used by certain players in the regulated industry to restrict competition through licensure exclusions and fees, and used by legislators to raise revenue. This bill is no different.

Yesterday the bill went breezing through a Senate committee thanks to testimony from the "locksmiths present." Not a single locksmith showed up to defend their industry against the regulation, no advocate of limited government was present to tell of the evils of regulation in general, the voice of liberty or even of common sense was nowhere to be found. As the Assembly takes a step down the road to serfdom, there isn't even any coverage of this government expansion outside of TVF and now this blog.

Reagan also said that, "Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction... It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same."

I fear that he was right.

The potential disastrous infringement on American civil rights is slowly but surely encroaching. On Wednesday, the Supreme Court dismissed a case brought up by the ACLU concerning President Bush’s approval of government warrantless wiretaps on private phone lines and email accounts. Until now, no judge had ever decided on whether or not such a practice was acceptable in the eyes of justice. Now the silence is deafeningly decisive.

Yesterday, Drew and I stopped by City Hall in order to witness and record a press conference by the Lawndale Alliance, a group of concerned residents from the 24th ward who are victims of the city’s latest land grab.

Click here to see what we got.

Driving and Voting—two things that Grandma should reconsider when she gets too old to do either. According to the Florida-Times Union, a nursing home assistant has been fined for helping residents with no ID cast votes in recent elections. She admits to filling out patient’s absentee ballots for them and completing paperwork for patients to register to vote. If convicted for trying to sway election results, her offense could count as a felony. However, she maintains that she was “trying to be helpful” by assisting the aged residents, most of whom do not even follow political current events.

Just like the question of when people are too old to safely drive a car, the question of when people are too old to perform the necessary motions of voting needs to be addressed. If you cannot fill out your ballot or voter registration form without help, the honesty of elections is called into question. Senior citizens who know they cannot vote on their own should gracefully bow out of the voting process before allowing meddling nurses or any other such person to become involved. 

California has a reputation for one of the loonier governments in the country. It's really no wonder, considering they've got the likes of Sean Penn and Barbra Streisand choosing their leaders. Now they're proving once again just how deserved their loony reputation is.

The California government has sued Mohammed Mohanna for two blocks of property along K St. in San Francisco. These blocks are seen as "a long-time stumbling block to redevelopment in the heart of downtown." Therefore, the government deems it their right to seize Mohanna's property, which he owns, for itself.

This is a dumb idea for two reasons. First, could all who have ever seen the government do something better with the citizens' property please raise your hands? However bad the private property may be, I'll gladly bet money that once the government gets hold of it, it'll be much worse.

Second, the right to property is essential to liberty. When property is taken—in whatever form—it is an assault on freedom. Therefore, eminent domain abuse must be fought. If the government can take what is ours, it can make very quick work of our freedom.

As the primary season rolls along, so do the voter fraud incidents. Most recently, in the New York City Democrat primary, it was discovered that votes originally intended for Barack Obama were instead being counted as votes for Hillary Clinton. The extent of this voter fraud was discovered when, in traditionally black voting districts such as Harlem, Obama pulled in next to no votes, and a recount was demanded. 

Before the recount, Harlem’s voting breakdown was 141-0 in favor of Senator Clinton. However, after the recount, the results were estimated at 261-136, still in favor of Clinton, but giving Obama’s vote count a significant boost. As yet, the exact estimates cannot be confirmed, but a ballot-by-ballot canvassing of the voting machines is ongoing.

Incidents like these show the necessity of an accountable, more honestly run voting system, with reliable voting methods in place. 

It seems like almost every day we hear about more manufacturing operations and more jobs moving overseas. It's a little less common to hear of foreign companies moving jobs to the United States.

When I read that a Polish furniture maker has decided to build a plant in Danville, VA and create 800 jobs, it sounded like good news, but I was suspicious about something. Then, near the end of the article I found what I was looking for: Virginia Governor Tim Kane approved $1.5 million in state funding for handouts to the company.

 

This gets back to the heart of the problem. Politicians complain aloud daily in the media about the loss of American manufacturing and then turn around and support tax and regulatory policies that drive business beyond our borders. They then lure them back with bribes in the form of grants, tax "incentives," cheap land (can anyone say eminent domain?), and the like.

 

Perhaps if the commonwealth in this case didn't tax the $1.5 million (plus administrative costs) out of the economy in the first place, this company wouldn't have needed a corporate welfare handout to be able to locate the facility in Danville. State and federal policy has created a system of tax and regulatory rules that, in many instances, drives businesses away so then they must make exceptions to the rules to lure them back.

 

The question is, if exceptions have to be made to the rules in order for them to work, isn't it time to change the rules?

On January 15, the Michigan Liquor Control Commission released a report stating that Michigan loses $14 million every year due to illegal alcohol importation. And that cash wasn’t merely tax revenue—those potential liquor dollars were going straight to education coffers!

It’s a standard government practice: tax some form of commerce, or create some entity of, at best, dubious morality (lotteries); declare said action to be funding education, health care or job creation; and then ostentatiously attack opponents as uncaring because the law “helps” children, the poor or the unemployed.

 Certainly, some of those tax monies go to educate school children. But the news releases fail to mention that a large chunk goes to the liquor distributors, and those distributors would lose millions of dollars of market share if citizens were allowed to enjoy wine and liquor direct from producers, in-state or out-of-state. (The total liquor tax haul last year was $321.6 million.)

 Like most industries in Michigan, wine, liquor and microbrew producers are struggling. Commercial vitality and increased tax revenue might be worth surrendering some of that “education” money.

This is further proof (where none is needed) that Thomas Paine was right: “Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.” For the people of Louisiana, still reeling after Hurricane Katrina nearly three years ago, the necessary evil is becoming darn close to intolerable.

Apparently the trailers that FEMA supplied in the hurricane’s wake, which are still serving as home for over 100,000 New Orleansites, have abnormally high levels of formaldehyde. The CDC has urged all residents to evacuate before summer, when higher temperatures will release higher levels of the harmful gas.

If I were a resident of New Orleans, I’d be drawing up a Declaration of Independence from FEMA. When Katrina first hit, FEMA couldn’t get to the city in time. Over the last two years, they’ve continued to trip over themselves and let the people down. Now, they have to leave their homes (such as it is) because their trailers are leaking formaldehyde. Tell me again why they should continue taking handouts from these people?

It continues to amaze me that as much as government continues to fail us, we still rely on it in times when failure is not an option. Let the debacle that is post-Katrina life in New Orleans bear witness to this, and cause all Americans to think twice before we want to run to the government.

On Wednesday I wrote about illegal "Beltline" funding in Atlanta. Today, I examine some additional ramifications of the GA Supreme Court's ruling.

Like Chicago has its "TIFs", Atlanta and surrounding cities have "TADs": Tax Allocation Districts. These TADs have been used to divert revenues from property taxes to other government projects, which the GA Supreme Court found to be illegal in a ruling earlier this week.

Well, the latest casualty--in what's sure to be a string--of this ruling is a fiber-optics plant in Gwinnett County, just outside of Atlanta.

The proposed $2 billion redevelopment of the OFS Brightwave fiber-optics plant at Jimmy Carter Boulevard and I-85 is "on hold" in light of Monday's ruling, said Michael Sullivan, the attorney for developers Mallory & Evans.

The court found that property tax revenues can only be used for educational purposes. At a time when more and more money is being promised for schools--which means higher and higher taxes for Georgians--this money should go where it is intended. 

Such districts divert property tax revenues that would otherwise go to schools and the county budget and place them in a special fund used to pay for public improvements such as streets and sewers. But the Georgia Supreme Court ruled that school funds can't be used for noneducational purposes, immediately cutting in half the amount of revenue available to tax allocation districts.

Kudos, again, to the GA Supreme Court. Until the law is changed--and I certainly hope it isn't considering all of the unaccountability and corruption with Chicago's TIF districts--property tax revenues must go to the government school system.

On a separate note, this will be my last blog entry on "Tea Party." It's been a blast sharing my thoughts with you over this past year, and I hope that you'll continue coming back to this and other Sam Adams Alliance blogs for the latest goings-on in this great--but sometimes ridiculous--country of ours. I know I will.

For Liberty! 

Highway to… Deficit Spending

 

Mike Huckabee is still in the race for the Republican nomination. But political perseverance doesn’t require economic knowledge.

At the Republican debate on January 24, Governor Huckabee proposed a novel and ambitious alternative to the usual economic stimulus package:

“If we're going to spend $150 billion, I'd like to suggest that maybe we add two lanes of highway from Bangor all the way to Miami on I-95… when we were going through a recession in my state, we were in the middle of a billion-dollar highway construction program that brought about 40,000 jobs and brought a billion dollars of capital into the economy.”

Huckabee has clearly forgotten his “Economics 101”—but then, he himself recently said “I didn’t major in math. I majored in miracles.” On its face, a few tens of billions of dollars injected into a whole seaboard of state economies may seem like a good idea. But where do those billions come from?

Since the government (presumably) will pay, the money must come from taxes or bonds.

Taxes would be just another way of redistributing wealth; bonds would require American money, or, more likely, foreign investment to purchase Huckabee’s “American steel and American concrete.” There are long, theoretical economic equations that disprove New Deal policies like this one. But most importantly, the numbers show they’ve never really worked.

Huckabee’s plan is just another example of political convenience crowding out economic reality.

I'm not sure how the story has gone this long without appearing on our blog -- especially when our own Izzy Santa has been quoted in relation to it -- but, in any case: "Pig roaster's citations from Wheeling have Filipino consulate, ACLU, libertarians crying foul".

For those link averse, a man from Wheeling -- Amante Enad -- was ticketed earlier this month by village officials for roasting pigs on his property. The article, citing the fact that the pigs in question were donated -- yes, donated -- to Enad's church, has understandably drawn its fair share of public outcry.

Wheeling has taken notice. 

Monday, the Trib did a follow-up, most likely at the village's request: "Wheeling explains reasons for citing pig roaster". Village Manager Mark Rooney stated, "This issue is not about the lack of the village allowing someone to enjoy the back-yard barbecue". (Wow that's terrible sentence-structure.) It is, according to Rooney, a health and sanitation issue. 

Today Enad gets his day in court. I'll update as soon as I catch wind of any result.

Oh! I almost forgot: Izzy's quote, which appeared in the first Trib article, follows below:

"He should have the freedom to roast as many pigs on his property as he wants as long as he doesn't harm anything in his neighborhood," said Izzy Santa, press secretary for the Sam Adams Alliance, a Chicago-based non-profit libertarian organization that offered Enad legal assistance, media training or other help.

UPDATE: Looks like the Herald is first on the beat. Chalk it up as another win for unnecessary regulation and loss for personal freedom.

A Wheeling pig roaster whose cause attracted widespread interest after he was cited by Wheeling officials lost in court today. A judge ordered Wheeling resident Amante Enad to stop roasting pigs for the masses. Judge Joel Greenblatt said Enad will have to pay a $1,000 fine if he violates that order between now and his next hearing in September...

UPDATE II: I love this quote from the Trib's post-ruling piece:

When asked by a reporter what he thought of life in the U.S., Enad had a quick response: "It's not the same as the Philippines. . . . I [would] have a roasted pig in front of the municipal building."

Following the arrest of Banita Jacks (a homeschooling mother) for murdering her children, D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty wishes to implement a plan to “better track” homeschooling families. Such a plan might seem wise at first, but let’s remember that the federal income tax started at a top rate of 5 percent. And we all see where that’s gone.

Any attempt by the government to oversee homeschooling families must be approached with a most critical eye. The government has a vested interest in families not homeschooling. Therefore, a program designed to give the government more power over these families can be abused with little to no effort. In situations where children are mistreated, child services should step in, of course. But has the D.C. government nothing better to do than take one tragedy and run with it as an excuse to crack down on homeschoolers?

Homeschoolers frequently find themselves the subject of government scrutiny—after all, they’re a threat to the government’s monopoly on public schools. Because of this, homeschoolers must always be on the defensive regarding intrusion into their educational choice. Homeschool Legal Defense Association is on the front lines of this battle, and deserves a big thumbs-up from not just homeschoolers, but all Americans.

The Senate voted on Tuesday to allow legal protection to telecommunications companies that cooperate with the government’s covert wiretapping program as a part of terrorist surveillance. The bill now has to go to the House, which is hoping to limit the immunity that telecoms would receive. President Bush threatens a veto if the bill is not the same as the one passed by the Senate.

Terrorism is a valid threat and requires strict measures of defense, but how far are we willing to go in passing law-bending measures in the name of national defense? Currently, the government’s wiretapping program is warrantless, something that should cause Americans to see red flags as opposed to red, white and blue ones.

We need to contact our Representatives, telling them to hang up on this bill before the government eavesdrops on any more private conversations.

Many people in rural parts of West Virginia rely on their all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) as one of their principle modes of transportation. The "bikes" serve not only as a toy, but also a tool. That might change if the West Virginia legislature passes a bill that would essentially ban the use of ATVs on paved roads in the state.

The bill is being touted as a safety measure, with supporters citing the number of ATV-related deaths on paved roads in the state. After all, what good is the state if it can't protect the people from themselves? That's why we have a government, right?

To put the safety issue into perspective: of the 45 ATV deaths last year on paved roads, 37 of them were related to alcohol or drugs, which indicates that pavement might not be the problem here. Additionally, we are hardly talking about riding ATVs on interstate highways; the state already prohibits riding them on roads with centerlines. Anyone who has taken a trip to rural WV can tell you that many of the roads there can only laughingly be called "paved."

While the measure would allow cities and counties to make exceptions to the ban, this only shows how it is unnecessary. The localities that would make exceptions would most likely be the places with the highest number of ATV riders, so the ban would have little effect on most riders. The largest effect of the law would be the creation of additional regulation and bureaucracy in the least free market state in the country. A similar bill failed last year; West Virginians should hope for a repeat this time around.

You know how environmentalists and the elected officials in their pocket are constantly harping about saving the planet, one person at a time?

Well, apparently they only mean it if you don’t violate ridiculous municipal codes requiring you to produce trash.

One man in San Carlos, California, took environmental concern to heart and reduced his trash to nearly nothing by recycling and giving scraps of food to his dog. With no trash cans to empty each week, he then canceled his service with the local trash service.

Therein lies the problem, apparently. The trash service has now sued him for violating a municipal code that mandates he contract with them for one trash pick-up per week.

“I don’t understand a city ordinance that requires you to fill up a can. That’s downright foolishness,” he told the Washington Examiner.

I couldn’t agree more.

Back in early January, there was a furor over the California government proposing to take control of private individual thermostats. The government quickly backpedaled, and no more has been heard of it since. But have things really cooled down?

Apparently, the thermostat proposal has not completely melted away – it’s only been tweaked here and there. For instance, according to the slightly edited legislation, private individuals would have the ability to override the government controls on their thermostats. But there is some worry that having such controls would set the stage for mandating complete government control over thermostats in the future. Since the edits to the legislation have been made, the proposal will be considered at “a later date.”

We should be certain to keep an eye on the temperature surrounding this important decision, lest it burn up individual liberties. 

Like the law says, property tax money can only be used to pay for schools. Who'd-a thunk it?

Some folks in my hometown of Atlanta have had the bright idea to build a "beltline" of light rail and parks within the city. The plans look very nice, and I can see the appeal for hikers, bikers, strollers, etc. But the problem is determining who is going to pay for this extravagant new expansion of government, and supporters are having a difficult time jiving their plans with the law.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports:  

The Georgia Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the city could not use school property taxes for the Beltline, a potentially major blow to the project. Beltline supporters expected to use about $850 million in future school property taxes on the Beltline during the next 25 years. The project is expected to cost about $2.8 billion to complete. 

Dismissing, for a moment, the high cost of government-run schools and the high property taxes that it necessitates, I think that this is a very fine ruling, and a victory for the rule of law over the rule of men.

The court's decision is a victory for Buckhead lawyer John Woodham, who in 2006 filed a lawsuit claiming the Beltline's funding mechanism was illegal. He argued that the state constitution explicitly forbade school taxes from being used for non-educational purposes. 

Paul Jacob's co-defendant Rick Carpenter as well as AFP-OK director Stuart Jolly spoke at the event in Oklahoma City two weeks ago. Check it out here!

Last week, pop star Britney Spears was taken to a psychiatric ward (which may or may not be a surprise) in an ambulance amid cop cars, helicopters, and a crowd of some 60 photographers. The ensuing chaos has prompted the L.A. city council to impose restrictions on the paparazzi, legislating that they cannot overstep Spears’s “Personal Safety Bubble” of 20 yards. Some speculate that such “safety bubbles” may become a new status symbol for celebrities everywhere, like Martha Stewart’s GPS anklet.

This ruling, perhaps unconsciously, gives rise to another potential status symbol that celebrities may attain, and one that is more sinister to American interests:  being so famous that you can get the local government to impose laws that suit you personally. Since when does Britney Spears’ celebrity status have more say in local legislation than, say, the First Amendment?

Last time I checked, we have freedom of speech in this country, and don’t legislate where the press is allowed to go. If we start handing out safety bubbles from the press to celebrities, how long will it be before we start distributing them to individual citizens, businesses, elected officials, and government buildings?

For now, Britney’s where she needs to be. Now let’s get the local government where IT needs to be—in support of the Constitution.

When the economy starts to falter, have no fear—all that is needed is a little government stimulus to get things going again, or so the misguided reasoning goes.

 

Speaking of misguided reasoning, Ohio Governor Ted Strickland recently unveiled a plan that will supposedly create 80,000 jobs by borrowing $1.7 billion through the sale of bonds, to be paid back over 20 years. In addition to nearly $1.1 billion for infrastructure improvements, the package includes over half of a billion in handouts to the renewable energy, bioproducts, and biomedical industries. The Governor hasn’t said much about how this is all going to be paid for, but we can be sure the debt will fall on the Ohio taxpayers.

 

Strickland has now vowed that if the state legislature doesn’t move on his proposals, he will take his fight to the people. He has begun to collect the 402,275 signatures he will need to amend Ohio’s constitution in November. He said he will “take it to the people, and the people can decide if, in a period of economic downturn, we should focus on a responsible approach to job creation.”

 

We trust that Ohioans know the responsible approach to job creation is the free market, not government planning. Hopefully they will send the governor a strong message about raising the state’s debt with a resounding “NO” this November.

In this age of personalized media, we often expect small blogs and individual writers to be our government watchdogs. But that doesn’t mean “old” media can’t do a fine job, as well.

Over the past month in Detroit, the scandal surrounding Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick has evolved (or disintegrated, depending on your position) into a soap opera of sex, lies and… text messages.

Briefly:  in October 2007, the city paid $8.4 million to three former Detroit police officers whom the mayor had fired for investigating his missteps. The mayor agreed to the settlement suspiciously fast—reportedly because of the existence of a confidentiality agreement, which all parties denied.

Since this is scandal, you know what happens next:  there was a confidentiality agreement, and it contained saucy text messages between Kilpatrick and his chief of staff, Christine Beatty.

But who was it that dug up the dirt on this sensational story? The Detroit Free Press, which gave a comprehensive report on January 23. The Detroit News followed up soon after.

These two papers used tools and tactics available to all of us:  Freedom of Information Act requests (FOIA), up-to-date and incisive writing, and hard nosed, unflappable persistence.

It’s a good example for anyone who wants to hold government accountable, whether they have a press pass, or just a laptop.

 

People in capitol buildings often lack a clear view of what really happens after they pass a law.

In her State of the State address last month, Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm once again proposed raising the mandatory high-school enrollment age from 16 to 18. Twenty-seven states require students to attend school until age 17 or 18; the rest, like Michigan, allow students to drop out or finish at 16.

Like many government proposals, this one looks good – until you examine it at an individual level. I was homeschooled, and graduated from high school at age 17 (I had finished second and third grade in the same year, a decade before). This early graduation allowed me to get a jump start on college. The only drawback I could see was my scrawny, skinny frame getting knocked about on the soccer field.

Perhaps my situation is not the best example – educators claim they support the law to help underprivileged youth, or ones in crime-plagued areas. But while kids in those situations certainly deserve more attention, it’s debatable that a mandatory dropout age will help them, and it’s certain such a law would have, and will, hurt exceptions like me.

If you’re a Michigander, contact your legislator and make sure he or she is aware that this law has negative consequences for real kids. We’re not all statistics.

Read the bill here.

If you find yourself in the Mighty Mississip anytime soon, you'd better make sure nobody in your party is overweight. Should someone in your party be overweight, bring your own food because restaurants may not be allowed to serve you. A bill has been brought before the state legislature that would ban restaurants from serving anyone who meets the health department's standards for obesity.

Now, I have little confidence that this bill will be signed into law, as I imagine some of Mississippi's state legislators probably fit meet the criteria for obesity. But still, the idea that such a bill would even be introduced reeks of nanny statism run amok. What do these people think obese individuals are going to do, just go home and not have dinner? No, they'll run to Shaw's, buy food, and cook it at home. Never mind that restaurants will lose a good deal of business and likely be pretty unhappy with the state.

Growing up minutes from the People's Republic of Massachusetts, I thought I'd seen my share of nanny laws. But this one takes the cake. Or is that legal anymore?

Super Tuesday in Southern California saw thousands of registered Republican voters turned away from polling places in San Diego and Los Angeles because they were listed as “non-partisan” voters.
 

Because California’s Republican primary is a closed one, it was commendable that they were taking such precautions (as opposed to the so-called “closed” Florida primary). However, it appears as if the lists of registered Republican voters was tampered with, preventing thousands from casting their vote in the state’s primary.
 

California’s Republican Party is pursuing an investigation of this issue; meanwhile, the media continues reporting that voting “went smoothly.” This from a state where three prominent voter fraud cases have taken place in less than a year, and are just recently nearing a resolution.
 

Let’s hope that the truth comes out, and that these disenfranchised voters can make their voices heard.

CPAC 2008 has arrived and the Sam Adams Alliance is on site for non-stop coverage of the events as they unfold.

Sam Adams Alliance can be found at Booth #506 in the exhibit hall. If you're anywhere near Bloggers Row, stop by to say hi to myself and the rest of the official CPAC bloggers.

Most of my blogging will revolve around the buzz happening here at Bloggers Row, where we tend to spend quite a bit of our time talking to folks passing by and keeping up with all the CPAC action within the blogosphere. Unfortunately, I don't anticipate a lot of content about the speeches and events taking place at CPAC. I'll mostly be linking to posts from bloggers who are covering CPAC from outside Bloggers Row.

It's still a bit early, so a lot of the bloggers have yet to show up. So far, though, NZ Bear is here (Porkbusters, Truth Laid Bear) sitting directly to my left, joined by Robert Bluey, Ed Morrisey, Erick Erickson, and Alexander Brunk.

Our very own Paul Jacob just stopped by and joined Ed Morrisey for a radio show at Blog Talk Radio. You can read about the show and listen to the audio here.

In many places voters have the ability to fire politicians who aren't performing well. Despite anti-recall efforts by some powerful special interests, that's exactly what happened in Pinole, CA on Tuesday.

It always surprises me to see the contempt with which so many to-be-recalled politicians view the voters who want to see them out of office. Who's who's boss?

"We hope this can be a blueprint for all people to realize that government of the people, by the people and for the people is alive and well in Pinole," said Joel Gannotti, a Pinole resident who joined the pro-recall celebration. 

Read more details, including about the labor union's involvement in the case and the reasons for recalling at the link below. 

Hat-tip: The Union News  

Fat Tuesday has come and gone, and while beads, donuts and revelry abounded, there was far more serious fat being thrown into the fire; namely, the glitches that occurred in the voting processes of several states on Super Tuesday. They are as follows:  

• Los Angeles, California:  In one particular polling place in L.A., there was no voting equipment available when the polls opened. Other polling places weren’t even open when they were supposed to be. All the hubbub had one L.A. attorney worried, particularly about non-partisan voters voting in what are supposed to be closed primaries. With so much riding on California’s large bundle of delegates, this is not a good time for “voting irregularities.”         

• Hoboken, N.J.:  The City of Hoboken started Super Tuesday with some rough problems, namely malfunctioning voting machines. While officials scrambled to get the machines fixed or replaced, many voters missed their chance to vote in the state’s primary.

• Chicago, IL:  Notorious for its political shenanigans, Chicago was no exception this Super Tuesday. One precinct worker on the North Side convinced 20 voters that “a stylus for marking electronic touch screens was actually a pen with ‘invisible ink’ to be used for marking paper ballots,” and one woman who showed up to vote was told that she couldn’t because only one of five election judges were present. In the latter case, Oprah came to the rescue—she heard about the problem, and then stayed with the young woman until she was allowed to vote. She also called her on her cell phone an hour later to make sure she had voted.

All in all, Super Tuesday definitely had some major hiccups, despite what the media says about voting “going smoothly.” Hopefully someday we’ll have a Super Tuesday where minor glitches are resolved, and everyone’s vote is counted. 

“Yesterday morning, hours after a statewide ban on smoking in public places went into effect, several patrons of a Hampden bar called Zissimos, forced outside by the new law, cursed their way through a smoke as a downpour spattered their baseball hats.”

You probably thought you were a grown-up. You thought you’d done your time in the world of Mom telling you what to eat, Dad demanding that you have his little girl back by ten, and Teacher ensuring that you sat at your desk and did your math problems.

Evidently, you were mistaken—at least, according to the state of Maryland. There, citizens are apparently not adults, but children who must be told by their nanny (in this case, the Maryland Legislature) how to behave.

I’m not a smoker, and I don’t particularly like being around smoking. But if we allow the government to come after smokers, they can come after anything else they deem harmful. Assaults on freedom of choice must be called out and countered because if we let the government dictate where we can smoke, it can dictate just about anything else it wants to. And really, does that sound like a good idea?

Alabama’s Secretary of State, Beth Chapman, predicted it would be a fun Super Tuesday in Alabama—and she was right. Alabama’s number of registered voters increased significantly, by some 60,000 new voters, in the last three months, which led to the state’s highest voter turnout in history.
 

It’s good to see citizens engaged and involved, but keep in mind that this is the state where, not even three months ago, we saw at least two significant cases of voter fraud. The latest case included registering dead people to vote, registering the residents of the same nursing home in six different precincts, and allowing at least three convicted felons and one imprisoned citizen to cast ballots.
 

So far, reports say that there were no problems with the voting system—let’s hope that’s truly the case.

Drew Carey and reason.tv take on the so-called, popular "War on the Middle Class."

Because of the dynamic nature of capitalism and free markets, cross-country flights, cars, homes, boats, clothing and food are all more affordable (and better) than they were in previous decades. In spite of challenges, the middle class is thriving, no thanks to the populist rhetoric of all stripes of politicians.

Check out this great examination by the folks at reason.tv, and be sure to check out their other videos too. 

Back in January of 2007 the West Virginia Department of Transportation closed the eastbound lanes of I-70 through the Wheeling Tunnel in order to make repairs to the tunnel’s two traffic tubes. The project was supposed to take four months for each of the  tubes and cost about $5 million all together. Ten months and $6 million later the eastbound tube of the tunnel re-opened unfinished, missing about half of the tile from its walls and leaking water through the ceiling; the westbound tube hadn’t even been touched. It seems the contractor and DOT were unable to determine the proper kind of glue to use on the tiles that line it. There is a time line of the saga here.  

That was back in November. Now state officials are still stumped about how to fix the tunnel and they are trying to come up with an alternative. The latest plan on the table is elimination of the 40 year old tunnel by cutting the hillside away. While this plan has its merits I suspect that it should have been considered, oh, I don’t know, about 13 months and $6million dollars ago. 

On the bright side if the tunnel is eliminated the state won’t have to rely on eminent domain to obtain the land on top of the tunnel, they already own it. Too bad they spent $7.3 million to build the Wheeling Heights government housing project on the hill back in 2005 and 2006. That will have to be torn down if the tunnel is taken out. One would think the state’s wise and benevolent central planners would have seen that one coming but hey, its not their money.

Based on the Pulizer-prize winning biography by David McCullough, this six-part series takes a dramatic look at Sam's cousin, and the second president of the U.S.

I'm learning more about John Adams these days, having been turned off of him a while ago when I learned of the Alien and Sedition Act. But he was also an outspoken proponent of the concepts of independence from Great Britain, and of the separation of powers in government. I know that I'm missing a lot here, but that's why I'm looking forward to seeing the mini-series next month. (Mental note: Get HBO.)

Now, if we could only get HBO--or anyone else, really--to make a mini-series about Sam's life. He lived quite an exciting one.

Or not.

Deviating from our normal fare on the blog, I'd like to post this fascinating, funny look at the future of transportation. It's by Disney in 1958, exactly 50 years ago. 

The Republican presidential nominee race hit a bump in the road Tuesday with some overlooked voting inconsistencies. According to the South Florida Sun Sentinel, poll workers allowed independent voters to “choose” to be Republicans, obtain ballots, and vote in the state’s closed primary on Tuesday. And yet, the state requires that voters register their party affiliation 29 days before the election.

With much hope and consternation riding on the results of each primary in what promises to be a rollicking election year, you’d think that pollsters would be clear on their instructions and firm on where to draw the line. But apparently, the pollster in question was “told” to allow unaffiliated Republicans into the voting process.

Maybe they misheard and thought it was supposed to be “hosed” primary. 

"Students who participate in Milwaukee’s private-school-voucher program graduate from high school at significantly higher rates than those who attend regular secondary schools in the city, a new study contends."

Hm. So it seems that kids who can take advantage of school vouchers in Milwaukee actually do better than kids who go to public schools. I wonder why this gets so little attention?

School choice is a contentious issue in America, with the population at large supporting it and the government at large opposing it. And as usual, it seems the people are right—while the government is wrong. Kids in Milwaukee who use those vouchers to attend private schools are graduating at higher numbers than their public-schooled peers. Since graduation is the ultimate end of attending high school, it would seem these vouchers are working.

The ability to choose where and how your child is educated is a fundamental element of liberty that must be preserved. And as a non-public-schooler myself, I salute the city of Milwaukee for doing their part to preserve this liberty.

A North Carolina neighborhood is being targeted for annexation by Pinehurst, the nearby town. Many residents don't particularly want all the strings attached to becoming part of Pinehurst, so they are fighting for their rights. This, apparently, is surprising to town officials.

This line, from the Fay Observer, is the kicker for me:

Pinehurst officials say they need the annexation to help pay for basic services and to control what kind of development is allowed near Pinehurst’s western border. Annexing Pinewild would allow the village to extend its extraterritorial jurisdiction so it would have some control over development happening outside of Pinewild.

Unbelievable. So what this basically means is that when a government runs out of money and wants more control it can just expand its borders against the will of the concerned people.