31 October 2010

Political Parties,

Stop Saying “Back”

There are a few nasty four letter words that should never be used in any way in a political campaign, “Back” is one of them. Whether it’s “Take Back America” or “taking us back to the bad old days” of the previous administration, no one wanting to vote wisely wants to go back to anything. We all want to go to something better.

Even if “Back” didn’t have mostly negative connotations, wiser political operatives should talk about what they want to lead the electorate to. Toward something is completely different than back. No one wants to revisit any mistakes from our pasts.

Instead of saying, “We want to go back to the founding principles that made America great” the pitch should be “We want to lead America to a principled, responsible future.” The idea should be “to” something honest, appropriate, new and better; not back to anything. Never use the word “back.”

The current administration would be wise to not refer to the past, especially with people still alive that remember their failed Socialist Progressive past. When they say the previous administration they mean a very recent one, but it could also mean revisiting their tired old failed policies from 75 years ago being attempted again virtually unchanged.

Do us all a favor, talk about to where you want to lead this great nation and how to get there. Don’t even mention “going back” or “taking back” anything.

I want to hear your vision of the future and the plan of how together we will get to a more effective, less intrusive, less complex, smaller and more responsive, less expensive, constitutionally compliant Federal government.

I want all programs and entitlements cut.

I want the Federal government doing only the smallest possible number of most necessary and important functions allowed it by the constitution. If you are a candidate, just tell me how you’re going to get that done. Don’t tell me anything about what the other guy has done or might do. If you even mention the word “back” regarding you or your opponent, I won’t be voting for you.

If you have no vision of equal opportunity, not equal outcomes; and equal justice, swift, ethnicity-blind and sure for any offenders; you’re not a leader.

I want smarter, better, smaller Federal government.

04 October 2010

More Failed Flood Control

How Could This Be?

After more than a hundred years of storm water and flood control projects funded by Federal taxpayers of all the States, even the ones who don’t have annual flooding, and the poor beleaguered taxpayers of the bankrupt and improvised states of the eastern seaboard, are under water once again from late season Atlantic storms that made it ashore.

It doesn’t matter why the expensive and so called “professionally designed, modern” storm water systems never seem to work. It could be poor design, poor construction, lack of maintenance, or improper trash disposal, all of which are probably true.

This year it’s being blamed on tree leaves and a late tropical storm. I shouldn’t dignify that ignorance with any further comment, but I must. Leaves have fallen from trees before winter each year since I’ve been alive. I’m informed from historical records and science they probably have since deciduous trees evolved several hundred million years ago.

Late summer storms have come ashore from the Atlantic ever since I can recall. Every time with disastrous results for the poor, ignorant, and incompetent people of the northeast at unfair expense to the rest of us, while the charlatans and buffoons of the Army Corps of Engineers, various Flood Control Agencies, unprofessional Engineering companies, and corrupt and incompetent cities and states continue to order and pay billions of dollars on fraudulent projects and have for many decades.

It’s not fair to the rest of this country’s taxpayers to continue to bail out these idiots.

You get more of what you pay for and less of what you tax.

Stop buying projects that don’t control flooding.

Stop declaring disasters for regular occurring natural events.

Stop subsidizing flood insurance for areas that flood nearly every time there’s a storm.

Stop tolerating and rewarding corruption and incompetence.

Stop penalizing taxpayers from other regions who routinely solve their own flooding problems without help from the unaffected.

I oppose the casual levying of taxes, but maybe they should tax rain. I know it sounds silly, but if you tax the land and people enough to pay for proper flood controls where flooding is a problem, maybe those who live and work there will leave and use the area for something consistent with annual flooding, like growing food, conserving wildlife, or purifying water.