Wisconsin Teachers Sue

Wisconsin teachers have launched a class-action lawsuit against the Greenfield School District in the Milwaukee suburbs. According to their complaint, the district violated state law by requiring that teachers sign their contracts in a timely manner or pay a fine. The teachers also allege that the new contracts permit the school board to terminate any teacher who refuses to abide by the contract or provide a proper education to the students.

On one hand, taxpayers in Wisconsin and throughout the country should rejoice that school districts are defining terms for dismissal or “non-renewal”. There is no more dysfunctional or unjustified provision than “teacher tenure”, which guarantees a position for life without significant review, revisions, or rejection for cause. On the other hand, teachers need protection from the fraught and growing politics of public education, but not through class-action lawsuits, because they put undue pressure on school districts, taxpayers, and students.

Districts and unions should not inhibit teachers’ pay. Instead of punishing bad teachers, merit pay should reward good teachers. Let parents choose where they enroll their children. If parents can choose the schools, then school districts can outline student codes of conduct to protect themselves from future legal actions. Tort reform would curtail frivolous civil actions, since disgruntled parents would exercise their liberty to send their kids elsewhere. Governor Walker’s reforms protect employees’ paychecks and curb collective bargaining. Now Walker should enact reforms to prevent legal challenges and judicial rulings from defining the working relationship between school district and staff.

Sacramento "Same-Ol'" Goes to Washington

The Daily Breeze laments that California voters are sending the same legislators to Washington that have littered our city councils, county seats, and state legislature.

On one hand, media elites want experience. On the other hand, they want diversity and integrity.

The rare combination of seniority without venality is not an easy mix to measure out.

The majority of ascending politicians are Democrats, for starters. For today's liberal politicians, government is their career, power is their aim, and getting votes and a public following is their game. To expect them to treat statesmanship as a part of their livelihood instead of the mainstay of their lives is to tell a fish to swim once in a while, then get back to breathing on dry land. Not only would they die, but they would start to stink up the shoreline.

The Daily Breeze endorsed a heavy slew of Democrats just before the November 6th election, and now they complain that the new crop of Congressmen are not a "breath of fresh air?" They endorsed the same set of "stale" politicians.

Want See-Through Government?

If the Daily Breeze wants see-through government, then they should stop talking to the legislators, stop pleading with Sacramento, and start getting the reports out about public sector union collusion with Democratic legislators.

The best security against misrule is "publicity" claimed Jeremy Bentham, not asking really nicely for legislators to come clean about what they do in the "hallowed" or "hollowed" halls of the state legislature.

Expanding disclosure of campaign donations is nice. Better yet, why not broaden the freedom of individual workers who do not want their labor dues financing public sector union lobbying.

Rein in ballot box budgeting -- this little "hold-over" from the progressive area wanted to give "the people" more power over the spending in Sacramento, when in reality the locked spending has given legislators more cover for the spending sprees and the extravagance of Big Government,

Legislators like Felipe Fuentes wanted to make it easier for illegal immigrants to enter this state, yet this provision entered into a previous bill which had to do with "vehicle pollution." What better way to stop "gut and amend" but to amend our gut-reaction to such politicking and "share our spleen" at election day? Too many people in this state are not paying enough attention. Someone should make this awareness more obvious and accessible.

Last of all, there is "vote-switching," in which legislators add their votes to bills after the fact. Are they casting their votes as they should, or not? What's going on?

Yes, Daily Breeze, these reforms must start from the grassroots to the political elites. From the bottom to the top, one might say, even though popular government is supposed to start and end with the voters, right?

If the local press want "See-Through" Government, it's time for us to see through the apparent good-will of legislators and pay attention to what they are doing.

"Linc": What Would Your Father Think?

Former Governor and US Senator
John Chafee

Governor Lincoln Chafee is "Independent in Name Only", just as he was a "Republican in Name Only" during his ultra-liberal tenure in the US Senate. Now serving as "Chief executive" for Rhode Island, Chafee has signed onto tax increases with an overwhelmingly Democratic legislature. No wonder he claims to be an Independent, just enough to convince voters to give him another shot at running for statewide office, but repudiating the Republican brand once and for all.
What's the legacy of the Ocean State under "Linc" Chafee?

Pension obligations have grown so enormous that they have transformed "Little Rhody" into "Greece along the North Atlantic." General Treasurer Gina Raimondo has had no choice but to outline the two stark choices before Rhode Island voters: either everyone takes a hit, from new public sector employees to long-time retirees, or the state will have to suspend all public services and transfer all revenues toward outlaying the lavish pensions and benefits to retirees.

The late John Chafee, who served as Governor of the Ocean State and then US Senator, discouraged collective bargaining for Rhode Island State Employees:

"Independent" Governor
Lincoln Chafee

Chafee pointed out the “organizational problems inherent where the machinery designed for private industry is imposed on State employees.” Chafee explained, “Since wages, hours and practically all working conditions are now established by laws enacted by the General Assembly…or regulations,” collective bargaining for state employees will “inevitably” lead to “bad relationships between…employees and the State.” And this would result in “the public [being] the loser.”

"Linc" has hardly any "link" with his father the late John Chafee on this issue.

The Providence schools are some of the worst in the nation. A massive firing was the only way to move the school system toward any semblance of reform. One Rhode Island teacher took his frustrations to Youtube and announced his resignation, walking away from a $70,000 annual salary and generous benefits. All of that "Race to the Top" funding does not seem to helping.
The "for-profit" Sawyer School just closed, losing 75% of its financial aid, yet leaving hundreds of students in the lurch. Where was Governor Chafee to stop the federal dollars from this for-profit school (which apparently only profited the school administrators).

Rhode Island lost 354 people last year, and statewide income is leaving even faster. A record 24,000 people have left the state in the last decade. Like the Israelites who fled from Egypt's tyrannical Pharaoh, Ocean State natives are tired of the tide of high costs, higher regulations, and the year after year low ratings on business climate and innovation. Rhode Islanders love the food, love the ocean, but hate the taxes, the spending, the cronyism, the corruption, and the institutional incompetence. And the source of it all: "Democrats".
As for any restoration following Superstorm Sandy, President Obama had to call a "state of emergency". New Jersey Governor Chris Christie had no reason to hold back his vocal criticism of Congress for failing to release federal funding to rebuild and restore the Eastern Seaboard shortly after the fiscal cliff deal. Governor Chafee said nothing.

Currently, Rhode Island has the worst business climate in the country, worse than California. The transportation system has also received the lowest marks, along with terrible marks for economic growth, and one of the highest unemployment rates in the country. Rhode Island Republicans are the only ones pushing for tax cuts. Sales and use taxes are taking too much away from hard-working Rhode Islanders. Chafee has said nothing, has done nothing. Rhode Island Republicans demand "The Truth" from state and municipal governments about their pension obligations and the financial stability of their budgets.The only reason he won the Governor's seat is that the three-way election gave him a plurality of the vote. A better candidate from the GOP would help the voters take back their state from welfarism, public sector unionism, and teetering bankruptcy. Governor Chafee has offered nothing tangible in the way of economic leadership.

Perhaps "Linc" should take a peek at his father's legacy. As Governor, John Chafee resisted a state income tax. Only when he reneged on this pledge did he lose reelection. As US Senator, Chafee supported tax cuts, welfare reform, a "balanced budget" amendment, and a line-item for the President, even though the Supreme Court later struck down that reform. His stance on abortion would have offended pro-life advocates, but he endorsed marriage between one man and one woman, not permitting the state to force the voters to recognize a comprehensive change in the institution of marriage.

Governor Chafee, what would your father think of you and the state under your leadership?

About Waxman, Waters, Feinstein's Call for Assault Weapons Ban

Following the Newtown, Connecticut massacre, Democrats and Republicans finally agreed on something: we need to assess the crime, causation and control of gun violence in the United States of America. If only the United States Congress and President could create this culture of compromise on other federal issues, like shooting down the annual deficits and growing national debt which are killing this country slowly.

US Senator Dianne Feinstein drafted the Brady Bill in 1994, which banned assault rifles for ten years. Local House Reps Henry Waxman and Maxine Waters supported that bill. They remember their votes, but apparently they forgot that shortly thereafter, Timothy McVeigh blew up the Bureau of Tobacco and Firearms in Oklahoma City. Later on, two high school seniors went on a killing spree in Littleton, Colorado in 1999. Studies indicate that there was no decline in gun violence, either.

Gun control is a trigger-happy reaction to the deeper causes of these sporadic mass murders: a culture desensitized to violence, domestic policies which defund mental healthcare, and the sad reality that tragic things happen in life. As long as “good guys” are not permitted to carry a concealed firearm on campuses, our schools and our children can remain easy targets for mentally disturbed assassins. Instead of taking away the guns from “the bad guys”, the state of Connecticut should rescind the “gun freeze zone” exceptions for public schools.

If anyone needs to be banned, it’s the gun control reflex of progressives like Senator Dianne “I’m Running my Own Campaign” Feinstein, and  House Reps Henry “Loves to Legislate” Waxman and Maxine “Tea Party Go to Hell” Waters. True to their liberal “ready-fire-aim” tendencies, US Senator Dianne Feinstein and Congressional Members Waxman and Waters target the guns.  As with gun violence, the only thing that stops bad legislators and bad legislation is good citizens who demand better legislation or no legislation at all.

Rhode Island GOP -- Push for Defederalization

"Fast Time in Little Rhody
for Patty Kennedy"

Former Rhode Island Congressman Patrick Kennedy has taken a stand against the decriminalization of marijuana. The same guy who "took too many pills", so to speak, has a growing fear of "reefer madness" in the Ocean State and throughout the nation. From "Chappaquiddick" to "Smoking-joints-ain't-chic", the "Ted Kennedy -- Pat Kennedy" double-standard double-takes are funny, sad, and just plain scary all in one throw. That any political dynasty gets away with such crass, two-faced grandstanding should be enough for Rhode Island voters to rethink one-party Democratic rule in Providence.

If liberals in the North East keeping pushing this perverse line of "nanny-state" micromanaging any further, then they may hand off to Northeastern Republican parties a potential wedge issue in future elections. The New England GOP can adopt libertarian defederalization and make the "stick-in-the-mud" Democrats look like out-of-touch, welfare-state reactionaries, which they are. Already, Rhode Island voters should blame the 3-to-1 Democratic political elite hegemony for the pension crisis buffeting the state. They also ought to give the "slightly more limited government" Republicans a shot at leadership. A plurality of voters elected Independent Governor Lincoln Chafee. Rhode Island voters ought to help Chafee out with a little more of the Republican opposition in your statehouse.

Decriminalization already has a slight precedent. Colorado and Washington State have decriminalized the recreational use of marijuana. Republican US Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky has pressed for defederalization of marijuana and other controlled substances. He has also signaled that the Republican Party needs to advance more libertarian candidates at the federal level in order to take in the West Coast and the North East in future Presidential elections. Even Conservative columnist Jonah Goldberg has argued that advocacy for "Big Government" at the state level or the city level would permit the National GOP to wage war against the Obama Welfare-warfare state without stepping on the toes of more liberal constituencies, like the New England states.

Rhode Island GOP: the grass (and the grassroots) await you. Take a lead on decriminalizing, or better yet "defederalizing" controlled substances to the state level. Instead of the failed yet overly bailed DEA taking stock of who smokes what, leet every state decide and enforce the criminalization of controlled substances.

Rhode Island GOP
Should be Bigger. . .

If New England conservative William F. Buckley endorsed decriminalization, if former California Congressman David Dreier suggest that this country rethink the drug laws, if even former RINO Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger was willing to discuss the issue, then the Rhode Island Republicans should take the lead on pushing this policy statewide and nationwide. Rekindle among your ranks the complaisant tolerance of your founder Roger Williams. Lighten up and tell the people that they can "light up" without fear of incarceration or ostracization.

Perhaps the decriminalization of controlled substances will keep former Congressman Patrick Kennedy calm and quiet, out of jail as well as away from the private lives of Rhode Island voters. Better yet, this stirring issue could fire up the Rhode Island GOP and bring back two-party conflict and compromise to a state which for too long has teetered under unchecked Democratic mismanagement.

To the Democratic Bush-Bashers: "Enough Already!"

I have written about TEA Party resistance to compromise. My greatest concern has been that conservative factions in the GOP have created more problems in fraught primaries which have pitted experienced establishment Republicans with grassroots Tea Party backed candidates. The TEA Party candidates in some primaries could never win the subsequent reelection. Sharron Angle in Nevada had the spunk but not the ground game. Linda McMahon had the money, but not the Washington legacy and name recognition of Christopher Shays.

The most glaring example was in 2010 in Delaware. Congressman Mike Castle had represented the state as the at-large Republican Congressman for nearly two decades. He had a moderate to liberal record on social issues and environmental policy. Pro-choice, he voted to repeal "Dont' Ask, Don't Tell" and for "Cap and Trade". The "TEA Party" backed challenger, Christine O'Donnell, was not unfit because she was too conservative, but because she was incompetent. Yet because she was "more conservative", she won the primary, then lost the general election by ten points.
The surge of more right-leaning candidates in blue-state primaries all but assures that a qualified moderate Republican cannot win the seat, one whose values and persona match more closely with the state electorate. TEA Party elements should not resist a candidate just because he has more time in government or does not walk in lock-step with the GOP. An ounce of fiscal conservatism is better than a pound of tax-and-spend statism, the more extreme agenda of a progressively more "Progressive" Democratic Party.

However, the chronic "hocking'" of "TEA Party'' extremism is both unfair and unthinking. A limited government based on Constitutional rule is neither extreme nor extraordinary. The massive growth of government under the current President should alarm everyone in this country, whether Democrat or Republican.

I have not minced words to justify the criticisms which many have about the Bush years. From two wars in the Middle East to easy credit for home ownership, to the invasion of quadriplegic Terry Schiavo's privacy, Bush misstepped (or "really, really blew it" in many ways. His tax cuts, however, have now been made permanent up to the $400k level, thanks to President Obama, and his astute Supreme Court appointments have expanded free speech and limited the abuse of the commerce clause (although Obamacare remains the law of the land under Congressional power to tax).

Critics malign the TEA Party movement as "extreme", a movement  that restored limited government conservatives to power in Washington. These catcalls are misplaced and misinformed. Democratic President Obama has ushered in one of the most massive expansions of the welfare-regulatory state in United States history. His nearly one-trillion dollar stimulus in 2009 did not stimulate, but exploded more pork and waste and national debt. He did not remove our troops from Afghanistan, where the native trainees fire at American forces. After he conducted a shameful apology tour throughout the Middle East, Obama sat idly by while Iranian President Mahoud Ahmadinejad stole his reelection, and the Iranian people protested in the streets. Having criticized openly our major ally, Israel, he then nominates a candidate for Secretary of Defense who has a dubious record on Middle East foreign policy.

On the domestic front, President Obama and his supermajority Democratic Congress forced through the Affordable Care Act, which will mandate that every citizen purchase health insurance or pay a stiff penalty. Beyond the individual mandate, the immense regulatory burdens on insurance companies, small businesses, and even the medical device industry, along with numerous hidden taxes, have stifled entrepreneurship while raiding Medicare. A record 43 million Americans are on food stamps. Energy prices have tripled since Obama took office. While Bush pushed the national debt to $10 trillion, Obama has dumped another $6 trillion in one term, with trillion dollar deficits defining the "budget" every year. His Democratic colleagues in the Senate have not passed a budget in four years. Despite credit downgrade and exponential borrowing, the President unseriously disdains to do anything but raise taxes and spend more.

This record is not extreme representation of his "accomplishments". President Obama's non-leadership on foreign and domestic policy along meets the definition of "extreme". Juxtaposed against the massive encroachment of the state under Obama's Presidency, the left-wing, liberal demagoguery of "TEA Party extremism" is laughable and insulting. If anything, Obama better fits the uninformed labels of "extremism" unjustly volleyed at the TEA Party movement. This President will not stop the spending, nor respect the rule of law (executive orders which ignore our immigration laws, yet no movement on comprehensive expansion of legal immigration, either), and now he wants everything his way, or no way at all.

Enough with the Bush-Bashing! President Obama owns the failed leadership of this country, solidified by the diminished majority of voters who returned to him to power by a slimmer margin than in 2008. In no wise does Obama carry a mandate to indict the "limited government" opposition in Washington or inflict "Big Government" on the voters, nor to impoverish our present and mortgage our future with his reckless policies.

To the Democratic elites and liberal Bush-Bashers I write: Enough Already!

A Revue of 2012

Last week, Editor Paul Silva highlighted his famous "Beach Reporter" pieces. His stories have been funny, touching, worthwhile, and informative in stark contrast to the national media, which highlighted "You didn't build that" and "binders full of women", along with politicians' gaffes, gaps, and their grubby, grabby agendas.

2012 had fewer consummate victories across the board. Very little good graced the shores of our country. Yet even after Superstorm Sandy, the nation witnessed a brief glimpse of bipartisanship along the Jersey Boardwalk: Governor Christie embraced President Obama. The American People reelected a divided federal government. However, the flummoxed fiscal cliff compromise brings glad tidings: President Obama has made the Bush tax cuts permanent for the "99%". Washington's last-minute deal will force our leaders and the voters to comprehend and calculate the true cost of Big Government.

Other highlights stand out. Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin pushed comprehensive budget reforms, which curtailed the collective bargaining rights of public sector unions and saved cities and school districts millions of dollars without layoffs. Michigan passed "right to work" legislation. Florida ended teacher tenure. Indiana started a statewide voucher program. Washington's state senate created a bipartisan coalition to balance budgets, boost businesses, and improve education. Kansas and Oklahoma are eliminating their state income tax. If these states did it, why can't California?

For once, Senator Lieu rescinded a proposed tax increase. In Torrance, businesses are returning. Hermosa Beach saves money instead of spending it. 2013 can indeed be a year of better prospects.

Letter to New Jersey Press on Gun Control

Armed assailants killed two women near Essex County College and three Gloucester Township police officers inside their police station. Newark Mayor Cory Booker claims that 34 gun murders occur every day in the United States. Crime rates have climbed in Newark and Trenton, where cities instituted massive police layoffs. The New Jersey Legislature wants stricter gun laws. Gov. Christie wants to expand gun control. The governor’s support for gun control is illogical, unsubstantiated, and uninformed.

Washington D.C. had strict gun laws and one of the highest crime rates in the country. After the United States Supreme Court struck down the handgun ban, Washington’s crime rate dropped. The University of Central Florida’s Kleck and Gertz study, the National Academy of Sciences, and the Cato Institute have concluded that gun control does not control gun violence. Israel and Switzerland have a higher rate of gun ownership, but fewer deaths.

NRA President Wayne LaPierre correctly argued: "The only protection against a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with gun." Not gun control but more gun ownership protects our inner city communities from armed attacks. Removing the "gun free zone" stipulations from our schools will make them less likely targets for potential assailants. Enlisting private militias, if necessary, or summoning New Jersey’s National Guard would protect the state.

I respect Gov. Christie’s stance on fiscal discipline and other social issues. This country needs to discuss the growing national trend of gun violence. But Christie is wrong to advocate for gun control.

About Neworth's Take on Bush's Wars and the National Debt

I agree with Columnist Jack Neworth 100% on the wars in the Middle East. This country's extensive military excursions have cost us more than we can afford. Yet to claim that the majority of our debt problems are driven by military expenditures alone is neither a credible nor a calculated argument.

To assume that Bush was gunning for an invasion of Iraq followed by the violent deposal of Saddam Hussein neglects the United States' more complicated history with Iraq and the Middle East.

Before Bush, Clinton and a bipartisan Congress pushed for regime change in Iraq. They even passed a a resolution for it. Democrats and Republicans supported going into Iraq in 2003. Both sides believed that there were weapons of mass destruction. Both sides assumed that there were ties between Al-Qaeda and Hussein.

I have taken much flack for my supporting President Bush. I voted for Bush in 2004 because he was 1% better than Kerry, and that's the truth -- I still remember a website which read "Bush is a d---che bag, but I am voting for him anyway." I had the same sentiment. I was concerned about the deficit spending, I was worried that the initial steps toward democracy in the Middle East were halting at best, but at the same time, John Kerry was at best an effete elite with no effective mandate for leadership or learning beyond a liberal upbringing and a rich heiress (Heinz-Kerry and all the ketchup you can pour).

Like many of the Democrats and Republican Congressmen, I believed that there were WMD. Even Berman and Sherman BOTH acknowledged this during the fight for the new 30th. I did not have the appreciation that William F. Buckley or that George F. Will shared: that removing one dictator would not be enough to engage diverse religious factions nor set the seeds for a prosperous representative republic. I have since learned that ingrained tribal rivalries will not dissipate in a popular representative forum. There needed to be a religious reformation before there was ever a political revolution, and other governments cannot effect that.

Natan Sharansky, a refusenik from the Soviet Union, opposed the immediate transition from occupation to elections. A culture of freedom, whether just or equal, had to be established first, but the Bush Administration advanced pell-mell into setting up voting booths with dipped purple fingers. Democracy works only if the voting population respects democratic (or rather republican) values: the rule of law, natural rights, limited government, majority rule circumscribed by countermajoritarian institutions to protect minority rights. A culture of respect for all peoples beyond religious or tribal rivalries has not yet emerged in the Middle East, besides Israel. One invasion followed by an ongoing occupation cannot effect so long and gradual a shift.

The United States Government needs to get our troops out of Afghanistan right now.

Bring our troops home!

I understand the rage many people feel about Bush -- one man could not share his sentiments with me without getting angry. But "Bush-Bashing" is now hindering the very reforms that most frustrated Americans are seeking. It seemsthat people's "Bush-Bash" rage has induced them to tolerate our current President, who is advancing the same Bush-Bashed policies, only moreso.