DC's "Right To Vote."

I hear on more than one occasion from Liberals, that they could never live in the District Of Columbia, because residents of DC don't have the "right to vote." Really? The District has three electoral votes in presidential elections, and elects their mayor and council members. They don't have the "right to vote?"

The Twenty-Third Amendment to the US Constitution, which was proposed by Congress in 1960, and ratified by the states in 1961, gives Washington, DC, three Electoral College votes in presidential elections. It limits the number of Electoral College votes to three, currently, which the amendment specifies is the same number of electors as allowed in the least populated state. As of 2011, that state is Wyoming.

Residents of the District voted in presidential elections for the first time in 1964. Before that time, yes, they didn't have the "right to vote." That voting right continues today. Yes liberals, they do have the "right to vote." What I think these liberals are really saying, is that DC doesn't have a representative in Congress that can vote on the House floor. DC's representative has the same committee voting rights as the representatives of the US Territories: Guam, Marshall Islands, American Samoa, the US Virgin Islands, and the Commonwealth Of Puerto Rico. It was the same when Arizona was a territory, North Dakota was a territory, and Hawaii was a territory.

If you read the US Constitution, it specifically states that a Federal District would be established as the center of government, but it would not be a state. DC is not a state. It is a Federal District. In order for DC to have a House floor voting representative, there would have to be a Constitutional Amendment granting DC statehood. With that requiring a 2/3 majority congressional vote from both houses, followed by ratification by 3/4 of the states, that would be just about impossible.

There is a reason why the founders of this country didn't want the center of government to have the same rights as the respective states. At the time, it was expected that those that worked for the Federal Government would live in the District. The idea was to keep those that worked for the government from voting themselves a pay raise, since all bills pertaining to the federal budget begin in the House Of Representatives. Until 1961, they couldn't even vote for the President or Vice-President. That had been in effect since 1789. At the time, and until the 1973, it didn't seem to bother the residents of the District Of Columbia. They lived under a congressional gravy train, with a city government controlled by three Congressional Managers from the House Of Representatives. DC was given home rule by Congress in 1972. Their first mayor, Walter Washington, was elected mayor in 1973.

Here's my idea: make all federal employees, current and retired, no matter where they live, residents of the District Of Columbia as part of their employment contracts. That way no federal employee could vote themselves a pay raise. Those that reside outside of the District would vote by absentee ballot, whether they live in Montgomery County, Maryland, or Omaha, Nebraska. They would also vote for the DC mayor and council, having a say in who controlled the local government of their domicile. With the financial mess that DC is in, that would not be a bad thing.

What about the military? Yes, the military are federal employees. However, there is one fly in the ointment. It's called the Soldiers And Sailors Relieve Act of 1918, reinstated in 1940, and even though it had not expired, reinstated again in 2003 as a formality. One provision allows members of the military to retain their home of record as their legal domicile along as they are members of the active duty military. I was active duty Air Force for 26 years. During that time, I remained a legal resident of Connecticut, which was my home of record when I joined the military. After I retired, I had to become a Maryland resident, since that is where I lived, acquire a Maryland drivers' license, since that is where I lived, and pay state income tax to the State Of Maryland, since that is where I lived, and was now a Maryland resident. While I was active duty, I maintained a Connecticut drivers license, and was subject to Connecticut state income tax, but Connecticut exempts military members on active duty from that tax. That is Connecticut's right under the States Rights provisions of the US Constitution applied to the Soldiers And Sailors Relief Act. The act also covers garnishments and other financial actions, giving them statutory relief while they are in the service of their country. This is a law, not a constitutional provision, so any or all parts of the act could be rescinded by federal law.

The part granting them the right to retain their home of record as their domicile could be rescinded by federal law, while leaving the other provisions in place. However, would Liberals want all members of the US Military to be residents of the District Of Columbia? Most members of the military are Conservatives. Today, and based on my observations, starting about 20 years ago, many military personnel in power and policy positions are fundamentalist, born again Christian, religious Conservatives. They would vote for any Republican running for office in the District. DC might actually end up with a Republican mayor, a Republican council, and a non-floor voting representative that is a Republican. Also, DC's meager three electoral votes would go Republican too.

As a side note: I have never been comfortable with the Fundamentalist Movement that has established itself as the power base of the US Military in recent years. While I respect their right to believe what they believe...after all, their beliefs are protected, constitutional rights guaranteed by the First Amendment, I find it uncomfortable when they promote their religious beliefs in a public forum, or let it be known under the table, that if you  don't belief in a certain aspect of Fundamentalist Christianity, you will not be promoted.  I'm sorry, but this is wrong! I shouldn't have to belong to the "right" church in order to be considered for promotion.

Granting the District more electoral votes by a constitutional amendment would be much easier than granting DC statehood. I believe that most states would go along with that, just like they granted DC residents the right to vote in presidential elections in 1961. That would mean that DC could end up with 7 to 10 electoral votes, rather than 3... maybe more, depending on the size of the federal workforce, including the US Military. If you included retired military, since they are technically still military in retired status, and there are many, it could be 15 to 20 electoral votes, most of whom just might vote Republican...talk about "swing..."

We'll see what happens...

Housing In The Future

I just finished reading an article by Walter Russell Mead called From Levittown To Suburbia. I'm a big fan of Mead. Even though I'm a conservative and he is a liberal, he is a completely common sense liberal, who is not afraid to hold liberalism's feet to the fire. He is a deep-thinking intellectual worth reading on a regular basis.

From Levittown To Suburbia, is one installment in Mead's commentary on America's "Blue Social Model." In this installment, he challenges the current notion that the younger generation preferres to live in New Urbanism style high density housing on top of public transportation lines.

Even though I'm a conservative, I'm a New Urbanism kind of guy; I would prefer to live in a condo above a Metro or high speed rail line, rather than where I live. I live in a small single family home in a former working class suburban neighborhood, but that is just me. Downtown Rockville, Maryland, and Kentlands in Gaithersburb, Maryland, are my models when it comes to housing. I'm also a big fan of public transportation, because I hate driving, especially in the DC area. If I didn't have to haul drum and band equipment, and public transportation ran 24 hours per day, it's more than likely that I wouldn't own a car...back to Mead...

Based on his research, most Millenials would prefer to live in single family homes in the suburbs and exurbs, but they can't afford to. What are we going to return to? We are going to return to the multi-generational single family home of days gone by. Many builders are now offering that kind of housing unit: They are offering large single family homes with separate sections for two or three generations of family members. I can also see this becoming a model for two or three unrelated families that get along well, choosing to live together in this type of housing. If you go back in history, it wasn't that long ago, that multi-generational living arrangements were the norm here in the United States. When my parents were first married, and my father was going to graduate school, they lived in the home where my mother grew up with her 12 brothers and sisters...all but 5 who never married, and continued to live in the same house until the day they died.

I am a New Urbanist Conservative; yes we do exist, I do agree with Mead's assessment. Read his article. It makes total sense. I can see an America, where multiple generations share housing, taking a large burden off of the social services industries when it comes to caring for Grandma and Grandpa in their golden years, while they provide valuable services in helping raise their grandchildren without the need for day care, as well as making things easier for the younger generations to get themselves planted in the American culture and economy, with the help coming from two generations of family stability providing family assistance, as opposed to government assistance.

We'll see...

Left Wing Fear

In a previous post, I stated that what we needed in this country was the formation of an asshole party. We haven't gone that far as of yet, but the Tea Party has woken up the American people on both sides of the political spectrum. No, I'm not calling the Tea Party assholes. I am not a Liberal. Actually, Liberals would not call the Tea Party members assholes, they would say they were stupid. The Left considers anyone that doesn't agree with their positions to be stupid as well as any Average American to be stupid. However, I do feel that the Left is about finally to suffer their well deserved comeuppance. We have had enough of their hubris. Average Americans, who Professor Angelo Codevilla dubs the Country Party, are furious. Elite Liberal Americans, who Codevilla calls the Court Party, are scared. They should be. Their entire worldview, based on a society socially engineered into Democratic Socialism with them accruing the majority of the spoils confiscated from small business owners and those without college degrees who work for a living, has finally been shown for what it is: Left wing socially engineered pseudo-Communism. They kept it under wraps for years while they were working to create this "Utopia" behind the scenes through incremental Socialism was put into place.However, things are different now. The lid is off of the trash can, and the little people are looking down into that trash can and seeing the maggots crawling all over the garbage, which stinks to high heaven. It can't be hidden anymore. The Left moved their agenda too fast, and the average Joe and Jane finally woke up and smelled the sewage. The entire Progressive agenda has been shown for what it is. It is a fraud. The social engineering factory has produced too many defective products, and is now poised to go out of business. The "investors" in this system (read taxpayers), are now demanding a full accounting. Through their own arrogance, the Left has set itself up for failure and moral bankruptcy, and their are scared to death. We are no longer buying into their world view. We tolerated it for half a century, but it's now time to clean house.

Americans have finally woken up to the fact that the Left has always worshiped Communism. Liberals have longed for Marx's tenant that there would be a revolution in which the Proletariat would rise up against the Bourgeoisie , which at the time of Marx, through the Industrial Revolution, the Gilded Age, and until we became part of the Global Economy, was the Capitalist Industrialist ruling class. However, the workers joined up with the Capitalists and enjoyed a good solid middle class standard of living. Years ago, this put a class of self-absorbed college educated liberals in a bind. They envisioned themselves as a ruling managerial class that would control the masses until the Proletariat were ready to rise up in revolution, keeping themselves in place as society's managers. To them this was their birthright. However something that Marx never predicted happened. The Proletariat combined forces with the Capitalist Bourgeoisie, and together created a standard of living here in the United States that was the envy of the world. Compare the standard of living of the working classes and lower middle classes in Europe, with the standard of living of the same here in the US. There is about a 40% difference. While the "Managerials" too enjoy a good standard of living, there was something missing. They didn't become the ruling class, which destroyed their self-importance. Not only that, here in America, unlike Western Europe, a high school drop out owning a small business, could earn more money than someone with a PhD. This wasn't fair. How could it be possible that some crude "common" high school graduate owning, heaven forbid, a McDonald's franchise, make a million dollars per year, when the Elite, with a PhD in something ending in "Studies," might find themselves "saving the world" from the Capitalist pigs, working at Revolutionary Books for $10 per hour, or better yet ironically, working for $10 per hour for that high school graduate, or better yet, for that dropout McDonald's franchise owner millionaire, flipping burgers.

Ah, the "unfairness" of the Capitalist system. It doesn't recognize intellectual talent like a command and control European style Social Democratic system where salaries are based on education level, and dictated by federal law. This mindset was addressed by the famous Austrian School Economist, Ludwig von Mises in a book called, The Anti-Capitalist Mentality, published in 1956. It's worth a read, and is available as free download from the Ludwig von Mises Institute website. In addition, von Mises addresses another bone of contention of the left...the fact that their leaders in academia and the non-profit industries get little respect from the American business community. That's because the Capitalist American business community considers them a bunch of Socialist whiners. European society is more willing to suck up to them than we are. This is one of the main reasons for the Left pushing for a European style Social Democracy here in America. They feel that they are entitled to that level of respect when all they have accomplished in life is acquiring a college degree, and been involved in spending other peoples' money.

Here was the Liberals dilemma. When was Marx's revolution going to take place, in which the workers would rise up against the Capitalist system and allow the "Managerials" to lead the revolution, rise to dictatorial power, and secure their place as the vanguards of the Proletariat. What happened to their self-ordained birthright to become society's ruling class? It didn't happen, and it's not going to happen.

Here's the irony. As we have evolved from a manufacturing economy to a service economy where college degrees are the necessary pedigrees needed to secure a career that will allow a solid upper middle class existence, those educated, arrogant, paternalistic liberals have become the new Bourgeoisie...and the Proletariat are ready to rise up in revolution against them. The Progressive Left is scared to death. This is why Liberals are so quick to denigrate Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachman. Both ladies, while only one is a serious presidential contender, have stirred up the masses. The Left claims that Sarah Palin is politically irrelevant. If she is, why spend so much time trying to destroy her? Because, she has mobilized Middle America, and the Left hates and fears Middle America more than they hate and fear the failed products of their social engineering factory that reside in our inner cities. Things could get violent and they know it.

This is something that is happening world-wide. Look at the riots in Greece, Italy, and Ireland, and the current riots in Britain. When are those riots going to happen here? Wait, they are. Take a look at the "flash mobs" comprised of young Black men that are attacking white people. If you look at the pictures and amateur videos of the riots in Britain, you will notice that the rioters are black, white, male, and female. All are products of an over-generous safety net, that has included the American dollar equivalent of about $80,000 in public education costs that they didn't contribute one penny to. Now let's look at the flash mobs in this country. Notice anything? You don't see those hoodlums going after the rednecks. Rednecks have guns, and they will use them. They are going after those that are considered easy targets: members of the class of middle class and upper middle class whites and/or their children. Most of them DON'T have guns.

Why are these youths rioting and creating mayhem? In England, the standard excuse is they are angry, because of an increase in college tuition and a reduction of social services. I think that is goes much deeper than that. Using the United States as an example, I have other ideas. Here's a theory. It's "Rage Against The Machine." Could it be that the youth of the Black community have started to wake up to the fake bill of goods sold to them by guilt ridden and power hungry white liberals? BINGO! These policies have done little to benefit those that the policies were designed to benefit. Instead, they created a permanent underclass of unsocialized urban blacks, rural poor whites, a new class of suburban poor Hispanics, while creating a self-ordained ruling class of college educated "professionals"drunk with the entitlement of power to rule over the other demographic groups? Ah, the poverty industry. Flush with government money, corruption is king, and it has devolved into a racket. Al Capone would be proud. Guess what? We the Little People noticed. Like I said, the lid is off of the trash can. The Left can not hide their intentions any more.

What is at stake here is an ideology bases on the following: revenge, restitution, reparations, revolt, redistribution, re-alignment, and rage, not necessarily in that particular order. We are no longer going to tolerate those seven "r" items. There is going to be no more free lunch. The kitchen is closed. I will address each of these items in subsequent posts.

Right Wing Hippies

Ayn Rand referred to Libertarians as right wing hippies. I guess you could say that I fit the bill. I have long hair and a beard, and I listen to the music of the 1060s and 1970s. I listen to country music, jazz and classical too. I'm a musician. I listen to all sorts of music. According to Rand, what defined a right wing hippie was a complete belief in rugged individualism. I can see her point. As we all know, however, there are few things in this world that can be qualified in black and white terms. Most of the time, things are defined in various shades of gray. Bruce Fleming, an English professor at the US Naval Academy wrote an article that can be found on military.com about right wing hippies. http://www.military.com/opinion/0,15202,125000,00.html . According to Fleming, "Many people in the military had to overcome adversity to get where they are, or at least put up with drill sergeants and COs. It made them tough. They have no sympathy for the weak ones, those not hard." I stand guilty as charged. I've worked my ass off to get where I am today. While I am not at the pinnacle of the music industry, I have managed to carve myself out a nice niche in the DC music scene, and the phone rings on a regular basis with work. I owe much of my current success to my 26 year tenure in the military. I have no respect or sympathy for spoiled, lazy parasites who think the world owes them everything.

Yes, I am a right wing hippie. As far as I can tell, there are more than a few of us out there that have long hair, and reject Socialism, Communism, and what James Burnham called, Managerialism. Oh, and we do bathe. I have no use for the holier than thou, sanctimonious, and victim and grievance "industry" Left. It's time that these defective human beings to grow up and face reality. There is no such thing as Utopia.

Let me explain something else to these cretins: When the shit hits the fan, you are not going to be the ruling class. We are not going to let you. You may think that you are the "potters" and we are the "clay," (according the an article by Angelo Codevilla), but we are not going to let you treat us like clay. We are not going to be "managed" by self-centered miscreants like you. We don't give a rats ass about your college degrees, your preening about how important you are, your sanctimonious worship of Gaia, your Environmentalism, your nose in the air attitude about fast food, pickup trucks, non-organic food, suburban sprawl, and your thinly disguised contempt for the "little people." You want us to ride bicycles so you can have less traffic on the road for your Prius? Well, you can take that bicycle and shove it up your ass. Americans are not Europeans. Don't expect us to bow and scrape to those that consider themselves to be our betters. Back off, because if you don't, you are not going to like the consequences. The bottom line is this: We will win and you will lose. We've had enough.

Are you too important to start at the bottom and work your way up?

There was an article in the New York Post about how 85% of recent college graduates are moving back home, because they can't find the kind of employment that they feel they deserve. I'm sorry, but if you get a college degree in something equivalent to revolutionary underwater basket weaving studies, you are going to have a very difficult time finding a job that doesn't require you to say, "Would you like fries with that?"

What we are witnessing here is the culmination of a entitlement society, nurtured by hippie parents, with no willingness to earn their place through sacrifice and hard work. That by the way, means taking jobs that you don't like, but you do anyway, because you need to put food on the table and a roof over your head. The $600 IPhone comes later...AFTER you've earned it.

The article mentions a student who, armed with a BS in human and organizational development, was looking for a high salary tech job in a big city. Well, I may be ignorant, but if you want a high paying job in the tech industry, shouldn't you get a degree in computer engineering, software engineering, or in addition to your BS degree, get yourself certified in network administration or something of the sort? Being the stupid lower middle class Republican scum that I am, I would think that having a BS in human organizational development would get you an entry level gopher position in some corporation's HR department. From there, you could work your way up. I guess that's not an option. Do I hear instant gratification?

Another "victim" was a young lady armed with a Bachelor of Music degree from Berklee College of Music in Boston. Berklee is a great school, but it's one of the most expensive music schools in the country. She's having a hard time finding a job, even though she completed business courses from Harvard and Columbia too. Let's see...Berklee, Harvard, Columbia...all expensive schools. My gut feeling is she doesn't come from the same side of the tracks as I do. She's looking for a job in the music publishing industry, and she's being told that there are no jobs. Well lady, maybe you'll just have to find a different line of work. That's what I've been told to do when my lifestyle choice has gone against the Leftists mantra.

I've been told that my choice of occupation is not my choice, but theirs, from Liberals who don't like the fact that I drive a big gas guzzler van in order to haul my drum equipment around. I had one Leftist tell me a few years ago, that he couldn't wait until the government ordered me to give up my van and forced me into a roller skate with a lawn mower engine. His exact words were, "Since when do you think that you have a right to destroy the environment by driving that truck. You'll need to find another line of work. You are an asshole Conservative, and you have no right, because of your political beliefs, to work in the music industry. Music is for Liberals and Liberals only. You Conservatives need to be destroyed." Nice guy. So lady, I'm not going to sit here and tell you that you need to be forced into another line of work at gunpoint, like a good Liberal would do. I'm just going to say that since market forces are not going your way, you are going to have to face reality and work in another industry, regardless of what your education and training are in. People do it all the time, and many of them have found that the new career is rewarding. Of course if you sing or play a musical instrument, you can always seek out an opening in one of the military bands. That was my choice, and it worked for me. After 26 years, I retired and became what I wanted to be in the first place. I became a free lance musician. Yes, I have another source of income. It's a pension from the United States of America. It is a pension that I earned through hard work. I'm not living in Mom's basement rent free while I hit the reset button ad nauseum, because I don't want to go out and take a job where I might have to get my hands dirty. I had many a hands dirty job in my life too. I worked on a tobacco farm in Connecticut when I was a teenager. I washed dishes in a nursing home. When I was first in the military, being at the bottom of the pecking order, I did a lot of details like picking up trash, painting buildings, KP, polishing floors, cleaning toilets, filling sandbags and such, in addition to doing my regular job as a bandsman, practicing, 150 days per year travelling, etc.

You can't always get what you want. Ask any musician who has spent years practicing and honing his or her skills about audition failures and successes. Many aspire to win a position in a major orchestra like the Boston Symphony or the New York Philharmonic. Most never make it. It's the same in the commercial music industry too. Only the cream of the crop will end up making a decent living as a free lance musician, without some sort of financial backing. For those of us that were good enough to gain employment with a military band, our pensions earned after 20 or 30 years become that financial backing. For those that choose not to go the military route, having a day job becomes the financial backing for there passion. It's like that in any of the arts.

The basic premise of this article is to state this: First of all, you have to be willing to do things you don't want to do, because you need to survive. That's just the way life is. Not everyone will get to pursue their dream to the end, or if they do, there will be more than likely compromises and detours. Success must be earned one step at a time. Secondly, stop whining. You spent good money earning a degree in a subject where there is limited employment, or extreme competition for what little jobs there are. If you are not good enough to win a position, suck it up, and do something else. Third, no one owes you anything. That includes your parents, your friends, the government, and especially the tax payers. Don't expect us to fund your quest for self-gratification. If you are a musician and you are not quite good enough to get a major league gig, consider a military band, teaching position, or working in a completely different industry as your primary source of income, while you pursue your art for enjoyment, or as a part-time income supliment in order to have what ends up being a paid hobby. In another words, face reality and shut up.

Asshole Party

The Democrats have been taken over by Socialists and Communists. The Republicans have been taken over by spineless wimps. We need a third party if we are to fix this country. Based on the ideology and performance of the other two parties, what we need is an asshole party to knock both of them around.

We need a party that will, first of all, have the backbone to lead, and not worry about ruffling a few feathers. In fact, the more feathers that are ruffled, the better. Foremost, the asshole party needs to stand on principles and offer no compromises. They need to call out the Republican leadership that are spineless squishes and show them with the yellow streak down their backs. They need to call out the upper middle class Liberals who consider themselves to be America's ruling class. The asshole party needs to take figuratively the educated classes attitude, complete with their Volvos, organic food, and phony belief in the religion of Environmentalism, and shove it up their collective asses. Hey Liberals, you talk about class warfare. Well I've got news for you. We are in a class war already, and we are going to escalate it until we win it. It's time for "no more mister nice guy."

That's a start. From there, what the asshole party needs to do is hold the dear little Lefties feet to the fire, and make them conform to their rules, to the letter of the law. This is one of the "Rules For Radicals" from their "god" Alinsky. If they fall down on one little item, use that to discredit their entire movement. Hold them up to unattainable standards and then destroy them when they fall short. Use the same tactics against them that they use against the right.

Of course, people will say, "Aren't you just promoting class warfare?" We are already in the middle of a class war. What you have is an alliance of educated upper middle class liberals, who embrace Socialism because it's fashionable and it is their means to power. It's fashionable, because it gives them a unified vision where they look down collectively on the working class, especially the white working class. They despise the black and Hispanic working classes too, but they don't dare show their contempt. That would be racist, and they have evolved beyond those racists that make up the white working class. However, their policies are designed to keep the lower classes down, so that they can be forced into a voting block that will continue to vote itself monies out of the public trough...monies provided by the tax revenue from the efforts of the ambitious, transferred to the "managers" with a small percentage given to the poor. This way you have a perpetual funding mechanism and "client" base for the social services industry steeped in Marxist ideology, grievance, and victim hood. I will comment more about this in a future post.

Gas Prices

The president goes on television and claims that we are producing more oil today than we ever have in history. Then why are we producing about 5 million barrels per day today, and back in the 1970s we were producing over 10 million barrels per day?

The bottom line is this. Barack Obama, and his Socialist upper middle class minions want high energy prices in order to socially engineer the lower middle class and working class in this country. Why? There are several reasons, but it ties in with an elitist mindset that permeates those that received higher education in technology, arts, and humanities, and now run this country.

First and foremost, it's about control. The little people are stupid and need to be controlled by those that have evolved into a higher level of man. There are to be two classes in society, a ruling class and a ruled class, and they are to be the ruling class. We are to be put in our place, and exist to serve our masters. In addition, more of what we little people, not the so-called rich make, is to be channeled either directly or indirectly into their pockets. This brings me to the reason: It's about funding. Social service projects, no matter what they are, and federal research in alternative energy programs are nothing but social service projects when you take a good look at them, are nothing but being about funding. Follow the money trail.

Secondly, this is about revenge. Compare what the Liberal Elite establishment and the president are doing to Reconstruction following the Civil War, and you'll get the picture. It's payback time for the institutional racism that permeated the lower classes in the past. It doesn't matter that racism and bigotry are at an all time low in this country. The Left has been waiting for this moment for years, and they are going to punish the white working class for sins of the past. They are going to reduced the standard of living of the white working class to the standard of living of the blacks living in the ghetto. However, I'm not sure that the middle middle, and lower middle class are going to put up with this shit. More to follow...