Interstate Highways For Sale

"Nothing like public service; it's why we're paid the big dollars." That was a comment from a DOT official in Texas this week. They've been getting angry email about the proposal to convert Interstate roadways to private toll roads. I thought this was humorous comment, but it's really too serious to laugh. Civil servants along with elected officials operate with a very vague sense of accountability to the public. To them, American citizens have become the masses that need to be managed. We are not thinking, reasoning families and individuals. No... the arrogance in "public service" these days suggests that government officials think we are herds of cows waiting for the next crack of the whip to tell us where to go.

My longest stint with the Federal Government lasted seven years. If you have ever worked in a government office, you know that government employees receive a lot of training. Anything, sexual harassement, diversity awareness, retirement coaching, photo copier training. The problem is that most government employees never get any training on the function of government--what it is supposed to do and to whom it is accountable. They don't get it in our broken down public schools and they don't get it on the job. What we end up with is essential a corrupted system. Abusers and unwitting alike don't have a clue what to do with authority other than use it to their advantage. That's how you get the Federal Reserve Bank, Dubai-owned American ports, Dubai-owned New York Stock Exchange, and Dubai-owned London Stock Exchange.

Anytime you can figure out a way to tax American citizens each time they perform a routine activity--like driving down the road--you should look over your shoulder for a well-financed "private interest." Texas is only the proving ground. Lou Dobbs reported this phenomenon earlier this year, but it was too incredulous at the time for me to wrap my head around it.

I'm writing letters a lot these days and I'm teaching my children how to write letters too. We have a population of misguided and poorly-educated adults who are assuming leadership positions they don't always understand. It's time right now to get busy making noise. Loud noise, so that the ones who are not really interested in public service scram and make room for truly noble public servants.

How to Answer a Serial Attention-Seeker

There is commentary adrift that pretends to discredit Andrew Meyer as a crazed attention-seeker. I find it illogical and suspiciously political. First of all, Meyer was thought to be off-center when he started talking to Kerry. What sense does it make to change the headlines now? Besides, what does attention-seeking have to do with being tasered by the police? It doesn't matter. Short of intending to harm property or person, police should not have used any sort of gun. His crime was annoying a crowd of people. You can see how shallow real tolerance is in our culture. He annoyed the crowd, so he deserved to be shot. This from a room-full of people gathered to see John Kerry. Look folks, he did not have a back pack full of cocaine. The book he was waiving was not a weapon of mass destruction. He wasn't trying to steal your identity. But somehow he was annoying enough to "deserve" being roughed up by the police. Aren't there more important things to be annoyed by.

Despite his rude behavior, he was prompted to speak. Apparently, Kerry continued to speak past his scheduled limit too which provoked the short Q&A session. If campus police had approached Kerry with handcuffs for going overtime, don't you think Kerry might have inquired with a curious "what for?"

The Best Way to Answer a Serial Attention-Seeker

People who don't subscribe to the Britney Spears/Paris Hilton genre of marketing don't go after the celebrities with tasers. They don't buy their videos, they don't visit their websites, or buy their perfume. How did we get here? We reserve ample latitude for people who commit violent crimes and show utter contempt for those who disrupt our meetings.

Imagine it if Britney walked into the University of Florida auditorium in her classic attention-getting style. Imagine she refused to leave and suggested that she had some questions for Kerry. Perhaps some of Britney's questions were uttered with slurred speech and infringed upon the ability of others to ask questions. Imagine Kerry invited her to speak anyway. Now annoyed by her rudeness, what if the police grabbed her without warning. Petite as she is, what if she managed to slip away to inquire why she was being arrested? Do you taser her and bring on worldwide sympathy for her cause. Or do you drag her out of the room and let her behavior bring on the adjustment she needs?

Late Breaking: University of Florida Student Tasered

There is a rude and obnoxious person around every corner. If this is was a justifiable use of a gun, how do you evaluate which rude people deserve to be shot in the future? It's sad that so many condone the use of a taser to control rudeness which is precisely what happened. I saw the video, Meyer was not threatening HARM to anyone. He was merely an "inconvenient" presence. If the police had tasered a dog, there would be jail time for the offending officer. Case in point, in Phoenix a police officer was jailed for the accidental death of his police dog. The officer is in jail, but in Maryland, a child molester is on the streets. Back on the streets because, over the course of three years, the judge could not find a translator of his native language. Never mind that it only takes six weeks to learn English. The man who's repeated, premeditated crime was against a child is free, but the one who's accidental crime was against a dog is in jail. Guaranteed, if the rapist had been tasered, the policeman would have gone to jail, not the rapist. Andrew Meyer DID NOT deserve to be tasered. I don't care how much he inconvenienced you. On the ground with multiple burly officers on top of him was not the time to pull the trigger. John Kerry and his squat team have it backwards. This is an obscene lapse of judgement by a brood of unprepared "officers of the peace." How is it that the penalty for infringing upon the schedule of a U.S. Senator is a crime deserving such action by the police? John Kerry owes the public an apology for his smallness and cowardice. As a public official, he had an opportunity to lead the police through the safe removal of the student-OR-to gracefully remain patient. But he blew it because he was consumed with himself and his ideology too much to see that Andrew Meyer was him 40 years ago.

Why Are Any Voting Ballots in the U.S. Printed in English and Spanish?

Every year, I get ballot information in the mail that costs twice as much in time and money than it should. It takes twice as long to read it because everything...every word and punctuation mark is translated into Spanish and printed alongside the English portion of the ballot or printed upside down on the back of the ballot. It costs twice as much to print, and extra to mail.

The City of Phoenix can't afford the number of police we need to manage the exploding crime rate, but somehow we have the resources to create and publish EVERY public document and every public website in two languages. It takes a few weeks total to learn English. We pay to educate the anchor babies and illegal immigrant children alike. Then we pay to duplicate every public document in Spanish! What sense does this make! None, it's i n s a n e ! How, how do we end up with eligible voters who CAN'T SPEAK AND READ ENGLISH! I studied Spanish from grade school through high school as an ELECTIVE. I learned Spanish to enrich my mind, not so I could vote!

Now, the mayor declares we need more money to pay for extra police and firemen. We do, but which of us can’t figure out why? An unreasonably significant portion of the population in Phoenix doesn’t understand English. And too much of the city’s influx are fugitives, are coming to commit a crime, or coming while committing a crime.

First of all, stop wasting our money. I work hard. I don’t like it when greedy, top-heavy municipalities demand extra money because they refuse to use common sense. Phoenix exacts one of the highest sales taxes in the United States. The most upscale municipalities don’t tax as much as Phoenix does. And I am furious, that any government has the gall to propose to intelligent hardworking people that more taxes are needed to “protect us” while they simultaneously try to score a raise. Phoenix police men and women must cope with a horrific wave of crime for which the city government is partly responsible. As a result of Gordon's sanctuary city, indeed we are all more vulnerable to chaos. Stop all that winning about the federal government and do something smart. Phil Gordon has more authority to manage Phoenix than the White House ever will. However, he will continue to whine because he does not seem to understand the American constitution. Moreover, Gordon is on the same page as pro-illegal immigration activists who care nothing about the U.S. and despise those of us who do. And a note to all broadcast producers: spare us from any more dribble by foreign spokesmen and the likes of Juan Hernandez. They wrongly assume we are a bunch of witless dummies who believe everything we hear. It’s unimaginable—thinking you've tuned into an update about the illegal immigration but instead, in broken english, hearing how Americans WANT illegal workers, DON’T WANT to work, and how the economy would CRUMBLE if illegal aliens were not here.

This is not about hispanics, turks, blacks, buddists, etc . What American in their right mind should tolerate the disdain of arrogant foreigners who want to tie our hands with our own laws while they run off with our elections, schools, hospitals, quiet neighborhoods and streets.