The Western Reserve America Group

2009 will be studied by historians for years to come. It is a seminal year in American politics equal to 1968 in which changes in American society spontaneously bubbled up from a citizenry demanding a restatement of the relationship between the government and the governed.

The economic collapse in September, 2008, in the midst of a presidential election, propelled a true leftist progressive into office. Although Barack Obama ran on a centrist platform, he was shaped by his Indonesian childhood and his work as a community organizer in Chicago’s South Side. He meant it when he said he would fundamentally transform America, but the public didn’t understand the nature of the change he was promising.

Contrary to his promise of centrist post partisanship, he used bullying tactics to implement his policies of massive spending and debt, government bailouts of select corporations and banks, government control of all aspects of America’s energy sources, and his attempt at intrusive government interference in America’s health system.

With no central opposition leader, the center right majority of Americans reacted spontaneously to policies too well understood and not wanted. The public began to read Jefferson, Adams, Washington, and Paine. They came together in ad hoc groups of citizens called “Tea Parties” to demand accountability from an ideologically based government who chose to ignore the will of the people. Folks actually began to read the founding documents: the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights.

They marched and protested and attended town hall meetings as their representatives derided and scorned them calling them “Astroturf” and “Nazis” and “vigilantes.” And they elected opposition candidates in Virginia and New Jersey. Finally, in a coup de grace that forced the attention of ideological left, they elected a centrist Republican to fill the Massachusetts senate seat of Ted Kennedy, the iconic progressive.

Notwithstanding, the progressive movement doubled down, and continued to dirty deal behind closed doors to enact its agenda into law in spite of overwhelming public opposition. The opposition demanding the consent of the governed for this type of legislative agenda continues.

The Western Reserve America Group is an organization of war horse conservative political activists who watched what was happening and concluded that although the immediate political battles were interesting, something had fundamentally changed in our society over the past 30 years. This change took place under both Democratic and Republican administrations.

WRAG believes that our society has lost its understanding of the fragility of freedom, the importance of responsibility for one’s self, and that common sense should not be lost in the din of political rhetoric or legalities. This is the result of the failure of our schools to embrace these principles; an emphasis on the collective by media outlets; government programs and taxation policies which teach government reliance and punish individual effort; government trade and environmental policies which make it difficult for folks to get good manufacturing jobs; and the massive intrusion of the digital age on American life destroying our sense of well being and privacy. Big Brother is watching, and has the means to do it.

WRAG hopes to restore Freedom, Responsibility and Common Sense into American life both through outreach into our education system and issue oriented political activism to promote a measured conservative approach to the debates of today.

The Western Reserve America Group is based in Youngstown, Ohio, the first major settlement in the old Connecticut Western Reserve. It is a microcosm of the problems caused by intrusive government, and a bastion of self reliance in the face of adversity. Although it is considered to be a Democratic stronghold, the citizens aren’t San Francisco liberals. These are hardworking, fiercely independent folks rooted in our industrial past. They are survivors. This is something shared by both the Democrats and Republicans in our area. Youngstown is currently poised to lead Ohio out of the recession…due to our firm belief in freedom, responsibility, and common sense.

The Government is Watching...YOU!!!

Freedom Loss Creep is scary because it happens so slowly you don’t realize what you have lost until it is gone. Then it is too late. But since Obama’s inauguration, it has morphed into a Freedom Loss Sprint. It is happening so fast, our minds can’t comprehend it or accept it. But it’s happening folks, and you should be concerned.

Tucked in the financial reform legislation is another new government agency whose job it is to monitor risk. The “how’s” and the “why’s” and the “what for’s” of this super agency are still being debated. It may end up as part of the FDIC, or part of the Federal Reserve, or simply a new stand alone mega-agency. But this is going to be a bad dude.

This agency will have the power and authority to monitor every financial transaction in the United States. It will have access to your brokerage accounts, and monitor what you are trading or in what you are investing. Ostensibly, it will then use some computer model to see if anything “risky” is developing and warn appropriate authorities so they can make adjustments to policy.

Of course, they say, they really aren’t interested in what you are doing individually. Just what the collective result is…so they say. Do you want the government watching every single transaction you make?

In the past year, here is what America has turned into.

1) Under the new health care legislation, the government is forming a super agency to monitor all of your medical activity. It will be kept on file in a central computer…to keep you safe. And to make sure you aren’t getting too much medical care.

2) Under the new health care legislation, the government is expanding the role of the Internal Service to monitor your health insurance policies, or lack thereof, just to make sure the fit what the government says you should own…or that you have one in the first place…just to be fair. Of course, if you don’t have a policy, you will be fined.

3) Under the proposed legislation from the Federal Communications Commission, the government would monitor every piece of communication over the internet in order to make sure it is being used “fairly”. The Supreme Court threw that one out.

4) Under the proposed new power grid, the government will monitor exactly how much energy your house is using, and will more likely than not either turn it off or tax it if the government feels you are using too much…just to be fair.

5) The EPA has unilaterally announced that Carbon Dioxide is a deadly gas, and can be regulated by fiat. Just wait to see what happens with that one. A taste of things to come: just wait until you have to buy a light bulb in 2012…then have to dispose of it. There will be separate containers for the trash guys to pick up your broken light bulbs which will be filled with mercury…to save the planet.

6) And now the government wants to monitor and collect data on your financial transactions…to prevent another meltdown.

Is this the kind of America you want to live in?

Socialist Taxes

Today is tax day. The Tea Party people are out in full force and the airwaves are filled with chatter about taxes. Most years the statistics are of passing interest. This year, as the Obama administration increases the national debt exponentially, they are frightening, and we should be concerned. The United States, as we know it, cannot survive if we continue on this path to destruction. Obama said he wanted to “fundamentally change” America. He is, into a European Social Democracy built on a cradle to grave welfare state.

President Obama talks about fundamental fairness. Let’s take a look at some of the figures and you tell me if these are fundamentally fair.

1) Over 50% of wage earning Americans pay NO federal income tax. What they do pay is the Social Security and Medicare tax. And even then many complain. When the Bush administration gave tax “rebates” to stimulate the economy, even those who didn’t pay one penny in taxes got a tax rebate check (translate: handout) because “it wouldn’t be fair.” What’s fair about that?

2) The top 1% of wage earners in the United States paid 40% of all collected federal income tax. The top 10% of wage earners pay 75% of federal income tax. What does that translate to in income? If you earn over $400,000.00/year, you are in the top 1% of wage earners. If you make over $160,000.00/year, you are in the top 10% of wage earners. If you make over $66,000.00/year, you are in the top 25% of wage earners. And if you bring home over $33,000.00/year…you are in the top 50% of wage earners. Does that make you feel wealthy?

3) 20% of all Americans depend on the government for 75% of their income. The next 25% depend on the government for 40% of their income. 40% of all Americans receive more in government benefits than in taxes they pay.

The statistics can go on and on. I'm sure there are many who are snickering and laughing. After all, as long as they are on the receiving end instead of the paying end, what’s it to them? How long do you think a house divided this way can stand?

But even Obama’s economists have concluded that you could increase the top tax rate in the United States to 98%...taking all the wealthy make…and still not make a dent in the deficit as it currently is being incurred by the Obama administration. They are predicting an economic Armageddon.

What is scary is Obama doesn’t seem to care about any of this. So here is the question, how hard would you work if the government would take, let’s say, 60% of every dollar you make? Not very!!! And that means less jobs, and more government reliance.

As Margaret Thatcher said, the trouble with socialism is eventually you run out of other people’s money. And make no mistake about it, Obama is a socialist, which is why he doesn’t care. He is a socialist, and he is doing exactly what he promised, fundamentally changing America. How’s that change working out for you?

Tiger Overload

This week I have reached the saturation point with Tiger Woods. Enough, already!! When all the flap started about his peccadilloes several months ago, I concluded that none of this was anybody’s business except for the Woods family. While Mrs. Woods chasing Tiger with a golf club down the driveway as he drove away is a great story, this has gone on way too long.

If Tiger Woods wants to have sex with porn stars or anyone else with a bosom and two legs, that’s up to him. Do I approve? No. But more power to him if it makes him happy. He has the money, and had earned to the right to do what he wants without the public judging him. I have written many times before, the standard for what is acceptable sexual behavior by our celebrities and politicians was established by Bill Clinton. Anything less than oral sex in the Oval Office with a barely legal intern is apparently okay. At least Tiger didn’t do that.

By the same token, Tiger’s Mea Culpa tour was just plain stupid and bordered on somewhat disgusting. It’s bad enough we had to endure Obama apology tour, how much of Tiger’s remorse did we have to be subjected to. If you want to go to a sex addict clinic, please don’t tell me. That just encourages CNN to give detailed treatment description with what is clearly too much information. And if you want to throw in a substance abuse clinic, I don’t really need to know that. Most of the people I know are on Prozac and don’t have near the money you have. I should have those sorts of problems.

The Nike commercial is simply stupid, if not bordering on bad taste. The commercial is set up in a way to allow for an infinite number of parodies as is evidenced by You Tube. One thing America has is imagination, and it is being used here.

To use long dead Dad’s voice lecturing you on behavior is ghoulish at best and creepy at worst. I suspect that Tiger’s upbringing was so golf centered, watching everything he did for a possible career, he never had a “rebellious” period. Daddy croaking removed the impediment to sowing his wild oats. How much fun could he have had as a young man? Dude, now’s the time to do it while you have the strength! You're the best damn golfer in history, do what you want. As a seventy year old client once told me, he used to think that sex was the best thing on earth. Now he would settle for a good bowel movement.

Between John Edwards and Mark Sanford and Tiger Woods, it’s clear to me that America has an insatiable appetite for sex scandal stories notwithstanding their relevance to anything in our lives. America…get over it!!! People screw around. Live with it!!