Yost Post

Moving to a New Home (page)

2009-02-16T22:14:00.002-05:00

For several years, I've maintained a political website, http://www.daveyost.com

During a recent re-design, we decided to incorporate this blog on that web site. Today marks my first post on the new site.

This Blogger account will no longer be updated. If you are interested in future posts, please go to http://www.daveyost.com/

Thanks!

Dave

Cutting History Class: Gov. Strickland and the Efficiency of State Spending

2009-02-10T06:12:00.009-05:00

Gov. Strickland said yesterday that state spending, of all things, is the "most efficient" way to get resources into the local economies of Ohio. Mr. Strickland evidently was not paying attention when, during his lifetime, all the planet's state-planned economies collapsed -- from inefficiency.

The Governor is wroth because the U.S. Senate dares to give him only $2.2 billion in state welfare -- $1.2 billion less than the House did. His letter to Ohio's congressional delegation details his displeasure and threatens all manner of budget mayhem if this "cut" remains in the place -- without mentioning that his proposed budget actually increases state spending by 4.4 percent.

Even if the Senate's less-generous bailout remains in place, Mr. Strickland will still spend more next biennium than last.

But tucked away in his letter is this amazing paragraph:

"State spending is perhaps the most efficient way to ensure that the stimulus resources flow quickly into local economies where they will have the greatest impact. In Ohio, for example, a full 88 cents of every revenue dollar is spent in local cities and towns." (Emphasis added.)

That just isn't so. The most efficient way to make sure resources flow into local economies is not to take them out in the first place.

Taxpayers already spend their money in local economies, and they don't drop 12% of the value along the way.

But the inconvenient truth is that when taxpayers are allowed to decide where to spend their money, they don't choose to spend it on the priorities set by Mr. Strickland, or his allies in Congress.

Ohio is not its government, but its people. Our State will be great again when we trust the people to make their own decisions.

Is Gov. Strickland the New Bob Taft?

2009-02-09T07:37:00.008-05:00

"And we never failed to fail,
it was the easiest thing to do"
-- Stephen Stills, The Southern Cross

Many poor schools get poorer under Gov. Strickland's new plan to fix public education, while some of the rich schools get richer. His lack of vision and penchant for bullet-point fixes puts him in the Bob Taft class of "education governors."

Mr. Strickland's "bold" (according to the Colmbus Dispatch) six-point plan would not work as planned for more than a few actual school districts in the real world.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports this morning about the impact of Mr. Strickland's plan on actual school districts. It turns out that the governor's plan has many unintended consequences.

And that's the problem with a system that's broken beyond repair. My daughter recently had a car accident. Her 1999 Honda had 190,000 miles on it, and needed about $3,500 in repairs. It didn't make sense to try to fix it.

So, we bought another car and started over. Ohio's public school finance and management system is in the same condition: time to start from scratch, not tinker with a system that's just too out-of-date and expensive to fix.

There are too many schools systems -- more than 600 of them. The people in charge of managing them are handcuffed by work rules in labor contracts.

The Ohio Supreme Court has detailed the problems with the 19th-century property tax system that finances schools. And the formula used to dole out state money to local districts is a maze of complexity that guarantees perverse results like the ones detailed in the Plain Dealer article.

Former Gov. Bob Taft squandered a priceless leadership opportunity. With control of the executive and the legislature, the Supreme Court handed him political cover for a radical redesign of Ohio's education system when it declared Ohio's system unconstitutional.

Gov. Taft could have spent his political capital -- he actually had some, back then -- and really re-imagined the system. Real change. A new car.

Mr. Taft chose to fix the old car instead. Mr. Strickland is heading down the same unimaginative road.

Running With the Big Dogs: A Modern Day Parable

2009-02-06T07:02:00.008-05:00

Tim -- not his real name -- is the son of one of my friends. His story shows where our country could be headed, for good or for ill.

Tim is a bright and sociable guy. He's struggled with a learning disability, but he's developed tools for organization and learning. It takes more time and work, but you'd never know about his challenges to talk to him.

Tim eventually graduated from college, and looked for a job teaching elementary school. He found one teaching kindergarten in a northern, snow-bound state.

He took to it like a politician to tax money. Many of his kids had challenges of various kinds. Tim understood their struggles, because they were so similar to his own -- struggles that he still had. He was often working past 7 o'clock to compensate for his learning disability.

But compensate he did, and he loved teaching. His students began to excel, and the other kindergarten teachers -- entrenched union members who did only what they were required to do by contract -- began to make Tim's life difficult.

The kids loved Tim, and so did their parents. Some of the parents of students in the other classes began to ask the school administration how they could get their under-performing child into Tim's class.

The major event of the winter social calendar in this small town was the dog sled race. Tim had never been in a dog sled race, but he was an athlete. As the new guy in town, he decided to enter the race.

The race began, and the dogs leapt forward, straining at their harnesses, pulling the sleds with grown men on them. As they ran, Tim realized that the dogs would run much faster if they did not have to pull his weight.

Still holding the handles of the sled, he jumped behind it and began to run with the dogs. They pulled ahead.

For four miles, Tim ran with his dogs behind the sled. He won.

Tim's still teaching, and I don't know if his least-possible-effort colleagues have cut him any slack yet. They're probably sore at him for making life so easy on those dogs.

Tim represents what's wonderful about America: determined, committed and passionate, he never expects others to pull his weight for him.

I'm sorry he left Ohio. We could use a few more like him.

Playing Chicken With the Senate: Gov. Strickland Threatens to Close Prison

2009-02-03T06:03:00.003-05:00

Gov. Ted Strickland threatened Monday to close a prison by 2011 if Ohio doesn’t cut the number of people it locks up. Whether he gets what he wants or not, Ohio can count on more criminals on the street if he gets a second term, which would begin in 2011.

You read the first sentence right. The Governor is threatening to close a prison – unless we cut the number of prison beds we need, and then we can keep it open.

No one in the mainstream media asked him why he thought that made sense.

Strickland’s threat to close yet another prison is part of a high-stakes game of chicken with the GOP-controlled Ohio Senate. The Senate is strong on law-and-order issues that matter to the folks back home. The Governor wants legislation that diverts more criminals out of prisons and into “community-based” alternatives.

In plain English, those criminals are either going back on the street on probation, or back to your county jail. (A few will probably go to community based correction facilities, which are already operating near capacity.)

The Senate is going to want them to stay in prison. The Governor doesn’t, because he wants the money for Medicaid, Medicare and schools. And so, his gambit: those criminals are leaving prison. Do you want them to leave in an orderly way, or do you want me to just close the prisons?

Not every petty criminal should be in prison. But public safety is the first task of government. All the development and health care and roads and schools in the world are worthless unless we live in a well-ordered, safe society.

We should lock up the people who need to be locked up, not decide how many beds we want to pay for. But we’ve been doing it backwards -- deciding how much we want to spend on prisons first, then deciding which bad guys to let go.

It’s like deciding you’re only going to spend $15 a week on groceries, forcing yourself to skip lunch four days a week – while you’re still paying the cable TV bill.

The crowding problem in Ohio prisons was created by politicians. Ohio has 1330 fewer prison beds today than in 2002, thanks to budget cuts and closure of two prisons by the last administration.

It’s a problem politicians should fix – and it won’t be fixed by closing another prison while the bad guys are still out there committing crimes.

Bonuses for Disaster: Wall Street's Shame Circuits Burn Out

2009-01-31T21:34:00.001-05:00

Wall Street firms paid executives $18.4 billion in bonuses in 2008 for running the country’s financial system into the ground, and President Obama called it “shameful.” Here’s something you won’t often hear me say: He’s right.

Now, in America, everyone should be free to get rich. I want you to be rich, and I don’t want the government taking your money away to “spread the wealth around.” Bill Gates is the ultimate American success story, and he is not generally begrudged his wealth – he created it, with imagination, determination and a little luck. We all want to be like him.

And the government should not tell private companies how much to pay their executives, or what to do with their money (unless, of course, it’s money that came from us, the taxpayers.)

But last year’s bonuses were the fifth most-lavish in history, according to the Los Angeles Times, in one of the worst financial years ever. Some of those bonuses were undoubtedly paid to people who worked in companies that made money, and they deserve it.

If I find out who they are, though, I will buy stock in that company.

We mortgaged our grandchildren last year to bail out the financial industry. My little granddaughter, playing in her crib, is in debt up to her ears. She will be working, decades from now, to pay taxes to try to retire the debt created by the financial system bailout.

I wonder how I’m going to explain it to her.

In 1989, Joseph Hazelton, captain of the ill-fated Exxon Valdez, ran his ship into the ground and created a disaster. He did not receive a bonus.

Baiting the Pro-life Movement: NBC Refuses Super Bowl Ad

2009-01-30T07:44:00.005-05:00

NBC will not sell air time during the Super Bowl to CatholicVote.org, which wants to run a moving, but non-confrontational ad about the potential of life. The decision is outrageous, but it is also a trap for conservatives, who should think carefully about their response.

The ad is available on YouTube, and has more than 850,000 hits since its introduction during the Inaugural. It will exceed two million by the time the Super Bowl is played, thanks to the controversy – and CatholicVote.org won’t have to spend up to $3 million for the spot.

NBC says it rejected the ad because it does not allow advocacy ads at the Super Bowl. It points to its rejection of an ad by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals to show that it’s not playing favorites – but it rejected the PETA ad because it was too sexual, and offered suggestions on how to tone it down to a level it would be accepted. (The ad is an utterly inappropriate for broadcast double entendre. It’s on YouTube too – but you’ll have to look it up.)

Aside from the irony of NBC claiming it has any standards at all, the law is clear that a private news outlet has the freedom to choose what advertising it will accept. It is government censorship that is banned by the First Amendment. Private censorship, on the other hand, is itself a protect freedom. An over-reaction to this snub will have unintended consequences.

For years, the liberals – who have little affection for actual liberty – have advocated a return to the misnamed “Fairness Doctrine,” which required equal time for opposing viewpoints. (Who decides which viewpoints are "opposing," and how many?) The doctrine was scrapped during the Reagan Administration, but liberals have been wroth at their inability to penetrate the talk radio market and want to bring it back.

Unable to draw an audience for their ideas that would create a profitable business model, liberals would like government to force broadcasters to give them what they cannot earn. The NBC decision could easily enrage enough prolife conservatives to create bipartisan support for a return to the Fairness Doctrine.

The Fairness Doctrine is communism imported into what Supreme Court Justice William Brennan once called “the marketplace of ideas.” Lovers of liberty and life should avoid a response that will make it harder, not easier, to get their message to the people.

Do this: forward the link to this post to people in your address book. Urge them to watch the video. The best response will be to make NBC wish it had taken the movement’s money, rather than give them the audience for free.

Building a Better Monkey Trap: Strickland's Expansion of the Entitlement Constellation

2009-01-28T17:42:00.003-05:00

You will soon be paying for health insurance for children whose parents make more than $65,000 per year, Gov. Strickland announced yesterday in his State of the State address.
This entitlement expansion creates a monkey trap for the next administration.

Gov. Strickland wants to expand children’s health coverage to families earning 300% of the federal poverty level. For a family of four, the poverty level is $22,050. Do the math: $22,050 x 3.00 = $66,150.

The median household income in Ohio is $49,099. That means half of the households make more than that, half make less. Gov. Strickland’s proposal will be available to more than half of the households in Ohio.

Hubert H. Humphrey once said a society is judged by how it treats its most vulnerable citizens. When we stretch “most vulnerable” to include more than half, we have abandoned meaning. Anyone less wealthy than Bill Gates is relatively more vulnerable – the “most vulnerable 99.9%,” anyone? -- but it is unreasonable to expect he would be willing to pay the government to take care of all of the rest of us.

So, how can the Governor expand government when there’s a $7 billion deficit? He should send a thank you note to President Obama, with flowers.

It turns out that Ohio is going to get about $3.4 billion from the federal government to pay for the things that the Governor will not cut and will not pay for. That money, part of the federal stimulus package, is one-time money, and it takes the pressure off -- for now.

By the time the money runs out, the Governor’s proposal will be part of the entitlements constellation. Without federal money, the choice in next budget will be to take it away from the children, or raise taxes to pay for it.

The monkey trap is staked container with a very narrow neck. A monkey delicacy is placed inside as bait.

The monkey reaches inside, and can barely put his hand through the opening. When he clenches the bait, he cannot withdraw his fisted hand – and he waits for the hunter, unwilling to relinquish his prize to save his life.

Medicaid and Medicare now consume about 40% of the state budget, and squeeze everything else – education, prisons and law enforcement, public health. Gov. Strickland should be tackling this voracious beast. Instead, he proposes to expand it, and in the process has created a monkey trap for the next administration.

Making the Insurance Companies Pay for (insert you favorite thing here)

2009-01-24T07:46:00.010-05:00

I was waiting to go in to see the audiologist when an acquaintance came out. She plopped down next to me and began to talk.

“Do you know that insurance companies don’t pay for hearing aids?” she asked indignantly.

Yes, I’m aware of that.

“Well, we should do something about that! We should make them pay for hearing aids! We need to write to Congress, or start a petition or something.”

But the insurance companies don’t have a pot of money, I pointed out. They only have money they get from us when we pay our insurance premiums. The same thing with the federal government – the only money they have is the money they take from us in taxes.

She was adamant, and I tried again. If hearing aids are mandated, either our insurance rates or our taxes will go up.

She looked me in the eye. “I understand exactly what you are saying,” she said. “And I want you to pay for my hearing aids.”

I was probably staring at her with my mouth hanging open – I really don’t remember, I was stunned. She grinned at me and added, “I guess that’s why you’re a Republican, and I’m a Democrat.”

I guess so.

We in the conservative movement tend to think that those tax-and-spend liberals just don’t understand what they’re doing – that they don’t realize that paying for their stuff takes money from somebody else.

Maybe it’s just that they don’t care.

It’s good, but not enough to argue the moral dimension of economics – that one person has no moral right to take another’s property for the first person’s gain. My acquaintance believes that it’s immoral for the second person to be well off while the first person has to go without hearing aids, or a a new car, or whatever. Like any matter of belief, it’s not susceptible to change by mere reason.

The winning argument is her self-interest – don’t kill the goose that laid the golden egg. As many governments around the world have discovered, taxing a percentage of nothing is still nothing.

Flouting a Constitutional Rule: Gov. Strickland's Deficit-Shifting Plan

2009-01-23T07:35:00.007-05:00

Ohio, prohibited by Article VIII, Section 1 of its Constitution from running a deficit, will shift its deficit this summer to the federal government. But an improper act does not gain legitimacy because someone else does it for you, and the costs of this free money will mount in the years ahead.

The Columbus Dispatch reported yesterday that Ohio stands to receive more than $9 billion from the Obama Administration – call it Obamafare, the bailout program for states. That’s almost double the amount Gov. Strickland had asked for, and more than the worst-case scenario $7.3 billion deficit predicted over the next two years.

Gov. Strickland did not seem displeased. "I had not heard of this number, and I haven't heard of that kind of estimate state by state," Strickland told the Dispatch. "That would exceed what I asked for, wouldn't it?"

When one person does a prohibited act – say, stealing – by having someone else do it, they are both guilty of the theft under the law. It’s called complicity. The same moral logic applies to this deficit shifting. Gov. Strickland, prevented by law from deficit spending, is relying on President Obama to do it for him.

But it’s your money. Or, more precisely, it will be your money that either pays back the Chinese from whom the money is borrowed, or it will be your money that loses its value as the printing presses crank out more currency, and inflation kicks in.

Aside from the obvious financial costs of spending money we don’t have, there are other dangers in this free money.

One of them might be called the Medicaid problem. Federal money has narcotic properties – it produces dependence and an artificial sense of security. No government program has grown like Medicaid, the majority of which is funded by the federal government, with states providing smaller matching funds.

In exchange for the federal Medicaid money, the states give up important powers that could otherwise enable them to control costs – for example, there is a long list of mandatory procedures that must be covered. After 43 years, states across the nation are going broke paying for their share of the program.

Obamafare will surely come with stacks of new rules binding the state’s hands. And, like the ill-fated Comprehensive Employment and Training Act of the 1970s, Obamafare is likely to be extended in the years ahead, because governments always predict deficits.

Ohio is a strong, major state, and its people are resilient and resourceful. We should make the hard decisions about what government we need, pay for it, and let people get about building the lives they choose.

One President at a Time

2009-01-20T20:40:00.009-05:00

A profoundly American event occurred today: political power was transferred without violence. Such a transfer has not been the historic norm in the world, and it is worth reflecting on the moment.

Such peaceful transitions require the consent of the governed. Those on the losing end of an election must accept the results, or the fabric of our society will be torn assunder.

The Republic will not falter because of a poor electoral choice. It survived both Jimmy Carter and Richard Nixon -- because in the end, America is not its leaders, but its people.

“He’s not MY president,” some of my liberal friends said to me about George W. Bush. But as Barack Obama said in November, we only have one president at a time. Today, his name is Obama, and he is my president – because I am an American.

May God be with you, Mr. President.

Follow the Money: How to Tackle the Ohio Deficit Monster

2009-01-18T07:26:00.004-05:00

The way governments write budgets doesn’t work well, and it works especially badly in bad economic times. Here’s a better approach: Don’t make “cuts” -- decide what to fund, and fund it.

The problem. First, let’s think about the traditional approach. The budget office creates a “baseline” budget – what will it cost to do next year what we did this year? (Hint: it always costs more.) Then, the budget office compares the baseline to the money that is expected to come in, and tries to fill the hole. There are only two ways to fill the hole: cut things out, or get more money (that is, raise taxes.)

Even Gov. Strickland realizes that raising taxes in a recession is political and economic suicide, and he has vowed not to do it. So, the chief executive typically tells department heads to find things that can be trimmed in their budgets. They shave a little here and a little there and go on pretty much doing what they’ve always done.

It’s called inertia: the tendency of a thing to continue along in the same direction until acted on by an outside force.

This government inertia assumes that everything it did yesterday must be done again tomorrow. It avoids the central questions of government: What should a government do, and how much of it, and why?

Government, lacking the private sector tool of profit-and-loss for measurement, forgets to ask the question – so they just keep asking for more money, or they cut everything, good and bad alike.

A better way. The CEO – governor, mayor, president – should ask those unasked questions, and decide what the government should do. Prioritize the list. Start at the top and fund the top priority, the move on to the second one.

Now, when you run out of money, ask this question: Is the next thing on the list worth raising taxes? If not, you’re done. If you think the next item is really essential, it’s time to go to the people and tell them why you need the money.

But don’t pay living expenses on the credit card.

There are a lot of details – some government duties are statutory. Maybe it’s time to ask the Legislature to repeal a particular law. More details: Some items in the budget affect others – if you cut the budget to maintain trooper cruisers, you may spend more money to replace the cruisers that wear out earlier.

Such devils-in-the-details don’t change this fundamental issue: every once in a while, you have to ask why your’re doing what you’re doing. It’s a question for Gov. Strickland to ask now.

Ohio gives away $3.5 million for technology that works half the time

2009-01-15T06:00:00.012-05:00

Stupid Government Tricks, Part 4

The State of Ohio just announced it will give away $3.5 million in grants to put solar water heaters and wind turbines in homes. The program is evidence that Gov. Strickland has not yet exhausted worthy targets for budget cuts.

Your state government really, really likes such green technology, and is bothered that more of us don’t buy it.

To create a market where none exists, the state is taking your money and investing it for you in making other peoples’ homes “green.” Your money is being given to these other people on a “first come, first served basis” according to Sherry Hubbard, Chief of something called the Ohio Energy Office.

Why aren’t people buying, say, solar water heaters? Ms. Hubbard knows the answer.

"For most of the time, it's sufficient to heat water," she told the Columbus Dispatch. "You would perhaps have a backup heater for the very coldest of days."

That is, for Cleveland, all the days in November through April, according to the manufacturer of one such system. That is, in Ohio’s largest city, they won’t work for half the year -- which isn't stopping the dysfunctional Cleveland city government from installing them in firehouses there.

So, you have to have two hot water heaters -- a solar one and a regular old backup one -- and the solar variety is expensive. A web search suggests prices between $2,500 and $5,600 -- meaning it could take more than a decade to recover the cost through energy savings, even if it worked all year around.

Assuming the technology is indeed workable, a market for it will emerge when energy prices rise to the point where it makes economic sense. When gas was $4 a gallon this summer, sales of the Toyota Prius hybrid went through the roof. Gasoline later fell by half, and so did Prius sales, according to Business Week.

The lesson is that when alternative energy makes economic sense, people will buy it. As energy prices rise, people will eventually buy it for the same reason people buy energy-efficient furnaces – it saves them money.

I like green. I just don't like green at any cost.

The next time Gov. Strickland talks about the Deficit That Swallowed Ohio, remember the $3.5 million in grants – and ask yourself, how many more programs and offices are lurking in state government that we could, or even should, do without.

(NON-MATH PEOPLE IGNORE THIS PART: A gas water heater costs about $700 to buy and install, and costs around $400 per year to operate. Assuming no energy costs to run the solar heater -- and you do have to pump the water up to the roof -- deduct the capital costs of the heater and installation, then divide the remainder by the annual operating costs to obtain the number of years to save enough to pay for the solar heater. Like this:

$5,600 - $700= $4,900
$4,900/400=12.25 years)

Blaming the State For the Defendant's Lawyers: The Curious Case of Michael Brillon

2009-01-12T21:17:00.002-05:00

A career criminal whose taxpayer-funded lawyers repeatedly delayed his case for three years is now free – because, he complains, it took too long to try his case.

Michael Brillon, whose long criminal record includes a conviction for sexual assault on a minor, was convicted in 2004 by a jury of assaulting his girlfriend. As a habitual offender, he was sentenced to 12 to 24 years in prison. (Note: Ohio has no habitual offender law.)

But Brillon sat in jail between his arrest and his trial. He went through six defense lawyers during that time, all of them paid from the public treasury. Brillon fired two of them, and three others quit – one of them said it was because Brillon had threatened his life, which seems to be at least a constructive firing.

Aside from the game of musical defense lawyer chairs cause by the Defendant, the defense asked to continue hearings in the case, with the consent of Mr. Brillon, because:

1. The defense lawyer was moving his office.
2. The defense lawyer wanted more time to file a motion to recuse the judge.
3. Various defense lawyers want more time to prepare.

And, Mr. Brillon waived his right to a speedy trial, not once but twice.

The Vermont Supreme Court ruled that the delay offended the Constitution – and that it was somehow the state’s fault.

Maybe Mr. Brillon’s half-dozen lawyers took too long to get ready for trial. And the record seems to suggest serious problems with Vermont’s public defender, problems that no doubt frustrate the Vermont Supreme Court.

But setting a violent felon free on a community is no way to send a message. The length of time Mr. Brillon waited did not hurt his case – no documents were lost, no witnesses died or moved away or lost their memories. Justice was done on the merits.

Justice was not done on appeal. The Vermont Supreme Court allowed the defendant to control the process, and then penalized the community for it.

The United State Supreme Court has accepted the case. Perhaps at least five justices will recall that the point of a criminal trial is to fairly convict the guilty and acquit the innocent.

Charlie Myers and the Juvenile Justice System: Sometimes, Good Intentions Aren't Enough

2009-01-10T13:16:00.009-05:00

Charlie Myers, now awaiting trial for the murder of Jennifer Nelson, burned down a neighbor’s home in 2004 after breaking into it and stealing. His case reveals a deep flaw in Ohio’s juvenile justice system.

Myers had already done time in juvenile prison twice before, and was not quite 18 when he torched his neighbor’s house. He appeared before a juvenile judge, who refused to allow him to be tried as an adult because of the series of tragedies that constituted the young man’s life. The Columbus Dispatch has a fine piece of journalism on the case today.

But this is not a story about bad judgment -- the judge did her best to follow the law, and no judge knows the future. This is a story about a juvenile justice system that misses the point.

Under current law, the system is concerned first with the offender, not society. Sometimes it works -- many young people who make teenage mistakes do not repeat them as adults.

But what about somebody like Charlie Myers?

Before someone like Myers can be tried as an adult -- and face adult penalties -- the juvenile court must hold what’s called an amenability hearing. Basically, if the judge thinks that any treatment, counseling or programming can possibly rehabilitate the young offender, he stays in the juvenile system.

It was supposed to get easier to try the worst young offenders as adults under the Juvenile Justice Reform Act of 2002 – but that amenability provision means that “bindovers” are still pretty rare.

Compare the juvenile law with what the law says about adult felony sentencing – that it’s to punish the offender and set an example to deter others.

We can do better. Here’s how: for a 16-year-old or 17-year-old who commits a serious felony – arson and burglary would qualify in my book – there should be no amenability hearing. Instead, the law should focus on the community, and state a preference to try the offender as an adult, with adult penalties -- although that preference could be overcome by sufficient evidence.

Research shows that adult prison time is not an important deterrent to other youths. Fine. There are two other truths about prison time for serious juvenile offenders: it’s deserved punishment -- and they won’t harm the rest of us while they’re locked up.

Charlie Meyer’s 2004 crimes would have put him in jeopardy of more than a decade in prison in the adult system, and if tried as an adult, he might have been there still.

He was not. Jenifer Nelson, 29, leaves behind a four-year-old son.

Doing Jobs or Jobs That Need Doing: Mr. Obama's Plan for 600,000 New Government Employees

2009-01-08T07:33:00.010-05:00

Jobs in a free country are created to do something that needs done. President-elect Obama’s proposed jobs program will create jobs to say that we did – a road we have been down before, with awful results that included a $30,000 arificial rock.

Last Saturday, Mr. Obama said he will create 3 million new jobs when he takes office – with 80% of those jobs in the private sector. Do the math – that’s 600,000 new government jobs. What are all those people going to be doing, and why does it need doing?

As always, history is instructive. 1970 was a recession year, and the politicians swung into high pander to create the Comprehensive Employment & Training Act (CETA). The program was not designed to do something that needed done, it was designed to make paychecks.

It was supposed to be a temporary $1 billion program – today we would call it a “stimulus” -- but by 1978 it was still there, and costing $6 billion. It would eventually be killed off by President Reagan.

The money was sent to state and local government to spend pretty much as they wanted to. There were many, many famous examples of waste. One cited by Reagan and Wisconsin Sen. William Proxmire was a door-to-door census of dogs and cats in a California county. CETA paid $400,000 to have 85 people conduct the survey.

CETA also paid $30,000 to build an artificial rock for rock climbers to practice on, gave $500 a month to a guy in Atlanta to “organize for demonstration and confrontation” and sponsored a nude sculpture class.

In Philadelphia, 33 Democratic committeemen put their relatives on the CETA payroll.

Government certainly has jobs that need doing – catch and prosecute criminals, protect the environment, defend our borders.

The Census Bureau says we had 2.4 million civilian federal employees in 2007, along with 3.8 million state employees, and 10.9 million local government employees – and that’s just full-timers. That’s a total of 17.1 million people on the public payroll, or almost 12% of the 145 million workers in America. Perhaps that’s enough government workers to do the jobs that need doing.

This debate has been going on for a while. Click here for an excellent 1990 essay from the Cato Institute.

Panhandling in Washington: Gov. Strickland & Co. hit us up for $1 trillion

2009-01-04T07:36:00.004-05:00

The amount of money being panhandled in the halls of Congress by Gov. Strickland & Co. is an alcoholic’s plea: enough for a sandwich, or a dollar, or whatever you can spare. Like the change tossed to the drunkard, the nation’s treasure will be wasted on the governors’ unreformed habits.

Governor Strickland joined other governors Friday in requesting a $1 trillion bailout for state governments from the federal government. A month ago, the governors were demanding a mere $134 billion for the states. You will have noticed how the economy became eight times worse in the past 30 days.

This increased demand came in spite of Ohio’s auto industry getting federal bailout money.

The governors of the several states have no more clue how they will right their ships than did the CEOs of the Detroit Three, who had a similarly elastic calculation of the size of their critical need. The D-3 must-have amount was $25 billion in November, then became $34 billion in December, until the Republicans in Congress finally said no -- and President Bush said yes to about $18 billion, just before Christmas. Apparently, that was just enough after all.

The governors have another thing in common with the bankruptcy-proof automakers: None of them seems to have a plan on what to do when the federal cash runs out. Give them money, and they will ask again – just like that alcoholic on the street.

Gov. Strickland recently exempted Medicaid from his planning for spending cuts. But Medicaid is 40% of the state budget. How, exactly, is this going to work?

The Governor's answer is to ignore the Medicaid monster and ask the federal government to pay the bill for business as usual.

David Walker, a former Comptroller of the United States, estimates our total debt and unfunded obligations, such as Social Security, at $56 trillion. That’s almost a half a million dollars for every household in the United States.

The Governors of Texas and South Carolina are not joining Gov. Strickland in the panhandling line, and write about their reasons in the Wall Street Journal. Both of them are Republicans, and represent the backbone of their party – and the future of America.

What's Right With America, Part 1

2009-01-01T10:45:00.007-05:00

About the same number of Americans are working today as the middle of 2006 – and more than almost any time in American history. This country will not collapse – we have both the means and the will to survive and thrive.

We’ve all heard about the rising unemployment rate – and if you’ve lost your job, it’s a crisis.

But people are working. One year ago, American employment hit an all-time high, of 146.2 million people. The latest numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics put American employment at 145.5 million.

Look at the chart below. That’s the number of people working in America, and it’s a far cry from the image Photoshopped by the gloom-and-doom crowd.

And people are spending money. Based on the Wall Street Journal’s report on the drop in spending, retail trade in December should still top $400 billion.

There are major, structural problems in our economy – and they may be worsened by our liberal friends’ spend-and-nationalize policies. But the great engine of the American economy is still strong.

Those 145.5 million Americans are still working, still spending money, still paying their bills. The auto mechanic’s paycheck will buy groceries and insurance. The grocer and insurer will use that money buy gasoline and clothing. The gasoline station and clothier will spend that money again, and so it will go, as money turns over again and again.

America is great because of her people. She does not cease to be great because of greedy boys on Wall Street, or inept leadership in the boardroom or in the halls of government.

We, the American people, will not surrender our dreams. We will not stop working. We will not settle for a future of indolence and dependency.

Like a family that got in over its head, America will work its way through these dark times, and one day soon it will again be Morning in America. That shining future will not be produced by a political party or a government program or even some great leader. It will be produced by Americans in the American way, living free.

The Purpose-Driven Invocaton: The President-Elect's Wedge into the GOP

2008-12-30T07:33:00.007-05:00

President-elect Obama’s invitation to Rick Warren to deliver his inaugural prayer is not about inclusiveness, or a new kind of politics. It is about old-school political war, and it is designed to disassemble the Republican Party.

Warren, the author of the evangelical masterpiece The Purpose Driven Life and pastor of the Saddleback megachurch, has predictable positions on homosexuality and abortion. His inaugural invocation has drawn equally predictable shrieks of dismay from voices on the left.

About one-quarter of the electorate are evangelical/born-again Christians. It is the most reliable part of the GOP coalition – even in 2008, 74% of evangelicals voted Republican.

Mr. Obama, whose skills as a politician dwarf the supposedly brilliant Bill Clinton, is intent on fracturing this evangelical base. His invitation of Rev. Warren is designed as a wedge, and he proposes to be the hammer.

This will not be the last time the Rev. Warren will be wheeled out for the cameras. But the only influence he will have in an Obama Administration will be if he supports something the Administration wishes to do anyway.

The invitation will not cost Mr. Obama any votes from the left – he is by the far the most liberal Democrat in decades, and the left has nowhere else to go. If he can shave even 10 points off the evangelical vote – about 3 million votes -- he will doom the GOP coalition.

And Mr. Obama is giving the next generation of evangelicals the cover of a respectable idea: that the GOP has neglected Jesus’ words in Matthew 25 about “the least of these.” These young people are listening. In 2004, only 16% of those young folks voted Democrat. This year, almost a third voted for Obama, and nearly a quarter of those under 45 joined them.

The howls on the left about Warren’s invocation are not troubling to Mr. Obama -- they are music to his ears, and he wants to crank it up. It’s time for the GOP to ramp up its “A” game – or resign itself to the fate of the Detroit Lions, who just finished a perfect season: all losses.

YostPost Goes on Holiday

2008-12-24T07:23:00.006-05:00

The YostPost will be taking a break for Christmas. Below are a few tidbits from other bloggers worth noting. I'll be back next week.

Rick and Jenny Brunner are acting like good capitalists and seizing the opportunity presented by the sagging real estate market to snag a good buy. Matt Naugle of the NaugBlog writes about why the Brunners should avoid class warfare in their next political campaign.
http://www.naugblog.com/2008/12/08/rick-jennifer-brunner-refuse-to-participate-in-housing-recession/

Who can be against information? Our friends at Southeastern Conservative Thoughts detail how a city council nanny state can be just as dangerous to free enterprise as those folks down in D.C.
http://seoconservative.blogspot.com/2008/12/someone-with-common-sense-in-athens.html

Hamilton County GOP Chair Alex Triantafilou writes a wonderful blog – not the usual PR tripe you find on most party websites. He actually says what he thinks, and is often funny in the bargain. For a sample, try this link – but it’s worth browsing his other entries, particularly his entries about how the local government types in Cincinnati are gleefully burning your cash.
http://hcrp.blogspot.com/2008/12/this-and-that-on-saturday.html

Marc Dann and the Slush Problem

2008-12-22T20:54:00.008-05:00

Marc Dann once made a charge of 35 cents at McDonald’s to his campaign account, according to the report of Inspector General Tom Charles, released today. The pettiness of that transaction speaks volumes about the character and administration of Ohio’s former attorney general.

Not to say that much larger, and more legally troubling amounts were not involved in the petty politics of Ohio’s pettiest politician. (Petty: from the French, petit, meaning small, as in small-minded, or unimportant.)

After his infelicitous election in 2006, Mr. Dann set up an entity he named the Marc Dann OAG Transition Corporation. This was not a political committee, although it received contributions from “businesses, corporate political action committees, and individuals.” A less legal-sounding name for this not-for-profit business would be “slush fund” – to the tune of $195,000 of slush, and all but about $8,000 of it gone. Shovelsful went into his pockets, and those of his cronies:

-- More than $12,000 went to Feisty Dishes, an internet seller of dishes run by his wife, for whom Mr. Dann was reportedly packing orders after his resignation.

-- An additional check for $9,955 went to his wife personally and ended up in their joint bank account.

-- $5,000 went to henchman-in-chief Anthony Guttierez, and $9,500 to Leo Jennings III through his consulting firm. Both men would briefly become state employees.

Today’s reports in the mainstream media focus on the predictable matters that have been in the news for months – the sexual harassment, the Dublin condo, the security system at Mr. Dann’s home paid for with campaign money….

Wait! It turns out that, of the $40,000 or so that went for that security system, $5,524.76 of it went to pay for new windows.

I am overmatched. In the end, Mr. Dann’s own actions are his most eloquent critic.

The Strickland Administration Orchestrates the Departure of the Plumbergate Three

2008-12-18T07:26:00.004-05:00

Helen Jones-Kelley quit the Strickland Administration yesterday over the “Joe the Plumber” scandal. She still did not apologize or admit that she did anything remotely wrong.

She will be joined in unemployment by two of her lieutenants who participated in the snooping.

According to the Associated Press, Jones-Kelley issued a statement, but did not respond to interview requests.

"This decision comes after a time of pause, in which I realize that I continue to be used as a political postscript, providing a distraction from urgent state priorities," she said in her statement.

That’s a remarkable sentence. It explains why it took her so long to respond (she took a “time of pause.”) It paints her as a victim, not Joe the Plumber. (She’s being “used.”) This issue is not one of citizen’s privacy and her abuse of power – it’s merely a “political postscript.” (That is, her favored candidate, President-elect Obama triumphed, so get over it, already.) And, her foremost concern is “urgent state priorities.”

Does anyone think that highly crafted statement was produced by Jones-Kelley, whose native language is bureaucratese?

The two lieutenants involved in the scandal are also leaving. Fred Williams will resign effective Jan 31, and Doug Thompson’s position is being “revoked” according to an agency spokesperson.

The departures were all announced on the same day. Make no mistake: these were resignations only in the sense that Marie Antoinette committed suicide. It would have been nice if the Governor could have engineered an apology as part of the package from at least one of them. But he soon will have another chance to go on the record and side with the people of his state instead of his political cronies.

Substitute House Bill 648, which makes unauthorized access of government databases a first-degree misdemeanor, was approved by the Senate yesterday and goes to the House for concurrence. Gov. Strickland should sign the bill.

Doesn't Anybody at the Governor's Office Own a Calculator? Stupid Government Tricks, Part 3

2008-12-14T18:14:00.006-05:00

Gov. Ted Strickland last week announced that tuition could rise $2,000 per student if he’s forced to balance the state budget by spending cuts. He may need to take a little closer look at how he’s spending money for higher education, and what his Board of Regents is telling him.

Gov. Strickland asked the agencies to assume they needed to make a 25% cut. According to its web site, the Ohio Board of Regents – think of it as “the Department of Colleges” – has a budget of $1.96 billion for 2008. A 25% cut would be about $500 million.

The Board of Regents told Gov. Strickland their 25% cut would result in a college tuition hike of $2,000 per student. He repeated it publicly.

Now, Ohio has about 478,000 students, who are hopefully paying more attention than I did in undergrad. At $2 grand a pop – that’s almost a billion dollars. Set that off against the budget cut and… the Board of Regents makes a half billion dollar profit.

Doesn’t anybody in the Governor’s office own a calculator?

But that’s the trouble with asking bureaucrats how to cut the budget. They can’t. State bureaucrats are not motivated by what’s best for the public – they are motivated by what’s best for the way their agency serves the public. Put another way, they are self-interested – their mission is the most important of all government missions.

Instead of letting the directors decide where those cuts happen, Gov. Strickland and his staff need to find out exactly what goes on in the vast state government, and set its priorities. What does government do, and why and how does it do it? They decide, not the bureaucrats.

It’s hard work to do it that way. It might require leaving the 30th floor of the Riffe Tower -- but some things can't be delegated. It's not smart to ask the foxes to design the henhouse security.

Recommended reading: Bureacracy, by James Q. Wilson

Tipping the Scales of Justice: The difference between a Strickland appointee and an FBI agent

2008-12-11T08:42:00.004-05:00

Former FBI Agent Mark Rossini pleaded guilty Monday for doing what Helen Jones-Kelley did – using a government database for a private purpose. Not only did Rossini lose his job, he faces five years in prison.

Jones-Kelley received a 30-day suspension, and will return to her $140,000-a-year job directing Gov. Ted Strickland’s largest agency later this month. Jones-Kelley was disciplined for ordering her subordinates to snoop in government databases for damning information on “Joe the Plumber,” who had caused her favored presidential candidate embarrassment.

Rossini, a sworn law enforcement officer, arguably has a greater duty of fidelity than a mere political appointee. Rossini clearly has a greater sense of honor: He admitted his wrongdoing, and resigned his position of trust -- although, it must be said, the FBI has absolutely no sense of humor about these things.

Jones-Kelley, a "maxed out" contributor to the President-elect, has yet to even apologize for her conduct. Her most recent statement tried to make the case that her conduct was righteous -- she claimed that she snooped on Joe the Plumber as part of a routine inquiry for people who were suddenly thrust into the spotlight. She offered scant evidence to support the routine nature of her act, and the Inspector General found neither her claim nor her act justified.

In the law, this is called a lack of remorse, and it is a factor judges are to take into account to support a harsher sentence. Even after the public rebuke of the Inspector General -- and the mild disappointment expressed by the Governor -- Jones-Kelley has yet to so much as offer the shallow mea culpa of the wrongdoer who got caught.

When she returns to work, the media should demand an answer to the question: Do you feel you did anything wrong?

And, they could ask Gov. Strickland why she deserves much better treatment than a career FBI agent.

A lifetime of preparation to save the auto industry: Sen. Chris Dodd for Car Czar

2008-12-09T06:41:00.004-05:00

Sen. Chris Dodd. D-Conn., Sunday demanded the head of General Motors CEO Rick Waggoner as a condition for giving GM wagonloads of tax money. That Sen. Dodd felt free to make the demand, and that it failed to provoke outrage, is a sign of how badly the framework of our nation has been bent.

Sen. Dodd was elected to Congress in 1974, at the age of 30, and has been there ever since. Prior to his life in politics, Dodd served a term in the Peace Corps, served in the National Guard, and practiced law for two years. There seems to be no connection whatsoever between the auto industry and the three occupations of his youth.

It must be his lifetime in Congress that qualifies him to make firing decisions for a private sector corporation.

Except, of course, GM is no longer really a private sector corporation. It is about to be nationalized -- the taxpayers are being forced by law to purchase an “equity stake” in the Detroit Three that we declined to purchase freely in the stock market.

Sen. Dodd’s demand for Waggoner’s head is an inevitable consequence of the government invasion of the market. It is a short and slippery slope to the point that politicians demand patronage spots at GM, or require that a certain percentage of its fleet be made up of “affordable” vehicles for low-income people.

Won’t happen? Look at what happened on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Among the other ideas careening about Washington is the appointment of a “car czar” who will force the auto makers to restructure and cut costs. It is unclear where this wise, all-knowing bureaucrat will come from, or why he or she will know more than all the people who have spent their lives competing in the industry. Nor is it clear why the automakers will bow to this person’s authority when they have been unwilling to bow to the crush of the marketplace.

Here’s an idea: Chris Dodd for Car Czar. After 36 years in Congress, he’s eminently qualified – to know how to get more money out of Washington, which will become necessary by March or April of next year.

Sen. Dodd is chairman of the Senate Banking Committee. Surely he will do for the auto industry what his committee's oversight did for the banking industry,

America can do better. In the early 1980s, the U.S. steel industry was pronounced dead. It went through a very painful period of consolidation – but it survived, and regained profitability. Newsweek has an excellent short essay on allowing the market to work to produce a Big One automaker to compete against Toyota. Let’s shake out the excess production capacity, pare the dealer network and let the best workers in the world – the Americans – build the cars the world is waiting to buy.

Getting the story straight: The scandal widens

2008-12-06T06:45:00.010-05:00

Vanessa Niekamp, a 15-year state employee, wants to know why she was ordered by political appointees to dig for dirt on Joe the Plumber in government databases, and then cover it up. She told an Ohio House committee yesterday that she doesn’t understand.

The dirt, as it turns out, is in the Strickland Administration. The Columbus Dispatch has done a great job covering this story, and reports new details that came out during Niekamp’s testimony Thursday before the House State Government and Elections Committee. Those details provide the answer to the question of “why?”

The political appointee who actually conveyed the order to snoop in the database is named Carri Brown. Doug Thompson was the one who dictated the cover-up email that the Inspector General described as deceptive. But here’s the odd thing: Niekamp told the committee that both of them had access to the databases, and could have conducted the search themselves.

So, why order a lower level employee to do the search?

Because most government databases track who accesses them. And although political appointees have access, they do not spend their days and nights toiling over individual case files. It sticks out like sneakers at a wedding when a top bureaucrat accesses a file.

If it’s just business, then checking a file is no big deal. But the datadive on Joe the Plumber wasn’t business – it was pure political dirty tricks. To keep the search under the radar, it had to be done by someone who wouldn’t look like an Obama supporter. Let’s see, 15 years ago, when Niekamp was hired, the governor was… George Voinoich, a Republican.

And both Thomson and Brown knew what they were doing was wrong. Niekamp said that Brown claimed Joe the Plumber had contacted the child support agency about a dispute about how much child support he owed. (He didn’t, and Director Jones-Kelley later claimed she ordered the search because it was routine practice for the suddenly famous – which the Inspector General found was also untrue.)

And Thompson, Niekamp said Thursday, was “shaking,” and his neck was “bright red,” and he closed the door before dictating the cover-up email to her.

According to Ohio’s Greatest Home Newspaper:

"He then told me that we needed to make sure that we answer questions about what happened the same way, so that our versions were not different from each other. Before he said that, he reminded me that I was an unclassified employee -- which, as you may know, is someone who can be fired without cause."

On the street, it’s called getting your story straight. Ohio deserves better than this.

Changing the World, One life at a time: Part 2

2008-12-06T05:48:00.005-05:00

There is a woman, a 34-year old war refugee in southern Azerbaijan. Her story will give you hope, and maybe will remind us all of the possibilities in each of us.

Her name is Shakhla Bayishova. To get to where she lives, head toward where the trouble is – Azerbaijan is tucked in between Russia, Georgia, Armenia and Iran. Only 7% of the land there can be farmed.

When she fled her home, she began washing and fluffing fleeces for making mattresses. Eventually, she learned to sew and moved up from processing and started manufacturing her own mattresses. She sewed the mattresses by hand, which is, to say the very least, a slow and labor-intensive process.

Sewing machines are wonderful. A $400 machine would geometrically increase her productivity. But capital is difficult to find for a refugee in the mountains in that inconvenient corner of the world.

Microbanks have sprung up in some of these places, and loan very small amounts of money to people who have no collateral except their own will to work and thrive. Shakhla received her $400 loan in December 2007, and now – less than a year later – she has repaid more than two-thirds of the loan.

A portion of the money that was pooled by the microbank for Shakla’s loan was raised by students, including Julia Blyth, at Ohio Wesleyan University here in Delaware. Their group is called Student Initiative for International Development, and I have no idea what their politics may be, nor does not matter -- they have changed the world, in at least one place, and for one family.

That loaned capital, soon to be repaid, will be loaned again, and wealth again will be created. And they will have changed the world again.

(For more information about microlending, visit http://www.kiva.org/.)

Audaciously Hoping for the TInkerbell: Gov. Strickland's plan to balance Ohio's budget

2008-12-03T07:02:00.007-05:00

Gov. Ted Strickland Monday unveiled his executive plan for Ohio’s yawning budget deficit: hope for a good Christmas shopping season or a federal bailout. The audacity of his hope is a poor substitute for coherence.

Mr. Strickland’s comments came during an emergency press conference Monday. He wants, among other things, a $100 billion package of federal “block grants” to the states. “Block grants” are what bureaucrats call great wads of cash given away with no strings attached.

Ohio is required to balance its budget by law, although Washington is famously free of such unfashionable fetters. So, Mr. Strickland wants the federal government to run his deficit for him. Or, failing that, if Santa will bring him a robust Christmas shopping season, there might be enough sales tax revenue to see us through.

The governor joined the lengthening line of failed executives demanding cash so they continue doing more of what they have been doing. It is interesting that Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels is not among them – he’s insisting that his state government actually balance the budget by doing things like slowing the runaway monster of Medicare spending.

A true leader sees opportunity in trouble. In ordinary times, it’s impossible to create big change in government. In these unordinary times, the Governor has a chance to truly change state government from top to bottom.

More than two-thirds of the 50 states spend less in state and local money than we do. Ohio ranks 15th among the 50 states in state and local spending – more than $8,500 for every man, woman and child in Ohio, according to the Tax Foundation. More than $21,000 per household.

Like the domestic auto industry, Ohio needs to junk its 20th-century business model and re-egineer. It remains to be seen whether the aging men at the helms of any of these enterprises has the vision, courage and energy to do it.

The GOP Lite: an army of none

2008-11-29T15:54:00.005-05:00

Many are demanding that the Republican Party, smarting from two disastrous elections in a row, move to the “center” in order to become more likable to the voters. This idea is what makes people hate politics, and will result in larger, more permanent defeats.

The truth is, most people don’t care about politics or government. They don’t study it, and would prefer politicians handle public issues the way your doctor deals with disease: just fix it, preferably without pain, and without the tedious business of explanation.

On the rare occasions when politics does matter to regular folks, they want to believe that – like doctors, or engineers, or mechanics -- politicians are serious people who have devoted thought and study to difficult issues. And that’s why split-the-difference centrism is a recipe for destruction.

Would you respect a doctor who used to prescribe amoxicillin, but stopped because he was afraid patients would disapprove? What voter will ever respect a GOP that changed its position, not because it was wrong, but it in order to pickpocket a few votes?

If a thing is right, it does not lose its virtue by a loss of popularity. Neither does general acceptance transform evil into good.

There are things that can and should be negotiated -- not every choice is a matter of principle. How much money should be set aside to pay for wildfire response in 2009? Should commercial truck drivers be required to undergo hazmat training? What is the legal definition of “income”?

But principles are not a matter of negotiation. What will we say in the next election? Will we mimic John Kerry, and say we were against abortion before we were for it? That we were for limited government and freedom before we were against it?

People would leave the GOP in droves. Those independents in the middle are there because they don't have any strong beliefs. They will not show up to phone bank, or drop literature, or canvas door-to-door.

A Gallup poll conducted November 13-16 found that 87% of Republicans want the GOP to stay the way it is, or become even more conservative. Of the self-described independent voters, 57% agree -- the GOP should be at least as conservative as it is now.

Of the Democrats, 56% think the GOP should become more liberal -- and, it will no doubt soon be reported, most mice believe that cats should become vegans.

Let us not make too much of the recent swings of the electoral pendulum. There is no such thing as an undefeated political party.

The Liberal Lite GOP – less filling, great taste? – would become an army of none.

Throwing in your lot with those who follow

2008-11-26T07:47:00.003-05:00

Two CEOs of troubled major corporations were asked during the past week if they would work for $1 a year. Their different answers show very different views of the world, and their places in it.

Edward Liddy, who was tapped to run insurance giant AIG in September after the company had already been run into the ground, will receive a salary of $1 a year this year and next. More than 50 other top executives will have their pay limited as well.

GM chief Richard Wagoner, who has had eight years to finish running his company into the ground, was asked during Congressional hearings if he would work for a dollar a year. He indicated he was satisfied with his current compensation, which includes salary of $2.2 million, according to SEC filings.

Which man is showing leadership? Both of them are fabulously wealthy -- something all of us would like to be. Both have made mistakes in their careers. But the dollar-a-year man is leading in a way that tells those who follow that he's thrown in his lot with them

The term “dollar-a-year man” originated with executives who answered America’s call during World War Two. They left their private companies and went to work for the government, helping to run the war effort, for the token pay of a buck per year. It was revived famously by Lee Iacocca during Chrysler’s dance with bankruptcy in 1979-1982.

The world has changed again, like it did after 9-11. This catastrophe lacks the dramatic video of explosions, burning buildings and people falling from the sky. But it’s as dangerous, and as important, and as expensive.

Ohio Gov. Jim Rhodes famously and correctly said that profit is not a dirty word. Let’s add “selfless,” “noble” and “duty” to the list of acceptable words. At the end of the day, America is made up of people who are willing to answer the call – and that’s why we will survive these days, and one day again, thrive.

Better cars, lowers costs, and a dollar-a-year -- saving Detroit again

2008-11-24T07:03:00.004-05:00

Economic drama is not new to Detroit. During the late 1970s, Chrysler Corp. was bleeding cash and dancing with bankruptcy. What happened then shows part of what’s wrong with Detroit now, and may point the way out of current swamp.

Lee Iacocca was a career car guy who spent 28 years with Ford. Far from a perfect man, he was fired by Ford.

Chrysler picked him up in late 1978 as president and chief operating officer. Iacocca agreed to work for $1 a year, and vowed to take no greater salary until Chrysler returned to profitability.

Iacocca managed to win $2 billion in concessions from dealers, creditors and labor. Those concessions, and the humility of that $1 a year salary, helped him win passage of the Chrysler Corp. Loan Guarantee Act of 1980 -- $1.5 billion in federal loan guarantees.

He also started producing cars that America actually wanted to buy – what an idea! He famously ordered engineers to lop off the top of a K-car and create a convertible – a market niche abandoned by American manufacturers nearly a decade earlier.

Iacocca was a shameless self-promoter, and his critics sniff that he was nothing but a salesman. But his work looks an awful lot like leadership, even with the warts.

Chrysler lost $1.7 billion in 1980, but by 1983 the company turned things around and posted a profit of $500 million – and, best of all, paid the loans back years ahead of schedule. His template -- sacrificing his own salary, revamping his product line, cutting his overhead -- is what the Detroit Three need today.

I’ve opposed the auto bailout because the markets, and bankruptcy restructuring will best help the D-3 make the rapid transitions that are necessary. The auto companies continue to carry huge legacy costs from oversized dealer networks, labor-related costs and excess production capacity. The necessary concessions from dealers, labor and retirees are all contractual, and won't happen without a judge.

And CEOs are still taking salaries that would make a drug lord blush, all the while posting huge losses. No plan for recovery is in place – the message seems to be, give us money, we’ll let you know if we need more.

But it seems that the new Congress, controlled by a heavy majority of Democrats, will pass some sort of auto bailout after it takes office in January. If the government just has to intervene, it would do well to remember history – and please, try to get a plan out of the D-3, and find us a dollar-a-year-man.

First, practicing to deceive

2008-11-21T07:52:00.012-05:00

A high-ranking Strickland Administration official tried to cover up his boss’s improper snooping on Joe the Plumber. The boss, ODJFS Director Helen Jones-Kelley, has received her slap on the wrist – a 30-day suspension – for her abuse of government power. Her acolyte has received neither sanction nor attention for his misdeed.

His name is Doug Thompson, and he is Deputy Director of Child Support. He worked for Jones-Kelley in Montgomery County. His action is buried inside the Inspector General’s report.

Joe the Plumber had his fateful meeting with then-Sen. Barack Obama on October 12. Four days later, Jones-Kelley, Assistant Director Fred Williams, and Thompson were discussing Joe the Plumber. It is unclear why three powerful state officials were discussing a private citizen – child support enforcement and welfare benefits are handled at the local county level, not at the State level, and certainly not by the head of a mammoth state agency.

Onward. On October 24, the news media broke the story of Jones-Kelley’s check for dirt on Joe the Plumber. The Governor did not request an investigation -- the Inspector General’s investigation was undertaken by his own initiative.

The actual check was performed by an administrative assistant, who had no idea who she was looking up. As things began heating up, Thompson came to her and ordered her to send a cover-up email. From the report:

“She said Thompson dictated to her the exact wording of an email that she was to send and “literally demanded” that she send the email to Rick Copley, Chief Privacy Officer, explaining that this SETS inquiry performed for Brown was for child support purposes. We believe that this email orchestrated by Thompson was an attempt to deceive as there was no agency function or purpose for accessing Wurzelbacher’s records.” (p. 7).

Who was Thompson attempting to deceive? The Inspector General, the media, you and me. It’s called a coverup, and it’s morally in the same class as the original act.

More importantly, why was he lying? Why order a junior subordinate to send the deceptive e-mail? No one would expect her to know the reasons she was told to perform the inquiry. If the original inquiry was justified, why not explain it over his own signature?

The answer is obvious: he knew it was political, unjustified and contrary to law. He wanted to be as far away from it as he could, and he wanted to keep his boss away from it, too.

Governor, he tried to lie to you. You will not be able to successfully govern if your subordinates believe deception is OK.

The IG report is available at at: http://watchdog.ohio.gov/investigations/2008299.pdf

If it's fixed, break it -- OVI prosecutions in peril, or, Stupid Government Tricks, Part 2

2008-11-20T07:08:00.006-05:00

The state wants police agencies to scrap their existing Datamaster alcohol testing machines in favor of a new machine that’s easier to use and portable – and not as accurate or reliable. The new machine is the subject of lawsuits in other states, and DUI defense lawyers here are revving their word processors.

The new machine, the Intoxilyzer 8000, can give different readings from repeated tests on the same drunk. The old standard Datamaster is rarely challenged in court, because the technology is well-known, and generally accepted. If there’s a Datamaster test, lawyers tell their clients to plead guilty

Al Staubus, Ph.D., is an expert in how the body processes alcohol. He testifies for both the defense and the State and is highly regarded by the courts and the scientific community. He told me that the new machine has several deficiencies, including variation in test results depending on how hard the drunk blows.

The Datamaster won’t analyze a breath sample that doesn’t produce enough air in a limited amount of time. The new machine doesn’t use that fail-safe – meaning the deep-lung air doesn’t necessarily get to the machine.

And, the manufacturer of the new machine won’t let defense lawyers review the computer source code, so defense lawyers claim they can’t tell if the machine produces scientifically reliable results. That’s hard to argue against – no prosecutor wants to convict a person who may be innocent.

Ohio approved $6.4 million Tuesday to purchase 700 of these curiosities, and plans to use them for the Highway Patrol, and give them to local police agencies. The Health and Public Safety departments are telling us not to worry, everything’s fine. Besides, it’s not local money, it’s a federal grant.

Can anyone explain to me why bad purchasing decisions are instantly rendered unobjectionable because it’s federal money that’s being wasted?

But don’t take my word for it. John Saia, a skilled OVI defense lawyer, told the Plain Dealer “These are much easier machines to defend against, because they’re flawed.”

I know John Saia. He knows what he’s talking about. Ohio, you’ve been warned.

Anbody want to buy a bank for free?

2008-11-17T06:15:00.002-05:00

The federal government decided Cleveland-based National City Bank was too fragile to warrant federal bailout money, so it gave National City’s share to Pittsburgh-based PNC, which used the money to buy National City. Tempers are flaring in Congress over the deal, as they will again if the government continues to pick the market’s winners and losers.

National City was the only one of the nation’s 25 largest banks that did not get bailout money. It has $100 billion in deposits and $150 billion in assets, according to this morning’s Cleveland Plain Dealer. PNC is paying $5.6 billion, and getting a $5 billion tax break to finance it – plus NCB’s share of the bailout cash. (The tax break is result of a Sept. 30 rule change by the Treasury.)

Anybody want to buy a bank for free?

The government is supposed to be like a referee -- but in the financial system bailout, the referees are throwing the game to the home team.

The truly crazy thing is, market forces would have resulted in someone buying National City without the federal government intervening. Talk of a buyout had been reported in the press since at least last spring, well before this fall’s financial storm.

On October 10 – after the financial meltdown, and after the bailout package was approved, but before PNC’s federal genie granted it three wishes -- the Plain Dealer reported that no fewer than five banks might be interested in purchasing National City.

And it’s not just National City. Four years ago, the then-chairman of National City predicted that half the nation’s largest 20 banks would be sold. We’ve been heading toward a period of consolidation in several industries, including banking. The financial meltdown just got us here more quickly.

America got rich because people believed in their own futures, and decided what risks to take, and not to take. Some individuals chose poorly – but an informed market with predictable rules is still the best way to allocate resources. Allowing Treasury employees and elected members of Congress to pick winners and losers is a sure path to unintended, and ugly, consequences.

There's a reason I don't own GM stock. Why does Congress get to force me to buy it now?

2008-11-15T07:20:00.009-05:00

You get more of what you subsidize, and less of what you tax. Congress’s urgent task in the current bailout mania is to avoid producing more of what it doesn’t want – such as short-sighted management and products no one wants to buy.

General Motors and its ailing cousins lumbered onto the floor of Congress last week, begging for $50 billion – money it could not convince us to willingly spend for its unlovely products, and money which it now proposes to take from us by the force of legislation.

We don’t even get a free SUV in the bargain.

When some lawmakers balked at the price tag – call it the beginnings of a return by Republicans to fiscal sanity – the auto industry dug its collective toe into the carpet yesterday and mumbled that maybe $25 billion would get the job done.

Here’s a question: Why should we bestow the public treasure on the same brain trust that failed to foresee that growing global demand for oil would drive up gasoline prices, and drive down demand for its SUV-heavy fleet? (According to Edmunds Auto Observer, SUVs make up about half of GM’s sales, versus about a third for Toyota.)

The automotive industry may be due for another round of consolidation. It’s true that our national security requires domestic manufacturing capacity – but that doesn’t translate into three automakers, in their current configuration.

And here’s another question: Why should we, the taxpayers, want to buy an equity stake in these poorly performing companies? Isn’t an equity stake what GM, Ford, & Chrysler LLC offer for sale every day on the New York Stock Exchange – a stake that fewer and fewer people want to buy? What do those people know that Sen. Henry Reid doesn’t know?

Sen. Reid and Rep. Nancy Pelosi seem to be making the argument that the auto bailout makes sense because of the jobs of those folks who work in the industry. But if relief for troubled workers in a recession is the goal, this bailout is an awfully inefficient way to get there.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1,282,000 people are employed in the manufacture of “motor vehicles and motor vehicle equipment” – a.k.a. the automotive industry. That’s not just the Big Three, but all their suppliers as well.

The $50 billion bailout would give every one of those people $39,000 each. (You can do the math: $50,000,000 divided by 1,282,000.) If it’s half, the per-person cost is $18,500.

If the worry is the workers, just give them the money and bypass the CEOs. Better yet: let the consolidation begin. It's time, and America will ultimately be stronger.

Helen Jones-Kelley: How to make sure she's the only one in three easy steps

2008-11-14T13:33:00.006-05:00

Gov. Strickland said he has not looked to see whether there’s any evidence to suggest other political appointees have used government resources for political fundraising, like his director of Jobs & Family Services, Helen Jones-Kelley did.

Governor, you will never find what you don’t look for. Don’t wait to see if the media turn up any more examples. Here’s how you can do it, quickly and cheaply.

First: It is a simple matter to identify the people in the Obama and McCain finance operations. Shucks, the Obama folks are probably in your contact manager (or rolodex, if you still use one of those).

Email is routed through servers. Second step: Perform a search on those servers for those fundraisers’ names, and a few keywords that shouldn’t normally show up in government emails, like “fundraiser.” You may have to look back on the backup tapes, depending on how often mailboxes are purged – but you really only have to go back to January.

This search will produce a limited number of emails that warrant further review. which is the third step. The search can be done very quickly by your data technicians, and the only cost will be staff time.

And then, you can either clean house or reassure Ohio that all is well.

And if you don't do it, you can be sure one of the newspapers will.

VETERAN'S DAY 2008

2008-11-11T15:57:00.003-05:00

"The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here."

-- Abraham Lincoln

Ted Strickland's Lonely Vigil: Waiting for All the Facts

2008-11-11T09:31:00.000-05:00

Gov. Ted Strickland wants to wait for all the facts before he decides what to do about Helen-Jones Kelley, accused of abusing her position and her state computer to raise money for the Obama campaign and to investigate Republican posterboy Joe the Plumber.

Of course, Gov. Strickland didn't “wait for all the facts” on former Attorney General Marc Dann before he demanded his resignation. “All the facts” are still not in on Dann, who was an independently elected Constitutional officer.

But there’s no real doubt about what happened with Jones-Kelley. Gov. Strickland cites “technical” matters. What he’s talking about is routing information contained in the header of an email. It is possible to send out an email that looks genuine, but is not. But that’s not at issue here, because the content of Jones-Kelley’s emails shows they are real.

The emails are about a big-ticket Obama fundraiser in Dayton, Jones-Kelly’s home town. The emails went back and forth between the Obama campaign and Jones-Kelley at her state e-mail address. Remember, these emails were obtained by the Dispatch from the State, so they at least went to Jones-Kelley’s email account. If someone was spoofing her email, why didn’t she notice the emails flowing through her account?

Because they were hers, and they are genuine.

The emails included the names of 17 potential donors, according to the Columbus Dispatch. At least one of those donors wrote a check for $9,600. If someone was trying to set up Jones-Kelley, and the emails aren’t real, why would they put solid donor leads in the email?

They wouldn’t. Jones-Kelley mined her hometown contacts to help Obama – which is perfectly proper, except she used her government email account.

And there’s more: the Jones-Kelley emails promised she would make a $2,500 donation – and she did. Corroboration anyone? And she also offered to host a reception for Michelle Obama. That personal detail has the ring of truth.

We're not talking about a criminal case that requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt here. We're talking about whether there's enough evidence that would justify a governor firing an at-will employee who broke his own rules.

Gov. Strickland did not wait for "all the facts" on Marc Dann, and he was right to speak out. He should speak out -- and act -- in the case of his own appointee.

Gov. Strickland also told the press that he didn’t have any reason to look into whether anybody else did what his Cabinet officer did, and he had no intention to checking. But there’s a very simple, cost-effective way to make sure, so the governor can tell the people of this whether or not anybody else was campaigning with State resources.

In my next post, I’ll explain how.

Mortgaging our future for.... what?

2008-11-10T18:38:00.001-05:00

General Motors is pleading with Congress for a bailout – that is, they want money from you and me, $50 billion worth. It’s time to call your lobbyist – he goes by the name “Congressman” – and say we’re out of cash, too.

Not-nimble General Motors is in trouble mainly because 1). It’s building too many gas guzzlers nobody will buy now; and 2). Its costs are out of line.

These problems are merely worsened, not caused, by the poor economy.

The economic meltdown is a recent phenomenon, but GM’s woes have been going on for years. Three years ago, billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian told GM to slash its pay schedule, particularly at the executive levels, and sell off its Hummer brand, which makes trucks that go through gasoline “like nothing else.”

GM didn’t, and now finds the value of the brand so low that it may not be worth selling. (Don’t get me wrong – if you want to drive a Hummer, and can afford the gas, more power to you. It's just that GM's bad bets on a perpetual market demand do not a national crisis make.)

And GM costs need pruned. For example, American auto manufacturers have more dealerships than Japanese companies – dealerships that cost money in extra delivery charges, advertising and support. A year ago, the Detroit Free Press reported those extra dealerships cost American manufacturers $436 per car.

GM is big, but it’s just one of 17,000 companies that more or less make up “big business” – companies employing more than 500 people.

Small businesses create 75% of all new jobs, and more than half the workers in this country work for small businesses. If GM does seek bankruptcy protection – instead of a bailout -- it will open up new avenues for it to become more like a modern business, and allow it to restructure some of its costs.

At the end of the day, we cannot borrow our way to prosperity. This economic crisis is going to hurt, and America cannot soften the blow for every large corporation facing liquidity problems.

The automotive industry is different than the banking industry, where every business has to go for capital. The automotive industry is huge, but not systemic. And this is a good place to draw the line and say “no.”

She serves at his pleasure -- so is Govenor Strickland pleased with Helen Jones-Kelley?

2008-11-08T06:46:00.000-05:00

Governor Ted Strickland faced his first ethical test yesterday, and failed.

Helen Jones-Kelley, who authorized the Nixonian examination of Joe the Plumber’s personal information in government files, was finally placed on paid administrative leave yesterday. She’s under investigation by the Inspector General for her role in using government databases, to presumably look for dirt on the Everyman icon who put President-Elect Obama on the spot.

But that’s not what got her a paid vacation.

It seems she was performing fundraising and organizing for the Obama campaign on her state computer.

The governor has the emails. He gave them to the press. There’s no doubt. Why didn’t he fire her?

A cabinet officer is a political appointee. (This one makes $30,000 more than the Attorney General of the State.) She has no job protection. There’s no union contract to worry about. She serves at the pleasure of the Governor, and can be fired at will. As in, “Helen, clean out your desk. This trooper will see you to the door.”

Paid administrative leave is appropriate where civil service rules or collective bargaining agreements make it difficult to predict whether a termination will stand appeal. Here, those reasons do not apply.

Mayors and Governors and Presidents fire political appointees just because they say something out of line, or disrespect someone, or just don't inspire confidence anymore. Certainly, using government office and equipment for partisan political fundraising is a reason to show someone to the door. Make a statement about your Administration – and send a message to the 5,000 or so political appointees out there. Believe me, Governor, they’re watching.

Gov. Strickland had a chance to make a loud statement about the integrity of his Administration – and he did.

Historical Perspective: A decision, not a mandate

2008-11-05T08:33:00.000-05:00

The 2012 presidential campaign should not start today. It will begin soon enough.

Americans want their president to succeed. The greatness of our country is the peaceful transition of power, which is not commonplace in human history. Congratulations to President-elect Obama, and may God be with you.

But now, how to govern?

Yesterday’s election was less a vote for liberal policies than a vote for somebody other than George W. Bush. (Full disclosure: I did not vote for Mr. Obama.) Mr. Obama tacked toward the center during the campaign and avoided advocating truly left-wing ideas – the only real slip in message discipline was his comment to Joe the Plumber about spreading the wealth around. He would be wise to continue that course, because his margins yesterday were historically modest.

The last Democrat to achieve a popular vote margin in double digits was Lyndon Johnson in 1964. The only president to win office by slimmer margins than Mr. Obama was George W. Bush.

In historical terms, the country did not give Mr. Obama a mandate, and he would do well to govern from the pragmatic center. Ronald Reagan, in spite of his very conservative rhetoric and ideas, chose his battles carefully. He advocated dismantling of the Department of Education – but he did not seriously try to force Congress to do so. He picked a few, broadly popular ideas – tax reform, increased military muscle and deregulation of some industries – and spent his political capital there. He did not try to fight every battle of his ideological base.

The two tables below graphically illustrate the margins in popular vote and electoral college votes. The country remains closely divided. They do not want more George Bush – but they didn’t give Mr. Obama America’s credit card to go get whatever he wants.

The Only Poll That Matters

2008-11-03T17:37:00.000-05:00

My office is on the third floor of county office building. The Board of Elections is the basement.

Every day for the past three weeks or so, I walk past the room where early ballots are being cast. With each passing day, the lines have gotten longer. Tonight, people were standing in line outside in the parking lot.

These are not ACORN bus transportees. The cars in the parking lot have Delaware County tags.

Some people, like George Will, think it’s just awful that people should be allowed to vote early. Voting on Election Day is a tradition, and the inconvenience of rising early, or standing in line, demonstrates a level of commitment and civil virtue.

Well, there are some good arguments against early voting, including the possibility of voter fraud.

But most of the people I saw today will stand in line and suffer more inconvenience than if they had stood in line at the polls tomorrow. They are not lacking in civic virtue, only willing to exercise the franchise if it is microwaved and served to them on a platter.

My party may not fare as well as I hope when the ballots are tallied tomorrow – we’ll see, for the only poll that counts is still in the field. But I remember the stirring of my heart when I saw the ink-stained fingers of Iraqis voting in the first election of their lives. If you believe in democracy and representative government, the sight of voters voting here has to make you believe in America.

Why The Strickland Administration Excuse Doesn't Hold Water on Joe the Plumber

2008-11-02T08:04:00.000-05:00

There’s a hole in the argument about Joe the Plumber.

Joe, of course, was the subject of an impromptu investigation by the Strickland Administration. Government employees – at the direction of a cabinet officer! – took a look-see into government databases for dirt on Joe.

They looked at the CSEA dbase, the Bureau of Motor Vehicles dbase, and the records over in what used to be called the welfare department. Make no mistake: you can't get into those databases on your own. You have to have clearance, and then there are strict rules about your access that basically add up to this: official business only. You can't check up on your ex-girlfriend, or your daughter's new friends... or what your poltical opponents might be up to.

The cabinet officer who order the investigation of Joe the Plumber, Helen Jones-Kelly, is the director of Ohio Job and Family Services, the state's largest agency. She said it’s not unusual for your government to check up on people who are “suddenly” in the news. She pointed out the example of lottery winners as justification.

But here’s the hole in the argument: lottery winners have money. Lots of money. So, if they owe back child support, the CSEA should get some of it. And if they’re on welfare, the checks and foodstamps should stop.

But Joe the Plumber didn’t win the lottery. There was no new money to go after. So why where they looking at his personal information? Either Helen Jones-Kelly is really badly logic-impaired …. Or there was another reason for her order.

So, here’s a couple of facts… According to her own website, Director Jones Kelly earned her juris doctor at the University of Dayton. She’s a lawyer, and an experienced executive.

The Akron Beacon-Journal reported that she contributed $2,300 to the campaign of Barack Obama, the maximum contribution allowed by law for an individual.

My guess is she’s not logic-impaired. My guess is she thinks we are.

Gold-plated CEOs and the free market

2008-10-30T07:15:00.000-04:00

Are you mad about corporate executives that become private-jet wealthy while running their companies into the ground? The Republicans say we should just let the free market work, and the Democrats want to set salaries for private companies.

Neither one of those ideas seems right. But if we think it through, there's another way to approach it that will keep us from indigestion over the morning financial pages.

There are two kinds of CEOs: the sort who risk their own money and, by dint of their imagination and hard work build an empire and become fabulously wealthy. They earn whatever they earn, and the government should have nothing to say about it. Think Bill Gates or the late John H. McConnell.

That’s the free market, and it’s not somehow immoral that somebody got rich.

Then, there are those who run companies with other people’s money. And their outsized salaries are not a function of a free market. Here’s a conservative idea: let’s subject those pay packages to the free market.

First, a bit of background.

CEO salaries are generally set by “compensation committees” – people very much like the CEOs they oversee. They use consultants to figure out what other CEOs are making. Then, they sweeten the deal a little, to keep their guy on board. The compensation committee reports to the board of directors, which generally rubber-stamps the recommendation.

Those compensation committees protect CEO salaries from market forces, because they assume what all the other compensation committees decided to pay is the value of a CEO.

But the value of a CEO to a company is not what everybody else pays, but what that particular CEO produces for the company – at its simplest, did the company make any money?

In the compensation committee system, it doesn’t matter. You can run your company into the ground and become fabulously wealthy.

So, here’s the idea: Unless you have a serious investment at risk in your company, top executive compensation must be approved by a simple majority vote of the shareholders at the annual meeting.

If the CEO is making the shareholders wealthy, they will gladly pay her whatever is asked. But, because shareholder meetings are expensive and infrequent, the board will not be willing to take an outrageous pay package to the shareholders for a CEO who is bleeding cash.

That’s not the heavy hand of the government “regulating” private enterprise. It’s setting a fair rule to prevent those with the most power from abusing it for private gain.

Sen. Ted "Pocket Lint" Stevens Should Resign

2008-10-28T07:31:00.001-04:00

Politicans convicted of criminal corruption should take responsibility and resign in disgrace. Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, has the "disgrace" element down pat. Now it's time for him to do the "resign" part.

Stevens – I’m not going to use the honorific of his title again – was convicted yesterday by a jury of his peers of accepting grundles of goodies from a major oil contractor. What’s a “grundle?” In this case, more than $250,000 worth.

Stevens’ defense was that he didn’t consider these things gifts, but “unwanted indulgences.” And as to the home improvements – his wife was in charge of that, he really wasn’t paying attention.

He said this stuff with a straight face. He demanded a trial and expected the jury to buy it. Being possessed of more common sense, judgment and character than the defendant, the jury declined to accept his sophistry.

I am outraged, furious, spitting mad. This lobbyist pocket lint doesn’t deserve another day in office, not a dime of his ill-earned pension.

To those in my beloved GOP who will point out that there’s an election a week away, with the Senate in the balance, I offer this reply:

Stevens is not what the Party of Lincoln is all about. It’s time for us to rise up and shout “Enough!” to those whose view public service as some kind of infomercial plan to achieve power and wealth.

We need to be about truth and honor. We need to act in a way that inspires confidence, not derision and cynicism. This case was not about a single lapse of judgment, an isolated mistake. This case was about many instances of misconduct over many years by a man who became accustomed to the idea that he was entitled.

We are what we choose to do when our principles call us to act in a way that harms our interests. To quote John McCain, “there are more important things that winning elections.”

Don't let the players make the rules -- and don't let the rulemakers play the game

2008-10-25T07:02:00.000-04:00

What do we mean by “regulation” when the government does it to the economy?
The pundits calling for lots more of it are not thinking it through.

The ultimate free market is the guy with a big gun demanding your wallet. But we have rules about that sort of thing – and that’s the point. That’s not the way we want our society or economy to run. Neither you nor the market is truly free in anarchy -- you're ruled by fear.

So, over time, a consensus developed about the rules we should have in a free market: first, rules about contracts. Then, some rules about commercial paper. Eventually, we developed rules to ensure solvency and transparency.

But not all rules are good, and Reagan wasn’t wrong. The government can easily handcuff enterprise and destroy prosperity. We did exactly that from about 1965-1980. We are in danger of doing it again in the reaction to our economic meltdown.

Let’s think about the economy like a football game. We all want some rules: clipping, facemasking, roughing the passer/kicker – these are good rules, and we want fair, tough officials who are going to call a fair game. Nobody wants to play the game when there's a good chance that it involves a wheelchair at the end.

We don’t want the coach or QB to have to get permission to run a play, or to get advance approval from the refs for their game plan. Those would be bad rules – and no one would want to watch the game, or be in it.

So – to stretch our metaphor to the breaking point – these credit default swaps and derivatives and such are like inventing the forward pass. The rules of the game need to adapt to this new idea and the new dangers it may pose. But setting rules about eligible receivers and pass interference doesn't mean the officials should now run the game.

The refs don’t know the game better than the coaches -- and the government isn’t wiser than the people who put their own money at risk. The lesson of the current crises is not that Reaganism is dead, or that free markets don’t work.

The lesson is that you can’t let the players make the rules, and you can’t let rule makers play the game.

One life at a time

2008-10-23T06:39:00.001-04:00

I’m a prosecutor. The ugliest stains on the mean streets go across my desk. Like an ER doc or garbage collector, you learn a certain professional detachment so you can do your job.

So I was surprised yesterday when I found myself fighting back tears at the story of Victor Rivers, the son of Cuban immigrants at the Choices awards luncheon.

He recounted his father beating him, his siblings and his mother. He told us how, as a young boy, he presented himself at the local police station and took all of his clothes off to show them that, on the parts of his body no one could see, he was covered with cuts, welts and bruises.

My father beats all of us, he told the police. Please come and arrest him before he kills us.

They told him that, if he wanted to sign a complaint, they would go and talk with his father. But they couldn’t arrest him – it was “a private family matter.”

When he was old enough, he ran away and became a gang member. He said the beating he took as initiation into the gang was nothing to him after his childhood.

Now in his 50s, Rivers – you might recognize him as a character actor in numerous movies – still betrays flashes of rage when he tells his story. And yet, his story is a story of hope, because other people – he calls them his “angels” – intervened in his life.

“This is a story about how I was saved by love at a time when most people considered me beyond rescue,” he says in his book, A Private Family Matter.

Four couples took him in through his last years in high school. He became captain of his football team, went on to college where he was again elected captain by his teammates and graduated with a degree in criminology. Today, he tells his story across the country, speaking out for those trapped in pits of family violence.

Rivers’ grit is bracing and his story riveting -- but the thing that brought water to my eyes was how those “angels” changed his world.

The world is saved one person at a time. Dramatic change doesn’t come from presidents or programs but people, acting with courage and compassion. Today, look for your opportunity to be somebody’s angel, and bring change to the patch of the world where you are.

To learn more about Choices:

http://www.choicesdvcols.org

http://www.victorrivers.com/book.htm

Question of the Day

2008-10-20T06:25:00.000-04:00

Given Sen. Obama's association with Ayers, could Sen. Obama pass an FBI background check to be his own chauffeur?

Who is William Ayers? According to the Los Angeles Times, Ayers was a founder of the violent Weather Underground in the 1960s and who helped launch Sen. Obama's political career from the Ayers living room. And according to the New York Times, on September 11, 2001, Ayers said, "'I don't regret setting bombs. I feel we didn't do enough."

Many on the Right urge that this association makes Sen. Obama unfit to be president. The Left replies that Sen. Obama was 8 years old when Ayers was busy plotting more than a dozen bombings. Enough with the ancient history, already!

Perhaps. But I don't associate with drug dealers, whether their crimes be forty years past or not.

"The past is never dead. It's not even the past." -- Requiem for a Nun, Act I, Scene II, William Faulkner.

The Killer Who Was Too Fat to Die: Coda

2008-10-15T07:49:00.000-04:00

The murderer of Dawn McCreery and Wendy Offredo had complained to every court in the land that he was so fat, prison officials would not be able to find a vein for his lethal injection. Prison officials had no such problems, and he died yesterday at 10:28 a.m.

The man who kidnapped, beat, raped and killed the two young woman 22 years ago was mean and hateful to the end, according to my colleague Sherri Bevan Walsh, the Summit County Prosecuting Attorney, who witnessed the execution. He never denied his crimes, and he never apologized.

I am naming only his victims because he does not deserve to be remembered.

It takes well over a decade for a capital sentence to be carried out in Ohio -- more than two decades in this case. The only word for this delay is outrageous. Where there is no doubt about guilt, as in this case, these frivolous appeals over the tiniest speck of an argument ought to be disposed of as quickly as this killer disposed of two promising young lives so very long ago.

After the initial round of appeals, all the federal appeals are handled by the Attorney General. It is time to elect an A.G. who will vigorously defend these appeals and push to shorten the absurd length of time it take for a killer to meet justice.

Many convicted murderers die of natural causes on Death Row, waiting. If we're going to have the death penalty for the worst of the worst, it should mean something beside endless, expensive appeals.

The Killer Who Was Too Fat To Die, Part 3

2008-10-14T06:57:00.000-04:00

The Killer Who Was Too Fat To Die had his last meal Monday, and calling it Supersized doesn’t begin to do it justice.

Justice, of course, is what the families of his two victims, Wendy Jo Offredo and Dawn McCreery have been waiting for during the last 22 years. He has never denied beating, raping and killing them. This very morning at 10 a.m., the bill for justice, long delayed, will finally come due.

According to the Associated Press, the killer enjoyed a T-bone steak with A-1 sauce, onion rings, french fries, four eggs over easy, toast with butter, and hash browns, and rocky road ice cream and bear claw pastry – and Mountain Dew. (Not Diet Mountain Dew, mind you.)

He had claimed in his appeals that his porcine condition -- 270 pounds on a 5’7” frame – was due to prison food. Perhaps his condition is, instead, a result of his eating habits. (Query: If he really thought his obesity was going to make his eventual execution so much more painful, would he have continued to eat like this?) In any event, the courts declined to find that insertion of an IV needle into an obese man offended the Constitution.

This was actually his second last meal. In 2003, The Killer Who Was Too Fat To Die had a rib-eye steak, two eggs sunny side up, toast with butter, a cheeseburger with the works, onion rings, french fries, two slices of banana cream pie and a couple of 2-liter bottles of Dr. Pepper.

Actually, he apparently gets a third last meal this morning for breakfast. I have been unable to find out what Dawn and Mary Jo had for their last meal. It seems clear that they only got one, and didn’t know it was going to be their last.

The Killer Who Was Too Fat To Die, Part 2

2008-10-09T18:47:00.000-04:00

Convicted killer Richard Cooey says that he’s so fat, prison officials won’t be able to find a vein for his lethal injection.

The Ohio Supreme Court ruled Thursday that they get to try.

The Ohio Supreme Court, in a very brief order, rejected Cooey’s motion for a stay of execution. Said the Court:

“This cause came on for further consideration of appellant's motion for stay of execution scheduled for October 14, 2008. Upon consideration thereof, it is ordered by the court that the motion is denied.”

Who says lawyers can’t be brief and to the point?

Tuesday, we’ll find out who was right – but my money is they’ll manage to find a vein and justice – delayed for twenty-two years – will finally be served.

Cooey and Clinton Dickens, who was 17 at the time and cooperated with police, dropped a piece of cement from an overpass onto the women's car while they were driving home from work in Akron. The men then pretended to help the women before they beat, raped and eventually killed them.

The women’s names were Dawn McCreery and Wendy Jo Offredo. Please remember their names – and forget the name of the Killer Who Was Too Fat to Die.

Another Absurd Anecdote -- Or Stupid Government Tricks, Part One

2008-10-05T08:48:00.001-04:00

So… Ashtabula County, on the shores of Lake Erie, is now part of Appalachia.

Of course, it’s not, really. But the U.S. Senate voted late Friday to make the flatland county between Cleveland and Erie, PA. a proud member of the Appalachian community.

That would be Ashtabula County, with a dizzying elevation of 924 feet. The highest point of the county is a place called Owen Hill. (The mountainous terrain of Minneapolis, MN rises to 945 feet.)

Appalachia, of course, is the region that takes its name from the Appalachian Mountains.

It’s an old trick in law and politics: if you want to get something unreasonable done, just change the definitions. By changing the definition section of the law governing the Appalachian Regional Commission, Ashtabula becomes eligible for federal aid that would otherwise never, ever get passed in a time of monster federal deficits.

Oh. It's about the money.

And it’s why we don’t trust the people who go to Washington. They become so clever that they forget the truth.

What does it matter, you might ask? After all, if calling Ashtabula an Appalachian county brings home federal money, what the big deal?

It's a big deal because they couldn't bring that money to Ohio truthfully. They had to call it something it wasn't, or it wouldn't pass. It's called deception, and it's not the way the rest of us who aren't as clever as politicians live our lives.

A story is told of Abraham Lincoln examining a witness in a trial, a man who was known to play word games and who had only a nodding acquaintance with the truth.

“How many legs does a horse have?” Lincoln asked in exasperation.

“Four,” the witness replied.

“And if one were to call the horse’s tail a leg, then how many legs does a horse have?” Lincoln pressed.

“Why, I suppose the horse would have five legs,” the witness said.

“No,” Lincoln said, turning to the jury. “A horse always has only four legs, no matter what you call the tail..”

Unless the United States Senate passes a law that says otherwise.

Speaker Pelosi: A Symptom of the Void

2008-09-29T22:23:00.001-04:00

As the capstone of her effort to build a bi-partisan coalition to pass the financial system rescue bill today, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi attacked the president and the republicans whose votes she needed with an inflammatory, partisan speech.

Call it persuasion by napalm. Many of us disagree with the Speaker, but reasonable minds can differ. (Maybe we do need to do something... but I'm sure tired of bailing out people with incomes in six and seven and eight figures!) What her speech was not... was leadership, in a time of crisis.

Yes, yes, any Republican who changed his or her mind on the vote because of her remarks shouldn't be returned to office. But in the current blame competition, her constituents and Congress should remember that when her country called, she couldn't put down the banner of the Democratic Party long enough to pick up the American flag, and lead.

The bill didn't fail because of your speech, Madame Speaker. It failed because of your lack of leadership -- and your speech was just a symptom of the void.

Pop Quiz: Identify this politician

2008-09-13T09:20:00.000-04:00

1. I have five children, the oldest of whom serves in the armed services.

2. Although I am a Republican, I battle against entrenched business special interests.

3. I am less than 45 years old, and have been nominated to be vice president of the United States -- even though I have served fewer than two years as the governor of my state.

4. I love the outdoors, I hunt and fish, and I am a member of the National Rifle Association.

Have you heard of me before this year?
My name is Theodore Roosevelt. Skeptical?

1. Five kids:

Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. 1887-1944, served in the infantry in WWI
Kermit Roosevelt, 1989-1943, served in the Army in WWI
Ethel Roosevelt Derby, 1891-1977, served in the Red Cross in WWI
Archibald Roosevelt, 1894-1979, served in both WWI and WWII
Quentin Roosevelt 1897-1918, died in the line of duty in WWI

2. Teddy joined the GOP in 1880. He dissolved at least 40 monopolies and trusts.

3. He was 42 when elected vice president in 1900 -- DOB of 10-27-1858

4. T.R. was a lifetime member of the NRA.
Special thanks to YostPost regular Rob Schuler for suggesting the comparison.

Palin Among The Wonk Snobs

2008-09-11T12:25:00.000-04:00

Sarah Palin and Ronald Reagan have something in common: they don't seem smart enough to please the soi-disant smart people.

That luminary of the Intellectual Left, E.J. Dionne of the Washington Post, writes today that the GOP nominee for vice presidenet "knows very little about national and international policy and isn't very curious." This is apparently because she prefers summary briefing materials instead of wonkish three-inch binders.

Memo to Mr. Dionne: She's not applying for a fellowship at the Brookings Institution.

Leaders deal with a phenomenal array of thorny issues. They cannot become truly expert in any of them -- so, they have staff members, who are experts in the wide range of fields that inform a leadership decision.

A leader must be something of a generalist -- someone who can understand the economic impact of a decision, the implications for foreigh policy, the politics of Congress, how the decision will effect working families and small businesses and the states and cities and much, much more. Someone who can see the connections between what Expert A knows and the theories of Expert B and how what Adviser C knows settles the question.

To do that job well, you need to learn a lot from a lot of people, quickly, every day and all the time.

Don't get me wrong: I like detail. When I prosecute a criminal, I must know the tiniest details of the case. I live with three-inch binders. My job, unlike the president, is very specific and very focused.

But a presidential candidate who loves that level of detail doesn't understand the job of leadership, and isn't qualified for it.

Reagan was criticized for not studying detail. But he was responsible for the death of communism, reforming the tax code and strengthening the economy. Our most wonkish president was Jimmy Carter. Can you name his signature achievement as president?

The media elites love the fictional president of old TV show, The West Wing. President Bartlett knows more than all his advisers combined, cuts to the chase, is wise and benevolent. If such a candidate ever existed, I would vote for her regardless of party.

But that's impossible. The world is an incredibly complex place, and the necessary knowledge about it is an ocean. Even if one could hold that ocean to her lips, she could not drink it. A president is the leader of a team, not a stand-alone stand-in for an omniscient God.

Sarah Palin may prove to have more in common with Ronald Reagan than a preference for snappy, to-the-point briefing materials. Like Reagan, she may have the right set of skills to be a great leader -- as vice president, or maybe someday, president.

Warning: Category 4 Hurricane of Lawyers

2008-09-10T18:27:00.000-04:00

More than 7,000 volunteer lawyers are set to descend upon "key states" during this year's election, according to the Associated Press. You can count on Ohio being one of them.

That's just the Democrats. Republicans aren't swearing off litigation -- they just declined to say how many lawyers they have lined up.

Evacuation is voluntary at this point, but authorities are monitoring the situation and urge everyone to remain calm.

These lawyers are not public-spirited souls monitoring fair elections. They are warriors who want to make sure their side gets as many votes as possible, and to block as many of the other side's votes as possible. More for us, less for you. Except that it's you and me -- the public! -- that loses out as the litigation drags on.

The Attorney General is still embroiled in election litigation ... over the 2004 election.

And, instead of focusing on prosecuting criminals, at least part of my time in November is going to be spent in court, defending the Board of Elections from legal challenges by both sides.

The courts need to re-establish the "political question" doctrine, and decline to micro-manage elections. That constitutional authority belongs to the Secretary of State, not the courts -- and not to the lawyers.

Just A Question For A Convicted Killer

2008-09-09T07:22:00.000-04:00

Richard Wade Cooey is sentenced to die October 2 for the brutal murder of two students at the University of Akron in 1986.

You may remember him as the Killer Who Was Too Fat to Die.

Cooey, who at 5'7" tips the scale at 275 pounds, claims he should avoid execution because his weight will make it too difficult and painful for prison personnel to locate a vein to administer the lethal injection.

So here's my question: Do you think he would object to the IV needle if medical personnel were trying to save his life instead of end it?

Nah, me neither.

A suggestion for Gov. Strickland's Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections: Let's put Mr. Cooey on a strict diet. You could even commute his sentence for a few months so he could slim down to, say, 150 pounds.

First post -- good morning!

2008-09-08T06:04:00.000-04:00

Elected officials generally don't blog. They spend so much time "triangulating" their positions and following polls that they dare not risk saying what they really think. Especially in writing!

Well, there will be people who won't like some of the things I will say in the coming months. But it will be honest -- and, maybe at times, thought-provoking.

This is an experiment, and we'll see how it goes. I'll try to post regularly, and I'm interested in your feedback, too. When Abraham Lincoln was in the White House, he would set aside a morning once a week to meet anyone who wanted to come to see him -- no appointment necessary. He called it his "public opinion bath."

This blog is a higher tech public opinion bath... tell me what you think.