FREE WHITEWATER

Free Markets

The Foolishness of Demonizing Productive, Private Enterprise

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I don’t know of anyone who doubts that the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is an environmental disaster. After that people’s reactions differ — sadness, frustration, anger, etc. There’s more than enough grandstanding among America’s politicians, often along the lines of how heads must roll, etc. (That’s heads of those at British Petroleum, not of government managers or politicians, themselves.) By now, there have been thousands of stories, articles, and essays explaining how everyone employed at BP should be punished, jailed, or tarred and feathered.

After the federal administration is done vilifying everyone it can blame from among the world’s oil executives, one wonders if there will be anyone knowledgeable left with expertise to help solve the crisis. Arthur Herman wonders about this, too, in an essay entitled, What Obama Could Learn from FDR.

If President Obama intends to use President Roosevelt’s leadership during World War II as his model for handling the BP oil spill, he has it exactly backward….

The White House specifically said the [president’s recent] speech was modeled on Franklin Roosevelt’s fireside chats during the Great Depression and World War II. At its climax, Obama even referenced America’s creation of the so-called Arsenal of Democracy as an example of how Americans can seize their destiny and achieve greatness.

He’s right, but Obama may regret picking that example….

if Obama intends to use Roosevelt’s leadership during World War II as his model for handling the BP oil spill, he has it exactly backward. FDR built that arsenal of democracy by working with business, not fighting against it – let alone by keeping a boot on its neck. If Roosevelt had been speaking from the Oval Office last Tuesday, he would have announcing the creation of a presidential panel of oil executives and engineers to help BP solve the oil spill, rather than a scheme to strip BP of its profits.

This is because, in the year and a half before Pearl Harbor, Roosevelt realized that the best way to mobilize a country like ours for a great task is to unleash the productivity and ingenuity of American industrial enterprise. His decision outraged some of his closest advisors and allies. It flew in the face of his own progressive instincts. But it not only helped to win World War II, it pulled the United States out of the Great Depression, and it has provided a useful model of how government needs to partner with the private sector, ever since.

Herman goes on to show how, as war approached, Roosevelt walked away the anti-businesses positions of some of his officials, and instead wisely allowed capable private industries to produce the weapons and supplies needed to defeat the Axis. (America produced so many weapons and supplies that even Stalin acknowledged that victory would not have been possible without America’s private production.)

Demonizing oil executives and oil companies, taking from them rather than cooperating with them, will gain America nothing, and cost the Gulf and her residents much. FDR’s example is the one that the current administration should be following.

Law, Planning

The Institute for Justice on Five Years Since Kelo: Considering One of the Supreme Court’s Most-Despised Decisions

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Five years ago, the United States Supreme Court handed down a poor, and consequently notorious, decision in Kelo v. City of New London. Here’s a brief summary of the case, as described in the preceding link:

The case arose from the condemnation by New London, Connecticut, of privately owned real property so that it could be used as part of a comprehensive redevelopment plan. The Court held in a 5-4 decision that the general benefits a community enjoyed from economic growth qualified such redevelopment plans as a permissible “public use” under the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment.

In September 2009, the land where Susette Kelo’s home had once stood was an empty lot, and the promised 3,169 new jobs and $1.2 million a year in tax revenues had not materialized.

Because the case was so wrongly decided, and drew so much legitimate criticism, it’s anniversary is marked. The Institute for Justice, a civil liberties law firm committed to individual rights and economic freedom, has marked Kelo‘s fifth anniversary with white paper and a video.

The IJ notes that

Kelo was the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that became the property rights shot heard round the world. Wednesday marks its fifth anniversary.

In the merely five years since that infamous ruling, the vast majority of state legislatures, many state supreme courts and the public itself have acted to limit Kelo, which took away the homes of seven New London, Conn., families for private development and sparked a nationwide backlash against eminent domain for private gain.

And what now stands on the land where 75 homes once stood around Susette Kelo’s little pink house? Nothing but barren fields, weeds and feral cats. Ten years lost and more than $80 million in taxpayer money spent. Even Pfizer, which received massive corporate welfare to move to New London and sparked the abuses of eminent domain, has now announced that it will close its research and development headquarters and leave New London.

Here’s a link to the report, entitled, The Sweeping Backlash Against One of the Supreme Court’s Most-Despised Decisions.

Here’s the IJ video:



Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSxru-qxuL4

An accompanying link to the Castle Coalition, of Citizens Fighting Eminent Domain Abuse, shows that Wisconsin receives only a C+ grade for reforms since Kelo: “New eminent domain law prevents bogus “blight” designations for residential properties only.”

These designations are often bogus — so-called “blight” becomes what politicians and bureaucrats say it is, and citizens’ property is taken and destroyed to feed the ambitions of government men and women who think they know better what to do with private property. These bureaucrats and politicians didn’t earn the money for those properties, or purchase them, but still they’re sure they can use them better than you can.

Predictably, that arrogance violates both a person’s rights and common sense: people wrongly lose what’s theirs, and government officials use it poorly. It would be wrong even if they could use what they took (as its not theirs), but these schemes seldom turn out well in any event. more >>

Government Spending, Laws/Regulations, Politics

Wisconsin’s Criminals Find Work as Lobbyists

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Over a decade ago, I went to visit someone who worked in Madison. He worked in a building in which state officials were working, and the scene in the lobby on my arrival was one I haven’t since forgotten. Around one of the elevators, a group of men were pushing to get inside, and go up to someone’s office. They were nearly a comedy sketch, pushing into the small space of the open elevator. I waited and took another elevator.

Over lunch, I asked about what I had seen: Who were they? I don’t know, was the reply, maybe some lobbyists going to a meeting.

I thought then, and still think now, that they seemed closer to pigs at a trough than anything else.

I didn’t know, however, that any of them — if they were lobbyists — might also have been criminals. In Wisconsin, one can be a supplicant of government favors and largess and a criminal. I know that’s true because there’s a story in the Journal Sentinel about state lobbyists with criminal convictions. See, Lobbyists Keep Working Despite Convictions: At least 8 with felonies or misdemeanors push their clients’ agendas in Madison.

Jason Stein writes that

A review by the Journal Sentinel also turned up three additional lobbyists who signed deferred prosecution agreements that led to their charges being dismissed later.

At a time when special interest groups are spending record amounts for lobbyists to push their agendas – $36.2 million last year alone – Wisconsin has almost no rules or laws restricting criminals from lobbying. No lobbyist has had his or her license revoked or suspended for any reason for at least 20 years.

The crimes found in the newspaper’s review ranged from illegal campaign contributions to a hit-and-run case in which the lobbyist fled from the scene and then would not come to the door when police tracked him down. The tally includes an ex-lawmaker and former legislative aide who left their state jobs and became lobbyists after being caught up in the caucus scandal.

Wisconsin collects billions in taxes, the legislature passes countless laws, and state agencies issue even more regulations, affecting millions of people. Power and influence over so many turns private interests into petitioners, some greedy for state favors, some defensive over the favors that rival interests receive. A smaller government will be less attractive to the porcine class that queues in the corridors of power.

Here’s the methodology the Journal Sentinel used:

To do its review, the Journal Sentinel compared a database of lobbyists registered with the state against a database of Wisconsin court records since 1992. It did not include any crimes that may have taken place out of state.

The lobbyists database didn’t include the middle initial or date of birth of the lobbyists, so the Journal Sentinel contacted lobbyists directly to confirm matches.

The review found lobbyists convicted of the following felonies: theft of more than $2,500 in a business setting and illegal campaign contributions. It found lobbyists with these misdemeanor convictions: illegal use of state resources to campaign; illegal coordination of activities between a political candidate and a supposedly independent group; hit-and-run; theft of property worth less than $1,000; and second-time drunken driving.

The review also found a conviction for first-time drunken driving – a municipal violation in Wisconsin but a crime in other states.

Ben Poston and Patrick Marley of the Journal Sentinel staff to this report.

Uncategorized

Will the 2012 Republican Presidential Nominee be Libertarian-Leaning?

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Over at the The Daily Caller, libertarian-oriented Republican Ron Paul is quoted contending that “Republicans will be more open than they were in 2008 to nominating a libertarian-minded candidate. “I think there’s no doubt about it,” Paul said in an interview with The Daily Caller.” See, Ron Paul says GOP will be more open to libertarian-minded nominee in 2012.

I think on economic issues, Paul’s correct to conclude that the free market approach of libertarians is sure to the the Republican party’s position in 2012. The GOP strayed from that approach in George W. Bush’s second term particularly, but they’ll be a return to polices of free and private economic choice for the 2012 Republican nominee. (About other matters, and there are many other key issues, I’m skeptical that the next Republican nominee will be libertarian-minded.)

Still, 2008 was supposed to be the end of the free market, but the beginning of a new era of government intervention, and yet less than two years’ time later those bold declarations look foolish. Americans are returning to a longstanding respect for free and private economic arrangements.

Even in small towns like Whitewater, the Bush years coincided with more and more local reliance on the gimmicks of tax incremental financing, taxpayer-funded grants, and the issuance of municipal bonds (debt) to fund local versions of the Great Pyramid. Not one of those expensive projects has made Whitewater’s underlying situation better, and there’s no likelihood that the incumbent municipal administration has the aptitude or flexibility to admit failure. At the local level, one can expect further, feeble attempts to declare that All is Well and Amazing.

As federal money runs out — and it will — we will be left with a collection of overly expensive, under-performing municipal white elephants.

Uncategorized

Milwaukee County’s Immoral Utilitarianism: Update 11 (Whining About a Supposed White Glove Test)

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Steve Schultze of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has more on the disrepair at the Milwaukee Mental health Complex, in a story entitled, Milwaukee County Hopes to Keep Repair Cost Low for Mental Facility.

Milwaukee County officials hope to keep down the cost and scope of repairs to the Mental Health Complex needed to resolve citations issued by state and federal regulators this month….A formal cost estimate is being prepared for presentation to county supervisors at a special meeting next week. The number could wind up lower than a $15 million ballpark estimate if a consultant hired by the county succeeds in discussions with state inspectors….

Inspectors for the state did a once-in-four-years survey of the Mental Health Complex in May, finding numerous problems that could jeopardize the hospital’s licensing and funding. Inspection reports outlined dozens of problems requiring repairs to the complex on the County Grounds, including extensive fireproofing and possibly replacing the entire acoustical-tile ceiling of the 425,000 square-foot hospital. Inspectors also found unsanitary conditions in food service and laundry areas.

What did John Chianelli, the administrator of the county’s Behavioral Health Division, say about the inspection violations? Ready? Chianelli is reported to have “said inspectors were the pickiest he’d seen in two decades. “They really did come in with white gloves on,” Chianelli told the County Board’s finance committee.” He also admitted, “[u]nder questioning from county supervisors [that] it had been difficult to keep pace with new health and safety standards. However, he said his division, which includes the complex, had adequate staff despite cuts in recent years.”

It’s well past time for Milwaukee County to recognize that Chianelli’s not up to the job of managing Milwaukee County’s Behavioral Health Division. He’s not even up to speaking to county officials: whining about inspectors coming in “with white gloves on” is hardly an acceptable answer to problems with basic sanitation in a mental health facility. An answer like that is a fool’s answer, and it was Chianelli’s answer, so now one knows what one needs to know about Chianelli.

I’ve posted about Chianelli’s policy, and the tragedy that is conduct at the MHC, before. See, A Milwaukee County Bureaucrat’s Immoral Utilitarianism, Update: A Milwaukee County Bureaucrat’s Immoral Utilitarianism, Update 2, Update 3, Update 4, Update 5, Update 6, Update 7, Update 8, Update 9, and Update 10.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for Whitewater, Wisconsin: 6-22-10

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Good morning,

Today’s forecast for Whitewater calls for a sunny day with a high of eighty-eight degrees, with thunderstorms overnight.

On this date in American history, the United States Constitution went into effect following ratification by New Hampshire, the ninth state to ratify the constitution.

In Wisconsin history on this date, the Wisconsin Historical society recalls that

1943 – McCarthy Breaks Leg in Drunken Accident

On this date future senator Joseph McCarthy broke his leg during a drunken Marine Corps initiation ceremony, despite a press release and other claims that he was hurt in “military action.” Although nicknamed “Tail Gunner Joe”, McCarthy never was a tail gunner, but instead served at a desk as an intelligence officer. In 1951 he applied for medals, including the Distinguished Flying Cross, awarded to those who had flown at least 25 combat missions. The Marine Corps has records of only 11 combat flights McCarthy flew on, and those were described as local “milk run” flights. Many of McCarthy’s claims were disputed by political opponents as well as journalists.

Over at Walworth County Today, there’s a story about Whitewater’s art scene entitled, “The Sweet Art of Whitewater’s Visionary Artists.” It’s a story about a group of local artists.

The story recounts that

Two years ago, a group of artists met to have a critique group and to enrich their artistic energies and charge their creative batteries to pursue their individual passion for painting.

The group of four artists became known as the Visionary Artists. They are Karolyn Alexander, Barb Grant, Marilyn Fuerstenberg and Tom Jewell. Their Second Annual Spring Show is at the SweetSpot Gallery [226 Whitewater Street] in Whitewater through the end of June.

Included with the story is an online image of “Barnyard Boss,” by Karolyn Alexander.

Longtime readers know that I’ve been critical of some public displays of art, but private creation and imagination represent an important part of a new Whitewater. I don’t think that an artists’ community can be engineered from the city, but I do think that people forming self-supporting groups can shape and change a town’s culture.

Appreciated works will not come from a line item on a municipal ledger, but from private cooperation.

Economy, Free Markets, Government Spending

Martin Borgs on Preventing the Next Financial Disaster

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Market advocates are optimists. We warn against government intervention and spending because we know that common people — as we are — can do uncommon things when able to associate freely without interference or regulation. We reject the contrived and manipulative schemes of politicians and bureaucrats, ad welcome the dynamism and productivity of private citizens in private pursuits. People do not need to be led; they need to be left free of interference.

When we look around, and see wasteful spending, vanity projects, disregard for individual rights, and political favoritism, we sound an alarm because we know that these things need not happen. In a small town, as much as a big city or country, officious meddling reduces opportunity, productivity, and prosperity. We know there’s a better way.

That’s the spirit in which Martin Borgs offers his film, Overdose: The Next Financial Crisis. He’s an advocate for a better way — ways that will prevent financial trouble.

Here’s a description of his film:

…Borgs, using Cato scholar Johan Norberg’s book Financial Fiasco as a road map, warns of the “greatest economic crisis of our age?the one that awaits us.”

Borgs sat down with Reason.tv’s Michael C. Moynihan before the film’s Washington premiere to discuss how we got into the current mess and what Overdose prescribes to prevent future calamities.

Approx. 9 minutes.

Shot by Dan Hayes and Meredith Bragg; edited by Bragg.

Here’s a clip of an interview that Borgs had with Reason‘s Moynihan:



Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_P_q3xqbeEM. more >>

City

Community Calendars

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Over at the City of Whitewater’s website, there’s a small survey in the left sidebar, asking questions for a possible community calendar at the City of Whitewater website. (There’s a calendar of municipal meetings now, but the survey stems from a possible community calendar on the website, listing meetings and events of community groups.) The survey asks readers where they get their community calendar information now, and lists several websites (including FREE WHITEWATER), and some nearby newspapers.

Of the choices listed, only one, the Whitewater Banner, now offers something like a community calendar. The rest offer selected meetings related to their organization’s area of authority, or an eclectic and idiosyncratic mix. Some of the newspapers listed cover cities beyond Whitewater, and so don’t focus simply on events here in town.

FREE WHITEWATER certainly falls into the eclectic and idiosyncratic mix category; this website is primarily a site for commentary, and listings for meetings typically focus on municipal meetings that I’m likely to write about. This website doesn’t offer anything like a comprehensive calendar. In other cases, involving charities or civic events, there’s no overall theme or design. (For example, I’m not a member of the Alzheimer’s Association; I simply wish them well, and am happy to post their press releases.)

This website doesn’t really list events as much comment on them. Like most blogs, it’s just not a calendar or bulletin board. Much of my focus is on politics, local or otherwise, with other topics thrown in as they strike me (or better yet, as they’re suggested to me).

When I started writing over three years ago, I didn’t intend to post every day, much less a few times a day, most days. Two years ago, when I started a simple Daily Bread feature (with name kindly suggested to me), it was the first time I considered posting every weekday. That seems like a long time ago now, and this website has grown considerably since then, simply by advocating a point of view, and holding to it.

As with the political life of the city, writing like this has no final or supposedly ultimate moments. (I didn’t mark an anniversary this year.) There’s just daily commentary, along with sundry, lighter topics as strike me. In my first two years, I would sometimes stop and ask myself: Another year, perhaps? I’ve not bothered with the question this year — writing is its own, continuing activity.

I’m sure many cities use their websites for community calendars, and that’s more likely true in towns with without an in-town newspaper. Although the Banner already offers a calendar for Whitewater, a community calendar on the City of Whitewater website is likely to increase traffic to the city’s site. If the calendar were easily visible from the mainpage of the city’s site, it would also offer a chance to draw additional readers to anything else appearing on the same page (latest video, service announcements, etc.). There’s now a public access station that lists (and records) community events, so a public website listing the same is simply an expansion to a second medium.

More sources of information are, I think, better than fewer, generally.

Law

The Ineffectual and Tragic Approach

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We have every reason to be concerned about the dangers of drug dependency for individuals and society; we have no reason to persist in trying to overcome drug dependency with the costly and ineffectual methods we’ve used these past three decades. Illegal narcotics are a bad thing; the methods of the war on drugs haven’t been able to overcome that bad thing.

On the contrary, after every celebrated raid, every declared major blow or great accomplishment, one finds that drug addiction remains intractable even in small, rural communities much like Whitewater, Wisconsin. (Efforts to describe each and every drug arrest as a major blow are met with scorn and ridicule in every newspaper that allows comments in reply to official statements. It’s not because the commenters are starry-eyed permissives; many of the most critical commenters are manifestly conservative. It’s because those commenters know the ineffectual and the overblown when they see it. It’s also one of the reasons that stodgy newspapers, carrying water for incumbents and bureaucrats, will not allow online comments. If they did, there’d be a quick, online reply to grandiose press statements masquerading as news stories.)

At the Wisconsin State Journal, there’s a story entitled, A Known Killer in Cities, Heroin is Spreading to Wisconsin’s Rural Areas. It’s a story of tragedy and loss; there’s absolutely nothing good that comes from heroin use. What’s particularly tragic is that efforts to stop the drug have been futile. Methods of enforcement, investigation, and prosecution have not kept us safer; they’ve not stopped the spread of dependency.

One sometimes hears that drug use is prevalent among the poor, the downtrodden, the outcast. That proves to be false — law enforcement leaders know that the demand for heroin comes from people very much like others in their communities:

Based on their experiences, police say white men between 18 and 25 are most likely to fall into the web of heroin use and trafficking. The drug doesn’t discriminate by income.

“We thought heroin was a drug used by inner-city folks,” Ozaukee County Sheriff Maurice Straub said when his department realized heroin was a problem in the exclusive lakeside county north of Milwaukee. “Ozaukee County is the wealthiest county in the state of Wisconsin. We have basically no poor people.”

After decades and billions, we’ve not stopped this demand. It’s not demand from some faraway place — it’s demand from within our own communities. If we care more about overcoming dependency than stubborn pride, we will adopt a new strategy to replace the current, ineffectual one. Recognizing that demand is a social problem from within a community, focusing on the truly big and important threats, and emphasizing treatment and counseling. We’ve militarized this effort all we or anyone ever could, and we’re still not making headway.

Headlines haven’t, and won’t, solve these problems.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for Whitewater, Wisconsin: 6-21-10

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Good morning,

Today’s forecast for Whitewater calls for a partly sunny day, with isolated showers, and highs in the 80s.

Today is the first day of summer, but Memorial Day and the end of school mark earlier beginning of summer that mean more to most people than the June solstice.

The Wisconsin Historical Society recalls that on this date in 1921, Wisconsin passed the first equal rights law for women in the nation:

1921 – Nation’s First Women’s Rights Bill Passed

On this day, the Wisconsin legislature passed the nation’s first bill ensuring that women have the same legal rights as men. Section 6.015 opened, “Women shall have the same rights and privileges under the law as men…” It was signed into law on July 11. [Source: Chicago Tribune, June 21, 1921, p. 12]

Just in time for Independence Day, the Wisconsin State Journal has a story entitled, “Wisconsin Farmers Selling Popcorn that Bursts with Patriotism.” From that story, one reads that

As patriotic tributes go, this one literally pops for the Fourth of July.

It’s called a Bomb Pop. A Firecracker. Or simply: Red, White and Blue.

The pop in the corn, coated with colorful flavorings, does more than celebrate a holiday. It contributes dollars toward keeping a fifth-generation family farm in a highly developed area of Ozaukee County sprouting food, instead of houses.

It’s a vivid example of how farmers markets with loyal customer bases can help Wisconsin farms that produce everything from fruits and vegetables to value-added products such as popcorn.

Unlike commercial popcorn, this old-fashioned gourmet popcorn requires more handwork to grow and doesn’t provide high yields. Some of it is crunchier or nuttier than commercial popcorn. Some even pops with a hull of a different color at its hard center.

Uncategorized

Wisconsin State Journal: Naked Cyclists Put on a Show

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The Wisconsin State Journal has a story about dozens of naked cyclists riding through Madison, Wisconsin as part of the World Naked Bike Ride to protest dependence on oil.

Their effort was attention-getting.

The protest itself was peaceful, but ten cyclists were cited for disorderly conduct for failing to put their clothes back on, following bystanders’ complaints about public nudity.

From the photos at the State Journal, it’s doubtful that some of these riders were riding bikes often or exercising frequently.

Two best onlookers’ comments as reported in the State Journal:

“I come from a small town. We don’t do stuff like this,” said Cory, from Hartford City, Ind., and now living in Waunakee.

“I guess if you want to introduce your child to some different culture, this is one way to do it,” Melinda said.

and

“Emily Harney, from England, was at Sunroom Café on State Street with friends from Madison when they looked out the window to find the surprising display.

“I’m just glad we had finished our breakfast,” she said.”

See, Naked Cyclists Put on a Show.

Twitter

Recent Tweets: 6-13 to 6-19

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Could be the greatest film of the year: Piranha 3D http://bit.ly/aRvHo7
about 10 hours ago

Whitewater WI needs version of YouCut during city’s budget season so residents can vote on cutting wasteful programs http://bit.ly/bTW696
about 12 hours ago

Biz Beat: Madison, Wisconsin’s Anchor Bank among the largest TARP deadbeats http://bit.ly/bAudtl
about 17 hours ago

Apps bring religion into the 21st century – JSOnline http://bit.ly/cw18z5
about 23 hours ago

Wisconsin farmers selling popcorn that bursts with patriotism – JSOnline http://bit.ly/9exkI9
about 24 hours ago

Who’s Liable for the Gulf Oil Spill? You Are. – Reason Magazine http://bit.ly/92PmZo
about 24 hours ago

Welcome to the world of social media: Utah Attorney General Announces Execution on Twitter | Threat Level | Wired.com http://bit.ly/aQNL5e
about 24 hours ago

Sarah Palin’s Right: Minor Marijuana Arrests Are a Waste of Police Resources http://bit.ly/9O0i6h
10:10 AM Jun 17th

Why licensing journalists is a bad idea http://bit.ly/cLCe3Y
4:16 PM Jun 16th

RT @nature_org: New photo slideshow: incredible images of the Gulf #oilspill from photographer Bridget Besaw http://nature.ly/bLX7PH
10:40 AM Jun 15th

RT @CBSNews: GOP nominee for New Mexico US House seat suggests landmines along Mexico border: http://bit.ly/9mgQLl Mad as a hatter….
8:26 AM Jun 15th

Free Wi-Fi, digital content coming to Starbucks July 1 – Computerworld http://bit.ly/auzQuL Woo!
8:58 PM Jun 14th

CoveritLive Event – Whitewater Planning Commission Meeting 6/14/10: http://tinyurl.com/629rr7
8:54 PM Jun 14th

Commentary » Blog Archive » Social Security in the Hole — five years earlier than expected — http://bit.ly/cTRUMV
3:28 PM Jun 14th

What Does it Mean to Be Libertarian?: http://bit.ly/90uDYM via @addthis
2:27 PM Jun 14th

YouTube Play: Looking for Submissions » FREE WHITEWATER http://bit.ly/9Zb5F8
12:07 PM Jun 14th