-Eric Odom

You’ve read here about the budget mess in California, and I’ve made no secret of my total disdain for California’s elected officials or the morons who keep electing them.

One of the fundamental concepts about the formation of the U.S. and the original structure of its government was this simple and effective concept:

Government OF the people, BY the people and FOR the people.

It’s a darn good thing for our elected officials that Washington, Jefferson, Adams, etal are long dead and buried because I’m pretty sure we’d be looking at a second revolutionary war. The crux of the problem we’re facing today with our government is that the concept above seems to have been replaced with this:

Government OF the ruling class, BY the ruling class and FOR the ruling class.

That seems to be true at both the federal and state levels, and depending on the size of the city you live in, it’s likely true there as well. Elected officials and government employees have completely lost the idea of “public service”, or maybe they’ve just changed to definition from “serving the public” to “being served by the public”.

The most insidious tool used by the ruling class is language and process. They’ve captured both and designed both to serve their needs. Let’s take a look at the goings on in California for a painful example of just how this works, from an article in the Fresno Bee.

When Gov. Jerry Brown called the state budget “a pretzel palace of incredible complexity” last week, he was stating, in his inimitable way, the obvious.

During Brown’s governorship three decades ago, the budget was a relatively simple and understandable document. Revenues were relatively easy to calculate and spending obligations were clearly delineated.

But today’s budget is complex almost beyond comprehension, and Brown wants to make it more so.

The complexity is a “feature” not a “bug”. It’s proven fact that if instructions are simple, they will be followed, and they will be followed because they’re easy to understand and, right or wrong, they’re perceived as “reasonable”. Ratchet up the complexity and people simply stop paying attention, and when people stop paying attention the ruling class takes over and they take it upon themselves to explain “the facts” those of us lesser beings who dare to ask questions.

The real objective of complexity is that because it makes understanding next to impossible it also makes accountability next to impossible. If you’re scratching your head over this idea, just look at Barack’s latest effort to convince we lesser beings that he’s actually a fiscal conservative. His minions are actually making the effort with a straight face.

One of the benefits of complexity, if you’re a member of the ruling class, is that it gives you the ability to do about anything you want along with cover because nobody can really figure out why you shouldn’t be able to do it. For example, there’s K-12 education in California. It’s a money pit and California’s school system has been getting progressively (and I’m using that word on purpose) worse for 30+ years and here’s why:

The budget’s largest, most complex and most contentious piece is K-12 education, for which the state assumed primary responsibility after Proposition 13 was enacted in 1978.

Proposition 98, passed by voters in 1988 and modified two years later, supposedly dictates the aid schools should receive. But its formulae are so dense that only a tiny handful of people profess to understand it and they often disagree on its meaning.

John Mockler, the education consultant who wrote Proposition 98 for the California Teachers Association and other education groups, has quipped that he made it so complex because interest groups would be compelled to hire him to interpret its provisions and allow him to send his children to Stanford University.

First of all, the law was written by the California Teachers Association, one of the most powerful unions in the country and as a group, students and parents are not on their priority list. The CTA – and the NEA – have done more to destroy education, and state and local budgets, in the U.S. than any group in the country. They’re a significantly bigger danger to the nation and our way of life than al Qaeda will ever be.

Here’s the bottom line for California:

It’s not only a fiscal and legal exercise but a very political one as well, since Brown is counting on public support for education to gain approval of his tax package.

Voters will be receiving a barrage of conflicting claims and counterclaims and will have absolutely no way of understanding them.

Brown and California Democrats have a “temporary” tax increase on the ballot in November to plug a $9B hole in their budget and he’s using the threat of making “major” cuts in K-12 ed as leverage to get people to vote for the tax increase. Due to the built in complexity of the law and the fact that most voters can’t think beyond a sound byte, there’s a good chance the tax increase will pass.

It’s time to be able to hold our elected officials accountable and to demand that laws – and regulations – be written in plain English. It’s also time to cut off the money and force the ruling class to start dismantling the edifice they’ve built for themselves at our expense and with our kids future.

What do you think? Have you seen this going on in your city or state? Let us know about it in the comments.

Michelle Obama and the girls appeared excited throughout the concert, cheering Beyonce on; the daughters even sang along to the old school-sounding jam “Love on Top.”

At face value this is no big deal. Where it becomes questionable is when Obama makes comments such as this.

Obama said last week if she could be anyone else, it would be Beyonce. And she came close, at least in how she was received by the audience; Obama got a roaring cheer that matched Beyonce’s as she made her way to her seat in a shiny green dress. Some fans took photos while others screamed her name. One yelled, “This is history!

Really, if you could be anyone else it would be Beyonce? Look, one of the key roles of a First Lady should be to lead by example. Take a look at some of Beyonce’s lyrics. (and photos)

For my boy I’m gonna hit the floor at home
We’ll let those candles be your light tonight
I’mma DJ all your songs
You ain’t gotta worry bout a club,
Just come on lay up under me tonight!
I’m gonna hit the floor at home
We’ll let those candles be your light tonight
I’mma DJ all your songs
You ain’t gotta worry bout a club,
Just come on lay up under me tonight!

This is a free country. You can listen to what you want, dance to what you want, do what you want (within reason). But the First Lady has a certain level of responsibility and proclaiming that a female sex symbol is her idol in front of a nation struggling with immoral decay is somewhat irresponsible.

What say you?

-Eric Odom

In an effort to better educate students and their parents about race relations and social injustice, a D.C. elementary school has declared Friday “Trayvon Martin Day.”

Teachers at Malcolm X Elementary in Southeast are using the unfolding case and the story surrounding Martin as part of their “Let’s Keep Our Children Safe” seminar.

Malcolm X Elementary Principal J. Harrison Coleman says that she hopes the lesson will help reduce the needless violence and bullying in the community.

While the teachers are using the Trayvon Martin brand to promote safety and a reduction in needless violence, they fail to mention that Trayvon Martin was involved in needless violence himself. As can be seen in the video below.

The full video report of “Trayvon Martin Day” can be seen below.

Something tells me there are probably better ways to promote safety and reduction of needless violence.

-Eric Odom

Led by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), Service Employees International Union (SEI) and Wisconsin-based and other states’ teachers unions, their low-level attack is aimed at sinking Gov. Walker and his Republican majority in the Wisconsin Assembly, thus to reclaim power over how taxpayer dollars are spent.

The campaign seeks to dissemble facts and distract from – or rather, ignore — real issues, mainly fiscal. Put simply, unions want a return to golden oldie days when they, through their Democrat marionettes, pretty much ran things at the Capitol in Madison.

To win, vituperative anti-Walker forces are putting up an estimated $60 million in ad dollars, all derived from union brethren from all parts of America. Call this solidarity. Last year union activists unleashed 3,000 recall petition carriers across Wisconsin, apparently not content to await the next election.

That’s a stunning number and goes to show what an individual who wishes to scale back spending and the scope of government will be up against. Wisconsin voters, however, appear poised to defeat the unions and their big money warchest. If Barrett’s own internal polling, along with the more public numbers, are any indication of what is to come, the unions are in big trouble.

Independent polls show Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker leading opponent Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett by 6 to 7 points in the June 5 recall vote. So what’s the public to do with Barrett’s own data — polls (here and here) that show the recall is a statistical dead heat?

Veteran campaign staffers on the left and right will tell you Barrett’s internal polling suggests his campaign is dead.

Sometimes, the release of such internal polling is meant to bolster the sagging spirits of campaign staffers and volunteers looking into the oblivion of total defeat. I once worked on a campaign in which, days before election day, we field staffers were told that our last internal tracking poll had us tied with our opponent.

We were ecstatic. And then we lost by 8 points.

Granted, this recall race is still a toss-up. That said, if the unions win it won’t be as shocking as it they lose. That kind of well funded, coordinated attack on conservatives going down in brutal defeat will send shockwaves across America.

-Eric Odom

H/T: Doug Ross