Scott Bradford: Off on a Tangent

Illinois Governor Arrested; Charged With Corruption

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Governor Rod Blagojevich (D-IL) was arrested today and is being charged with various crimes related to widespread political corruption. Blagojevich, who swept to power in part due to frustration with corruption and abuses by former Governor George Ryan (R-IL), is accused of trying to sell or trade the vacant U.S. Senate seat formerly held by President-elect Barack Obama (D) for personal gain. At this time, there is no reason to believe that Obama was aware of these events or has any connection to them whatsoever.

Blagojevich was subject of a month-long probe by law enforcement officials and was recorded on court-ordered wiretaps discussing payment for the Senate seat or even appointing himself to the seat to advance his own political career. “I’m going to keep this Senate option for me a real possibility, you know, and therefore I can drive a hard bargain,” he said, adding that the seat is “a valuable thing—you just don’t give it away for nothing.”

Under Federal law, states have the authority to set their own procedures for replacing a U.S. Senator who leaves office during his term. Some states call for a special election, but Illinois—like many states—permits the governor to appoint a new Senator to serve the remainder of an open seat’s term. Obama officially resigned from his seat in the Senate on Nov. 16, less than two weeks after being elected the next President of the United States. Governor Blagojevich still has the authority to appoint the next Senator from his state, but in the event of his resignation, removal from office, or incapacitation before making an appointment the lieutenant governor, Pat Quinn (D-IL), would be responsible for doing so.

Diminishing Freedom

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What is happening to our civil liberties?

We have limits on political donations that prevent us from giving as much as we want to causes we support. We have a right to keep and bear arms that ‘shall not be infringed’ but you have to be granted a permit from the state to bear those arms concealed. We have free speech, so long as the government doesn’t label your speech as ‘hate’ speech. We have a right to be secure in our property, but local governments can take our property and hand it over to private businesses for development of malls or stadiums. We have a right to plot our own financial course, but mommy government will save us from our own mistakes and misjudgments so there’s no real risk (and soon, if this continues, there will be no real reward either).

This country was founded on a doctrine of individual self sufficiency. The founders of this great country recognized that the American people must be free to live their own lives and enjoy their freedoms and, as a result of their own decisions, succeed or fail on their own merits. To make sure we could succeed or fail without undue government molestation, they started with a simple premise: government derives its power from the people alone, and it only has a right to do those things the people specifically allow it to do.

The Constitution lays out the limited powers of government, and specifically explains that any powers it doesn’t give to the federal government are reserved to the states or the people. To be extra clear, the founders spelled out some (but not all) civil liberties that the government would theoretically never be able to trounce: free speech, free press, freedom of religion, the right to keep and bear arms, protection from unreasonable search and seizure, and more.

These values, I fear, are being lost. The federal government does not limit itself to those powers the Constitution granted to it and, more frighteningly, does not protect those particular liberties we are guaranteed under the Bill of Rights. When I see the government abandon its own founding principals and grossly overstep its authority, I fear for the future of our republic and the freedom of our people.

Tyranny comes in many forms, and the slow erosion of our rights is one of the most fearful forms of tyranny I can imagine. By the time most Americans notice they are no longer free—their property no longer secure, their defensive weapons outlawed, their churches closed for daring to preach moral teachings falsely labeled ‘hateful’, and their financial and political freedoms stifled—it will be too late.

Food for thought. . . .

Enjoying That Cheap Gas?

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I hope you’re enjoying the cheap gas (I am!), because it is probably coming to an end. Chakib Khelil, the president of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has told the world that the members of his organization have consensus on a significant output cut at their meeting next week. OPEC, of course, is the international cartel that controls the majority of the world’s oil production. Many of its member nations are avowed enemies of the United States, Israel, and civilization in general.

With a decrease in production will come an increase in prices—simple economics—which certainly won’t help our economy or anybody else’s economy. OPEC, however, isn’t the type of organization to care. If they operated within the United States, they’d be shut down for illegal collusion under the Sherman Antitrust Act . . . but as an international cartel, they are not directly subject to our laws. Oil is one of those things that people have to use, and so long as it doesn’t spike too high people will continue to use it just as much as they always have. I have to drive to work the same distance every day whether gas is $1.02/gal or $5.02/gal.

And what are my alternatives? There is not a single practical alternative fuel vehicle available for my purchase. Perhaps, instead of giving 15 billion dollars to the ‘big three’ U.S. auto manufacturers, we should give the same amount of money to Tesla Motors—an electric car manufacturer based in California—so they can complete development and production of lower-priced, more affordable models beyond their slick $100,000 electric roadster.

It seems to me that companies like Tesla are more likely to save American auto manufacturing than G.M., Ford, or Chrysler are . . . and help get us off foreign oil and help us get away from indirectly funding terrorism. If we’re going to spend billions of tax dollars on private businesses, that might be a more prudent way to do it.

Economic Hysteria Won’t Help

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A quick perusal of my postings tagged ‘Economics‘ over the last year or so is a worthy study in reality for anybody who is concerned about our economy. Concern is, unfortunately, well-founded now—a fact reinforced by today’s news that our economy lost over half a million jobs in November and unemployment has spiked very quickly up to 6.7 percent. The National Bureau of Economic Research declared on Monday that the U.S. economy has been in a recession since December of last year.

But today, individuals and businesses are reacting to all this bad news with short-sighted maneuvers that are counterproductive and will accelerate, deepen, and lengthen this recession. By taking actions based on hysterics instead of reality, we are making things worse. Anybody who has studied economics with any seriousness can tell you the number one impact on the economy is the peoples’ general perception of the economy. Some might say it’s consumer spending, employment levels, government action, and so on but in the grand scheme of things all these have their roots in perception.

Consumers who perceive the economy is doing poorly will tighten their belts and spend less (out of fear that they might lose their jobs), then reduced consumer spending leads to less profit for business, then businesses lay people off and the economy really does tank. Or businesses perceive the economy is doing poorly and preemptively lay people off (out of fear that their profits will drop), which increases unemployment, which reduces consumer spending and the economy really does tank. Or the government perceives the economy is doing poorly and preemptively intervenes with much fanfare and blather, which convinces consumers and businesses that things must be really bad, which leads to both reduced consumer spending and preemptive layoffs and the economy really does tank. Or consumers, businesses, and the government all do all of these things all at once and send us into a self-induced negative spiral . . . which is what we’re seeing today.

Read more . . .

Making Some Progress

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Office ChaosI mentioned before that my big project for the week is trying to get my office into some sort of order. Let me tell you, the task of removing large furniture (one huge desk, one medium size desk, and one old-school four-level file cabinet) and replacing it with new furniture (two large and one medium desks that all fit together, two drawer/file cabinet units, and a smaller file cabinet unit) is extremely complex and difficult. You have to take everything—and I mean everything—out of the old furniture and pile it up in corners and nooks while you fit all the new furniture in. Then, once that’s done, you have to get everything put back away.

Well, so far, all the furniture is where it needs to be, I finally got the computers all back in-place yesterday, and the files from the file cabinet are properly in their new file cabinets. But there are mindless, disorganized messes of . . . stuff . . . all over the place, as you can see in the photo (and there’s plenty more just out of view on the left, right, and below the camera). But progress is being made. Slowly.

In case you are wondering, the desk and drawer units are all from the Ikea ‘Galant’ family. I bought the two corner disks and the extension (on the left) and the smaller drawer unit (barely visible behind the GMU degree on the left) from my friend Christine, then added the two drawer units in the middle and some shelves (off to the sides; not visible) from Ikea. The Eelserver, which is our apartment file and network server, along with our DSL modem and wireless router are all under the desk at the back-right corner, with the printer on the right just out of view on top of the desk. My main workstation is at the back left corner (where the monitors are).

Someday it will be wonderful :-).

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Posted in: Life

Scott Bradford is a writer and technologist who has been putting his opinions online since 1995. He believes in three inviolable human rights: life, liberty, and property. He is a Catholic Christian who worships the trinitarian God described in the Nicene Creed. Scott is a husband, nerd, pet lover, and AMC/Jeep enthusiast with a B.S. degree in public administration from George Mason University.