Occupy Wall Street and John Wayne

Those talking heads, Newt Gingrich and Brian Kilmeade have made of fun of Occupy Wall Streeters by saying that they need to take a shower. I realize neither of these “TV Stars” is a comedian so they might not have noticed that hippy jokes died about 1970.
They also vastly overestimate the value of a shower. Consider John Wayne; he and Jeffery Hunter spent years looking for little Natalie Wood in The Searchers. Do you think they stopped to shower everyday? Of course not, they had important things to do, just like the protestors at Occupy Wall Street. The Duke and Jeffery didn’t even change their cloths for three years; they were too darn busy.
I don’t care what you say about me or the people at OWS, but if you layabout “clean people” are going to talk bad about John Wayne, I might just have to ask you to step outside.

TTFFIAT(IAT)

Today marks the creation of the TTFFIAT(IAT), the Think Tank For Freedom in America to Think (In A Tank), one of the few think tanks to think in an actual tank.
Future generations may commemorate this date with parades and consumption of large quantities of Triple Stacker sandwiches (In A Tank); or not.
The initial posts will be submissions to the Hays Daily News made under the pseudonym "A.B. Campbell".

YOU are the "Job Creator"

Some of our elected officials have talked repeatedly about a need to reduce tax rates and eliminate regulations that concern a group they refer to as “The Job Creators”. These politicians , however, are completely wrong about the role of regulations and tax rates when it comes to job creation. They can not even identify America’s actual “Job Creators”.
When you buy this newspaper, YOU are creating jobs. If 100,000 more of us subscribed to this paper, there would be more workers at the Hays Daily News. The decision to expand the number of workers at a business is NOT based primarily on the owner’s personal tax rate or regulations imposed by the EPA. The primary concern is “Will more employees result in more profit? Will the business be able to sell what the new employees produce“?
Our Representative in Congress, Tim Huelskamp, recently visited with the owners of Tony’s Pizza in Salina, so I’ll use them as an example. Mr. Tony will hire more workers when and only if someone will buy the pizzas the new employees would make. To repeat the point; the primary factor for job creation is NOT, as some claim, tax rates or government regulations; the primary factor is the demand for frozen pizzas.
I live in Rush County and I work in the oil patch; who do you think is more likely to purchase a Tony’s Pizza next week: me or Donald Trump? Who is more likely to buy a Tony’s Pizza sometime in the next month: you or Kim Kardashian? You and I and others like us are the “Job Creators”.
Who do you think is more likely to give money to some hedge fund to speculate on the price of natural gas: you or Paris Hilton? Who is more likely to put money in a Cayman Island bank: you or Charles Koch? Who does Rep. Huelskamp believe is deserving of further privilege and economic advantage: you or Kobe Bryant? The answer to the last three questions is … Not You!
Now for the part that Republican , right-wing, Tea Partiers, like Rep. Huelskamp, will not acknowledge. Government, federal through local, creates jobs. Some of them directly - teachers, policemen, prison guards, etc.- some of them by buying things; like paper for the copiers, new bridges, or new tanker airplanes (manufactured in Wichita). When a politician argues for government to reduce spending, they are arguing for “job destruction”, not job creation.
When the GOP tells us that the government has to improve conditions for “job creators”, they are ignoring your role in the economy. They are saying that people in a certain group have to be insulated from hard times and should not have to sacrifice during austerity. And they are also saying that this special, protected group does NOT include you.

Hey, GOP, leave my Post Office alone!

I have always appreciated the United States Postal Service because they provide services to everyone. It doesn’t matter who your relatives are, it doesn’t matter how much money you have, and until recently, it didn’t matter where you lived. Now because of budget matters, the Post Office wants to close offices in rural towns, like Damar.
I personally don’t care if the Post Office turns a profit, I feel it is important to have post offices and postal workers in our small towns. The Coast Guard and the FBI have important jobs, too, but we don’t worry that they don’t make a profit. But Saturday delivery and rural Post Offices could go away because of red ink at the USPS.
This is our first taste of austerity. More is to come if the budget cutters and corporate lackeys have their way. If you marked your ballot for Tim Huelskamp or Jerry Moran, this is what you voted for. “We have to have smaller government”, “we need less Federal intrusion into our lives”, “government is the problem.” If we govern the country according to these bumper sticker sayings, we will end up with fewer government services and more government indifference toward you, your family, and your community. Unfortunately, Damar gets to be one of the first towns to find this out.
Austerity will hit rural people first, followed by old people, poor people and then children. (These are the groups with the fewest votes and the least money with which to buy influence). I am assuming many of you are like me and have family members who fit in more than one of these groups. We have to look out.
To be fair, Sen. Moran has made an exception to the “deficits will ruin America” theme, and has cosponsored a bill in the Senate that would prevent the USPS from closing any post office that is more than 10 miles from the nearest other post office. (S 1668) I don’t know if this could get through Congress in time to save Damar, but if adopted, it could save post offices in other Western Kansas towns.
The Senate bill would not, however, solve the Post Office’s budget problems that bother so many in Washington. This is where Rep. Huelskamp could help, if he so desires, by backing certain legislation. There is a bill in the House (HR 1351) that would correct a budget problem that is driving the USPS books into the red. In 2006 Congress passed a bill that forced the Post Office to pay the next 75 years of retirees pensions in only 10 years. The Coast Guard, the FBI, nobody else does this. This has amounted to a $5.5 billion per year expense. Without this artificial expense on the books the USPS would show a profit and there would be less of a push to close small post offices in rural areas.
As of today, HR 1351 has 226 cosponsors, nearly enough to force it onto the floor for a vote. As I see it, Rep. Huelskamp has a choice; is he going to be a politician and stick to Tea Party dogma or is he going to be a representative by cosponsoring the bill and doing the right thing for Damar and the rest of Western Kansas?
AB Campbell
(Published in the Hays Daily News)