Interesting Items by Alex Gimarc, Mar 2005

1. Out Lawyered
2. Life
3. States Rights
4. Judges
5. Aftermath
6. Memo
7. Tobacco Sales

1. Out Lawyered. Online analysis into the case leading up to Terry Schiavo’s murder by the Florida Courts details the dangers of legal proceedings. According to a letter from a Florida attorney excerpted in Powerline over the weekend, it appears that her husband decided to kill her about two years before bringing the case before a court. He found a Hemlock Society-friendly lawyer, who knew a bunch of Hemlock Society-friendly doctors and specialists. He used a substantial portion of the $1 million plus malpractice settlement to line up the legal team, get the depositions and supportive documentation in place and then brought the case to court. Apparently he put together a substantial case and a formidable legal team. By the time this hit the courts, the Schindlers didn’t have a clue what they were up against and they, and their daughter got steamrolled in court. The trial progressed quickly and the judge accepted the assertions by Michael Schiavo’s legal team as finding of fact in the case. Once he accepted their assertions of her death wish as fact, the party was over. According to the lawyer, all future arguments were over narrow procedural issues, which the Schiavos and Terry have systematically lost. The tragedy is that Michael used money that he didn’t use for her therapy to kill her. Two other examples of getting out-lawyered were the successful fight and ultimate overturning of Florida Legislature actions in 2003. This fight took advantage of the liberal and activist Florida Supreme Court, which tossed the law as unconstitutional. The final fight happened midweek, as Governor Bush reportedly had the Florida Department of Children and Families enroute to seize Terry Schiavo and reinsert her feeding tube. Local cops tipped Michael’s lawyer who immediately went to Judge Greer for an injunction against such a seizure. Newsmax reported an argument between state law enforcement and the Department fo Children and Families agents that also stopped the action. This effectively stopped the last chance to save her life. We continue to pray for her soul.

2. Life. The actions of democrats and the (formerly) mainstream media during this case are instructive in what we are dealing with today. A few democrats from the Congressional Black Caucus, Tom Harkin (D, IA) and Joe Lieberman (D, CN) publicly supported congressional action. A large number of House democrats also supported life and voted in favor of congressional action a week ago. Most of the pro-death democrats seemed to believe the bogus polling created by the media in an attempt to generate support for court-sanctioned murder of this handicapped woman. The ACLU reportedly has a long-time relationship with Michael Schiavo’s lawyer, and has been working closely with the pro-death crowd to ensure she dies. NOW has been as quiet about this case as they were during Clinton’s second term. The media has been touting two Big Lies. The first is the notion that a dehydration death is serene, blissful and peaceful – which probably won’t meant that they will support dehydration as a way to execute murderers. The media has also been pedaling the notion that she has been on life support - which is an out and out lie. They used that notion as a lead-in series of questions to their polling that finds 70% opposition to congressional action in this case. The big story out of the media over the week was an attempt to paint this argument as an impending crackup of the Republican majority – and the media was positively gleeful at the prospect. They believe their manufactured polling and are salivating at the prospect of Republicans warring with one another over this terrible event. Which party is the party of life? Given the support for congressional action by hard-core leftists like Harkin and some of the Congressional Black Caucus and a number of House democrats, I would be more concerned about continued crackup of democrat party base than the conservatives.

3. State’s Rights. The other disingenuous argument trotted out by leftists is the notion of states’ rights. The same leftists and media that demand federal solutions for every single thing they don’t like at the state level have now turned around the argument and hide behind the right of a state judiciary to murder a defenseless handicapped woman. Nice job, guys.

4. Judges. This case has further elevated the tyranny of the judiciary as a big issue, for it was the lawyers and the judges that thumbed their noses at laws passed by the Florida legislature and Congress over the last few years. The elected representatives of the people, along with a governor and a President strongly support life. The judges and pro-death lawyers thumbed their noses at them all. The Florida legislature allowed their state judiciary to get out of control. They were thoroughly embarrassed in 2000 by the state Supreme Court during algore’s attempt to steal the election. They did not impeach anyone. They did not remove anyone from office. Today, they are faced with Judge George Greer, who has ignored a congressional subpoena, precipitously yanked a feeding tube, and ordered local cops and sheriffs to assist his court-ordered dehydration of an innocent. What will the Florida legislature do about their judges? Nothing? Anything?

5. Aftermath. This case has really energized the evangelicals and brought the issue of out of control judges front and center to the public. The Republican majority can use that energy to break the democrat filibuster of judicial nominations and start approving Bush judicial nominees. For the Schiavos, Judge Greer and Judge Whitmore, the future is a lot darker. There are numerous documents floating around produced by the court case over the course of the last eight years that are going to be dumped on the internet or compiled into a book – probably both. The general public is going to get to see precisely what Judge Greer used to make his decision that Terri Schiavo needed to be murdered. More importantly, they are going to get to see what he refused to consider. WorldNet Daily apparently has access to a 700-page case file produced by a complaint on her care by the Florida Department of Children and Families in 2001. That documentation and the 68-count complaint of potential criminal actions by Michael Schiavo that triggered it will also be released to the public. The pro-death crowd, the judiciary that is killing her, the cops that followed judicial orders rather than those of the executive or the legislature, the state bureaucrats that stopped investigations and conveniently lost case files, the hospice officials that doctored medical records, and the media that refused to investigate the case on any basis other than in support of a hard pro-death one are going to regret their actions, for the truth of all their actions will see the light of day. They can run, but they can not hide. Finally, the Schiavos and their legal team will end up like pariahs like OJ Simpson. There is a price to be paid for murder. These people will end up paying it.

6. Memo. Democrat senate staffers leaked a bogus memo to the media two weekends ago. The memo contained political talking points for congressional action, all to benefit congressional Republicans. The memo was immediately taken up by the (formerly) mainstream media, ABC & CBS, who breathlessly touted it as an example of shameless, brazen politicization of the issue. As it turns out, the memo was never seen by any Republican in the senate, and Republican staffers observed democrat staffers giving it to a reporter saying look what I found. Republican investigation by Senators Frist and McConnell traced it back to Harry Reid’s opposition research (and apparently dirty tricks) operation on the democrat side of the senate. Powerline did the initial investigation which was also picked up by FNC last weekend. Here’s a fun question: Where did Mary Mapes go to work after she was fired from CBS for dealing with forged documents? Maybe someone should check out who is working for Harry Reid and senate democrats.

7. Tobacco Sales. Matt Drudge Sunday night broke a story about an agreement between states’ attorney generals, the BATF and the major credit card companies that will bar credit card sales of tobacco online. The excuse used by the BATF is that online tobacco sales could be used as fundraising by terrorist organizations. Of course, the real reason for this agreement is the fact that people are using the Internet to bypass exorbitant state and local taxes on cigarettes and buy them tax-free from the reservations. Don’t know at this time the implications for cigar sales over the Internet.

1. Schiavo. Florida District Judge George Greer ordered the feeding and hydration tube removed from Terry Schiavo at 1:45 local time Friday afternoon. The court order came immediately the Judge told the Congress of the US to go straight to Hell after they subpoenaed Terry Schiavo, the Judge, her husband and her parents to appear before Congress and explain themselves. She has been dehydrating for the last three days. This contemptible action was sufficient to get Congress off the dime and to what the Florida State legislature was too weak to do – which was to pass legislation to save her life. All the Florida Legislature had to do was to pass legislation that would prohibit removal of feeding tubes from any incapacitated Floridian unless there was a signed and witnessed living will stating their wishes. The Legislature, whose inaction also precipitated the entry of the SCOTUS into the Florida 2000 recount fiasco, does not appear to have learned anything over the course of the last four years, for they have failed to solve this problem again. They did pass legislation which was found unconstitutional by Florida courts last year. They did not fix the difficulty. Nor did they express their displeasure by removing a few judges from office. The courts in Florida are running roughshod over governance in the state. It is long past time for both the legislature and the governor to reassert their supremacy. This argument is generally about life and death. It most specifically about out of control state judges, cowardly legislators, and cowardly federal judges. It is also about the culture of death, as the leftist supporters of this murder are giving her less consideration, less care, less rights as an American than they demand we give Al Qaida terrorists who actually murder innocents. We can’t torture, starve or dehydrate our enemies or convicted murderers. Yet we can starve and dehydrate an innocent. The media has been systematically misreporting the facts of this case. They refer to her as a persistent vegetative state. Yet if you see one of the few films of her smuggled out of hospice, she is not vegetative. She moves, responds to stimuli, and responds to others. There are intensive needs classrooms nationwide with some very involved children giving those kinds of reactions. If we start killing people via the legal system or via medical intervention who we deem unfit to live according to some specious claim of quality of life, Terry Schiavo won’t be the last one to die. Judge Greer has refused to consider a few minor details of her case. One detail is the curious timing of her death wish. Michael Schiavo, who won a malpractice judgment over a $1 million nearly 15 years ago, promised to use the money to care for her and rehabilitate her. In other words, he promised to use the money for therapy. She has received no therapy. According to her brother on FNC yesterday, Michael Schiavo first started talking about her death wish a mere 7 years ago, shortly after he received the check. While I am no fan of federal intervention of this nature, when the local politicians, judges and medical experts fail to do their jobs, congress as the representatives of the people has a duty to step in. I don’t like it, but I believe they’ve done the right thing for the right reasons and congratulate them on saving the life of an innocent. As to Judge Greer, I hope congress hauls him into jail on contempt of congress charge.

2. WMD. The New York Times a week ago ran a very interesting article blasting away at the Pentagon and US forces in Iraq for allowing WMD sites to be systematically looted during the war and for weeks afterwards. Although the article was written as if the removal of WMD, equipment and raw materials was a haphazard, chaotic looting of each site, if you read a bit farther into it, the removal was anything but chaotic. It reads like a military operation, coordinated, using cranes, lots of trucks, lots people over the course of several nights. Sounds a lot like someone executed a contingency plan. The article hid all this under incessant twittering about the possibility that machinery for enriching uranium, making nuclear weapons, chemical weapons and biologicals had been removed from the sites and taken out of the country. The high speed hairpin turn on the issue of whether or not Iraq was manufacturing WMD is breathtaking. The NYT and their parrots in the rest of the (formerly) mainstream media and throughout the democrat party have been claiming that “Bush lied” about the existence of Iraqi WMDs. Well folks, of they didn’t have them, they couldn’t loot them and remove them across a border. Sounds like Bush, the CIA, the Pentagon, and the administration officials that put this war together were correct all along and that the NYT and the democrats were lying all along. The most interesting part of this story was not the absolute failure of the rest of the media to take up this story over the weekend. It was rather the fact that the NYT felt the need to publish such a story at all. What are they expecting? Is there some news about to break in the very near future? Inquiring minds want to know. Limbaugh, Mon.

3. Steroids. Congress was in their element last week as they spent a day grandstanding before the cameras on the issue of steroid use in major league baseball. They brought several players in front of the cameras and asked questions. Joseph Biden (D, DE) was interviewed on Good Morning America Thursday morning and said the goal was to embarrass the living hell out of the players so they would reconsider their steroid use. The people on GMA thought that was a very good thing indeed. Contrast that reaction with the embarrassment and humiliation of Iraqi Baathists and foreign insurgents at Abu Ghraib. The guards were embarrassing and humiliating them – quite illegally – but in no way torturing them. According to Biden and the media it is all right to embarrass private citizens and not all right to do the same to captured enemy. Interesting dichotomy, that. Limbaugh, Thurs.

4. Shutdown. Senate democrats pitched a fit on the steps of the capital last week, as it became clear that a majority in the senate were prepared to change senate rules on filibustering judicial nominees. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D, NV) took a number of his fellow democrats out in front of the cameras and pleaded for help to fight the impending change in rules. It was a fine example of public whining. During the event, Reid threatened to shut down all business in the senate if the majority changed the rules on filibustering judicial nominees. Republicans are reportedly gleeful at the prospect, for they believe they can use an obstructionist democrat minority as a vehicle to further expand their majority in 2006. They need to be careful and not count their winnings before they happen. They have a sufficient majority to get the job done right now. Senate rules need to be changed immediately and they need to get down to business.

5. ANWR. The senate voted twice last week to open the coastal plain of ANWR to oil exploration. The vote was 51-49 both times, with four different Republicans voting against the opening each time. This is the first time since 1995 that ANWR has passed the Senate and it marks the first time since Spiro Agnew broke a 50-50 tie vote in the senate in favor of the Trans-Alaska pipeline in 1973 that we have the right combination of a congressional majority and a Republican president that we may just open another little part of Alaska for oil and natural gas development. To all those that supported this opening, we here in Alaska thank you. To the rest of you, please stay out of our business, unless of course you want the same sort of federal intrusion in the economic development of your states. Remember ANWR was taken by a lame duck congress and Jimmy Carter in the winter of 1980 just before Ronald Reagan and a new Republican majority in the senate was to be seated. The 19 million acre refuge is a relatively new thing, not something that has been around for a hundred years. It represents about 5% of the total acreage in the state. This is not the last vote on the subject, for the budget reconciliation bill will come back around several times before it makes its way to the president’s desk for signature.

1. Unions. Larry Kudlow took up a Washington Post report that the AFL/CIO and other union pension funds are pressuring their money management firms to drop out of a coalition supporting President Bush’s effort to privatize social security. So far, Waddell & Reed and Edward D. Jones have pulled out of the coalition, with Schwab and Wachovia being next up to bat. Kudlow decries this as dirty pool, which is it. However, it is even more some really hardball politics, in this case politics that puts the political interests of the union heads and their democrat party allies over the economic interests of their members. What happens when you change the foal of your investments from making the maximum amount of money over time to social or political goals? The first thing that happens is that you make less money. The second thing that happens is that you start spending money on transferring your assets from one money manager to another. Finally, you lose whatever you would have made during the time the funds are transferred. This loss is not a problem is the investment house is dong a bad job, as you improve your financial position by moving. It is a problem if the investment managers are doing a good job. Why would the unions fight social security reform when it really doesn’t touch them? They fight it for a number of reasons – some big and some small. They fight because it will further disempower democrats. More importantly, they fight it because it will tend to disempower the unions themselves, for if their members have control over their social security retirement accounts, it will only be a matter of time before they will want control over their union-managed pensions. Take the money out of Washington DC and you take power away from the politicians. Take the money out of the hands of the union leaders and you do the same thing. Kudlow’s Money Politic$.

2. Sacred. Limbaugh Friday had an interesting contrast on the defense of social security mounted by democrats and their allies in the media. Democrats are now claiming that social security as designed is sacred, inviolate and must never be changed, modified or adjusted (unless, of course they are the ones doing the violating). Remember that this is a 70-year old government program. Does anyone out there believe that a 70 year old government program must never be touched after generations of operation. Contrast that reaction in support of social security, the 70-year old government program with their reaction to the constitution itself. The constitution is not sacred at all. It must grow with the times. It must hew to pubic opinion – especially the public opinion in Europe (according to Justice Kennedy). Interesting we can do whatever we want to do to the constitution via judicial fiat or congressional malfeasance, yet we are completely unable to touch a simple government program created under the auspices of that very constitution.

3. Prayer. The Islamist pressure group CAIR is now going after Dell Computers in Tennessee for refusing to allow their loading dock people to take time off work during the working day for their evening prayer to Mecca. Dell does not offer any religious accommodation to any of their employees as a matter of company policy, yet CAIR demands exactly that for Dell’s Muslims on the loading dock. Contrast this story, written in terms dripping with unctuous demand for tolerance for the Muslims with the ongoing battle over San Diego’s 43 foot tall cross. This cross is the target of local atheists who have conducted a 15-year long battle to remove it. Congress recently intervened with legislation that allows the land with the cross on it to be transferred to the National Parks Service. That legislation was signed by the President. The San Diego municipally attorney gave the city council an opinion that the transfer was an illegal violation of separation of church and state and recommended against the transfer. The city council voted to accept that opinion and turned down the federal offer. It looks like they are going to get to cut the cross down as yet another victory for tolerance, inclusion and religious liberty for everyone other than Christians. The cross is a part of a war memorial and has been around in one form or the other on that same hill for nearly 90 years. Michelle Malkin, Mon.

4. Tuition. There was a report that the Arizona legislature was moving a bill to charge illegals with out of state tuition at state colleges and universities. This reported legislation is in line with a number of state legislatures who are systematically removing incentives for illegals to come into their states. The state of Virginia has passed similar legislation. Supporters of full rights and benefits for illegal immigrants are blaming much of the reaction to 9-11 fallout. I disagree. The reaction is against the federal courts, who have decided to hand the keys to the treasury to illegals via series of outrageous rulings over the course of the last couple decades.

5. Schiavo. A California businessman put $1 million in trust with an offer to pay it out immediately to Michael Schiavo if he would relinquish his guardianship of his handicapped wife. This offer was a real test for Michael, for if it were all about the money, he would have taken it up immediately. If it were all about Terry, he would not have been in common-law marriage with his girlfriend and fathered two children with her. Unfortunately, this seems to be all bout killing Terry, for he contemptuously turned down the offer. In related news, Judge Greer, the trial judge who has found in support of Michael Schiavo’s efforts to kill his wife, tossed requests by the state of Florida for additional time to investigate allegations of abuse by Michael Schiavo while his wife was in his care. This prompted calls by her parents for his impeachment and removal from the state Bench. Legislation is moving through Congress and the Florida Legislature to prohibit judicially ordered death by starvation of people who cannot feed themselves. Greer’s stay on the removal of the feeding tube expires Friday, so the week will be pretty busy. Prayers for her are in order.

6. ANWR. Five Republican Senators and two Cabinet Secretaries spent three days on the Alaska North Slope last week. The road show was intended to build support for opening ANWR to oil development. Invited democrat senators refused the trip. They were also unnamed. While most photos and films of ANWR broadcast over recent years show the height of the summer season when mosquitoes are thick and the animals are running freely, this visit during the latter stages of winter found brilliant sunlight, 2500 feet of permafrost, a white, windy wasteland, where you couldn’t tell where ANWR ended and the Arctic Ocean began. To their credit, FNC showed films of the visit over two successive nights. No other major or cable network showed any film of the visit (to the best of my knowledge), further cementing the fiction that ANWR is a naturalist’s dream location in the mind of our neighbors who don’t pay attention. By weeks’ end, it appeared that language opening ANWR was going to be inserted as part of the budget resolution in the Senate, which will only require 51 votes, and prohibit filibusters. This is as close as we have been to opening ANWR since Clinton vetoed it in 1995. We will hope the Good Guys who want to drill, build roads, well pads and pipelines, actually win.

7. Churchill. Leftist rabble rouser and tenured Ethnic Studies professor Ward Churchill fended off yet another charge, this one of plagiarism and making personal threats against a female Prof last week. The new charges apparently derailed an attempt by CU Boulder to put together a buyout package worth several hundred thousands of dollars. In the new allegations, the female Prof, of another University, said Churchill “appropriated” an essay she wrote on Native American issues while he was an editor of a collection of essays over a decade ago. He later republished the essay under his own name without giving her any credit. When she privately complained, he threatened her with bodily and professional harm unless she kept quiet. Such is are the ethics, honor and integrity of the poster boy of American campus leftists today. CU Boulder has long been a very, very PC university. It appears that those chickens have come home to roost (credit to Ward Churchill for the ironic analogy).

1. Schiavo. The State of Florida officially entered the Terry Schiavo case with an investigation into abuse by her husband while serving as her court-appointed guardian. The complaint was unsealed last week as the state asked for 60 days to investigate allegations against Michael Schiavo. If you look at this case as a handicapper case rather than a right to die case, you can start applying some of the standards that have been developed over the last several years for care of the profoundly handicapped. For instance, intentionally withholding doctor ordered / recommended Physical Therapy . Occupational Therapy (PT/OT) can be defined as abuse of the patient. Additionally, Michael Schiavo has been living with another woman and has fathered at least two children with her over the course of the last 15 years. Yet he refuses to get divorced from Terry. The presiding judge refuses to take this into consideration. Is this not a clear conflict of interest ? Finally, the state of Florida has written into statute language prohibiting euthanasia, mercy killing, or anything related. State law comes down solidly on the side of life. Yet the trial judge refuses to enforce those state statutes. We will see if the new investigation is enough to remove her death sentence. Isn’t it ironic that the Governor of Florida, with life and death power over a convicted criminal facing execution is unable to pardon a complete innocent whose only crime is to become inconvenient to someone tired of caring for her?

2. FEC. FEC Commissioner Bradford Smith sent shockwaves through the online community over the weekend with a warning that the FEC was preparing to write rules to regulate blogs and the Internet for political speech under the excuse of McCain-Feingold. The warning came as a result of democrat members of the FEC refusing to appeal a court opinion last year during the height of the presidential campaign that tossed out FEC rules regulating political speech. The FEC intended to appeal the decision. Democrats on the Commission didn’t want to do so and blocked the appeal via a 3-3 tie vote. I believe the cat is out of the bag on this one, and that the democrats, the (formerly) mainstream media and their lackeys sitting on the federal bench will not be able to control the net. If the old Soviets, with total control over everything inside the old Soviet Union couldn’t control the samizdat, who were communicating via fax, note and word of mouth, who out there thinks leftists over here can political speech on the internet ? Still, such an action would be a lot of fun to watch, and would further serve to destroy all credibility for democrats and leftists sitting on the federal bench. In the words of their boy, the French-looking John Kerry (who served in Vietnam and claimed to run weapons to the Khmer Rouge) Bring it on !

3. SCOTUS. The week saw further analysis of the tortured logic of a 5-4 majority that usurped the ability of state legislators and governors to define the death penalty for minors. The case these rocket scientists chose was priceless. The perps, led by a 17-year old wanted to kill someone just for fun. One of the selling points used by the 17 year old to the 15 and 14 year olds who accompanied him was that nothing could happen to any of them for committing the murder because they were all minors. It turns out they were right. The lady kidnapped was bound, duct taped and beaten. She partially escaped. She was bound, duct taped and beaten worse, hauled up a bridge and tossed into a rive in Missouri, where she drowned. The perps went back and bragged about the crime. They were eventually caught, confessed and were convicted. The 17 year old was sentenced to death. The case was appealed to the MO Supreme Court which voted 7-0 to uphold the death sentence. A few years later, after the composition of the court had changed (due to democrat governors) and the court voted 4-3 to overturn the conviction. Note that this appeal and opinion overruled an existing SCOTUS opinion nearly 16 years ago that refused to define execution of minors as cruel and unusual. This then, was the case the SCOTUS took up as a vehicle to attack the death penalty. The real change in this opinion was Justice Kennedy’s, who changed his mind and opinion over the course of the last 16 years. He voted then that the death penalty was best decided by the states and their elected officials. Perhaps he has spent too much time schmoozing with the Washington party scene or with his friends in Europe, neither of which likes the death penalty. Kennedy, who was Reagan’s replacement after the democrat senate conducted their hatchet job on Robert Bork in 1987, based his opinion not on settled law, the US Constitution, or the Federalist. He based the opinion on public opinion, European opinion, the unratified UN Convention on the Rights of Children and another ungratified treaty. Basically, the majority is saying that those under 18 are not sufficiently mature enough to understand the gravity of committing a capital crime. However, this very same group of educated yahoos believes any 12-year old is more than sufficiently mature enough to wander into a Planned Parenthood clinic and murder her unborn baby. You can do one or the other. But you can’t do both. It long past time for our elected representatives to put some real severe limits on these usurping wannabee legislators. Limbaugh, Weds.

4. Nazis. Former KK Kleagle Robert Byrd (D, WV) took to the floor of the senate last week with a long rambling speech that eventually compared the impending Republican rules change in the senate to the action of the Nazis after taking power in Germany in the 1930s. Neither Byrd nor the (formerly) mainstream media coverage of the rant mentioned that Byrd had done precisely such a rules change in the late 1970s in the face of Republican filibusters of democrat legislation. The Weekly Standard discussed it at length in an online article. A commentator over the weekend on FNC noted that when the other side starts calling you Nazis, they have lost the argument. We will see if senate Republicans have the stomach to prevail in this fight. They had better.

5. Social Security. The weeks’ top story was a report that top congressional Republicans Bill Frist (R, TN) in the senate and Tom DeLay (R, TX) in the House were caving into democrat and media pressure and we weren’t going to get any legislation regarding Social Security reform this session. Not so fast. It turns out that their comments were completely misreported, that the media lied about what they had said early last week. Both went before the cameras and promised action this year. Frist went to the floor of the senate to make his point. Here in Anchorage, the local paper, the Anchorage Daily “Worker” (News), one of the McClatchy families of papers run out of Sacramento, has been running a series of articles, letters, and Lifestyle section stories blasting away at the notion of private accounts. They have not received much opposition to date. We had better be engaged. The leftists know this particular fight is for all the marbles and they will fight to the death. We must not be drawn into a green-eyeshade argument about deficits, payouts, and related accounting minutiae. We have to craft the argument in terms of its basics and ask a few reasonable questions: Who do you want to be in charge of your retirement – you or the politicians in Washington DC? If you want to be in charge, personal accounts fall out of the argument by definition. Our side must stay away from raising the cap on income levels paying payroll taxes, for this would be a tax increase on small businesses of historic proportions and as such hugely detrimental to future growth of the economy. It would also be viewed – rightly – by conservatives as a tax increase, and they would stay home in future elections. Another part of the solution would be to start walking the retirement age away from 65 for Boomers. Jacking it up to 75 over the course of the next 20 years would be a reasonable thing to do. Finally, benefits need to be frozen (at best – and not likely) or tied to the inflation rate (not great, but workable) rather than to the rise in wage rates. It is important for our side of the argument not to be reluctant to go for the gold and go for maximum private accounts as a large component to a final solution. The private accounts can also be tied into the tax reform effort underway and strengthened so they are completely transferable, uncapped, untaxed, and unlimited in donations by their owner, the American taxpayer. The fight has been joined. The stupid party – the party of freedom rather than fear – should belly up to the bar and win it decisively.

"If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen."
- Samuel Adams, speech at the Philadelphia State House, August 1, 1776.

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