Category: local leaders

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Accountability folly government transparency incumbents local leaders responsibility term limits

Incumbent Upon Heaven

Markwayne Mullin, term limits, lies, Oklahoma, politicians, lie

Many who pledged to limit their terms in Congress have gotten elected and, then … actually kept their word. Yet, with the temptations of power, combined with the acute narcissism of politicians, not a few have flung their honor aside to break their promise.

Four years ago, Oklahoma Congressman Markwayne Mullin was a challenger, “who pledged repeatedly … not to serve more than six years in the House.” Okie voters limited their congressional reps to three terms (six years) via a ballot initiative back in 1994. Of course, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down that and 22 other state-​imposed congressional term limits laws just a year later.

NewsOK​.com reporter Chris Casteel asked Rep. Mullin if this coming term would, as Mullin vowed, be his last.

A simple yes or no question, eh?

Well, the incumbent’s response was less than unequivocal, “leaving open the possibility that he may run for a fourth term,” Casteel reported.

“Our position on this has not changed,” read Mullin’s official statement. “However, Christie and I will continue to seek the Lord’s guidance and do what is best for our family and the 2nd District of Oklahoma. The only election I am focused on right now is in 2016.”

Hmmm. Do you recall the Lord ever guiding anyone to break his word to the people?

What a dodge!

Mullin is like a burglar announcing, “I’m not sure if I’m going to rob your home when I get out of jail. That’s too far off in the future. But I’m seeking spiritual advice about it.”

Come to think of it, incumbent politicians and burglars have quite a lot in common.

But not Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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Markwayne Mullin, term limits, lies, Oklahoma, politicians, lie

 

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Accountability general freedom government transparency local leaders porkbarrel politics tax policy term limits

The Reign of Trickery

Arkansas State Senator, Jon Woods, tricks, deceive, elections, Common Sense

Arkansas State Sen. Jon Woods’s reign of trickery is ending. As reported Monday, he has chosen not to seek another term in the legislature.

It’s ironic. Woods defrauded Arkansas voters with a deceptively worded 2014 ballot measure. His successful scam weakening term limits allows him to stay in the Senate for 16 years, instead of just eight. But now, angry voters won’t allow Woods another term.

At least, that sure appears to be the case.

If voters in next year’s March primary could possibly be as uninformed about Woods’s record as they were about last November’s Issue 3, he would have gotten away with it. But Woods has made enemies: term limits supporters and Conduit for Action, a group sharply critical of him for gutting the Arkansas Ethics Commission, to identify two. He not unreasonably fears they would communicate with his constituents.

In effect, “tell on him.”

Fool the voters once, shame on Woods. Fool the voters twice … well … ’tain’t going to happen. That’s not to say the sly schemer didn’t have another unethical, underhanded, anti-​democratic trick up his sleeve. Of course he did.

“I’ve had serious conversations with my family about leaving … since April,” Woods told reporters. Yet, the incumbent didn’t bother to announce publicly that he was vacating the seat until the November weekend before a Monday filing deadline.

Seeking to pick his replacement, Woods informed insiders of his intentions, while leaving the rest of his district in the dark until it was too late.

Luckily, Justice of the Peace Sharon Lloyd, had already stepped up to challenge Woods — and his insider political games.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

 

P.S. Circumventing meaningful elections to provide a leg-​up to a crony by waiting until the last moment to announce a retirement, as Sen. Woods did, happens far too often. It’s another good argument for term limits.

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Arkansas State Senator, Jon Woods, tricks, deceive, elections, Common Sense

 

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Accountability general freedom government transparency initiative, referendum, and recall local leaders nannyism porkbarrel politics term limits

Cheaters Never Prosper

Arkansas State Senator, Jon Woods, term limits, Arkansas, pay raise, disgrace, election, illustration

“I want to go home,” Arkansas State Senator Jon Woods whimpered.

The poor, pitiful politician — announcing he would not seek election to another legislative term — cried that he had not “been fishing with [his] brother in a year.”

“I have friends in my district who I miss,” he further lamented.

Before reaching for a tissue, realize that the legislator lives a little over three hours from the capitol in Little Rock and the legislature has only been in session for about 100 days in the last two years.

Certainly, that Senator Woods has any friends left is news — at least, non-​lobbyist, non-​legislator friends.

Woods infamously authored Issue 3, which narrowly passed last year and is now Amendment 94 to the state constitution.

Woods tricked voters by wording the ballot title to claim it was “PROHIBITING MEMBERS OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY … FROM ACCEPTING GIFTS FROM LOBBYISTS.” But now, lobbyists buy legislators lunch pretty much every day.

He misleadingly told voters the amendment was “ESTABLISHING TERM LIMITS FOR MEMBERS OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY,” when in reality term limits were weakened, allowing pols like Woods to stay a whopping 16 years in a single seat.

The slippery solon’s amendment also created a so-​called Independent Citizens Commission — a majority appointed by legislative leaders — that has since rewarded legislators with a whopping 150 percent pay raise.

The Arkansas Times’s Max Brantley called it “strange” that the “full-​time legislator … would drop out of the race at this point.” Now that it’s time to face the voters with all his mighty “accomplishments,” the senator decides “to start a new chapter in [his] life.”

Dejected, befuddled, limping home as a martyr to crony politics, Woods knows he can’t win.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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Arkansas State Senator, Jon Woods, term limits, Arkansas, pay raise, disgrace, election, illustration

 

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Common Sense individual achievement initiative, referendum, and recall local leaders

The Year You Made Us More Free

More important than which party controls the U.S. Senate, or which nine people don Supreme Court robes, or even who will be elected president of these United States come 2016, is something much more within our individual and collective control: what you and I do to protect and advance liberty.

From this date — January 1, 2015 — forward, let us never wait for a political savior to ride in on a white horse. We cannot wait.

And we don’t have to.

In fact, only through “We the People” taking the leadership role can a pro-​liberty agenda be established. Politicians won’t do it for us, not consistently.

Yet, the few might follow our good lead.

And we can hopefully make all politicians respond to the issues that define the future of freedom.

Starting right now, as president of the Liberty Initiative Fund, I ask you: join me in placing a three-​plank pro-​liberty platform on state and local ballots and, thereby into law and government policy across the country, between now and November 8, 2016.

Hold government accountable. Pass term limits in more cities and states. Fix out-​of-​control public employee pensions. Enact ethics reforms.

Fight crony capitalism. Create a voter check on public subsidies. Protect citizens from eminent domain abuse. Open up business entry.

Protect our liberties. Clean up law enforcement with measures that stop the highway robbery known as civil asset forfeiture, require police to wear lapel cameras, and mandate independent prosecutors in fatal or violent incidents involving police.

We can create better government, a freer marketplace and a safer society.

Gandhi said: “We must become the changes we seek in the world.”

I say, “At least, let’s put our changes on the ballot and give them a fighting chance.”

There will never be a patronage army for liberty. But there is you and me. And since we agree . . . we might be able do something about it.

We’re strong enough to start.

These battles appeal to libertarians, conservatives, liberals, progressives.

I’m reminded of Patrick Henry’s 1775 “Give Me Liberty” speech:

They tell us, sir, that we are weak; unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? …

Sir, we are not weak if we make a proper use of those means which the God of nature hath placed in our power. The millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us.

Mr. Henry was talking about cataclysmic historical forces, the defeat of the world’s foremost empire. So are we, in a way.

This nation of shopkeepers, the common folks with common sense and common decency, must again battle the Empire of Big Government. And let me advance the notion that we are up to that awesome task.

Every New Year’s Day I reflect on the words of author and politician, Marianne Williamson, who in her book, Return to Love, wrote:

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

Let’s work together to make 2015 the year we helped create an America more free. Call me (571 – 659-​2320) or email me (paul@​libertyifund.​org) if you want to take action in your city or state.

Or help by contributing funds to others working all across the country.

Oh, wait! Don’t call me today; I’m watching college football. But please call me (or email) tomorrow, Friday, Jan. 2, 2015. If I’m busy, or talking to someone who dialed me a minute earlier, leave a message (that’s just, ahem, common sense) — I’ll call you back.

Let’s take charge and usher in change together, at the grassroots, this year.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Categories
general freedom local leaders

Charity T‑Tissue

As the year unrolls, maybe we should take some time to celebrate the little things in life that matter so much.

For reasons I am sure we can all understand, we don’t talk about toilet tissue much. But it is, nevertheless, one of the great products of our civilization.

Can you imagine living without it?

Well, for many poor people, and certainly for the vast throngs of unemployed in our ever-​lengthening depression, sometimes it’s hard to afford even a little nicety/​necessity like that.

Danny Westneat, writing in the Seattle Times, tells us of Leon Delong, who for the last 15 years has been collecting unused, “stub” rolls of toilet tissue from the janitors of the Evergreen City’s toniest skyscrapers, and giving them to food banks and pantries. For charity.

The ritzier places dare not risk a toilet roll running out. So the janitorial staff at these office buildings replace rolls every night. And were left with half-​used/​three-​quarters-​used tissue rolls.

Perfectly usable. But not suitable for those businesses that feared leaving any single restroom customer in an uncomfortably tissue-​less condition. First rule: Avoid panic-​inducing situations.

So, after retiring, Delong collected these stub rolls and made it his vocation to deliver them to the charities — where they went like “T‑bone steaks.”

He’s now retiring from this charitable work, for health reasons, but can take pride in his moniker, “The Toilet Paper Guy.”

Others plan to fill his role.

It goes to show: There are many opportunities out there to do good. Some quite unexpected.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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local leaders term limits

Saving Term Limits

Most ballot measures to enact term limits triumph. According to U.S. Term Limits, 100 percent of such measures did so in last November’s elections. Voters also rebuff most attempts to weaken or repeal term limits.

But not all.

Politicians who loathe term limits often use all their resources and cunning to assail them. Occasionally they claw out a victory. Thus, last month Arkansas voters narrowly approved a multi-​deceptive ballot measure with provisions to weaken the state’s legislative term limits. The measure passed despite everything pro-​term-​limit activists could do to expose the dirty tricks.

On the other hand, anti-​term-​limits forces in Prince Georges County, Maryland narrowly failed to flabbify term limits from two four-​year terms to three four-​year terms despite generous funding of the anti-​term-​limits campaign (primarily by local developers).

Much of the credit for saving Prince Georges term limits goes to University of Maryland sophomore Shabham Ahmed, creator of nothreeterms​.com, who campaigned relentlessly against the measure. Ahmed believes that the vote was close only because some voters misunderstood what the measure would do; voters “do get caught up in the political propaganda.”

“People are tired of politicians in our county as it is,” she says. “Extending term limits would only increase the likelihood of creating a regime in politics, and voters don’t want that.”

No, we don’t.

But the politicians want that. And they’re not done yet.

Fortunately for the residents of Prince Georges County, defenders of term limits like Shabham Ahmed aren’t either.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.