First Principles

The original Conservatives were very concerned with what words meant, and how they were used.

When asking the question, “Is the Taxpayer Protection Pledge Conservative?”, once must first know what the pledge says, and know what we mean by “Conservative.”  I’ve written about the later for years, but if you need a review on my starting point, you can find it here.

The short version, though, is that “Conservatives” are “conserving” the Enlightenment principles of the supremacy of individual liberty, with government’s legitimate role being to protect the life, liberty, and economic opportunity of those individuals.  Conservative government policy, then, should work to protect and promote individual liberty.  Therefore, if the Tax Pledge does not have the effect of maximizing individual liberty within a society, it’s not “Conservative” in any recognizable sense.

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So – what is the pledge?  Here it is, in its entirety:

I, ________________________, pledge to the taxpayers of the _______ District of the state of ____________________ and all the people of this state that I will oppose and vote against any and all efforts to increase taxes.

“Taxes” is not defined in the pledge.  Certainly regular, no kidding things like property taxes apply.  Do user fees, for say, State Park entry count?  DMV fees?  Bridge or road tolls?  What about fines for felonies?  Traffic tickets?  Court filing fees?  What about expenses like public school uniforms?

How about public debt?  [Read more →]

I was pretty worried all the clouds that piled up this afternoon would make the Venus transit impossible for me to see, but I got him just in time to catch a cloud break.  I was able to use my trusty sextant that I used to photograph the recent solar eclipse to see the planet in front of the sun, but I thought it would be too bright to capture an image.  But here it is, overexposed though it may be!

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When it comes to political hot points in conservative political circles in Nevada, the Grover Norquist/Americans for Tax Reform “Taxpayer Protection Pledge” may be the most singularly significant.  It has become, for some, THE litmus test for who a “real” conservative is and isn’t.  But is that fair?  Does the pledge make sense politically, policy-wise, or philosophically?

This blog was conceived specifically to answer questions like that, and now – with several Republican primary races pitting Pledge-signers against non-Pledge signers (both arguing over who the “true conservative” is) – is as good a time as any to explore this issue.

This is often painted as a “pragmatist vs. purist” argument – but I think that is too glib, especially for something as complicated as tax policy.  And it lets both signers and non-signers off the hook when it comes to truly understanding – and explaining to their constituents! – the complex budget bills they’re considering.

I’m going to explore this on multiple fronts and in multiple posts to follow, but the bottom line is this – the Pledge is an un-serious document, poorly tailored to promote sound, conservative economic policy.

Brought to you in part by the Taxpayer Protection Pledge?

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Today, of course, we here in northern Nevada were lucky enough to be in the path of an annular solar eclipse.  If you’re really into the science of it, here’s a great article.  Since I’m not as smart as Ethan Siegel, though (which is why I blog about politics instead of astrophysics), I’ll just share some pretty cool pictures (if I do say so) I shot of the event from my back yard.

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There was a lot of news today about the continuing implosion of the State GOP.  The Clark County (Vegas) Central Committee voted to condemn the RNC chair for (gasp!) supporting the (yes, “the”) Republican Presidential candidate, erroneously claiming rules were violated.  Outside conservative organizations like Americans for Prosperity are overtly announcing themselves as alternatives to sane Republicans looking to invest their time and money to actually elect Republicans.  And the RNC/Romney Campaign very obviously deliberately leaked their plans today to completely bypass the state party.

In one more blow, I learned today that Reno attorney David O’Mara, who has contributed his legal services to the State party since 2004, sent a letter to the state party informing them that he would no longer make himself or his firm available to the State GOP.  O’Mara successfully defended the state party against a pointless lawsuit from a few Ron Paul supporters in 2008, and often provided his legal acumen to the party at little or no cost.  He was “on call” for the party, even when another general counsel had been appointed.  Not only is he a great lawyer, but he has a tremendous amount of institutional knowledge about the party itself, local political players, and the state’s legal culture.

McDonald and Company might be able to replace the legal services IF they can find the money to do it, but that would, of course, take tens of thousands of dollars away from other things the party might want to spend money on (like rent and staff and voter registration efforts).  But election law is an area very few Nevada attorneys are experienced with, and finding someone with those skills who are also sympathetic to the Ron Paul campaign personality cult would probably be a pretty tough job.  And you can’t replace the experience and knowledge O’Mara has, no matter how much money you spend. Not anytime soon, anyway.

I wonder – did the Ron Paul goofballs who “took over” the party and “overthrew the Establishment” understand that this is what they were throwing away? I get the urge to shake things up, but you still have a mission to accomplish.  How many other David O’Maras did they drive away?  Who did they think they were going to get to replace the lawyers and secretaries and fundraisers and accountants and PR people and donors they drove out as being “too Establishment”?

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The implosion of the state party is happening faster and furiouser that I thought possible.  And in a way, this is giving me cause for hope.

Either this is a goose being cooked in a pan or a phoenix rising from the ashes. Either one is a potential symbol for the State GOP - let's hope we pick the right interpretation.

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Today on Nevada Newsmakers we had a spirited discussion about the unemployment rate, with a claim that the number of jobs has actually been increasing under President Obama.  (You can see the full panel discussion here – it was much feistier than usual!)  I threw out some rough approximation of stats during the debate (you never know what’s going to come up), but thought they were worth following up with in some detail here.

Our unemployment rate is officially dropping, but the economy isn’t adding enough jobs to keep up with new entrants into the workforce – a net loss.  It’s only because so many potential productive workers are just dropping out of the economy altogether that the math works out for the administration.  The bottom line from the Washington Post?

If the same percentage of adults were in the workforce today as when Barack Obama took office, the unemployment rate would be 11.1 percent. If the percentage was where it was when George W. Bush took office, the unemployment rate would be 13.1 percent.

The Washington Post gives some demographic excuses for this, but even they have to admit that it’s bad for the economy.  And it’s not what President Obama and his supporters are claiming – they’re claiming the jobs picture is getting better and the economy more productive, when neither claim is accurate.

Ed Morrissey has a great roundup on this issue in The Financial Times as well, with more stats and charts.  Here’s the guts of it, though.

But what about the claim that this is all a result of public sector layoffs (Aiieee!!!  Scary Austerity!!!)?

[Read more →]

Ron Paul supporters in Nevada had their crowning achievement this weekend – they “took over” the state party.  It took them four years of planning, coordination, and subterfuge, but they won a smashing victory over the weekend by sticking it to “The Establishment”.

And in doing so, they (at best) did nothing.  At worst, they immeasurably damaged the cause of liberty in this state, and indeed, perhaps the entire nation.

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Some commentators, like the Reno Gazette-Journal’s editorial today, have risably claimed that the Ron Paul contingent “understands the dynamics of party politics better than the party rank and file”.  But this is simply untrue, because the Paul people forgot the underlying purpose of the party in the first place.  What they did was the equivalent of singing a song in a foreign language you don’t know – you can learn to mimic the sounds perfectly, but that doesn’t mean you understand the meaning of the lyrics.

Ron Paul state campaign chair Carl Bunce proudly says that his people are "driving the car" now that they've caught it. Does he know they're driving it off the cliff?

Let’s review.  The purpose of a political party is to help candidates from that party win elections.  Period.  If you can’t influence election outcomes, you are irrelevant in politics and policy debates.  Party members, committees, and delegates don’t set tax rates, ratify treaties, confirm judges, pass or repeal regulations, produce budgets, select cabinet appointments, or in any other way directly control the actual policies which govern our everyday lives and our economic futures.

The only way a party influences actual policy is if it influences elections.  The only way for a party to do that is to have power and influence over who runs and who can get elected.  Traditionally, parties do that by raising money for candidates, and by making themselves indispensable to the actual job of winning an election via volunteers, influence, credibility, and resources like walk lists, voter rolls, and precinct maps.

The Ron Paul Revolutionaries, however have shown a remarkable INability to accomplish any of the things that influences candidates.  Consider: [Read more →]

The goal of my last post on the Ron Paul Campaign’s exhortations to lie, cheat, and steal was to shine as bright a light as possible on their dishonorable and ultimately self destructive tactics.  I’m not alone amongst principled conservatives – Ned Barnett in particular has been doing yeoman’s work in ferreting out the hypocrisy of these perpetually aggrieved, self-entitled, ends-justify-the-means thugs.  I’m glad to say those efforts seem to have been successful, and judging from my comments section explosion, there are a lot of upset Paul fans out there who are spending a lot of time trying to intimidate me into silence while unintentionally helping make my point.

You could argue that the Paul campaign’s delegate strategy is odious and unethical, but that at least they’re “playing by the rules.”  (Paul supporters are the first to scream bloody murder if another candidate plays the insider rules to their advantage, but when the Paul folks do it they’re JUST like the Founding Fathers (cue eye roll here).)

But then I saw this article from Ray Hagar, in which the Paul Campaign (not some random supporter, the state campaign chair) all but announced they would be ignoring even that fig leaf of legitimacy.

[Read more →]

So there we were, watching a nice PSA on how not to judge or bully our fellow high school kids (or maybe it was Terminator: 90210), and BAM!

Sigh.

Remember, folks. We borrowed money from China to pay the people who put this together, edited it, and cleared it for the airwaves. Maybe next time we can just recycle some old School House Rock – we seem to need to go back to some basics…

I’m sure similar attention to detail will be applied when these folks fully take over our health care system.

(In the interests of full disclosure, I must admit that I made that same spelling error so often in law school that I finally set up a custom auto-correct to fix it.  But then, I probably would have spell checked my notes if I was going to, like, put them on TV or something…)

I recently received an E-mail from a disaffected Ron Paul supporter that Nevada Paul Campaign Chair Carl Bunce recently sent out to his supporters.  The long and the short of it is that it’s a battle plan which encourages Paul folks to lie to pollsters to “fool” the Romney campaign, in order to make it easier to shock-’n'-awe their way to a Ron Paul National Convention slate.  It’s full of paranoia about information control (Hah!  Fail!) and secrecy, with a nice dab of Personality Cult for Doctor Paul.

Well, secret’s out, you dishonest goofballs.  Everyone knows your game.

[Read more →]

Party That Allegedly Opposes Unethical Payoffs to Political Cronies With Taxpayer Dollars Elects Unethical Tax-dollar Wasting Crony “Capitalist” to Lead Party

Taken in the kindest possible light, new GOP Chair Michael McDonald’s past and current “property development” activities proves that he’s all for government-forced redistribution of wealth.  A more honest assessment would be that he’s all about brazenly using positions of political power to enrich himself and/or his friends at taxpayer expense to the tune of millions of dollars.

Either way, he’s EVERYTHING the Tea Party Movement – and conservatism generally – is supposed to be against.  And yet he was elected supposedly as the tea party, anti-establishment, “true conservative” option to chair the Nevada Republican Party.  How did this happen?

[Read more →]

A few months ago, I was seriously considering Newt Gingrich for my caucus vote.  But then he came out with his absurd and dangerous suggestion that the political branches of government have the power to haul federal judges before boards of inquiry, and that they be subject to impeachment if we don’t like their legal analyses.  I wrote a post excoriating the former Speaker for that position.  And ultimately that, coupled with his petulant breakdowns after a series of primary/caucus losses and his attack on Romney’s wealth from the left, was pretty much the end of any serious consideration from me of Newt.

Fast forward to now, when President Obama is picking a very public fight with Supreme Court before they even render a decision on Obamacare.  It’s clear how right I was to be so hard on Gingrich.  [Read more →]

My friend Elizabeth Crum shared a press release the other day from the “Ron Paul Nevada Team,” bragging about their continuing “takeover” of the state Republican party.  I have to ask – what’s their point?

Fortunately, like all would-be-tyrants, they’re pretty open about it:

“Republicans understand Ron Paul is the only candidate who can challenge status quo candidate Mitt Romney, defeat Obama, and Restore America Now.  Proof of this is ordinary citizens including first-time political activists investing their time to become the delegates required to win Dr. Paul the GOP nomination,” [said Ron Paul 2012 National Campaign Chairman Jesse] Mr. Benton.

[Read more →]

Without further ado, let’s trace out the rest of the badassiest bracket!

Sweet Sixteen

The (16) Mississippi Valley State Delta Devils over the (5) Wichita State Shockers

The Shockers had a great run, but dirty-minded chutzpah can only take you so far.  You can’t out-dirty-mind the devil, after all. [Read more →]

The badass wheat is starting to be separated from the lame-ass chaff – but who will be the badassiest of them all?

South Region

The (16) Mississippi Valley State Delta Devils over the (8) Iowa State Cyclones

A fire manipulating Cajun Imp is pretty badass, but one of the most destructive and unpredictable forces of nature might give MVSU a run for their demonic money.  But that damn bird sitting on top saps too much badassity – it would be like putting a clown nose on Darth Vader.

The (5) Wichita State Shockers over the (13) New Mexico State Aggies

Gun or lasso, the Aggies just can’t overcome the ongoing ballsiness of Wichita’s state’s filthy minded nickname.  [Read more →]

It’s March Madness time once again, and again we here at First Principles are committed to providing you the best sports analysis anywhere.

Oh, wait.  This is a political blog.  And I’m a terrible sports fan – a “low information” sports fan, if you will.  Which is why I like to base my predictions on the most important factor possible – the badassitude of each team’s mascot.

“Badassity” is a determination borne of many factors.  “Who would win in a fight” matters, but isn’t the end-all.  I give significant consideration to uniqueness, history, and logo/costume design.  (Not all “Bulldogs” are created equal, as you will see.)  I also rely on the time honored judicial rule of stare decisis, which means precedent from previous years will generally be controlling.

(In case you’re curious, here’s 2011, 2009, and 2008.  Don’t ask about 2010…)

So without further ado, here’s the first two rounds!

The First (Play-In) Round

The (16) Mississippi Valley State Delta Devils over the (16) Western Kentucky Hilltoppers

This first game is a great illustration of one of the most badass mascots I’ve ever seen against one of the stupidest, most ridiculous, least badass mascots EVER.

Western Kentucky calls themselves the Hilltoppers because they’re on top of a hill.  That’s stupid enough, but then that big red blob they haul out cements them in the basement of badassity.  MVSU could have gotten a bye here, and they would have struggled more to prove their badassity in this game.

[Read more →]

This weekend I attended the Washoe County Republican Convention, and I have to say it was the smoothest, best organized one I’ve ever been to yet.  Once again Dave Buell, the Washoe Party Chair, proved he knows how to plan, build a great team, and put on a tremendous event.  The turnout was phenomenal – nearly 1,000 delegates were in attendance (which delayed the start – the one scheduling “problem” that’s awfully nice to have).

Virtually every state-level Republican elected official was in attendance and spoke, along with a really quality slate of candidates for open or Democratically held seats.  They were unified and optimistic – it’s clear they did not fail to learn what made them successful (even in the minority) this last legislative session.  I have never seen the county party so directly engaged with our local elected officials, and vice versa.

[Read more →]

This weekend provided some fantastic planetary skywatching, and just for fun, I thought I’d share some attempts at astro-photography.  All credit goes to my wife, whose Christmas present to me gave my inner nerd (who am I kidding – it’s not that “inner”) a better way to enjoy the night sky.  There are three planets clearly visible right now in the evening sky, and I managed to get pictures of them all.  I’ll save the best for the end of the post.

Venus

I love this, because you can see how Venus goes through phases like the moon as it rounds the sun.  It’s getting closer to us, and as it does, it will get thinner and thinner. The pictures on the right (made with the software that came with my telescope) are how the planets actually appear at this time and location if I had a somewhat more powerful telescope.

Mars

Mars is very obviously red to the naked eye, and looked far redder through my eyepiece than my camera picked up.  My camera is just a little aged point-and-click Canon I pointed through the eyepiece of the telescope.  But in spite of that, I was really happy with how some of these turned out.

Jupiter and Friends

This is the one that really got me excited, although it was hard to keep the camera and the telescope simultaneously in focus, while the object is constantly moving in the eyepiece due to the rotation of Earth.  But here they are!

I could actually see all four Galilean moons quite clearly, but it was hard to capture them with the camera.  Here’s what you’re looking at (oriented slightly differently):

There are much fancier pictures out there of the wonders of our solar system, but there is nothing quite like seeing it with your own eyes in real life.  And it’s amazing that I got to see all of these worlds in a single night, just in my own back yard.

What a wonderful thing, that we get to live our lives in such a wondrous universe.  I can’t wait until the kids get old enough to geek out with me…

Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded — here and there, now and then — are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty.

This is known as “bad luck.”

Glenn Reynolds often likes to remind his readers of this Robert Heinlein quote, and rightfully so.  I thought of it a few days ago when a reader sent me this blog post from Exxon Mobil’s website.

Some in Washington would have you believe that because companies like ExxonMobil are profitable, we are “taking from” the U.S. economy, rather than contributing to it.

But the facts prove otherwise. [Read more →]

I tweeted out this Big Journalism story on the trap Republicans were falling into on this whole birth control mandate issue, with the added commentary, “Focus, people.  Focus.”  It drew several questions and comments both on Twitter and Facebook that I felt were worth discussing. The issue is an important one, but it is important for reasons that 90% of the conversation on the topic is missing.

[Read more →]