Shell Game

The following is a slightly edited article I posted to my New Mexico Newsletter in response to actions taken by some shadowy background figure who some people describe as a crook, a corrupt political figure who hates the Tea Party Movement and likes to bully people to do what he wants. Once again I was pleasantly surprised by the quick and plentiful support responding to my writing. ========================================

Shell Game

Unless you're completely bored by the posturing of the so-called "influential" you might find it sort of interesting to watch how they squirm in the face of a few facts and of a few people who don't like power plays.

I suggest you buy Moriarty's Mountain View Telegraph [a local newspaper on the east side of the mountains from Albuquerque] to follow the shell game surrounding the banning of the East Mountain Tea Party from the Lions Club and Wild Life West. The latest gyrations of this on-going saga is the sort of thing that will surely warm your blood---or give you a laugh---as you wait for that scrumptious ham & turkey Christmas dinner.

As I reported yesterday, the editor of the Mountain View Telegraph contacted me regarding my letter to him and my comments on the sudden banning of the East Mountain Tea Party from the use of a couple of facilities. The editor said he was going to write an article about the situation and present the Lions Club and Wild Life West points of view side by side. He invited me to re-submit my letter in response to his article.

Since I'm a bit snowed under right now, I asked him to go ahead and print my original letter. I said that I was certain that this situation had generated so much interest in my readers that they would reply to his article and thereby answer for me.

Okay.

This morning I heard something that caused me to speculate that the heebie-jeebies may have entered the knees of a certain individual, which would explain why it's likely that this same individual is telling his followers to switch gears. They are now contradicting themselves backwards and forwards in order to cover the backside of their---or his---lower anatomy.

Here's the latest in this sorry show of wobbly principles and authoritarian shenanigans. The Lions Club and Wild Life West told the Moriarty newspaper that the "reason" for their banning the EMTP from their facilities was that renting to the Tea Party violated their 501(c3) status. [FYI: a 501(c3) refers to the tax status of a non-profit organization.] Hmmm. Now, how come these up-standing followers of government orders did not check that sort of thing at the beginning of the year when they rented to the EMTP without a quiver of concern?

I mean it's odd, isn't it? We were originally told the Lions Club and Wild Life West feared what other people would say, that they had been "accused" of being part of the EMTP. Then we were told that donors threatened to withdraw support. Now we're told that their "decision" was motivated by the absolutely incontestable, inarguable concern for abiding by tax regulations.

Uh-huh.

And both said, and I quote: "It's nothing against the Tea Party."

!

Initially, I had given both organizations the benefit of a doubt despite their spinelessness in bowing to what I perceived was clearly the dictates of some behind-the-scenes figure calling the shots. I did so because I hold property rights absolute and I would have defended both the Lions Club and Wild Life West's right to rent to whomever they chose.

But this switching-the-pea-under-the-shell game of "explanations," this yellow-bellied fear of being "accused" of being part of an organization that seeks freedom and fiscal responsibility, this kow-towing to the dictates of others is about as zombie-like and un-American as one can get. This is not the attitude of Americans who responded to the demand for surrender with, "Nuts!" It is not the sense of life of Americans who say, "Don't Tread On Me." And it most certainly is not the sense of pride and firm dedication to the right and the good of Americans who say, "Give me Liberty or give me death."

To such Americans a different chain of actions arises from a different motivation resting quietly within. I speak of those Tea Party workers around the nation who will not rest simply because November 2 was a good step forward. I speak of those Americans who work to place more new leaders on local levels, to develop campaigns to run for school boards and city councils. I speak of patriots who give speeches and write books and articles on the importance of individual rights and the need to de-regulate business, demanding that government cease intruding upon our lives. I speak of patriots---too many to name here---some of whom you will see in Santa Fe on January 18 to celebrate the election of Susana Martinez and Dianna Duran to Governor and Secretary of State, respectively, and to remind our Legislature of some streamlining and de-regulation work to be done.

As one American said, "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead." I agree. So does the East Mountain Tea Party. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

GOVERNMENT REGULATION IS KILLING BUSINESS

This morning, I received a letter from a businessman who had been strangled by government regulations. As he puts it, "I lost two companies due to the state's regulators and federal regulators misconduct."

Fed up, he moved his company to Texas where the climate is business-friendly. Many businessmen have done the same. For instance, Marita Noon Executive Director of CARE, fighting tooth and nail for the right of New Mexicans to develop their natural resources, often writes about the disastrous consequences to our state of our business people moving to Texas because of the EIB.

The attacks on our oil men, our miners, our ranchers and farmers, our retailers and wholesalers, our mom and pop stores, our independents and our chains---business people of every kind---add up to thousands. Thousands of regulations and thousands of business people are harassed by government regulations to the point of anger, frustration and emotional drain that cannot be calculated by any measure save stroke or heart attack.

It is not only the new health care law that looms over us like a vulture ready to feast on what's left of us. American businessmen are interfered with by OSHA, by Anti-trust, by the gross receipt tax, by the unemployed labor tax, by the demand for fees, permits, and licenses, and so forth ad infinitum.

The multitudinous practices, guidelines and rules of regulatory agencies are little more than legalized extortion.

Think of the waste of time and money that government demands of those who are providing us with services and products that make our lives comfortable. Think of the emotional and intellectual drain that are forced upon the minds and souls of those who provide us with values. Values such as getting a hair cut or having your teeth cleaned. Values like going to a movie or eating out or having a pet. Values like computers or having our car serviced or buying clothing for our families without having to spend our time doing such things ourselves.

Business people do all that---plus a good deal more. And business people include employers and employees. Remember that. When businesspeople are attached, it means all of us are attacked.

I wish to say it is not right, it is not just that the very men and women who work to make a profit by providing us with so many good things, that raise our standard of living and provide us with jobs are saddled with regulations that demand an unproductive use of their time. They are forced to do paperwork because of regulations. They are forced to wade through reams of pages of bureaucraeze trying to understand those regulations.

Such a waste of time and money decreases profits, which means decreased savings, which means reduced business expansion, which means a decreased number of raises that can be given and the number of jobs that can be created.

I wish to say that we must demand that regulations be repealed, that regulatory agencies be closed, and that those bureaucrats being paid a salary that businesspeople provide, be terminated.

If you want to know what the January 18 rally is all about, this* is what it's all about.

I encourage you to send this e-mail to every individual you know: business associate, customer, stay-at-home parent, senior retiree, student, friend and neighbor. Let us ask every New Mexican in the state to join us. Rent a bus or borrow one, car pool, ask your local community club to pitch in and join you and rent a van. Get to Santa Fe and bring the New Mexican population with you.

Christmas is right around the corner. We are all very busy. We want to be joyous and free. But I say to you that the most joyous thing, the most liberating and freest thing we can work for is to make Christmas 2011 the Christmas we celebrated knowing that 50% of our regulations are repealed, their agencies closed and those working in them let go.

* FYI: A group of New Mexicans are organizing a massive rally for January 18, the first day of the 2011 Legislative Session. We are calling it We The People. It will be held in Santa Fe, New Mexico from 9:00 AM to 11:00 AM on the Capitol Steps. I am writing a "Decree," modeled on the Declaration of Independence that will call for limited government, fiscal responsibility, de-regulation, free-markets and restoration of individual rights.

But this call for de-regulationn of businessmen need not be confined to New Mexico. I encourage Americans who care about American ideals of individual rights, limited government and free markets to call on both the federal governement and their state government to begin to de-regulate.