Liberty Watchman

The Sky is Falling (Again)

noreply@blogger.com (Liberty Watchman) — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 06:02:00 +0000

Have we had our fill of bogus predictions yet? The Watchman has!

The sky is falling! The sky is falling! --Chicken Little
“Everything that can be invented has been invented” --US patent office, 1899.
“There is not the slightest indication that nuclear energy will ever be obtainable. It would mean that the atom would have to be shattered at will.” – Albert Einstein, 1932.
Y2K will cause massive disruptions around the world!
By 2010 there will be 50 million environmental refugees as a result of global warming! – United Nations, 2005.
If we don't pass TARP, the financial system will collapse!
If we don't raise the debt ceiling by August 2^nd, financial Armageddon will ensue!

Speaker Boehner, adjourn the House and go home for the summer. You have done your work and there is nothing left to do. A deal cannot be reached with the Senate or the President. If the Democrats truly believe that financial Armageddon will commence on August 2, they can sign the Cut, Cap, and Balance Act sitting on the Senate's desk.

But the truth is, they don't believe their own scare tactics, so they won't move heaven and earth to make sure the debt ceiling is raised. So why should you, Speaker Boehner? The sun will rise as usual on August 2^nd and again on August 3^rd. The world will not end. Financial Armageddon will not ensue. And the Democrats know that.

However, by adjourning the House of Representatives, you afford the Democrats the opportunity to test the courage of their convictions. Maybe they will say to themselves, “Oh my gosh, we aren't going to get the Republican's to fold, so we better sign whatever we can!” Maybe, but I doubt it.

It's important to remember that Moody's and Standard & Poor's do not set interest rates. They attempt to guess at the risk level of a given debt instrument. And they do so poorly. They missed Enron, WorldCom, and the savings and loan crisis. They are not a leading market indicator, they are a trailing indicator. And they don't set rates, the debt markets do that.

It's entirely likely that when the US loses its vaunted AAA credit rating, there will be no change in treasury bond yields. The difference between AAA and AA is minor. Often there is no interest rate difference.

When the Euro collapses, as it surely will within the next year, money will flood into treasuries as a 'safe haven'. That will drive T-bills up and the interest on T-bills down. That move will make the credit rating agencies look awfully foolish. They really should be asking themselves this question: if the US dollar is not the safest currency on earth, which currency is? The Euro collapse will make their AAA ratings for countries like Austria, Finland, and Denmark look pretty foolish. The collapse of the dollar won't come until late 2012 or early 2013

So go home, Speaker Boehner. The sun will come up tomorrow.

Durbin Admits Theft

noreply@blogger.com (Liberty Watchman) — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 05:03:00 +0000

Image by afagen via Flickr

One of the Watchman's cardinal beliefs is that if you let a politician talk long enough, he/she will eventually tell the truth on himself/herself. A truckload of lies come first, of course, but often the truth outs in the end.

Today, United States Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL) stumbled into such a truth when he compared the Congress to thieves:

"The bottom line is those who want to push a balanced-budget amendment are saying 'I can't promise you that I won't steal again, but I will vote for the Ten Commandments,'" he said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

Bravo, Richard! This is as apt a Congressional analogy as ever you have spoken. Congress is like a band of thieves, stealing bread from the mouths of citizens -- and most egregiously from the mouths of citizens not yet born.

However, your analogy, like all analogies and most especially like all political analogies, breaks down just past that initial truth. A representative voting for a balanced budget amendment to the constitution is not like a thief voting for the Ten Commandments, the enforcement of which the almighty holds in abeyance until the end of the age. It's like a thief, voting for God to strike him dead the next time he picks a pocket.

And that's a vote we should all get behind.

Obama: The Second Term of Jimmy Carter

noreply@blogger.com (Liberty Watchman) — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 16:17:00 +0000

Wow. Compare this downer with the Watchman's previous post on sexy Paul R-Y-A-N!

Thanks Laura!

Chris Matthews' Freudian slip: refers to Obama as President Carter

Who Says Wonks Aren't Sexy?

noreply@blogger.com (Liberty Watchman) — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 16:05:00 +0000

When Atlas shrugged I knew you’d carry the weight
That PX90 program has you in great shape
But more than than you’re stimulating my brain
Your Roadmap to the Future has lit this girl’s flame

Paul R-Y-A-N, he’s gonna cap that spending
Budget Hunter, Surplus savior’s got me dreaming
Paul R-Y-A-N, he’s got the camera’s waiting
Raise those polls and ratings

CHORUS

It’s more than a crush
It’s a wonky fascination
Driven by fiscal reformation
If you’re deficit or debt, he will tear you apart
Paul Ryan has the Roadmap to my young gun heart

You’ve got the way to make me fall
And the means to follow through
Entitlements are something made for me not you
Obamacare repeal is seduction for free
The Patient Choice Act is victory

Paul R-Y-A-N, he knows money
Like a bad romance, he makes a dime worth a damn
Paul R-Y-A-N, he’s talking savings baby
He’s a hawk, don’t get caught
Thinking that money is free

CHORUS

(Hold it right there, let me make this clear)
The cards are dealt, the facts are bad!
China up and owns our ass
Social welfare’s warped the brain
Raise the debt? Are you insane?!
Inflation? (Whoa!) Boy cut that junk.
Deflation? (Whoa!) Which way you goin’?
GNP ain’t just for tax mon-ey.

This dollar right here? (hey that ain’t yours)
This dollar right there? (that was mine before)
Better grab your man! (all wonk not wank)
Better understand! (yeah, one more time)
It’s…..their…money! (it’s their money honey)

Hat tip to Illinois Review

Midnight Laundry

noreply@blogger.com (Liberty Watchman) — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 06:13:00 +0000

The following appeared as a Letter to the Editor in the July 13th edition of the Naperville Sun:

A recent survey by North Central College Students shows that 57% of Naperville electricity buyers do not understand the benefits of the $22 million smart grid now under construction by the city. Allow me to give you the Cliff Notes version: You'll save money on your electricity bill if you are willing to do your laundry in the wee hours of the night.

The purpose of the 50,000 'smart' meters is to tell the city when you are using electricity. Electric rates will then change, with high rates during peak times (typically days) and lower rates during slack times (typically nights). If you're willing and able to shift your electricity use to nights, you might save money. If you don't fancy showering, baking, vacuuming, etc. at 3a m the smart grid will probably not save you any money. Worse, if you're unwilling to change your ways, the smart grid is likely to cost you even more money than today.

Oh sure,.the city promises, via their 'Smart Grid Bill of Rights', that you can continue to pay a flat rate for your electricity and skip the variable rate plan. But the Bill of Rights says nothing about how high or low that flat rate can be relative to the variable rates.

It's important to remember that President Obama promised us that “electricity rates must necessarily skyrocket”, that he is directing the EPA to make sure that happens, and that his administration is paying for half the cost of Naperville's smart grid initiative. There is a connection.

When the flat rates and the day rates start to rise precipitously, the night rates will be touted as a way for consumers to 'save money'. Of course only a tiny percentage of Naperville residents will actually be able to shift their electric use to take advantage of the lower rates, but that doesn't really matter to Obama and the so-called green movement. They want electricity rates to skyrocket and the smart grid is just a fig leaf to cover their naked assault on your electricity rates.

City residents have spoken on the wisdom of the smart grid. They said no. Sixty-six percent of residents in the North Central College survey said they do not want a variable rate electric plan, which is the whole point of the Smart Grid. The question is why weren't residents consulted before the city committed $11 million to this boondoggle? And with two out of three residents opposed to the initiative, why does the project continue?

Wayne Cummings

Naperville

There Oughta Be a Law! Gee, There Already Is.

noreply@blogger.com (Liberty Watchman) — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 19:57:00 +0000

Image via Wikipedia
Mob violence in Chicago! Stay off the streets! Barricade your doors!! Hide the women and children!! What shall we do??

Enter the brain trust of the Illinois legislature. You know, the ones who can't balance their checkbook to save our lives. Unable to do what really needs doing, two of the brain trust, Michael McAuliffe (R-Chicago) and Angelo Saviano (R-Elmwood Park), just moments ago introduced new legislation to combat the mob violence.

“Street violence is a serious threat to our community,” Rep. McAuliffe said. “We must modernize state law to account for the danger of mob violence and work to deter its growing prevalence in our neighborhoods and public places.”

Modernize? Why do the well established laws against assault, battery, and robbery need to be modernized just because the bad guys figured out how to use Facebook to coordinate their crimes? Gee, maybe we should ban Facebook because it facilitates crime. If as liberals suggest, it's the presence of guns in our society that causes crime, then surely the presence of Facebook is just as dangerous.

Battery in Illinois can already be charged as a felony when there is serious injury. We already have 'mob' laws on the books with the minimum threshold for a 'mob' being two people. If two stupid kids go shoplifting, they can already be charged with 'mob action'. Do these legislative geniuses really believe that before a flash mob gets on the el, they think to themselves, "What I'm about to do used to be a class 3 felony with a sentence of 2-5 years in prison, but since McAuliffe and Saviano upped it to 3-7 years, maybe I should bow out of this. I mean, I can do a nickel standing on my head, but 7 years really scares me."

How long will we suffer these fools? And these are not our normal, run-of-the-mill democrat fools. They are Republican fools!

Stick a fork in Illinois. It's done.

Picking Winners and Losers

noreply@blogger.com (Liberty Watchman) — Tue, 03 May 2011 05:36:00 +0000

Image via Wikipedia

The Mississippi River is flooding again. [yawn] So is the Ohio River. [stretch] Just as spring follows winter and night follows day, these rivers flood every spring. [snore]

What makes this spring's flooding noteworthy is the fact that it won't be mother nature who decides which river communities stay dry and which get flooded. It will be the federal government. It will not be a battle between riverside communities and the rivers, but a battle between two non-adjacent iverside communities themselves with the Army Corp of Engineers as the judge, jury, and executioner.

On the one hand, we have the city of Cairo, IL, population 3,000. Cairo is, by any objective measure, a city in decline. Its population high water mark (if you will forgive the pun) was reached in 1920 at 15,000. Today the town consists of a couple of stately mansions in the west and slums in the east.

On the other hand, we have 130,000 acres of prime farmland in Missouri with about 100 homes situated on that land.

Both riverside communities are protected from the rivers by levees. And the rivers are not expected to crest over the top of either levee. However, the Army Corp of Engineers fears that the duration of the crest will prove too much for the earthen walls around Cairo to withstand. The levee protecting the Missouri farm land is not believed to be in any danger of failing.

So the Corp, in its infinite wisdom has tonight blown a two mile wide hole in the perfectly sound levee protecting farmland in order to lower the crest of the Mississippi and spare Cairo, IL from getting flooded out.

Mind you, both communities have been completely evacuated so this is not a choice between the destruction of human lives and the destruction of property. It's a federal government coin toss to determine which property wins and which property loses.

You may think, dear reader, that the way the Watchman has presented this, he favors saving the farmland over saving the slums. Not so! The Watchman doesn't care who wins; he just wants the government to butt out.

By what right of nature does the Army Corp get to decide who gets wet and who stays dry? What right does the government have to destroy a perfectly good levee which the taxpayers have paid for and which will then need to be rebuilt with more taxpayer dollars after the flood waters recede?

The Watchman is sick of the government picking winners and losers! Let God be God. If the levees around Ciaro hold, praise God! If they fail, praise God! But it's not right to destroy the property of Missourians to save the property of Illinoisans.

Disability Fair

noreply@blogger.com (Liberty Watchman) — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 23:02:00 +0000

Today the Watchman sounded off with the Naperville City Council (yes, again).

Dear Naperville City Council,

I note with disappointment the council's approval of funding for the annual 'disability fair'. As a disabled Naperville citizen and perhaps the most vocal disability rights advocate in the city, I tell you this expenditure is utterly unnecessarily. There are numerous private sector 'disability fairs' throughout the area and the city has no business wasting taxpayer dollars to duplicate what the private sector already provides.

Some may argue it's a small expenditure (approx $3K) and it helps the disabled residents, so what's the beef? If you share that sentiment I invite you to revisit the purpose of municipal government -- or of any government. It is most certainly not to attempt to cure all the ills of society. Disability is an ill, to be sure. I'm wheelchair bound and face this challenge every day. But I vehemently object to the notion of a nanny state with tentacles extending into every facet of private life, no matter how supposedly altruistic the nanny state's intentions. Thomas Jefferson understood this problem well when he said, "I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them."

It is not the council's job to 'take care of' disabled citizens by sponsoring an information fair with a disability focus. It is, however, the council's job to ensure that city services and facilities are made accessible according to state and federal law. Disabled access is a civil right (and has been acknowledged so by overwhelming votes in the US Congress and the State Legislature) and the city is obliged to spend taxpayer dollars ensuring this civil right. So please redirect the funds misguidedly allocated to an un-mandated 'information fair' to the legally mandated obligation of providing accessible city services and programs.

The disability fair has a less visible but even worse impact than wasting taxpayer dollars. The city's Advisory Commission on Disabilities spends most of its time and efforts every year on this fair, distracting it from it's higher duty of monitoring and advising the council and staff on shortcomings in the accessibility of city services and facilities (and there are countless shortcomings). This is the primary reason I do not participate on the ACD, although I have been asked to consider such participation. The ACD's focus is misguided and the city suffers from a lack of what should be their watchdog activities.

The Truth About Wisconsin

noreply@blogger.com (Liberty Watchman) — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 10:37:00 +0000

Every now and then, the bad guys will tell the truth on themselves. If you think the protests in Wisconsin have anything to do with educating children, this video should clear that up for you.

In 2009, Bob Chanin, the retiring General Counsel for the National Education Association spilled the beans on the real reason why the NEA exists.

"It is not because of the merit of our positions, it is not because we care about children, and it is not because we have a vision of a great public school for every child. NEA and our affiliates are effective advocates because we have power. And we have power because there are 3.2 million people who are willing to pay us hundreds of millions of dollars in dues each year..."

It's about money and power. Period. The battle in Wisconsin is about the union's power to suck the public teat dry and the tax payers unwillingness for that gluttony to continue.

One might be able to forgive the union's power lust if the purpose of garnering that power was to help children, but Mr Chanin makes it quite clear that is not their primary objective. He says,

...the concerns of reducing achievement gaps, reducing drop out rates, and improving teacher quality... must not be achieved at the expense of due process, employee rights, and collective barganing. That simply is too high a price to pay!

So, you got that? Teachers' rights and teachers' pay is Job 1 and the needs of the kids are strictly secondary. If the union could wave a magic wand and fix everything that is wrong with our schools, but the price would be for the teacher's to give up the privilege of collective bargaining, the union wouldn't do it.

So the next time your local union dominated school board pulls any of that but-don't-you-care-about-the-poor-children crap, you waltz into the board meeting and play this video.

Don't Worry, Be Happy

noreply@blogger.com (Liberty Watchman) — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 21:40:00 +0000

This is a bit wonkish, so hang with me. The first graph is the US unemployment rate according to polling conducted by the federal government. The second graph is the unemployment rate according to a Gallup poll. The two organizations use different sampling techniques, so the results are never exactly the same. However, the differences are usually small and the trends (moving up or down) are usually the same.

For the past several months the differences have been growing and the trends in opposite directions. The government would have you believe that unemployment is declining and is now at 8.9%. Gallup would have you believe that unemployment is rising and is now at 10.3, as high as it was a year ago.

Who's right? Neither. In the 1970's the government stopped counting so-called 'discouraged workers' -- those who couldn't find a job and have stopped looking -- and neither of the unemployment numbers above include the discouraged workers.

When we add in the discouraged workers and those people working part-time who would rather be working full-time, we get a better sense of the magnitude of our economic crisis. The feds put that combined number (U6, as the Bureau of Labor Statistics calls it) at 15.5%, while Gallup puts that number at 19.9%

When 1 in 5 people are unemployed or underemployed, that's pretty much the definition of a depression, isn't it?

Disabled Continue to Get Short Shrift from City of Naperville

noreply@blogger.com (Liberty Watchman) — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 10:58:00 +0000

It's tough being disabled in Naperville.

In November, the Naperville City Council voted to reduce the number of on-street handicap parking places in downtown Naperville.
Earlier this month, the city created 26 new parking spaces for the Naperville Train Station . The Americans with Disabilities Act required that 2 of those 26 new spaces be configured with access aisles and handicap parking signs, but the city didn't bother to do so until the Watchman came calling.

This summer Burlington Northern will replace the platform at the downtown Naperville train station. This is a good thing. The platform is full of cracks in the concrete that get wider every year. It's something of a miracle that a woman hasn't caught a heel in those cracks and fallen under the wheels of an approaching train. The Watchman has been advocating for that platform to be rebuilt for many years now.

So on Friday, out pops the city's plan for mitigating the train station parking problems that will be in evidence all summer long. They've got plans to accommodate motorcycle riders and bike riders, free monthly Pace bus passes for commuters, suspension of monthly permit fees while construction is going on, etc. They've really thought this through! They'e got a plan for communicating all this to the public. They're even prepared to spend $30,000 of your tax dollars on the free Pace Bus passes and other mitigation strategies. I mean, they've got this covered! Case closed.

But have they given a New York minute to mitigating the effect of this construction on disabled commuters? No, not even a New York second.

Considering that the brunt of the parking disruption will be born by disabled commuters, that's amazingly thoughtless. You see, the handicap parking spaces are all close to the platform, as they should be for easy access. But that also means those are the parking spaces most likely to be out of service for the longest period of time while trucks and backhoes drive over the bright blue handicap symbols as they haul away the old platform concrete and bring in the new, pre-poured concrete slabs. They estimate the whole project will take 8-10 weeks to complete. That means for 8-10 weeks a substantial portion -- or all -- of the handicap parking places will be out out of service.

Does the city have a plan for temporarily relocating those ADA parking spaces? Nope. At least it's not in the plan they announced last Friday. You can't stripe an ADA parking space just anywhere you please, you know. ADA parking has maximum slope considerations and those lots at the train station are all pretty hilly. And even if they do find some alternate spaces farther away from the train station that can temporarily be used as ADA parking, how will that help somebody on crutches who can barely make it from the close-in parking to the train? How about spending some of that $30,000 to pay a high school kid to shuttle disabled people to and from the station/parking on an electric golf cart during the morning and evening rush? Is anybody at the city thinking about this from the disabled citizen's perspective?? It doesn't appear so.

And has anyone given any thought to the changes that will be needed to the circulation routes during construction? Usually this is thought of at the last minute, if at all, when they throw up detour signs that say 'Sidewalk Closed' or 'Entrance Closed' or 'Pedestrian Tunnel Closed'. That's bother enough for able-bodied folks, but 'alternate routes' are often impossible for wheelchair users unless a lot of pre-planning has been done.

So once again, as expected, true to form, the City of Naperville gives little or no thought to accommodating her most vulnerable citizens.

Positively Naperville.

The Chihuahua of the West

noreply@blogger.com (Liberty Watchman) — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 08:00:00 +0000

Ronald Reagan once called Moammar Qaddafi "the mad dog of the Middle East". Well, today, the mad dog of the Middle East met the Chihuahua of the West. (h/t to Monica Crawley for the well turned phrase.)

After remaining silent for 9 days while unarmed Libyan protesters where slaughtered by the hundreds from the land, sea, and air forces of the mad dog, the American Chihuahua finally found his voice. Unfortunately, he couldn't seem to remember Qaddafi's name.

Please tell me how on earth the President of the United States can make a public statement about the actions of the Butcher of Tripoli without calling him by name or calling for his removal from power? Chihuahua Obama had no problem remembering Mubarak's name and calling for his 'transition from power' very early on in the Egyptian uprising.

This is especially appalling because Ronald Regan demonstrated years ago how to deal with Qaddafi: face him down like the mad dog he is. Face him down like Reagan did and he coughs up his WMDs. You don't run to the useless United Nations seeking 'sanctions' to make a mad dog 'accountable' You park a carrier battle group off of Tripoli and declare a no-fly zone over Libya. That might at least reduce the body count of innocents.

"Today we have done what we had to do. If necessary, we shall do it again." said Ronaldus Maximus after he bombed Qaddafi's home, but missed hitting him. What do you do with a mad dog? You shoot him. Finish the job Reagan started. Locate this thug and introduce him to our newest model of hellfire missile.

This weekend, rent The Manchurian Candidate and ask yourself why Chihuahua Obama repeatedly disses our friends and gives a pass to our enemies.

-Liberty Watchman

Guilty Until Proven Innocent in D203

noreply@blogger.com (Liberty Watchman) — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 06:31:00 +0000

TO: School Board, Naperville School District 203

I found the superintendent's email this evening very disturbing, first due to the possibility that a student might have been sexually abused by an NNHS counselor, but also because the superintendent's email was heavily slanted toward an assumption that the employee was guilty.

Then I went from being disturbed to outraged when I read the principal's email, which does not even use the word 'alleged', but boldly speaks of "our student who was the victim of abuse". He goes on to apologize for his failure to protect a student from something that has yet to be proved ever happened. I'd like Principal Pobst to apologize to the community for failing to upload our nation's 235 year adherence to the presumption of innocence!

This employee could be guilty as sin. Or maybe he's innocent. But the Distrtict has no business maligning him in these emails until he is convicted in a court of law. If he is found innocent, you've opened the taxpayers up to an expensive slander law suit. Surely you tax us enough to have attorney's review press releases like these before you send them out.

Liberty Watchman

Principle Pobst's email to the community follows:

Dear NNHS School Community,

Earlier this evening you received a letter from Naperville Community Unit School District 203 Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Mark Mitorvich, in which he announced that John Carbonaro, a counselor at NNHS has been formally charged by the DuPage County State’s Attorney with Aggravated Criminal Sexual Abuse of a North student. Mr. Carbonaro has been suspended from his position.

I know that you join me in feeling great sorrow for our student who was the victim of abuse, as well as many other students who are suffering great disappointment. I want the students and families of Naperville North to know how sorry I am for what happened to these students and for the pain that the North community will be experiencing in the days and weeks to come. I am particularly crushed because my first responsibility as a Principal is to protect the health and well-being of each student at NNHS.

As Dr. Mitrovich told you earlier, last Thursday evening, February 17, a courageous parent contacted me to tell me about a rumor of an inappropriate relationship between a staff member and a student. I reached out to the parents of the student named in the rumor and worked with District leaders to notify the proper legal authorities who conducted a full investigation. That investigation continues. Our cooperation with legal authorities has been robust.

During this time of crisis, I have asked our staff to intensify our focus on the best interest of each individual child. When we identify a student in need, we will connect them to a supportive intervention. We are providing counseling support in the school for any student who may need or want to discuss this issue. If you perceive that your child needs support, please direct him or her to speak with their individual counselor, school social worker, or a trusted teacher.

I join Dr. Mitrovich in stressing to all of you that we take allegations of staff misconduct very seriously. It is important that anyone who feels the actions of a staff member have been inappropriate bring their concerns to my attention.
We aspire for North High to be a place of caring, responsibility, and integrity. We pledge to redouble our efforts to be that for students and families. We will rebuild your trust in North.

Kevin Pobst
Principal

Bill of Wrongs, Passed

noreply@blogger.com (Liberty Watchman) — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 14:35:00 +0000

Open Letter to:
The Naperville City Council

RE: Smart Grid Bill of Rights

Last night was another example of a city council out of touch with the community. You keep bulling forward despite strong opposition in the community. Now personally, the Watchman thinks the people who spoke last night claiming there is a health issue with the smart meters don't have a compelling argument based on science. Yet they should have a right to opt-out even if their rationale for opting out is misguided. Freedom must include the right to make wrong choices or it is not freedom at all.

We shut down all nuclear power plant construction in this country based on fear mongering and bad science. It was a bad public policy decision. But you know what? A majority of the public wanted it shut down and the majority should (and did) get what they want. That's the way our republic should work. The people have the right to be wrong and still have their rights respected. The council's action last night -- paying nothing more than lip service to the citizen's concerns -- was an affront to freedom. Passing that so-called Smart Grid Bill of Rights without an opt-out provision was just thumbing your noses at the citizens of Naperville and their rights. Shame on you guys.

The item which is on nobody's radar screen -- neither the council or the public -- is the power over our daily lives that will be given to the city by these smart meters. The ability for government to control, via rate structures, the time and the way that electricity is used by citizens is a totally frightening prospect. Yet that is the express purpose of the smart meters. It is the ONLY purpose of the smart meters. The whole initiative was sold to the city as a way for citizens to save on power costs, but the mechanism for that savings is by making power usage less convenient for citizens.

This is yet another example of the 90-year-old creeping socialism that is killing this country. "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need." Sorry, pal, you don't need to run that air conditioning during high demand periods. We're the municipal government and we determine what your needs are and when you can have air conditioning. Oh sure, we would never be so brazen as to say you absolutely can't have A/C when you want to; we'll just tax you into submission by charging you more to use electricity when we think you shouldn't use it. We don't care if it's hot outside. Get with the program. Our program.

Do you guys not see how genuinely anti-freedom and un-American the smart grid really is?

You've been sold a bill of goods that is a lie. The smart grid is not about consumer choice, it's about giving more control to the suppliers of power (in Naperville's case, the government). It's not even about being green. The only time the grid is stressed is during the hot summer months due to air conditioning. So the smart grid initiative's only real purpose is to ration air conditioning to consumers in the same way power is rationed to large commercial users in the summer. Commercial users have tiered pricing in the summer depending on grid load and when things get really bad, some of them have their power cut off completely. Smart grid's sole purpose is to do the same thing to consumers: Charge them more during high utilization periods and, when the next phase of smart grid comes out, cut off their air conditioning altogether during peak periods.

One of the public speakers back in September, a highly credentialed gentleman, laid this all out before the council. He explained with compelling evidence that smart grid is a farce that will never show a return on investment. But the council was seduced by OPM (Other People's Money). You saw it as a way to get the feds to pay for some infrastructure improvements the city needed anyway.

Gentlemen, this kind of thinking has to stop. There is no free lunch. Where the hell do you think the feds get the money from? The taxpayers of Naperville paid for the smart grid upgrades whether from local or federal taxes. The fact that some poor saps in other parts of the country are paying a bigger part of our infrastructure upgrade through their federal taxes than we are, is not a reason to pat ourselves on our backs for our shrewdness. There was a time in this country when it was considered morally repugnant to make other people pay for things that it was our responsibility to pay for. What right do we have to take money from people in Montana, Tennessee, Georgia, or 46 other states to pay for our grid in Naperville??

Oh, that's right, the federal portion of our smart grid was paid for almost 100% with money we borrowed from China or money the federal reserve printed out of thin air! So who cares! Party today for tomorrow we die!! What right do we have to saddle future generations with the cost of our smart grid? None! It's morally reprehensible!!

Every time the council holds meetings about the smart grid, fairly large numbers of Naperville citizens show up to oppose it. Even more telling is that NOBODY shows up to support it. You've made a mistake, council, in passing Smart Grid. It's the biggest mistake any of you have ever made in your tenure on the council (and you've made some doozys!). It's bigger than the snow plowing mistakes, bigger than the Children's Museum mistake, bigger even than the Carillon mistake. It's bigger because the mistake involves more than money. You are stripping away the fundamental right of Naperville citizens to consume power when and how they choose. When they finally realize this is what you've done (and that might not be for another year or so), they won't stand for it. And they won't forgive you for it.

Did you notice how, even in the middle of a recession, Christmas lights blazed on more homes in Naperville than ever before? This is trendy, upscale Naperville, gang. Do you think we are really going to let you mess with our power consumption patterns? You'd have better luck trying to ration gasoline here. So the sooner the council does an about face on this and admits to the mea culpa, the less painful it will be for both the council and the citizens of Naperville. Time is not on your side.

Smart Grid Bill of Wrongs

noreply@blogger.com (Liberty Watchman) — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 08:41:00 +0000

The Naperville Smart Grid Customer Bill of Rights (NSGCBoR) is one of those government promises that seems so reasonable, so well-intentioned, that no reasonable person could oppose it, when in reality it is an exercise in naivety and public relations, that no reasonable person can put any faith in.

First and foremost, a true Bill of Rights would be accompanied by penalties for violations of those rights. Yet there are no penalties whatsoever in the proposed ordinance. If the city violates the privacy rights of citizens, what happens? Nothing. If the city doesn't honor its promise to give citizens the right to make their own choices over the time and manner of their personal power consumption, what happens? Nothing. The Watchman challenges the city Council to include such penalties. He doubts the city will do so because any such penalties would be levied against the city itself. How about compensation for citizens whose rights are violated? Those provisions are absent as well.

This ordinance is a paper tiger. It can be ignored any time the city wants with no repercussions for the city. Sure, you can make a complaint to the Public Utility Board (PUB), but that board has only met once in the last year and a half. Maybe the board's acronym (PUB) explains why they don't meet very often, or perhaps it explains where they meet. So highly regarded is the PUB that it has not been consulted for advice in drafting or overseeing the Smart Grid Initiative... ever. Why should the public believe that board can be an effective arbiter of complaints?

But that's okay because the ordinance is so vague that the city could never be found in violation of it. Key terms such as "convenient access", "available through multiple channels", "convenient user interface", and "clear and transparent manner"beg for further clarification yet there is none in the ordinance. What constitutes convenient access? Who decides if the city is being clear and transparent? Maybe the PUB can help sort it out. Oh, wait...

There are a few bold promises in the NSGCBoR. "The city will never ration electricity." That should be comforting, right? Let me tell you fellow citizens, once the city has the capabilitity to set electricity rates on a per device basis in your home, they can ration your electricity usage, just based on price. They can say that electric lights have a base rate of X, while air conditioning has a rate of 100X. You will sure feel like your electricity is being rationed when you can't *afford* to have as much as power as you need, powering the device that you need, at the time that you need it. It will be de facto electricity rationing.

"Wait, wait, wait," says the NSGCBoR, "Customers can select a billing rate structure that meets your needs. This includes the traditional fixed-rate pricing and time of use pricing programs. Customers will have the ability to change programs." Here again, all the city has to do is set the "time of use pricing" to be X and the "traditional fixed-rate pricing" to 100X and you will drop the traditional fixed-rate pricing model like a live wire on a wet floor. Once the city can use price to control when, where, and how you use electricity, they will have too much control of your life.

Whatever rights the NSGCBOR is alleged to confer are as ephemeral as a summer breeze and about as powerful. The ordinance is so vague as to be meaningless. Worse, it gives citizens the impression that they have rights, which they most certainly do not. The Watchman encourages you to read this ordinance, alongside of other existing city ordinances, and you will see quite clearly that it was written by a PR firm and not by legislators or regulators. There was no public input into this so-called Bill of Rights.

The entire Smart Grid Initiative continues to roll on with virutally no public support. Pretty much like Congress with healthcare.

But far be it from the Watchman to be only a naysayer. The NSGCBoR would have real teeth if it included a provision that disallowed differences in electricity rates between traditional fixed-price models and time-specific or device-specific models of more than, say, 1%. Is 1% the right number? I don't know. But the city should have the courage to pick a number, present it to the public, and live by it.

Plug into choice? Really?? Only if your idea of choice is turning your decision making over to the city.

Hosni is History

noreply@blogger.com (Liberty Watchman) — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 21:56:00 +0000

Image via Wikipedia

Two questions now come to mind. First, is there really any difference between Mubarak being in control and the military being in control? Mubarak was a career military officer and was formerly the head of the Egyptian Air Force. His staying in power or leaving office was always at the nod of the military.

Second, if the military keeps to its promise of staying in power only during the 'transition', who or what will lead next? Egypt does not have a history of democracy, so it's hard to imagine a Jeffersonian democracy springing up in the shadow of the Pyramids.

The transition to military rule was a violation of the Egyptian constitution. When Mubarak stepped down, the Speaker of the Parliament should have taken over, not the military. Absent the rule of law, what's going on in Egypt is a revolution, the outcome of which is entirely up for grabs.

It's great to see the joyous celebrations on the streets of Cairo and the Watchman wishes the protesters well. Unfortunately, the odds that this will turn out well for Egypt, the US, or the world are very small.

"Bureau Special"

noreply@blogger.com (Liberty Watchman) — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 11:21:00 +0000

I'm often asked why the Watchman doesn't post articles more frequently. It's because he doesn't want to just regurgitate the news as so many bloggers do. He looks for a fresh angle or an uncovered story, things not so easy to find. A story like this one.

The terrible shooting in Arizona is an open and shut case, is it not? The gunman was captured immediately after the shooting. There were hundreds of eyewitnesses. The entire tragedy was captured on videotape by nearby security cameras. Can there be a more slam dunk conviction?

Yet the FBI has allocated 250 special agents to this case. This is called a “bureau special” in which agents from anywhere in the United States can be involved in this case. In addition to the FBI resources, there are 170 local investigators on this project. Why?

"We are pursuing all of Loughner's associates and all his movements for the last 22 years. We're examining who he knows, running down every lead and trying to collect all the information we can," said FBI Special Agent Jason Pack.

If this was a private investigation, where investigators cost real money and real people had to come up with that real money to pay for them, this would not be happening. It's only in the surreal world of the public sector where investigators are as unlimited to deploy as the printing presses are that print the money to pay for them, that we see this kind of wanton waste.

They are not kidding about this, folks. The FBI intends to interview every living soul which had any contact with his crazy man on any day of his life over the last 22 years. That's why you need 250 FBI agents – to conduct all those interviews. And that number could rise to 500 as it has in previous “bureau special” operations.

What is the public interest here? Surely it's to see that justice is done, to see that Loughner gets a fair trial and a swift execution. But is it in the public interest to determine what Loughner's motive was? The Watchman thinks not.

It's a fool's errand to try to determine the motives of a crazy man. And enough information has come out in the press, including Loughner's own writings and the many reports of people who knew him well, for us to accept with a great deal of confidence that Loughner is indeed, crazy.

What is to be gained by learning that in, say, the sixth grade, Loughner was encouraged by another crazy kid to shoot and kill government officials? Isn't there a statute of limitations on conspiracy? And even if there isn't, who cares? Crazy is as crazy does. It's that simple.

It's tempting to think that this might be a plot by the left to uncover evidence in support of their initial absurd claims that the shooting was somehow caused by the rantings of talk radio personalities. But that does not appear to be the case. This is not government waste with a mission, this is just standard operating procedure government waste. They do this all the time for high profile murder investigations.

The lesson to be learned from the battalion of G-men combing the Arizona desert is simply this: Even when the government is doing something that it should be doing as opposed to wasting time doing things it has no business doing, it does that thing poorly and wastefully and to excess.

God save the United States of America.

Ship Saved. Huckabee Sunk

noreply@blogger.com (Liberty Watchman) — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 10:16:00 +0000

The Tea Party literally saved the ship of state yesterday. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he had at least 9 Republican Senators who were ready to vote for the Omnibus porker as he prepared to bring the bill to the Senate floor. Then the Tea Party patriots roared into action, melting down the phone lines to DC and the 9 votes evaporated in the heat.

The good news is that the will of the people won the day. The bad news is that there are still 9 RINOs blowing in the Senate wind who were prepared to vote for a bill that only a handful of guys wrote, nobody had time to read, and that would grow the national debt pile by a cool trillion or so. Any fool could see that this was a bad idea for the nation, but there are still two handfuls of Republican uberfools who think the electorate is still sleeping through the financial apocalypse. Fortunately, the anger of the American people is aroused and it doesn't look like anybody is going back to sleep until at least 2013 (if then).

The only good to come out of this Lame Duck session so far is that it is exposing the soft RINO underbelly of the Republican Presidential wannabes. Governor Mike Huckabee, a guy the Watchman thought would make a reasonable conservative President, fell on his sword as he announced that all the Congressional Republican's who opposed the so-called Obama tax cut compromise were wrong to do so. He basically said, this is the best deal we can get.

Oh really? When? Maybe its the best deal we can get in December, but it's surely not the best deal we can get in January.

Huckabee must never become the Commander-in-Chief of the American Armed Forces. His strategy on the tax cut legislation is akin to saying, "Charge that hill, boys. We've got 2 divisions coming up as reinforcements next month, but the enemy will give us half the ground between here and the top of the hill if we charge now."

That's insane. No commander makes a charge at half strength if he can help it. And the low part of the hill is always the easiest part to charge against. It's the top, where the hill is the steepest, that is the most difficult to take.

So Huckabee, Gingrich, and some other presidential contenders have shown that they love the art of the compromise more than they love standing for bedrock conservative principles. It's politics as usual with solutions that no American likes (expect the "peace in our time" Republican appeasers).

Say what you will about Obama's inexperience as President, but he's won every political battle so far. He charged when he had the troops and got health care passed. His troops were decimated in the process and on the eve of being overrun in a counter-attack, he brilliantly negotiates a cease-fire which the rube Republicans accept. By the time hostilities commence again, he will have reinforced his position having created an image of 'reasonableness' in the minds of voters while at the same time wielding a veto pen that will hold that hill for the next two years.

Way to go RINOs.

Scuttling the Ship

noreply@blogger.com (Liberty Watchman) — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 09:24:00 +0000

We have to be clear on this. The left wing of the Democrat party wishes to "create systemic failure, economic crisis and social chaos". In short, their goal is to destroy our economic system so that they can usher in their vision of a socialist utopia. Cloward and Piven, two professors from Columbia University, laid out this plan in their 1966 article in The Nation.

Fast forward to December 2010.

This week the Senate threatens to pass another massive trillion dollar spending bill. It's a 2,000 page bill that almost nobody has read. Sound familiar? Despite the clear message of fiscal restraint sent by the voters in the last election, this bill is chock full of pork. It's like the November election never happened.

Is this just the usual nest feathering of Congressmen and Senators on their way out the door? To an extent, I'm sure that's true. But we have to keep in mind that the liberal Democrats don't care if the ship goes down. In fact, they want it to go down and the sooner the better. Adding another trillion in deficit spending might just be the torpedo to do it.

Naperville's Dumb and Dumber

noreply@blogger.com (Liberty Watchman) — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 08:42:00 +0000

In the role of 'dumb' we have the Naperville Fraternal Order of Police Local 42. With the economy in full retreat and the city of Naperville facing ten million dollar deficits for as far as the eye can see, our cop shop thought they were entitled to a raise.

Wah! I want a Pony!!

In the face of these large deficits, did the city insist on a salary reduction from the Police union? No. Did they seek at least a salary freeze? No. Instead, on the eve of arbitration, the city offered the boys in blue a 3.3% salary increase for FY 2009/2010 and a 3.0% increase each year for the next two years.

Nationally, the average salary increase in 2009 according to Hewitt was 1.8% Do Naperville's finest deserve a raise that is 83% above the national average?

"Well," you say in a good natured mood, "perhaps our gendarme are underpaid to begin with so we need to catch them up." Not at all, gentle citizen. Our magnum force is truly that, with our average flatfoot's salary at $74,949 compared to a national average of $49,846. That's 50% higher than the national average, folks.

"Yes, yes, but Naperville is a high crime area and we can't have our constabulary risking their lives every day for a pittance. Er... ummm... yeah." Sorry, Naperville's violent crime rate is 82% below the national average and our property crime rate is 48% below the national mark. Our Police face roughly the same level of crime as Barney Fife.

Like public sector unions everywhere, the FOP is out of control and living in a fantasy world. Vince Clark, president of FOP Local 42 was shocked! shocked!! to discover the city had a budget problem. “The city wants to paint a picture that our agreement has caused a hole in their budget, they can’t control it, and there’s going to be layoffs. At no time did (City Manager Doug) Krieger tell us we had to negotiate a better deal because this is how it’s going to end up,” said Clark.

Come on, Vince. You're blowing so much smoke, we're going to have to call the fire department -- yet another overpaid public sector union.

Just when you thought that was as dumb as it can get, along comes dumber: the city of Naperville. The city had the perfect opportunity to go to arbitration and bring Police salaries into line with reality when they inexplicably offered this bloated contract -- only to turn around days later and tell the union that 6 police officers would need to be laid off because the contract was too bloated. Now the union is claiming the city negotiated in bad faith.

Here's the Watchman's Word to the Wise: FOP you should have quit while you were ahead. Isn't it enough that you got an undeserved contract?

The police union and the city deserve each other. The citizens of Naperville deserve better.

Say No to Naperville Lobbyist

noreply@blogger.com (Liberty Watchman) — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 07:31:00 +0000

Dear Naperville City Council Members,

While the Watchman is sure the path of least resistance would be to simply approve the $60,000 Springfield lobbyist fee for next year, please consider these factors.

Do we really know what kind of bang for the buck we have received from this lobbyist? Yes, we know about the Rt 59 widening and some other state funds coming our way. But can the lobbyist really claim credit for those? I think the legislators from districts that encompass Naperville had a much bigger impact. Do we even know how many hours we get each year for our $60,000? How many hours with staff? How many hours in Springfield? Without some better metrics, the value of a lobbyist is dubious.

The State of Illinois is bankrupt. Lobbyists will be unsuccessful in pulling down any more money for the city for years to come. Massive across-the-board cuts are coming and no lobbyist will be able to ameliorate them.

Tomorrow a very large portion of the general assembly will be kicked out of office. Our lobbyist admits that but what they don't say is that a substantial amount of their influence goes out the door with those departing relationships. It takes years to build new relationships, so the value of our lobbyist is certainly less than what it was last year.

Taken together, and in light of the city's own fiscal crisis, I think these are good reasons not to retain a lobbyist for next year. The city can always pick up the service again in a subsequent year if conditions change.

If you decide to retain a lobbyist, at a very minimum this contract should be put out for bids. It's nice that they have held their fees constant over several years, but the present economic conditions call for reducing that fee. I would bet money somebody would do the job for $50,000 per year. You might say, "So what's $10,000 in a $100,000,000 budget?" It's freakin' $10,000 -- that's what it is.

And finally, if for no other reason than the fact we face $10 million dollar deficits as far as the eye can see, NO CITY CONTRACTS SHOULD BE NO-BID.

The Soulless Democrat Party

noreply@blogger.com (Liberty Watchman) — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 08:52:00 +0000

Image via Wikipedia
Today it was revealed that former President Clinton tried to persuade the Democrat candidate for the US Senate in Florida, Kendrick B. Meek, to drop out of the race and throw his support behind Republican-turned-independent, Charlie Crist. Crist himself confirmed this story and added that the White House was aware of the plan. According to Crist, Meek had agreed to withdraw from the race, but has since changed his mind. Meek denied that he ever intended to resign his candidacy.

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

The logic of this scheme is mind boggling. What genius thought that democrat voters could be persuaded to throw their votes to a life-long Republican? And why would the democrat establishment prefer a RINO over a genuine liberal democrat like Meek?

The answer is simple: The primary democrat value is power and control. If the Obama and Clinton believe a RINO who is willing to make a deal with the democrat devil has a better chance of winning than an authentic liberal democrat, they'll join ranks with the prostituted RINO every time.

They do so because Democrats have no soul, no guiding principles, no inviolate beliefs. Control is their god and power the means to that control. They will sacrifice all on the alter of party control.

Race is but a tool of control. One day the post-racial Obama exhorts Latinos to "punish their [Republican] enemies", the next he throws a black candidate under the bus in Florida so that a white man who will do Obama's bidding can win.

All else is subordinate to control. Healthcare for 32 million Americans? Only if it enhances democrat control. That's why a single-payer system is so important to them. Education vouchers? Rejected because they return control to the people. 33 Czars beholding to no one but the President? Priceless.

Every day, in every way, the fascist nature of the democrat party becomes more and more evident. Yesterday, Bill Maher let slip the truth of democratic fascism when he said, "They say there's not enough bi-partisanship. There's too much! ... We have Democrats for one reason: to drag the ignorant, hillbilly half of this country into the next century, which in their case is the 19th." In describing the American electorate he said, "They don't understand the issues. They're too stupid. They're like a dog. They can understand inflection. They can understand fear. They can understand dominance. They don't understand issues."

At best you are a dog to be trained and at worst a hillbilly to be dragged. Is this not totalitarian fascism?

Maher speaks for all establishment democrats. This is why the democrat party is upset that the American people do not like Obamacare. In false humility they say they didn't do enough to explain it to the people. But in their prideful hearts they believe as Maher does that we are too stupid to know what is good for us and that we need to be dragged behind them on their way to utopia.

Next Tuesday the nation stands at the precipice. To go forward is to plunge into a Borg collective from which we may never escape. Let's take the road less traveled and embrace the wisdom of our forebears by returning to the rugged individualism and limited government model they set forth for us.

James Gannon summed up the situation well in his resent post on The American Spectator:

"The people who adhere to traditional American values -- which means everything that defined what America was and what it meant, up to the late 1960s -- have largely stood on the sidelines watching this takeover, too busy going to work, raising their kids, tending to the suburban home, paying their bills (even their mortgages!) to do anything about it. And anyway, they were the kind of nice, non-confrontational people who didn't want to raise a fuss and didn't want to get into conflict with their university-educated children (who were now shacking up, living off welfare, marching in "gay pride" parades or protesting at the World Bank) and who thought that all this politically-correct stuff was a fad that would pass in time, when everyone came to their senses.

Memo to the naive majority: It ain't gonna pass, it's only going to get worse, because this is a Movement -- a lifelong battle being waged by dedicated, determined, unscrupulous people because it is the only thing they have left to believe in, having abandoned religion as a superstition, patriotism as a joke, and morality as a strait-jacket. This is their religion, their family, their purpose in being, and they need to succeed in this life because at the end there is only Darkness."

h/t to Brother Mark

The Rent is Too *&$#@ High

noreply@blogger.com (Liberty Watchman) — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 07:10:00 +0000

Perhaps the funniest candidate in this silly season is Jimmy McMillan, a candidate for Governor of New York from the "The rent is too damn high" party.

Jimmy is the only member of the TRITDH party, but in a year when voter anger is at it's zenith, this guy might actually grab some votes. If cadence counts, McMillan will be the next Governor of New York.

But should he?

Jimmy says, "My main job is to put a roof over your head, food on the table, and money in your pocket." In short, he's the ultimate nanny state liberal in a mad-as-hell tea party wrapper. Who's your Daddy? Jimmy is!

If Jimmy McMillan is a side show, the Connecticut Senate race is the main event. The Watchman sat stunned tonight as a Frank Luntz focus group agonized over the choice between Democrat Richard Blumenthal and Republican Linda McMahon. The issue on the lips of every focus group participant? Jobs.

Jobs, jobs, jobs and nothing but jobs. Who would create more jobs, Blumenthal or McMahon? Who has more business experience, Blumenthal or McMahon? Who has the true track record of creating jobs in the private sector, Blumenthal or McMahon?

If this focus group truly represents the mindset of most Connecticutians, these people may as well vote for Jimmy McMillian. They don't want a Senator, they want a Daddy.

Attention People of the State of Connecticut: United States Senators do not create jobs! Nor should they attempt to create jobs. When they do, they invariably screw things up. The best -- the very best -- that a US Senator can do is get government out of the way of entrepreneurs who can create jobs.

If Jimmy McMillan is the side show, then the Connecticut Senate race is the main event. But it's all part of the same circus if what the electorate wants is to have their noses wiped and butts powdered.
The long term test of the Tea Party is not found in the upcoming November slaughter. The test comes when Tea Party Patriots deny themselves again and again in election after election and when they insists their elected representatives do the same. Only then will a true return to the founding principles be achieved.

$3 Million to Keep Wonkaland Open

noreply@blogger.com (Liberty Watchman) — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 09:37:00 +0000

Residents of Dupage County, Illinois might be surprised to learn that the city of Naperville is planning to buy the Dupage Children's Museum property. Your surprise might exist on several levels.
First, you might be surprised that a municipal government -- you know, them of stop signs, streets & sewers -- would be in the business of buying a financially troubled Kiddieland park. Oh sure, I know they call it a 'Children's Museum', but that's about like calling tilt-a-whirl a centrifugal force museum. Let's face it. It's a Six Flags amusement park for small children.

Or maybe you're surprised to discover that this deal has been in the works for two years. Perhaps you're startled to learn that the city council has been working on it in strict secrecy for all that time, floored that details of the deal just came to light October 1, and down right hacked off at the realization that the city council's first and final public vote on the purchase is scheduled for tomorrow, October 5th. Five fabulous days to force feed a $3 million expenditure down the public gullet before they know what they have swallowed.

At least one Naperville councilman agrees, “I think the public deserves more than six days to make this decision,” said Councilman Grant Wehrli. “Just because the council members have been giving this mind-share for two years, we should not remove public input from the process.”

Perhaps the single most surprising fact is that the Naperville City Council will make this $3 million purchase of WillyWonka's place while floating over next years $10 million dollar budget deficit, presumably in their Wonkavator. I can hear the soothing sounds of 'Pure Imagination' now.

Grooving to that tune, one councilman, Robert Fieseler, engaged in that most sublime of political talents: double speak. “The whole idea here is to try to assure that the museum is self sufficient,” said Councilman Robert Fieseler. “We think it’s important that this not become a user of city resources at this time.”

Please forgive the Watchman for breaking in on the councilman's alternate reality, but 'at this time' is now and those $3 million dollars are certainly city resources. If the goal is to help the Chocolate Factory attain self sufficiency, why is the city subsidizing their rent for the next 20 years? For 5 years the rent will be zero and for the next 15 years, rent will be only about 10% of market value. That's an interesting way to define self sufficient!

But politicians do that, don't they? They take the most common sense understandings and turn them on their ear. Just as the city plans to subsidizes it's way to Wonkan self sufficiency, it considers two of the three million dollars to be essentially found money.

"Hey look! I just found $2 million dollars in this year's budget that we didn't spend! Oh we tried to spend it, let me tell you we tried hard! We allocated every last penny, but some dopey contractor didn't spend all the money we gave him. What a mope! So this is like found money. Finder's keepers but we hate keepers. They're boring, responsible people. Use it or lose it, baby!

What's that you say? Look, please stop nagging me about next year's deficit. Don't you realize that next year never gets here when it comes to fiscal responsibility? We don't have to worry about next year because we've got a Wonkavator!"

At least one councilman is showing a little hard-headed Republican sense. In an email sent out on Monday, councilman Furstenau admits he's not in this to Free Willy.

“I (Councilman Dick Furstenau) immediately supported the deal in executive session meetings as soon as the price hit $3 million because that’s cheap money for that piece of property.” “But if for any reason, the museum can’t hack it after a few years, we own the property and can force them out, level the building and give the people of Naperville the parking solution they’ve desperately needed for years.” ~ Quote from the Daily Herald, September 29, 2010

Sentiment like that brings a tear to the eye... of Alex P. Keaton.

While the Watchman admires Councilman Furstenau's city-first approach, this lease agreement with the Wonkans doesn't get the job done. If the city wants the property for cheap, just yank the $250,000 annual SECA funding and the DCM will fold like a lawn chair. That property will never be cheaper than it would be in bankruptcy court. It's not a prime commercial property. It sat vacant for a long time after the hardware store couldn't make a go of it there. Whatever realtor gave it a valuation of $6 million is living in the Wonkavator.

In fact, by signing this agreement tomorrow, the city will ensure that for at least 20 years the city will not get more than 57 parking places from the Wonkans for train station parking. The lease contract is rock solid for 20 years with automatic renewal for 50 more years. Willy can bail with 12 months notice, but the city cannot get out of the deal for a minimum of 20 years. I assure you that none of the present council members will still be serving the city when this lease ends. So if you want to build a parking deck on that property, you'll have to leave it to your successors.

Once this deal is signed, the Wonkans will never fold. With a $500,000 - $800,000 annual rent subsidy from the city, they have no reason to fold. Ever. Even if they can't continue to operate the Chocolate Factory, there is nothing to force them to give up the lease. There should be a clause in the lease agreement terminating it if Willy ceases to operate a Children's Museum on the site, but there is no such clause. As long as they make the $62,000 annual rent payment to the city (a pittance, really), there will be no parking deck built. Even a moribund non-profit can keep hope alive by making that small annual payment.

The council likes to trumpet the fact that the $250,000 per year in SECA funding for the Wonkans will be ended with this purchase. But what the city takes away with one hand, it gives back with two hands in the form of the $3 million cash and the massive rent subsidy. Even the $250,000 SECA cut is likely not to be permanent. The lease agreement clearly states that the Wonkans can apply for additional SECA funds for 'capital expenses and other projects.' This is a shell game, folks. There will be continued SECA funding for Willy but it just won't be called 'operating budget'.

The only thing the city will accomplish by signing this lease is to ensure the property cannot be taken over by the city for 20 years. Even the 57 parking spaces for the train station are not guaranteed. The lease calls for phasing in those 57 spaces "in such a manner that it will not negatively affect the Tenant's business operations." since 57 spaces represents a quarter to a third of all parking at the facility, the Wonkans could easily argue (and prove) that giving away that many spaces is in fact detrimental to their business.

This lease agreement is terribly one sided in favor of the Wonkans. The city makes all the iron-clad promises and Willy makes none. The city thinks it has control of Willy by virtue of budgets and two board seats, but two board seats don't equal control of the board. Willy will still be able to oppose the city when he wants to.

And now, here at the end of a long article, the Watchman buries what probably should have been the lead to this story. It should be pretty clear to all by now that this is yet another government bailout of the private sector. What is not so clear, and which you will see reported nowhere else, is who is the largest beneficiary of this bailout. It is not the Wonkans as many would suspect.

The largest beneficiary of this bailout is Chase bank. Naperville's $3 million payment goes not to Willy, but to Chase bank to pay down Willy's real estate loan. In total, Chase will receive payments of approximately $6 million dollars from state, local, and private sources and and only write off $3.2 million in bad debt. The bank is presently on the hook for the whole $9 million, but we, dear taxpayers, are bailing the bank out.

Who says state and local government can't play the bailout game as well as the feds.

The End Is Near

noreply@blogger.com (Liberty Watchman) — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 07:39:00 +0000

Are you tired of the Watchman's doom and gloom? So is he. But the sky really is falling and without immediate fiscal adjustments, the sky is going to kill us.

It's absolutely imperative you understand that the world as you know it will soon cease to exist. A global financial panic like none the world has ever seen is warming up in the bull pen. When panic takes the mound, he will be an effective closer for he game we call prosperity.

His first strike was thrown in 1929 and it lead to the Great Depression. As bad as that was, it was just strike one. Worldwide debt levels were still relatively low so we were able to bounce back.

His second fast ball came in the fall of 2008. The world came perilously close to a total financial collapse at that time. The only things that saved us was 'Helicopter' Ben Bernanke. True to his earlier promise to 'drop bundles of cash from a helicopter' if that's what it takes to avoid deflation, that's just what he did. And it worked -- at least temporarily.

Strike three will come when the central banks of the world, having already blown their collective wads in 2008/2009, are unable to prevent the domino failure of one currency after another. The same 'print money' approach to the 2008 crisis, will only make the next crisis worse.

When will this chain reaction start? Nobody knows for sure, but the US Treasury Department marked the trail Friday when we estimated that the total US debt would reach $19.6 Trillion by 2015. At that point our national debt to GDP ratio will be at or above 100%.

Tthe US won't start the dominoes falling. The chain reaction will likely start in Europe and spread around the world. Banks (central and otherwise) hold debt from other banks. When the debtor nations start defaulting on their debts, there will be nothing to stop the whole thing from spiraling out of control. We'll probably be the last man standing, but who cares if you're the last one standing when everyone else is already dead.