Month: April 2015

Even the Reagan Initiative is not enough.  There should be a second Amendment Convention.  A lot of people on the Task Force like the CoS approach  — an open grant to propose limitations on the power of the federal government, including term limits.  I used to agree.  But now I think term limits must be off the table.  It’s a separate subject.  There are a significant number of state legislators, in key states, who oppose term limits.  Some of these people are as conservative as I am.  They have their opinion, and I respect it, even while I disagree.  Term limits have proven to be essentially worthless in some states, such as California.  Politically, the whole idea of term limits should be a completely separate subject.  So CoS, which has only three states, is not the answer.

The Reagan Initiative is a very significant step in the direction of reining in the federal government.  But a BBA can only be expanded so far.  We have to be very careful about not exceeding the scope of the call.  Tax reform is off the table.  But tax reform, even more than regulatory reform, is what we need.  The tax code is a national disgrace.  A rational and fair system of taxation would be revolutionary, and not just economically.  Freeing the American people from the clutches of the IRS would be a giant blow for liberty.

So, should we repeal the 16th Amendment, and thus abolish the IRS?  No.  It wouldn’t be prudent.  Article V only works when there is a broad and bipartisan national consensus.  Significant majorities of both Republicans and Democrats have to agree.  I’m convinced the idea of tax reform has such support.  But no specific proposal, such as a flat tax, or a consumption tax, has that level of public approval.

I’m suggesting something like reformation of the Internal Revenue Code.  The language is critically important, and I haven’t thought this all the way through.  We want to give the second Amendment Convention broad latitude, but we don’t want to scare the horses.  How far can we go?

Right now, it’s impossible to say.  Once the first Amendment Convention has finished its work and adjourned we should have a pretty good idea.  The public perception of this Convention is almost as important as its work product.  If the American people see a collection of state legislators working diligently, efficiently, openly and fairly, they will be willing to give the second Convention a broad grant of authority.  If the Convention is seen as just another bunch of fighting politicians, such a grant is off the table.  Comportment is the key.  The delegates must comport themselves in a way to build the trust of the people.  They will be engaged in very serious business.  They have to act the part.

After the adjournment of the Convention its leaders should meet privately to discuss round two.  If they can’t come to an immediate consensus they should form some sort of informal, ad hoc working group.  These people need to stay in communication, in an effort to reach some kind of consensus.  I don’t think there should be a formal organization.  But lines of communication will have been established at and prior to the Convention, and they should be kept open.

I had four years of college and three of law school.  Most of it was a waste of time, including all three years of law school.  I learned a hell of a lot more about law in my summer of study for the bar exam than I did in law school.  Law schools are unnecessary.  Anyone ought to be able to take the bar exam and become a lawyer.

But college wasn’t a complete waste.  I was able to get a coveted spot in an upper division poly sci class taught by Jacobus Ten Broek, a law professor at Boalt.  I think he may have been the smartest man I’ve ever known.  He was blind, from a childhood accident, and never saw any of his students.  He conducted class using the Socratic method, asking questions, never answering them.  There were about 60 of us, and he had a deck of 60 cards, in braille, one for each of us.  He’d just ask us questions, and criticize our responses, but never offer an opinion of his own.  In the hands of a Socrates, or a Jacobus Ten Broek, it works.  I didn’t participate any more than anyone else, but he could tell I was different, a conservative.  So he challenged me, just the way he challenged everyone.  I loved that class, and I admired the hell out of Ten Broek, even though he was a liberal.  I wanted to prove myself to him.  One day, kind of out of the blue, he asked me if I hated criminals.  I said, yes, I guess I do.  There were audible gasps of disbelief.  I had been revealed as a wretch.  He asked me why, and I said because they attack the order upon which my safety depends.  I waited, and waited, for the follow up question, but he was silent.  I said, “Well?”  I wanted his approval.  But he didn’t say anything, and I walked out of class.  I only got a “B” in that class, which was a little disappointing.  Grades were based on essays, and mine didn’t measure up.  They just weren’t that good.  There were a lot of things I hadn’t figured out.  But I don’t regret going to Cal, mainly because of that class.

After I graduated I got in some trouble, and reached out to Professor Ten Broek for help.  I wasn’t sure if he’d remember me.  He did, and gave me the help I needed  He was a great and a good man.

What the hell are they smoking, then?  Hash oil?

Biddulph wants to make a last ditch effort in Oklahoma, with the Reagan Intiative.  I told sponsor Gary Banz about it weeks ago, and he, like everyone else, could see the merits.  But I don’t think he’s really pushed it, and it looks as though we need a game changer.   So Dave’s going to see if he can get some help from the oil patch, with the Reagan Initiative as bait.  This is how we’ll get Oklahoma next year, if need be.  We’ll have all summer and fall to explain it, and why it is so attractive, both politically and substantively.  We may be a little late with it this year, but it’s definitely worth a try.

You could say the Reagan Initiative is a bold departure from conventional thinking.  I know how some people will react to it.  You can’t do that!  That’s radical!  That’s not mainstream thinking!

Here’s the way I see it.  I learned this from personal experience.  When my law partner, Sam Pestinger joined up with me, part of the deal was I had to be his boating partner.  We bought a 25 foot Bayliner, with twin inboards, and we cruised all over Prince William Sound and Resurrection Bay.  We had no idea what we were doing.  Sam was from Kansas, and I’d never been in much more than a rowboat.  We were a couple of lawyers pretending we were sea dogs.  It was ridiculous.

Our biggest challenge was getting the boat back in our slip without making fools of ourselves.  The Whittier small boat harbor is a busy place on weekends, and people were always watching us when we came in.  Sometimes the wind was blowing, and this is where we had problems.  We would very cautiously inch into our slip, so slowly that the crosswind would blow us sideways into other boats.  What you’re supposed to do is power into your slip, and reverse engines before you slam into the dock.  But we were too timid to do it properly, and constantly screwed up.  People would gather around to watch us.  Lawyers.

We’ve been inching our way with the BBA, and it’s not working.  We need to have a little courage and power up with the Reagan Initiative.  Faint heart never won fair lady.  Go bold or go home.

When we started making some money Sam wanted a bigger boat, so we got a 35 foot Uniflite.  We hired a guy to watch it in the winter, but he screwed up and it sank, right in the harbor, in a big storm.  Somebody took a picture of it and it ran in Alaska magazine, with the caption, “Boat sinks in Whittier due to poor winterization.  Owned  by two lawyers named Pettyjohn and .Pestinger.”

It was just as well.  The only way we could justify having a boat was as a business expense, and the IRS issued a rule saying you couldn’t do that anymore.  We were fully insured, so I took my share and my buddy Wayne Cates and I bought a bar.   We named it Swiftwater Bill’s Dance Hall and Saloon, and turned it into a rock and roll bar, with a big dance floor.   We’d bring rock groups up from L.A. and we were doing so well we bought another one, and named it after Swiftwater Bill’s girl friend, Gussie L’Amour.

I’d found a way to get out of the law business, which I hated.  I hated everything about practicing law, especially having to deal with lawyers all the time.  I don’t much care for lawyers, as a rule.  There are exceptions, but not many.  The only part I liked, and the only part I was any good at, was jury work.  I loved final argument to a jury.  I tried a federal drug case that was open and shut.  They had my guy cold, but he insisted on going to trial.  I came up with some mind attack of a defense, and I raised so much hell the jurors thought I must be on to something.  I kept them out for four or five hours.  We were sitting in chambers with Judge James Fitzgerald, a legendary figure in Alaska legal history, and I remember him complimenting me on keeping them out as long as I did.  I had nothing to stand on.  He was impressed, which meant a lot to me.

When I  ran for the State Senate I had to get out of the bar business.  It had a pretty seedy reputation in Anchorage.  But I had a memento of it on my wife’s Jeep Wagoneer, which she used to haul the kids around.  It was a bumper sticker that read “I won the banana eating contest at Swiftwater Bill’s.”  She was a good sport.

Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez of Orange County has the opportunity to be a transformational figure in California politics.  Mexican-Americans hold the balance of political power here.  If they stick with fellow minority blacks, the liberal Democrats can’t lose.  We’re a one party, deep blue state, as blue as it gets.  If they go with white Republicans, we’re purple.  Sanchez is the key, and she’s already made her decision.  She’s going with us.  She has no choice.  The black Attorney General, Kamala Harris, has been groomed for the Senate by, among others, former Speaker Willie Brown, still a very influential voice in Democrat politics.  The entire liberal political establishment, which is very powerful, is united behind her.  She’ll have unlimited cash.  She’s well spoken and “clean”, as Joe Biden would say.  A female Obama.  A woman who, as a United States Senator, would be taken seriously as a Presidential candidate as soon as she’s sworn into office.

But she’s got a problem, named Loretta.  Sanchez can beat her.  Take what’s left of the Republicans, add Mexican-Americans, and you’ve got a majority.  It’s arithmetic, not rocket science.  Loretta’s a political liberal, for sure.  That’s the way she votes.  But she acts like a blue dog.  She’s got an attitude.  I know very little about her, but I like what I’ve seen so far.  When she was in the Assembly she accused the Mexican-American Speaker of calling her a whore.  He denied it, but it shows she’s got spunk, doesn’t take orders.  She reminds me of Washington Senate President Pam Roach.  My kind of gal.  I get along very well with women like Loretta.  I like women in general, and I like them a little feisty.  And I like Mexican-Americans.  They hold the key to the future of my native state.

I guess I owe California.  When I started at Cal, in 1962, tuition was about $90 a semester.  Books were a lot more expensive than tuition.   UCLA Law cost my wife and I $232 a quarter.  That was exactly how much her dividend checks were on her little inheritance.  We never took out a loan of any kind, and when we went to Alaska we didn’t have any money, but we were debt free.  So, yeah, I owe California, and I’m going to pay my debt by going to work for my fellow Democrat Loretta Sanchez.  If I get the chance, I’ll advise her to run as a Jack Kennedy Democrat.  Not Teddy.  He was a punk.  Jack, the man.  I’ve got a lot of advice for her.  She should not support Hillary.  That would be really dumb.   She should back Lincoln Chafee for President, the antiwar Democrat.

My high school buddy and camping partner, Danny Fleming, knows how to get in touch with her.  He knows all these Democrats, including Willie and Jerry Brown.  When Jerry was first Governor he was single, and had an affair going with some Democratic lobbyist.  It was hush hush, so Danny would escort this woman to parties where she’d hook up with Jerry.  I emailed Danny this morning, asking him to put me in touch with Loretta.  I bet he comes through for me.

Demographers tell us Mexican-Americans will be running California in the near future, and I don’t dispute that.  But what kind of Mexican-Americans?  Ethnic hustlers, Latino equivalents of Al Sharpton, or people like Loretta?  I bet Loretta knows all about Cesar Chavez, probably much better than I do.  Chavez was dead set against major immigration from Mexico.  It expanded the labor pool, making it harder for him to organize the pickers in the San Joaquin.  Mexican-Americans are Americans from Mexico.  They prefer the United States to their country of origin.  That’s why they’re here.  They don’t automatically vote with the liberals.  They’re against gay marriage, for example, and are not environmental fanatics.  They want jobs, they want to earn good money, just like everybody else.  The coastal elites in California are screwing them over.

I think Loretta understands all this, and I think that’s why she wants to run for the Senate.

And it’s why she’ll win.

Things are looking very dicey in Oklahoma.  CoS failed in the House.  Dave Guldenschuh is there on the ground, and says the arguments used against CoS are the same that will be used against us.  Former Senator Tom Coburn, a beloved political figure in Oklahoma, is currently hospitalized with advanced prostate cancer.  He sent out a letter today, pleading with Oklahoma legislators to strap on a pair and defy these nutty Birchers.  To no avail.  Dave is really disgusted with them.  He’s going to advise sponsor Banz to pull the bill, and try again next year.  I concur.  We shouldn’t take a chance.  We need Oklahoma.  If we fail on the floor, we may not be able to revive it next year.  Prudence.

The only way we’re going to get Oklahoma is with the Reagan Initiative.  Dave says no amount of education and persuasion will work.  These legislators are beholden to people who want to kill our bill.  They don’t listen.  They don’t care.  But they will listen to the oil industry.  They’ll listen very, very carefully.  And once the oil industry understands the implications, for them, of a supply side BBA, with land transfers and regulatory reform, they’ll be all in.  I know these oil guys.  In Alaska we used to say you can tell if an oil man is level headed.  It’s if he drools evenly from both sides of his mouth.  The Reagan Initiative is a drool inducer, for oil men.

Holly Fretwell of the Property and Environment Research Center is out with an important paper on the untapped wealth of federal lands in the West.  I’ve invited her to present at the Seattle Summit.  I bet she comes.  PERC is at Montana State, in Bozeman.  My wife and I will be renting a house in Bozeman for a month this summer, so I’ll shoot out to the campus to meet her.  My eleven year old granddaughter will be spending a week with us.  I’m trying to get her interested in attending MSU.  I’ll take her with me.

There’s big money in oil.  Big money jobs.  My wife and I moved to Anchorage smack dab in the middle of an oil rush.  Uncle Fritz called it a stampede.  In ’69 they found an elephant on the North Slope, and they were in the middle of building the pipeline that would make Alaska rich.  If you weren’t making at least $70,000 a year on the pipeline, there was something wrong with you.  You didn’t need any skills.  All you needed to do was join the Teamster’s Union.  Alaska was a strong union state, and Jesse Carr, the Teamster boss, cut a deal with the oil companies.  It was called a Project Labor Agreement, and it meant Jesse, and some other labor bosses, controlled most of the workers building the pipeline.  The amount of waste was incredible.  The oil companies didn’t care.  What’s an extra two or three billion in construction costs?  Chump change.

So, to me, the nicest part of the Reagan Initiative is all the high wage jobs that will result.  I like to imagine hundreds of thousands of young Americans getting their first real taste of good money.  The kind of money that will encourage them to have families, because they’ll be able to afford families.  All those college grads, living in the basement with their student debt, will have a choice.  Do I sit on my ass, and piss and moan, or do I go West, and make a life for myself?

I want to give them an option.

Do we really need to expand the BBA by using it to add revenue, as well as cut spending?  Is the Reagan Initiative, essentially a supply side attack on the deficit, really needed?

The Reagan Initiative was designed for Wyoming, specifically.  When we lost there, after having been trounced in Montana, something had to change.  The old BBA wasn’t enough, and there was a reason for that.  A new approach was needed.  I’m as stubborn as the next guy, but ramming my head against a wall gets old.

Despite a 16% decrease from 2013, total government spending in Wyoming last year was $13,000 per capita, second highest in the nation.  Wyoming has no income tax, individual or corporate.  The State gets half its revenue from Federal Mineral Royalties and Coal Lease Bonuses.  Both these programs will be on the chopping block when federal spending cuts are made, if they ever are.  Budget cutters in Washington won’t have a lot of sympathy for Wyoming.  To them, the people of Wyoming are getting a free ride.

That’s why we lost Wyoming.  State legislators, some very conservative, weren’t afraid of a runaway.  They were afraid of what will happen to Wyoming if the budget has to actually be balanced.  They’ll get screwed.  Right now they’ve got one Senator, Enzi, as Chair of the Senate Budget Committee.  Their other Senator, Barasso, is number four in the Senate Majority leadership.  They’ve got some protection, but they’re very nervous.  Enzi’s a big supporter of the Balanced Budget Amendment, but he declined when asked to give us some help.

Half of Wyoming is owned by the federal government.  If that land (excluding parks, reservations, and military installations) were transferred to state ownership, there would be a massive increase in resource development on it, allowing Wyoming to make a transition away from dependence on federal funds.  The people of Wyoming don’t want to be dependents of the federal government.  They want economic independence.  The Reagan Initiative is their best hope of achieving it.

We informed Gov. Kasich of Wyoming’s special concerns, and were rebuffed.  He wasn’t interested in giving special treatment to one state, knowing where that would lead.  Every state has special needs.  Accommodate one, accommodate all, and pretty soon you’re unable to balance the books.

So if we’re going to do this for Wyoming, we need to do it for all the western states, from Montana down to New Mexico, and points west.  What’s in it for the rest of the country?  Regulatory reform.  Saving the coal industry, igniting an economic boom, and freeing the states, and the people, from the smothering embrace of the regulatory state.

This is why the Reagan Initiative is necessary.  We won’t get to 34 without it.  Idaho, Montana and Arizona have the same sort of federal dependence that Wyoming suffers from, though not quite as extreme.  With the Reagan Initiative we can get these states, and make it to 34.

If we had millions of dollars we might be able to run a campaign in these states, showing that federal spending is unsustainable, and that when we all go bankrupt Federal Mineral Royalties and Coal Lease Bonuses will only be fond memories.  That’s all true, and we could make a powerful case.  Maybe strong enough to win.  But maybe not.  Since I got involved eighteen months ago we’ve talked and talked about getting some money.  Very little has been raised.  I believe it would be prudent of us not to count on it now.  Thus, the Reagan Initiative.

I’m open to alternatives.  I’m waiting for someone to show me another way.

And waiting.

Perhaps someone at the May 16th meeting in Savannah can explain to me how we get Wyoming.  I’ll be listening attentively.  Senate Presidents Niederhauser of Utah and Faber of Ohio will be presiding, apparently.  Two smart guys.  There will be a lot of bright people at this meeting.  Maybe somebody’s got a better idea.

If the western states get their land there may be some grumbling.  After all, 27 states have passed BBA resolutions without demanding special treatment for themselves.  Why reward holdouts?

Because this is politics, that’s why.  Sometimes you have to give in order to get.  You play the hand you’re dealt.

When I first got to Juneau I intended to butt heads with Senator Bill Ray of Juneau, a major part of the corrupt political machine that controlled the Senate., I saw him on the street the day before we convened, and gave him a close look.  Maybe too close.  He chaired Judiciary, which I was supposed to serve on.  He announced publicly that he would not allow me on his committee.  I had to go to his office, introduce myself, and assure him that I would be a valuable working member of his committee.

After a while, we kind of liked each other, personally.  Bill liked to tell me stories, and some of them were pretty good.  He got a call from some Presidential candidate, asking for help in Alaska.  He told the guy, “What’s in it for me?”

I learned a lot about politics from Bill Ray.