Month: May 2015

The flat tax.  The fair tax.  Repealing the Internal Revenue Code.  Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 plan.  Repealing the 16th Amendment.  A consumption tax.  Abolishing the IRS.  Fill out a postcard to do your taxes.  All the lovely dreams.

None of them poll well enough to use Article V.  And Article V may be the only way we get one of them.  It’s a marketing problem.  So we sell the second Article V Amendment Convention as tax reform.  Period.  Or, in the words of President Obama, when he created the Simpson-Bowles Commission, “policies to improve the fiscal situation in the medium term and to achieve fiscal sustainability over the long run.”  That grant of authority to the Amendment Convention would be broad enough to allow a flat tax, or any of the other ideas floating around.  But it doesn’t scare people.

The National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform (Simpson-Bowles) produced a flawed plan, but it was good enough to attract the support of Senator Tom Coburn as well as Nancy Pelosi.  Compromise is possible.  But the kinds of compromise you need to make to get Pelosi’s support means you’re brewing a pretty weak tea.

The way things are looking, after 2016 we may have 34 red state legislatures, up from the current 31.  We should pick up the Kentucky House, and we can win the Senate in Minnesota and the House in Maine and Washington.  If we have 34 we can call a second Convention on tax reform.  And we’ll run it.  They can propose something like a flat tax.  Whatever the voters of Maine, Washington, Minnesota and Oregon will go along with.  You might not be able to sell them on a flat tax, but maybe something close.  It requires political judgment to know how far you can go.  The legislative leadership of those states will be at the Convention.  If they don’t know, who would?

As of today Hillary still looks like the Democratic nominee.  Incredible.  I am amazed.  She is so bad.  I still don’t believe she’ll get it.  Her  weaknesses are so glaring, and so alarming, that something has to happen.  She still polls fairly well against the R’s.  That’s going to change.  Her numbers are heading south.  When she starts trailing the R’s by double digits, somehow, somebody will figure out how to pull the plug on her.

Dinesh D’souza and Gerald Molen made $33 million off a political movie.  It was about how Obama does not like this country.  Ho hum.  This is news?  Molen won an Oscar for “Schindler’s List”.  He lives in Big Fork, Montana and is a big time conservative.   My friend Steve Gough knows him well.  Steve lives in Montana and wrote a book on John Colter, who was the first Mountain Man.  He and Molen have been working together to try to get it made into a movie.  It would be a great film.  A lot of famous western movies have lifted scenes from the actual life of John Colter.  He was about the most complete bad ass ever.

I may try to get out to Big Fork to talk to Molen.  If he can make $33 million filming an Indian immigrant bitching about Obama, what could he do with the Article V movement?   Odds are, we’ll get our Convention.  It will need to be filmed for prosperity.  Oops, Freudian slip.   I meant posterity.  A patriot, like Molen, should be in charge.

I bet he’d like that.

EQUIPMENT

Map of U. S.

50 U. S. Commemorative State Quarters, one per state

Playing pieces (tokens)

Score sheets  — lists of 50 states

One die

One egg timer

GOAL:  Be first player to get 38 states

PLAY

Each player places their token on a state, and checks that state off on their score sheet.  The first player rolls the die, and moves his token to adjoining states.  When you land on a state you check it off on your score sheet.  If a state is occupied by another player, you get to take one state away from that player and add it to your list.

Roll a one:  Move token to adjoining state.  Banker picks a quarter at random and gives it to you.  Check off the state on the quarter on your list.

Roll a two:  Move two states.  Roll twice.

Roll a three:  Move three states.  Take any state from any another player

Roll a four:  Move four states. Lose a state of your choice to a player of your choice.

Roll a five:  Move five states.  Pick any state to add to your score sheet.

Roll a six:  Move six states.  Give one of your quarters, if you have any, to another player of your choice.

When you reach 26 states you turn the egg timer, and, at the end of your turn, try to cut deals on exchanging with other players.  When the sand runs out, trading time is over.

When you reach 34 states you no longer can have any state taken away from you, in any way.

I don’t think the R’s lose the Senate next year, despite having the big bumper crop of 2010 defending their seats.  They could pick up seats, not lose them.

Nevada  — Should be an easy pickup.  If Gov. Brian Sandoval runs, the D’s will probably fold.  They can’t beat him.  If Sandoval passes it should be Senate Majority Leader Michael Roberson.  Now that Sonora Pass is open I can drive over it to Carson City in three hours.  Week after next I’ll try to get an appointment with Roberson.  I’ll introduce him to the Reagan Initiative.  The feds own 83% of Nevada, and Nevadans aren’t happy about that.  I’ll try to convince Roberson to incorporate the Reagan Initiative into his campaign.  To me it’s a no-brainer.  We’ll see what Roberson thinks.

Colorado  —  Democrat Michael Bennet beat Republican Ken Buck in 2010, but not by much.  Buck wasn’t a very good candidate.  Colorado adjourns in a couple weeks and I’ll call Kevin Lundberg and find out who they’ve got.  Kevin ran for Congress a while back, so he’s got to be plugged in.  Hell, he might want to run himself.  36% of Colorado is owned by the feds.  Do Coloradans want that land for themselves?   I bet they do.

Oregon  — Ron Wyden is fairly reasonable, for a Democrat.  But he voted for Obamacare, which has been a colossal brain fart in Oregon.  Senate Minority Leader Ted Ferrioli looks like the logical guy to me.  I’ve had a few good conversations with one of his main staffers, Steve Elzinga.  The feds own 53% of Oregon.  Ferrioli is from rural, southeastern Oregon, the kind of place where the Reagan Initiative is going to be very popular.  What I’ve learned about Ferrioli is all positive.  If he won’t run he’ll know who will.

Washington  –I’ve always thought Patty Murray wasn’t very bright.  I know it’s looksism, but she even looks dumb.  Senate President Pam Roach is my kind of person, and woman.  She told me that she believes Washington voters are a lot more conservative than people think.  The feds own 28% of Washington.  That’s about two million acres.  That’s a lot of land.  Why shouldn’t the people of Washington own it?

California  —  I’ve written about it before.  If Devin Nunes or David Valadao run, they can win.  The Reagan Initiative will help a whole lot.  45% of California is owned by the feds.  That’s an area the size of Oklahoma.  Why do the feds own it?  Are the environmentalists worried that they will ruin it?   They’ve owned California, up ’til now.  What are they afraid of?

Arizona  — Time for McCain to go.  I want Andy Biggs to run against him.  Our sponsor, Bob Thorpe, is somewhat close to him.   I’ll call Bob and see if he’ll talk to Andy about it.  The feds own  46% of Arizona.  Andy Biggs can run on a platform of bringing ownership of a lot of that land home to Arizona.

Alaska  —  Fourteen years of futility are enough.  It’s time for Lisa Murkowski to leave.  I think David Cuddy is the guy.  I want to be heavily involved in his campaign.  I want David to take credit for the Reagan Initiative in Alaska.  I want him to form an organization, Alaskans for the Reagan Initiative, or something.  Get out front on this.  If we pull it off it will be the biggest thing since the pipeline.  I think he could win big.

It’s kind of funny to think about Andy Biggs doing a 180 on Article V, but it makes a lot of sense.  I’d love to pitch it to him.  With it, he can take down McCain.  Right now a lot of Arizona conservatives, from all over the state, are pissed off at Andy, and his fantasies about Article V.

I think Andy and I are going to get along just fine.  Maybe we’ll be buddies.  He’s an extremely talented outdoor photographer.  And a hard right conservative.  Actually, he looks a little bit like a pansy to me.  Not really my kind of guy.  Not very many people in politics are.

I took my wife and her friend to see “Woman in Gold’.  A truly great movie.  Maria Altmann was a Jewish refugee from Vienna, one of the survivors of the wealthy Bloch-Bauer family.  Her Aunt Adele was the subject of Gustav Klimt’s famous portrait, one of the great works of art of the 20th century.  The Nazis stole it from her family and the Austrian government refused to give it up.  It is considered the Mona Lisa of Austria.  With the help of the grandson of one of the 20th century’s most famous composers, a young American lawyer, she got the picture of her aunt and sold it to the Lauder Museum in New York for $125 million.  You can see it there today, thanks to her, and Lauder.  Amazingly, the movie was understated politically, and was actually understanding of the Austrians.

It portrayed wealthy Jewish society in prewar Vienna.  Very sympathetically.  They were beautiful people.  It reminded me of what got me interested in politics.  I think I was eight.  I saw film from Germany showing Jews as they were being rounded up, destined for the death camps.  One boy, my age, looked a lot like me. I tried to figure this out.  Why was he being killed?  If he could be sent to his death for no reason, could the same thing happen to me?  Who were these Nazis?  This was 1953, or so, and I found out the Nazis had been defeated.  But it made me feel vulnerable.  As I aged, and learned things, I tried to figure out how the Nazis came to power, and how that could be prevented from happening in my country.  The danger, I began to understand, was from totalitarianism in general, not just its Nazi variety.  For most of my life in politics the danger was communism.  I got into politics because I was a fervent anticommunist.  That’s why this is called the Reagan Project.  Reagan defeated communism.  And he did it peacefully.

As our forefathers understood, if we lose our freedom it will not be from a foreign power.  Our oceans protect us from that.  We’ll lose it slowly, from a thousand cuts.  So my politics has evolved.  We don’t really have to worry about Nazis or communists.  And we don’t need to fear radical Islam.  It’s no threat to us.  We have to rally to the Constitution, the real guarantee of our freedom as Americans.

I’d love to make a movie, but I’ll settle for a half hour documentary.  It will feature 30 or 40 legislative leaders, from a minimum of 26 states, talking about their participation in the Amendment Convention of 2016.  What they will do, and what they won’t do, and won’t allow done.  There will be a narrator  — me, if we can’t think of anyone better  — talking about the place of Article V in our Constitutional system of checks and balances and separation of powers.  David Cuddy got himself in the movie business a few years ago, so I’ll ask him to help.  We’ll want a pro doing the filming, someone who understands lighting and editing.

West Virginia sponsor John Overington told us today that Speaker Armstead let our bill die, in part, because of his fear of a runaway.  It was not, as I thought, fear of losing federal funds.  This video will be designed for him, and others like him.  If it’s properly done it could be very persuasive.

Movies are the only art form that is improving.  Literature has been going downhill since Shakespeare, music since Beethoven, painting since Rembrandt, and sculpture since Michaelangelo.  Moviemaking gets better.  It’s what’s happening now.  If you’ve got a story to tell, make a movie.

We’ll have a little family movie made in an hour or so, when the mother of our grandchildren remarries.  They’re eleven and eight, and will be dressed to the nines.  The groom is a great guy who will be a great stepfather.  A special day for these little girls.

One of many more to come.