Jim Ostrowski is the son of a State Supreme Court Judge from Buffalo, NY.  A few year’s ago Jim fanned a taxpayer revolt similar to California’s Proposition 13.  He has authored a book, Political Class Dismissed, and he has a website:  www.politicalclassdismissed.com.

After learning his State Senate had been seized through Parliamentary procedure by Republicans he posted these thoughts.  I’ve had to clean up some language.  Some of his points apply anywhere: 

Here’s a true reform agenda for them, free of charge.

1. Make gerrymandering illegal. If you even think about creating a bipartisan committee to do it, I will puke. Just mandate that the districts be geometrically compact and allow any citizen to sue to keep you b******s honest.

2. Abolish all forms of corporate welfare, subsidies grants, loans, enterprise zones. It’s all bull*** to give politicians power to extract donations from business people.

3. Merge all school districts into the local towns; the town council becomes the board, no more dumb special elections where no one votes.

4. Abolish all authorities and special districts. Merge into local government or privatize or, as with IDAs, just abolish, period.

5. Equalize private and public sector pay and benefits.

6. Eliminate all pensions for any elected official.

7. Eliminate all the well-known pension scams such as the using overtime to inflate the “high-three.”

8. Abolish all Medicaid extras not required by federal law and cap spending until we spend the average of other states.

9. Hire the Ohio and PA budget directors for a million each so they can tell us why they spend 68 cents to the NY dollar on state and local government.

10. Finally, just to show you are not cruel, heartless b******s who would take medicine from sick people, legalize medical marijuana. Wait till you have to watch your friend in the ER puking their guts out!

You ever hear the words “mission creep”?  It refers to the morphing of an original plan into something somewhat or entirely different.  I’ve taken some internal criticism from members of SCCOR this past week because I raised a valid point and I did it publicly.  Rest assured there are already “plants” within the organization.  Some are there to try and change the mission and some are there to derail what we’re trying to accomplish.  At some point in the future someone from within the latter was going to attempt to test for any religious litmus test.  Best we get this out of the way in the organization’s infancy stage. 

My argument is simply stated.  SCCOR was created to pressure for a return to sensible government.  The first focus should be local and state officeholders.  SCCOR, from my recollection, wasn’t birthed to become a personal pulpit and even more so not to be an adjunct for any political party. 

I’m a refugee from the People’s Republic of New York.  Government there long ago became a criminal enterprise, stealing silently and now openly from the public it “serves”.  The Upstate New York GOP was once a bulwark against the theft but its members long ago became so enamored of the trappings of office they acquiesced in the heist.  Bring home a sack of money, explain it was “secured” through great personal effort and then ask to be rewarded with another term in office in exchange for even more plunder.  It’s a sham.  It’s the people’s money laundered by government and then passed around by legislative leaders to loyalists who won’t cry foul.  If New York had anyone like Delaware’s Colin Bonini, he or she was long ago relegated to a back bench and left with an office budget that won’t buy a pack of cheap pens. 

This transformation is now happening in Delaware with lightning speed.  The Blitzkrieg is the daily offerings of new and exotic taxes and the deluge just buries a public trying to sort it out.  Aside from State Senator Bonini is there anyone with the courage to say no?  I’ve met State Representative Dan Short at a number of Republican functions.  He’s very much the archetype of the modern legislator.  Articulate, smart and witty you can also point out he’s gone over to the Dark Side.  The Governor proposes an income tax hike and Short not only accepts the bid but then raises the stakes with an offer of an additional income tax increase.  Short’s was the second signature on the offer.  Now Republicans can say publicly they’re doing their part to bring this crisis to an end, restore order in the streets and make Delaware first among equals.  All while picking the pockets of the public.

There is a warning for SCCOR and all Delawareans here.  The special people with the special license plates (Look at me, I can speed with impunity!) no longer even consider a limited role for themselves and for the government apparatus.  The word we’re looking for is “No”.  Maybe I’m mistaken but I continue believing that was SCCOR’s meaning for being.  Maybe we should’ve called it STOP in honor of the late William Buckley, ‘Standing athwart history, shouting “stop!”’  You should be enraged but now another meeting with coffee and donuts and a few more electoral maps? 

I’m going to share some of my feedback.  I’ve now had 3 members ask me what the heck I’m trying to do.  First, I’m trying to save the organization.  It won’t grow if the focus becomes faith and not change in government.  As I’ve said, I go to church for matters of faith.  I joined SCCOR and promoted its efforts to get the attention of a government no longer accountable to its people.  Its entire people.  Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians.  I can also tell you many, many people have approached me over the last two weeks with the same concerns.  If you want a small Christian organization you’ve got one.  If you want a large organization of taxpaying fellow Americans who can flex some political muscle then I suggest you get back to the founding ideal of the group.  I’ve got my own views on faith and I’ve got the liberty to make the choice.   I don’t need you looking out for my soul.  It’s my personal responsibility. 

Did you see John Atkins remarks about Eric?  Some are offended because John was blunt but have told me he was spot on.  Even if you don’t like John don’t let that cloud your judgment. 

Leave the over-the-top criticisms to the talk radio hosts and get back to working the prime directive. 

An idea crossed my mind tonight.  I will volunteer to lead the prayer at the next SCCOR meeting.  You will not mind my full throated rendition of The Rosary.  I figure a couple of decades will be fine and then we can get down to business, however.  I am going to ask everyone to take an oath to the Pope in Rome.  Surely you will do this out of fellowship and as some people have instructed me, we are only honoring God.  He surely comes before country.

The way I see it, I have been asked at the last few meetings to do it your way.  Now I offer this alternative. 

Referencing my arguments from previous posts I try and make myself clear.  Is this an organization devoted to saving our country?  Souls are saved in church.  SCCOR is not a tent revival.  Keep the prayers simple and concentrate on the temporal mission; government responsible to the people.  If you let that slip away no one will have religious freedom. 

As for the grumbling about SCCOR’s dirty laundry being aired publicly, it is my understanding this is not a secret society.  Government must be responsible and as open with debate as our membership.  Remember the words of a great man.  “That government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

God is not in any danger of withering away.  He will remain in His present form long after the U.S.A. is gone.  Our duty is to defend the American ideal and postpone any hasty end.

This is a republic and not a theocracy.  There are some forms of government where a theocracy would be for me preferable.  Not in this instance. 

I’ve been drummed out of the Sussex County Community Organized Regiment.  I got the bad news Monday night.  Apparently I’m not a very good soldier.  My heresy was to suggest we consider there could be people attending meetings who don’t belong to protestant Christian denominations.  Apparently since I’m still barely hanging on as a Roman Catholic I’m not really a Christian.  I don’t know what ultimately did me in, my horns or forked tail? 

This debate started in my own mind at a SCCOR meeting when someone jumped up and suggested we couldn’t have a meeting without an opening prayer.  This followed a mention of God in The Pledge of Allegiance.  For the record, I like prayer and I often pray.  I also like the idea of saying a prayer at meetings.  In fact I’m disappointed we don’t end with one as well.  What surprised me was the choice of the Lord’s Prayer.  For those of you on guard against the danger of associating with Papists let me share some news.  The wording in the Roman church is slightly different.  We even call our preachers “Father” and I know some see that as a violation of Scripture.  It’s my hope they aren’t at this moment chomping on anything with cloven hoof. 

Apparently there is just one Lord’s Prayer and that is the one designated by some local independent church.  I guess they’ve got their own Pope setting the rules.  I can also surmise no Jews are permitted as members of SCCOR until they march up Golgotha and get down on their knees and beg God for forgiveness. 

At one point I suggested we allow folks bow their heads for their own intentions or perhaps rotate prayers (I also remind you the name God frequently is mentioned in documents written by the founders but Jesus is a bit more absent).  SCCOR’s Director has suggested if I can’t play nice I form my own organization.  You realize this won’t be easy as I only have a microphone and transmitter available.  Like life this is also a temporary gift. 

I respect many of the people with the Sussex County Community Organized Regiment because they got involved out of concerns they no longer had a voice in affairs of state.  Apparently I was misinformed.  You’re eligible for these concerns unless you happen to be a Catholic, Mormon or Jew. 

My interests are getting our country back to its founding principals.  You leave me alone and I’ll leave you alone.  Would you be interested?  I won’t ask you to adhere to a religious litmus test.  I love God and I understand our founding fathers wanted to avoid the controls of Rome.  Our freedoms are a direct result of the Protestant Reformation, which allowed men to think on their own.  Now we appear willing to re-establish the Papal States but with a homegrown Vatican setting the parameters. 

I must point out my personal being, finances, friends and family were investigated because these good local folks dubbed themselves a Regiment and I supported their choice.  Some of my friends were a little put off by the distraction as they’re dodging enemy fire in Afghanistan and Iraq.  My God fearing, tea totaling, school teaching Baptist sister wasn’t pleased.  I can only imagine the discomfort for my brother.  He has spent the past decade working for his country, gathering intelligence, deep within many unfriendly lands. 

So this comes down to debtors, debts and trespasses.  How can we expect to “save” our country when so many are focused on eradicating those saved by a different prescription? 

Do you think our pundits are rough? Check this out from Pravda:

American capitalism gone with a whimper
27.04.2009 Source: Pravda.Ru URL: http://english.pravda.ru/opinion/columnists/107459-american_capitalism-0

It must be said, that like the breaking of a great dam, the American decent into Marxism is happening with breath taking speed, against the back drop of a passive, hapless sheeple, excuse me dear reader, I meant people.

True, the situation has been well prepared on and off for the past century, especially the past twenty years. The initial testing grounds was conducted upon our Holy Russia and a bloody test it was. But we Russians would not just roll over and give up our freedoms and our souls, no matter how much money Wall Street poured into the fists of the Marxists.

Those lessons were taken and used to properly prepare the American populace for the surrender of their freedoms and souls, to the whims of their elites and betters.

First, the population was dumbed down through a politicized and substandard education system based on pop culture, rather then the classics. Americans know more about their favorite TV dramas then the drama in DC that directly affects their lives. They care more for their “right” to choke down a McDonalds burger or a BurgerKing burger than for their constitutional rights. Then they turn around and lecture us about our rights and about our “democracy”. Pride blind the foolish.

Then their faith in God was destroyed, until their churches, all tens of thousands of different “branches and denominations” were for the most part little more then Sunday circuses and their televangelists and top protestant mega preachers were more then happy to sell out their souls and flocks to be on the “winning” side of one pseudo Marxist politician or another. Their flocks may complain, but when explained that they would be on the “winning” side, their flocks were ever so quick to reject Christ in hopes for earthly power. Even our Holy Orthodox churches are scandalously liberalized in America.

The final collapse has come with the election of Barack Obama. His speed in the past three months has been truly impressive. His spending and money printing has been a record setting, not just in America’s short history but in the world. If this keeps up for more then another year, and there is no sign that it will not, America at best will resemble the Wiemar Republic and at worst Zimbabwe.

These past two weeks have been the most breath taking of all. First came the announcement of a planned redesign of the American Byzantine tax system, by the very thieves who used it to bankroll their thefts, loses and swindles of hundreds of billions of dollars. These make our Russian oligarchs look little more then ordinary street thugs, in comparison. Yes, the Americans have beat our own thieves in the shear volumes. Should we congratulate them?

These men, of course, are not an elected panel but made up of appointees picked from the very financial oligarchs and their henchmen who are now gorging themselves on trillions of American dollars, in one bailout after another. They are also usurping the rights, duties and powers of the American congress (parliament). Again, congress has put up little more then a whimper to their masters.

Then came Barack Obama’s command that GM’s (General Motor) president step down from leadership of his company. That is correct, dear reader, in the land of “pure” free markets, the American president now has the power, the self given power, to fire CEOs and we can assume other employees of private companies, at will. Come hither, go dither, the centurion commands his minions.

So it should be no surprise, that the American president has followed this up with a “bold” move of declaring that he and another group of unelected, chosen stooges will now redesign the entire automotive industry and will even be the guarantee of automobile policies. I am sure that if given the chance, they would happily try and redesign it for the whole of the world, too. Prime Minister Putin, less then two months ago, warned Obama and UK’s Blair, not to follow the path to Marxism, it only leads to disaster. Apparently, even though we suffered 70 years of this Western sponsored horror show, we know nothing, as foolish, drunken Russians, so let our “wise” Anglo-Saxon fools find out the folly of their own pride.

Again, the American public has taken this with barely a whimper…but a “freeman” whimper.

So, should it be any surprise to discover that the Democratically controlled Congress of America is working on passing a new regulation that would give the American Treasury department the power to set “fair” maximum salaries, evaluate performance and control how private companies give out pay raises and bonuses? Senator Barney Franks, a social pervert basking in his homosexuality (of course, amongst the modern, enlightened American societal norm, as well as that of the general West, homosexuality is not only not a looked down upon life choice, but is often praised as a virtue) and his Marxist enlightenment, has led this effort. He stresses that this only affects companies that receive government monies, but it is retroactive and taken to a logical extreme, this would include any company or industry that has ever received a tax break or incentive.

The Russian owners of American companies and industries should look thoughtfully at this and the option of closing their facilities down and fleeing the land of the Red as fast as possible. In other words, divest while there is still value left.

The proud American will go down into his slavery with out a fight, beating his chest and proclaiming to the world, how free he really is. The world will only snicker.

Stanislav Mishin

The article has been reprinted with the kind permission from the author and originally appears on his blog, Mat Rodina

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