Telling It Like It Is

THE ENTERPRISE--THE FACTS, JUST THE FACTS

THE ENTERPRISE--THE FACTS, JUST THE FACTS

FACT: A PICTURE IS WORTH 1000 WORDS--OR MORE--JUST WATCH THIS & FORM YOUR OWN OPINIONS
Figure out which "Commander in Chief" the troops hold in higher regard. What does that tell us?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIHz5tevLAw

FACT: BOEING HAS A WEAKNESS IN MORE THAN THE 787 STRUCTURE
The new aircraft is being delayed again.  It has been plagued with problems--many of them involving supplier partners or failures in "communications" somewhere along the line.  The latest failure in communications was that according to Boeing, its engineers and senior executives alike had known since May of the structural problem that's keeping the big jet grounded--but just a week before, at the Paris Air Show, executives were affirming that the new jet was on track to fly by the end of the month.  One analyst quoted in the WSJ says, "..Management seems to have been operating without adequate visibility into the details of program performance in the 787 organization and at suppliers.  What does it mean when bad news doesn't make its way to the top of a big organization?  Could it be that fear of reprisal is suppressing the facts?  A management professor from Dartmouth is quoted in the same WSJ piece "Not a lot of people like to share bad news up the chain," ..."That's not a good career move."
Do any of you reading this see the flaw in this thinking?  The facts are the facts.  The sooner problems are revealed, the sooner corrective action can start.  It seems that three of GE's former "whiz kids" have all had brushes with this "communications" problem in recent times:  Nardelli had big problems at Home Depot; Immelt had a tough period dealing with GE Finance's effect on a big earnings miss (which even Welch chided him about) and now McNerney is having "communications problems" at Boeing.  Maybe they learned some bad habits at GE (along with the highly publicized 'good ones").

FACT: COMMUNICATION BETWEEN PARTNERS IS THE ONLY WAY TO WORK TOGETHER
A buyer I once dealt with had a sign in his office:  "WHEN YOU CAN'T SHIP, YOU MUST COMMUNICATE."  I'd revise that to say "When you can't or won't live up to your commitments, the only responsible thing to do is to communicate."  Another certainty is that leaders, managers, executives who "kill the messenger" will never get the straight, honest and timely communications they need to make informed decisions.  If a leader cultivates a culture of fear about communicating the bad news, s/he is doomed to fail and possibly take the company down too.  The only way to win in today's hyper-competitive global business world is through strong partnerships between individuals/companies, and their critical partners:  suppliers, associates and customers.  That is the key to building trust and cooperation which leads to collaborating for success.  (The fourth critical partner is the "truth teller" who is beholden to no one, but just tells it like it is, when it needs to be said!)

FACT: YOUR CONGRESS AT WORK--DESTROYING THE AMERICAN INFRASTRUCTURE CHASING A "MYTHICAL NIRVANA"
Everyone I know agrees we should stop "fouling the planet."  Far from everyone agrees that man's puny efforts are going to create the huge (mythical) changes referred to by Al Gore in his "fictional film"  AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH.  It was aptly named, since many of his so called frightening facts have now been debunked--but the mainstream media is loathe to tell that "truth" to its audience.  Based on much scientific assessment, the measurements from decades and centuries past were so error-filled (due to the crude/antiquated equipment of those eras), that any long-term conclusion on global warming--or cooling (which was the panic 30+ years ago) are likely wrong and at best inconclusive.  If the USA does everything it can to clean up the emissions, and pays no attention to the costs, the consequences, and the outcomes, AND if the Chinese do very little or nothing about their emissions, diverting that investment into becoming a more competitive global force, what is the likely outcome.  These are just likely FACTS about what is happening.  One polluter acts one way; the other acts another.  Level playing field?  I don't think so.

So now our nutty legislator-in-chief from California, Nancy Pelosi and her trusty band of friends (or fools) are ramrodding a disastrous bill through the House so fast that (like the stimulus bill before it) NO ONE really knows what all is in there.  EMAIL YOUR CONGRESSMAN AND YOUR SENATOR TO SIDETRACK THIS RUNAWAY TRAIN. 
Here's more about it.

FACT: STUDIES HAVE SHOWN, MOST CEOS FAIL BECAUSE OF FAILURES IN EXECUTION
Noted author Jim Collins wrote about leadership types, and particularly the "charismatic leader" who is an artful communicator, but doesn't have the deep trust and belief of those who must execute his/her glowing words and ambitious plans.  Failing to execute can doom even the most brilliantly conceived and eloquently described plans. Words do matter, but only if the actions that follow them measure up.  Take soaring rhetoric, combine it with weak execution and vague (but politically convenient metrics like "jobs created or saved") and the outcome will be, predictably, poor. These are simply the FACTS.  You decide if they fit.

FACT: BUSINESS EDUCATION--MOSTLY IT DOESN'T REALLY TEACH WHAT NEEDS TO BE TAUGHT
My favorite magazine, THE WEEK, recently featured an Issue of the week:  Rethinking business education.  The four paragraphs could only scratch the surface of this big issue.   One asks if business education is a waste of time, that actually does more harm than good.  Another points out that short cuts to "make the numbers" might have been rooted in teachings, but that many of the worse offenders, never came close to an MBA.  the vaunted Harvard Business School has created a task force to assess whether it "is failing to teach students to understand and manage risk in the current environment."  The fourth paragraph points out that leading schools like Wharton find the interest in ethics classes soaring.  The closing two sentences are insightful:  "Of course all these students still want to make money.  The challenge is to reconcile the desire with a respect for fair play and a concern for the broader public interest." 

FACT: Business schools, like everything else, come in all flavors: good, bad and so-so; relevant, irrelevant, and downright irresponsible.  Tenure has created an entire cadre of professors who, in the words of one I knew a long time ago, "will damn well teach whatever we want to teach and whoever doesn't like it can go to hell."  Tenure, like many policies has outlived its useful life, creating a worse problem than it was created to solve.  It keeps "hacks" who knew how to play politics in their teaching jobs long after they should have been ousted.  It encourages deceptive behavior during the formative part of a professor's career--to get through the tenure review.  Worst of all, it enshrines the "ivory tower" mentality that has precious little connection with real world issues--the constant tension between success, profit, competition, ethical behavior and principles.  Add into the mix that a large percentage of college and university professors who have never held a competitive job in the real world of business, and perhaps, just maybe, what THEY present as FACTS, are actually self-perpetuated MYTHS.

FACT: COLLEGE IS NOT FOR EVERYONE EITHER
One of President Obama's favorite lines relates that "everyone should get a college education."  What nonsense that is.  Harvard's study found the 2/3 of high school graduates are unprepared to enter a four year college. Facts show that 40% of those who enter college, drop out before graduation.  Further, employers must take the end product of most college curricula and then "train most of them" all over again--to do anything productive.  If everyone goes to college, do we want plumbers, electricians, medical technicians, orderlies and waiters with college degrees?  These jobs are worthy jobs that can suit the skills, motivation and competence of many people.  My sister, with her high school education was a waitress for years, and by all measures, she was a superb one.  With no college, she could converse with anyone you (or I) could imagine, and they'd feel what a proud, competent, and responsible person she was.  And she raised four children.  My brother-in-law was so responsible that when Caterpillar started rewarding attendance with time off, he asked me, "What am I going to do with all these days off.  I just want to go to work and do a good job."  He worked there for years--in the warehouse--and retired proud of it. 

FACT: BEGIN WITH THE END IN MIND (as Stephen Covey told us in 7 Habits...)--WHAT DO WE WANT THE USA TO BE LIKE?
Don't we want a diverse and balanced society.  Does that require everyone to go to college?  A friend operates Home for Elderly with Dementia.  While he values a good mind, and a reliable worker, he most values a caring person who will truly "care for" his residents.  College sure doesn't have a course on that.  B-school professors can teach how to to a "conjoint analysis" but can they (and do they) teach how to deal with two valuable co-workers who just can't seem to get along and work together?  Acres of computers and software will not begin to deal with that kind of problem.

Perhaps we need to decide what kind of country we want to be, and what kind of economy we want the USA to have.  It's not healthy to "make nothing."  There is knowledge lost.  Making things requires machines, and tools, which require maintenance and tool makers--both of which are rapidly becoming lost skills.  Doctors require technicians to run X-Ray and MRI machines and phlebotomists with a deft touch to insert IV needles and draw blood.  While college might help these people understand the principles of their jobs, on the job training will likely be far more productive. 

FACT: IT'S TIME TO CAPITALIZE ON & INVEST IN AMERICA'S HIDDEN WEALTH--ITS PEOPLE
There are the masses of unemployed and underemployed people who were once proud and productive factory workers.  What are they to do?  Go back to college sitting next to teens and twenty-somethings, scratching their head because the last Algebra or Grammar they studied was twenty years ago?  The USA is desperately in need of massive retraining and re-tasking of millions of workers.  That is not a job for colleges. Nor are these jobs for the government to create with "make work" projects.  This is a job for what we used to call "trade schools," that train people for specific kinds of jobs that exist and for which there is demand. 

I'd love to see people who have held good jobs be able to do so again--and do so proudly, and with the confidence in their knowledge that they are once again competitive, productive parts of American society.  Let's spend our money on them, and not sending to college that 40% that doesn't want to go, and isn't nearly competent to go.  All they will do is spend their money, their parents money and our tax money, and raise the consumption of beer measurably.  FOLKS,  I think these are just the FACTS.  What do you think?  (Tell your Senator and Representative!)

BONUS MATERIAL BELOW--FOR THOSE STRUGGLING WITH THE CURRENT ECONOMY
I hope the "simple" solutions below help you.  They are simple--and they work.   I have also posted some telling research on how Americans feel about government spending in general. (See, you are not alone!)

Best, John
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FROM A CORRESPONDENT "DOWN UNDER" WHO "GETS IT!"
I've been repeating the "drive out complexity" mantra for almost two years, now.  Ian Dover is now repeating it in the hope of "simpler business."

Welcome to the first newsletter from the Simpler Business Institute, where we use the skills and techniques of experienced managers to provide common-sense tools and templates to help make your management easier and your business simpler. It's a place for cutting through the complexity that constrains many businesses.
There's a lot in the media today concerning jobs, especially the loss of these due to the global financial woes. Of course, the wages bill for most companies is substantial and it's the first to be scrutinized when times get tough, but there are many other opportunities to remove costs or increase profits before resorting to letting your staff go. Invariably, this means losing some of your good people; people you'll be looking for again when the upturn inevitably comes along.

To help you with some ideas of what can be done before resorting to retrenchments, I've put together a short list of some of the common-sense ways managers have removed costs to increase profitability in past recessions. They are in no particular order - every company's situation is different - and you really need to perform a break-even calculation for your business to understand what costs you need to cover each month in a time of low demand for your goods or services.

Simple ways to remove costs

         Stop selling your low-profit (or loss-making) products.

         Stop servicing your low-profit (or loss-making) customers.

         Stop developing products that won't deliver good sales+profits in the short term.

         Focus all your staff on your profitable products and customers so that no money is being wasted on the low-profit or no-profit products and customers.

         Refinance your expensive buildings and equipment to take advantage of the low interest rates - interest rates are the major difference between this economic downturn and in the early 90s, so lower your repayments as soon as possible.

         Identify and remove the main constraints from your business processes - these constraints are areas of unnecessary costs that are killing your profits.

         Apply the 80/20 Test to all your projects or activities where people spend time not directly related to getting current work out the door. These may be large or small projects, but the following two questions may save you a lot of money right now:

-        "What are the 20% of projects that are going to deliver 80% of the benefit to your business in the short-medium term?" Focus on these.

-        "For each project that you decide to continue, what are the 20% of the planned outcomes that will deliver 80% of the benefit?" Focus on these now!

         Apply the 80/20 Test to your Compliance costs - how can you achieve the majority of your compliance requirements with the minimum level of input?

         Cut administrative costs where easily possible, noting that these are generally small amounts compared to the costs associated with the items above. (If you have developed an unnecessarily complex performance reporting system, you will be able to achieve 80% of management control with just 20% of the performance measures, so identify these and remove the measures that do not add real value).

         If you are currently implementing new information systems either within your business or along your value chain, ask yourself right now "what are the few pieces of information that will give me most managerial control in the short-medium term?" and re-focus your info systems projects to deliver these.
There are costs associated with all of these items, but they are more than wages costs! If you focus on doing good business right now that delivers real value to your customers, and by value I mean "it makes them more successful in whatever they want to achieve", you will find that you can remove a lot of costs prior to having to cut jobs from your workforce.

Unfortunately, many businesses do not have the cost information within their accounting or production systems to be able to accurately define the profitability of their different products and customers. If this is your case, you will have a big job ahead to gather this information and by the time you have it all, you may be in a much worse financial situation. An alternative is to use the combined knowledge of your key people to approximate the relative profitability (or attractiveness) of your products and customers - to see this, go to Operations Tools - Start Your Turnaround on www.simplerbusiness.com

A final note: If you are in the situation where your main products and customers are low-profit or no-profit activities, then you have no choice but remove costs from your current business and production processes to regain profitability. How to do this will be the subject of a later newsletter.

Ian Dover , Alitek, PO Box 2049, West Ashgrove, Queensland 4060, AUSTRALIA

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                 American Pulse™: Majority Say Government
                   Intervening in Too Many Areas and Taking on Too Much Debt    Two in Five Say U.S. Cannot Afford Healthcare Reform
COLUMBUS, OH – (MARKET WIRE) – 6/22/09 – A majority (57.6%) of Americans say the U.S. government is trying to intervene in too many areas, according to the June American Pulse™ (N=4034). The sentiment is echoed by a majority of Republicans (84.9%) and Independents (61.7%), while over a third (37.1%) of Democrats agree.

Not only do Americans think the government is involved in too many projects, but an overwhelming majority think the government has taken on too much debt. Democrats, Republicans and Independents alike all agree:

Do you think the U.S. government has taken on too much debt?                                                          

                  Adults 18+  Republicans Democrats   Independents
Yes               78.0%       92.3%       68.9%       82.6%
No                10.1%       2.1%        17.1%       7.9%
I don't know  11.8%       5.6%        14.0%       9.5%

Source: American Pulse-June 09

Healthcare reform is one project on the government’s to-do list that Americans are split on whether or not the U.S. can afford at this time; 35.3% say yes, 39.8% say no and 24.9% don’t know. Over half of Democrats (53.1%) think the U.S can afford it now. 63.2% of Republicans and 41.9% of Independents say it can’t.

Regarding consumers, two in five (42.3%) believe that the government cannot provide better healthcare than the private sector. 32.2% say they can, while a quarter (25.5%) don’t know. 75% of consumers also say that they’ve changed their shopping habits as a result of the recession and over half (51.6%) say the changes they’ve made will continue more than a year.

To voice your opinion on BIGresearch and Artafact’s Blog: http://peoplevoice.ning.com/

For complimentary findings: http://americanpulse.bigresearch.com.

About American Pulse™
The American Pulse™ Survey is collected online by BIGresearch every month exclusively utilizing Survey Sampling International’s (SSI) U.S. panel covering topics such as politics, pop culture and the economy. Over 4,000 respondents participate, providing greater insights into how Americans really feel about issues they currently face. The use of the online blog as a listening post to develop the questions posed in the monthly American Pulse survey is a very effective use of both online qualitative and quantitative research.  http://www.bigresearch.com

About Survey Sampling International (SSI)
Survey Sampling International is the premier global provider of sampling solutions for survey research. SSI offers access to more than 6 million consumer and business-to-business research respondents in 54 countries via Internet, telephone, and mobile. Additional client services include custom profiling, survey programming and hosting, data processing, sampling consulting, and survey optimization. SSI serves more than 1,800 marketing research clients, including nearly three-quarters of the top researchers worldwide. Founded in 1977, SSI has an international staff of 400 people representing 50 countries and 36 languages. The company is based in Shelton, CT with 14 additional offices worldwide. http://www.surveysampling.com

Contacts:
BIGresearch                                                     SSI
Chrissy Wissinger                                              Diane Urso
[email protected]                                  [email protected]
614.846.0146                                                     203.567.7236

 "Government is supposed to work for the people; not vice versa."
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John L. Mariotti, President & CEO, The Enterprise Group, Phone 614-840-0959  http://www.mariotti.net   http://mariotti.blogs.com/my_weblog/
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THE ENTERPRISE--CRAZY, CRAZIER & CRAZIEST AWARDS

THE ENTERPRISE--CRAZY, CRAZIER & CRAZIEST AWARDS

AWARDS TIME
It seems like every time I turn on a TV there is some kind of awards show on it.  Music of all genres, athletes, actors, humanitarians, and beauties all get their own awards.  Therefore, I am creating mine.  The CRAZY AWARDS, which, unlike the others will come in tiers of craziness.  There are also lessons to be learned so we don't recreate INSANITY:  "Doing the same things over and over and expecting a different outcome."

CRAZY
American households at the end of 2008 were in debt $13.8 trillion, almost equal to the $14.3 trillion of the whole US economy.  Is that insane or what?  They owed about 130% of their disposable income.  Consumers  may be cutting back now, but they have proven their willingness to spend beyond their means.  With this kind of a population, is it any wonder that many people still don't comprehend what their government is doing?  It is also spending immense sums, way beyond its means.  Does a $1.8 trillion dollar deficit for this year sound a bit excessive?

Lesson:  In business when you spend beyond your means, you deplete your cash, and this leads to very bad consequences, ranging from not having the money to make important investments all the way to not having the money to pay your bills--which eventually leads to bankruptcy.  Since the government has the printing presses, it can print all the money it needs, but in doing so the value of each successive dollar is lessened--since there is nothing tangible to back those newly printed dollars. That's called inflation, in which everything costs more, but is not really worth more.

CRAZIER
If you read any of my past editions of THE ENTERPRISE, you know about the insane levels of Federal spending.  It was bad during Bush's administration, but Obama has proven he can outdo Bush at anything--including running up deficits of epic proportions--and telling Americans with a straight face that it is the right thing to to.  Using the CBO's estimates for likely economic growth, these gargantuan deficits will go on ad infinitum into the future.  The Democrats (and too many of the Republicans) in Congress have seldom seen a spending bill they didn't like--IF at least part of it that benefited them and their constituents.

Lesson:  Prioritization is the toughest job for any executive.  There are always more needs for money and more demands on time than can be accommodated.  Choosing which ones to ignore or turn down is critical.  If the government tries to fund everything--from the big important needs to the smaller special interest needs--invariably there will be massive spending and waste.  That's why budgets exist, and in theory at least, they are intended to be balanced.  The expenditures should not exceed the income.  Too bad no one in government believes in that old-fashioned theory any more.

CRAZIEST--PART 1
You probably think I am going to call the "jobs saved or created" lies the "craziest" but I'm not.  That is downright sneaky. Create an unmeasurable measurement, and then tell the lie over and over until it is repeated so many times in so many places and so many ways, that it becomes accepted as the truth.  Shades of Al Gore's Global Warming consensus, which NO ONE in the "mainstream" (meaning liberal, stupid or illicit) media will bother to tell you is being questioned almost daily by more and more scientists.  Gore won his Oscar and his Nobel prize and his histrionics will drive America to spend billions more, making it less and less competitive to cure something that no one can prove we caused.
Lesson:  If you repeat a lie or reinforce something of dubious accuracy often enough and widely enough, it becomes accepted as common knowledge or consensus knowledge--even if its NOT true.  In business gossip, rumors and "the grapevine" do this all the time.  Only when wise leaders correct the misinformation that circulates around an organization, can the organization be rooted in facts and truth. The same applies for Governments.

CRAZIEST--PART 2
You might think I am going to attack the new "pay as you go" misdirection tactic next.  I'm not.  It is another crafty, cleverly concealed way to lie to the American people under the guise of being fiscally responsible.  The loopholes in the "pay as you go" program are so large that an aircraft carrier could pass through them, with room left over for the rest of the Navy. The rule, for example doesn't apply to "discretionary spending," which is projected to be about $1.4 trillion this year.  Neither would it apply to costs of extending the Bush tax cuts (which the Dems don't want to do), or the cost of keeping the AMT from expanding (which they do want to do) AND it doesn't apply to legislation that is passed each and every year.  Those latter three just created another $2.5 trillion loophole.

Lesson:  One of the basic laws of physics is that "matter can neither be created nor destroyed"--it can only change its form: Solid, liquid or gaseous.  The same goes for spending and taxes.  "There really are no free lunches."  Everything needs to be paid for, one way or another, eventually.  Run a deficit in expenses over income long enough and you will run out of money--unless you can print your own.

CRAZIEST--A LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD--GOES TO GENERAL MOTORS, PAST, PRESENT (AND PROBABLY FUTURE)
General Motors has been run by myopic and insular management for decades.  It has been plagued (and I use that word advisedly) by a Union that claims to represent GM workers, but in fact has betrayed them.  In concert with the inept management, it has essentially killed what was once the world's greatest car company.  The union was totally unconcerned about the longer term ramifications of the great "victories" it gained in negotiations that resulted in GM's workers making more money than "the market would bear," and burdening the company with benefits that were unrealistic, excessive and horribly costly.  GM has wasted $150+ billion over the past 3 decades; an amount that would have let them buy both Toyota and Honda and have money leftover.  The current debacle will cost another $100 billion, and government intervention only assures that GM will not be focused properly--on building great cars, that people are willing to pay for.  It will be on political agendas, micro-management and "fire-sales" of brands, plants, inventory, etc. 

This is the height of craziness.  Just how crazy is pointed out by Alan Mulally and the FORD management, who are changing priorities, pruning deadwood, making good cars, etc.  In doing so, it appears FORD has a good chance of survival unless the government's biased position toward GM & Chrysler injures FORD.  That would be  truly criminal.

GM MANAGEMENT, ITS BOARD & THE UAW ARE ALL GUILTY
Worst of all, the management was complicit in these "crimes"  It neither was willing nor able to stand up and say NO to the Union's non-competitive demands.  (In fact the Detroit Three--once known as the Big Three--were all complicit in these failures of will, of courage and of sound business foresight.)  The short sighted union used strikes as a "gun to the head" of the company, then claimed "hard earned negotiations" led to their non-competitive contracts.  Meanwhile, the world got more and more competitive while GM and its Detroit brethren (and many suppliers) became less and less so. 

Did this need to happen this way?  NO!  However, GM was so wrapped up in its own, old, outdated, and misguided culture that it could not accept new ways.  The GM board was so filled with highly paid, "stuffed shirts" that it didn't recognize a disaster even when it was all around them.  These were (at one time anyway) smart successful people.  What happened when they stepped into that board room.  Did their brains quit functioning?  Or was it their fear of consequences that paralyzed them?  Even the auto design brilliance of Bob Lutz could not overcome the poor prioritization of where to spend and on what models, badges, etc.  I have written many times, for years, that GM had 3-4 too many "brands" and it should dump them.  Ditto the massive dealer network built to repair defective cars "in the old days, " and the outmoded method of producing cars that no one wants, to let them sit on dealer lots, and then be sold at discounts--or alternatively to be sold at cost to rental car fleets.

Lesson:  It takes more than one party to really mess something up.  The more bureaucracies involved, the worse it gets:  count them--Corporate management; Board of Directors, Union leadership; Government.  That's four--plenty to oversee and real mess.  And when everyone is responsible, no one is really responsible--and the finger pointing begins.  Except for one small detail--competitors can choose not to participate.  Enter Honda, Toyota, Nissan, BMW, Mercedes, Hyundai/Kia, VW, etc.  When competitors don't play by the same twisted rules, the game changes--a lot--and the finger pointers LOSE.

IT DOESN'T HAVE TO BE THAT WAY
I once ran a 2000 employee United Steelworkers Plant, in which (after a decade of disharmony before I arrived there) the Union leadership and the employees became partners with the management.  Our goal was simple:  success in the marketplace by being competitive, and thus assuring the company's profitability, survival and their job security.   I was blessed with a great management team aND a hard working, sincere Union work force (and that included the Union leadership).  We went to great lengths to explain competitive circumstances and educate everyone about their role in their own future--and that of the Union.  We involved the Union officers (appropriately) in management matters and important decision/deliberations.  Unions can be inconvenient.  If they have poor or greedy leadership, they can be damaging or downright fatal.  But if they have intelligent and open minded leadership, they can become an effective ally, and truly work on behalf of their members future success--which is what they are all supposed to do.

THAT'S ALL THE CRAZY AWARDS FOR THIS TIME--BUT A PREVIEW:
A CANDIDATE FOR A FUTURE CRAZY AWARD--THE U. S. HEALTH CARE SYSTEM
One topic about which we are all hearing a lot is that we must provide HEALTH CARE INSURANCE for the 46 million uninsured.  Consider some truths:  1) about 1/5 of that 46 million are illegals--people who are in the country illegally.  Does it make sense to "give them" government health care insurance?  2) Another large portion of the 46 million--estimates vary--but probably another 1/4 can afford health care insurance--but choose not to buy it.  Any new government plan that wishes for them to be "insured" will have to force them to do so. 

That's about HALF of the problem population that are "exceptions."  There are still many people who want & need health insurance but cannot afford it.  Those present the real problem, but SCHIP has already covered many of their children.  According to Census Bureau research, only about 19 million people go without health insurance in the USA for an entire year.  The real number of "problem uninsured" is more like 15 to 20 million--still a lot--but a long way from 46 million.   Let's use the facts to treat the real problem, not the campaign sound-bites that sensationalize it.

Lesson: Does the country need an overhaul of the health care system, and how it is offered and used?  Absolutely.  But is the solution  a single broad one-size-fits-all (wasteful) government plan, using taxpayer dollars to provide insurance for everyone (including illegals) and to mandate that people be forced to buy health insurance (even if they don't want it).  Remember the earlier lesson on prioritization?    It's critical in problem solving too: 1) Understand and define the problem first; then 2) solve the problem--taking the big pieces in order.

First, fix the Health Care System's glaring flaws:  Transparency of costs; pricing inconsistencies; (sensible) malpractice lawsuit limits; widespread use of digital data techniques to reduce errors & administrative costs;  cost effective clinics for simple treatments; and stop the "arms race" to see how many redundant hyper-expensive pieces of test equipment can exist in a given city or area--and on, and on.  It is likely that the costs for health care can be dramatically reduced before any "government plan" is imposed.

Lesson:  This is a "business-process problem" first and foremost.  Tools and techniques to fix it are known--if only someone would choose to use them.  Simplification. Lean concepts, Cost management, and many more are directly applicable.   Sure there will always be "outliers."  Medical treatments can go wrong; people develop complications, etc.  But the basic plan should be to do routine things routinely--in the best and most cost effective way. 

I HOPE THE CRAZY AWARDS AND Lessons prove interesting and useful.  There will be lots more of them.  I get emails every day with new ones.  Stay tuned for future CRAZY AWARDS--but one of these days, it would be nice to focus on positive awards--success stories that "paid off."   

Anyone who finds some, please send them along.  Perhaps we can all learn from them.  And come up with a catchy name for them too!

Best, JOHN

THE ENTERPRISE--THE TRUTH ABOUT THE ECONOMY AND YOU

THE ENTERPRISE--THE TRUTH ABOUT THE ECONOMY AND YOU

SOMEONE ELSE'S PERSPECTIVE
Once again this week, THE ENTERPRISE will contain mostly the perspectives of people other than me.  Of course, since I chose them, they pretty much agree with mine.  On the other hand, these are people who are far removed from me either geographically or politically.  They are, in my view, objective observers.  I hope you see them that way.
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THE BRITISH PRESS SPEAKS THE TRUTH THAT GETS DISTORTED OR IGNORED BY AMERICAN MEDIA

AN EDITORIAL BY GERALD WARNER, IN THE TELEGRAPH, (UK)
Barack Obama and the CIA:  Why Does President Pantywaist Hate America So Badly.

If al-Qaeda, the Taliban and the rest of the Looney Tunes brigade want to kick America to death, they had better move in quickly and grab a piece of the action before Barack Obama finishes the job himself. Never in the history of the United States has a president worked so actively against the interests of his own people - not even Jimmy Carter.

Obama's problem is that he does not know who the enemy is. To him, the enemy does not squat in caves in Waziristan, clutching automatic weapons and reciting the more militant verses from the Koran: instead, it sits around at tea parties in Kentucky quoting from the US Constitution. Obama is not at war with terrorists, but with his Republican fellow citizens. He has never abandoned the campaign trail.

That is why he opened Pandora's Box by publishing the Justice Department's legal opinions on waterboarding and other hardline interrogation techniques. He cynically subordinated the national interest to his partisan desire to embarrass the Republicans. Then he had to rush to Langley , Virginia to try to reassure a demoralised CIA that had just discovered thePresident of the United States was an even more formidable foe than al-Qaeda.

"Don't be discouraged by what's happened the last few weeks," he told intelligence officers. Is he kidding? Thanks to him, al-Qaeda knows the private interrogation techniques available to the US intelligence agencies and can train its operatives to withstand them - or would do so, if they had not already been outlawed.

So, next time a senior al-Qaeda hood is captured, all the CIA can do is ask him nicely if he would care to reveal when a major population centre is due to be hit by a terror spectacular, or which American city is about to be irradiated by a dirty bomb. Your view of this situation will be dictated by one simple criterion: whether or not you watched the people jumping from the twin towers...

President Pantywaist's recent world tour, cosying up to all the bad guys, excited the ambitions of America 's enemies. Here, they realised, is a sucker they can really take to the cleaners. His only enemies are fellow Americans. Which prompts the question: why does President Pantywaist hate America so badly?

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DRIVING DEBT HIGHER AND FASTER THAN EVER BEFORE
If you have not visualized just how fast the current administration is running up debt, watch this little video.  You will be amazed--(or maybe you won't).  Then you'll be appalled.  Whatever you feel, you will have a clearer understanding about why I titled a prior edition of THE ENTERPRISE "Living Beyond Our Means".  This trip is "on the road to disaster."  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5yxFtTwDcc

WE NEED NEW, BETTER LEADERSHIP--CONGRESS IN 2010 WILL BE OUR FIRST CHANCE TO CHANGE THINGS
The question is, will enough of us say, "we've had enough" and replace many of the incumbents who are perpetrating these "crimes" against our Constitution and our Democracy?  I can only hope so.  Below is a more cooly considered, objective opinion on what's happened to our economy and what needs to be done to fix it.  I hope oyu keep reading.

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THE REAL STATE OF THE UNION
Will Kaydos is a friend who has been studying what is wrong with our economy for several years.  His book contains a wealth of information (but lots of charts and graphs which take some concentration to digest0.  This is his first newsletter.
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From: "Will Kaydos" <[email protected]>
Date: May 29, 2009 10:09:04 AM EDT
To: "Concerned About Your Economic Future?" <[email protected]>
Subject: The Economy and You Report - Premier Issue

Dear Friend,
 
Welcome to the premiere issue of The Economy and You Report, the information letter of The Real State of the Union. Our letter will not rehash the news, but give you information, analysis and commentary not usually found in the mainstream media.
 
Our goals are to promote better understanding and debate about our economy, to stimulate your thinking, and perhaps to challenge some of your beliefs.
The Economy and You Report will focus on matters related to The Real State of the Union’s three interrelated primary objectives: rebuilding our economy, restoring our government’s fiscal integrity, and reclaiming our democracy.
 
The Real State of the Union favors no political party because we feel the public has been poorly served by our government for decades, our government is badly broken, and our democracy is far from what it should be. We see very few - if any - politicians of either party who place their country ahead of their personal and their party’s interests.
 
Important Notes
1.      You received this email because I thought you would enjoy reading The Economy and You Report. To be removed from the mailing list, simply reply to this email with “Remove” in the subject line.
2.      You don’t have to do anything to stay on the mailing list, but please register at www.rstu.org. There is no charge or obligation and your privacy will be protected.
3.      Please forward this email to everyone you know who might enjoy reading The Economy and You Report. More subscribers will facilitate establishing a blog for exchanging ideas, conducting surveys, and putting pressure on Congress to at least try to do what’s best for our country.
4.      The Economy and You Report is a work-in-progress. Please help make it a better publication by providing frank feedback to [email protected]. 
5.      All material in The Economy and You Report is copyrighted, but articles and other notes may be used in other publications providing proper credit is given to The Economy and You Report and The Real State of the Union.
 
Thank you for your time and consideration.
 
Will Kaydos
[email protected]
 
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May 28,2009
 
Is that light we see the end of the tunnel or a freight train coming our way?
A few small positive signs about our economy have raised hopes on Main Street, Wall Street, and Pennsylvania Avenue, but getting worse at a slower rate is still a long way from recovery. If we bottom out this year, anyone expecting a significant recovery in 2010 or 2011 will probably be very disappointed.
 
Why? Simply because correcting the excesses of the past 20-30 years can’t be accomplished in a year or two without divine help. More specific reasons include the following.
§         Many big and small banks are still not on firm ground and it seems very unlikely all the problems in the banking system are known. Future home mortgage resets will add to foreclosures as will losses on credit cards, consumer credit, and commercial real estate. Some analysts are saying the future holds as many problems for bankers as are already behind them.
§         Real estate prices are still declining in most markets and there is a huge inventory of unsold and foreclosed homes.
§         Wages are declining in many parts of the work force while consumer credit is tightening and banks are raising fees. Lower wages, less credit and higher credit costs mean lower consumer spending.
§         Many indicators say the mindset of consumers has shifted into a lower gear. The assumption that “I can buy it today and pay for it tomorrow” has vanished from the brains of a great many people.
§         The problems with banks, credit, and recession are worldwide. With a few exceptions, everyone’s hurting and the thought that everyone can borrow from everybody else to prop up their economy doesn’t make sense. Worldwide inflation and more financial instability are distinct possibilities for the not-too-distant future.
 
No one can foretell the future, but it seems the best we can hope for is to relieve most of the fear and uncertainty caused by the bursting credit bubble and for a modest recovery to begin in the next 6-12 months. Relieving severe pain is not the same as restoring someone’s health.
 
The following article gives some clues about what we must do to rebuild our economy.
 
Economic Reality 101
Politicians and economists are proposing all sorts of remedies for resurrecting our economy, but to build a stronger economy, we must create real economic growth, not just provide temporary relief with borrowed money so we can dig the hole we are already in a lot deeper.
 
There are no simple cures for what ails our economy, but there are some time-tested economic principles that Congress, the White House, and all Americans must keep in mind when deciding what we must do to rebuild our economy.
A country cannot perpetually consume more than it produces.
A country cannot borrow and spend itself into prosperity. However, like a business, a country can borrow and invest in programs that will produce a positive net return on investment.
Every dollar our government spends must come from current taxes or future taxes. Reducing taxes without reducing spending just passes the bill for today’s spending on to future generations.
Tax cuts to support consumer spending do not pay for themselves. Just ask history, the Congressional Budget Office or any serious economist who isn’t running for office.
Someone always pays the principal and interest on a loan. It should be the borrower, but it may be the lender or, as we are seeing today, current and future taxpayers.
If our government prints money faster than we increase the wealth we produce, inflation will be the inevitable result - and inflation can ruin any economy.
Our government cannot rebuild our economy. Government policies can facilitate business development, but private businesses built our economy, and only private businesses can rebuild it.
The fundamental problem with our economy is that for most of the past thirty years we have been consuming more than we have been producing and borrowing to make up the difference. It was fun while it lasted, but our personal debt has finally caught up with us and our government’s debt is knocking on the door.
 
Some short-term stimulus is appropriate to help restore confidence in financial markets, businesses and consumers, but government spending must emphasize investment and business development instead of consumer spending. Propping up consumer spending with borrowed money did not fundamentally strengthen our economy in the past and it won’t work this time around either.
 
Congress must recognize economic reality and not spend taxpayers’ money on anything that doesn’t pass through the filter of being necessary, a good investment, or providing some relief to those in need. A great deal of spending contained in the stimulus package and the budget approved by Congress fails to satisfy these standards. However, it is not too late to change and Congress can change anything it wishes.
 
Our economic future can be as bright as we Americans want it to be, but we will have to earn it, not borrow it. The only way we can earn it is by building private businesses with investment, innovation, and hard work.
 
There is no doubt we can do it. All we lack is political leaders in both parties who can recognize economic reality - and who have the courage to make the hard decisions that are best for our country instead of doing what’s best for themselves and their party.
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Fair Game Department  
The image below has been floating around the web lately. It’s good satire - and I don’t like many aspects of Obama’s stimulus and budget plans - but when it comes to practicing sound economics, the Republicans have little claim to fame.
 

 
 
The economic theories advanced by Republican politicians since 1980 include the following gems.
§         Voodoo Economics – You can spend the same dollar three times. {Only if you have Bernie Madoff or Ken Lay as your accountant.}
§         Starve the Beast – The way to reduce government spending is to reduce taxes instead of reducing spending. {What happened? Taxes were cut, government spending increased, and debt soared.}
§         The Tax Fairy – Tax cuts will pay for themselves. {They didn’t - and they won’t unless there is a radical shift in government spending and policy.}
§         Trickle-down Economics – Making rich people richer will increase the income of the people on the middle and lower rungs of the economic ladder. {What happened? The river at the top was barely a dribble by the time it got to the bottom.}
§         Free Money - Budget deficits don’t matter. {But they matter very much and so does our national debt.}
§         The Inverse Parallel Universe – Excessive spending and budget deficits by Democrats is bad, but when Republicans do it, it’s good. {Political posturing garbage.}
§         Only Words Matter – Fiscal responsibility depends on what you say, not what you do. {Only true in the minds of the politically brainwashed, the factually disadvantaged, and most of the residents of Capitol Hill.}
 
The Democrats have their share of lame-brained self-serving theories as well, including the belief that any social problem can be solved by throwing money at it. However, getting into those issues will have to wait until later. The primary lesson to be learned from this sermon is that someone else being wrong doesn’t necessarily make you right. Another lesson is that people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.
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Thought for Today
The stock market meltdown should make everyone wonder why they should trust anything coming out of the mouths of Wall Street pundits. The bull in Merrill Lynch’s logo seems especially appropriate today - but the wrong end is facing the audience. Rumor has it Merrill’s new slogan will be: “Trust us. We can’t manage our own money, but we can manage yours.”
 
Announcements
1.      More features will be added to The Real State of the Union’s web site (www.rstu.org) over the next several weeks such as links to good sources of information and references to noteworthy articles.
2.      If you don’t know what’s in Thin Ice – and Melting, you know very little about our economy and much of what you “know” may be wrong. Normally $23.95, the price is reduced to only $16.95 until July 15, 2009 (prices include shipping and applicable taxes).
 
Please send your comments about The Economy and You Report to [email protected].
 
Work hard, play hard, help someone who needs it, and remember to count the day lost that you don’t learn something new.
 
Regards,
Will Kaydos
The Real State of the Union, LLC
Save your country! Save your job!
www.RSTU.ORG
7204 Penny Road
Raleigh, NC 27606
Office: 919-851-9679
Email: [email protected]
 

==========================

THANKS TO WILL FOR SHINING A BRIGHT LIGHT ON THE FACTS
Neither political party comes out standing tall in this mess.  It is just that the current regime is making a bad situation worse under the auspices of "fixing the economy," when in fact they are using it for a "BIG GOVERNMENT" power grab that will last for years--or more.  If you like having the government take care of you, and tell you what you can do and when, and how, and then tax you liberally (if you are fortunate to make much money), then you'll love the next decade.  If not--watch out.  It will be a living hell for independent, free enterprise, freedom loving Americans.  And even the Constitution is not slowing them down much.  They just brush it aside--even worse than the Bushies did!

Wanting to and waiting for a chance to change our elected officials,
JOHN

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 "Government is supposed to work for the people; not vice versa."

THE ENTERPRISE--THE REVOLUTION

THE ENTERPRISE--THE REVOLUTION

It is timely that I am going to be doing "Grandpa Duty" for the next week plus, thus I am sending out this week's edition early.  I am also taking the "easy way out" from a writing standpoint, since it resonates with my role as a citizen, a parent and a grandparent.  I'm sending you my friend Herb Meyer's piece from the American Thinker.  Herb is a very bright and insightful fellow, who spent a lot of his life and career in service of our government, and specifically for our CIA and our past President(s) (notably Ronald Reagan).  NOTE: Herb's prediction of the fall of the Berlin Wall was the first authoritative one from a major government official of the USA.  I wish I thought he was wrong this time, but I fear that he is right--and that is truly scary.

PLEASE FORWARD THIS TO YOU ENTIRE ADULT (VOTER) EMAIL LIST
If you believe Herb's analysis is accurate, then you will want to do this anyway.  Those who don't like it will either ignore/delete it or send you back a nasty note.  This gives you a chance to stand up for your beliefs and begin a dialogue that might result in some of those people realizing the danger that lies ahead if "the rest of us" don't stand up and protect our American way of life--and the premise that "Government is supposed to work for the people; not vice versa."   We also must resist the "wealth redistribution" that is actively underway already.  If you are a productive member of society, your hard earned money will be taken at an increasing rate to fund whatever the government decides it wants—not what you might want it to be spent on.

IF YOU THINK HERB IS WRONG--CHALLENGE HIM
I will personally forward your dissenting position to him.  He may answer it, or we may accumulate them and then I'll answer them in a future edition of THE ENTERPRISE--or some combination of the above.

READ ABOUT THE REVOLUTION--IT WILL DETERMINE YOUR FUTURE AND THAT OF YOUR CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN.

May 20, 2009
Revolution
By Herbert E. Meyer

During the last 30 years we Americans have been so politically divided that some of us have called this left-right, liberal-conservative split a "culture war" or even a "second Civil War."  These descriptions are no longer accurate.  The precise, technical word for what is happening in the United States today is revolution.

Because of our country's history, we tend to think of revolutions as military conflicts, and of the revolutionaries as the good guys; the image of Minutemen fighting valiantly against the British forces at Lexington and Concord lies deep within our DNA.  But sometimes -- quite often, actually -- revolutions aren't military conflicts, and the good guys are the ones trying to keep the revolution from happening.  In January 1933, Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany by its elected president; he would spend the next two years consolidating his power with the legislative connivance of his political allies in the Reichstag.  In October 1917, Lenin and his Bolsheviks took control of Russia from Kerensky and his Social Democrats -- who had overthrown the Czar earlier that year -- entirely through parliamentary maneuvering in Russia's fledgling Duma.

What defines a revolution -- and this is the crucial point to grasp -- is that when it's over a country has changed not merely its leaders and its laws, but its operating system.

Since most of us think of computers when we hear the phrase "operating system" let me use this analogy to illuminate my point:  Every computer has an operating system, and most of us are using either the Microsoft or the Apple operating system.  If you want to do something with your computer -- send an email, watch a DVD, read an online essay like this one -- you must do it the way your computer's operating system is designed to work.

No operating system is perfect, which is why Microsoft and Apple send updates to their customers from time to time.  And every so often these companies launch new versions of their operating systems that incorporate a lot of modifications at once.  Can you change the operating system you use?  Of course you can.  Two years ago I threw out every Microsoft-based machine in our company's office and replaced them with Apple products.  Last month I met a corporate CEO who had just done the opposite, and replaced the Apple computers in his office with ones that run on the Microsoft operating system.

Democracies and Dictatorships

Now, just as computers have operating systems so too do countries.  In fact, countries have dual operating systems - one political and the other economic.  Broadly speaking, there are two kinds of each: Politically you can be a democracy or a dictatorship, and economically you can have either a free market or a command economy.  Because countries don't buy their operating systems off the shelf, the way we buy our computer operating systems, each country develops its own versions.  This is why our country's democracy is somewhat different from Canada's, which in turn is slightly different from Australia's, and so forth.  These countries all have free-market economies, but again they aren't quite the same.  Still, the similarities among democracies and free-market economies are more striking than the differences.  Likewise, while no two dictatorships are the same, and no two command economies work in exactly the same way, the differences among them are comparatively trivial.

Since no country's operating systems are perfect, can they be improved?  Of course they can.  Every time our Congress passes a new law, or enacts a new regulation -- or whenever the Supreme Court issues an opinion -- that's the equivalent of an update to our political or economic operating system.  Can you change a country's operating system?  Yes, you can.  And the precise, technical word for replacing one political or economic operating system with another is -- revolution.

When politics in a democracy is normal, the political parties all agree to preserve the operating system while they compete to improve it.  This is what is actually happening when one party in Congress introduces a new piece of healthcare or education legislation and the other party opposes it or introduces its own healthcare or education bill, or when two candidates for the Senate argue over whether or not to change our immigration laws.  Honorable people often will disagree about what to do -- sometimes quite strongly, just as the software engineers at Microsoft and Apple will sometimes argue through the night about whether a proposed change in the operating system's code is an improvement or just "kludge." But in normal politics the outer limits of all these disagreements are marked by a shared commitment to preserving and improving the operating system.

In abnormal politics, the objective of one party isn't to improve the operating system, but to overthrow it.

With this analogy in mind, now we can see clearly what's been happening in the United States during the last three decades.  While conservatives have been working to improve our democracy and our free-market economy, liberals have been working to replace our democracy with a dictatorship, and our free-market economy with a command economy controlled by the government.  The liberals couldn't say this aloud, because if they did the American people would have tossed them out of office on their ears.  So the liberals worked covertly, feigning support for democracy and for the free market while working diligently to undermine both.

This is why our politics has been so partisan, so vicious, and so deadlocked.  This is why words have lost their meaning in Washington, why we can never get to the bottom of anything, why we lurch from one manufactured scandal to another.  It's all been part of a decades-long effort by the liberals to throw sand in our eyes -- to keep us from seeing clearly where they really want to take us.  (And this explains why, when we question their judgment on some issue, they go berserk and accuse us of questioning their patriotism.  They're afraid we're on the verge of catching on.  If you want to have some fun, the next time you're chatting with a liberal and he goes nuts when you call him a socialist, say to him: "I'm so sorry you're offended.  Please tell me, what is there about socialism you don't like?"  You won't get a coherent answer; he'll just accuse you of a hate crime.)

Obama's Two-Front Offensive

With the election of Barack Obama as president, the liberals have launched a massive, two-front offensive they believe will end in victory.  They have judged that our public education system is so degraded that only a few Americans are left who even understand what a democracy is, and how the free market actually works.  They are convinced that the majority of Americans are too frightened by the current recession to care about preserving the principles that made us the most powerful, productive and innovative country the world has ever known.  In short, the liberals are reaching for victory because they believe that history now is on their side.

The speed of their offensive is breathtaking.

At the core of democracy is the rule of law, and we have already lost it.  The liberals lecture us incessantly that everything is "relative," but that's not true; some things are absolutes.  You cannot claim to be faithful to your spouse because you never cheat on her -- except when you're in London on business.   And you cannot claim to have the rule of law if the government can set aside the rule of law when it decides that "special circumstances" have arisen that warrant illegality.  When the President and his aides handed ownership of Chrysler Corp. to the United Auto Workers union, they tried to avoid sending that beleaguered company into bankruptcy by muscling its bondholders into accepting less money for their assets than the law entitled them to collect.  These contracts, and the law under which they were signed, were mere obstacles to a thuggish President bent on paying off his political supporters.

It's going to get much worse, fast.  President Obama has told us time and again that among his criteria for choosing Federal judges will be "empathy."  Empathy is a wonderful quality in any human being, but a judge's job is to rule according to the law.  Once our courts are presided over by judges who will reach verdicts based on how they feel about an issue -- such as abortion or the right of citizens to bear arms -- the law will be whatever the judges wish it to be; the rule of law will become an empty phrase rather than the architecture of our civilization.

We have lost our free-market economy as quickly as we have lost the rule of law.  Money is to an economy what blood is to a body; life and death resides within the organ that controls its flow. The government already owns our country's leading banks, which means the government now controls our economy.  (And in all fairness to President Obama, it was the Bush administration that started us down this ghastly road.)  One indicator of the Obama administration's real objective: When some banks that had taken federal money attempted to repay their loans, the Treasury Department refused to accept repayment and step aside.  This shows the government's goal isn't to prop up the banks, but rather to control them.

Here, too, things are going to get much worse, fast.  The government now owns General Motors Corp., is reaching for control of insurance companies, and has launched plans to take over our country's healthcare industry.  It even wants authority to set the salaries of executives in industries that, at least for now, aren't being subsidized or underwritten by the government.

Put all this together, and what we have in our country today isn't a democracy and it isn't a free-market economy.  Reader, what we have now is a revolution.

This revolution won't be stopped, and our country won't be rescued, by the Republicans in Washington.  This isn't because they lack the votes.  It's because most of them are careerist hacks who've been playing footsie with the Democrats for too long; with very few exceptions they lack the intellectual firepower to articulate the present danger, and the political courage to stand up to this Administration and really fight.  But for the absence of frock coats and pince-nez glasses, these Republicans in Washington remind me of those bumbling Weimar Republic politicians in Berlin who never grasped where Hitler and the Nazis were going until it was too late to stop them, or of those hapless Mensheviks in Moscow's Duma who let themselves be tossed into history's dustbin by Lenin and his Bolsheviks.  (Yes, of course I realize it's explosive to keep bringing up the Nazis and the Bolsheviks in an essay about the Democrats.  I'm not doing this to be incendiary; I'm doing this to be accurate.)

The Future's in Our Hands

Our country's future now lies within our own hands -- yours, mine, all of us who comprise what the Washington insiders sneeringly call the grass roots.  Good, because unless I'm very much mistaken the liberals have over-estimated their strength.  There still are more of us than there are of them.  I mean ordinary, decent Americans from across the political spectrum who may disagree about specific issues, but who understand who we are and how we became who we are; who love our country, have a genius for self-organizing, and won't let the United States go down without a fight.

We need to launch a counter-offensive, so to speak, and the place to start is at the local level.  Working with our county and state political parties when we can -- or working around them when we must -- our objective will be to elect as many people as we can to public office who understand what a democracy is and how the free market works.  This will include city council members, county commissioners, school board members, judges, sheriffs and even members of the local parks commission.  With the strength and political momentum their elections will provide, we can surge to the state level and then -- before it's too late -- take back the power in Washington DC.

I know this isn't the kind of battle most of us want to fight; we would rather watch the talking heads slug it out on Fox News than stand on a street corner handing out campaign flyers.  And given our country's history, for a while it will be uncomfortable to find ourselves fighting against the revolution and for the status quo.  But we'll get used to this as we make our case over and over again -- to our friends, our neighbors, at barbeques and PTA meetings and at public rallies like those marvelous April tea parties that drove the liberals insane.  And we'll draw strength as our ranks swell with new recruits.

The alternative to launching this kind of peaceful and political counter-attack is horrific.  Right now sales of guns and ammunition are rising sharply.  This reflects an intuitive grasp by grass-roots Americans of what history teaches may lie ahead.  It was only after the Nazis had secured their grip on power in Germany, and only after the Bolsheviks had seized control of Russia, that they set out to disarm and destroy the vast numbers of ordinary citizens who - to the astonishment and fury of the revolutionaries -- just wouldn't go along.  That's when the real shooting started, and when blood began flowing in the streets.
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Herbert E. Meyer served during the Reagan Administration as Special Assistant to the Director of Central Intelligence and Vice Chairman of the CIA's National Intelligence Council.  He holds the U.S. National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal, which is the Intelligence Community's highest honor.  He is author of The Cure for Poverty and How to Analyze Information.
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ARE YOU WILLING TO STAND UP FOR WHAT YOU BELIEVE?  THE TIME IS SHORT--START NOW.

Hopefully yours, Grandpa John (aka "Papa")

 "Government is supposed to work for the people; not vice versa."
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John L. Mariotti, President & CEO, The Enterprise Group, Phone 614-840-0959  http://www.mariotti.net   http://mariotti.blogs.com/my_weblog/
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