November 28, 2006

10:47 AM MT

Went from 22 to 33 planks ...

in my platform listed on the profile. No one will ever be able to say that Hammons waffles on the issues.

Now off for a run, before I get back and start creating Web pages for my site ...

November 15, 2006

11:22 AM MT

If I were to run for Congress ...

here's what I would support:

A Balanced Budget Amendment

I support a Balanced Budget Amendment in the interests of the nation's fiscal and economic health. Any short-term stimulative benefits gained by deficit spending are far outweighed by the long-term damage that spending inflicts on the economy. It's time to stop spending our children's inheritance and secure our nation's fiscal health for future generations.

Thirty Over Thirty Tax Plan

I support the elimination of federal taxes on annual income below $30,000, and a flat tax of 30% on annual income above $30,000 (e.g., under such a plan, a citizen earning $31,000 annually would pay $300 in federal income tax). Such a tax plan would simplify the tax code (click on the link to the IRS tax schedules below), eliminate the marriage penalty, eliminate the Alternative Minimum Tax, and, in combination with the carbon revenue enhancement below, provide sensible tax incentives.

http://www.irs.gov/formspubs/article/0,,id=150856,00.html

Carb Balancing

I support a federal revenue measure based on the carbon content of fossil fuels as they are extracted from the ground or imported into the United States. Such a measure would balance the budget, reduce our nation's dangerous dependence on foreign oil, and reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. Exemptions from this measure should be considered for clean coal and similar technologies which eliminate greenhouse gas emissions.

(Full disclosure: my hometown of Odessa, TX is one of four finalists for siting of the clean coal FutureGen project(http://www.futuregenalliance.org/)

Entitlement Tithe Pool

I support the replacement of Medicare and Social Security taxes (which eat away as much as 18.2% of a self-employed worker's income) with an Entitlement Tithe Pool created out of less than 10% on all corporate and individual earnings. This system, based on principles in Christian and other religious traditions, would pool such revenues collected during each federal fiscal year (October 1st - September 30th) and distribute those revenues the following calendar year (January 1st - December 31st) in the form of payments to private health care providers for universal health care for all American citizens, and in the form of social security payments. Access to the world's best health care system would be guaranteed for all, and the remaining balance of revenues would provide an annual guarantee of social security to all citizens who qualify.

http://www.socialsecurity.gov/pubs/10022.html

Kill the Corporate Dividend Tax

To increase 401(k) and other stock investments, I support a full tax deduction for corporations on the dividend payments they make to shareholders (just as interest payments on corporate bonds are tax-deductible for corporations). Such a deduction would encourage a shift to stock valuations based on dividend payments (vs. more ephemeral criteria like the late Enron Corporation's) and thus do more to prevent the next Enron than the burdensome compliance requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:GZT4Ai_wVQ4J:knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm%3Farticleid%3D609+corporate+dividend+tax+deduction&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=1

Secure the Borders, and Let Immigrants Work

In the Age of Terrorism, to say that we cannot secure any one of our borders is a dangerous sort of defeatism. I support appropriations for the U.S.-Mexico border fence approved by Congress and the President. I do not support rewarding the act of illegal entry into this country with citizenship, but I do support allowing those undocumented workers who are already in this country to continue working and thus helping the American economy to continue its expansion.

Not all is lost in Iraq, even if Iraq itself is

I supported the removal of a totalitarian dictatorship that had invaded neighboring Kuwait, attempted to assassinate a former US President, and displayed an unhealthy interest in weapons of mass destruction (when the words "mass" and "destruction" appear alongside one another, it is generally a good idea to err on the side of caution).

I do not support incompetence. The problems in Iraq did not begin with Donald Rumsfeld; the problems began with an entrenched two-party system which rewards ideology (an adherence to fixed ideas which sometimes translates into an obstinate "Stay the Course" mentality) and does not necessarily reward competence (if John McCain had been allowed to become President, we most likely would not be where we are today).

Iraq as an entity was first proposed in 1919 ("for administrative purposes") by an obscure British bureaucrat named Arnold Wilson (the real purpose? One word: "Oil."). Instead of presiding over a nation which is fracturing, sliding into civil war, and threatening to draw its neighbors into a regional conflagration, the United States should face reality and preside over a peaceful partition of Wilson's artificial creation.

The current Shia-dominated government has displayed little interest in taking concrete steps (like community investment) in winning over its Sunni minority, is unwilling or unable to disarm the militias which are tearing the country apart, and has resorted to parliamentary shenanigans to push forward autonomy (read "eventual independence") for the oil-rich Shiite region of Iraq.

The de facto independent nation of Kurdistan in Iraq's north should be recognized as such by the United States, but the Kurds should be warned that a union of Turkey's Kurdish minority with Kurdistan will not be supported (I once said in a blog entry that the United States should support such a union; now things are complicated enough as it is). Kurdistan, which is a strong supporter of the United States, would make an ideal base for a large American military presence to project power throughout the region (ie, protect the former Iraq from the depredations of Iran and Syria).

The Shiite southeast of Iraq should be allowed to continue on as a smaller Iraq, but continued financial assistance for the Shias should be contingent upon their cooperation in the re-drawing of Iraq's western borders. The Sunni region of Iraq is resource-poor and unviable as a state; as a Congressman I would introduce a bill suggesting that it be put to the inhabitants of the Sunni region of Iraq if they wish to be joined with Jordan or Saudi Arabia.

The Right to Protection from Government Intrusion

The National Security Agency's Terrorist Surveillance Program, under which the NSA continues to monitor phone calls between parties in the United States and foreign countries without warrants from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, either in advance or retroactively, and the NSA's call database, which contains records of trillions of phone calls made by Americans (again without warrants from the FISC), are both in clear violation of the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution. I support close monitoring of suspected terrorists, as long as that monitoring is within our government's system of checks and balances, the "check" in this case being a panel of judges. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act was brought into the Age of Terrorism by the USA Patriot Act and the "Lone Wolf" Amendment; the law is clear on surveillance by the government and the government should stay within the law: if the current administration had done so, its surveillance programs would not be in the realm of public discourse and the advantage of secrecy would not be lost.

The Rights of Detainees

Whenever human beings are detained in and/or transported from Iraq, Afghanistan, or elsewhere by the US military, panels of military judges should quickly determine which detainees are innocent civilians and which are enemy combatants; the civilians should be speedily released and the enemy combatants should then be treated according to the Geneva Conventions. Fraser, Colorado and other American communities were sites of POW camps for German soldiers who were treated according to the Geneva Conventions even after war crimes were committed against American soldiers in Normandy and even after the horrors of the Holocaust came to light. The war on extremism is a war for hearts and minds, and the evil of our enemies is no excuse to sacrifice the principles of our civilization.

The Death Penalty

I support the death penalty.

Church and State

I believe in the separation of Church and State, and while I support statements of faith in God in the Pledge of Allegiance and elsewhere, I do not support express advocation of religion in schools and other public institutions. I also do not support school vouchers.

Stem Cell Research

I support embryonic stem cell research. Current stem cell technology involves the destruction of a mass of approximately 100 cells (a mass smaller than the head of a pin); the technology has the potential to treat brain damage, spinal cord injuries, muscle damage, heart damage, low blood supply, blindness, deafness, Lou Gehrig's Disease, Parkinson's Disease, genetic diseases, and a host of other conditions. In effect, embryonic stem cell research could revolutionize medicine and thus the human condition in ways we cannot begin to imagine.

The Right to Choose

I support a woman's right to choose whether to terminate a pregnancy in the first two trimesters; I do not support late-term abortion.

Civil Unions

I support civil unions which will grant the basic benefits of partnership to same-sex couples.

The Second Amendment

I support the right to bear arms enshrined in the Constitution.

Economic-based Affirmative Action

I support affirmative action based on economics and not on ethnicity. Many (but certainly not all) of the effects of discrimination are economic in nature, and affirmative action policies that, for example, give added weight to applicants in the university admissions process based on the low income level of the applicant's family, will help ameliorate the effects of ethnic discrimination and at the same time give earned opportunities to those from white and poor backgrounds.

No Child Left Behind

I support the No Child Left Behind Act, but believe it should be fully funded up to the authorized levels (for example, the current administration requested only $13 billion of an authorized $22 billion in 2006; that $9 billion shortfall is equal to about six weeks' worth of funding the war in Iraq).

Flag Burning Amendment

I oppose an Amendment to the Constitution to ban the burning of the American flag. Hundreds of thousands of American soldiers have given their lives for a set of freedoms which includes the freedom of speech protected by the First Amendment of that same Constitution.

The Rocky Flats Cold War Museum

I support federal funding for the Rocky Flats Cold War Museum. Such a museum, the land for which has already been donated pending funding for design and construction, could not only highlight the prominent role the Rocky Flats plant and its workers played in the production of America's nuclear arsenal during the Cold War, but also highlight the dangers of nuclear technology, from the aftermath of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to the cleanup of contamination at Rocky Flats half a century later.

I-70 Corridor Mass Transit Funding

I support federal funding for a mass transit system running along the I-70 corridor from Denver International Airport through Eagle County. More and more Americans are using this congested stretch of I-70 running through the heart of the country, and it's imperative to deal with a looming crisis in an environmentally friendly way.

Spaceport on Colorado's Western Slope

I support federal funding for a study on the feasibility of constructing a National Spaceport on Colorado's Western Slope (perhaps named after Senator John Glenn) to jump-start the new space industry (yes, there's a lot of mountains and snow on the Western Slope, but, for that very reason, there are also a lot less people on the ground than along the Front Range). Four advantages north central Colorado has over the State of New Mexico and its private spaceport being built by Virgin Galactic near the town of Truth or Consequences: location, location, location, and location. An extra mile in elevation at your starting point over and over again adds up, north central Colorado is 500 miles further from an international border, north central Colorado is 500 miles closer to the major transportation hub of DIA, and Colorado is home to the Air Force Space Command and several other defense institutions.

Federal Term Limits

I believe that many of the problems in Congress today are a result of good people spending too much time doing one thing and doing it away from their traditional roots. I support an Amendment to the Constitution to limit US Representatives to four terms in the House, and to limit US Senators to two terms in the Senate. If elected to the US House in 2008, I pledge to voluntarily vacate my seat after four terms.

November 8, 2006

2:06 PM MT

The Longest Journey ...

begins with a single step.