Who Should We Trust With OUR Money & OUR Future?

Politicians continue to tell us that those "evil CEO's" have bankrupted their companies and sent the economy off the cliff. To a certain extent, they have a point. Simple greed has led to poor decision making by people as diverse as individuals to corporations. But the economic downturn is global, not local.

Some things are within the scope of an individual's responsibility and other things are not. A person who takes out a 105% loan (as Obama proposes to offer through the US Government) should be astute enough to know that they can't sell that house for the amount they owe on it.

A person with an income of $36,000/year should know that they cannot pay back a loan with a monthly payment of $3,000/month.

A CEO has the job of ensuring a corporation does what it can to make money. Sometimes, conditions outside his control, like an economic downturn or Congressional interference in those policies, will negatively impact his ability to do so. Other times, it is purely on his head that the corporation does not make money for its investors.

But, when one has failed to live up to their financial obligations and responsibilities, the last place that they should go to for advice is someone with a worse record on financial responsibility. When Citibank (and others) lost money in the short term, Congress's record of 200 years of financial irresponsibility at the very time they are accelerating gross irresponsibility is the wrong place to look for advice.

Sure, it sounds nice to hear that we will soon get "free health care" but nothing is free. The Government is one of the least efficient organizations in the Nation. Congress mismanages nearly everything they touch.

CEO's should not be getting multi-million dollar bonuses for loosing money, but Congress should not be the one to change that: Shareholders should be. When Congress becomes the board of Corporations, we will see greater mismanagement, not less.

And we already see the first nationalization of a bank, in earnest: Citibank is now up to 36% government owned. In fact, just two years ago, it would have taken half of the CEO Bailout bill to buy Citibank alone, but now, the $700 Billion CEO Bailout Bill could purchase more than 75 CitiBanks, outright.

We must send a Common Sense Citizen to Congress.

Success of the Government Monopoly

The United States is a Corporation. The US Constitution are the Articles of Incorporation. The US Congress is Our Board of Directors and the President is the Chief Executive Officer. We, the People, are the shareholders, the owners, and the customers.

But the US Government is also a monopoly. When we don't like the product, we don't have the option of shopping elsewhere. When we don't like the price, we don't have an option of not paying. We do have the option of changing the Board Members and the CEO.

Our Founding Fathers understood these principles and hence designed the Federal Government to have limited power, preferring the State Governments to hold the reins, as each state competed for citizens and responded to the expectations and desires of its citizens, its customers and owners.

Government is a necessary evil. But what is the scope of its purpose? To provide those services which necessarily cannot be provided through any but the combined efforts of the Nations Citizens. To provide for the National Defense and for Foreign Relations.

The Federal Government has no Constitutional Authority to set up dog parks in municipalities nor to open the Treasury to ACORN for "neighborhood stabilization." The Government is not being benevolent when it returns taxpayer money to taxpayers. It is far more efficient to simply not take the taxes than to take the taxes, pay a multitude of money counters, bureacrats, administrators, and politicians, then return what's left over to the victim removed from the fruits of his labors.

There are things which do fall within the scope of responsibility of the Federal Government but buying digital converter boxes from China for a few Americans is not one of them. Buying F22 Raptor Fighters for the US Navy and US Air Force from American Manufacturers to deter a war with China or North Korea is within that scope of responsibility. Buying new Re-Fueling Tankers for the US Air Force and hence employing tens of thousands in Mobile, Alabama is within that scope of responsibility.

TNTaylor©2009, TennesseeTaylor, all rights reserved.

Big 3 Bailout?

International Automakers continue to flock to the South even as the Big 3 sit before Congress asking for Southern Lawmakers to prop up their unprofitable practices. Having seen how successful the banking CEO's were in their "urgent" demands for cash, GM, Ford, & Chrysler figured they could sell their lemon with tales of doom and gloom as well.

They are asking that the Workers of White Co give their tax dollars to maintain the exorbitant benefits and wages attained by the UAW. Consider this from the UAW:

The tentative agreement, reached at 3:05 a.m. Sept. 26[2007], delivers solid economic gains for active and retired members, despite repeated attempts by
GM to impose harsh takeaways
The agreement will deliver more than $13,000 in economic gains for a typical UAW member, including a $3,000 signing bonus, two 3 percent lump sums and a 4 percent lump sum.
http://www.uaw.org/contracts/07/gm/index.php

GM has 252,000 Employees and the top 5 executives earn $7.68 Million alone. The 3 Automakers combine for 564,409 of the highest paid factory workers in the Nation. Two of them were recently on the news downplaying their salary, noting that they barely made more than $70,000 in their best year, before their additional benefits. There are college graduates and engineers making less money.

In the end, it is the American Consumer paying those salaries. Now they are asking the People of Petersburg to prop up those making twice as much as they are.

I am very much opposed to Politicians, Bureacrats, and Government dictating internal business practices unnecesarily, but before Lee Iacocca came begging for a Loan, he reduced his own salary to $1/year. When business asks for a loan, they must open the books, explain their plan for success, and demonstrate they know how to pay back that money. In a case like this, they must demonstrate that they've identified the means to cut back on costs.

The Big 3 still have not figured out the primary cause of their declining sales: products which cost twice as much without delivering greater quality. Before they can pay back the loans they're asking for, they have to return to profitability. Before they can make money, they must sell their cars for more than it costs to make them. They have continously asked us to pay more for their products, believing our loyalty to American business superceded our good financial sense.

The Big 3 are a story of personal greed at every level. They are like a rich uncle asking for a loan from a College Student working at McDonalds's to pay his own way through school.

If Congress wishes to create the Taxpayer Savings & Loan Corporation, Bad Debt Inc., then they need to be as discriminating as the Loan Officers of the Banks they bailed out. It was bad debt and rampant greed that got us into this mess. Changing the lien holder from private business to the US Taxpayer does not improve the situation.

General Motors Employees donated more than $232,000 to Political Campaigns in the 2008 election cycle. http://www.campaignmoney.com/finance.asp?type=io&cycle=08&criteria=General+Motors The GM Political Action Committee paid out more than $712,000 in political campaigns/donations, including to Representative Bart Gordan.

And the UAW PAC collected more than $8 Million and developed a war chest of $10 Million to influence our politicians: http://www.campaignmoney.com/political/committees/uaw-v-cap-uaw-voluntary-community-action-program.asp?cycle=08 Again we find Representative Bart Gordon on their list.

Will the investment made by the CEO's and Unions of Detroit in our Congressman pay off in a vote to prop up the exorbinant wages that strangle our ability to buy the cars we want with the hard work of our autoworkers in Smyrna? Or will our Representative resist the urge to serve his Corporate Constituency in Detroit in favor of the Taxpayers of Tennessee?

I want the Big 3 to survive and thrive as much as anyone, but I realize that in order for that to happen, they must cut their wasteful spending and tighten their own belt before they ask us to take on more debt to cover theirs. I don't want Congress mandating the wages paid and the means of transportation of private business, but the market, i.e. the consumers, have told them they're charging too much.

But that credit card we gave Congress is burning a hole in their pocket and they have more in common with the Big 3, Bankers, and Jet Set CEO's and their spending beyond their means than they do with the average worker of Woodbury.


TNTaylor©2008, Tennessee Taylor, all rights reserved.

A Simple Man

"I've come to two decisions in life that I've carved in stone. One is that
the lowest form on animal on this planet is a child molester. The
other is that the only good terrorist is a dead terrorist."

-Charlie Daniels

I have to work like a dog to make ends meet.

And there's crooked politicians and crime in the street.

And I'm madder in hell and I ain't gonna take no more.

-I'm a Simple Man, Charlie Daniels

There seems to be something in the Middle Tennessee that allows us to see things more clearly than those of New York and Chicago. Perhaps it is that we're closer to nature. Perhaps it is that we live in harmony with trees and wildlife and they've taken up a life surrounded by concrete.

Perhaps, it is that we know our neighbors and help each other in times of adversity.

I've lived in the big city and I've lived in small towns, but it doesn't take much analysis to know that the politics of the big city are much different than the common sense of the small town.

It's not simply a difference between manufacturing and farming. It's a difference between self-reliance and dependence and a difference between responsibility and lack thereof. It's a difference between government interference and government dependency.

The Chicago Politicians have promised to close Guantanamo Bay, as if that piece of Caribbean beach could have committed crimes. The California Idealists have called for the move for years though they know that the allegations were proven false. The New York Elitists realize that the only cases of "waterboarding" occurred elsewhere against three of the most dangerous terrorists we captured, three terrorists directly involved with the 9/11 attacks.

I wonder if Guantanamo will be Obama's Panama Canal. Will he give away more of what we earned with the blood and sweat of our Troops? Will he give away what was given us for helping to give freedom to the Cubans in 1898?

Did you know that following the Spanish-American War, the Spanish asked us to annex Cuba? That the Cubans stipulated in their Constitution and in their treaty with us that we would rescue them from poor leaders?

In the last few weeks, the efforts of The Party of the last few years, has come to fruition. They have secured the release of Osama Bin Ladin's bodyguard and driver. They gave an enemy combatant the rights of American citizen even while they attempt to erode our own rights. They forced the courts to try a terrorist as they would a criminal. And though war criminals may be tried and held longer, combatants may be held until the cessation of hostilities, as per the Geneva Conventions.

Our Troops have risked life and limb to take terrorists off the streets. Our Troops have upheld the Laws of Land Warfare and the Geneva Conventions, despite fighting an enemy that tortures and beheads civilians. When the enemy has surrendered, their lives were spared. And now Congress and Chicago Politicians, using the Courts, have released these terrorists to kill again.

The Party of New York, Chicago and California is not the party of our fathers. It is not the party of Andrew Jackson. The man our forefathers volunteered to fight under, against the British, would not recognize the DNC of today. Old Hickory would not allow the likes of Pelosi, Reid, and Frank to claim his party.

But there is little chance that the rational members of The Party can reclaim it anytime soon. And until they do, we need to remove the rubber stamp members of our own State Delegation from Congress. For too long, our politicians have realistically believed that the letter behind their name guaranteed them their seat of power. They've taken our vote for granted.

Our politician has become a follower of Pelosi, not a leader reclaiming the honor of his party. If he won't stand up and tell the far left of New York, Chicago, and California "Enough" then we need to stand up and tell him "Enough!" We're sending a Common Sense Citizen to Washington.

TNTaylor©2008, Tennessee Taylor, all rights reserved.

Ground Zero of the Taylor Explosion

Shortly after this exploratory campaign was born, I was asked for more information on me, the person. I explained it would come out in time, that the issues are more important than the people running, more important than either Bart Gordon or myself. This is about the people of Middle Tennessee, not the person sent to Washington. It is about whether we send a Representative or a Politician to Congress.

To know who oneself, one must also know their history and the history of their family. And that history is the history of Middle Tennessee.

I spent much of the weekend reviewing the latest work, A Few More Taylors, 2003,
of Ms. Ardis Taylor of North Dakota. She devoted decades of her life to objectively ferreting out the family history of her husband Harve and some of her favorite stories come from Middle Tennessee.

Ms. Ardis has published 4 books over the decades, including Taylor Legends, William Taylor Sr., & On the Taylor Trail at least two of which are over 400 pages. Whether a history buff or a family member, these are great books that tell the history of the family and the area.

There are comedies and tragedies in our trails. She noted the Southern Grace in her travels here, whether that of Thomas Webb, civil servant who opened his home during the Jamboree, or my relatives inviting her in to sit a spell for some tall tales of Taylors long gone. She was able to dispel myths and learn legends.

It is the story of America and DeKalb County is "Ground Zero of the Taylor Explosion." About 1806, my ancestors arrived at Indian Creek and Sink Creek, down in the hollers where few would bother them. It wasn't long until David Taylor was asked to be the constable, and accepted. It had only been a few decades since many of the same Taylors had likely fought with Colonel Francis Marion, made famous a few years ago in the movie, The Patriot, with Mel Gibson.

It appears that this was the 5th, 6th & 7th Generation of Taylors seeking out a new frontier that arrived in today's DeKalb County.

When Andrew Jackson called for Troops, so many Taylors answered the call that it is still difficult to discern which John Taylor fell prey to disease on the way home from the Battle of New Orleans and which one survived another 5 years.

And Tennessee proved to be at the center of the Civil War. Taylors volunteered or were drafted to both sides of the Conflict to the tune of 1,028 from Tennessee alone, 200 to the Union and 828 to the Confederacy. http://www.itd.nps.gov/cwss/soldiers.cfm That's quite significant when we realize there were only 1,003,000 residents of Tennessee at the time. Many members of the family had moved to Illinois and 848 Taylors were added to the rolls of the Union there.

The decision as to which side had little to do with slavery. The Tennessee Taylor ancestors had turned against the practice before the Nation fought for independence.

Tennessee continues to be at the center of Common Sense and the center of Our Nation and Taylors continue to be a reflection of Tennessee. We generally prefer to provide the hard labor, food, and protection of the Nation, rather than to stand in the spotlight of political life.

We prefer to lead progress rather than stand in its way. Though it seems most of our ancestral land now lies below the lakes of the TVA, I have yet to find protests of Taylors in that loss of land. The land of Indian Creek is under the Western parts of Center Hill Lake and it appears that Sink Creek is under the same waters in Southeastern DeKalb County.

Meanwhile the land granted our Ancestors along Cold Water Creek in Elbert County, Georgia following the War for Independence seems to be under another lake created by the TVA.

But a family cannot grow this big and contribute for so long without some notables attaining their claim to fame. Long dispelled as myth, there may now be some credibility to the stories of a distant relationship to not only President Zachary Taylor but also President James Madison. And it seems that Johnny Cash is a very distant cousin.

And these relations go back to the earliest of Taylors here in the New World, back to when George Taylor arrived around 1635, from Cumberland County, England to Virginia, the frontier of the day. We are not a perfect family, but we are an American family. It seems a distant Uncle of the Tennessee Taylors inspired the first divorce in the Colonies.

We are a Tennessee family. We include as cousins Meltons, Jennings, Smiths, Brewers, Hights, Morgans, Womacks, Johnsons, Lumpkins, and Selfs, though I haven't found any Gores or Gordons. Chances are that if you turn over enough rocks in your family tree, you'll find a Taylor.

Reverend Rowland Taylor may or may not be related to us, but he certainly demonstrated the independent streak of standing up for his beliefs when he took on the Catholic Church in 1555 and preached from the Bible given him by his wife's Uncle William Tyndale. And though William Taylor, Sr of Virginia and Tennessee, may have been one of the early Baptists, Rev. Brookings Taylor spread the word in the Christ Church.

When the Nation calls, we continue to volunteer. When Our Neighbors or Family are in need, we lend a hand. We believe in Life, Liberty, and Pursuit of Happiness. We believe in Self-Determination in Faith as well as Life. We may not agree with the choices of others, but we believe they should be free to choose their own path and reap the rewards or risk the failures of their endeavors.

We are Independent in nature, though our names are listed on the rolls of the Democrats and the Republicans. We prefer Common Sense to book smarts. We prefer Farmers to Lawyers. We prefer Representatives to Politicians. We prefer Charities to Government Handouts. We'd rather be the one giving a hand up than the one receiving a handout, because next time it may be us that needs a helping hand.

We'd rather get less money for an honest day's work than more money for sitting around. But we need a Representative, instead of a Politician, to lead Our Congress back to the Common Sense our forefathers founded this Nation on.

TNTaylor©2008, Tennessee Taylor, all rights reserved.

An Open Dialogue

From Shelbyville:

TNTaylor nice website, good information to see from someone. I like to see open dialogue and it shows you being proactive. Very nicely worded. Wish you had a better design though; the content is good though.

Thank you for the input. We are at the beginning stages of this effort and I do put great emphasis on hearing from the Citizens of Our District. Our next representative should be reflective of us, in character, on the issues, and in his thinking. This website should likewise be reflective of us.

As this transforms from an exploratory nature into a viable campaign, the website itself will evolve. I welcome all to weigh in on the features that will make it most useful to you.

Viability: There is little potential for outspending the incumbent. He is the best financed member of the House from Tennessee. His campaign war chest begins at $1 Million as he had little need to campaign at all in 2008.

For this bid to be viable, the People of Petersburg, the Taxpayers of Trousdale, the Citizens of Cannon and Cookeville must speak out. For this to move forward, the issues and ideas published here need to be embraced by my fellow citizens.

I am asking not for your hard earned dollars to finance a campaign. I am asking for something more important. I am asking for your input into the issues. I am asking that if you like the content, you pass it on to others.

If our citizens are to take back Congress, as is their Constitutional right, it will be at the grass roots level. We have entered a new age of technology, which allows for greater responsiveness to, greater input from, and greater discussion with the Represented and the Representatives.

It is time to put a Common Sense Citizen in Congress. It is time for a Responsive Representative that reflects our people.

TNTaylor©2007-2008, Tennessee Taylor, all rights reserved.

I Volunteer, Sir

As we closed into the final weeks of the campaign season 2008, an economic "crisis" was suddenly thrust upon us. Our politicians told us that "something must be done" and that that was the reason they drafted and enacted the CEO/corporate bailout bill, though they gave it a different name and marketed it as 'our salvation.'

Bart Gordon voted twice for the bill that was used to force the US Taxpayer to buy into our banks, whether or not they wanted it. Eighty percent of the electorate was against this measure. It was a wakeup call for me. I began searching for alternatives in the 6th District and found two opponents to the entrenched and powerful Washington Insider.

Chris Baker was on the ballot but that was about it. He had no money, no website and a websearch of him produced footnotes that he was running in a few scattered articles. His positions could not even be identified.

Steve Edmonson was waging a write-in campaign. He had come to the same realization as had I, a few months earlier. He has ran twice before against Bart, once on the Republican ticket and once as an Independent. Write-in campaigns are difficult to win and this one demonstrated less success than some others.

With this in mind, I rode through much of the District, from Cookeville to Woodbury. I noted the patriotism demonstrated by multiple flagpoles. I remembered conversations with so many citizens of our districts, conversations that demonstrated we have a bit more common sense here in Middle Tennessee and the Upper Cumberland, conversations that demonstrated our desire to self-determination and against government interference.

On November 5th, I looked at the results for the 6th and noted that Baker, who had not campaigned, who had no money, no website, and no publicity had garnered 25% of the vote. I asked a few people what they thought about it.

"Bart's been good to Murfreesboro." "Bart's been good to Cookeville." "Bart's been good to Woodbury." "Some people will always vote the party line." But when I asked if they had ever heard of Chris Baker, the answer was "no."

Do we know Bart? He gets a lot of positive press in Middle Tennessee. I'd like to hire his publicist. But who does he represent?

When I was researching the choices for the 6th in 2008, I found he had the 3rd largest campaign war chest of any Tennessee politician of the election year. Lamar Alexander and Fred Thompson had more. Rep. Gordon had gathered:
$1,264,951 in campaign dollars. http://www.campaignmoney.com/political/campaigns/barton_jennings_gordon.asp?cycle=08 But where did this money come from?
$791,551 From Political Action Committees! That's 62.6% of his donations.
$ 65,761 From 131 Tennessee Individuals. That's 5.4% from his "constituents!" But, that is not the whole story. Many of those individuals are from Nashville, Knoxville, Memphis or otherwise outside the district.
In fact of the few individuals contributing to his campaign, the second largest majority were from the District of Columbia.

With that in mind, I ask you: Who is his real constituency? How is it that Chris Baker who did nothing more (that I can determine) than put his name on the ballot, get 25% of the voted from the best financed Representative of Tennessee?

I am exploring the possibility of running against Representative Bart Gordon FOR the 6th District in 2010. I am not asking for your hard earned money. I will not pledge to avoid the money of the rich, the corporations, nor the PACs. I will pledge that I will represent OUR district, regardless of who pays for the campaign.

I have jokingly stated that I can win this district if only my distant relatives, most of whom have never met me and some of whom cannot remember my face will vote for me. I am unknown to them, because we are a prolific family who settled Middle Tennesse in the 1800's and much of my life I've served in the Military in distant lands, hunting down the enemies that would do us harm. We live in hollers, cities, and some of our ancestral land lies at the bottom of lakes created by the TVA. We believe in personal responsibility and self-determination. Our Family has served in every conflict this Nation has fought.

Representative Gordon, Candidates Edmonson & Baker: I ask for your endorsement.

I am a Veteran of Afghanistan and of Desert Storm. I will bring (Un)Common Sense from Middle Tennessee to Washington. I have devoted most of my adult life to serving this Nation. My campaign would be grass roots and internet based. I will gladly speak to the good citizens of Middle Tennessee, explain why my positions are what they are and who I am. I will gladly sit down with the local journalists of Our District.

And you can contact me TNTaylorFor-TN6th2010 @ yahoo.com

Let me know your thoughts. Are we ready to send Common Sense to Washington? Are we ready to ask Rep Gordon to enjoy retirement? What are the issues you want addressed?

TNTaylor©2008, all rights reserved.