As we begin 2009, I wanted to alert everyone about the Lincoln Bicentennial (1809-2009) in honor of our great Republican President’s birth.  Abe Lincoln was the first Republican President and a true entrepreneur.  As mentioned in the RTC September listing of Famous Republican Entrepreneurs, Lincoln is the only president ever to receive a patent for a device that lifts boats above shoals.

You will find this interesting fact along with many other facts and upcoming events related to the Lincoln Bicentennial Celebration at the official website.

Thanks Abe for getting it all started!!

Three interesting pieces of news today dealing with two Democratic Governors and a future Governor’s race.

First, Governor Bill Richardson announced that he would not accept the appointment as President Obama’s new Secretary of Commerce due to questions regarding New Mexico government contracting (hmmm?). Hoorah we are saved!! (Well Maybe)

As I clearly stated in my previous entry “It’s Sad When the Commerce Secretary Slot is a Boobie Prize”, the NM Governor has ZERO business experience and only received this offered position in the Obama Administration because he lost out to Sen. Hillary Clinton as the Secretary of State.

Hopefully, now the new President will select an individual as Commerce Secretary that has business experience and preferrably this experience is in the technology industry.  Someone like Oracle President Charles Phillips would work but please not another boobie prize for a politician with ZERO business experience like Kansas Governor Kathleen Sibelius. Both names are supposedly on the “short list”.

Next - today the Washington Post reported that Virginia Governor Tim Kaine will be announced this week by President-elect Obama as the new Chairman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC).

Being a resident of Virginia and knowing the present budget / economic crisis facing the Commonwealth, if Governor Kaine is already looking for his next job and not interested in devoting his full attention to his present job, it is time for him to resign.

Earlier he rejected the idea (but it now seems he has changed his mind about accepting the DNC position):
“I don’t view that, frankly, as consistent with being governor, so I’m going to be governor,” Kaine said at a Richmond news conference about the state’s finances. “I would view it as taking my eye too much off the ball about things that need to happen here.”

Governor Kaine, please go to Washington and lead a partisan effort as Chair of the DNC. Resign now and let Lt. Governor Bill Bolling, a well liked former State Senator, negotiate a compromise budget with all the parties in the legislature similar to what popular former Virginia Governor Mark Warner did.  We need a full time Governor to govern and devote their complete attention to the economic crisis.

Governor Kaine, I know Mark Warner and you are no Mark Warner. You should resign as Governor of the Commonwealth and devote yourself to the partisan politics you enjoy.

And finally on that topic of partisan politics vs. governing, former DNC Chairman - Terry McAuliffe just officially announced his plans to run for Governor of Virginia in 2009.  (What is it with the DNC and Richmond?).

His primary opponents are already screaming about buying the election (word on the street is he will raise $80 million for the race).  We have already seen the gridlock (and boy do we know gridlock in Northern Virginia) and failure of government when partisan politics becomes the every day playbook (on both sides of the aisle!!).  I find it hard to believe that the former DNC Chairman will leave partisan politics outside the Governor’s Mansion.  So Terry please don’t run.  Do what you enjoy and that is not governing.

What do you think?

On Jan. 5th at the National Press Club in Washington DC, the RNC Chairman Candidate Debate is open to the public.

RSVP to debate@ atr.org . Submit questions online http://www.RNCdebate.org .

If you’re in the area, details below. Otherwise, you can watch the debate online http://www.rncdebate.org/ or I understand C-SPAN plans to broadcast the debate (it is not listed yet on the C-SPAN website schedule).

Monday, January 5th from 1:00pm - 2:30pm (doors open at 12:00pm). The National Press Club is located at 529 14th Street NW, Washington D.C.

From today’s Wall Street Journal (Complete article here) :

Lawmakers in Congress want a plan that will create jobs over the next two to three years while also tackling the longer-term goal of improving the availability and quality of high-speed Web access in the U.S. The U.S. has slipped to 15th from fourth place since 2001 in broadband penetration, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Advocates say broadband deployment is critical to the competitiveness of the U.S. economy.

Among the issues are what speed Congress should define as broadband and whether government money should be funneled only to areas that have no broadband access, or if it should also subsidize upgrades to existing networks.

Policies under serious consideration are corporate tax credits to build new wireless or landline infrastructure, government-backed broadband “bonds” and grants to companies or local governments, legislative aides and lobbyists close to the process say. There also is strong agreement that low-income consumers need to be encouraged to sign up for broadband — for example, through vouchers to purchase computers or discounts on monthly service.

Surprise, surprise.  This was the headline in this week’s edition of the Washington Business Journal.

To quote a couple of the interesting sentences from the article:

“Obama, by contrast, largely turned to people with extensive government experience for his Cabinet.”

“The Commerce Department, for example, will be headed by New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who also has served in Congress, as United Nations ambassador and as secretary of Energy.”

A couple weeks ago on the RTC Blog, I wrote about how little the new Administration was concerned about business input and how the Commerce Secretary position became the boobie prize for Governor Richardson for not being selected as President Obama’s Secretary of State.

If you have not dealt with the regulatory burdens of government and struggled with making payroll and health insurance payments for your employees, it is difficult to understand the positions of the small business technology owner / entreprenuer.

In these uncertain times and with no experience in the business world, I remember that old funny (and not so funny) line that will applies to the Obama team -  “Hello, I ‘m from the government and I am here to help you”.

Thanks but no thanks.

An interesting article in The Hill (Capital Hill Newspaper - thanks Dave Zerbee for sending the link).  It discusses how the tech associations are lining up against proposed legislation that favors the labor unions ability to organize in a company by a simple petition rather than secret ballot.  You can just guess the dangerous pressure on employees by union organizers and disruptive nature of such a process being allowed in a work environment. 

The Unions leaders see this as their number one priority to stem the drop in union membership and will be calling in all the election time favors with the big “Ds” to pass this legislation in the next Congress.

This will need to be stopped in Congress because as quoted in the article, if it gets to the White House, get ready for the smiling Union Leaders photo opportunity at the signing:
“Obama, however, also voted for card-check last time it came to a vote on cloture in the Senate. Unions overwhelmingly backed his presidential campaign, and he has promised to sign the bill if it reaches his desk.”

We can not let this legislation reach his desk.

Unfortunately, we have already lost one vote from the switch in representation in the Northern Virginia technology community when Republican Tom Davis retired and Democrat Gerry Connolly won in November.  Just read Connolly’s comments on Card Check:

“Connolly supports the bill because he believes it will level the playing field, which he says has long been tilted in favor of businesses. He blamed policies pushed by the Bush administration for stifling union growth.

“We have to redress the gross imbalance of the last eight years. I don’t think this legislation [would] even be here if hadn’t been the relentless hostility against labor by the Bush administration,” he said.”

That is a load of crap and aren’t we lucky to be now represented in NoVa by such anti-business / pro-labor member of the HofR.  Union growth was stifled by Unions killing off the industries they dominate, i.e. Northern US based auto plants, as we are now seeing. 

Over the last decade, union growth has come from teaching and civil service unions and they are now doing the same to those organizations.  Charter schools, merit based pay and vouchers continue to demonstrate improved educational benefits but are resisted by teacher unions.  The number of state and local governmental employees have skyrocketed but I would be happy to compare efficiency levels to comparable private sector service organizations. There is a reason (financially beneficial and operationally efficient) why DoD has outsourced so much work to the private sector. 

So please don’t forget to write Santa (or even better your Senator and Congressman) today and ask him not to deliver the present of card checking legislation to the Labor Unions.

What do you think?

This is a great short piece by Peter Robinson in Forbes with telling quotes from three great Americans.  Unfortunately the line that struck me was:

“The Obama administration’s huge new spending package might or might not stimulate the growth of economy. It will certainly stimulate the growth of government.”

Full article here.

And in 2009, to quote Jimi Hendrix, “…and it is comin to get ya”.  (How often do you find Jimi Hendrix quoted by a Republican website?).

You would think after the long 2008 Presidential Campaign and difficult defeat on the national level that the GOP would be taking a breather.  Not so.  As matter of fact, I sense a renewed energy and this is especially true in Virginia where along with New Jersey next year, the Governor’s seat, legislative branch and other statewide offices are in play.

In Virginia the Republican nominee for Governor has already been decided.  The present Attorney General, Bob McDonnell, is unchallenged and just released a great new website.  Visit, volunteer and donate as often as possible and tell your contacts and friends inside and outside of Virginia to get involved.

But even before that, the largest county in Virginia, i.e. Fairfax County, will be holding an election on February 3rd to fill the Chairman of the Board of Supervisors vacancy.  One of the highest median incomes in the US, Fairfax is diverse and has a population which exceeds that of seven states.  A tough race in a changing suburban community, the Republicans have a strong candidate in Springfield Supervisor Pat Herrity and a win here would really send a message of comeback across the State and Country.  Fairfax is a county run by the Democrats which is facing a $500 million budget shortfall after years of outlandish increases in real estate taxes and expenditures (I know this personally!).  Pat’s Democratic opponent has Chaired the BUDGET COMMITTEE for 16 years of explosive, non-stop spending and has presented no plan to handle next year’s budget shortfall.

As I may have mentioned before, the Fairfax County Republican Committee (FCRC), has also elected a new Chairman, Anthony Bedell, who is a senior exectutive with a large software company.  The FCRC is making a push to incorporate the latest in website development, social networking, database analysis, voter registration, etc. (which it sorely needs).

It will be an interesting year in Virginia politics!

Welcome to the new American Monarchy:

1. Co-King Biden (at least he thinks so) tries to establish his son as heir to the Delaware Senate Seat Throne.

2. Princess Caroline Kennedy has no experience but is being lined up as heir to HRC (Her Royal Clinton) in the New York Senate Throne.

3. The Court Jester, Bill Richardson, looses out on State and with no business experience gets a boobie prize as Secretary of Commerce.

4. And the Royal Court back in Illinois gets thrown in the dungeon for trying to sell off the new King Barack’s old seat.

The peasants are getting restless.  Does the King have no clothes?

Signed
Your Loyal Scribe

P.S. And all the Kings Horses and all the King’s Barney Franks, could not put GM back together again.

As we discuss the US Government’s “support” of General Motors.  We felt it was opportune to honor the Founder of General Motors - William C. “Billy” Durant.  Grandson of Michigan’s Republican Governor, Henry Howland Crapo, and a lifelong Republican, Billy Durant was the leading entrepreneur of the automobile age, ‘The Great Gatsby of Carmaking”.

As a young man, Billy Durant and his partner, Josiah Dort, established the country’s largest manufacturer of horse drawn vehicles in Flint, Michigan.  At 39, he is already a millionaire and with the turn of the century excitment building regarding this new transportation technology, Billy attended the first automobile show at Madison Square Garden.  On display, over 300 models of the “horseless carriage” and he caught the entrepreneur fever.  He teamed up with David Buick a few years later and by 1910, Billy Durant brought together twenty-five companies into what would become the General Motors empire. 

Cadillac, Oakland (Pontiac), Olds, A.C. Spark Plugs, Buick, Fisher Body, Chevrolet are just a few well known companies that Billy helped build.  And one technology you may never guess.  Billy was an early investor in the “electric ice box” and the formation of Frigidaire Corporation.

Forced out of GM by the Du Ponts in the early 1920s, Billy started Durant Motors and became heavily involved in the roaring twenties stock market.  Durant Motors and Billy’s fortune failed to survive the 1929 crash and following Depression. 

“Forget past mistakes. Forget failures. Forget everything except what you’re going to do now and do it.”
– William C. Durant