Dear Mayor Bloomberg

October 30, 2013

Mayor Michael Bloomberg
City of New York
New York NY

Dear Mayor Bloomberg,

Thank you for your continued interest in the State of Colorado. We note your most recent Million+ dollar contribution in support of Amendment 66 which will raise taxes on Coloradans by a Billion Dollars every year.

A Billion Dollar annual tax increase will negatively impact all citizens financially, especially the small businesses along Main Street CO. These are the job creators, not higher taxes. It should also be noted that there is no accountability built into the amendment as to actually how the money will be spent.

As for improving education, innovation beats taxation every time.

Our records also show you contributed to a recent recall election here in Colorado, your motivation and support based on restricting the 2nd Amendment Rights of Coloradans. We hold these truths to be self evident sir, that everything in the United States Constitution is sacred and not to be taken away piecemeal.

Your record of getting involved in the business of the people of Colorado indicates a couple of issues that concern us.

1. Despite being Mayor of a city as big as New York City, you obviously have too much time on your hands. Your focus should be on the citizens you represent.

2. In addition, you obviously don't understand that while you like to micro-manage your constituency, this not the type of government we in Colorado approve of. We have proven ourselves pretty darn capable of running our own affairs without the interference from outsiders. It kind of raises our hackles.

Therefore we must decline your application in becoming Grand Exalted Poo-Bah of the State of Colorado.

We do wish you the best in your future career endeavors.

Yours truly,

Brian Olson
Owner/Consultant
Conversation Starters Public Relations
"We start the conversation about you"

How would Watergate have played in today's 24/7 News Cycle?

There have been more than a few comparisons between the current trials and tribulations the White House is experiencing to Watergate. The IRS targeting of conservative groups, hassling reporters for doing their job and of course, Benghazi. I admit to having more than a passing interest just where POTUS was while the latter was going on and why his handlers remain "hesitant" to tell us. I'm absolutely aghast with the 1st Amendment implications of the DOJ targeting reporters. But that's just me.

Watergate started out as a stupid political burglary. It ended up with President Nixon forced out of office in disgrace. Not for the burglary, but for subverting the Constitution covering it up. Those who forget the past are always doomed to repeat it and I'm seeing a lot of repetition.

Carl and Bob back in the Day (That's a typewriter on the desk)

What's got me really thinking however,  is how differently things were covered then and now. During Watergate it was the dogged determination of Woodward and Bernstein and the Washington Post. Real journalism and real personal risk to those covering Watergate. The story took a while to catch the attention of the rest of the news media but when it did, wow. What's really key is we had to wait for news as the story unfolded. We didn't hear about it until the latest edition of the Post came out. There were no websites, Tweets or Facebook posts and 24/7 outlets like CNN or FOX.

Yes, we had to wait for what was "New." But we had time to digest it before the next information dump came as Woodward and Bernstein dug and dug and dug some more. Both being of the belief that news is indeed what's new, they would go several days before publishing new stories. At least early on.

Today, it's non-stop. You can't avoid it. On both traditional and digital media. Regurgitation of old news plus information and misinformation at the speed of light. Then there are the pundits. There are times where I simply say "ENOUGH!" I love a chocolate shake once in a while, but not every minute of the day.

Regardless of whether you agree or not between comparisons of what's happening today compared to Watergate, what's making a difference at least to me, was how we got the news a generation ago compared to today. It was solid, it was backed up and while we had to wait for it, it was worth waiting for. Today, not so much.

If you really study the history of Watergate, how it unfolded and compare it to today's rash of scandals, they are eerily familiar. But is the information overload because of today's technology turning us off to what could be something that is potentially dangerous to our civil liberties moving forward?

In other words is too much of a good thing ...a bad thing? You know, for us?

Brian Olson
Owner/Consultant
Conversation Starters Public Relations
"We start the conversation about you?"

STUFF POTUS left out of SOTU

"He shall from time to time give to the Congress information of the state of the union, and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary ..."-Article II, Sect. 3 of the United States Constitution.

Essentially what this means, and with help from Kenny Rogers, the President drops in to tell us what condition our condition is in.

In reality it's become an evening of pomp and circumstance with little in the way of substance. Afterwards a representative of the "Loyal Opposition" gives their take on things followed by hours of punditry by Washington Insiders who explain to us folks on Main Street USA what was really said. That crowd long ago forgot we can think for ourselves.

An evening of Hoo-Hah. Ho-Hum.

So with help from some pretty smart folks including a recent presentation by Greg Anton, a nationally recognized CPA, here are the parts the President left out, at least about the deficit. Mr. Anton has even been invited to the White House for his input on our growing financial mess. He said they were polite but didn't pay much attention.

A bit of a preamble is in order. I'll be using the word "Trillion" a lot here as in dollars. So just how much is a Trillion?

• One Trillion Dollars is $1,000,000,000,000.
• A trillion dollar bills stacked on top of each other would reach 68,000 miles. That's a third of a way to the moon. Ask Gene Cernan, he's been there.
• A trillion seconds is 32,000 (thirty-two thousand) years. That's a long time.

OK, hopefully this helps you understand just how big a number a trillion really is.

When President Obama took office, the National Deficit, at least according to the way the government tracks such things was 11.5 trillion dollars. Now it's about 16.5 trillion dollars. The Republicans make a big deal about this. But a fellow by the name of George Bush helped get us to the 11.5 trillion figure and despite all the blather about Bill Clinton and his "Budget Surplus" he chipped in too. This scam has been going on for decades.

So here we sit with a National Deficit of $16,700,000,000,000. Or so the government tell us. Actually they're fibbing a bit. OK, they're fibbing a lot.

Folks like Greg Anton who understand things like balance and loss sheets put the actual deficit at over SIXTY-SEVEN TRILLION DOLLARS! (All caps for emphasis and assuming you've grasped the earlier bullet points by this time)

You see, the government doesn't do its books like we have to here on Main Street. They get to leave out all sorts of short and long term liabilities and stuff. Like, Social Security and Medicare. Well, they are listed, but as footnotes and in no way reflected as liabilities. So a lot of money is "off the books." If we filed our taxes that way, we'd end up in jail.

Here's where we're really at: (Bullet point alert!!)

• The net worth of all the households here in the United States, houses, cars, lawnmowers and assorted knick knacks etc is around $65 Trillion. 
•  Our real debt, including real obligations as a nation is the aforementioned $67.7 Trillion.

If the United States was a mortgage, we'd be underwater. We owe more than the country is worth. So we are underwater. The amount we owe continues to grow, despite what you heard last night and what you've been hearing for years and years and years. It's growing so fast in fact, that countries like China are having a harder and harder time buying up our debt. There's simply too much of it.

I'll be blunt. Our government, both the Executive and Legislative Branches have been misleading us. An irony because they were elected to ...lead us instead. Democrats and Republicans alike.

If you'd really like to dig into all this, check out a non-partisan group of caring Americans at www.FixTheDebt.org. 

I urge you to spend some time and do your own research. You might also want to read the findings and solutions of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Debt Reform. It's about 65 pages long and as they say, a "Real page-turner." Senator Alan K. Simpson (R-Wyoming) and Erskine Bowles (Former Clinton Chief-of-Staff) chaired the bi-partisan group at the request of President Obama. They did their job, presented the report to the President who then stuck it in a drawer after the photo-op.

The report does offer solutions. But there is little if any sugar to help the medicine go down. It's going to take more than Warren Buffett paying more taxes. With around 50% of the population not paying any Federal Income Tax, most will have to start paying something.

Social Security is secure, although retirement ages will have to be raised in the coming years. There will also have to be means testing. Sorry Warren, no Social Security for you or your secretary. As for Medicare and Medicaid, we have simply over-promised far too long. There just is no way to meet coming demands. Defense will have to be cut. Before you get all lathered up over that, we spend more on defense than any country in the world. According to folks like Al Simpson and Erskine Bowles we spend more on defense than the next 15 nations below us combined. And most of them are allies! Also look for stuff like the tax deduction on mortgage interest to be phased out. As a bit of a sidebar, Canada has never had that deduction or anything like Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac or Snoop Snoop Poopy Dog. Yet they have a higher percentage of home ownership than we do.

To be absolutely clear, we have no choice in the matter. Well, unless we want to end up like Greece with 25% unemployment and rioting in the streets. Sadly, it might take something that drastic to really get our attention.

So, all stuff left out last night.

We can get out of this mess if we act now. As in immediately if not sooner. We have a role in all this. If like me, you belong to an organization like the South Metro Denver Chamber of Commerce, you get to meet our elected representatives to Washington. Ask them, politely, to stop lying and start fixing and if they don't you'll work hard to make sure they lose their jobs.

You can also write, phone, e-mail these folks or best of all, show up to their Town Hall Meetings. Be polite, but firm. Tell them to stop lying and to start doing. Don't, I repeat don't count on many of the media to ask the questions. They're too, uh, obtuse to ask. One journalist I do recommend you read is Al Lewis of Dow Jones Newswires. He's done the math.

We're under water. Let's not let this nation drown. Like the Titanic, we're running out of lifeboats.

Brian Olson
Owner/Consultant
Conversation Starters Public Relations
"We start the conversation about you"

Format Change for SOTU?

"He shall from time to time give to Congress information of the State of the Union and recommend to their Consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient."-Article II, Section 3 of the United States Constitution.

Tomorrow night President Obama delivers the annual State of the Union address, which will be referred to as SOTU moving on. It's the ultimate bully pulpit and used very well by Presidents from both parties over the years. What it really has become is predictable. At this time of a Presidency it's essentially a re-election speech. Again, both parties equally guilty.

After the speech, which is interrupted way too many times by scripted pauses and applause lines, a representative of the "Loyal Opposition" delivers the "Response" from some room, somewhere.

I think we'd all be better served if at the very least, the opposing party delivered its remarks right there in the House, simply taking the podium after the President speaks. Following that, the President would then be offered the opportunity for a rebuttal. Not a debate, but an exchange of thoughts and ideas.

Better yet would be something akin to "Question Time" in the British Parliament. Members of Parliament ask questions directly of the Prime Minister and it can get quite raucous. But it's a great and very entertaining exchange of political thought.

Better yet, why not questions submitted via Twitter and Facebook from, gasp, real citizens?

Who knows, SOTU could end up with better ratings than the Super Bowl. Just a thought.

Brian Olson
Conversation Starters Public Relations
"We start the conversation about you"

Memo to: NPR, Re: 1st Amendment

Memo to: National Public Radio
Att: Vivian Schiller, NPR CEO
From: Brian Olson
Re: 1st Amendment

It's been brought to my attention that you have terminated Mr. Juan Williams for statements made while appearing as a guest analyst on FOX News. NPR CEO Vivian Schiller had this comment which was posted on NPR's own website:

She says, and we quote directly. Williams should have kept his views about Muslims to himself, "his psychiatrist or his publicist."

Ms. Schiller, the issue here is not what Mr. Williams said, but a part of our Constitution which allows him the freedom to do so. As you may not have had time to read it, I'm providing a copy of it for your review. You may want to share this with your legal department as well, and if you'd like, your psychiatrist.

1st Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

Aka, FREE SPEECH.

As a journalist and RTDNA board member I've spoke on behalf of the 1st Amendment to numerous civic groups, members of government and the judiciary including the National Judicial College.

It allows us the freedom to speak our minds. Often times people say things that make our blood boil, but there is no alternative to free speech other than censorship and tyranny, which in this case NPR is guilty of.

Ms. Schiller, you have brought disgrace to NPR, yourself and the very fabric of our nation, our Constitution.

Accordingly you should apologize to Mr. Williams and the nation immediately if not sooner.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Brian Olson
Conversation Starters LLC
"We start the conversation about you"
(Because thankfully, the Constitution gives us the right to.)