Posted on 09/02/2003 12:57:02 PM PDT by Congressman Billybob
"A National Government cannot create good times. It cannot make the rain to fail, the sun to shine, or the crops to grow, but it can, by pursuing a meddlesome policy, attempting to change economic conditions, and frightening the investment of capital, prevent a prosperity and a revival of business which otherwise might have taken place ... The negative virtue of having taken no step to interfere with the coming of prosperity and the comfort of the people is one that ought highly to commend an administration, and the party responsibile for it, as worthy of further continuance in power. - William Howard Taft, 1912
Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.
And so I commend to you, my fellow Americans, Congressman Billybob for the 11th District of North Carolina, a man who dares mighty things.
It could not have been more eloquently said.
Wishing California the best, too. Too many liberals have wrought too much damage to the Golden State.
First you ask about education. I am not for "more government schools." To the contrary, as my website makes clear, and my posts on FR over the years say the same, I favor competitve alternatives to "government schools." I support charter schools, vouchers, home-schooling, etc.
As for federal involvement in education, I remember when President Carter promised to create the Dept. of Education, and did so, stocking it with "edukashun" union types. I smelled trouble then, and it has gotten only marginally better under Republican Presidents. It is way too late to argue that the federal government cannot get invovled in education. All that can be accomplished now is to limit the feds to relatively honest roles such as providing scholarships, and encouraging standard testing to find out how well the schools are doing, and how prepared the teachers are.
Charlie is a timber farmer, and has done a good job of fighting for the industry that he knows best. I know the Endangered Species Act is a menace to many productive industries in many states -- that it is a sword in the hands of environmental lawyers to chop away ordinary citizens' abilities to earn a living. It is a national problem -- part of the general menace of lawyers to American well-being, and THAT subject I've known for decades. For instance, I knew from my friend, Senator Craig of Idaho, when the reintroduction of grey wolves in the West was first proposed. He was absolutely right that farmers and ranchers would be left holding the bag on that. Larry and people like him are natural allies for Western Carolina in restraining the bad effects of that law, if it cannot be repealed altogether. The easiest way to restrain that law is to compel, not ask, the bureaucrats and the courts to consider in the equation the costs to real live humans, as well as to the snail darter, spotted owl, etc., before they enter any judgment or make any decision.
Yes, I know that issue has impacted Western Carolina. The best way to win any issue in Congress is to gather together your natural allies, rather than fight the issue alone on one point only.
On the liberal - conservative spectrum, I am about as conservative as Charlie Taylor. I've laid out my views on hundreds of issues on FreeRepublic over the last five years. My views are not a secret. And they are also well in view on my website -- which contains much more information than all but a handful of websites of all present incumbents in Congress.
I am under no delusions about the political split in the District between Asheville and Cherokee, and the rest of the District. I am not going to change any of my views to pander to any given group of citizens. My views are well-known and in print. But I do expect to peel away some Democrat votes -- some who are simply conservative, like most of the Democrats in various state legislatures I've worked with and for over the last 25 years. And some of the liberal Democrats can be peeled away because they have come to realize that education is an overwhelming issue -- and the unions and national Democrats are on the wrong side of that particular issue.
In the interest of keeping my website manageable rather than becoming a phone book, I cut out dozens of paragraphs on the site that described the contents of my books. All but the last book, to Restore Trust in America, can be found and are described on Amazon and other book sale sites. Restore Trust has its own website, which is www.RestoreTrustinAmerica.com The information on all my books is readily available to anyone who wants it.
As for my Supreme Court cases, I have discussed almost all of them on FreeRepublic over the years. I've written 44 articles (about 500 pages) on Supreme Court cases, here: www.civilrightsunion.org I am honored that two of the people I write for through that organization, the American Civil Rights Union, are Robert Bork and Edwin Meese.
My most recent Supreme Court briefs were in the first Bush case from Florida in 2000, and the McConnell case (campaign finance reform), to be argued in the Supreme Court on 8 September. Both those briefs of mine, written for the American Civil Rights Union, are posted on the website of the US Supreme Court here: www.supremecourtus.gov
Not only was my Bush brief on the winning side, it was the only one to urge the Court to do what it unanimously did in the first Florida case, to "strike" the Florida Supreme Court's decision from the record and "do nothing else." As for my brief against the McCain-Feingold Act, I have stated on FreeRepublic, repeatedly, I am so certain we will beat this law in the Supreme Court that I "will resign my 30-year membership in the Court's Bar" if we fail to defeat that law.
Again, all the information on my positions -- in the constitutional area -- is available on line in public from years, or even decades ago. You are welcome to see as much of it as you care to read (or, in reading legal opinions, it is a matter of how much normal people can tolerate).
Lastly, just before I sat down to reply to your wide-ranging request for information, I heard from my webmaster. Almost a month ago, I set this afternoon on FR as the place and time I'd make my first announcement. I won't trouble you with the Internet difficulties we've had to get that website up and running, all 70+ pages of it. The thing is a small book -- but almost all of it is functional now. The rest will be electronically happy by tomorrow.
I do not want you, or anyone else, to buy into my effort as a pig in a poke. Take your time over a week or more to examine the details I've put on my website. Anything more you need than that, just ask me. The average voter may have a low tolerance for a large volume of detail, but I expect people on FreeRepublic to demand facts, figures, details, history -- and not be satisfied until all that is provided.
I've written a fair-sized article just to reply to your inquiries. I figure others have the same questions but haven't taken the time to ask. Pursue the links. Gather the information. Ask me for more information any time on any subject. Only when you're satisfied that I have my head screwed on straight and have worked long and hard on issues that matter to the people in Western Carolina, then and only then I'd like to have your support.
John / Billybob
If I start makin' some money again, I'll get on your donors list............FRegards
"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again,... but who does actually strive to do the deeds;... and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."
You've never actually seen her in full editor's mode. There is a bucket full of extra commas and unnecessary conjunctives sitting next to the computer, even as we speak. But I am the first to admit that anything I write becomes better and crisper after she's taken a blue pencil to it.
John / Billybob
I haven't read all that many of your works, but I'll get to a bunch more. At this point, I like what I see.
I sincerely apologize.
Contact some friends of yours. Pick someone's house that can accomodate 40 people, give or take. Invite the folks over for hotdogs, hamburgers and sodas (the campaign will cover the cost, though folks should be prepared to chip in for the food). Whether they also support my campaign is an open question to be answered at the end of the meeting.
Let me know when and where to come, and I'll be there, and talk about whatever the folks on hand want to cover. This offer is not just to you, but to anyone in the District. As my website says, I will go to any civic meeting, anywhere in the District, to speak about whatever subjects they choose. I will ALSO go to any home meeting, for the same purpose.
To make efficient use the limited number of days between now and November a year from now, I seek to go to meetings -- civic or home -- with at least 40 people present. I'll state my goal right here, in front of everybody. I want to speak in person, with at least 10,000 people in the 11th District, with every one of them having the opportunity to ask whatever question they want, and to have my answer in plain English and on the spot.
Very few candidates for Congress -- incumbents or challengers -- have ever set a goal like that for their campaigns. But I have. And I'm willing to live or die by the results.
Billybob
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