THANK YOU

THANK YOU. That is all I have left to offer to the many who supported my campaign to challenge a two term incumbent senator for the opportunity to represent the people of Ohio. So many offered help and so many provided it over the last ten months, and believe me it was greatly appreciated. It was a daunting task from the start, but one I felt was necessary and one for which I have no regrets for undertaking.

To all those who offered encouragement at the many meetings, Lincoln Day Dinners, and individual chats, I say thank you. To all those who passed my name and website to others, I say thank you. To those who helped with yard signs and at the polls, I say thank you. And, to those who gave financial support, I say thank you.

My most heart felt appreciation goes to those whose gallant efforts to inform the citizenry of Ohio that a choice did exist in spite of the main stream media’s refusal to acknowledge a contested primary. The blog support and the talent of those who write them were greatly appreciated. I only hope and pray that someday people will realize the contribution they are making to our society and the voids they fill created by the laziness or hidden agenda of the main stream media we used to rely upon for a complete news package.

Jan and I were out of town on Wednesday as we watched our daughter, Mary, present and defend her final studio project prior to her receipt of a Master’s degree in Architecture at Washington University in St. Louis. It was a fast trip there and back again, but it gave us tremendous joy to witness her completion of a dream which began as an 8th grader so many years ago.

I spent the Thursday after the election pouring through the final numbers, reading emails from many people offering their disappointments, and phoning a number of others who had helped so much and left messages of their own. But the hardest part for me was the gut wrenching feeling that nothing is going to change - the status quo will continue, and the Nation we leave for our children and future generations will continue to flounder.

I am determined to find a way to continue to speak out in the name of common sense and entice the populace to take a pro-active interest in government rather than a passive “I give up” approach. We must re-engage our citizenry or risk losing a “government of the people, by the people, and for the people.” Please help me find that way and help me deliver that message – future generations are counting on us.

Again, I thank you and I hope we may stay in touch.

Sincerely,

Bill

Final Thoughts

Ten months ago I began my efforts to challenge a two term incumbent senator for the Republican nomination. Although tiring at times, it has been a complete joy to have traveled the great State of Ohio and meet the diverse people who live here. The geography is as distinct as the people. My only regret is that I did not start out with a digital camera to take pictures of the all the county courthouses and their surroundings I have seen – they are simply magnificent.

You have seen a good deal of writings concerning my philosophy and principles through the emails you have received or the links offered below. When added to my website, blogs, and video, I have attempted to provide the clearest picture possible. I pray that I have succeeded.

I have thoroughly enjoyed meeting so many people across the State and having philosophical discussions concerning the role of government, the GOP, and the legacy we are leaving to future generations of Americans. It has been a great pleasure, and it is why I have made the commitment to continue the process should I receive the nomination and be elected in the November General Election.

Having met nearly all of the Republican County Chairs and many Central/Executive Committees, I have offered my commitment to be in each county – large or small – at least two times a year for my full term in office. One of visits will be a town hall meeting so we can engage the citizenry of Ohio in taking an active roll in government. We must succeed or we will deny the prayer President Lincoln gave at Gettysburg when he said, “that this Nation, under God, shall have a rebirth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall never perish from the earth.”

Should I be given the opportunity to serve you in the Senate, Janet will remain a 4th grade teacher in Lebanon, which means our home will remain in Ohio. We will not relocate to the Washington area. I will be home in Ohio each and every weekend and that makes my continuing contact with you very possible.

I thank you taking the interest in my campaign and I ask for your support tomorrow and in the future. Together we can foster a change and put our Nation back on the correct path to greatness for future generations to enjoy.

Sincerely,



William G. Pierce, P.E.

Another Time of Choosing

Our Founding Fathers were citizen legislators; men and women who considered governing a privilege. They did not come from bastions of Political Science. They did not feel that governing was their right; they considered it a privilege. They came, did their job, and went home. They did not consider government a career, but an act of service. We have a man running for Senate right now who is of that same mold...a teacher, a businessman, a man with a servant’s heart. I am talking about Bill Pierce.

As a lifelong conservative born in the late 1970s, my benchmark for service and patriotism is Ronald Reagan. He called our nation a shining city on a hill, referring to what James Winthrop said almost 400 years ago when the Pilgrims landed. President Reagan believed that so long as we were faithful stewards, that city would remain shining. Bill Pierce was among the first in southwest Ohio to join Reagan’s revolution, heading up the Warren County campaign for The Gipper when he was not the favorite. Bill was right on it then, he is right on it now.

Bill Pierce wants to go to Washington to serve, to lead, not to be led. He wants to get things done, not dither and dawdle while resources crumble, as the incumbent does. He is not about gaining a reputation, but about building the nation. Bill Pierce has worked as an entrepreneur, an engineer, a small businessman, and as an educator. He has been out in the trenches, not in the ivory towers of Washington or corporate America.

Bill Pierce has lived in this state for over 30 years. I, for one, believe that each state is different. This is a man who is an open book, on his past, on his present, on his future. He is right up front in talking about his beliefs, even when they may not be popular with some. He has been frank, and direct when answering questions.

I urge you, as a fellow American, as a teacher, as a pastor, and as a member of the Brown County GOP Central Committee…I ask you to vote for Bill Pierce for US Senate on May 2nd. Reignite the torch of Government by, of and for the people.

God bless you all, and God bless America!

Sincerely,

Mark E. Garbett, Jr.

Review of a Campaign of Principles

With your help, we can replace the liberal ideals, liberal philosophy, and most importantly the liberal votes which Senator DeWine has exhibited over the past eleven years with our shared conservative principles, to:

Protect and Defend the Sanctity of Life. I oppose abortion in all cases with the rare exception of protecting the life of the mother when the decision must be made as to which life will be saved. I also oppose human cloning;

Protect Traditional Marriage. I feel that marriage is a sacred bond between one man and one woman and that states should not be forced to recognize same-sex unions.

Protect and Defend the Constitution. As your Senator, you have my solemn word I will protect and defend the Constitution with special assurances to protect America’s “first freedom” – the 2nd Amendment;

Less taxes and less regulation. Let’s renew the Reagan Revolution and free the spirit of American enterprise. We must make permanent the tax cuts enacted earlier and revise the Tax Code, and stay the hands of unelected federal bureaucrats who hamper small business creation and

Reign in federal spending. Pork, earmarks, uncontrolled growth in entitlement programs, and unnecessary spending will enslave our children into an intolerable level of debt. I will join Senators Coburn, Ensign, and DeMint to form a foursome of former small business owners who understand the need to balance the budget to reverse the fiscal “bad habits” of the past;

Develop a real national energy program. America needs to be energy independent and will require the policy and the political will to make this happen. Developing all our natural resources will be required, including drilling in ANWR;

Work to form a coalition to dismantle the Department of Education. We must eliminate federal mandates and return education to State and local control – it is what the Constitution demands. Thirty years of a Secretary of Education in the President’s Cabinet, a Department of Education, a lot of money, and mandates have failed to reverse the trend of a failing public school system;

Secure border and control illegal immigration. A country that does not protect its borders will soon disappear. Our nation, built upon a foundation of the rule of law, must ensure that all laws are enforced or anarchy will reign – and, that applies to illegal immigrants and the businesses who employ them. Add the real threat of terrorism and there are plenty of reasons to secure our borders;

Address the crisis in the Judiciary. I will work to expose and correct the imbalanced case load versus staffing issues in the judiciary, and ensure that the President’s judicial nominations receive their “day in court” without delay by filibusters, which result in more vacant seats on the bench – justice not served is justice denied; and

Enact tort reform. We must eliminate frivolous lawsuits that benefit nobody other than the lawyers;

Finally - I do not, nor will I ever, subscribe to today’s prevailing attitude that Massachusetts and New York have sole patent rights for out-spoken Senators. I will speak out about the issues listed above and I will not hesitate to challenge my colleagues on the other side of the aisle who work against our “common sense” approach to these critical issues.

The positions listed above are but a few of my central concerns. You may have noticed that Senator Mike DeWine supports the first one, recently began to support the second, and has either voted against one or more of the remaining OR not concerned himself with any of these “big” issues. I can and will do much better, but I need your help on Tuesday, May 2nd.

William G. Pierce, P.E.

Carnival of the Pierce Bloggers 3

Welcome to the third installment of the Carnival of the Pierce Bloggers.

Return of the Conservatives:

DeWine's Public attack of Rumsfeld

BizzyBlog:

Mike DeWine Stabs Rumsfeld in the Back

Pierce-ing Posts 042706

Porkopolis Pre-Election Question of the Day for Mike DeWine

Weapons of Mass Discussion:

The Cynic's Tale

NixGuy:

DeWine Increase Gas $$$

DeWine in Unexpected Re-election Fight

Porkopolis:

Et tu DeWine

DeWine’s Public Attack of Rumsfeld was Wrong!

Senator Mike DeWine (R-OH) was wrong to lash out at Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld over his management of the War on Terrorism in a Washington interview earlier this week. We must learn from the past and that includes learning from our past mistakes, but obviously Senator DeWine missed those history lessons from Vietnam.

In his interview with Salon's Walter Shapiro, DeWine stated that “Rumsfeld has made some very serious mistakes….Very serious mistakes. I think history will judge him very harshly.” He followed that with, “[c]learly not enough troops going in [to Iraq]. That was the biggest mistake. And a lot of mistakes would be covered under that.”

The lessons not learned by DeWine come from the 1962 to 1974 era when politicians in Washington tried micro-managing and second guessing the military. Without a day spent in a military uniform and without membership on the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services, Senator Mike DeWine has become a critic of the nuances of our War on Terrorism. To make matters worse, he felt compelled to make his views public.

Discussion and disagreement is fine, but the participants must choose their venues carefully. For Mike DeWine to disagree with Rumsfeld’s management of the War is all right, but to do so publicly does nothing more than “aid and abet” the enemy – a lesson he should have learned from Vietnam. Our enemies look for that public discord and when they find it within the same Party they become heartened even more.

Senator DeWine could not have expected to achieve any strategic military benefit from his public criticism of Rumsfeld, nor could he have expected any change in the direction of the efforts. However, he likely expected that his attack would distance himself from the Administration in a mistaken attempt to make himself appear more attractive to Ohio voters for the November general election should he pass the primary next week. His actions fall clearly within the classification of pandering. To pander for votes at the expense of our efforts to succeed in our War on Terrorism, to aid and abet our enemies, and to further put our troops in harm’s way is simply shameful of a sitting United States Senator.

William G. Pierce, P.E.

On DeWine's Record of Spending

I am troubled by recent campaign literature in which Senator DeWine stakes his bid for re-nomination on the monies he has brought to the State as it perpetuates the belief that our government has an endless supply of financial resources to be distributed among the populace. It took six years for the national debt to grow from $5 to $6 trillion, two years to increase from $6 to $7 trillion, and only one year to surpass the threshold of $8 trillion.

I encourage you to visit the “Press Release” section of Senator DeWine’s Senatorial website because it shows more than 410 nearly 400 entries (UPDATE: a number of these entries have dropped off since this was originally written - MATT) in the last 50 weeks which boast of the grants flowing into our State from federal coffers. As you look through the listing, ask yourself if it represents the responsibilities our founding fathers envisioned of a central government – and, I think you will agree it does not.

Now consider who is paying this extravagant bill. Mike DeWine is not, and neither are any current taxpayers. The fact is that it has been “charged” to your account, your children’s account, and your children’s children’s account. For the foreseeable future, Americans will be making interest only payments while leaving the principal amount for some future generation to pay.

Today, interest payments on the national debt total more than $26 billion per month, and represent the third largest expenditure in the federal budget – soon to be number two. China owns $448 billion of this debt and its benefit in our economy is growing at an annual rate of more than 15% per year. That means American taxpayers are making interest only payments to the Communist government to the tune of $2.5 to $3 billion per month – and it is growing. Also note that China’s military budget is also growing at a rate of 15% per year.

The legacy we are leaving for future generations is a legacy of extravagance. It will be necessary, and possible, to explain to future generations that the War on Terrorism and Homeland Security required great financial resources. On the other hand, it will be quite difficult to explain to them that the debt burden they carry was created to build two “bridges to nowhere” in Alaska, to assist families in the purchase of digital converter boxes for better TV reception, to keep the price of milk constant, and the myriad of other items which fall under the category of wasteful spending. Congressional spending far removed from the Constitutional requirement of “common Defense and general Welfare of the United States.”

The culture of extravagant spending must cease; and simple, every day business practices of balancing expenses to revenues must become the norm. Businesses and our own personal family budgets require it and government should be no different. But it is not going to happen until “we the people …” demand it to happen, and that is only going to be accomplished when Americans let their voices be heard at the voting booth.

It is for that reason I ask that you support my candidacy to the U.S. Senate. I would welcome the opportunity to join a threesome of first term maverick Senators – Coburn (OK), DeMint (SC), and Ensign (NV) – all of whom are entrepreneurs and small business owners, and have pushed back against the “old guard” with the belief that our Nation’s business must be conducted differently for a prosperous and secure future. They have stopped “pork” from being added to Katrina relief funds, changed Senate rules to highlight “pork” buried in legislation, and have challenged the Senate leadership to end the culture of extravagant spending. My added voice and efforts will certainly energize the much needed change.

William G. Pierce, P.E.

Cleveland Town Hall on Pierce

(Source)

Bill has a great story, and there are a lot of people who are gravitating to his message. He still has a tough battle in the primary, but with incumbant dissatisfaction running at a fever pitch, I’m sure Senator DeWine hears some footsteps in the distance.

Read the whole thing.

The Crisis in the Federal Judiciary

As a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Mike DeWine is aware that no new federal appeal positions have been created since 1990, but there has been a 34% increase in caseload. As caseloads increase the time to read the volumes of briefs becomes scarce and federal judges rely on the law clerks to summarize the documents for them. BUT that simple transfer of power has grave ramifications. The federal court system is relying on the ability of entry level attorneys, to properly comprehend, evaluate, and summarize mountains of citations to case law, codes of legal procedures, and the importance of the material facts of the case. Given the weight of a decision coming out of our federal judiciary, which is a very tall order for any first or second year attorney to fill.

Now add the fact that there are currently 55 vacancies listed on the federal bench and there can be little doubt that our system of justice is suffering. Congress does not understand that point, or simply doesn’t care as long as political mileage can be made over the inherent haggling in the confirmation process.

The culpability of the Congress continues with the budget process:

It appears Congress will approve a 4.7 percent increase over the $4.88 billion appropriation received in FY 2003. Due to fixed mandatory expenses such as judicial salaries and rents paid for federal courthouses, it would require a 7.3 percent increase just to stay even. The Judicial Branch may have to release employees and make other spending cuts as a result. (Link

Please remember that the Judiciary's budget represents about 2 tenths of 1% percent of the overall federal expenditures. The difference between the Judiciary’s requested 7.3% and the expected Congressional approval of 4.7% is approximately $125 million dollars. Now compare the number with the identified “pork barrel” spending of our Congress in the same year:

This year's total reveals that Congress porked out at record levels. The cost of these projects in fiscal 2003 was $22.5 billion. (Link)

Congress does not find the need to fully fund our Judiciary or create the needed judgeships to handle the burgeoning caseload, but certainly can find the moneys necessary to send the pork home in an effort to buy votes. The “pork barrel” funding for FY2003 was more than 187 times the amount Congress denied our Federal Judiciary.

The shortfall represents a loss not for a single government agency BUT one complete branch of government established by our Constitution. A complete branch of government charged with being the guardians of the Constitution because their rulings protect individual rights and liberties guaranteed by that important document. The federal courts are to interpret and apply the law to resolve disputes, but can’t do so properly if the workload must be pushed down to un-appointed and relatively inexperienced law clerks.

Since our legal structure is based upon the logic of the English common law system, a basic feature is the doctrine of precedent under which judges use the legal principles established in earlier cases to decide new cases that have similar facts and raise similar legal issues. If law clerks are summarizing for our appointed federal judges and insert their own bias into the summary, established case law becomes flawed and future rulings are based upon the judgment originated by non-appointed, non-confirmed law clerks. The impact on our daily lives by Federal case law requires that “we the people …” demand a better judiciary.

Congress is demonstrating contempt for our legal system. Not only do they fail to fill vacancies on a timely basis and fail to increase the judgeships to match the increasing caseload, but they fail to provide the necessary funding so Congress can promote their own individual “pet” projects. Justice is not being served, and as a result justice is not being delivered – Mike DeWine knows it, yet fails to speak out.

William G. Pierce, P.E.

Carnival of the Pierce Bloggers 2

BizzyBlog:

Let's Stop Mike DeWine's Election Clock

Quote of the Day: OpinionJournal.com (and Its Relevance to Ohio US Senate GOP Primary Campaign)

That Columbus Dispatch Article on Ohio’s US Senate Challengers

NixGuy:

Warrior or Diploma?

Weapons of Mass Discussion:

Enquirer Shows Up for Senate Race

Transcript: Pierce on Cunningham

Bill Pierce: Its About Service

Porkopolis:

Hugh Hewitt argues that a 50-50 Senate is possible with DeWine as a casualty

4/23 UPDATE:

Porkopolis:

DeWine: Mining for Coal in Ohio O.K.; But don't drill for any oil in ANWR!

Right on the Right:

Bill Pierce Update