Occupy Wall Street

I am the 99%.

I'll confess that I have not been paying a lot of attention to the Occupy Wall Street movement. My limited understanding is that they are trying to draw attention to the vast difference between the 99% of Americans and the 1% of Americans and the strange way that our entire government seems to be oriented to appeasing the 1%. I got the memo, thanks.

My personal pet peeve is corporate CEO's who profit to the tune of millions no matter how they do their job. Destroy the company, grab a golden parachute and leave. Build up the company, collect a golden parachute and a lifelong pension. Do regular workers even get pensions anymore? Rhetorical question. Of course they don't. That would cost the company profits and they need those profits to make the company more profitable...by paying more to the CEO's.

I never liked that circular logic. You have to pay the CEO's ridiculous amounts of money or you won't be able to attract good CEO's. Really? Nobody is interested in running GE for, say, $400,000/year plus benefits? I'm willing to bet they could find someone. Not to mention other countries don't seem to have this problem. CEO paychecks are not nearly as obscene in Europe and Japan and companies in those places are doing fine, even better than American companies in some situations.

Now some of you are probably thinking that we need the heavy hand of government to set things straight. And I can think of some helpful laws to pass. But what really grates me is that companies are run for the benefit of the shareholders. I'm a shareholder. I own stock in a few companies. (ok, a teeny bit). Why is my money being used to overpay a CEO? I want my dividend check.

As a shareholder, shouldn't I have my quasi-democratic right to vote at board meetings? Don't I have representation on the board of directors? Don't I have a right to sue the company if the board and CEO are acting in collusion to deprive the shareholders of value? Again, rhetorical questions. Of course I have those rights but for some strange reason those rights are not being used to promote the interests of the 99% but of the 1% (who own a lot more shares than I do).

So…awkward… it’s been how many months since my last post?



This is pretty much my excuse. I love my kids and since I’m not campaigning, I have a lot more time to spend with them. We also just welcomed our third child into the world. Zander Jacob Chiappelli was born July 23, 2011 at 10:30am.

Major world events and minor Maryland political events keep happening.

We got Osama. Shot him and dropped him in the Ocean. Very cool.

Gaddafi is gone. Shot and dropped into an unmarked grave. Also very cool.

Natural disasters around the world seem to be striking more frequently with more tragic results. Not cool.

All levels of government are suffering from the same problem: not enough money. Neither party wants to raise taxes. Both parties differ on where they want to make cuts. As one state delegate put it, “who exactly do you want to fire?” And the economy is still not healthy so if we start firing state workers and cutting government spending, that’s like pouring gasoline on a raging fire. There are rational answers and reasonable solutions to these problems. But the voters have fired most of the adults and have left the children in charge.

I’m just a private citizen with a blog. I help my clients, pay my taxes and spend time with my family.

Strange days

Major news events are happening so fast that it's hard to keep up. Three stories that matter to me, in no particular order:

Egypt. What happened? The people just decided enough was enough and asked their dictator to leave. And the amazing thing is that he did. I have significant concerns about extremists winning elections in Egypt. But the fact that elections are coming is pretty amazing.

Libya. I wondered why the people of Libya didn't rise up to throw off their crazy dictator earlier. He would not work as a Bond villain because he's too ridiculous. His family is already rich from their years of looting the Libyan economy. Why wouldn't he step down? The tragedy is that civil war has broken out and the rest of the world is too busy/distracted to provide the aid necessary to knock down the dictator once and for all.

Japan. My mind can not get around the tragedy. Historic earthquake. Tsunami. Nuclear disaster. Thousands dead. Debris will be washing up on the Pacific coastline for years to come.

All in all, I'm glad to be in Maryland.

Last World War I Vet Dies

Frank Buckles died at 110. He was the last veteran of World War I and, if I'm not mistaken, this includes all our allies and the Central Powers of Germany, Italy and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

I mention him because history casts a long shadow. This is a man who fought against Kaiser Wilhelm. He was in his 40's when World War II broke out. In his 60's when the United States landed on the moon. Here's a man who could have tweeted or made a facebook posting about life in the trenches. That's pretty cool.

He was also the last World War I veteran that the United States is paying benefits for. That means that not only do we need to account for the billions of dollars that the war in Iraq is costing us now, but we need to account for the billions more in benefits that we will be paying to our veterans for the next 90 years. The policy decisions we make now will impact generations.

The good news is that people are living even longer. That means that we need to be even more aware of the long-term impacts of our policies. Our Iraqi vets may still be kicking around in 2150. And we will still have a responsibility to take care of them.

As the old saying goes, with great powers comes great responsibilities.

Mea Culpa

Hi Citizens.

It's been four months since my last real post. In internet time that's about a decade. I apologize for the delay.

Running for office is an interesting thing. You have to plan two futures: One where you win and one where you lose. They are mutually exlusive. Although I could have taken time off from the dayjob to spend three months in Annapolis, it wouldn't have done me or my family much good. And, as it turns out, there were a lot of things that I simply put off until after the election. I've been very busy in my personal life.

My family was happy to have me back. My children were thrilled that daddy would come home after work. I can eat dinner with my wife and kids. Good times.

I've picked up a few pro bono legal cases dealing with foreclosure defense and custody cases. The people opted not to send me to Annapolis, so I'll help a few individuals instead.

I met so many wonderful groups and people that I'm still trying to sort out where to put my volunteer time.

The budget in Annapolis looks to be another stomach-churner. My sympathies to the General Assembly. There are no easy answers.

Will I run again in the future? Probably. Stay tuned.