Post Scripts

Posted by Tina

There is a cure for poverty and it isn’t massive government programs or wealth transfers. It involves creating an atmosphere that encourages people to create businesses and support the other businessmen of the community…take a look at a great essay and website that speaks about this very simple idea:

The Cure for Poverty, by Herbert E. Meyer

** The atmosphere that entrepreneurs require to survive and flourish is called the free market. The free market is comprised of property rights, the rule of law, a modest level of taxation, competent regulation, and a government that protects its citizens by assuring the countrys defense while doing the everyday things a government is supposed to do, such as building roads and bridges, operating schools, and delivering the mail. *** Because the free-market atmosphere that entrepreneurs require to survive and flourish is political and economic rather than chemical, like the Earths atmosphere theres no one formula that any competent technician can look up in a textbook and then follow. Maintaining this atmosphere monitoring it constantly and making the adjustments needed to sustain it as political and economic conditions change — is as much an art as a science. It takes a combination of technical knowledge, hard work, vision, and that unquantifiable gut feel for what to do and when to do it. **

Posted by Tina

EPA says farm dust open to regulation

** DES MOINES, Iowa Nothing says summer in Iowa like a cloud of dust behind a combine. *** But what may be a fact of life for farmers is a cause for concern to federal regulators, who are refusing to exempt growers from new environmental regulations. *** It’s left some farmers feeling bemused and more than a little frustrated. *** “It’s such a non-commonsense idea that you can keep dust within a property line when the wind blows,” said Sen. Charles Grassley, a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee who still farms in northeast Iowa. *** Under rules imposed in 2006, rural areas would be kept to the same standards as urban areas for what the Environmental Protection Agency calls “coarse particulate matter” in the air. *** The American Farm Bureau Federation and the National Pork Producers Council had petitioned the government to provide an exemption to farmers. They argued that evidence of harm caused by dust in rural areas hasn’t been determined. *** But the U.S. District Court of Appeals in Washington ruled Tuesday that the EPA had already provided the evidence necessary to determine farm dust “likely is not safe.” **

Posted by Tina

Obama’s Creative Stealth Taxation, by Douglas Lang American Thinker

** One of the more creative ways in which Americans are proposed to pay for the government’s lavish spending habits has been revealed by Reuters. The proposed “Spectrum user license fee” on p132 of President Obama’s budget would see cellular phone operators paying an annual levy for using certain bands of radio wavelength; despite operators already spending billions at FCC auctions for access to these frequencies. The fees will start at $50million for 2009, rising progressively to $550million per annum in 2013. *** This license fee will naturally be passed on to the operator’s customers should the budget be passed and in effect creating a stealth taxation of each citizen for their use of radio airwaves – an entity which is organically property of every American citizen. **

Posted by Tina

Update:

** Barack Obama just added double-dealing to his foreign policy repertoire. On Friday, administration officials led many Jewish leaders to believe that the president had decided to boycott the United Nation’s “anti-racism” conference known as Durban II. At the same time, however, human rights organizations were being led to believe that the administration was not pulling out and was looking for a way to “re-engage.” Forbes **

Well it was fun while it lasted…Obama remains the man for all reasons. (original story below)

“U.S. wises up: White House pulls the plug on U.S. participation in shameful Durban hatefest” – New York Daily News

** President Obama is pulling out of Durban II, the United Nations “anti-racism” conference that was hijacked long ago by freedom-hating, anti-Israel, anti-American interests. It’s the right call, even if it was long in coming. *** The infamous first Durban conference in 2001 took every opportunity to label all criticism of Islam a crime and to condemn one country, Israel, over and again. The statements and open anti-Semitism prompted then-Secretary of State Colin Powell to withdraw America’s delegation. *** …senior officials say the U.S. will not participate unless the event magically changes course. The draft agenda was described as “unsalvageable.” *** Indeed it is. The U.S. must lend no more credibility to this looming platform for anti-Semitism. **

Back ground on Durban:
Continue reading “Obama Gets a Big One Right” »

For CCSU student John Wahlberg, a class presentation on campus violence turned into a confrontation with the campus police due to a complaint by the professor.

On October 3, 2008, Wahlberg and two other classmates prepared to give an oral presentation for a Communication 140 class that was required to discuss a relevant issue in the media. Wahlberg and his group chose to discuss school violence due to recent events such as the Virginia Tech shootings that occurred in 2007.

Shortly after his professor, Paula Anderson, filed a complaint with the CCSU Police against her student. During the presentation Wahlberg made the point that if students were permitted to conceal carry guns on campus, the violence could have been stopped earlier in many of these cases. He also touched on the controversial idea of free gun zones on college campuses.

That night at work, Wahlberg received a message stating that the campus police requested his presence. Upon entering the police station, the officers began to list off firearms that were registered under his name, and questioned him about where he kept them.

Continue reading “Professor Called Police After Student Presentation” »

From the LA Times

WARNING: IF YOU HAVE HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE, PERHAPS YOU SHOULD NOT READ THIS.

Carrie Lopez, director of the Department of Consumer Affairs, charged taxpayers to fly from Sacramento, where she works, to Los Angeles, where she lives, to attend a Justin Timberlake concert with her daughter. She listed the trip on her expense report as a meeting with the energy company that paid for the concert tickets. Lopez also billed the state for meals on days she received those meals for free from corporations, according to state records.

Rosario Marin, head of the State and Consumer Services Agency, blamed a miscommunication for her failure to repay $582 the state spent to fly her to Washington in July to speak at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, an appearance for which she received $1,000. She reimbursed the state for the airfare after The Times inquired about the trip last month.

Over the last two years, as California has slashed services and scrambled to pay bills, top administration officials have made free use of government expense accounts with little oversight and, in some cases, no documentation, The Times has found.

Continue reading “Waste Fraud and Abuse California Style! – We do it best!” »

by Dan B

Driving less and conserving gasoline is wishful thinking, and finding a new source of energy for our transportation is science fiction at this time in history. We are stuck with petroleum-based technology for at least the next 100 years. However, there is a source of petroleum right here in the US that would solve our energy needs, get us off dependence upon our enemies in the world market, and not require drilling new oil wells.

In this country, we have known coal reserves that would last for the next 200 years and provide all the petroleum we need. Synthetic oil can be made from coal, and it can be done in a controlled, safe, non-polluting, environmentally sound, manner. We already have the technology and the coal. It is much more efficient than converting corn or cooking grease into ethanol. The only reason it has not been used already is that crude oil has been historically cheap, although that did change in the past couple of years. Now, it has gone down again, but it will go back up.

We can avoid these price changes by going to our coal. Maybe the only thing stopping us are obsolete memories of coal miners with sooty faces and black clouds rising above smoking towers. But the technology has changed all that. Have faith in science, real science, not scary movies.

What he didnt promise was that his tax and regulation policies wont cost you a bundle.

By Tina Grazier

Taxing industry, creating regulation that discourages or restricts product development and distribution, and controlling what is developed and what is not is expensive for those engaged in business. That expense will get passed on to consumers as higher prices. Unfortunately the average citizen will not be aware of how higher prices for goods and services actually came about. They will blame oil companies, cereal makers, power companies and their favorite restaurant owner. Clever boy…deceptively so!

Related articles:

“Energy-state lawmakers vow to fight Obama oil tax hikes,” by Richard Dunham – Houston Chronicle

Continue reading “Clever, Obama Promised Low Taxes for The Little Guy” »

That is the question. It really hasnt been all that long ago when I was reading the McAlvany Intelligence Report how our greed and consumerism was wrecking the economy. We werent saving enough, we were spending too much, we were carrying too much debt. Nobody listened, though. We just kept spending and therefore, we were all guilty. It would be all our fault if the economy collapsed.

Well.it has collapsed and its all because of our free-spending ways. Okay, we got the message, and weve stopped spending. Were starting to save. Skip the dinners outcancel the vacations, rent a movie instead of going TO the movies. Shop for groceries at Walmart, Food Maxx, and Save Mart.or even the ninety nine cent Grocery Mart.

But now, were being told, its our LACK of spending that caused the collapse of the economy. Since consumer spending makes up two thirds of this country economic engine, we shut off the engine. Its all our fault! The only way to get the economy back on track is (here it comes) start spending again. Go back to our free-spending ways, break out the plastic and go for it.

An op-ed piece in the Chico News and Review by Nikki Schlaishunt implies that its time to start spending again, but just make sure you spend it locally. An op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal implied the banks were bleeding, and by saving more, we could help stop the bleeding. So, whats a patriot to do?

In previous downturns, consumers mostly kept spending thanks to easily available credit from banks and credit card companies. So now, the Federal Reserve and Treasury Department are working together on massive programs to get the credit markets, corporate and consumer LENDING back on track. The terminology is UNCLOG the credit markets.

Sounds to me like were being told that its our patriotic duty to go back to our free-spending ways in order to save the country. Yet, it was just a couple of years ago when we were told greedy consumerism was wrecking it. So now, you should be thoroughly confused. I know I am!

Posted by Tina

** Declaring “I have come to speak to you about how the war in Iraq will end,” President Barack Obama on Friday fulfilled the defining promise of his campaign, announcing that all U.S. combat troops will be withdrawn by September 2010.But in the same speech, he revealed that the vast majority of those involved in the pullout will not leave this year. He also said that tens of thousands of U.S. personnel will remain behind afterward. – AP **

Gag me.