Probably a pipe dream but a lot of principals would love to say these words. Not politically correct, of course, so I suspect this never happened.
Merle's comment.
The message:
To the students and faculty of our high school:
I am your new principal, and honored to be so. There is no greater calling than to teach young people.
I would like to advise you of some important changes coming to our school. I am making these changes because I am convinced that most of the ideas that have dominated public education in America have worked against you, against your teachers and against our country.
First, this school will no longer honor race or ethnicity. I could not care less if your racial makeup is black, brown, red, yellow or white. I could not care less if your origins are African, Latin American, Asian or European, or if your ancestors arrived here on the Mayflower or on slave ships. The only identity I care about, the only one this school will recognize, is your individual identity – your character, your scholarship, your humanity. And the only national identity this school will care about is American. This is an American public school, and American public schools were created to make better Americans.
If you wish to affirm an ethnic, racial or religious identity through school, you will have to go elsewhere. We will end all ethnicity-, race- and non-American nationality-based celebrations. They undermine the motto of America, one of its three central values – e pluribus unum, "from many, one." And this school will be guided by America's values.
This includes all after-school clubs. I will not authorize clubs that divide students based on any identities. This includes race, language, religion, sexual orientation or whatever else may become in vogue in a society divided by political correctness.
Your clubs will be based on interests and passions, not blood, ethnic, racial or other physically defined ties. Those clubs just cultivate narcissism -- an unhealthy preoccupation with the self -- while the purpose of education is to get you to think beyond yourself. So we will have clubs that transport you to the wonders and glories of art, music, astronomy, languages you do not already speak, carpentry and more. If the only extracurricular activities you can imagine being interesting in are those based on ethnic, racial or sexual identity, that means that little outside of yourself really interests you.
Second, I am uninterested in whether English is your native language. My only interest in terms of language is that you leave this school speaking and writing English as fluently as possible. The English language has united America's citizens for over 200 years, and it will unite us at this school. It is one of the indispensable reasons this country of immigrants has always come to be one country. And if you leave this school without excellent English language skills, I would be remiss in my duty to ensure that you will be prepared to successfully compete in the American job market. We will learn other languages here -- it is deplorable that most Americans only speak English -- but if you want classes taught in your native language rather than in English, this is not your school.
Third, because I regard learning as a sacred endeavor, everything in this school will reflect learning's elevated status. This means, among other things, that you and your teachers will dress accordingly. Many people in our society dress more formally for Hollywood events than for church or school. These people have their priorities backward. Therefore, there will be a formal dress code at this school.
Fourth, no obscene language will be tolerated anywhere on this school's property -- whether in class, in the hallways or at athletic events. If you can't speak without using the f-word, you can't speak. By obscene language I mean the words banned by the Federal Communications Commission, plus epithets such as "Nigger," even when used by one black student to address another black, or "bitch," even when addressed by a girl to a girlfriend. It is my intent that by the time you leave this school, you will be among the few your age to instinctively distinguish between the elevated and the degraded, the holy and the obscene.
Fifth, we will end all self-esteem programs. In this school, self-esteem will be attained in only one way -- the way people attained it until decided otherwise a generation ago -- by earning it. One immediate consequence is that there will be one valedictorian, not eight.
Sixth, and last, I am reorienting the school toward academics and away from politics and propaganda. No more time will be devoted to scaring you about smoking and caffeine, or terrifying you about sexual harassment or global warming. No more semesters will be devoted to condom wearing and teaching you to regard sexual relations as only or primarily a health issue. There will be no more attempts to convince you that you are a victim because you are not white, or not male, or not heterosexual or not Christian. We will have failed if any one of you graduates this school and does not consider him or herself inordinately lucky -- to be alive and to be an American.
Now, please stand and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of our country. As many of you do not know the words, your teachers will hand them out to you.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
U.S. Now Rated 22 Least Corrupt Nation
According to Reuters, the U.S. has dropped to its lowest rank of corruption of all the nations in the world. Canada, Chile and Barbados were ranked above the U.S. Singapore, Denmark and New Zealand were 3 of the least corrupt nations.
The rating was the worst rank for the U.S. since the rating agency started ranking 15years ago.
No wonder. So so many of our teachers, kids, principals and superintendents condone cheating. In a reprint from ABC News on 2/29,2008, "Cheating Scandal Rock Top-Tier Schools", National survey shows that 2/3 of students admit cheating.
My blog of March, 28, 2010, titled 'Trust is Missing" called attention to what most of you already know.
We cheat and lie and not just kids lie with a straight face. Many men are in prison today or have served time and are now called sex offenders. Why, so many? With very little schooling, usually by a divorced or angry female in a divorce process, the aggrieved can get their kid or kids to lie and eventually the kid believes it.
A recent case, an ex claiming small child abuse in Peoria that gained an amount of notoriety is now under appeal. Many of us are hopeful that truth will prevail.
Remember the big Day Care scandal in New England years ago? Many lives were ruined, at least one served a prison term only because of people like Dorothy Rabinitz of the WJS pressing for the real truth. It was eventually proved all the kids were not only lying, they were schooled to lie. The State Attorney job was to prosecute. He did and is still in public office, never admitting that his prosecutors were wrong.
We have at least one legislator from Peoria who admitted to stealing plus she lied about her opponent. A #150 School Board member lied about her education. Much of the dirty advertising from politicians, mainly the Democrats, tell lies about their opponents some of which did lie publicly.
I have copies of the dirty mailers by Democrat Union Organizer Linda Uphoff and recently very dirty mailers from Democrat Union Organizer Randy Stevens. His Republican opponent sent out fliers telling the voter why he, Jim Fennell should be elected while mentioning nothing about his opponent.
I suspect the Democrat Central Committee designed the ads because Mr. Stevens doesn't have much a history to present. At least he could have talked about what he planned to accomplish on a 12 Democrat board that already includes one union organizer.
Recently, going door to door for an honest candidate, I was confronted by an angry ex-voter who said that I, at my age, must be surely must know better and I was nuts to campaign for any one running for office. He angrily closed the door. He said emphatically that he doesn't vote. I have found that in my years of going door to door a surprising large number of households said they did not vote nor were they interested in voting.
This was the lowest score awarded to the United States in the index's 15-year history and also the first time it had fallen out of the top 20. Easily understandable.
The disclosure of Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme and rows over political funding had cost a lack of faith about prevailing ethics in America.
There's an integrity deficit. It starts at home and is perpetuated by kids peers all the way up to our current president who lies with impunity.
The rating was the worst rank for the U.S. since the rating agency started ranking 15years ago.
No wonder. So so many of our teachers, kids, principals and superintendents condone cheating. In a reprint from ABC News on 2/29,2008, "Cheating Scandal Rock Top-Tier Schools", National survey shows that 2/3 of students admit cheating.
My blog of March, 28, 2010, titled 'Trust is Missing" called attention to what most of you already know.
We cheat and lie and not just kids lie with a straight face. Many men are in prison today or have served time and are now called sex offenders. Why, so many? With very little schooling, usually by a divorced or angry female in a divorce process, the aggrieved can get their kid or kids to lie and eventually the kid believes it.
A recent case, an ex claiming small child abuse in Peoria that gained an amount of notoriety is now under appeal. Many of us are hopeful that truth will prevail.
Remember the big Day Care scandal in New England years ago? Many lives were ruined, at least one served a prison term only because of people like Dorothy Rabinitz of the WJS pressing for the real truth. It was eventually proved all the kids were not only lying, they were schooled to lie. The State Attorney job was to prosecute. He did and is still in public office, never admitting that his prosecutors were wrong.
We have at least one legislator from Peoria who admitted to stealing plus she lied about her opponent. A #150 School Board member lied about her education. Much of the dirty advertising from politicians, mainly the Democrats, tell lies about their opponents some of which did lie publicly.
I have copies of the dirty mailers by Democrat Union Organizer Linda Uphoff and recently very dirty mailers from Democrat Union Organizer Randy Stevens. His Republican opponent sent out fliers telling the voter why he, Jim Fennell should be elected while mentioning nothing about his opponent.
I suspect the Democrat Central Committee designed the ads because Mr. Stevens doesn't have much a history to present. At least he could have talked about what he planned to accomplish on a 12 Democrat board that already includes one union organizer.
Recently, going door to door for an honest candidate, I was confronted by an angry ex-voter who said that I, at my age, must be surely must know better and I was nuts to campaign for any one running for office. He angrily closed the door. He said emphatically that he doesn't vote. I have found that in my years of going door to door a surprising large number of households said they did not vote nor were they interested in voting.
This was the lowest score awarded to the United States in the index's 15-year history and also the first time it had fallen out of the top 20. Easily understandable.
The disclosure of Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme and rows over political funding had cost a lack of faith about prevailing ethics in America.
There's an integrity deficit. It starts at home and is perpetuated by kids peers all the way up to our current president who lies with impunity.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Campaign's Big Spender
"Public-Employees Union Now Leads All Groups in Independent Election Outings", makes the front page of Friday's WSJ. Under "Notable and Quotable" in today's WSJ, Mark McKinnon, writing for the 'Daily Beast', says:
A record $87.5 million has been spent by one union, the AFSCME, to elect Democrats. Paid not by voluntary contributions from its members, but by forced union dues from workers--who are paid by taxpayers...
Contrary to what Obama and the Democrats would have us believe, the Tea Party is largely fueled by small-dollar donations from American citizens in amounts of $200 or less. Beyond being untrue and unproven, the Obama money charges against the Republicans are completely hypocritical. The guy who promised to "change Washington" completely reversed his promise during the campaign to abide by the limits of public financing. The Obama campaign spent almost $1 billion--and $400 million was spent by outside groups on his behalf, most of which did not disclose their donors. Now we discover unions are the largest outside spenders in this election, not the Chamber of Commerce or groups tied to Karl Rove and Ed Gillespie."
The largest union in the Peoria public sector is the AFSCME. When you consider that the Democrats control the Peoria County Board, thanks should go to us few conservatives on the County Board trying to control risks with OPM. With my decision not to run for a fourth term, it becomes very important that Karrie Alms, Paul Rosenbohm and Jim Fennell be elected to join newcomer Mary Ardapple to counter balance the liberal Democrats now running the board.
At least one candidate for the County Board, Randy Stevens, a hard 6 Democrat, has, under instruction by the Democrat Central Committee, run the dirtiest political campaign by mail that I have seen since Democrat Union Organizer Linda Uphoff's dirty campaign against me four years ago. Fortunately, for the community, I won and it will be fortunate for the community when Fennell defeats Stevens, 7 days from now.
A record $87.5 million has been spent by one union, the AFSCME, to elect Democrats. Paid not by voluntary contributions from its members, but by forced union dues from workers--who are paid by taxpayers...
Contrary to what Obama and the Democrats would have us believe, the Tea Party is largely fueled by small-dollar donations from American citizens in amounts of $200 or less. Beyond being untrue and unproven, the Obama money charges against the Republicans are completely hypocritical. The guy who promised to "change Washington" completely reversed his promise during the campaign to abide by the limits of public financing. The Obama campaign spent almost $1 billion--and $400 million was spent by outside groups on his behalf, most of which did not disclose their donors. Now we discover unions are the largest outside spenders in this election, not the Chamber of Commerce or groups tied to Karl Rove and Ed Gillespie."
The largest union in the Peoria public sector is the AFSCME. When you consider that the Democrats control the Peoria County Board, thanks should go to us few conservatives on the County Board trying to control risks with OPM. With my decision not to run for a fourth term, it becomes very important that Karrie Alms, Paul Rosenbohm and Jim Fennell be elected to join newcomer Mary Ardapple to counter balance the liberal Democrats now running the board.
At least one candidate for the County Board, Randy Stevens, a hard 6 Democrat, has, under instruction by the Democrat Central Committee, run the dirtiest political campaign by mail that I have seen since Democrat Union Organizer Linda Uphoff's dirty campaign against me four years ago. Fortunately, for the community, I won and it will be fortunate for the community when Fennell defeats Stevens, 7 days from now.
Wall Street Journal - Best Selling Newspaper
I've been a WSJ subscriber for near 50 years. Today's issue claims this paper to be the No. 1 best selling national newspaper with a circulation of 2,061,142 up from Sept. 2009 through Sept. 2010 by 1.8%.
Both the USA Today and the New Times slipped in circulation with the Time down to 876,638 subscribers which may include those who take the Sunday Edition only.
Lacking a half page political comic strip and adding a sports page are the negatives. Sports new you can find anywhere. Comics allow us to laugh at ourselves (and other).It's still my favorite newspaper for all around world new coverage. It's Opinion Pages are the best and it's columnists are the best in the world. Today's issue had a column by George Soros with a subject I can finally agree with Mr. Soros.
Soros calls for support of California's Proposition 19. Read his article.
I agree and not just in California. Way past time for a national debate.
Both the USA Today and the New Times slipped in circulation with the Time down to 876,638 subscribers which may include those who take the Sunday Edition only.
Lacking a half page political comic strip and adding a sports page are the negatives. Sports new you can find anywhere. Comics allow us to laugh at ourselves (and other).It's still my favorite newspaper for all around world new coverage. It's Opinion Pages are the best and it's columnists are the best in the world. Today's issue had a column by George Soros with a subject I can finally agree with Mr. Soros.
Soros calls for support of California's Proposition 19. Read his article.
I agree and not just in California. Way past time for a national debate.
Monday, October 25, 2010
Peoria's Master Plan
Back in 2002, a prominent bank president told me that the community had a vision and he would vote or support candidates that shared that vision. That vision, or master plan, is nearing full circle. Using the Civic Center as a starting point, then adding GateWay Center the failed Damons, the failed InPlay, the failed RiverStation, failed Tilly's, One Tech Plaza, the new ball park, the RiverPlex, the expanded Civic Center, the expanded zoo, TransPORT, the new schools, new and expanded libraries, with the museum underway, the planned Caterpillar Visitors Center, the movement of the Peoria Park District Headquarters to the soon to be former Lakeview Museum Building, and the renovation of the the old PPD headquarters to a new Childrens Playhouse and the new and expanded Pere Hotel, basically completes the 2002 Vision.
Almost 100% enhancement projects. Major exception; the Visitor Center. Almost all others are tax supported or tax backed with most all tax collecting bodies.
The promised growth and new promised private investment? Some of it may be in place or on its way shortly. It had better come as the vision when completed, in total will have created less than a hundred high paying permanent jobs. And created very little income from taxpaying construction.
This was a vision to make Peoria one of the most desirable places to open and retain businesses and an create an influx of new residents.
Hmmmmm.
Union job availability in the construction industry are currently reported to be less than desirable.
The promise of new taxpayer supported industries like Globe Energy and FireFly did not turn out as projected. The Riverfront Museum, may be still at least $10 million short of projected funding. The hotel, appears to be stalled. If it proceeds, the taxpayer is faced with a costly relocation of Peoria's most famous strip club. If the hotel new building and expansion takes place, more closures similar to the old Jumers/Radisson/Private label; will most likely occur.
Almost all noted above are called community enhancements to keep our young and creative people in town.
Time will tell. I hope I am wrong in my realistic approach to this costly commitment to repay long term borrowed money.
Not to be overlooked is the committed funding of a new $50 million county nursing home. And the postponed sewer system expenditure plus deteriorating water lines. And millions to save the river, stormwater control, erosion control and an ageing infrastructure, etc. And a growing pension funding problem.
And all in a possibly bankrupt state.
Almost 100% enhancement projects. Major exception; the Visitor Center. Almost all others are tax supported or tax backed with most all tax collecting bodies.
The promised growth and new promised private investment? Some of it may be in place or on its way shortly. It had better come as the vision when completed, in total will have created less than a hundred high paying permanent jobs. And created very little income from taxpaying construction.
This was a vision to make Peoria one of the most desirable places to open and retain businesses and an create an influx of new residents.
Hmmmmm.
Union job availability in the construction industry are currently reported to be less than desirable.
The promise of new taxpayer supported industries like Globe Energy and FireFly did not turn out as projected. The Riverfront Museum, may be still at least $10 million short of projected funding. The hotel, appears to be stalled. If it proceeds, the taxpayer is faced with a costly relocation of Peoria's most famous strip club. If the hotel new building and expansion takes place, more closures similar to the old Jumers/Radisson/Private label; will most likely occur.
Almost all noted above are called community enhancements to keep our young and creative people in town.
Time will tell. I hope I am wrong in my realistic approach to this costly commitment to repay long term borrowed money.
Not to be overlooked is the committed funding of a new $50 million county nursing home. And the postponed sewer system expenditure plus deteriorating water lines. And millions to save the river, stormwater control, erosion control and an ageing infrastructure, etc. And a growing pension funding problem.
And all in a possibly bankrupt state.
Real Estate Sales In Peoria
A local realtor told me today that home sales in Peoria are down 44% this year. He showed me a house that sold in the $30,000 range 5 years ago that was recently purchased for $8,000.
More homes are being sold because people can no longer afford to make payments or want to move out of Peoria City.
this is no new news but somewhat contradicts what local prognosticators are saying about home sales in the area. A home close to me was on the market for two years, take off the market for 6 months and is vacant and is now back on the market again.
Another house, a block or so over, has been off and on the market for more than three years.
Home values are still sliding. From all my reading and listening, I believe that the stock market is not a good indicator of recovery. Nor do I believe that we are in a wide spread recovery. Trading on the market has been light for some time which is not a good indicator.
Despite what the optimists are saying, I suggest you look carefully at your property tax bill and see where your money is going. There is a very short window of opportunity to appeal your assessment. The higher property taxes I predicted are upon us with more to come once payments need to be made on all the money borrowed for #150 new school construction. If state and local governments don't raise taxes, they will raise fees.
They already have done so. Expect more.
More homes are being sold because people can no longer afford to make payments or want to move out of Peoria City.
this is no new news but somewhat contradicts what local prognosticators are saying about home sales in the area. A home close to me was on the market for two years, take off the market for 6 months and is vacant and is now back on the market again.
Another house, a block or so over, has been off and on the market for more than three years.
Home values are still sliding. From all my reading and listening, I believe that the stock market is not a good indicator of recovery. Nor do I believe that we are in a wide spread recovery. Trading on the market has been light for some time which is not a good indicator.
Despite what the optimists are saying, I suggest you look carefully at your property tax bill and see where your money is going. There is a very short window of opportunity to appeal your assessment. The higher property taxes I predicted are upon us with more to come once payments need to be made on all the money borrowed for #150 new school construction. If state and local governments don't raise taxes, they will raise fees.
They already have done so. Expect more.
Peoria Losing Another Manufacturer
Behm & Hagemann is relocating from Peoria to East Peoria. Their location will be off Caterpillar Trail near the Burger Barge.
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Democrats - The Lawyers Party
We need the profession but too many in government can make an ordinary, innocent citizens life miserable.
Merle
A LAWYER WITH A BRIEFCASE CAN STEAL MORE THAN A THOUSAND MEN WITH GUNS.
This is very interesting! I never thought about it this way.
The Democratic Party has become the Lawyers Party.
Barack Obama is a lawyer. Michelle Obama is a lawyer.
Hillary Clinton is a lawyer. Bill Clinton is a lawyer.
John Edwards is a lawyer. Elizabeth Edwards is a lawyer.
Every Democrat nominee since 1984 went to law school (although Gore did not graduate).
Every Democrat vice presidential nominee since 1976, except for Lloyd Bentsen, went to law school.
Look at leaders of the Democrat Party in Congress:
Harry Reid is a lawyer. Nancy Pelosi is a lawyer.
The Republican Party is different.
President Bush is a businessman.
Vice President Cheney is a businessman.
The leaders of the Republican Revolution:
Newt Gingrich was a history professor.
Tom Delay was an exterminator. Dick Armey was an economist.
House Minority Leader Boehner was a plastic manufacturer.
The former Senate Majority Leader Bill First is a heart surgeon.
Who was the last Republican president who was a lawyer?
Gerald Ford, who left office 31 years ago and who barely won the Republican nomination as a sitting president, running against Ronald Reagan in 1976.
The Republican Party is made up of real people doing real work, who are often the targets of lawyers.
The Democrat Party is made up of lawyers. Democrats mock and scorn men who create wealth, like Bush and Cheney, or who heal the sick, like First, or who immerse themselves in history, like Gingrich & Hastert.
The Lawyers Party sees these sorts of people, who provide goods and services that people want, as the enemies of America. And, so we have seen the procession of official enemies, in the eyes of the Lawyers Party, grow.
Against whom do Hillary and Obama rail? Pharmaceutical companies, oil companies, hospitals, manufacturers, fast food restaurant chains, large retail businesses, bankers, and anyone producing anything of value in our nation.
This is the natural consequence of viewing everything through the eyes of lawyers. Lawyers solve problems by successfully representing their clients, in this case the American people.
Lawyers seek to have new laws passed, they seek to win lawsuits, they press appellate courts to overturn precedent, and lawyers always pharse language to favor their side.
Confined to the narrow practice of law, that is fine. But it is an awful way to govern a great nation. When politicians as lawyers begin to view some Americans as clients and other Americans as opposing parties, then the role of the legal system in our life becomes all-consuming. Some Americans become adverse parties of our very government. We are not all litigants in some vast social class-action suit. We are citizens of a republic that promises us a great deal of freedom from laws, from courts, and from lawyers.
Today, we are drowning in laws; we are contorted by judicial decisions; we are driven to distraction by omnipresent lawyers in all parts of our once private lives. America has a place for laws and lawyers, but that place is modest and reasonable, not vast and unchecked. When the most important decision for our next president is whom he will appoint to the Supreme Court, the role of lawyers and the law in America is too big.
**
** When House Democrats sue America in order to hamstring our efforts to learn what our enemies are planning to do to us, then the role of litigation in America has become crushing.
We cannot expect the Lawyers Party to provide real change, real reform or real hope in America Most Americans know that a republic in which every major government action must be blessed by nine unelected judges is not what Washington intended in 1789. Most Americans grasp that we cannot fight a war when ACLU lawsuits snap at the heels of our defenders. Most Americans intuit that more lawyers and judges will not restore declining moral values or spark the spirit of enterprise in our economy.
Perhaps Americans will understand that change cannot be brought to our nation by those lawyers who already largely dictate American society and business. Perhaps Americans will see that hope does not come from the mouths of lawyers but from personal dreams nourished by hard work. Perhaps Americans will embrace the truth that more lawyers with more power will only make our problems worse.
The United States has 5% of the worlds population and 66% of the worlds lawyers! Tort (Legal) reform legislation has been introduced in congress several times in the last several years to limit punitive damages in ridiculous lawsuits such as spilling hot coffee on yourself and suing the establishment that sold it to you and also to limit punitive damages in huge medical malpractice lawsuits. This legislation has continually been blocked from even being voted on by the Democrat Party. When you see that 97% of the political contributions from the American Trial Lawyers Association goes to the Democrat Party, then you realize who is responsible for our medical and product costs being so high!
Please -- DO PASS THIS ON!!!
Merle
A LAWYER WITH A BRIEFCASE CAN STEAL MORE THAN A THOUSAND MEN WITH GUNS.
This is very interesting! I never thought about it this way.
The Democratic Party has become the Lawyers Party.
Barack Obama is a lawyer. Michelle Obama is a lawyer.
Hillary Clinton is a lawyer. Bill Clinton is a lawyer.
John Edwards is a lawyer. Elizabeth Edwards is a lawyer.
Every Democrat nominee since 1984 went to law school (although Gore did not graduate).
Every Democrat vice presidential nominee since 1976, except for Lloyd Bentsen, went to law school.
Look at leaders of the Democrat Party in Congress:
Harry Reid is a lawyer. Nancy Pelosi is a lawyer.
The Republican Party is different.
President Bush is a businessman.
Vice President Cheney is a businessman.
The leaders of the Republican Revolution:
Newt Gingrich was a history professor.
Tom Delay was an exterminator. Dick Armey was an economist.
House Minority Leader Boehner was a plastic manufacturer.
The former Senate Majority Leader Bill First is a heart surgeon.
Who was the last Republican president who was a lawyer?
Gerald Ford, who left office 31 years ago and who barely won the Republican nomination as a sitting president, running against Ronald Reagan in 1976.
The Republican Party is made up of real people doing real work, who are often the targets of lawyers.
The Democrat Party is made up of lawyers. Democrats mock and scorn men who create wealth, like Bush and Cheney, or who heal the sick, like First, or who immerse themselves in history, like Gingrich & Hastert.
The Lawyers Party sees these sorts of people, who provide goods and services that people want, as the enemies of America. And, so we have seen the procession of official enemies, in the eyes of the Lawyers Party, grow.
Against whom do Hillary and Obama rail? Pharmaceutical companies, oil companies, hospitals, manufacturers, fast food restaurant chains, large retail businesses, bankers, and anyone producing anything of value in our nation.
This is the natural consequence of viewing everything through the eyes of lawyers. Lawyers solve problems by successfully representing their clients, in this case the American people.
Lawyers seek to have new laws passed, they seek to win lawsuits, they press appellate courts to overturn precedent, and lawyers always pharse language to favor their side.
Confined to the narrow practice of law, that is fine. But it is an awful way to govern a great nation. When politicians as lawyers begin to view some Americans as clients and other Americans as opposing parties, then the role of the legal system in our life becomes all-consuming. Some Americans become adverse parties of our very government. We are not all litigants in some vast social class-action suit. We are citizens of a republic that promises us a great deal of freedom from laws, from courts, and from lawyers.
Today, we are drowning in laws; we are contorted by judicial decisions; we are driven to distraction by omnipresent lawyers in all parts of our once private lives. America has a place for laws and lawyers, but that place is modest and reasonable, not vast and unchecked. When the most important decision for our next president is whom he will appoint to the Supreme Court, the role of lawyers and the law in America is too big.
**
** When House Democrats sue America in order to hamstring our efforts to learn what our enemies are planning to do to us, then the role of litigation in America has become crushing.
We cannot expect the Lawyers Party to provide real change, real reform or real hope in America Most Americans know that a republic in which every major government action must be blessed by nine unelected judges is not what Washington intended in 1789. Most Americans grasp that we cannot fight a war when ACLU lawsuits snap at the heels of our defenders. Most Americans intuit that more lawyers and judges will not restore declining moral values or spark the spirit of enterprise in our economy.
Perhaps Americans will understand that change cannot be brought to our nation by those lawyers who already largely dictate American society and business. Perhaps Americans will see that hope does not come from the mouths of lawyers but from personal dreams nourished by hard work. Perhaps Americans will embrace the truth that more lawyers with more power will only make our problems worse.
The United States has 5% of the worlds population and 66% of the worlds lawyers! Tort (Legal) reform legislation has been introduced in congress several times in the last several years to limit punitive damages in ridiculous lawsuits such as spilling hot coffee on yourself and suing the establishment that sold it to you and also to limit punitive damages in huge medical malpractice lawsuits. This legislation has continually been blocked from even being voted on by the Democrat Party. When you see that 97% of the political contributions from the American Trial Lawyers Association goes to the Democrat Party, then you realize who is responsible for our medical and product costs being so high!
Please -- DO PASS THIS ON!!!
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Peoria Park District to Get More Taxpayer Dollars
TV media reported that the PPD is receiving $350,000 from the state to help pay for costs to remodel the 33,000 sq. ft. soon to be the former Lakeview Museum. The Park District owns the building and have long coveted this property to be their new headquarters.
While the State of Illinois cannot pay their bills, our local representatives to Springfield were able to pass, as a beginner, $350,000 to expand an already bloated bureaucracy. Bloated, yes their budget to be proposed this year is in the mid $40 million range, approximately $14 million in property taxes, yet little is free at the District. Example: a few years ago, you could rent a shelter for $15. I checked about 4 years ago and the price was $50. The new shelter, playground and two basketball half courts on the north end of Peoria Stadium, lack water and toilet facilities.
Fortunately, there are a few trees in the area.
The strongly promised new softball fields, promised to be ready for National Tournaments by 2004, never materialized, the land swap where Bradley regained ownership of the former Meinen Field, now Shea Soccer Stadium; in exchange, the land promised to the taxpayers out on Rt. 91 and Fox Road, this exchange never materialized. Bradley still owns the land and collects government taxes on this "supposed" PPD land swap.
Bradley also is paying on a $2.1 million mortgage they took on this 161 acres plot of farmland paying a near record price of $13,000 an acre.
Check it out. Also, see how much is in the park budget for erosion control of the approximately 9,000 acres of hilly and erosion prone land owned by the PPD.
Fortunately, the taxpayers will not have to fund a $5,000,000 new entrance and parking lot to accommodate the huge number of visitors PROJECTED for the zoo expansion. Not to worry, both will probably happen as the PPD has another $100,000,000 proposed to expand Glen Oak Park over the next few years.
I enjoy parks and use them mainly to play tennis. I don't like false promises and bloated bureaucracies.
While the State of Illinois cannot pay their bills, our local representatives to Springfield were able to pass, as a beginner, $350,000 to expand an already bloated bureaucracy. Bloated, yes their budget to be proposed this year is in the mid $40 million range, approximately $14 million in property taxes, yet little is free at the District. Example: a few years ago, you could rent a shelter for $15. I checked about 4 years ago and the price was $50. The new shelter, playground and two basketball half courts on the north end of Peoria Stadium, lack water and toilet facilities.
Fortunately, there are a few trees in the area.
The strongly promised new softball fields, promised to be ready for National Tournaments by 2004, never materialized, the land swap where Bradley regained ownership of the former Meinen Field, now Shea Soccer Stadium; in exchange, the land promised to the taxpayers out on Rt. 91 and Fox Road, this exchange never materialized. Bradley still owns the land and collects government taxes on this "supposed" PPD land swap.
Bradley also is paying on a $2.1 million mortgage they took on this 161 acres plot of farmland paying a near record price of $13,000 an acre.
Check it out. Also, see how much is in the park budget for erosion control of the approximately 9,000 acres of hilly and erosion prone land owned by the PPD.
Fortunately, the taxpayers will not have to fund a $5,000,000 new entrance and parking lot to accommodate the huge number of visitors PROJECTED for the zoo expansion. Not to worry, both will probably happen as the PPD has another $100,000,000 proposed to expand Glen Oak Park over the next few years.
I enjoy parks and use them mainly to play tennis. I don't like false promises and bloated bureaucracies.
Taxation on Top of Taxes Already Paid Proposed?
Forwarded to me by a friend. Taken largely, except for personal comments, from an editorial in the Standard-Examiner Newspaer, Ogden, Utah.
Merle
Here is one to think about!
Subject: H. R. 4646 Holy Moly!!
Now tell me that our freedoms aren't disappearing like a pizza at a Weight
Watcher's Convention! This is legalized theft, plain and simple. If they
pass this thing behind closed doors in the middle of the night like they did
obamacare, this government will be able to steal our money right out of our
bank accounts and there's not a flippin thing we can do about it! Tuesday,
November 2, can't get here quick enough!!! Please, for the love of God and
this country, vote those thieving SOB's out of there!
------------------------------------------------------------
Latest Major Action: 2/23/2010 Referred to House committee.[see at bottom]
H. R. 4646
I have gone into THOMAS (Library of Congress) and printed out and read
all 15 pages of this bill which has been given the "Short Title" of
"Debt Free America Act." It is the most socialistic thing I have ever
read. Just think, if you deposit $5,000.00 into your checking account
or savings account the bank has to take out 1% or $50.00 of that money
and send it to Washington. Then, any checks or cash you take out of
your bank they will deduct 1% from what is still in the bank and send
it to Washington. Total put in the Bank $5,000.00. $100.00 of that you
give to Washington.
This bill, spells it out that everyone will pay the Government 1% of
their gross income.
Page 9 states the House and Senate shall convene not later than
November 23, 2010 and Page 11 states the vote on passage shall occur
not later than December 23, 2010.
SEND THIS TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW AND EVERYONE NEEDS TO CONTACT THEIR
CONGRESSMAN AND SENATOR AND TELL THEM TO VOTE NO ON THIS BILL.
If you don't know who your Congressman or Senator is, go to Google,
type in "(your state) Congressman email address". When it comes up,
click on "Complete E-mail address for Congress/House, Senate, Governors
and get both e-mail and FAX info.
The bill is HR-4646 introduced by US Rep Peter DeFazio D-Oregon and US
Senator Tom Harkin D-Iowa. It is now in committee and will probably not
be brought out until after the Nov. elections. Suggest that you pass
this along and also to your state senator and representative and US
Congressman and Senators.
One percent transaction tax is proposed
President Obama's finance team is recommending a transaction tax. His
plan is to sneak it in after the November election to keep it under the
radar. This is a 1% tax on all transactions at any financial
institution i. e. Banks, Credit Unions, etc.. Any deposit you make, or
move around within your account, i. e. transfer to, will have a 1% tax
charged. If your pay check or your social Security or whatever is
direct deposit, 1% tax charged. If you hand carry a check in to
deposit, 1% tax charged, If you take cash in to deposit, 1% tax
charged. This is from the man who promised that if you make under
$250,000 per year, you will not see one penny of new tax. Keep your
eyes and ears open, you will be amazed at what you learn.
Some will say, it's just 1%... remember once the tax is there they can
raise it at will.
http://www.standard.net/node/44797
Here is what I found:
H.R.4646
Title: Debt Free America Act
Sponsor: Rep Fattah, Chaka [PA-2] (introduced 2/23/2010)
Cosponsors (None)
Related Bills: S.2965
Latest Major Action: 2/23/2010 Referred to House committee.
Status: Referred to the Committee on Ways and Means, and in addition to
the Committees on the Budget, Rules, and Appropriations, for a period
to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for
consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the
committee concerned.
Merle
Here is one to think about!
Subject: H. R. 4646 Holy Moly!!
Now tell me that our freedoms aren't disappearing like a pizza at a Weight
Watcher's Convention! This is legalized theft, plain and simple. If they
pass this thing behind closed doors in the middle of the night like they did
obamacare, this government will be able to steal our money right out of our
bank accounts and there's not a flippin thing we can do about it! Tuesday,
November 2, can't get here quick enough!!! Please, for the love of God and
this country, vote those thieving SOB's out of there!
------------------------------------------------------------
Latest Major Action: 2/23/2010 Referred to House committee.[see at bottom]
H. R. 4646
I have gone into THOMAS (Library of Congress) and printed out and read
all 15 pages of this bill which has been given the "Short Title" of
"Debt Free America Act." It is the most socialistic thing I have ever
read. Just think, if you deposit $5,000.00 into your checking account
or savings account the bank has to take out 1% or $50.00 of that money
and send it to Washington. Then, any checks or cash you take out of
your bank they will deduct 1% from what is still in the bank and send
it to Washington. Total put in the Bank $5,000.00. $100.00 of that you
give to Washington.
This bill, spells it out that everyone will pay the Government 1% of
their gross income.
Page 9 states the House and Senate shall convene not later than
November 23, 2010 and Page 11 states the vote on passage shall occur
not later than December 23, 2010.
SEND THIS TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW AND EVERYONE NEEDS TO CONTACT THEIR
CONGRESSMAN AND SENATOR AND TELL THEM TO VOTE NO ON THIS BILL.
If you don't know who your Congressman or Senator is, go to Google,
type in "(your state) Congressman email address". When it comes up,
click on "Complete E-mail address for Congress/House, Senate, Governors
and get both e-mail and FAX info.
The bill is HR-4646 introduced by US Rep Peter DeFazio D-Oregon and US
Senator Tom Harkin D-Iowa. It is now in committee and will probably not
be brought out until after the Nov. elections. Suggest that you pass
this along and also to your state senator and representative and US
Congressman and Senators.
One percent transaction tax is proposed
President Obama's finance team is recommending a transaction tax. His
plan is to sneak it in after the November election to keep it under the
radar. This is a 1% tax on all transactions at any financial
institution i. e. Banks, Credit Unions, etc.. Any deposit you make, or
move around within your account, i. e. transfer to, will have a 1% tax
charged. If your pay check or your social Security or whatever is
direct deposit, 1% tax charged. If you hand carry a check in to
deposit, 1% tax charged, If you take cash in to deposit, 1% tax
charged. This is from the man who promised that if you make under
$250,000 per year, you will not see one penny of new tax. Keep your
eyes and ears open, you will be amazed at what you learn.
Some will say, it's just 1%... remember once the tax is there they can
raise it at will.
http://www.standard.net/node/44797
Here is what I found:
H.R.4646
Title: Debt Free America Act
Sponsor: Rep Fattah, Chaka [PA-2] (introduced 2/23/2010)
Cosponsors (None)
Related Bills: S.2965
Latest Major Action: 2/23/2010 Referred to House committee.
Status: Referred to the Committee on Ways and Means, and in addition to
the Committees on the Budget, Rules, and Appropriations, for a period
to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for
consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the
committee concerned.
Is it "Mattering" Now?
No, I didn't check Scopes. I have my own file, approximately 12 inches thick. If I pass on any information not researched, you only need to listen to Obama closely and watch all the LIES BEING TOLD BY DEMOCRATS in their desperate attempts to save this election.
Sickening. Who knows how the couple thousand page ObamaCare bill meanings will be twisted by the thousands of attorneys and accountant firms before much of this bill can be repealed.
Merle
The Fundamental Transformation of America.
When Obama wrote a book and said he was mentored as a youth by Frank, (Frank Marshall Davis) an avowed Communist, people said it didn't matter.
When it was discovered that his grandparents, were strong socialists who sent Obama's mother to a socialist school where she was introduced to Frank Marshall Davis. He was later introduced to young Barrack Hussein Obama. People said it didn't matter.
When people found out that Barrack Hussein Obama was enrolled as a Muslim child in school and his father and stepfather were both Muslims, people said it didn't matter.
When he wrote in another book he authored "I will stand with them (Muslims) should the political winds shift in an ugly direction" people said it didn't matter.
When he admittedly, in his book, said he chose Marxist friends and professors in college-- people said it didn't matter.
When he traveled to Pakistan , after college on an unknown national passport, peopl e said it didn't matter.
When he sought the endorsement of the Marxist Party in 1996 as he ran for the Illinois Senate, people said it didn't matter.
When he sat in a Chicago Church for twenty years and listened to a preacher spew hatred for America and preach black liberation theology, people said it didn't matter.
When an independent Washington organization, that tracks Senate voting records, gave him the distinctive title as the "most liberal senator," people said it didn't matter.
When the Palestinians in Gaza set up a fund raising telethon to raise money for his election campaign, people said it didn't matter.
When his voting record supported gun control, people said it didn't matter.
When he refused to disclose who donated money to his election campaign, as other candidates had done, people said it didn't matter.
When he received endorsements from people like Louis Farrakhan and Mummar Kadaffi and Hugo Chavez, people said it didn't matter.
When it was pointed out that he was a total newcomer and had absolutely no experience at anything except community organizing, people said it didn't matter.
When he chose friends and acquaintances such as Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn who were revolutionary radicals, people said it didn't matter.
When his voting record in the Illinois senate and in the U.S. Senate came into question, people said it didn't matter.
When he refused to wear a flag, lapel pin, and did so only after a public outcry, people said it didn't matter.
When people started treating him as a Messiah and children in schools were taught to sing his praises, people said it didn't matter.
When he stood with his hands over his groin area for the playing of the National Anthem and Pledge of Allegiance, people said it didn't matter.
When he surrounded himself in the White house with advisors who were pro-gun control, pro- abortion, pro-homosexual marriage and wanting to curtail freedom of speech to silence the opposition people said it didn't matter.
When he aired his views on abortion, homosexuality and a host of other issues, people said it didn't matter.
When he said he favors sex education in Kindergarten, including homosexual indoctrination, people said it didn't matter.
When his personal background was either scrubbed or hidden and nothing could be found about him, people said it didn't matter.
When the place of his birth was called into question, and he refused to produce a birth certificate, people said it didn't matter.
When he had an association in Chicago with Tony Rezco--a man of questionable character and who is now in prison and had helped Obama to a sweet deal on the purchase of his home-- people said it didn't matter.
When it became known that George Soros, a multi-billionaire Marxist, spent a ton of money to get him elected, people said it didn't matter.
When he started appointing White House Czars that were radicals, revolutionaries, and even avowed Marxist/Communist,people said it didn't matter.
When he stood before the Nation and told us that his intentions were to "fundamentally transform this Nation" into something else, people said it didn't matter.
When it became known that he had trained ACORN workers in Chicago and served as an attorney for ACORN, people said it didn't matter.
When he appointed cabinet members and several advisors who were tax cheats and socialists, people said it didn't matter.
When he appointed a Science Czar, John Holdren, who believes in forced abortions, mass sterilizations and seizing babies from teen mothers, people said it didn't matter.
When he appointed Cass Sunstein as Regulatory Czar who believes in "Explicit Consent," harvesting human organs without family consent, and allowing animals to be represented in court, while banning all hunting, people said it didn't matter.
When he appointed Kevin Jennings, a homosexual, and organizer of a group called gay, lesbian, straight, education network as Safe School Czar and it became known that he had a history of bad advice to teenagers, people said it didn't matter.
When he appointed Mark Lloyd, as Diversity Czar, who believes in curtailing free speech; taking from one and giving to another to spread the wealth; who supports Hugo Chavez, people said it didn't matter.
When Valerie Jarrett was selected as Obama's Senior White House Advisor and she is an avowed Socialist, people said it didn't matter.
When Anita Dunn, White House Communications Director said Mao Tse Tung was her favorite philosopher-- and the person she turned to most for inspiration, people said it didn't matter.
When he appointed Carol Browner as Global Warming Czar, and her being a well known socialist working on Cap and trade as the nations largest tax, people said it didn't matter.
When he appointed Van Jones, an ex-con and avowed Communist as Green Energy Czar, who since had to resign when this was made known, people said it didn't matter.
When Tom Daschle, Obama's pick for health and human services secretary could not be confirmed, because he was a tax cheat, people said it didn't matter..
When as President of the United States , he bowed to the King of Saudi Arabia, people said it didn't matter.
When he traveled around the world criticizing America and never once talking of her greatness, people said it didn't matter.
When his actions concerning the Middle-East seemed to support the Palestinians over Israel , our long time alli, people said it didn't matter.
When he took American tax dollars ($20.3 millions) to resettle thousands of Palestinians from Gaza to the United States , people said it didn't matter.
When he upset the Europeans by removing plans for a missile defense system against the Russians, people said it didn't matter.
When he played politics in Afghanistan by not sending troops early-on when the Field Commanders said they were necessary to win, people said it didn't matter.
When he started spending us into a debt that was so big we could not pay it off, people said it didn't matter.
When he took a huge spending bill under the guise of stimulus and used it to pay off organizations, unions, and individuals that got him elected, people said it didn't matter.
When he took over insurance companies, car companies, banks, etc., people said it didn't matter.
When he took away student loans from the banks and put it through the government, people said it didn't matter.
When he designed plans to take over the health care system and put it under government control, people said it didn't matter.
When he claimed he was a Christian during the election and tapes were later made public that showed Obama speaking to a Muslim group and 'stating' that he was raised a Muslim; was educated as a Muslim; and that he is still a Muslim-- people said it didn't matter.
When he set into motion a plan to take over the control of all energy in the United States through Cap and Trade, people said it didn't matter.
When he finally completed his transformation of America into a Socialist State , people finally woke up--- but it was too late. Add these up one by one and you get a phenomenal score that points to the fact that Barrack Hussein Obama is determined to turn America into a Marxist-Socialist society.
All of the items in the preceding paragraphs have been put into place. All can be documented very easily. Before you disavow this do an internet search.
The last paragraph alone is not yet cast in stone.
You and I will write that paragraph.
Will it read as above or will it be a more happy ending for most of America ?
If you are an Obama Supporter don't be angry with me because I think Barrack Hussein Obama is a socialist. Far too many facts support he is indeed a Socialist.
If you seek the truth you will be richer for it.
Don't just belittle the opposition.
Search for the truth. Democrats, Republicans, Independents, Constitutionalists, Libertarians all need to pull together or watch the demise of a free democratic society.
Pray for Americans to seek the truth and take action for it will keep us FREE.
Our biggest enemy is not China , Russia , North Korea , and Iran our biggest enemy right now is contingent of politicians in Washington DC .
The government will not help, so we need to do it ourselves.
Question... will you delete this, or pass it on to others who don't know about O'bama's actions and plans for the U S of A, so that they may know how to vote in November, and the ensuing years?
It's your decisi
Sickening. Who knows how the couple thousand page ObamaCare bill meanings will be twisted by the thousands of attorneys and accountant firms before much of this bill can be repealed.
Merle
The Fundamental Transformation of America.
When Obama wrote a book and said he was mentored as a youth by Frank, (Frank Marshall Davis) an avowed Communist, people said it didn't matter.
When it was discovered that his grandparents, were strong socialists who sent Obama's mother to a socialist school where she was introduced to Frank Marshall Davis. He was later introduced to young Barrack Hussein Obama. People said it didn't matter.
When people found out that Barrack Hussein Obama was enrolled as a Muslim child in school and his father and stepfather were both Muslims, people said it didn't matter.
When he wrote in another book he authored "I will stand with them (Muslims) should the political winds shift in an ugly direction" people said it didn't matter.
When he admittedly, in his book, said he chose Marxist friends and professors in college-- people said it didn't matter.
When he traveled to Pakistan , after college on an unknown national passport, peopl e said it didn't matter.
When he sought the endorsement of the Marxist Party in 1996 as he ran for the Illinois Senate, people said it didn't matter.
When he sat in a Chicago Church for twenty years and listened to a preacher spew hatred for America and preach black liberation theology, people said it didn't matter.
When an independent Washington organization, that tracks Senate voting records, gave him the distinctive title as the "most liberal senator," people said it didn't matter.
When the Palestinians in Gaza set up a fund raising telethon to raise money for his election campaign, people said it didn't matter.
When his voting record supported gun control, people said it didn't matter.
When he refused to disclose who donated money to his election campaign, as other candidates had done, people said it didn't matter.
When he received endorsements from people like Louis Farrakhan and Mummar Kadaffi and Hugo Chavez, people said it didn't matter.
When it was pointed out that he was a total newcomer and had absolutely no experience at anything except community organizing, people said it didn't matter.
When he chose friends and acquaintances such as Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn who were revolutionary radicals, people said it didn't matter.
When his voting record in the Illinois senate and in the U.S. Senate came into question, people said it didn't matter.
When he refused to wear a flag, lapel pin, and did so only after a public outcry, people said it didn't matter.
When people started treating him as a Messiah and children in schools were taught to sing his praises, people said it didn't matter.
When he stood with his hands over his groin area for the playing of the National Anthem and Pledge of Allegiance, people said it didn't matter.
When he surrounded himself in the White house with advisors who were pro-gun control, pro- abortion, pro-homosexual marriage and wanting to curtail freedom of speech to silence the opposition people said it didn't matter.
When he aired his views on abortion, homosexuality and a host of other issues, people said it didn't matter.
When he said he favors sex education in Kindergarten, including homosexual indoctrination, people said it didn't matter.
When his personal background was either scrubbed or hidden and nothing could be found about him, people said it didn't matter.
When the place of his birth was called into question, and he refused to produce a birth certificate, people said it didn't matter.
When he had an association in Chicago with Tony Rezco--a man of questionable character and who is now in prison and had helped Obama to a sweet deal on the purchase of his home-- people said it didn't matter.
When it became known that George Soros, a multi-billionaire Marxist, spent a ton of money to get him elected, people said it didn't matter.
When he started appointing White House Czars that were radicals, revolutionaries, and even avowed Marxist/Communist,people said it didn't matter.
When he stood before the Nation and told us that his intentions were to "fundamentally transform this Nation" into something else, people said it didn't matter.
When it became known that he had trained ACORN workers in Chicago and served as an attorney for ACORN, people said it didn't matter.
When he appointed cabinet members and several advisors who were tax cheats and socialists, people said it didn't matter.
When he appointed a Science Czar, John Holdren, who believes in forced abortions, mass sterilizations and seizing babies from teen mothers, people said it didn't matter.
When he appointed Cass Sunstein as Regulatory Czar who believes in "Explicit Consent," harvesting human organs without family consent, and allowing animals to be represented in court, while banning all hunting, people said it didn't matter.
When he appointed Kevin Jennings, a homosexual, and organizer of a group called gay, lesbian, straight, education network as Safe School Czar and it became known that he had a history of bad advice to teenagers, people said it didn't matter.
When he appointed Mark Lloyd, as Diversity Czar, who believes in curtailing free speech; taking from one and giving to another to spread the wealth; who supports Hugo Chavez, people said it didn't matter.
When Valerie Jarrett was selected as Obama's Senior White House Advisor and she is an avowed Socialist, people said it didn't matter.
When Anita Dunn, White House Communications Director said Mao Tse Tung was her favorite philosopher-- and the person she turned to most for inspiration, people said it didn't matter.
When he appointed Carol Browner as Global Warming Czar, and her being a well known socialist working on Cap and trade as the nations largest tax, people said it didn't matter.
When he appointed Van Jones, an ex-con and avowed Communist as Green Energy Czar, who since had to resign when this was made known, people said it didn't matter.
When Tom Daschle, Obama's pick for health and human services secretary could not be confirmed, because he was a tax cheat, people said it didn't matter..
When as President of the United States , he bowed to the King of Saudi Arabia, people said it didn't matter.
When he traveled around the world criticizing America and never once talking of her greatness, people said it didn't matter.
When his actions concerning the Middle-East seemed to support the Palestinians over Israel , our long time alli, people said it didn't matter.
When he took American tax dollars ($20.3 millions) to resettle thousands of Palestinians from Gaza to the United States , people said it didn't matter.
When he upset the Europeans by removing plans for a missile defense system against the Russians, people said it didn't matter.
When he played politics in Afghanistan by not sending troops early-on when the Field Commanders said they were necessary to win, people said it didn't matter.
When he started spending us into a debt that was so big we could not pay it off, people said it didn't matter.
When he took a huge spending bill under the guise of stimulus and used it to pay off organizations, unions, and individuals that got him elected, people said it didn't matter.
When he took over insurance companies, car companies, banks, etc., people said it didn't matter.
When he took away student loans from the banks and put it through the government, people said it didn't matter.
When he designed plans to take over the health care system and put it under government control, people said it didn't matter.
When he claimed he was a Christian during the election and tapes were later made public that showed Obama speaking to a Muslim group and 'stating' that he was raised a Muslim; was educated as a Muslim; and that he is still a Muslim-- people said it didn't matter.
When he set into motion a plan to take over the control of all energy in the United States through Cap and Trade, people said it didn't matter.
When he finally completed his transformation of America into a Socialist State , people finally woke up--- but it was too late. Add these up one by one and you get a phenomenal score that points to the fact that Barrack Hussein Obama is determined to turn America into a Marxist-Socialist society.
All of the items in the preceding paragraphs have been put into place. All can be documented very easily. Before you disavow this do an internet search.
The last paragraph alone is not yet cast in stone.
You and I will write that paragraph.
Will it read as above or will it be a more happy ending for most of America ?
If you are an Obama Supporter don't be angry with me because I think Barrack Hussein Obama is a socialist. Far too many facts support he is indeed a Socialist.
If you seek the truth you will be richer for it.
Don't just belittle the opposition.
Search for the truth. Democrats, Republicans, Independents, Constitutionalists, Libertarians all need to pull together or watch the demise of a free democratic society.
Pray for Americans to seek the truth and take action for it will keep us FREE.
Our biggest enemy is not China , Russia , North Korea , and Iran our biggest enemy right now is contingent of politicians in Washington DC .
The government will not help, so we need to do it ourselves.
Question... will you delete this, or pass it on to others who don't know about O'bama's actions and plans for the U S of A, so that they may know how to vote in November, and the ensuing years?
It's your decisi
Friday, October 22, 2010
More on Juan Williams Firing From NPR
NPR says analyst Williams was fired because his remarks "undermined his credibility" on NPR. Credibility my rear end. He was fired because his opinions did not jibe with the left wing agenda of this taxpayer funded propaganda machine. For years, Cokie Robertson, a relative nobody NPR analyst sat on ABC's Sunday morning talk show expressing moderately left wing opinions. So did Nina Tutenberg, an NPR analyst has long offered left-wing opinions on the show "Inside Washington", not to mention her own reporting.
Fox host Greta Van Susteren, a favorite of mine, blogged about the decision, saying the First Amendment was designed "to protect the unpopular opinion from the tyranny of the majority". I disagree with Greta on this point. I believe that this more sensible majority of the people are throwing political correctness out the window as and telling it like it is as I did when I started this blog site In 2004.
Let it be noted that Mr. Williams said he never was given the opportunity to talk face to face with his NPR bosses before he was fired. But then who in charge of NPR is going to defy billionaire left-winger George Soros?
A lot of Koran believing Muslims across the world and now forming ghettos in the U.S. are a scary lot especially if they believe the words of the Koran. "At the end of the day a traditional Muslim is doing the will of a fanatic, fundamentalist, terrorist God. The problem is not in Muslims. The problem is in their God. He is their biggest enemy. It is 1400 years they have been lied to." Quotes of a former Muslim converted to Christianity. His words echo the persecuted Dutch parliamentarian and writer, Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Geert Wilders, another Dutch parliamentarian now on trial in the Netherland for allegedly spreading hatred toward Muslims.
Recently Random House has turned down books written about the Muslim way of life especially of Muslim treatment of women and the spreading Muslim Shariah law in this country, "for fear of a possible threat from extremists Muslims and the safety and security of Random House employees".
You still can't write about the Muslim peoples 1400 year dead God, Muhammad. but our bleeding liberals can "crucify" Christ or our Christian God, over and over and no one gets fired.
Back on 9/7/07, renowned columnist, Cal Thomas wrote that "between June 2005 and June 2006 nearly 200,000 citizens left Britain for a new life elsewhere. Life in Britain had become unbearable for them. They fear the lawlessness and the threat of more terrorism from a growing Muslim population and the growing refusal of the public schools to teach history and culture of the nation to the next generation. During the same period, at least 574 immigrants came to Britain, not including the large number who broke the law to get there, or the thousands unknown to the British government."
Sound familiar? The bleeding liberals love it for now. time will tell before there will be riots again on the streets of this country. More deadly as availability and ingenuity becomes more prevalent.
Time is not on the side of people who think like black columinst, writer and talk show host, Juan Williams, and others who think and read and analze like I do.
We believe that a small group, small in the beginning, can change the world.
changes we are seeing lately, not to our liking.
Fox host Greta Van Susteren, a favorite of mine, blogged about the decision, saying the First Amendment was designed "to protect the unpopular opinion from the tyranny of the majority". I disagree with Greta on this point. I believe that this more sensible majority of the people are throwing political correctness out the window as and telling it like it is as I did when I started this blog site In 2004.
Let it be noted that Mr. Williams said he never was given the opportunity to talk face to face with his NPR bosses before he was fired. But then who in charge of NPR is going to defy billionaire left-winger George Soros?
A lot of Koran believing Muslims across the world and now forming ghettos in the U.S. are a scary lot especially if they believe the words of the Koran. "At the end of the day a traditional Muslim is doing the will of a fanatic, fundamentalist, terrorist God. The problem is not in Muslims. The problem is in their God. He is their biggest enemy. It is 1400 years they have been lied to." Quotes of a former Muslim converted to Christianity. His words echo the persecuted Dutch parliamentarian and writer, Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Geert Wilders, another Dutch parliamentarian now on trial in the Netherland for allegedly spreading hatred toward Muslims.
Recently Random House has turned down books written about the Muslim way of life especially of Muslim treatment of women and the spreading Muslim Shariah law in this country, "for fear of a possible threat from extremists Muslims and the safety and security of Random House employees".
You still can't write about the Muslim peoples 1400 year dead God, Muhammad. but our bleeding liberals can "crucify" Christ or our Christian God, over and over and no one gets fired.
Back on 9/7/07, renowned columnist, Cal Thomas wrote that "between June 2005 and June 2006 nearly 200,000 citizens left Britain for a new life elsewhere. Life in Britain had become unbearable for them. They fear the lawlessness and the threat of more terrorism from a growing Muslim population and the growing refusal of the public schools to teach history and culture of the nation to the next generation. During the same period, at least 574 immigrants came to Britain, not including the large number who broke the law to get there, or the thousands unknown to the British government."
Sound familiar? The bleeding liberals love it for now. time will tell before there will be riots again on the streets of this country. More deadly as availability and ingenuity becomes more prevalent.
Time is not on the side of people who think like black columinst, writer and talk show host, Juan Williams, and others who think and read and analze like I do.
We believe that a small group, small in the beginning, can change the world.
changes we are seeing lately, not to our liking.
Peoria County Application for Status as a "Low Income Community"?
Sort of flies in the face of what our leaders have been telling us. Maybe we need to have more taxpayer funded enhancements such as the Peoria RiverFront Museum, new public libraries, new HUD projects, new Taj Mahal public schools, $55 million new county nursing home, housing 160 Medicaid clients and 160 union employees, etc., or more grant money for a new Peoria Park District Headquarters.
Back in 2009, PPD's Proctor Center received somewhere between $212,500.00 and $425,000 despite the fact that Proctor Center is gang controlled with light usage and loses somewhere around $300,000 a year according to park records. Part of the money from the state was to be used for a "splash pool" that would close at 5:00 PM. My observation is that the pool never opened this summer.
I am trying to confirm a RUMOR that the PPD has applied for a multi-million grant to refurbish the soon to be old Lakeview Museum as their new headquarters, 33,000 sq. ft. so the unfunded Playhouse can start their $5.25 million refurbishing project of the soon to be former PPD headquarters. The Playhouse was to occupy the Pavilion in 2007.
Just a note. I was merely attempting to call attention to all the MISSED projections in Peoria when some one reminded me the Playhouse was all volunteer and volunteer funding. However, the JS reported on 7/29/09 that the Junior League of Peoria "gets $25,000 for Peoria Playhouse infrastructure from the recently passed Illinois Jobs Now! capital fund plan. But that is just the beginning. Local projects are still competing for $1.3 billion of environmental funding. And its tricky to get firm details on the money or FIGURE OUT WHERE THE FUNDS MAY GO."
Hmmm.
Just to refresh your memory, by 2008 the the PPD was to have moved to the old partially newly refurbished, IDOT building on Knoxville and the Children's Playhouse was to have by now been located in the newly refurbished, $5.25 million worth, former park headquarters now located in the Pavilion.
These projects are sure to lift us out of our "low income" status.
Right?
Back in 2009, PPD's Proctor Center received somewhere between $212,500.00 and $425,000 despite the fact that Proctor Center is gang controlled with light usage and loses somewhere around $300,000 a year according to park records. Part of the money from the state was to be used for a "splash pool" that would close at 5:00 PM. My observation is that the pool never opened this summer.
I am trying to confirm a RUMOR that the PPD has applied for a multi-million grant to refurbish the soon to be old Lakeview Museum as their new headquarters, 33,000 sq. ft. so the unfunded Playhouse can start their $5.25 million refurbishing project of the soon to be former PPD headquarters. The Playhouse was to occupy the Pavilion in 2007.
Just a note. I was merely attempting to call attention to all the MISSED projections in Peoria when some one reminded me the Playhouse was all volunteer and volunteer funding. However, the JS reported on 7/29/09 that the Junior League of Peoria "gets $25,000 for Peoria Playhouse infrastructure from the recently passed Illinois Jobs Now! capital fund plan. But that is just the beginning. Local projects are still competing for $1.3 billion of environmental funding. And its tricky to get firm details on the money or FIGURE OUT WHERE THE FUNDS MAY GO."
Hmmm.
Just to refresh your memory, by 2008 the the PPD was to have moved to the old partially newly refurbished, IDOT building on Knoxville and the Children's Playhouse was to have by now been located in the newly refurbished, $5.25 million worth, former park headquarters now located in the Pavilion.
These projects are sure to lift us out of our "low income" status.
Right?
NPR Fires Juan Williams
Was billionaire socialist bent George Soros behind the firing of one of the best black leaders in this country? Probably so as NPR is socialist leaning in many of their broadcasts.
Who is Juan Williams? He is author of New York Times best selling book, "Enough", a book inspired by the speeches of Bill Cosby. The book is written in the tradition of DuBois and King. In his book he talks about the phony black leaders, way too many of them, this phonies dead end movements, the abandonment of traditional black culture, how they are phony leaders are undermining Black America and what can be done about it.
Williams is also a commentator on Fox radio and not bashful about telling Bill O'Reilly when he sometimes gets a bit off track.
Soros, I mention him only in the same voice as I mention our current president.
Oh yes, in case you forgot, all the terrorists who wantonly destroyed 3000 lives in this country were Muslim. Wllliams was quoted, and rightly so, that he still gets an uneasy feeling when he sees a person in Muslim Garb on the same flight he is booked.
So do I. I attend or observe many public events that pertain to democracy in our country. Plus Tea Party rallies and I have yet to see a Muslim garbed attendee. Not many blacks either. Why not?
Too much phony leadership.
My admiration of/for Juan Williams only increases when I learn NPR fired him.
Who is Juan Williams? He is author of New York Times best selling book, "Enough", a book inspired by the speeches of Bill Cosby. The book is written in the tradition of DuBois and King. In his book he talks about the phony black leaders, way too many of them, this phonies dead end movements, the abandonment of traditional black culture, how they are phony leaders are undermining Black America and what can be done about it.
Williams is also a commentator on Fox radio and not bashful about telling Bill O'Reilly when he sometimes gets a bit off track.
Soros, I mention him only in the same voice as I mention our current president.
Oh yes, in case you forgot, all the terrorists who wantonly destroyed 3000 lives in this country were Muslim. Wllliams was quoted, and rightly so, that he still gets an uneasy feeling when he sees a person in Muslim Garb on the same flight he is booked.
So do I. I attend or observe many public events that pertain to democracy in our country. Plus Tea Party rallies and I have yet to see a Muslim garbed attendee. Not many blacks either. Why not?
Too much phony leadership.
My admiration of/for Juan Williams only increases when I learn NPR fired him.
More ObamaCare Taxes
JAN. 2013 a new 3.8% SALES TAX on REAL ESTATE kicks in.
Example: $400,000 Sale= $15,200. SALES TAX.
ENJOYING THE CHANGE YET?????
Another Obama Nightmare!
Did you know that if you sell your house after 2012 you will pay a 3.8% sales tax on it? That's $3,800 on a $100,000 home etc.
When did this happen? It's in the healthcare bill.
Just thought you should know.
SALES TAX TO GO INTO EFFECT 2013 (Part of HC Bill)
REAL ESTATE SALES TAX
So, this is "change you can believe in"?
Example: $400,000 Sale= $15,200. SALES TAX.
ENJOYING THE CHANGE YET?????
Another Obama Nightmare!
Did you know that if you sell your house after 2012 you will pay a 3.8% sales tax on it? That's $3,800 on a $100,000 home etc.
When did this happen? It's in the healthcare bill.
Just thought you should know.
SALES TAX TO GO INTO EFFECT 2013 (Part of HC Bill)
REAL ESTATE SALES TAX
So, this is "change you can believe in"?
Obama- Time to Start Impeachment Proceedings
I blogged BEFORE he was elected, the man is a threat to the well-being of this democracy.
Merle
Finally, a major newspaper is calling for the impeachment of President Obama! It's about time!
As you read the following Washington Times article, you'll begin to realize, if you don't already, just how important the November mid-term elections are.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
President's socialist takeover must be stopped
By Jeffrey T. Kuhner
The Washington Times
President Obama has engaged in numerous high crimes and misdemeanors. The Democratic majority in Congress is in peril as Americans reject his agenda. Yet more must be done: Mr. Obama should be impeached.
He is slowly - piece by painful piece - erecting a socialist dictatorship. We are not there - yet. But he is putting America on that dangerous path. He is undermining our constitutional system of checks and balances; subverting democratic procedures and the rule of law; presiding over a corrupt, gangster regime; and assaulting the very pillars of traditional capitalism. Like Venezuela 's leftist strongman, Hugo Chavez, Mr. Obama is bent on imposing a revolution from above - one that is polarizing America along racial, political and ideological lines. Mr. Obama is the most divisive president since Richard Nixon. His policies are Balkanizing th e country. It's time for him to go.
He has abused his office and violated his oath to uphold the Constitution. His health care overhaul was rammed through Congress. It was - and remains - opposed by a majority of the people. It could only be passed through bribery and political intimidation. The Louisiana Purchase, the Cornhusker Kickback, the $5 billion Medicaid set-aside for Florida Sen. Bill Nelson - taxpayer money was used as a virtual slush fund to buy swing votes. Moreover, the law is blatantly unconstitutional: The federal government does not have the right to coerce every citizen to purchase a good or service. This is not in the Constitution, and it represents an unprecedented expansion of power.
Yet Obamacare's most pernicious aspect is its federal funding of abortion. Pro-lifers are now compelled to have their tax dollars used to subsidize insurance plans that allow for the murder of unborn children. This is more than state-sanctioned infanticide. It violates the conscience rights of religious citizens. Traditionalists - evangelicals, Catholics, Baptists, Muslims, Orthodox Jews - have been made complicit in an abomination that goes against their deepest religious values. As the law is implemented (as in Pennsylvania ) the consequences of the abortion provisions will become increasingly apparent. The result will be a cultural civil war. Pro-lifers will become deeply alienated from society; among many, a secession of the heart is taking place.
Mr. Obama is waging a frontal assault on property rights. The BP oil spill is a case in point. BP clearly is responsible for the spill and its massive economic and environmental damage to the Gulf. There is a legal process for claims to be adjudicated, but Mr. Obama has behaved more like Mr. Chavez or Russia 's Vladimir Putin: He has bullied BP into setting up a $20 billion compensation fund administered by an Obama appointee. In other words, the assets of a private company are to be raided to serve a political agenda. Billions will be dispensed arbitrarily in compensation to oil-spill victims - much of it to Democratic constituents. This is cronyism and creeping authoritarianism.
Mr. Obama's multicultural socialism seeks to eradicate traditional America . He has created a command-and-control health care system. He has essentially nationalized the big banks, the financial sector, the automakers and the student loan industry. He next wants to pass "cap-and-trade," which would bring industry and manufacturing under the heel of big government. The state is intervening in every aspect of American life - beyond its constitutionally delegated bounds. Under Mr. Obama, the Constitution has become a meaningless scrap of paper.
To provide the shock troops for his socialist takeover, Mr. Obama calls for "comprehensive immigration reform" - granting amnesty to 12 million to 20 million illegal aliens. This would forge a permanent Democratic electoral majority. It would sound the death knell for our national sovereignty. Amnesty rewards lawlessness and criminal behavior; it signifies the surrender of our porous southern border to a massive illegal invasion. It means the death of American nationhood. We will no longer be a country, but the colony of a global socialist empire.
Rather than defending our homeland, Mr. Obama's Justice Department has sued Arizona for its immigration law. He is siding with criminals against his fellow Americans. His actions desecrate his constitutional oath to protect U.S. citizens from enemies foreign and domestic. He is thus encouraging more illegal immigration as Washington refuses to protect our borders. Mr. Obama's decision on this case is treasonous.
As president, he is supposed to respect the rule of law. Instead, his administration has dropped charges of voter intimidation against members of the New Black Panther Party. This was done even though their menacing behavior was caught on tape: men in military garb brandishing clubs and threatening whites at a polling site. A Justice Department lawyer intimately involved in the case, J. Christian Adams, resigned in protest. Mr. Adams says that under Mr. Obama, there is a new policy: Cases involving black defendants and white victims - no matter how much they cry for justice - are not to be prosecuted. This is more than institutionalized racism. It is an abrogation of civil rights laws. The Justice Department's behavior is illegal. It poses a direct threat to the integri ty of our democracy and the sanctity of our electoral process.
Corruption in the administration is rampant. Washington no longer has a government; rather, it has a gangster regime. The Chicago way has become the Washington way. Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel is a political hit man. He is an amoral, ruthless operator. It was Mr. Emanuel who reached out to Rep. Joe Sestak, Pennsylvania Democrat, offering a high-ranking job in the hopes of persuading Mr. Sestak to pull out of the primary against Sen. Arlen Specter. It was Mr. Emanuel who offered another government position to Andrew Romanoff to do the same in the Colorado Democratic Senate primary And it was Mr. Emanuel - as the trial of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich has revealed - who acted as the go-between to try to have Val erie Jarrett parachuted into Mr. Obama's former Senate seat. The only question was: What did Mr. Blagojevich want in exchange?
This is not simply sleazy Chicago machine politics. It is the systematic breaking of the law - bribery, attempt to interfere (and manipulate) elections using taxpayer-funded jobs, influence peddling and abuse of power.
The common misperception on the right is that Mr. Obama is another Jimmy Carter: an incompetent liberal whose presidency is being reduced to rubble under the onslaught of repeated failures. The very opposite, however, is true. He is the most consequential president in our lifetime, transforming America into something our Founding Fathers would find not only unrecognizable, but repugnant. Like all radical revolutionaries, he is consumed by the pursuit of power - attaining it, wielding it and maximizing it. Mr. Obama's fledgling thug state must be stopped.
If Republicans win back Congress in November, they should - and likely will - launch formal investigations into this criminal, scandal-ridden administration. Rep. Darrell Issa, California Republican and ranking member of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, has promised as much. Mr. Obama has betrayed the American people. Impeachment is the only answer.
This usurper must fall.
Jeffrey T. Kuhner is a columnist at The Washington Times and president of the Edmund Burke Institute, a Washington think tank. He is the host of "The Kuhner Show" on WTNT 570-AM (www.talk570.com) from 5 to 7 p.m
--
"There are three kinds of men. The one that learns by reading, The few who learn by observation, the rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves."
[Will Rogers ]
Merle
Finally, a major newspaper is calling for the impeachment of President Obama! It's about time!
As you read the following Washington Times article, you'll begin to realize, if you don't already, just how important the November mid-term elections are.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
President's socialist takeover must be stopped
By Jeffrey T. Kuhner
The Washington Times
President Obama has engaged in numerous high crimes and misdemeanors. The Democratic majority in Congress is in peril as Americans reject his agenda. Yet more must be done: Mr. Obama should be impeached.
He is slowly - piece by painful piece - erecting a socialist dictatorship. We are not there - yet. But he is putting America on that dangerous path. He is undermining our constitutional system of checks and balances; subverting democratic procedures and the rule of law; presiding over a corrupt, gangster regime; and assaulting the very pillars of traditional capitalism. Like Venezuela 's leftist strongman, Hugo Chavez, Mr. Obama is bent on imposing a revolution from above - one that is polarizing America along racial, political and ideological lines. Mr. Obama is the most divisive president since Richard Nixon. His policies are Balkanizing th e country. It's time for him to go.
He has abused his office and violated his oath to uphold the Constitution. His health care overhaul was rammed through Congress. It was - and remains - opposed by a majority of the people. It could only be passed through bribery and political intimidation. The Louisiana Purchase, the Cornhusker Kickback, the $5 billion Medicaid set-aside for Florida Sen. Bill Nelson - taxpayer money was used as a virtual slush fund to buy swing votes. Moreover, the law is blatantly unconstitutional: The federal government does not have the right to coerce every citizen to purchase a good or service. This is not in the Constitution, and it represents an unprecedented expansion of power.
Yet Obamacare's most pernicious aspect is its federal funding of abortion. Pro-lifers are now compelled to have their tax dollars used to subsidize insurance plans that allow for the murder of unborn children. This is more than state-sanctioned infanticide. It violates the conscience rights of religious citizens. Traditionalists - evangelicals, Catholics, Baptists, Muslims, Orthodox Jews - have been made complicit in an abomination that goes against their deepest religious values. As the law is implemented (as in Pennsylvania ) the consequences of the abortion provisions will become increasingly apparent. The result will be a cultural civil war. Pro-lifers will become deeply alienated from society; among many, a secession of the heart is taking place.
Mr. Obama is waging a frontal assault on property rights. The BP oil spill is a case in point. BP clearly is responsible for the spill and its massive economic and environmental damage to the Gulf. There is a legal process for claims to be adjudicated, but Mr. Obama has behaved more like Mr. Chavez or Russia 's Vladimir Putin: He has bullied BP into setting up a $20 billion compensation fund administered by an Obama appointee. In other words, the assets of a private company are to be raided to serve a political agenda. Billions will be dispensed arbitrarily in compensation to oil-spill victims - much of it to Democratic constituents. This is cronyism and creeping authoritarianism.
Mr. Obama's multicultural socialism seeks to eradicate traditional America . He has created a command-and-control health care system. He has essentially nationalized the big banks, the financial sector, the automakers and the student loan industry. He next wants to pass "cap-and-trade," which would bring industry and manufacturing under the heel of big government. The state is intervening in every aspect of American life - beyond its constitutionally delegated bounds. Under Mr. Obama, the Constitution has become a meaningless scrap of paper.
To provide the shock troops for his socialist takeover, Mr. Obama calls for "comprehensive immigration reform" - granting amnesty to 12 million to 20 million illegal aliens. This would forge a permanent Democratic electoral majority. It would sound the death knell for our national sovereignty. Amnesty rewards lawlessness and criminal behavior; it signifies the surrender of our porous southern border to a massive illegal invasion. It means the death of American nationhood. We will no longer be a country, but the colony of a global socialist empire.
Rather than defending our homeland, Mr. Obama's Justice Department has sued Arizona for its immigration law. He is siding with criminals against his fellow Americans. His actions desecrate his constitutional oath to protect U.S. citizens from enemies foreign and domestic. He is thus encouraging more illegal immigration as Washington refuses to protect our borders. Mr. Obama's decision on this case is treasonous.
As president, he is supposed to respect the rule of law. Instead, his administration has dropped charges of voter intimidation against members of the New Black Panther Party. This was done even though their menacing behavior was caught on tape: men in military garb brandishing clubs and threatening whites at a polling site. A Justice Department lawyer intimately involved in the case, J. Christian Adams, resigned in protest. Mr. Adams says that under Mr. Obama, there is a new policy: Cases involving black defendants and white victims - no matter how much they cry for justice - are not to be prosecuted. This is more than institutionalized racism. It is an abrogation of civil rights laws. The Justice Department's behavior is illegal. It poses a direct threat to the integri ty of our democracy and the sanctity of our electoral process.
Corruption in the administration is rampant. Washington no longer has a government; rather, it has a gangster regime. The Chicago way has become the Washington way. Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel is a political hit man. He is an amoral, ruthless operator. It was Mr. Emanuel who reached out to Rep. Joe Sestak, Pennsylvania Democrat, offering a high-ranking job in the hopes of persuading Mr. Sestak to pull out of the primary against Sen. Arlen Specter. It was Mr. Emanuel who offered another government position to Andrew Romanoff to do the same in the Colorado Democratic Senate primary And it was Mr. Emanuel - as the trial of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich has revealed - who acted as the go-between to try to have Val erie Jarrett parachuted into Mr. Obama's former Senate seat. The only question was: What did Mr. Blagojevich want in exchange?
This is not simply sleazy Chicago machine politics. It is the systematic breaking of the law - bribery, attempt to interfere (and manipulate) elections using taxpayer-funded jobs, influence peddling and abuse of power.
The common misperception on the right is that Mr. Obama is another Jimmy Carter: an incompetent liberal whose presidency is being reduced to rubble under the onslaught of repeated failures. The very opposite, however, is true. He is the most consequential president in our lifetime, transforming America into something our Founding Fathers would find not only unrecognizable, but repugnant. Like all radical revolutionaries, he is consumed by the pursuit of power - attaining it, wielding it and maximizing it. Mr. Obama's fledgling thug state must be stopped.
If Republicans win back Congress in November, they should - and likely will - launch formal investigations into this criminal, scandal-ridden administration. Rep. Darrell Issa, California Republican and ranking member of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, has promised as much. Mr. Obama has betrayed the American people. Impeachment is the only answer.
This usurper must fall.
Jeffrey T. Kuhner is a columnist at The Washington Times and president of the Edmund Burke Institute, a Washington think tank. He is the host of "The Kuhner Show" on WTNT 570-AM (www.talk570.com) from 5 to 7 p.m
--
"There are three kinds of men. The one that learns by reading, The few who learn by observation, the rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves."
[Will Rogers ]
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Hillsdale College, Hillsdale, Michigan
They can be reached by writing to them at 33 East College St., ZC 49242. If I had children today, knowing what I know now, having the money, this is the college I would strongly encourage my children to attend.
Hillsdale College mails out a publication called Imprimis claiming 1,800,000 readers monthly. Imprimis has a different writer for each publication and the September issue features Ms. Amity Shales, among her many other achievements, author of the "Forgotten Man - A New History of the Great Depression". (Look her up on the Internet, she is a very talented woman). An audio version of Imprimus is also available online at Hillsdale.edc/imprimis
Ms. Shlaes article in the Imprimis is titled "The Rules of the Game and Economic Recovery", discrediting some of the myths of the depression and recovery of the 30's such as the NRA, a creation of the FDR's Brain Trust. She compares the game of Monopoly, originated during the great depression with its relevance to the 30's Depression and its relevance today.
The NRA deemed consumer choice inefficient and and an inhibitor of recovery and so established "The Code of Fair Competition for the Live Poultry Industry of the Metropolitan Area in and about the City of New York" among many other so-called recovery government controlled programs. Does history repeat itself? Of course, just with a different set of politicians.
In the NRA sponsored trial of a wholesale chicken butcher the government prosecution brought in a Harvard Law School graduate. On the stand was this small man in the poultry trade. After the butcher tried to articulate, in his simple and commonsense way, how the business really works the dialogue went like this:
Prosecution: But do you not claim to be an expert?
Defendant: No
Prosecution: On the competitive practices of the live poultry industry?
Defendant: I would want to get paid if I were an expert.
Prosecution: You are not an expert?
Defendant: I am experienced but not an expert...
Prosecution: You have not studied agricultural economics?
Defendant: No, sir.
Prosecution: Or any sort of economics?
Defendant: No, sir..
Prosecution": What is your education?
Defendant: Very little.
Prosecution: None at all?
Defendant: Very little.
Prosecution: And you would not endeavor to explain economic consequences of competitive practices?
Defendant: In my business I am best economist.
Prosecutor: What is that?
Defendant: In my business, I am the best economizer.
Prosecutor: You are the best economizer?
Defendant: Yes, without figuring.
Prosecutor: I wish to have that word spelled in the minutes, just as he stated it.
Defendant: I do not know how to spell.
"This dialogue matters because little businesses like this butcher are the natural drivers of recovery, and during the Great Depression they weren't allowed to do that driving. They weren't allowed to compete and accumulate wealth-or, in terms of Monopoly, to place a house or a hotel on their property. Instead they were sidelined".
Didn't our BEST AND OUR BRIGHTEST GET US IN THE MESS WE ARE IN NOW?
This case was eventually won by the business but the costs of lawsuits did not go away. Expect them to grow larger under this disaster of a government that now governs us with a hardening iron hand.
Ms. Shales quotes Benjamin Anderson a Chase economist at that time who summed it up in a book about the period: "Preceding Chapters have explained the Great Depression of 1930-39 as due to the efforts of the governments and very especially the government of the United States to play God."
History repeats itself, we have a false "God" again in 2010.
The Detroit News, Thursday, June 24, 2010 writes in an editorial by Nolan Finley, "Hillsdale College Continues to Just Say No. As the federal government continues to grow so much bigger and more powerful, it also becomes harder to avoid." Hillsdale creed is "Pursuing Truth - Defending Liberty". Hard to keep educating students about truth with the federal government offering taxpayer money for same sex dorms, toilets, and showers to liberal colleges, while hiring tenured liberal bent teachers and professors.
And governmental bodies hire their own lobbyists to lobby the federal and state governments for more tax dollars for local governments to spend while at the same time criticising the governments for not paying their bills.
I criticize people who don't vote. But, look at the choices the two Central committees give us to chose from. Why don't more QUALIFIED people run for government positions? They couldn't stand media and opposing party witch hunts. Eventually this means we WILL one day end up as a dictatorship. The era of Stalin, Hitler, the nut from Iran, the nut from N. Korea, Chavez, the Castro's and dozens or other across the globe, will continue to be extended until it hits us.
The medias in those countries seldom challenge events past. If they want to live.
We may be closer than you think but it won't be the guy in office now. He may just be setting the stage and picking the characters like Rahm Emmanuel who wishes to be mayor of the most corrupt city in the U.S.
As to what really ended the Great Depression? World War 2.
Hillsdale College mails out a publication called Imprimis claiming 1,800,000 readers monthly. Imprimis has a different writer for each publication and the September issue features Ms. Amity Shales, among her many other achievements, author of the "Forgotten Man - A New History of the Great Depression". (Look her up on the Internet, she is a very talented woman). An audio version of Imprimus is also available online at Hillsdale.edc/imprimis
Ms. Shlaes article in the Imprimis is titled "The Rules of the Game and Economic Recovery", discrediting some of the myths of the depression and recovery of the 30's such as the NRA, a creation of the FDR's Brain Trust. She compares the game of Monopoly, originated during the great depression with its relevance to the 30's Depression and its relevance today.
The NRA deemed consumer choice inefficient and and an inhibitor of recovery and so established "The Code of Fair Competition for the Live Poultry Industry of the Metropolitan Area in and about the City of New York" among many other so-called recovery government controlled programs. Does history repeat itself? Of course, just with a different set of politicians.
In the NRA sponsored trial of a wholesale chicken butcher the government prosecution brought in a Harvard Law School graduate. On the stand was this small man in the poultry trade. After the butcher tried to articulate, in his simple and commonsense way, how the business really works the dialogue went like this:
Prosecution: But do you not claim to be an expert?
Defendant: No
Prosecution: On the competitive practices of the live poultry industry?
Defendant: I would want to get paid if I were an expert.
Prosecution: You are not an expert?
Defendant: I am experienced but not an expert...
Prosecution: You have not studied agricultural economics?
Defendant: No, sir.
Prosecution: Or any sort of economics?
Defendant: No, sir..
Prosecution": What is your education?
Defendant: Very little.
Prosecution: None at all?
Defendant: Very little.
Prosecution: And you would not endeavor to explain economic consequences of competitive practices?
Defendant: In my business I am best economist.
Prosecutor: What is that?
Defendant: In my business, I am the best economizer.
Prosecutor: You are the best economizer?
Defendant: Yes, without figuring.
Prosecutor: I wish to have that word spelled in the minutes, just as he stated it.
Defendant: I do not know how to spell.
"This dialogue matters because little businesses like this butcher are the natural drivers of recovery, and during the Great Depression they weren't allowed to do that driving. They weren't allowed to compete and accumulate wealth-or, in terms of Monopoly, to place a house or a hotel on their property. Instead they were sidelined".
Didn't our BEST AND OUR BRIGHTEST GET US IN THE MESS WE ARE IN NOW?
This case was eventually won by the business but the costs of lawsuits did not go away. Expect them to grow larger under this disaster of a government that now governs us with a hardening iron hand.
Ms. Shales quotes Benjamin Anderson a Chase economist at that time who summed it up in a book about the period: "Preceding Chapters have explained the Great Depression of 1930-39 as due to the efforts of the governments and very especially the government of the United States to play God."
History repeats itself, we have a false "God" again in 2010.
The Detroit News, Thursday, June 24, 2010 writes in an editorial by Nolan Finley, "Hillsdale College Continues to Just Say No. As the federal government continues to grow so much bigger and more powerful, it also becomes harder to avoid." Hillsdale creed is "Pursuing Truth - Defending Liberty". Hard to keep educating students about truth with the federal government offering taxpayer money for same sex dorms, toilets, and showers to liberal colleges, while hiring tenured liberal bent teachers and professors.
And governmental bodies hire their own lobbyists to lobby the federal and state governments for more tax dollars for local governments to spend while at the same time criticising the governments for not paying their bills.
I criticize people who don't vote. But, look at the choices the two Central committees give us to chose from. Why don't more QUALIFIED people run for government positions? They couldn't stand media and opposing party witch hunts. Eventually this means we WILL one day end up as a dictatorship. The era of Stalin, Hitler, the nut from Iran, the nut from N. Korea, Chavez, the Castro's and dozens or other across the globe, will continue to be extended until it hits us.
The medias in those countries seldom challenge events past. If they want to live.
We may be closer than you think but it won't be the guy in office now. He may just be setting the stage and picking the characters like Rahm Emmanuel who wishes to be mayor of the most corrupt city in the U.S.
As to what really ended the Great Depression? World War 2.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
$51,000,000 Bel-Wood County Nursing Home Borrowing Ordinance
At the August 12 Regular Board Meeting, item #19 read, "An Ordinance from your Finance-Legislative Committee, Committees chaired by Democrats Mayer and Dillon, for the issuance of $51,000,000 debt to cover expenses for the construction of a new Bel-Wood. Dillon moved to approve and Mayer seconded the Ordinance."
After considerable discussion, the vote was called and all Democrats and Republican Baietto voted to approve and Republicans Widmer, Harding, Trumpe, and Elsasser voting no.
Now read my next blog. It appears that the sky is the limit for compassionate spending in Peoria County. And we accept patients from other counties partly funded by Peoria County Property taxpayers.
At least it appears that a few of us have succeeded in at least asking administration to take another look as escalating costs.
Concerned citizens should be speaking and not by just writing a letter to the editor saying that a new $54-5-6-7-8 million dollars would be nice. The questions is, is it a wise expenditure of $51 million, more or less is borrowed money that must be paid back over 20-30 years with interest?
Especially in these turbulent financial and speculative health care taxpayer costs.
After considerable discussion, the vote was called and all Democrats and Republican Baietto voted to approve and Republicans Widmer, Harding, Trumpe, and Elsasser voting no.
Now read my next blog. It appears that the sky is the limit for compassionate spending in Peoria County. And we accept patients from other counties partly funded by Peoria County Property taxpayers.
At least it appears that a few of us have succeeded in at least asking administration to take another look as escalating costs.
Concerned citizens should be speaking and not by just writing a letter to the editor saying that a new $54-5-6-7-8 million dollars would be nice. The questions is, is it a wise expenditure of $51 million, more or less is borrowed money that must be paid back over 20-30 years with interest?
Especially in these turbulent financial and speculative health care taxpayer costs.
Peoria County Administrator's Recommended FY 2011 Budget
The Transmittal (Balanced Budget) Letter to the County Board from our County Administration contains the following paragraph:
"One major issue on the County's short and long term horizon, is the Bel-Wood Nursing Home capital project. Currently, the plans call for a 214-bed facility. While staff have developed a conservative capital plan that affords the county the opportunity to construct a new nursing home without increasing the overall property tax rate, the uncertainty surrounding health care reform and a declining census necessitates a reexamination of the size of the project. County staff will be working with the the project team to present to the County Board in the coming months options regarding the appropriate size of the facility."
If you have been following the JS and my blogs on BelWood, you will have noted that I was the only one on the board who felt we had more than two options: remodel or rebuild. The third option never presented by County Administration was to sell the home and get out of the health care business as Tazewell, Sangamon and Livingston Counties have done. To name three out of the roughly 90 counties in Illinois not in the nursing home business.
Somehow, Medicaid patients in these 90 counties have survived. In 2009, property tax payers subsidized $3,200,000 of Bel-Wood costs or over $18 million starting with 2004.
In 2007, the County had a paid study done to remodel the existing home. The price was $12,500,000. After a consulting company was brought in and RiverCity Contruction was called in to make an estimate, the cost of remodeling rose to $21 million and then $26+ million. RiverCity Construction also gave the County an estimate, and continues to estimate now under contract with the County, to build a new BW housing around 224 patients. As time transpired, the new BW costs rose from $29 million to $54+ million, while the census at BW shrunk from 280 to the current 216-18.
Administration claims to have the possibility of contributing $15 million. This is unusual as of less than a few months ago, the County claimed to have only 3-5 million available with $50 million borrowed money. It is my understanding and belief that some of these millions will be borrowed from another County fund at a lower interest rate.
See my preceding blog. Originally I was the only no vote on spending this amount of money for largely Medicaid patients, but recently i have been joined in the no voting by all Republicans except Baietto.
"One major issue on the County's short and long term horizon, is the Bel-Wood Nursing Home capital project. Currently, the plans call for a 214-bed facility. While staff have developed a conservative capital plan that affords the county the opportunity to construct a new nursing home without increasing the overall property tax rate, the uncertainty surrounding health care reform and a declining census necessitates a reexamination of the size of the project. County staff will be working with the the project team to present to the County Board in the coming months options regarding the appropriate size of the facility."
If you have been following the JS and my blogs on BelWood, you will have noted that I was the only one on the board who felt we had more than two options: remodel or rebuild. The third option never presented by County Administration was to sell the home and get out of the health care business as Tazewell, Sangamon and Livingston Counties have done. To name three out of the roughly 90 counties in Illinois not in the nursing home business.
Somehow, Medicaid patients in these 90 counties have survived. In 2009, property tax payers subsidized $3,200,000 of Bel-Wood costs or over $18 million starting with 2004.
In 2007, the County had a paid study done to remodel the existing home. The price was $12,500,000. After a consulting company was brought in and RiverCity Contruction was called in to make an estimate, the cost of remodeling rose to $21 million and then $26+ million. RiverCity Construction also gave the County an estimate, and continues to estimate now under contract with the County, to build a new BW housing around 224 patients. As time transpired, the new BW costs rose from $29 million to $54+ million, while the census at BW shrunk from 280 to the current 216-18.
Administration claims to have the possibility of contributing $15 million. This is unusual as of less than a few months ago, the County claimed to have only 3-5 million available with $50 million borrowed money. It is my understanding and belief that some of these millions will be borrowed from another County fund at a lower interest rate.
See my preceding blog. Originally I was the only no vote on spending this amount of money for largely Medicaid patients, but recently i have been joined in the no voting by all Republicans except Baietto.
Will Gov Quinn Ride Into Peoria on a White Horse or Sneak in Under the Cover of Darkness??
End of March, 2010, Gov Quinn made a public announcement that he was coming to our fair city to take credit for $5 million of taxpayer money to help fund the underfunded PR Museum. Both Dave Koehler and Dave Leitch had ALREADY publicly taken credit for this $5 million.
My question is, now that it is common knowledge the the State of Illinois is bankrupt, can't pay their bills, will Koehler and Leitch accompany Quinn? Or will it be up to Brady to deliver the $5 million check, better be certified, to this tremendously high priority, it must be, our Chamber is only endorsing candidates that voted for this soon to be boondoggle. (I predict 2 years after it opens unless there is more "creative bookkeeping").
Not to worry, you well-meaning? museum priority folks, our Peoria County Administrator says we can take more money than the $41 million guaranteed to the PRM out of the 1/4 cent sales tax and give it to OTHER needy governmental bodies. They in turn can give it back to the museum to maybe help fund operating costs? Or the underfunded endowment? Yes sir, it is right there in Peoria County's new budget for 2011. See "Finance Legislative Committee - P. 1".
Hey, Quinn, Koehler and Leitch, many of us hope that one of you 3 leading spenders in "broke" Illinois is gone by 2011.
You say you aren't broke? then, State of Illinois, pay your damn bills!
My question is, now that it is common knowledge the the State of Illinois is bankrupt, can't pay their bills, will Koehler and Leitch accompany Quinn? Or will it be up to Brady to deliver the $5 million check, better be certified, to this tremendously high priority, it must be, our Chamber is only endorsing candidates that voted for this soon to be boondoggle. (I predict 2 years after it opens unless there is more "creative bookkeeping").
Not to worry, you well-meaning? museum priority folks, our Peoria County Administrator says we can take more money than the $41 million guaranteed to the PRM out of the 1/4 cent sales tax and give it to OTHER needy governmental bodies. They in turn can give it back to the museum to maybe help fund operating costs? Or the underfunded endowment? Yes sir, it is right there in Peoria County's new budget for 2011. See "Finance Legislative Committee - P. 1".
Hey, Quinn, Koehler and Leitch, many of us hope that one of you 3 leading spenders in "broke" Illinois is gone by 2011.
You say you aren't broke? then, State of Illinois, pay your damn bills!
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Peoria County's New Museum - Times "Are a Changing"
County Administration called a Special Meeting of the County Board on January, 27,2009 for a briefing on why voters should support the 1/4% sales tax to support the new PRM.
Movers and shakers promises flowed. Brad McMillan, Co-Chairman of the Museum Collaboration Group said and I quote, "the seven acre block has been vacant for seven years and is an eyesore. This project is our own stimulus project. It will be built one hundred percent by local laborers and craftsmen and will provide 250 jobs per month. All of the architects and contractors will be local. This is a $136 million project with $90 million on hand, $80 million is available right now to put people to work. Fifty-five percent of the project is privately funded."
You may recall, Mr. McMillan ran for public office at a state level several years ago. He was soundly trounced. We are fortunate that he didn't get elected to Springfield to add to our already substantial financial problems. (A small business friend of mine is currently waiting for $800,000 past due receivables from the state and the County is still waiting for $5 million from the state to complete the underground parking deck, now underway).
A quick refresher - it is now an $145-7 million project. The county will put contracts out to bid which is no guarantee it will built with 100% local labor, selected bidders can hire union or prevailing wage people from anywhere. The major contractor hired to overseer the bidding, is from Chicago. Less than 30 million, includes Caterpillar's $13 million donation to the now estimated $93.4 million museum building and grounds, will be privately funded.
At least $65 million of the PRM building and grounds, will be funded by the taxpayer. Maybe more, if Ransburg can't raise the missing millions from the private sector.
Mike Everett, West-Central Illinois Building Trades, "said the project will employ over 250 LOCAL laborers over 25 months. These construction dollars will be spent locally. We are talking about a world class facility."
Russ Crawford, President of the Heartland Water Resources Council, said, "that since this is a sales tax ( the tax collected will amount to $72+ million minus $16 million in interest, etc.), the support would be regional. (We knew they would get that "regional museum' in the language somehow).
Movers and shakers promises flowed. Brad McMillan, Co-Chairman of the Museum Collaboration Group said and I quote, "the seven acre block has been vacant for seven years and is an eyesore. This project is our own stimulus project. It will be built one hundred percent by local laborers and craftsmen and will provide 250 jobs per month. All of the architects and contractors will be local. This is a $136 million project with $90 million on hand, $80 million is available right now to put people to work. Fifty-five percent of the project is privately funded."
You may recall, Mr. McMillan ran for public office at a state level several years ago. He was soundly trounced. We are fortunate that he didn't get elected to Springfield to add to our already substantial financial problems. (A small business friend of mine is currently waiting for $800,000 past due receivables from the state and the County is still waiting for $5 million from the state to complete the underground parking deck, now underway).
A quick refresher - it is now an $145-7 million project. The county will put contracts out to bid which is no guarantee it will built with 100% local labor, selected bidders can hire union or prevailing wage people from anywhere. The major contractor hired to overseer the bidding, is from Chicago. Less than 30 million, includes Caterpillar's $13 million donation to the now estimated $93.4 million museum building and grounds, will be privately funded.
At least $65 million of the PRM building and grounds, will be funded by the taxpayer. Maybe more, if Ransburg can't raise the missing millions from the private sector.
Mike Everett, West-Central Illinois Building Trades, "said the project will employ over 250 LOCAL laborers over 25 months. These construction dollars will be spent locally. We are talking about a world class facility."
Russ Crawford, President of the Heartland Water Resources Council, said, "that since this is a sales tax ( the tax collected will amount to $72+ million minus $16 million in interest, etc.), the support would be regional. (We knew they would get that "regional museum' in the language somehow).
Monday, October 18, 2010
Proposed Constitutional Amendment
Governors of 35 states have already filed suit against the
Federal Government for imposing unlawful burdens upon them. It only takes 38
(of the 50) States to convene a Constitutional Convention.
This will take less than thirty seconds to read. If you
Any reason not to agree?
Merle
agree, please pass it on.
An idea whose time has come
For too long we have been too complacent about the workings
of Congress. Many citizens had no idea that members of Congress could retire
with the same pay after only one term, that they didn't pay into Social
Security, that they specifically exempted themselves from many of the laws
they have passed (such as being exempt from any fear of prosecution for
sexual harassment) while ordinary citizens must live under those laws. The
latest is to exempt themselves from the Healthcare Reform that was
passed...in all of its forms.
Somehow, that doesn't seem logical. We do not have an elite
that is above the law. I truly don't care if they are Democrat, Republican,
Independent or whatever. The self-serving must stop.
This is a good way to do that. It is an idea whose time has
come. Have each person contact a minimum of twenty people on their Address
list; in turn ask each of those to do likewise. In three days, most people
in The United States of America will have the message. This is one proposal
that really should be passed around.
Proposed 28th Amendment to the United States Constitution:
"Congress shall make no law that applies to the citizens of the United
States that does not apply equally to the Senators and/or Representatives;
and, Congress shall make no law that applies to the Senators and/or
Representatives that does not apply equally to the citizens of the United
States ."
You are one of my 20.
________________________________
Federal Government for imposing unlawful burdens upon them. It only takes 38
(of the 50) States to convene a Constitutional Convention.
This will take less than thirty seconds to read. If you
Any reason not to agree?
Merle
agree, please pass it on.
An idea whose time has come
For too long we have been too complacent about the workings
of Congress. Many citizens had no idea that members of Congress could retire
with the same pay after only one term, that they didn't pay into Social
Security, that they specifically exempted themselves from many of the laws
they have passed (such as being exempt from any fear of prosecution for
sexual harassment) while ordinary citizens must live under those laws. The
latest is to exempt themselves from the Healthcare Reform that was
passed...in all of its forms.
Somehow, that doesn't seem logical. We do not have an elite
that is above the law. I truly don't care if they are Democrat, Republican,
Independent or whatever. The self-serving must stop.
This is a good way to do that. It is an idea whose time has
come. Have each person contact a minimum of twenty people on their Address
list; in turn ask each of those to do likewise. In three days, most people
in The United States of America will have the message. This is one proposal
that really should be passed around.
Proposed 28th Amendment to the United States Constitution:
"Congress shall make no law that applies to the citizens of the United
States that does not apply equally to the Senators and/or Representatives;
and, Congress shall make no law that applies to the Senators and/or
Representatives that does not apply equally to the citizens of the United
States ."
You are one of my 20.
________________________________
European Tax Rates
Someone have different figures or reasons why European taxes are so high?
Merle
-----Forwarded Message-----
From: Subject: Fwd: Fwd: Fwd: Current European tax rates-
United Kingdom Income Tax: 50%
VAT: 17.5% TOTAL: 67.5%
France
Income Tax: 40%
VAT: 19.6% TOTAL: 59.6%
Greece
Income Tax: 40%
VAT: 25% TOTAL: 65%
Spain
Income Tax: 45%
VAT: 16% TOTAL: 61%
Portugal
Income Tax: 42%
VAT: 20% TOTAL: 62%
Sweden
Income Tax: 55%
VAT: 25% TOTAL: 80%
Norway
Income Tax: 54.3%
VAT: 25% TOTAL: 79.3%
Netherlands
Income Tax: 52%
VAT: 19% TOTAL: 71%
Denmark
Income Tax: 58%
VAT: 25% TOTAL: 83%
Finland
Income Tax: 53%
VAT: 22% TOTAL: 75%
If you’ve started to wonder what the real costs of socialism are going to be - once the full program in these United States hits your wallet, take a look at the table above.
As you digest these mind-boggling figures, keep in mind that in spite of these astronomical tax rates, these countries are still not financing their social welfare programs exclusively from tax revenues! They are deeply mired in public debt of gargantuan proportions. Greece has reached the point where its debt is so huge it is in imminent danger of defaulting. That is the reason the European economic community has intervened to bail them out. If you’re following the financial news, you know Spain and Portugal are right behind Greece.
The United States is now heading right down the same path. The VAT tax in the table is the national sales tax that Europeans pay. Stay tuned because that is exactly what you can expect to see the administration proposing after the fall elections. The initial percentage in the United States isn’t going to be anywhere near the outrageous numbers you now see in Europe.
Guess what… the current outrageous numbers in Europe didn’t start out as outrageous either. They started out as miniscule - right around the 1% or 2% where they will start out in the United States. Magically, however, they ran up over the years to where they are now. Expect the same thing here.
It is the very notion that with hard work and perseverance, anybody can get ahead economically here in the USA.
Do you think that can ever happen with tax rates between 60% and 80%? Think again. With the government taking that percentage of your money, your life will be exactly like life in Europe . You will never be able to buy a home. You will never buy a car. You will never send your children to college.
Let’s not shuffle the battle cry of the socialists under the rug either. It’s always the same cry. Equalize income. Spread the wealth to the poor (whoever they are). Level the economic playing field. Accomplish that and everything will be rosy.
It’s time to take a really hard look at reality. Greece is a perfect example. Despite the socialism system that has ruled this country for decades, with a 65% tax rate, they are drowning in public debt, would have defaulted without hundreds of billions in bailout money from the EU, and still. . . 20% of their population lives in poverty. What has all that socialism money bought, besides ultimate power for the politicians running the show?
Do you think these people are "free"? They're not. They are slaves to their economic "system."
Instead of spreading the wealth around, spread this info around. It might wake up some people.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Merle
-----Forwarded Message-----
From: Subject: Fwd: Fwd: Fwd: Current European tax rates-
United Kingdom Income Tax: 50%
VAT: 17.5% TOTAL: 67.5%
France
Income Tax: 40%
VAT: 19.6% TOTAL: 59.6%
Greece
Income Tax: 40%
VAT: 25% TOTAL: 65%
Spain
Income Tax: 45%
VAT: 16% TOTAL: 61%
Portugal
Income Tax: 42%
VAT: 20% TOTAL: 62%
Sweden
Income Tax: 55%
VAT: 25% TOTAL: 80%
Norway
Income Tax: 54.3%
VAT: 25% TOTAL: 79.3%
Netherlands
Income Tax: 52%
VAT: 19% TOTAL: 71%
Denmark
Income Tax: 58%
VAT: 25% TOTAL: 83%
Finland
Income Tax: 53%
VAT: 22% TOTAL: 75%
If you’ve started to wonder what the real costs of socialism are going to be - once the full program in these United States hits your wallet, take a look at the table above.
As you digest these mind-boggling figures, keep in mind that in spite of these astronomical tax rates, these countries are still not financing their social welfare programs exclusively from tax revenues! They are deeply mired in public debt of gargantuan proportions. Greece has reached the point where its debt is so huge it is in imminent danger of defaulting. That is the reason the European economic community has intervened to bail them out. If you’re following the financial news, you know Spain and Portugal are right behind Greece.
The United States is now heading right down the same path. The VAT tax in the table is the national sales tax that Europeans pay. Stay tuned because that is exactly what you can expect to see the administration proposing after the fall elections. The initial percentage in the United States isn’t going to be anywhere near the outrageous numbers you now see in Europe.
Guess what… the current outrageous numbers in Europe didn’t start out as outrageous either. They started out as miniscule - right around the 1% or 2% where they will start out in the United States. Magically, however, they ran up over the years to where they are now. Expect the same thing here.
It is the very notion that with hard work and perseverance, anybody can get ahead economically here in the USA.
Do you think that can ever happen with tax rates between 60% and 80%? Think again. With the government taking that percentage of your money, your life will be exactly like life in Europe . You will never be able to buy a home. You will never buy a car. You will never send your children to college.
Let’s not shuffle the battle cry of the socialists under the rug either. It’s always the same cry. Equalize income. Spread the wealth to the poor (whoever they are). Level the economic playing field. Accomplish that and everything will be rosy.
It’s time to take a really hard look at reality. Greece is a perfect example. Despite the socialism system that has ruled this country for decades, with a 65% tax rate, they are drowning in public debt, would have defaulted without hundreds of billions in bailout money from the EU, and still. . . 20% of their population lives in poverty. What has all that socialism money bought, besides ultimate power for the politicians running the show?
Do you think these people are "free"? They're not. They are slaves to their economic "system."
Instead of spreading the wealth around, spread this info around. It might wake up some people.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Stop the Scams - A Public Service Blog
Stop the Scam!
Peoria - If something sounds too good to be true, beware the scam. Learn how to protect yourself and loved ones from scams during "Stop the Scam!" a free public workshop presented by Peoria County's TRIAD member from 6:00-7:00 p.m. on Thursday, October 28, at ICC's North Campus. The class is offered through Illinois Central College's Adult Community Programs.
Attend this workshop to learn what to watch for and how to report suspicious solicitations. Peoria County's presenter will help you better identify scams by describing common schemes and methods that scam artists use to lure their targets. TRIAD is a safety organization that focuses on reducing victimization of senior citizens, but persons of any age are subject to scams and thus would benefit from this free presentation.
To register for "Stop the Scam!" call 999-4545 or visit www.icc.edu/acp and select "Special Interests." Seating is limited.
# # #
Peoria County Courthouse, 324 Main Street, Room 502, Peoria, Illinois 61602
Peoria - If something sounds too good to be true, beware the scam. Learn how to protect yourself and loved ones from scams during "Stop the Scam!" a free public workshop presented by Peoria County's TRIAD member from 6:00-7:00 p.m. on Thursday, October 28, at ICC's North Campus. The class is offered through Illinois Central College's Adult Community Programs.
Attend this workshop to learn what to watch for and how to report suspicious solicitations. Peoria County's presenter will help you better identify scams by describing common schemes and methods that scam artists use to lure their targets. TRIAD is a safety organization that focuses on reducing victimization of senior citizens, but persons of any age are subject to scams and thus would benefit from this free presentation.
To register for "Stop the Scam!" call 999-4545 or visit www.icc.edu/acp and select "Special Interests." Seating is limited.
# # #
Peoria County Courthouse, 324 Main Street, Room 502, Peoria, Illinois 61602
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Causes and Effects? Or Effects and Causes?
The schools blame the parents for poorly performing kids. The parents blame the schools for poorly performing schools. There is plenty of blame for both. But a closer examination is required. Where did the parent-parents come from?
Let's go back 2-3 generations Didn't these failed generations of parents come from our public schools? Of course, a lot of these failed parents dropped out. Dropped out because the schools and teachers were so boring, the curriculum so boring, nothing vocational, and the environment to boring? Lack of every being taught to have a strong work ethic? Weak boards, Peter Principle Administrators, Or what?
I suggest most educators do not understand or agree with this once prominent Peter Principle because promoting by diversity and tenure is rampant in the public sector.
Why the failure of 2-3 generations of "ex-students" parents. Was it because of peer pressure? Was it poverty, drug use, teachers, curriculum, dis-like or lack of any real discipline, mental problems or all of the above?
All of the above is the correct answer. But in the end it is like what comes first; the cause or the effect? The major problem rests with the failure of the public school systems to perform. And it starts at the top. The failure of the school board first and passes to the superintendent and all under him or her.
A schools is a second home. When you enter the environment of a good parent, you follow the good parent's "rules". When you enter the environment of a good school, you follow the rules of a good school.
Too often, not true. Why not? Teachers fear of parents, fear of principals, who are in fear of superintendents who are in fear of boards who fear no one as proven only once or so, in Peoria Public School District #150. Why would board members be in fear? They are not required to answer and questions at board meetings, and few more competent want to run for their jobs. They can quit at the end of their term and their incompetence is forgotten.
Generally speaking the boards of all public bodies are weak. Attribute the growth of self-seeking hostile unions in the public sector as opposed to the private sector where better boards and better management leads to less needs for unions. (Look up the figures)
Until the traditional, out-moded method of electing unqualified citizens to boards responsible for large multi-million dollar budgets, supervising thousands of kids and employees, the only positive changes (there are always exceptions, it is possible the new administrator at #150 will accomplish what she promised; none have since Harry Whittaker) will come as a result of competition. All these surveys, mostly conducted by liberal think groups, believers in strong unions, promotion by tenure, diversity and multiculturalism and no firing, (after all, firing hurts self-esteem, right?) will come up with results that try to prove that charter schools and private schools, etc., don't work.
Face it, good parents, you are just as much responsible for lack of change as the poor or bad parents. The majority of you have been silent too long.
I suggest you read you read "A Teacher Quality Manifesto" by Deborah Kenny, CEO and founder of Harlem Village Academies, just put her in you url search bar or find the article in the 9/22/10 issue of the WSJ. It confirms what I said in 1957, that "when bright teachers get stuck in schools that don't have the right to HIRE BY PERFORMANCE and build a culture of excellence, THEY QUIT".
What is culture--how people feel at work, how they are treated and the values exhibited by their colleagues. Substitute home for the word "work". Now add how kids feel in school, how they are treated, and the values exhibited by their peers. A culture that that attracts TALENT, brings out passion, and holds teachers (principals, and all above) accountable for results.
Most public schools lack proper recognition of student learning performance, lack of discipline of kids and of/by teachers alike, sloppy dress, neat appearances; best noted in most parochial and private schools, (obesity, poor ATTITUDES, etc.), and an overly liberal teaching demeanor limited by their lack of knowledge of how to survive in the real world. An obvious lack of conservative values. Why? Because of improper indoctrination; all of the above exhibited by liberal teachers and professors dominating our colleges today. Plus, too many teachers coming from the lower half of their graduating classes and lack abilities to get the jobs they would really like. Exception: All you dedicated teachers, most of you still would like to be recognized with more than just a thank you, a pin or a plaque. Or my personal thanks to you.
Let's go back 2-3 generations Didn't these failed generations of parents come from our public schools? Of course, a lot of these failed parents dropped out. Dropped out because the schools and teachers were so boring, the curriculum so boring, nothing vocational, and the environment to boring? Lack of every being taught to have a strong work ethic? Weak boards, Peter Principle Administrators, Or what?
I suggest most educators do not understand or agree with this once prominent Peter Principle because promoting by diversity and tenure is rampant in the public sector.
Why the failure of 2-3 generations of "ex-students" parents. Was it because of peer pressure? Was it poverty, drug use, teachers, curriculum, dis-like or lack of any real discipline, mental problems or all of the above?
All of the above is the correct answer. But in the end it is like what comes first; the cause or the effect? The major problem rests with the failure of the public school systems to perform. And it starts at the top. The failure of the school board first and passes to the superintendent and all under him or her.
A schools is a second home. When you enter the environment of a good parent, you follow the good parent's "rules". When you enter the environment of a good school, you follow the rules of a good school.
Too often, not true. Why not? Teachers fear of parents, fear of principals, who are in fear of superintendents who are in fear of boards who fear no one as proven only once or so, in Peoria Public School District #150. Why would board members be in fear? They are not required to answer and questions at board meetings, and few more competent want to run for their jobs. They can quit at the end of their term and their incompetence is forgotten.
Generally speaking the boards of all public bodies are weak. Attribute the growth of self-seeking hostile unions in the public sector as opposed to the private sector where better boards and better management leads to less needs for unions. (Look up the figures)
Until the traditional, out-moded method of electing unqualified citizens to boards responsible for large multi-million dollar budgets, supervising thousands of kids and employees, the only positive changes (there are always exceptions, it is possible the new administrator at #150 will accomplish what she promised; none have since Harry Whittaker) will come as a result of competition. All these surveys, mostly conducted by liberal think groups, believers in strong unions, promotion by tenure, diversity and multiculturalism and no firing, (after all, firing hurts self-esteem, right?) will come up with results that try to prove that charter schools and private schools, etc., don't work.
Face it, good parents, you are just as much responsible for lack of change as the poor or bad parents. The majority of you have been silent too long.
I suggest you read you read "A Teacher Quality Manifesto" by Deborah Kenny, CEO and founder of Harlem Village Academies, just put her in you url search bar or find the article in the 9/22/10 issue of the WSJ. It confirms what I said in 1957, that "when bright teachers get stuck in schools that don't have the right to HIRE BY PERFORMANCE and build a culture of excellence, THEY QUIT".
What is culture--how people feel at work, how they are treated and the values exhibited by their colleagues. Substitute home for the word "work". Now add how kids feel in school, how they are treated, and the values exhibited by their peers. A culture that that attracts TALENT, brings out passion, and holds teachers (principals, and all above) accountable for results.
Most public schools lack proper recognition of student learning performance, lack of discipline of kids and of/by teachers alike, sloppy dress, neat appearances; best noted in most parochial and private schools, (obesity, poor ATTITUDES, etc.), and an overly liberal teaching demeanor limited by their lack of knowledge of how to survive in the real world. An obvious lack of conservative values. Why? Because of improper indoctrination; all of the above exhibited by liberal teachers and professors dominating our colleges today. Plus, too many teachers coming from the lower half of their graduating classes and lack abilities to get the jobs they would really like. Exception: All you dedicated teachers, most of you still would like to be recognized with more than just a thank you, a pin or a plaque. Or my personal thanks to you.
Michelle Rhee Resigns Under Pressure
Washington Teachers' Union expresses "glee". They donated over a million dollars to unseat the patron, Mayor Adrian Fenty, of better schools for D.C.
Ms. Rhee's tenure was marked by improved test scores and putting the interest of student first. She closed under-performing schools, fired bad instructors, supported school vouchers for low-income families and opened charter schools. She negotiated a new teachers contract that included merit pay and has become a model for other re-form minded educators (and boards)as well as politicians in urban districts across the country.
While Ms. Rhees successor, Kaya Henderson, is her deputy and and ally, as interim chancellor, what will happen when the unions oppose Ms. Henderson? One major reason education reform is so difficult is because unions believe their political influence and money will outlast even the bravest of the reformers in the end.
Also, their confidence that sooner or later they will get "their" people on the school boards.
As the WSJ says that is why unions are cheering in Washington today. What's new.
Despite the unions heavy handedness, and their motto of no firing, there are hundreds of outstanding public schools across America including many in the Peoria area.
My visit to the new Glen Oak Learning Center and a tour of classrooms and much of the facility lends hope that this low-income black and Hispanic dominated area will succeed in starting students on a lifetime learning career. While Assistant Principal Douglass Adkins, indicated the school was to serve in the 600 student capacity, it currently has over 900 students attending. My cursory opinion is that the school is spacious enough to handle the existing attendance.
I personally believe that newness soon wears off and it will be up to the caliber of the principal and teachers to accomplish much more than was accomplished in the old school. Why do I say much more? The still under-funded building comes at a cost of $22+ million of all borrowed money. Peoria Public Schools now use of 60% of my property tax bill so I expect superior results from the spending of these millions we had to borrow.
Most of the community believes as I do. There is always the reluctance of the right people to run for school boards in an urban arena. I have listed those reasons many times with proposals for change.
Back to Michelle Rhee. If she is the person I believe she is, she will surface at another major urban school with major problems and someone over her who understands the changes that must be made and gives her the time and freedom to do so.
Ms. Rhee's tenure was marked by improved test scores and putting the interest of student first. She closed under-performing schools, fired bad instructors, supported school vouchers for low-income families and opened charter schools. She negotiated a new teachers contract that included merit pay and has become a model for other re-form minded educators (and boards)as well as politicians in urban districts across the country.
While Ms. Rhees successor, Kaya Henderson, is her deputy and and ally, as interim chancellor, what will happen when the unions oppose Ms. Henderson? One major reason education reform is so difficult is because unions believe their political influence and money will outlast even the bravest of the reformers in the end.
Also, their confidence that sooner or later they will get "their" people on the school boards.
As the WSJ says that is why unions are cheering in Washington today. What's new.
Despite the unions heavy handedness, and their motto of no firing, there are hundreds of outstanding public schools across America including many in the Peoria area.
My visit to the new Glen Oak Learning Center and a tour of classrooms and much of the facility lends hope that this low-income black and Hispanic dominated area will succeed in starting students on a lifetime learning career. While Assistant Principal Douglass Adkins, indicated the school was to serve in the 600 student capacity, it currently has over 900 students attending. My cursory opinion is that the school is spacious enough to handle the existing attendance.
I personally believe that newness soon wears off and it will be up to the caliber of the principal and teachers to accomplish much more than was accomplished in the old school. Why do I say much more? The still under-funded building comes at a cost of $22+ million of all borrowed money. Peoria Public Schools now use of 60% of my property tax bill so I expect superior results from the spending of these millions we had to borrow.
Most of the community believes as I do. There is always the reluctance of the right people to run for school boards in an urban arena. I have listed those reasons many times with proposals for change.
Back to Michelle Rhee. If she is the person I believe she is, she will surface at another major urban school with major problems and someone over her who understands the changes that must be made and gives her the time and freedom to do so.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Congressional Reform Act
Forwarded to me by a friend.
Not quite so simple. But a start. Item 1 should be they can run for re-election ever 4 years but can only serve a maximum of 3 consecutive terms. Some type of modest pension system makes more sense. They can have the right to enter into a pension contract at any time during service by making up past payments to the system. Becoming vested in a pension plan only after 8 years, consecutive or not, makes sense.I agree career politicians are part of the problem.
Pay raises should be capped at say, 2-2 1/2% points a year.
Of course, they would receive no pay and they should pay for their own health benefits when out of office. However, they should be able to stay with the same insurance company and receive group prices. If they wish.
The writer suggests a good start. Setting it up is a little more complicated.
Merle
THIS IS HOW YOU FIX CONGRESS!!!!!
I know many of you will say "this is impossible." Let me remind you, Congress has the lowest approval rating of any entity in Government. Now is the time when Americans must join together to reform Congress - the entity that represents us.
We need to get a Senator to introduce this bill in the US Senate and a Representative to introduce a similar bill in the US House. These people will become American heroes
**********************************
Congressional Reform Act of 2010
1. Term Limits.
12 years only, one of the possible options below..
A. Two Six-year Senate terms
B. Six Two-year House terms
C. One Six-year Senate term and three Two-Year House terms
2. No Tenure / No Pension.
A Congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they are out of office.
3. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security.
All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, and Congress participates with the American people.
4. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do.
5. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.
6. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people.
7. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people.
8. All contracts with past and present Congressmen are void effective 1/1/11.
The American people did not make this contract with Congressmen. Congressmen made all these contracts for themselves.
Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and back to work.
Not quite so simple. But a start. Item 1 should be they can run for re-election ever 4 years but can only serve a maximum of 3 consecutive terms. Some type of modest pension system makes more sense. They can have the right to enter into a pension contract at any time during service by making up past payments to the system. Becoming vested in a pension plan only after 8 years, consecutive or not, makes sense.I agree career politicians are part of the problem.
Pay raises should be capped at say, 2-2 1/2% points a year.
Of course, they would receive no pay and they should pay for their own health benefits when out of office. However, they should be able to stay with the same insurance company and receive group prices. If they wish.
The writer suggests a good start. Setting it up is a little more complicated.
Merle
THIS IS HOW YOU FIX CONGRESS!!!!!
I know many of you will say "this is impossible." Let me remind you, Congress has the lowest approval rating of any entity in Government. Now is the time when Americans must join together to reform Congress - the entity that represents us.
We need to get a Senator to introduce this bill in the US Senate and a Representative to introduce a similar bill in the US House. These people will become American heroes
**********************************
Congressional Reform Act of 2010
1. Term Limits.
12 years only, one of the possible options below..
A. Two Six-year Senate terms
B. Six Two-year House terms
C. One Six-year Senate term and three Two-Year House terms
2. No Tenure / No Pension.
A Congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they are out of office.
3. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security.
All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, and Congress participates with the American people.
4. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do.
5. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.
6. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people.
7. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people.
8. All contracts with past and present Congressmen are void effective 1/1/11.
The American people did not make this contract with Congressmen. Congressmen made all these contracts for themselves.
Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and back to work.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Discarded and Old Tire Collection in Peoria Heights
Peoria Heights - Peoria Heights is hosting Peoria County's third of four fall tire collections this Saturday:
October 16, 2010
9:00am - Noon
Peoria Heights Village Hall
4901 N. Prospect, Peoria Heights
Residents living in the 61616 zip code are encouraged to recycle used or discarded tires found on roadways, in alleys, or in vacant lots by bringing them to the public works building on Saturday. Participating residents must show proof of residency by presenting either a driver's license or a current utility bill. Peoria County has partnered with Peoria Disposal Company and the Village of Peoria Heights to ensure a successful tire collection event this weekend.
Local tire collection events are a great way for residents to clean up their neighborhoods by removing unwanted debris. Up to 5 tires will be accepted from each resident; a maximum number of 600 tires will be accepted at this event. Only car and light truck tires are acceptable; tractor, off-road, heavy equipment, and semi-truck tires will not be accepted. Tires can either be on or off the rim. After collection, tires will be transported to a processing facility for recycling.
Peoria County will also host an additional community tire collection this year; event is 9:00 a.m. - noon. Residents eligible to participate in the following event will be notified via postcard:
November 6: Residents of West Peoria
West Peoria City Garage
1322 N Hillside Ave, West Peoria
For more information on the tire collections call Peoria County's Recycling and Resource Conservation Department at (309) 681-2550.
###
Peoria County Courthouse, 324 Main Street, Room 502, Peoria, Illinois 61602
October 16, 2010
9:00am - Noon
Peoria Heights Village Hall
4901 N. Prospect, Peoria Heights
Residents living in the 61616 zip code are encouraged to recycle used or discarded tires found on roadways, in alleys, or in vacant lots by bringing them to the public works building on Saturday. Participating residents must show proof of residency by presenting either a driver's license or a current utility bill. Peoria County has partnered with Peoria Disposal Company and the Village of Peoria Heights to ensure a successful tire collection event this weekend.
Local tire collection events are a great way for residents to clean up their neighborhoods by removing unwanted debris. Up to 5 tires will be accepted from each resident; a maximum number of 600 tires will be accepted at this event. Only car and light truck tires are acceptable; tractor, off-road, heavy equipment, and semi-truck tires will not be accepted. Tires can either be on or off the rim. After collection, tires will be transported to a processing facility for recycling.
Peoria County will also host an additional community tire collection this year; event is 9:00 a.m. - noon. Residents eligible to participate in the following event will be notified via postcard:
November 6: Residents of West Peoria
West Peoria City Garage
1322 N Hillside Ave, West Peoria
For more information on the tire collections call Peoria County's Recycling and Resource Conservation Department at (309) 681-2550.
###
Peoria County Courthouse, 324 Main Street, Room 502, Peoria, Illinois 61602
Monday, October 11, 2010
If You Don't Like Your Job, Try Another Field
Answer to "Anonymous" to an email I received.
Nice try. You said you were from #150. You are 100 unionized. I suppose you teach all summer with no extra pay. You agreed to the contract so what's your beef? Why don't you lead the drive for pay for performance?
Bet you’re a Democrat and you are complaining that the state may go broke?? How about the whole country that has been under Democrat control for years?
And yes, I was, still am, more competent than many teachers, administrators and many board members. I've proved it over and over. I worked for one company 8 years. Promoted into management and then into top management. I started and owned my own business for 28 years. The company still bears my name 18 years after I sold it. The more competent I become, the more I made. Better yet, I performed a service lacking in the community and ENJOYED my work which sometimes meant working 7 days a week with short vacations.
I also met every payroll. If employees were not happy, I encoouraged them to leave. I was able to fire those who did not help cause the compamy to succeed. And yes, I was unionized for 22 years with only one grievance filed which the company won.
I have no pension but my wife and I do quite well.
By the way, I didn't write the article or didn't you notice?
Why do you comment without your name? I put my name on everything I write.
Hmmm.
Nice try. You said you were from #150. You are 100 unionized. I suppose you teach all summer with no extra pay. You agreed to the contract so what's your beef? Why don't you lead the drive for pay for performance?
Bet you’re a Democrat and you are complaining that the state may go broke?? How about the whole country that has been under Democrat control for years?
And yes, I was, still am, more competent than many teachers, administrators and many board members. I've proved it over and over. I worked for one company 8 years. Promoted into management and then into top management. I started and owned my own business for 28 years. The company still bears my name 18 years after I sold it. The more competent I become, the more I made. Better yet, I performed a service lacking in the community and ENJOYED my work which sometimes meant working 7 days a week with short vacations.
I also met every payroll. If employees were not happy, I encoouraged them to leave. I was able to fire those who did not help cause the compamy to succeed. And yes, I was unionized for 22 years with only one grievance filed which the company won.
I have no pension but my wife and I do quite well.
By the way, I didn't write the article or didn't you notice?
Why do you comment without your name? I put my name on everything I write.
Hmmm.
Saturday, October 09, 2010
Repeal Lightbulb Ban
I couldn't agree more. More, "Mama, can we?", from our bureacrats in DC.
Merle
Repeal Lightbulb Banby Alan Caruba
Issue 165 – October 6, 2010
What if the government banned air conditioning? What if flat-screen televisions were determined to use too much electricity and were ordered phased out of production? What if the use of all plastic grocery bags were banned? What if the incandescent light bulb, one of the greatest inventions of Thomas Edison in the 1870s was banned? Oh wait, it has been banned!
In a nation where the Medicare “reform” requires Americans to purchase health insurance they may not want and may not be able to afford, was rammed through Congress, what can stop the government from dictating just about any choice you have regarding any purchase you make? The answer? Nothing.
Only it would no longer be a Constitutional government, a nation of laws that reflect anything resembling the truth. The ban on incandescent light bulbs turns off the light of liberty throughout America.
Beginning January 1, 2012, government rules will make it impossible to purchase a 100-watt incandescent light bulb. After that, in time, all such light bulbs will be phased out leaving Americans with only dim, over-priced, mercury-filled light bulbs. And they will be made overseas, primarily in China.
By 2012, by order of the government, Americans will no longer be able to purchase any incandescent light bulbs. Why? Because Congress banned them, citing the need to reduce “greenhouse gas emissions” to reduce global warming that isn’t happening.
It’s the same Congress that had already determined how much water your toilet can use to flush. It’s the same Congress that determined “cafe” rules that determine how many miles per gallon your automobile must achieve. It’s the same government that requires ethanol be added to gasoline, thus reducing the mileage a gallon of adulterated gasoline can produce, while also driving up the cost of gasoline as well as of corn, a food product, used to produce ethanol.
It’s the same Congress that has blessed a Renewable Electricity Standard that requires utilities to use electricity produced by wind and solar power even though both sources also require 24/7 backup by traditional coal-fired, natural gas, or nuclear plants because they cannot be relied up to generate electricity in a predictable fashion or during periods of peak capacity.
It’s the same Congress that initiated Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two “government entities” that purchased the sub-prime mortgage loans that banks and mortgage loan firms were required to make to people who clearly could not afford to replay them. The result is the financial crisis that occurred when those “bundled” mortgages turned out to be “toxic”, worthless paper sold to investment firms and banks as assets.
In early September, The Washington Post, published an article, “Light bulb factory closes; End of era for U.S. means more jobs overseas.” It reported that “The last major General Electric factory making ordinary incandescent light bulbs in the United States is closing this month…the remaining 200 workers at the plant here (Winchester, Virginia) will lose their jobs.”
The Washington Times reported that the Federal Trade Commission earlier released 91 pages of regulations that will force manufacturers to revise their packaging and make costly compact fluorescent bulbs appear more appealing to consumers,” that they have refused to willingly purchase them. “Congress wants to force the pale, cold fluorescent curlicue fixtures on everyone because it makes members feel that they are doing their part to ‘save the planet’.”
While the ban was initiated in 2007 before the Obama administration took power, it has not gone unnoticed that the CEO of General Electric, Jeffrey Immelt, “sits on Obama’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board.” And recovery is no where in sight while GE closes its factory making incandescent light bulbs.
The issue, however, is far less about GE than it is about the vast global warming fraud, the equally vast matrix of U.S. laws and regulations that is based on it, and most importantly, the way they are being used to undermine and destroy the U.S. economy along with the freedoms that Americans take for granted.
One of the many tasks facing a Congress in which Republicans are expected to regain control in November is to repeal the ban on incandescent light bulbs. After that, the mountain of other laws and regulations strangling consumer freedom and even threatening the health of Americans must also be repealed.
Alan Caruba writes a daily post at http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com. An author, business and science writer, he is the founder of The National Anxiety Center.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Read More :: http://www.conservative.org/acuf/issue-165/issue165gov1#ixzz11ttAvUJV
Merle
Repeal Lightbulb Banby Alan Caruba
Issue 165 – October 6, 2010
What if the government banned air conditioning? What if flat-screen televisions were determined to use too much electricity and were ordered phased out of production? What if the use of all plastic grocery bags were banned? What if the incandescent light bulb, one of the greatest inventions of Thomas Edison in the 1870s was banned? Oh wait, it has been banned!
In a nation where the Medicare “reform” requires Americans to purchase health insurance they may not want and may not be able to afford, was rammed through Congress, what can stop the government from dictating just about any choice you have regarding any purchase you make? The answer? Nothing.
Only it would no longer be a Constitutional government, a nation of laws that reflect anything resembling the truth. The ban on incandescent light bulbs turns off the light of liberty throughout America.
Beginning January 1, 2012, government rules will make it impossible to purchase a 100-watt incandescent light bulb. After that, in time, all such light bulbs will be phased out leaving Americans with only dim, over-priced, mercury-filled light bulbs. And they will be made overseas, primarily in China.
By 2012, by order of the government, Americans will no longer be able to purchase any incandescent light bulbs. Why? Because Congress banned them, citing the need to reduce “greenhouse gas emissions” to reduce global warming that isn’t happening.
It’s the same Congress that had already determined how much water your toilet can use to flush. It’s the same Congress that determined “cafe” rules that determine how many miles per gallon your automobile must achieve. It’s the same government that requires ethanol be added to gasoline, thus reducing the mileage a gallon of adulterated gasoline can produce, while also driving up the cost of gasoline as well as of corn, a food product, used to produce ethanol.
It’s the same Congress that has blessed a Renewable Electricity Standard that requires utilities to use electricity produced by wind and solar power even though both sources also require 24/7 backup by traditional coal-fired, natural gas, or nuclear plants because they cannot be relied up to generate electricity in a predictable fashion or during periods of peak capacity.
It’s the same Congress that initiated Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two “government entities” that purchased the sub-prime mortgage loans that banks and mortgage loan firms were required to make to people who clearly could not afford to replay them. The result is the financial crisis that occurred when those “bundled” mortgages turned out to be “toxic”, worthless paper sold to investment firms and banks as assets.
In early September, The Washington Post, published an article, “Light bulb factory closes; End of era for U.S. means more jobs overseas.” It reported that “The last major General Electric factory making ordinary incandescent light bulbs in the United States is closing this month…the remaining 200 workers at the plant here (Winchester, Virginia) will lose their jobs.”
The Washington Times reported that the Federal Trade Commission earlier released 91 pages of regulations that will force manufacturers to revise their packaging and make costly compact fluorescent bulbs appear more appealing to consumers,” that they have refused to willingly purchase them. “Congress wants to force the pale, cold fluorescent curlicue fixtures on everyone because it makes members feel that they are doing their part to ‘save the planet’.”
While the ban was initiated in 2007 before the Obama administration took power, it has not gone unnoticed that the CEO of General Electric, Jeffrey Immelt, “sits on Obama’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board.” And recovery is no where in sight while GE closes its factory making incandescent light bulbs.
The issue, however, is far less about GE than it is about the vast global warming fraud, the equally vast matrix of U.S. laws and regulations that is based on it, and most importantly, the way they are being used to undermine and destroy the U.S. economy along with the freedoms that Americans take for granted.
One of the many tasks facing a Congress in which Republicans are expected to regain control in November is to repeal the ban on incandescent light bulbs. After that, the mountain of other laws and regulations strangling consumer freedom and even threatening the health of Americans must also be repealed.
Alan Caruba writes a daily post at http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com. An author, business and science writer, he is the founder of The National Anxiety Center.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Read More :: http://www.conservative.org/acuf/issue-165/issue165gov1#ixzz11ttAvUJV
Friday, October 08, 2010
Teacher's Pay - Illinois Example
Just How Much Are America's Teachers Getting Paid?
Jeff Carter, Points and Figures | Oct. 6, 2010, 7:00 PM | 10,715 | 68
A A A
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Email Article
From
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Chicago Crime Alert-iPhone
Currency Wars
The Inflation Conundrum
The popular documentary movie, "Waiting for Superman" has caused a lot of consternation and outrage among people in America. On her television show, Oprah Winfrey had education reform as a topic twice in one week.
Numbers always bring clarity to emotional situations. Let's look at some facts.
Teachers are extremely important to our society. They are educating the next generation of human capital that will hopefully help us make the next great leap forward. Like there are good employees and bad employees, there are good and bad teachers. One thing is for sure, exposure to a great teacher that understands their craft can change a life.
Every single state has a different set of pay standards for teachers. The only thing in common is that the entire teaching community is unionized. No matter if you are a good teacher, or a bad teacher, you get paid the same. There is no risk in being a teacher. Once you attain tenure, you have a job for life. It is virtually impossible for you to lose your job.
Let's look at Illinois, and drill down into one state's numbers to see what they look like.
Illinois is broke. There is a great debate beginning in the state about public pensions. Teachers pensions are a part of that debate. An aside, another travesty in Illinois is public school administrators.
They make an average of $106,217 in salary, not including pensions and health benefits. In the final three years of their contracts, school districts jack up the administrator salaries to increase their pension benefits for life. Of course, there is hardly a check or balance on the behavior. The taxpayer gets stung.
Teachers also have a pretty good deal in Illinois. They are 100% unionized. The rent seeking teachers' union curries favor with the Democrats. Democrats at every level of government do whatever the union wants.
The average teacher in the state of Illinois makes $61,402. Illinois teachers work around 176 days, 300 minutes, or 5 hours, per day. That's just over 35 weeks per year. On average, they make $348.88 per day, $1.16 per minute, or $69.60 per hour guaranteed. Teachers in Illinois work an average of 12 years. They can retire at age 55.
In order to find out what they really make though, you should take their pension benefits, net present value them and amortize them over their career. As of 2010, the average pension for an Illinois teacher is $43,164. It compounds annually for life at 3% per year.
Now it's time to do some math and make some assumptions. Assume that the lifespan of the teacher is no different than the average American, 78 years. If they start teaching at age 22, on average they will quit at 34. This means they will wait 21 years to collect their pension. The discount rate for the cash flows is a conservative 5%.
When you crunch all the numbers, the net present value of that pension is $290,756. Amortizing that over a twelve year career adds $24,229.64 to their average salary, making their actual salary before health benefits are added in a tidy $85,631.67, or $97.31 per hour.
If you compare and extrapolate that number to the private sector, it is interesting. Assume that you work an 8 hour day, 50 weeks a year. $194,620 bucks a year is what you would make! Most private sector jobs at that level work a lot more than an 8 hour day. Recently, private sector employment has not been as lucrative as public sector employment. For the first time in American history, it pays to be in the public sector.
Being an professional educator is going to give you a comfortable lifestyle. Odds are, you won't own an island. But, you get summers off, a short work day, and no worries about ever losing your job. There will always be something under the Christmas tree.
However, our society really needs to rethink how we pay our teachers. In aggregate, our schools are not turning out a quality product. The country is falling behind. Our future is in danger. Unionization of education hasn't been good for great teachers, and it hasn't been good for America. It only helped the bad teachers.
This contract needs to be renegotiated. America needs to redefine how the teaching job is structured. Then, fair metrics can be applied for evaluation. Good teachers can make more, and poor ones can be weeded out. We ought to be paying our teachers more in upfront money for that change. On the back end, pensions need to go from defined benefit, to defined contribution.
Changes like this will make for better schools, attract better quality teachers, and turn America into a better educated populace. That is the great leap forward we need to stay competitive.
Tags: Education, U.S. Government, Money | Get Alerts for these topics »
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Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/american-teacher-pay-2010-10#ixzz11miyC1Yp
Jeff Carter, Points and Figures | Oct. 6, 2010, 7:00 PM | 10,715 | 68
A A A
x
Email Article
From
More Unenjoyment
Chicago Crime Alert-iPhone
Currency Wars
The Inflation Conundrum
The popular documentary movie, "Waiting for Superman" has caused a lot of consternation and outrage among people in America. On her television show, Oprah Winfrey had education reform as a topic twice in one week.
Numbers always bring clarity to emotional situations. Let's look at some facts.
Teachers are extremely important to our society. They are educating the next generation of human capital that will hopefully help us make the next great leap forward. Like there are good employees and bad employees, there are good and bad teachers. One thing is for sure, exposure to a great teacher that understands their craft can change a life.
Every single state has a different set of pay standards for teachers. The only thing in common is that the entire teaching community is unionized. No matter if you are a good teacher, or a bad teacher, you get paid the same. There is no risk in being a teacher. Once you attain tenure, you have a job for life. It is virtually impossible for you to lose your job.
Let's look at Illinois, and drill down into one state's numbers to see what they look like.
Illinois is broke. There is a great debate beginning in the state about public pensions. Teachers pensions are a part of that debate. An aside, another travesty in Illinois is public school administrators.
They make an average of $106,217 in salary, not including pensions and health benefits. In the final three years of their contracts, school districts jack up the administrator salaries to increase their pension benefits for life. Of course, there is hardly a check or balance on the behavior. The taxpayer gets stung.
Teachers also have a pretty good deal in Illinois. They are 100% unionized. The rent seeking teachers' union curries favor with the Democrats. Democrats at every level of government do whatever the union wants.
The average teacher in the state of Illinois makes $61,402. Illinois teachers work around 176 days, 300 minutes, or 5 hours, per day. That's just over 35 weeks per year. On average, they make $348.88 per day, $1.16 per minute, or $69.60 per hour guaranteed. Teachers in Illinois work an average of 12 years. They can retire at age 55.
In order to find out what they really make though, you should take their pension benefits, net present value them and amortize them over their career. As of 2010, the average pension for an Illinois teacher is $43,164. It compounds annually for life at 3% per year.
Now it's time to do some math and make some assumptions. Assume that the lifespan of the teacher is no different than the average American, 78 years. If they start teaching at age 22, on average they will quit at 34. This means they will wait 21 years to collect their pension. The discount rate for the cash flows is a conservative 5%.
When you crunch all the numbers, the net present value of that pension is $290,756. Amortizing that over a twelve year career adds $24,229.64 to their average salary, making their actual salary before health benefits are added in a tidy $85,631.67, or $97.31 per hour.
If you compare and extrapolate that number to the private sector, it is interesting. Assume that you work an 8 hour day, 50 weeks a year. $194,620 bucks a year is what you would make! Most private sector jobs at that level work a lot more than an 8 hour day. Recently, private sector employment has not been as lucrative as public sector employment. For the first time in American history, it pays to be in the public sector.
Being an professional educator is going to give you a comfortable lifestyle. Odds are, you won't own an island. But, you get summers off, a short work day, and no worries about ever losing your job. There will always be something under the Christmas tree.
However, our society really needs to rethink how we pay our teachers. In aggregate, our schools are not turning out a quality product. The country is falling behind. Our future is in danger. Unionization of education hasn't been good for great teachers, and it hasn't been good for America. It only helped the bad teachers.
This contract needs to be renegotiated. America needs to redefine how the teaching job is structured. Then, fair metrics can be applied for evaluation. Good teachers can make more, and poor ones can be weeded out. We ought to be paying our teachers more in upfront money for that change. On the back end, pensions need to go from defined benefit, to defined contribution.
Changes like this will make for better schools, attract better quality teachers, and turn America into a better educated populace. That is the great leap forward we need to stay competitive.
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