Merle Widmer's PEORIA WATCH

Obama and the Democrats Solar Thing

2012-01-27T16:21:00.002-06:00

Forwarded to me by a friend. Sad.

Merle

The Solar thing just got a little more interesting.......REALLY!> > >

>
> The Tonopah Solar company in Harry Reid's Nevada
> is getting $737 million from Obama's DOE as part of the so-called energy initiative.
>
> The project will produce a 110 megawatt power
> system and employ 45 permanent workers.
>
>
> That's only costing us $16 million per job
>
>
> One of the investment partners in this endeavor is
> Pacific Corporate Group (PCG).
>
> The PCG executive director is Ron Pelosi, who is the brother to Nancy 's husband.
>
> Just move along folks.....nuthin' goin on here.
>
>
> EVERY AMERICAN SHOULD KNOW HOW THEIR MONEY IS BEING STOLEN
> SO FORWARD THIS TO EVERYBODY.
>
>
> Google Tonopah Solar company and see for yourself.
>
>
> >

Obama- Note Who He Didn't Threaten

2012-01-20T15:47:00.002-06:00

Passed on to me by a friend. I believe these comments are noteworthy.

Merle

It's incredible that 42% of Americans think that this unqualified, incompetent, dishonorable, ego-driven fraud is doing a good job. Take a
moment. Admit it to yourself. You know who his supporters are. They are the people that YOU support.

From now thru November 2012 this should be required weekly or at least monthly reading BY ALL WHO VOTE!!!

Did you notice who Obama threatened when he wasn't getting his way on raising the debt ceiling? He threatened to not pay:

Social Security Retirees, Military Retirees, Social Security disability and Federal Retirees.

- Now..let this sink in really good -

- He did not threaten to stop payments to illegal aliens

- He did not threatened to take frivolous benefits such as Internet access away from violent inmates

- He did not offer to fire some of the thousands of unnecessary federal employees that he hired

- He did not offer to cut down on his or his wife's frivolous gallivanting around

- He did not threaten to not pay the senators and representatives or any of their staff

- He did not threaten to take benefits away from welfare recipients

- He did not threaten the food stamp programs

- He did not threaten to not pay foreign aid

- He did not threaten to cut back on anything that involves his base voters

- The list could go on and on. He is in full political re-election mode!

• Why are we allowing this person to destroy this wonderful country with his selfishness and his lies?

• His type of change is killing our country. He needs to be stopped and only our votes can stop him.

• Do not forget about his tactics when it's election time. Vote Obama out of the Presidency in 2012.

LET'S MAKE 2012 - THE END OF AN ERROR!

We the people are coming

Only 86% will send this on. Should be a 100%. What will you do?

I did.

Merle

Add Merle Widmer to Your Favorites

2012-01-19T17:03:00.003-06:00

If you find some of my blogs of interest to you, why not add http://widmer-peoria-watch.blogspot.com to your "Favorites" list.

If you are interested in certain blogs like Pacifism or Socialism just type in a key word on my "search bar" appearing above my profile and it should bring up most of the blogs I've written on the subject. Some of my most factual locally are PRM and PPD.

Free Market Capitalism is the Best Path to Prosperity For All

2012-01-18T18:23:00.003-06:00

So says Larry Kudlow of CNBC. So say all of us who are highly concerned about this countries slow slide to Socialism. I, and many others believe that the Republicans will not put up a candidate who can beat Obama. Obama is what I call an entrenched incumbent, hateful of Wall Street and anti-business except for the big businesses that he has benefited and have and will still support him. (think George Soros and G.E.'s head honcho).

I'm going to type in an article by Rick Moranis, a writer and an actor. Read it all the way through. I think his thinking is great.

Title; "Capitalism and My Discontents". Here it is.

"This morning, while I was grinding my blend of French, Colombian and Italian coffee beans, it occurred to me that I could be doing harm to the coffee shop and diner businesses in my neighborhood by making my own coffee at home. Might I have a responsibility and obligation to consume their product, either within their premises or brought right to my doorstep by one of their speedy, undocumented delivery men?

I also wondered whether still using my old, reliable German-brand coffee grinder, manufactured in China, might be an unpatriotic betrayal of American kitchen-appliance makers by choosing not to buy their Chinese-made grinder.

As I poured some house-brand almond milk into my homemade granola, I thought about the depressed demand and earnings on the higher-priced product manufacturers that I wasn't patronizing, their resulting order and production declines, and the backlogged inventories and possible layoffs of their factories.

How much of this country's economy am I personally destroying by my consumption preferences? I honestly never intended to do so much harm.

I ran a hot iron quickly over the front of a previously worn shirt, saddened at the thought of the jolly staff at my local dry cleaner who will suffer because of my initiative and tolerance for rumpled, moldy aromatic haberdashery.

I jumped into a cab, thinking about the MTA"s budget deficit and my part in not helping to reduce it.

The traffic was terrible. Here is was, going nowhere, idling in a quick-ticking metered medallion taxi, driving up the price of oil, edging the country further into runaway inflation while spewing noxious fumes into the precious air around me. I am such a horrible person.

The driver, a pleasant Middle-Eastern man who I did not suspect was part of, or supporting any terrorist organizations, was sipping a very large cup from one of several dozen popular coffee shop locations within a three-block radios of my home. I was pleased that at least one of us was supporting the hardworking baristas of this great nation.

I wondered out loud if the driver thought the price of his beverage would be higher or lower if baristas were unionized. He told me that in his country only men could be baristos and if a woman was caught even trying to be a baristas she would be roasted, percolated and covered in scalding, foamy mother goat's milk. He said "Only America is free. Only America is great, God bless America."

It sounded a bit suspicious to me. Was I seeing something? Should I say something? I threw him a 10-spot and decided to walk. I wondered how much of that 10 would wind up in the hands of our sworn enemies and felt a pang of pride in the dedication of our defenders.

A terrier on a long leash attached himself to my slacks. I shook hiom off and admonished the mink-wrapped diva at the other end of it letting her cherished little mutt-child attack an innocent at will. She accused me of being grumpy as I stared at the dog's mangy coat, imagining her wearing it as a hat. Shouldn't dog owners be required to get licenses, I though. Think of the revenue! The new agencies that would employ people! But wouldn't that increase the cost of government and create even more waste, fraud and corruption? I am such a confused and horrible person.

My cellphone rang. It was my mother in Toronto, telling me she was on her way home from her ophthalmologist, where she had a 7:00 A.M. appointment - the only time to go without having to wait 5 hours to see him. I thought about how lucky we are in the country to not have to to wait 5 hours to see a doctor. Unless you're poor sick people. I must not use my secular humanism as an excuse for not tithing, especially while t's still deductible.

I finally reached my office and opened my laptop. More shocking, breaking new to be read. More informed opinions; opinions to be listened to. More critical issues to consider and debate. Now, in this year-the most important election in our lifetimes. And I feel so utterly confused.

Tonight, I'll stay home and watch all the news channels. That will clear things up. I'll order in. And tip big!"

I thought this was sadly funny. Evidently the WSJ thought it was interesting. You read it in today's edition. Along with, "A Short (Sometimes Profitable) History of Private Equity" by John Steele Gordon. Too bad 'liking to fire peorple' is taken out of context and will be used widely by Democrats who know that most of their voters have trouble reading a whole sentence.

Us Lucky Guys!!

2012-01-18T17:00:00.001-06:00

Forwarded to me by a good friend. Would you guess she is a woman??

Merle

WHY MEN ARE NEVER DEPRESSED:

Men Are Just Happier People --
What do you expect from such simple creatures?
Your last name stays put.
The garage is all yours.
Wedding plans take care of themselves.
Chocolate is just another snack...
You can be President.
You can never be pregnant.
You can wear a white T-shirt to a water park.
You can wear NO shirt to a water park.
Car mechanics tell you the truth.
The world is your urinal.
You never have to drive to another gas station restroom because this one is just too icky.
You don't have to stop and think of which way to turn a nut on a bolt.
Same work, more pay.
Wrinkles add character.
Wedding dress $5000. Tux rental-$100.
People never stare at your chest when you're talking to them.
New shoes don't cut, blister, or mangle your feet.
One mood all the time.
Phone conversations are over in 30 seconds flat.
You know stuff about tanks.
A five-day vacation requires only one suitcase.
You can open all your own jars.
You get extra credit for the slightest act of thoughtfulness.
If someone forgets to invite you,
He or she can still be your friend.
Your underwear is $8.95 for a three-pack.
Three pairs of shoes are more than enough..
You almost never have strap problems in public.
You are unable to see wrinkles in your clothes..
Everything on your face stays its original color.
The same hairstyle lasts for years, even decades.
You only have to shave your face and neck.
You can play with toys all your life.
One wallet and one pair of shoes -- one color for all seasons.
You can wear shorts no matter how your legs look.
You can 'do' your nails with a pocket knife.
You have freedom of choice concerning growing a mustache.
You can do Christmas shopping for 25 relatives
On December 24 in 25 minutes.
___________________________________
Men Are Just Happier People
NICKNAMES
If Laura, Kate and Sarah go out for lunch, they will call each other Laura, Kate and Sarah. If Mike, Dave and John go out, they will affectionately refer to each other as Fat Boy, Bubba and Wildman.

EATING OUT
When the bill arrives, Mike, Dave and John will each throw in $20, even though it's only for $32.50. None of them will have anything smaller and none will actually admit they want change back.
When the girls get their bill, out come the pocket calculators.

MONEY
A man will pay $2 for a $1 item he needs.
A woman will pay $1 for a $2 item that she doesn't need but it's on sale.

BATHROOMS
A man has six items in his bathroom: toothbrush and toothpaste, shaving cream, razor, a bar of soap, and a towel.
The average number of items in the typical woman's bathroom is 337. A man would not be able to identify more than 20 of these items.

ARGUMENTS
A woman has the last word in any argument.
Anything a man says after that is the beginning of a new argument.

FUTURE
A woman worries about the future until she gets a husband.
A man never worries about the future until he gets a wife.

MARRIAGE
A woman marries a man expecting he will change, but he doesn't.
A man marries a woman expecting that she won't change, but she does.

DRESSING UP
A woman will dress up to go shopping, water the plants, empty the trash, answer the phone, read a book, and get the mail.
A man will dress up for weddings and funerals.

NATURAL
Men wake up as good-looking as they went to bed.
Women somehow deteriorate during the night.

OFFSPRING
Ah, children. A woman knows all about her children. She knows about dentist appointments and romances, best friends, favorite foods, secret fears and hopes and dreams.
A man is vaguely aware of some short people living in the house.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
A married man should forget his mistakes. There's no use in two people remembering the same thing!

SO, send this to the women who have a sense of humor and can handle it .... and to the men who will enjoy reading it.

Pressure Mounts to Evict Occupy DC

2012-01-18T15:03:00.002-06:00

Article in the WSJ 1/17/12. It's about time. Here are some statistics forwarded to me by a friend.

Merle

Occupy Party vs Tea Party Comparison

The Democrats and the liberal media have said that the Occupy Party was a civic group "just like" the Tea Party.
I report......you decide.......

REPORTED OCCUPY PARTY TEA PARTY
ARRESTS 4149+ 0

RAPES 12 0
DAMAGE $10,000,000.00 $0
PUBLIC DEFECATION YES NO
ANTISEMITIC RANTS 12 0
COST TO TAXPAYERS ( by 11/9) $19,327,487.00+ $0
PUBLIC MASTURBATION 3 0
MOLOTOV COCKTAILS THROWN 10 0
FIGHTS STARTED YES NO
CHILDREN EXPLOITED YES NO
POLICE CARS DAMAGED 2 0
PUBLIC DRUNKENNESS YES NO
DRUG POSSESSION ARREST YES NO
CONCEALED WEAPON ARREST YES NO
DRUG OVERDOSE YES NO
THEFTS YES NO
BURGLARIES YES NO
VANDALISM ARREST YES NO
TRESPASSING ARREST YES NO
NON FATAL SHOOTINGS 1 0
PUBLIC URINATION YES NO
URINATION ON OTHERS YES NO
ISRAELI FLAGS BURNED 2 0
AMERICAN FLAGS BURNED 1 0
AMERICAN FLAGS DANCED ON 1 0
AMERICAN FLAG DESECRATION 25 0
FELONY ASSAULT ON AN EMT 1 0
HEAD/BODY LICE OUTBREAKS 1 0
TUBERCULOSIS OUTBREAKS 1 0
MURDER 1 0
SUICIDE 1 0

SHOTS FIRED AT WHITE HOUSE 1 0
SCABIES OUTBREAKS 1 0
OBAMA ENDORSED IT YES NO
PELOSI ENDORSED IT YES NO
CAIR ENDORSED IT YES NO
SOCIALIST PARTY ENDORSED YES NO
NAZI PARTY ENDORSED YES NO
MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD ENDORSED YES NO
COMMUNIST PARTY ENDORSED YES NO
BIDEN ENDORSED YES NO
HUGO CHAVEZ ENDORSED YES NO
BLACK PANTHERS ENDORSED YES NO
HEZBOLLAH ENDORSED YES NO
MARXIST UNION ENDORSED YES NO
9/11 TRUTHER ENDORSED YES NO
BOLSHEVIK ENDORSED YES NO
IRAN GOVERNMENT ENDORSED YES NO
AYATOLLAH ENDORSED YES NO
NORTH KOREA ENDORSED YES NO
FARRAKHAN ENDORSED YES NO
NATION OF ISLAM ENDORSED YES NO

Oh yes, I see the similarities now��..

=

Some Simple and Obvious Facts

2012-01-18T14:54:00.002-06:00

Forwarded to me by a friend. Who said it doesn't matter. If it is only 3/4 right, that is still better than Obama's half-truths and outright lies.

Merle

Let me get this straight . . .
We're going to be "gifted" with a health care
plan we are forced to purchase and
fined if we don't,
Which purportedly covers at least
ten million more people,
without adding a single new doctor,
but provides for 16,000 new IRS agents,
written by a committee whose chairman
says he doesn't understand it,
passed by a Congress that didn't read it but
exempted themselves from it,
and signed by a Dumbo President who smokes,
with funding administered by a treasury chief who
didn't pay his taxes,
for which we'll be taxed for four years before any
benefits take effect,
by a government which has
already bankrupted Social Security and Medicare,
all to be overseen by a surgeon general
who is obese,
and financed by a country that's broke!!!!!
'What the hell could possibly go wrong?'

Obama Supporter Sends His Recommendation - TIC

2012-01-16T17:16:00.003-06:00

However, my friend recommends a change. So do I. If the Republicans can get their act together, it can happen. In the meantime far right Rick S. should drop out along with Newt and Perry should go back and continue to govern Texas.

I know quite a bit about Texans, I lived there two years. They are ok people but Perry hit the "Peter Principle".

Merle

Let's look at the Historical First's of this “President”:

* First President to refuse to show a valid Birth Certificate.
* First President to apply for college aid as a foreign student, then deny he was a foreigner.
* First President to have a social security number from a state he's never lived in.
* First President to Preside over a Cut to the Credit Rating of the United States Government.
* First President to Violate the War Powers Act.
* First President to Orchestrate the Sale of Murder Weapons to Mexican Drug Cartels.
* First President to be Held in Contempt of Court for Illegally Obstructing Oil Drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.
* First President to Defy a Federal Judge's Court Order to Cease Implementing the 'Health Care Reform' Law.
* First President to Require All Americans to Purchase a Product From a Third Party.
* First President to Spend a Trillion Dollars on 'Shovel-Ready' Jobs--and Later Admit There Was No Such Thing as Shovel-Ready Jobs.
* First President to Abrogate Bankruptcy Law to Turn Over Control of Companies to His Union Supporters.
* First President to Bypass Congress and Implement the DREAM Act Through Executive Fiat.
* First President to "Order a Secret Amnesty Program that Stopped the Deportations of Illegal Immigrants Across the US , Including Those With "Criminal Convictions".
* First President to Demand a Company Hand Over $20 Billion to One of His Political Appointees.
* First President to Terminate America's Ability to Put a Man into Space.
* First President to Encourage Racial Discrimination and Intimidation at Polling Places.
* First President to Have a Law Signed By an 'Auto-pen' Without Being "Present".
* First President to Arbitrarily Declare an Existing Law Unconstitutional and Refuse to Enforce It.
* First President to Threaten Insurance Companies if they Publicly Speak out on the Reasons for their Rate Increases.
* First President to Tell a Major Manufacturing Company In Which State They Are Allowed to Locate a Factory.
* First President to File Lawsuits Against the States He Swore an Oath to Protect (AZ, WI, OH, IN, etc).
* First President to Withdraw an Existing Coal Permit That Had Been Properly Issued Years Ago.
* First President to Fire an Inspector General of Ameri-Corps for Catching One of His Friends in a Corruption Case.
* First President to Propose an Executive Order Demanding Companies Disclose Their Political Contributions to bid on Government Contracts.
* First President to appoint 45 'czars' to replace elected officials in his office.
* First President to Golf 73 separate Times in His First Two-and-a-Half Years in Office.
* First President to hide his medical, educational, and travel records.
* First President to win a Nobel Peace Prize for doing NOTHING to earn it.
* First President to coddle America's enemies while alienating America's allies.
* First President to publicly bow to America’s enemies while refusing to salute the US flag.
* First President to go on multiple Global apology tours.
* First President to go on 17 'vacations', including 'date nights' paid for by the taxpayer.
* First president to blatantly "Bribe" a state to vote his way on a bill.
* First President to trade books with Hugo Chavez and then pat each other on the back.
* First President to consider his own military, returning from battle, as "terrorists".
With so many, ACCOMPLISHMENTS TO HIS CREDIT JUST IMAGINE WHAT HE COULD DO WITH A SECOND TERM!!! "

Corruption does not require a face, only an important position.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Expanding Davis-Bacon Afffected the Cost of the PRM And All Other Recent Public Projects

2012-01-16T15:54:00.004-06:00

Possibly 70% of the voters are not aware of the Davis-Bacon Act that requires any construction project receiving federal subsidies to pay "prevailing" wages-meaning union wages-to its workers. Economists have shown repeatedly that the artificial floor of the Davis-Bacon Act freezes low income laborers-primarily black and Hispanic-out of competition with their union counterparts. Small business contractors are especially hurt by compliance costs.

Davis-Bacon also dramatically increases the cost of government projects, amounting to a mandate for more spending-and all for the sole justification of the Unions. Since approximately 20% of construction workers are unionized, it is easily seen how the cost of government projects are drastically more costly.

Locally, in 2010, an unsuspecting group of Republican Peoria County Board members voted for a carefully conceived action by the Democrats, led by Board Chair Tom O'Neill, that in effect caused all the non-unionized pavers doing business in Peoria County to be unionized. The board minority Republicans were unsuccessful in getting the action repealed. I understand at least one of the larger pavers caved in and unionized while at least on of the local pavers went out of business.

Not too long ago, when the Peoria Riverfront Museum's weak board was approached by the local unions offering to donate approximately $500,000.00 to the museum in return for the museum to be built with all union labor, the museum board gladly agreed. Almost immediately, the cost of the museum building jumped around $10 million, this jump explained by the Caterpillar liaison as supposedly higher material costs, especially steel.

Whether the union has made good on this pledge, the JS, strongly in favor of this downtown project, has never been reported. As if the JS cares or has enough experienced investigative reporters.

The new Bel-Wood Nurisng Home rose dramatically in cost as this building is built by all union labor as sub-contractors must pay prevailing union wages.

If Obama, the Democrats and the Senate, control this country for the next 5 years, the cost of federal as well as all public projects will steadily rise, driving more businesses overseas at the same time there is a "patriotic" appeal to bring the jobs back from overseas. As if hundreds of thousands of Americans here in the U.S. are employed by foreign owned companies was not a fact.

The union push to buy American made goods will largely fail; it is a bad idea in the first place as other countries will retaliate. In Peoria, the effect of all the public building taking place, will continue to cause fees (the garbage tax, golf fees, Peoria Counties recent $350,000.00 rise in local fees, etc.) will eventually see this county as among one of the most highly taxed counties with not much "free" being offered by the taxing bodies.

Not to be overlooked are the rapidly rising public unfunded pension costs and the large amount of empty buildings in Peoria, a deteriorating infrastructure with flat population growth and more property tax appeals such as the money losing Peoria Chiefs Baseball investors.

Union Victory Adds to Ohio's Fiscal Problems

2012-01-16T15:50:00.001-06:00

*****************************
From Education Week [American Education's Newspaper of Record], November 16, 2011, Volume 31, Issue 12, pp. 1,26-27. See http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/11/10/12election.h31.html?print=1
*****************************
Ohio Vote on Bargaining a Union Victory-For Now

Republicans chastened after attempt to restrict union rights, but issue far from settled

By Michele McNeil

Voters in Ohio sent an unequivocal message to that state's Republican governor and lawmakers last week that they went too far in reining in collective bargaining for teachers and other public employees. But analysts say the conflict between the GOP and teachers' unions in Ohio and elsewhere is not over.

By an overwhelming, 22-percentage-point margin, Ohioans-even in heavily Republican counties-repealed Senate Bill 5, enacted earlier this year. It was a resounding defeat of a law that stripped teachers and other public employees of most collective bargaining rights, and many predicted the vote could have ripple effects in other states that have engaged in high-profile battles with unions, such as Wisconsin.

The message from unions now is: "Mess with us, cross us, and we will come after you, and you will pay the political price," said Patrick McGuinn, an associate professor of political science and education at Drew University, in Madison, N.J.
Analysts predict the power struggle will continue, however, with Republicans likely to modify their strategy, including by taking smaller bites at collective bargaining by public employees.

The Ohio referendum, known as Issue 2, was perhaps the most closely watched ballot fight of the 2011 off-year election season nationally. But voters in other states made important decisions, too, as governors in Kentucky and Mississippi were elected, and Republicans took control of Virginia's legislative and executive branches for just the second time in more than a century. In addition, the state teachers' union in Michigan prevailed in a recall of a key state legislator.

The Ohio law was pushed through the state's GOP-controlled legislature in March with strong Republican support, including from Gov. John Kasich, who was elected in 2010. That's the same year Republicans took control of both chambers of the legislature.

In school districts, the measure would have blocked bargaining over class sizes, school assignments, and provisions that restrict principals from assigning workloads and job responsibilities. It would have forbidden districts to give preference in layoff decisions to teachers with more seniority, a provision similar to those approved in a number of other states this year, such as Florida and Idaho. The law also would have created a merit-pay system for teachers, though it was unclear how educators' performance would be judged.

After years of being virtually untouched because of their formidable political force, public employees' unions this year were on the receiving end of a flood of far-reaching policy fights to restrict their power, in states including Wisconsin, Idaho, Indiana, and New Jersey.

Labor Pushback

But the unions have responded fiercely.

Randi Weingarten, the president of the 1.5 million-member American Federation of Teachers, billed the Ohio statute as an assault on the middle class-a common theme that's been playing out in campaigns at all levels, including in the 2012 presidential race.

"Ohio voters made it clear to them that there is a price to pay for turning your back on the middle class," Ms. Weingarten said in a statement after the vote.

In Wisconsin, after pushing through legislation earlier this year that effectively ended collective bargaining in that state for most public employees, including teachers, Republican Gov. Scott Walker, who was elected in 2010, is now the subject of a recall effort. If a petition drive is successful-and many predict the Ohio vote will help buoy that effort-his job could be at stake in next year's election.

Also in last week's elections, in Michigan, the Republican chairman of the House education committee, Paul Scott, was recalled after being targeted by the Michigan Education Association for weakening teacher tenure and cutting education funding.
But those efforts don't mean the collective bargaining issues are going away, education and political experts say.

Elements of Ohio's SB 5 likely will be re-envisioned and packaged differently there and even in other states, said Frederick M. Hess, the director of education policy studies for the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington think tank.

"Americans have never been radicals," said Mr. Hess in an postelection seminar in Ohio sponsored by KnowledgeWorks. SB 5 was a "smart, thoughtful, and well-considered" way to empower state and local officials to solve budget problems, argued Mr. Hess, who writes an opinion blog for Education Week's website. But, he added, people don't want to be "pushed too fast and too far."

Mr. McGuinn of Drew University agreed in part, saying that Republicans are likely to tackle smaller pieces that attack specific problems, such as rising health-care costs among public employees.

"There will probably be less of a frontal assault," Mr. McGuinn said.

What's Next

Gov. Kasich hasn't signaled his next steps in Ohio.

"I've heard their voices," he said in a press conference after the referendum, speaking of the voters. "As a result of that, it requires me to take a deep breath."

For the governor, part of SB 5 was a money-saving initiative. Gov. Kasich had argued that the law would drive down costs for taxpayers by phasing out expensive concessions made to unions during the negotiating process. His administration had estimated that the law would save local governments, including school districts, more than $1 billion per year by reducing health-care costs, requiring employees to contribute more to their pensions in some cases, and doing away with automatic salary increases.

Without it, Gov. Kasich said, state officials will try to work with local governments to deal with budget crunches. But, he said, "there's no bailout coming, because frankly there's no money. It's going to be very important for local communities to continue to deal with their cost challenges."

The unions acknowledge there are legitimate issues that need to be addressed, and that state and local governments are still struggling.

"There are other ways to raise revenue than to take a potshot at the unions," said Lily Eskelsen, the vice president of the 3.2-million member National Education Association, during the Ohio seminar, without getting specific. "We have a financial crisis. What a wonderful opportunity to blame people like teachers for causing a crisis that, of course, Wall Street greed caused."

Despite the overwhelming rejection of the collective bargaining law, last week's election in Ohio wasn't a slam dunk for Democrats. Ohio voters, by an even bigger margin, approved a constitutional amendment requiring the state to opt out of certain parts of President Barack Obama's health-care program, dealing a blow to Mr. Obama in a swing state as he faces a tough re-election battle.

Mixed Messages

In addition, Ohio can't be compared with a lot of other states because of its deep history of labor activism and heavily blue-collar workforce, both of which helped defeat the collective bargaining law, Mr. McGuinn pointed out.

Two other states had more-predictable election-night finishes.

In the two governors' races decided Nov. 8, Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear, who had been running far ahead in the polls all along, was re-elected in Kentucky, and Mississippi voters elected Republican Phil Bryant after fellow Republican Haley Barbour was barred from running because of term limits.

But in Virginia, Republicans-who already control the governor's office and the House of Delegates-seized effective control of the Senate with a 20-20 split, in which the Republican lieutenant governor would break any ties. It represents only the second time in more than a century that the GOP had so much power in that state, local media reports say.
------------------------------
PHOTO SIDEBAR: Republican Ohio Gov. John Kasich wipes his brow during a news conference at the Ohio Statehouse on Nov. 8 in Columbus. The state's new collective bargaining law championed by Kasich was defeated after a campaign that pitted firefighters, police officers, and teachers against the state's Republican establishment. -Eric Albrecht/Columbus Dispatch/AP
-------------------------------
PHOTO SIDEBAR: Patricia Frost-Brooks, left, president of the Ohio Education Association, hugs Courtney Johnson, an 11th grade teacher from Ironton, Ohio, at a victory party in Columbus, Ohio, after Senate Bill 5 was defeated on Nov. 8. -Tony Dejak/AP
------------------------------
Assistant Editor Sean Cavanagh contributed to this story.
*****************************************
--

Jerry P. Becker
Dept. of Curriculum & Instruction
Southern Illinois University
625 Wham Drive
Mail Code 4610
Carbondale, IL 62901-4610
Phone: (618) 453-4241 [O]
(618) 457-8903 [H]
Fax: (618) 453-4244
E-mail: jbecker@siu.edu

United States Downhill Slide

2012-01-16T13:30:00.002-06:00

Christopher P. Lucia from Vancouver, Washington couldn't have said it better. He is quoted, "We will never cut our way to prosperity," (quoting Jeb Bush)yet immediately contradict themselves, stating that we should reform (cut) Social Security and other entitlements programs. Calling it reform gives the politicians cover, but everyone (??, my question marks) knows what must be done.

We also need to cut restrictions on free trade, cut regulations on businesses, cut control of the public sector labor unions over municipalities and teachers labor unions over our education system.

S pro-growth strategy of cutting will ion fact lead to prosperity and it is easy to distinguish from Obama's administration laggard strategy of spend, regulate and spend more."

No governmental body can tax, raise fees, over-regulate, enforce the Davis-Bacon prevailing wage act, make tax reporting more difficult, give public unions more poser, etc., and while spending more than they take in.

Declining Nations - Under Current leadership, the United States of America is Rapidly Declining

2012-01-16T10:29:00.006-06:00

This email has been floating around the internet for some time. Since I agree, I'm putting it in this blog.

Merle
In 1887 Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor at the University of

Edinborough, had this to say about the fall of the Athenian Republic some
2,000 years prior:

"A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a
permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until
the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts
from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for
the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with
the result that every democracy will finally collapse over loose fiscal
policy, (which is) always followed by a dictatorship."

"The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the beginning of
history, has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations
always progressed through the following sequence:

From bondage to spiritual faith;
From spiritual faith to great courage;
From courage to liberty;
From liberty to abundance;
From abundance to complacency;
From complacency to apathy;
From apathy to dependence;
>From dependence back into bondage."
The Obituary follows:

Born 1776, Died 2008
It won’t hurt to read this several times.

Here are some interesting facts concerning the last
Presidential election:

Number of States won by: Obama: 19 McCain: 29
Square miles of land won by: Obama: 580,000 McCain: 2,427,000
Population of counties won by: Obama: 127 million McCain: 143 million
Murder rate per 100,000 residents in counties won by: Obama: 13.2 McCain: 2.1

Professor Olson adds: "In aggregate, the map of the territory McCain won was
mostly the land owned by the taxpaying citizens of the country.

Obama territory mostly encompassed those citizens living in low income
tenements and living off various forms of government welfare..."

Olson believes the United States is now somewhere between the
"complacency and apathy" phase of Professor Tyler's definition of democracy,
with some forty percent of the nation's population already having reached
the "governmental dependency" phase.

If Congress grants amnesty and citizenship to twenty million criminal
invaders called illegal's - and they vote - then we can say goodbye to the
USA in fewer than five years.

If you are in favor of this, then by all means, delete this message.

If you are not, then pass this along to help everyone realize just how much
is at stake, knowing that apathy is the greatest danger to our freedom.

This is truly scary! Of course we are not a democracy, we are a
Constitutional Republic. Someone should point this out to Obama. Of
course we know he and too many others pay little attention to The
Constitution.

There couldn't be more at stake than on Nov 2012. If you as concerned as I am please pass this along.

Why Obama Will Win In November - The Main Reason

2012-01-16T09:59:00.002-06:00

Sent to me by a friend. This may not be a true story but this is the point I've blogged on many times.

Merle

THE COW AND THE ICE CREAM

ONE OF THE BEST EXPLANATIONS
OF WHY OBAMA WON THE ELECTION

--From a teacher in the Nashville area - -
"We are worried about 'the cow' when it is all about the 'Ice Cream.'

The most eye-opening civics lesson I ever had was while teaching 3rd grade this year.

The Presidential election was heating up and some of the children showed an interest.
I decided we would have an election for a class president.

We would choose our nominees. They would make a campaign speech and the class would vote.

To simplify the process, candidates were nominated by other class members.

We discussed what kinds of characteristics these students should have.

We got many nominations and from those,
Jamie and Olivia were picked to run for the top spot.

The class had done a great job in their selections. Both candidates were good kids.

I thought Jamie might have an advantage because he got lots of parental support.

I had never seen Olivia's mother.

The day arrived when they were to make their speeches.

Jamie went first.

He had specific ideas about how to make our class a better place.
He ended by promising to do his very best.

Everyone applauded and he sat down.

Now is was Olivia's turn to speak.

Her speech was concise. She said, "If you will vote for me, I will give you ice cream." She sat down.

The class went wild. "Yes! Yes! We want ice cream."

She surely would say more. She did not have to.

A discussion followed. How did she plan to pay for the ice cream? She wasn't sure. But no one pursued that question. They took her at her word.

Would her parents buy it or would the class pay for it...She didn't know.

The class really didn't care. All they were thinking about was ice cream...

Jamie was forgotten. Olivia won by a landslide.

Every time Barack Obama opened his mouth he offered ice cream and 51.4 % of the people reacted like nine year olds.

They want ice cream.

The other 48.6% percent know they're going to have to feed the cow and clean up the mess."

This is the ice cream Obama promised us!

Remember, the government cannot give anything to anyone that they have not first taken away from someone else.

Did you vote for the ice cream?

THAT, MY FRIEND, IS HOW OBAMA GOT ELECTED

Peoria Public School District #150 is Selling School Buildings

2012-01-11T16:29:00.005-06:00

On 1/6/12, JS reporter Chris Kaegard reported that Peoria Public School District #150was in negotiations to sell their Loucks' School building and their Columbia School building to PSCI (Quest).

That Harrison and Blaine-Sumner are also on the market was reported on 1/10/12 by JS reporter Pam Adams, under the heading "District #150 to sell two of its buildings", Blaine-Sumner and Kellar East.

If good business judgment had been used, Kellar East should have been put on the market as soon as Kellar West was expanded. Also, Blaine-Sumner should have been put on the market years ago.

Also, the old Harrison School building was sold for $10 a few months ago. Was the request to sell put out to bid? Also, I'm surprised that Peoria Landmark members didn't claim the distinctly unique old Harrison School as a public landmark. It will also be interesting to see what eventually happens to the old Harrison; whether it be demolished as reported, used, or abandoned.

Good questions. Hopefully some of the unused #150 buildings of land should appear on property tax rolls as the district reports it has other empty buildings that could be sold.

Bradley University - Some History

2012-01-11T15:42:00.003-06:00

This local university has many outstanding leaders and has graduated many an outstanding citizen and is a large asset to this community. My decision to no longer donate to this university started back in the days of the firing of head men's basketball coach Joe Stowell and and the subsequent removal of Coach Stowell as head women's basketball coach in favor of a female coach.

At one time I was Vice-President of the Chiefs club in charge of fundraising. Upon the hiring a "person of interest" to succeed Stowell as head men's BB coach I stepped off the board.

Later on the hiring of Jim Les as head basketball coach, a player with NO coaching experience added to my concerns about the BB program. Some of you may not be aware of the NCAA investigation of Bradley and the resignation of Coach Dick Versace. As to Les, the disaster I predicted happened with his dismissal after last season.

If you go to my profile you will note a "Search Bar" in the upper right hand corner. If you type in "Bradley" you will find approximately 25 blogs I have written on Bradley University. One I should have blogged on was alleged insider information that was alleged to have been given to at least one real estate investor prior to start of construction of the new $100 million+ renovating and construction near culmination on campus.

Also some distrust of what some of the liberal "educators" were teaching young people as one Professor told a social gathering that he teaches his students that "there are no truths", my interest in being head tennis coach when my tennis competitor friend and former Bradley tennis coach, suddenly passed away. I apparently lost the job when I indicated I could raise $10,000 for tennis. The AD must have been afraid that the money I raised would have detracted from the men's BB program that has been "king of the hill", moreso, since the days of Bradley football star and later head football coach, Billy Stone.

My decision not to donate to Bradley is personal but I still watch with great interest the "goings on" on the hilltop.

You may find my pst blogs on Bradley interesting.

Stephanie Aaron Has Good News

2012-01-11T15:40:00.000-06:00

Say all you terrific downstate Illinoisans,
Are you intrigued by the subject line? Well, those of you who know me will know how shocking this news truly is: you can now find me on Facebook. Yes, it's true! I just published a musician page about 45 minutes ago, and you are invited and welcome to check it out and see the beginnings of my foray into the 21st century. I still don't know what any of it means or how to do very much besides post pictures, but hopefully others will be contributing to my - wall? is that what the kids call it? Anyway, check it out if you are more internet-savvy than I am and see how I'm doing.
The OTHER news (less shocking and much more fun as far as I'm concerned) is that I am going to be performing at the Contemporary Art Center in Peoria this Friday, January 13th from 5:30 to 7:30 with my faithful friend Larry Harms. Many of you know the drill: it's Live at the Five Spot; you get your ticket at the door (10 bucks for nonmembers and 7 for members) with a little bit of a price break for students and seniors. Bring your favorite bottle, bring a little nosh (cheese and crackers is always my favorite) and relax with us before the frenzy of the weekend begins. I would love to see a room chock-full of good people!
As always, you should feel free to email me (especially those of you who don't do Facebook). My new CD is going to be out this spring, and the nice folks at the CAC are scheming with me to have a CD release event in April. I can't wait!!
Hope to see you Friday,
Stephanie

Fact is, Obama Has Succeeded

2012-01-05T16:31:00.002-06:00

So says Democrat commentator Donna Brazile in a column in today's JS. Among the many accomplishments Obama has accomplished all by himself is "Making Israel Safer" and "Creating more jobs in three years than Bush did in eight". What she leaves out is that the overwhelming majority of jobs Obama has created have been in the public sector while running up the National Debt to $16+ trillion and growing daily.

The list of things Obama has done in three years that are proving to be detrimental to this country would fill up half the JS editorial page.

That the demagogue will be reelected, I have little doubt. Surveys indicate that as many as 57% of our populace has some connection to those employed in the public sector. As I warned years ago in a LTE to the JSEB, 2/26/98, "Our Dependence on Government is Increasing" in which I stated, "Unfortunately our local (State and national) politicians have a history of not seeing a federal grant they didn't like".

We have been sliding down the "slippery slope" to Socialism for a long time as I pointed out in one of my other LTE"s to the JS in the 1990's. We have been building an attitude of "if we don't take it someone else will".

What does one expect that many of the last two generations have been doing. It's called "taking" and running the risk of not being caught.

Where is it taking us??

Bradley University - Another Reason I've Stopped Supporting This Institution

2012-01-05T16:11:00.003-06:00

To know that retired Bradley Professor Barbara Penelton has been spewing racially divisive half-truths to hundreds of black and "bleeding heart" students for all these years, makes me a little ill.

I suggest the MLK Committee bring back Bill Cosby. I bought a ticket just to hear him. He told the black elite why so many blacks are unemployed and in prison. But the black elite, sometimes similar to some of the Republican elite, believe they know what the problem is. They don't realize that "the enemy is them".

Obama's Hairdo

2012-01-05T16:07:00.002-06:00

I know it's hard to notice his haircut because his mouth is always open. But he has a new "do". It appears to be a cross between a do-rag and and Islamic cut.

Interesting but then maybe he just has a new barber.

Obama - The Shifty Charismatic Demagogue

2012-01-01T17:59:00.004-06:00

Never forget that Obama was mentored by his pastor, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright for many years. A careful study of his actions and statements indicate that Obama clearly plans to bring this country down to an egalitarian status so that someday he will be elected as president of "one World".

Merle

The following is a narrative taken from a 2008 Sunday morning televised "Meet The Press'.

From Sunday's 07 Sept. 2008 11:48:04 EST, Televised "Meet the Press" THE THEN Senator Obama was asked about his stance on the American Flag.

General Bill Gann' USAF (ret.) asked Obama to explain WHY he doesn't follow protocol when the National Anthem is played.

The General stated to Obama that according to the United States Code, Title 36, Chapter 10, Sec. 171...

During rendition of the national anthem, when the flag is displayed, all present (except those in uniform) are expected to stand at attention facing the flag with the right hand over the heart. Or, at the very least, "Stand and Face It".

NOW GET THIS !!

"As I've said about the flag pin, I don't want to be perceived as taking sides". "There are a lot of people in the world to whom the American flag is a symbol of oppression.." "The anthem itself conveys a war-like message. You know, the bombs bursting in air and all that sort of thing."

Peoria Baseball Chiefs Make Headlines in Today's Journal Star

2011-12-22T19:28:00.003-06:00

What say now, Mr. know-it-all, Roger Monroe, Column writer for the Community Word and lightweight JS sportswriter, Kevin Capie??

Club President Vonachen says club will around for next 30 years.

Hmmmmmmm.

4th Best President? Count on Liberal "60 Minutes" to Propagandize Obama

2011-12-22T16:23:00.000-06:00

60 Minutes edits Out Obama's claim - he's the 4th Best President | Video

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/60-minutes-edits-out-obamas-claim-that-hes-the-fourth-best-president/

The Constitution is not an instrument for the Government to restrain the People;

it is an instrument for the People to Restrain the government

lest it come to dominate our lives and interests.
- - Patrick Henry

No Bush, No Christie, No Ron Paul

2011-12-22T15:03:00.002-06:00

Read Columnist Dorothy Rabinowitz, my favorite WSJ writer for a sum-up of why we don't need a Ron Paul or his type to run against Obama. (Opinion page Dec. 22, WSJ) No more Bushs' for at least 2-3 decades, and Christie couldn't win either.

In fact, with Obama's win on the payroll tax issue; this win supported by the mostly well-meaning divisive and inept Republican leadership, Obama's stacking of the NLRB with hard core union supporters, Lisa Jackson ruling on supposedly saving the climate and the planet (I'd put her on a row boat to China if I could) her intentions promoted by Obama to put fossil fuel producers out of business so we can have more greens' taxpayer funded poor energy solutions like cellulose, wind farms, wood chip gasoline and electric cars, Obama has satisfied enough of his voting base that I guarantee you it will be no Republican rout in November 2012.

Plus the Obama supported staying power of this countries largest financial disasters, Fannie and Freddie. Those who benefit from the waste of hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars by these two politically supported country wrecking institutions, will all vote for Obama in 2012.

Obama could be photographed in bed with Hillary and Barack wouldn't lose a thousand votes.

Most voters will enter this November election believing it is the Republicans who are the problem in the economy. Those who support him benefit from his actions that will eventually destroy this country. Most of them are greedy people more interested in personal gain than they are the long-term future of this country.

How can I say this? 50% of the country believes Obama is doing a good job. Why? Because he is a phony charming charlatan who stepped into a vacuum created by George Bush, Jr. and the "Republican good old boy and girls club" led by too many weak Central Committees.

In the meantime, Democrats are praying that Newt is selected. Their researchers and script writers are working day and night. Democrats are also hoping Ron Paul will try to create a third party which Paul is just vindictive enough to do.

The liberal journalists and pundits are having a ball and will all the way through 2012. I never thought I would live to see so many people mis-led by propagandists even the worst dictators could have ever dreamed of creating.

I see little change. Many of us who support the Tea Party Movement are going to be diappointed. The election of 2012 will not be the election of 2010, at least on the big one that counts the most.

So sad.

Chavez Should Know

2011-12-21T15:36:00.002-06:00

Forwarded to me by a friend. Whether Chavez said these words or not, they are correct. Every word except I don't believe even Obama wants to attack----what's the name of that country?? I know the name of the dictator who runs it.

That's enough.

Merle

When I agree with Hugo Chavez, you know the world is upside-down, but the man's right:

“Mr. Obama decided to attack us,” Chávez said. “Now you want to win votes by attacking Venezuela. Don’t be irresponsible. You are a clown, a clown. Leave us in peace … Go after your votes by fulfilling that which you promised your people.”

“Focus on governing your country, which you’ve turned into a disaster,” Chávez said, according to The Guardian

Holiday Trees My Ass

2011-12-19T18:02:00.003-06:00

I'm telling Obama and his pacifist and One World crappers to have plastic signs made saying "Holiday Trees" instead of their rightful name, Christmas trees and ask that they stick these signs up their individual orifices where they belong.

Crap excretes crap. The message forwarded to me by a friend follows:

And a Merry Christmas to friends and followers. Enjoy all Christmas trees. I, of course, am politically correct and I don't want to offend anyone.

Ha.

Merle

I'm sure, like me, you've read this -- but it was good to see it again at this time of year -- have a Merry Christmas and healthy New Year -- CC

From: ramonaelden@comcast.net [mailto:ramonaelden@comcast.net]
A Very Merry Christmas to You!!!!!!

Amen

Apparently the White House referred to Christmas Trees as Holiday Trees for the first time this year which prompted CBS presenter, Ben Stein, to present this piece which I would like to share with you. I think it applies just as much to many countries as it does to America .

The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS Sunday Morning Commentary.

My confession:

I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees, Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are, Christmas trees.

It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, 'Merry Christmas' to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu . If people want a creche, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.

I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from, that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution and I don't like it being shoved down my throat.

Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship celebrities and we aren't allowed to worship God ? I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering where these celebrities came from and where the America we knew went to.

In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke; it's not funny, it's intended to get you thinking.

Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her 'How could God let something like this happen?' (regarding Hurricane Katrina).. Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She said, 'I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives. And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?'

In light of recent events... terrorists attack, school shootings, etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her body found a few years ago) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK. Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school. The Bible says thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK.

Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave, because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he's talking about. And we said okay.

Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.

Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with 'WE REAP WHAT WE SOW.'

Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to hell. Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says. Funny how you can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire, but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing. Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.

Are you laughing yet?

Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you're not sure what they believe, or what they will think of you for sending it.

Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us.

Pass it on if you think it has merit.

If not, then just discard it.... no one will know you did. But, if you discard this thought process, don't sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is in.

My Best Regards, Honestly and respectfully,

Ben Stein

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Under Florida law, email addresses are public records. If you do not want your email address released in response to a public records request, do not send electronic mail to this entity. Instead, contact this office by phone or in writing.

Lowes Succumbs to Bigots?

2011-12-19T12:22:00.002-06:00

Under pressure from a group called the Florida Family Association, Lowes pulled their ads from the new reality TV show "All-American Muslims". I haven't seen this show so my only comment is that all American Muslims need to loudly deny radical Islams, Shariah law and portions of the Koran that instruct Muslims to kill the unbelievers.

Diversity and inclusion sound great just as did "America, the great melting pot".
However, facts speak louder than words. We were at one time a great melting pot but then, we were largely a Christian nation.

Just food for thought, with continued reading and learning from and about the new immigrants while maintaining the movements that did make this country the greatest country in the world, now under attack from so many sources including our president.

Remember the "Bridge to Nowhere" Now Comes Obama and LaHood Pushing a High-Speed Rail to Nowhere

2011-12-19T11:37:00.005-06:00

As Ray LaHood fumbled around in the Peoria area supporting an Interstate from Peoria to Chicago starting near a new far north bridge that would be built to accommodate Caterpillar, just as he fumbled around on an unpopular Rt. 29 interstate to Rt. 80, as he fumbled around with an unpopular (with the ordinary citizens) a ring road from Morton to this new bridge and direct highway to Chicago, he tried to force high speed rail from Tampa to Orlando, 80 miles away, his gift of billions wisely declined by the Republican Governor) he is now trying to convince Congress that California needs a bullet train from Merced? to Fresno, nowhere to nowhere, and in the next thirty years, connecting these two cities to Anaheim to San Francisco and other more populated areas.

If the public will allow the politicians to continue to spend money they don't have nor no guarantee of any return except for union jobs and a few major corporations.

Remember the union motto, 'We don't care what you build, just build it. We need jobs."

As LaHood pleads with Congress, California voters are clamoring for a new referendum which they say would defeat this boondoogle by a 2-1 margin today.

In 2008, voters approved a $10 million bond to fund the 500-mile bullet train, but cost estimates have exploded to $100 billion and the mirage of federal and private funding has disappeared. The state has no money to build and electrify the tracks and the federal government is broke and deeply in debt to China all due to the likes of politicians like LaHood who love to spend OPM and support their big financial supporters who like all special interest groups have dozens of lobbyists in Washington, confusing an already confused body politic.

Give credit to the Republicans who have refused to appropriate funds while of course the private investors want a guarantee (think FireFly, Pro-Bass and the new Marriott Courtyard, the City Councils biggest boondoogle to date.

Why Socialists and Populists Are Wrong About Tax Rate Inequality

2011-12-19T10:45:00.002-06:00

Alan J. Reynolds, a leading Cato Economist writes in the December 6 edition of the Wall Street Journal, "A recent report of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) says that income of the top 1% grew from about 9% in 1979 to 17.3% in 2007. Why did the report stop at 2007? The CBO didn't say, although its report briefly acknowledged that 'high income taxpayers had especially large declines in adjusted gross incomes between 2007and 2009'.

No kidding. (Didn't most of us. My comment) Once these two years are brought into the picture, the share of the after-tax income of the top 1% fell to 11.3% in 2009 from the 17.3% that the CBO reported for 2007.

The larger truth is that recessions always destroy wealth and small business incomes at the top. Perhaps those who obsess over income shares should welcome stock market crashes and deep recessions because such calamities invariably reduce 'inequality'. Of course, the same recessions also increase poverty and unemployment.

If Congress raises top rates on capital gains and dividends,the highest income earners would report less income from capital gains and dividends and hold more tax-exempt bonds. Such tax policies would reduce the share of reported income of the top earners almost as effectively as the recession the policies would likely provoke. The top 1% would then pay a much smaller portion of Federal income taxes, just like they did in 1979 And the other 99% would pay more."

The Obama regime, in which our own Ray Lahood is a major player, is out to destroy the wealthy and dole out money in a more egalitarian manner. At the same time creating a fear in all small businesses and investors as to their fate and the fate of the unemployed and the fate of the economy.

If even some of the Democrats (evidently some have) haven't figured it out yet, Obama is a long term destroyer of this country as Casto and Chavez are destroyers while increasing their own power and the power of those whose destiny is tied to the success of these despots.

It's the Senate, Stupid

2011-12-19T09:27:00.001-06:00

Copied from the Townhall Spotlight.

I strongly agree.

Merle

Fellow Conservatives:

You may remember the slogan "It's the economy, stupid" used by Bill Clinton during the 1992 presidential campaign to make the point that George H. W. Bush had not adequately addressed the poor economy.

Clinton's political strategist, James Carville, posted the phrase inside campaign headquarters as a way to keep the team focused and on message. The phrase later became the de facto slogan for the Clinton election campaign.

The slogan could make a comeback in 2012 as Republicans highlight Barack Obama's dismal economic record, but if you consider yourself a freedom-loving American, then I have a different slogan for you.

"It's the Senate, stupid."

That's right. It's the Senate, stupid.

Most Americans are focused on the presidential race right now, especially as the GOP nomination process is about to shift into high gear. But winning the White House — as critical as it is — won't be enough to save the country we love without a strong, conservative majority in the United States Senate.

Without a conservative Senate, we won't repeal Obamacare.
Without a conservative Senate, we won't balance the budget.
Without a conservative Senate, we won't secure our borders.
Without a conservative Senate, we won't stop the bailouts.
And without a conservative Senate, we won't enact the pro-growth policies needed to get America back to work.
If you're reading this letter, chances are, you follow current events more than most and you probably understand the point I'm making — winning the Senate is the key to restoring America's greatness.

Not only do the Democrats currently control the Senate but the rules of the Senate make it extremely powerful. If conservatives control the Senate, we not only can pass the reforms needed to undo Obama's mess, but we can also stop even more bad policies from being adopted.

The simple fact of the matter is this: a good president without a conservative Senate is a waste of a good president.

A president can campaign on great policies, but he doesn't write the bills. As long as liberals are in charge of writing legislation, it will be difficult for a Republican president to sign the right bills into law. Does anyone think Harry Reid will ever send a bill to the President's desk to repeal ObamaCare? The answer is no and that's why I am entirely focused on packing the Senate with strong conservatives who will one day make that a reality.

There are 23 Democrat Senate seats up this cycle, and Republicans stand a strong chance of taking the Senate back. But it's not enough to just have a majority. We must have new senators who deeply believe in the principles of freedom and are willing to fight for them each day.

As we head into the most important election year in our lifetimes, my challenge is to you is to keep your focus on winning a conservative majority in the U.S. Senate. These races and the candidates running in them aren't getting the same media attention as the presidential candidate, but they're no less important.

That is why I founded and chair the Senate Conservatives Fund, a political action committee that helps elect rock-solid conservative leaders to the U.S. Senate.

We have endorsed the following four standout leaders for the 2012 elections: Josh Mandel in Ohio, Ted Cruz in Texas, Don Stenberg in Nebraska, and Mark Neumann in Wisconsin.

These candidates share a strong belief in the principles of freedom that make America great and they understand the critical role the U.S. Constitution plays in preserving those principles.

These leaders also have records that prove they not only talk the talk but also walk the walk. And each of them has shown the courage to stand up to their own party's leaders when it was necessary to support and defend our principles and values.

So if you agree that winning a conservative majority in the U.S. Senate is vital to our nation's future and if you're willing to engage in these races even at a time when the media ignores them, then please do three things today.

First, visit SenateConservatives.com and sign up for our email updates so you're informed.

Second, make a contribution either to SCF or directly to one or more of our candidates. Without financial support, these candidates won't be able to get their message out and win.

Third, forward this email to your family and friends. As politely as you can, tell them "It's the Senate, stupid" and encourage them to join our effort to take America back.
Thank you for your commitment to principles of freedom. We live the greatest country in the world and if we work together in smart and effective ways, I'm confident we can preserve it for generations to come.

Major Sports Coaches Out in the State of Illinois - 2012

2011-12-18T20:10:00.003-06:00

Last year, I predicted two head coaches should be removed. I missed as only Jim Les from Bradley was fired. Ron Zook from Illinois football should have been but the Board of Directors lacks guts. This year, guts or not, he is gone.

Only the color his skin saved Lovie Smith, Bears head coach. If the Bears want to ever again become the "Monsters of the Midway" color of ones skin should have no bearing on who is selected as head coach. If a black coach can get the job done, OK with me but Lovie has had his chances.

I've lost so much interest in the NBA I've forgotten who coaches the Bulls. With no talented big man, the Bulls will be an also ran despite Rose and a a year older Boozer.

But those of us who have more important things to do than to be entertained by endless relays of overpaid and overpriced circuses and participants, who really should care??

Who should care? Those who have noticed the direction our country is heading. But, we, like the Romans, will still have our endless circuses to watch sitting on our butts as the country grows more obese. Obese people do not make good warriors and our enemies are aware of this fact.

Neither do welfare people or the uneducated which includes the roughly 50% who don't pay income tax but our president still wants to give them tax refunds. But still have mney to buy high priced sporting event tickets.

Sad part. is that most of them expect income tax refunds whether they contributed of not. Same as highly paid head coaches don't believe they should be fired.

And Some Who Think The November 2012 Ousting of Obama is a "Sure Thing"

2011-12-10T19:50:00.001-06:00

Think again, Republicans, you still don't have a winning candidate.

Merle

Subject: FYI contributors...

I ADDED UP THE TOTAL OF THE BELOW DONATIONS.....

$486,440,870

OF COURSE THE TAX PAYERS WILL MAKE UP THE UNDERFUNDED

PENSION OF THE UNIONS (NOT THE CORPORATIONS OR SMALL BUSINESSES)

If you know someone in one of these Unions, ask them if they were ever ASKED

where the donations should go...... we have the best government money can buy!

Interesting read.

Democrat contributors aka "Obama's Army"

The labor unions, particularly government employee unions, check out these Union contributions.

Leading Union Political
Campaign Contributors
1990-2010

Democrats
Republicans

American Fed. Of
State, County, & Municipal
Employees
$40,281,900
$547,700

Intel Brotherhood of
Electrical Workers
29,705,600
679,000

National Education
Association
27,679,300
2,005,200

Service Employees
International Union
26,368,470
98,700

Communication Workers
Of America
26,305,500
125,300

Service Employees
International Union
26,252,000
1,086,200

Laborers
Union
25,734,000
138,000

American Federation
Of Teachers
25,682,800
200,000

United Auto
Workers
25,082,200
182,700

Teamsters
Union
24,926,400
1,822,000

Carpenters and
Joiners Union
24,094,100
658,000

Machinists &
Aerospace Workers Union
23,875,600
226,300

United Food and
Commercial Workers Union
23,182,000
334,200

AFL-CIO
17,124,300
713,500

Sheet Metal Workers
Union
16,347,200
342,800

Plumbers &
Pipefitters Union
14,790,000
818,500

Operating Engineers
Union
13,840,000
2,309,500

Airline Pilots
Association
12,806,600
2,398,300

International
Association of Firefighters
12,421,700
2,685,400

United Transportation
Workers
11,807,000
1,459,300

Ironworkers
Union
11,638,900
936,000

American Postal
Workers Union
11,633,100
544,300

Nat'l Active &
Retired Fed.. Employees
Association
8,135,400
2,294,600

Seafarers
International Union
6,726,800
1,281,300

Source: Center for
Responsive Politics, Washington ,
D.C.

Wouldn't it be nice if the unions put all that money in their pension funds???

And how much better off we would all be!

Matters Not Who Wrote This - Read my Older Blogs on Self-Esteem

2011-12-10T17:18:00.004-06:00

Blame everbody in Congresss for not putting the unemployed to work. Also blame big labor who whould not allow these people to work for the government like welfare and the unemployed people worked in govnernmen jobs like the CCC, etc. Big labor would insist they join a union and be paid prevailing wage.

And don't confuse the G.I Bill and Social Security with welfare.

This was written by a 21 yr old female who gets it. It's her future she’s worried about and this is how she feels about the social welfare big government state that she’s being forced to live in! These solutions are just common sense in her opinion.

This was in the Waco Tribune Herald, Waco , TX Nov 18, 2010

Put me in charge . . .

Put me in charge of food stamps. I'd get rid of Lone Star cards; no cash for Ding Dongs or Ho Ho's, just money for 50-pound bags of rice and beans, blocks of cheese and all the powdered milk you can haul away. If you want steak and frozen pizza, then get a job.

Put me in charge of Medicaid. The first thing I'd do is to get women Norplant birth control implants or tubal ligations. Then, we'll test recipients for drugs, alcohol, and nicotine and document all tattoos and piercings. If you want to reproduce or use drugs, alcohol, smoke or get tats and piercings, then get a job.

Put me in charge of government housing. Ever live in a military barracks?

You will maintain our property in a clean and good state of repair. Your "home" will be subject to inspections anytime and possessions will be inventoried. If you want a plasma TV or Xbox 360, then get a job and your own place.

In addition, you will either present a check stub from a job each week or you will report to a "government" job. It may be cleaning the roadways of trash, painting and repairing public housing, whatever we find for you. We will sell your 22 inch rims and low profile tires and your blasting stereo and speakers and put that money toward the “common good..”

Before you write that I've violated someone's rights, realize that all of the above is voluntary. If you want our money, accept our rules.. Before you say that this would be "demeaning" and ruin their "self esteem," consider that it wasn't that long ago that taking someone else's money for doing absolutely nothing was demeaning and lowered self esteem.

If we are expected to pay for other people's mistakes we should at least attempt to make them learn from their bad choices. The current system rewards them for continuing to make bad choices.

AND While you are on Gov’t subsistence, you no longer can VOTE! Yes that is correct. For you to vote would be a conflict of interest. You will voluntarily remove yourself from voting while you are receiving a Gov’t welfare check. If you want to vote, then get a job.

Now, if you have the guts - PASS IT ON.....

Put me in charge of food stamps. I'd get rid of Lone Star cards; no cash for Ding Dongs or Ho Ho's, just money for 50-pound bags of rice and beans, blocks of cheese and all the powdered milk you can haul away. If you want steak and frozen pizza, then get a job.

Put me in charge of Medicaid. The first thing I'd do is to get women Norplant birth control implants or tubal ligations. Then, we'll test recipients for drugs, alcohol, and nicotine and document all tattoos and piercings. If you want to reproduce or use drugs, alcohol, smoke or get tats and piercings, then get a job.

Put me in charge of government housing. Ever live in a military barracks?

You will maintain our property in a clean and good state of repair. Your "home" will be subject to inspections anytime and possessions will be inventoried. If you want a plasma TV or Xbox 360, then get a job and your own place.

In addition, you will either present a check stub from a job each week or you will report to a "government" job. It may be cleaning the roadways of trash, painting and repairing public housing, whatever we find for you. We will sell your 22 inch rims and low profile tires and your blasting stereo and speakers and put that money toward the “common good..”

Before you write that I've violated someone's rights, realize that all of the above is voluntary. If you want our money, accept our rules.. Before you say that this would be "demeaning" and ruin their "self esteem," consider that it wasn't that long ago that taking someone else's money for doing absolutely nothing was demeaning and lowered self esteem.

If we are expected to pay for other people's mistakes we should at least attempt to make them learn from their bad choices. The current system rewards them for continuing to make bad choices.

AND While you are on Gov’t subsistence, you no longer can VOTE! Yes that is correct. For you to vote would be a conflict of interest. You will voluntarily remove yourself from voting while you are receiving a Gov’t welfare check. If you want to vote, then get a job.

Now, if you have the guts - PASS IT ON.....

It Ain't God That is the Problem in This Country, It's the Economy You Stupid Republicans

2011-12-10T09:53:00.003-06:00

Rich Perry should go back to his god, his cattle and his oil fields. He ain't going to be pres of the U.S. Neither is Bachmann, Santorum nor Huntsman. And most likely not Romney or Gingrich. And certainly not Ryan. Some of his ideas have merit but he presents them like offering a fruitcake to a friend who does not like fruitcakes.

Where god might enter in, "if these candidates are the best the Republicans can bring out, 'God save this country'.

I suggest reading "God and the Economy in Iowa" by one the the best writers in the country, Kimberly Strassel, in today's WSJ.

On the same Opinion page read David Feith, "Boot Camp For Citizens", summarized by Peter Berkowitz. The evidence of civic illiteracy is abundant. out of thousands of of primary and secondary students across the U.S., took a history exam administered by the education dept. more than half failed and less than 10% were as proficient as they should be".

No surprise hear as on who sat thru many a classroom as an observer and one who sees the results in ordinary people I come in contact with. Especially many of the people who vote today.

A College Degree is a Hunting Licence - Nothing More

2011-12-10T09:07:00.005-06:00

I was told this by my first intelligent manager. Here is what blogger and law professor Glenn Reynolds wrote in the Washington Examiner on December 3 and re- printed in the WSJ on December 6:

"The reason why a bachelor's degree on its own no longer conveys intelligence and capability is that government decided that as many people as possible should have bachelor's degree.

There's something of a pattern here. The government decides to try to increase the middle class by subsidizing things that middle class have. If middle class people go to college and own homes, we'll have more middle class people.

But home ownership and colleges aren't causes of middle class status, they're markers for possessing the kind of traits-self discipline, the ability to defer gratification, etc.-that let you enter, and stay in, the middle class.

Subsidizing the markers doesn't produce the traits; if anything, it undermines them. One might as well try to promote basketball skills by distributing expensive sneakers."

I've written on this subject many times. I quoted Garrison Keilor who quipped that all college graduates would be "Indian Chiefs" with no on to do the hard work.

That's what we have folks and that is the reason so many people enter our country illegally because they know they will find work that our citizens won't do, college graduates or not.

Someone Else IS Telling You How to Run Your Lives - Obama, Big Labor, Radical Environmentalists, Democrat and Republican Do-Gooders

2011-12-07T07:24:00.003-06:00

Merle,

"My primary concern is that someone else will be telling me how to best care for my son," explained Pam Harris.

You see, Big Labor wants a cut of the subsidy Harris spends to take care of her son with special needs.

Now with free legal aid from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys, she and seven other Illinois in-home care providers are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to invalidate a scheme enacted by Governor Pat Quinn and his disgraced predecessor, Rod Blagojevich, aimed at forcing them into union ranks.

SEIU and AFSCME union bosses are battling over the power to force personal care providers to pay union dues.

I'm sure you'll agree with me that this is just plain wrong -- and unconstitutional. That's why Foundation attorneys have filed a petition for a writ of certiorari with the Supreme Court.

In fact, Foundation attorneys will appear at the Supreme Court next month taking on yet another corrupt SEIU forced-unionism scheme.

If you haven't already, I hope you'll read Mark Mix's message below about that case.

And if you can, please chip in with a tax-deductible contribution of $10 or more today to help the Foundation provide free legal aid to compulsory unionism victims in crucial cases like these.

Sincerely,

Sheila W.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Mark Mix [mark.mix@righttoworkfoundation.org]
Sent: Thursday, December 1, 2011 1:18 PM
To: Sheila W [sheila@righttoworkfoundation.org]
Subject: SEIU running scared

Florida Alleviates Stress For This Blogger

2011-12-06T11:18:00.004-06:00

Vacationing Florida in truly lovely weather has relieved a lot of the stress I have built up over a number of years. And playing tennis helps. I register my age as 75 which gets me more more invitations to play. I compete quite well, always against younger players. I play in two groups allowing me to play 5 days a week. If you forgot, and I have, I'm 86.

For outsiders reading this blog, my home is both occupied and armed.

I continue to read, listen and watch but have put blogging on a hiatus.

My views have not changed. I don't like what the radical sector of the "occupiers" are doing. I like being paid for performance which pits me against most union bosses. I am an environmentalist but am absolutely opposed to the radicals disrupting business and costing thousands of jobs, I want all [people to make more money so they can spend more creating more jobs creating more tax money to support government that doesn't spend more than they take in.

I have never opposed the wealthy except when they cheat, get arrogant or try to tell the rest of us what we need. Around $640,000 was spent "supposedly" by the wealthy to pass a new museum referendum by 400 votes out of 30,000+ total votes.

And the Peoria Park Board could expand their bloated bureaucracy by taking over the 33,000 square foot Lakeview Museum building to go along with the thousands of square feet they now occupy in the old IDOT buildings on N. Knoxville.

I have turned from being an independent Republican to a conservative independent. To reelect Obama and most congressional Democrats will be the greatest disaster this country has ever known.

I support immigration but not illegal immigration. Read my past stance on illegal immigration by typing in "immigration". My stance hasn't changed much and some presidential candidates appear to agree on some of my solutions.

I believe that the entire Peoria City Council should be voted out with the exception of newomers, Weaver and Akeson. And probaly Sandberg whoud be retained for another year. I thank all of them for their standing for election but disagee on how they are handling other peoples money. The ex-Peoria County Adminstrator did a reasonab;y good job. But county spending was kept under reasonable control by conservatives like myself although I didn't have much support in the last two years of my ten year board sevice.

As far as Peoria Public Schools are faring, their overall history has not been too good; the future appears to be about the same as all inner school systems. nationwide. Not very good. Blame it on the colleges who turn these teahcer out, the power of the unions, and unpaid weak school boards.

I oppose cumulative voting and support term limits. On the peoria County Board, one member is in her 25 year and never saw a dime of OPM she didn't want to spend. The opposite is with one council member.

Enough for now. Plus the problems with my computer are stressfull enough. I can't use my spell-check again and this blog keep publishing before I hit enter.

Best I can do right now. You read any subject of past blogs by entering any subject word like PRM or PPD on my search bar above.

Obama's Attempts to Gain Back Lost Private Sector Union Membership

2011-11-29T16:13:00.004-06:00

Passed on to me by a friend. Obama continues to pay back big labot for his 2008 election.

Merle

October/November 2011 Foundation Action Now Available Online

The October/November 2011 issue of Foundation Action is now available to read online or download as a PDF.

Here's a sample of this month's cover story about the out-of-control Obama Labor Board's assault on job providers -- even your local Mom and Pop shop:
Obama NLRB Exceeds Legal Authority in Payback to Big Labor

WASHINGTON, DC – As the list of Obama Administration political paybacks to Big Labor grows, the National U

Far exceeding its statutory authority, the NLRB is now forcing its way into as many as six million private-sector workplaces. The new rule requires job providers to post biased notices that effectively serve as a roadmap to unionization, even if workers don't want to labor under union-boss control, and even if the company has never been accused of an "unfair labor practice."

Mom and Pop shops, small businesses, larger companies -- even some religiously-affiliated organizations -- are now under the Obama Labor Board's microscope. Read the full issue to learn more.

Other stories in this issue include:
Foundation Overturns Union Schemes that Forced Nonunion Workers to Subsidize Big Labor's Radical Political Agenda
Beyond Boeing: The Obama Labor Board's Forced-Unionism Agenda
Connecticut Police Officer Wins Forced Dues Refund
NLRB Shreds Secret Ballots after Overturning Landmark Foundation-won "Card Check" Precedent
National Right to Work Labor Day News Round-Up
Click here to read or download the newsletter.

The Foundation relies completely on voluntary contributions from its supporters to provide free legal aid. To chip in with a tax-deductible contribution of $10 or more please click here.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The National Right to Work Legal

Obama's Czars???

2011-11-26T12:23:00.003-06:00

Forwarded to me by a friend.

Merle

OBAMA'S "CZARS"-- Read who they are and realize what they want to do.

Richard Holbrooke
Afghanistan Czar
Ultra liberal anti-gun former Gov. Of New Mexico. Pro Abortion and legal drug use. Dissolve the 2nd Amendment

Ed Montgomery
Auto recovery Czar
Black radical anti-business activist. Affirmative Action and Job Preference for blacks. Univ of Maryland Business School Dean teaches US business has caused world poverty. ACORN board member. Communist DuBois Club member.

Jeffrey Crowley
AIDS Czar
Radical Homosexual.. A Gay Rights activist. Believes in Gay Marriage and especially, a Special Status for homosexuals only, including complete free health care for gays.

Alan Bersin
Border Czar
The former failed superintendent of San Diego . Ultra Liberal friend of Hilary Clinton. Served as Border Czar under Janet Reno - to keep borders open to illegal's without interference from US

David J. Hayes
California Water Czar
Sr. Fellow of radical environmentalist group, "Progress Policy". No training or experience in water management whatsoever.

Ron Bloom
Car Czar
Auto Union worker. Anti-business & anti-nuclear. Has worked hard to force US auto makers out of business. Sits on the Board of Chrysler which is now Auto Union owned. How did this happen?

Dennis Ross
Central Region Czar
Believes US policy has caused Mid East wars. Obama apologist to the world. Anti-gun and completely pro-abortion.

Lynn Rosenthal
Domestic Violence Czar
Director of the National Network to End Domestic Violence. Vicious anti male feminist. Supported male castration. Imagine?

Gil Kerlikowske
Drug Czar
devoted lobbyist for every restrictive gun law proposal, Former Chief of Police in Liberal Seattle .. Believes no American should own a firearm. Supports legalization of all drugs

Paul Volcker
EconomicCzar
Head of Fed Reserve under Jimmy Carter when US economy nearly failed. Obama appointed head of the Economic Recovery Advisory Board which engineered the Obama economic disaster to US economy. Member of anti-business "Progressive Policy" organization

Carol Brower
Energy and Environment Czar
Political Radical Former head of EPA - known for anti-business activism. Strong anti-gun ownership.

Joshua DuBois
Faith Based Czar
Political Black activist-Degree in Black Nationalism. Anti-gun ownership lobbyist. WHAT THE HELL DOES A FAITH BASED CZAR DO???????????

Cameron Davis
Great Lakes Czar
Chicago radical anti-business environmentalist. Blames George Bush for "Poisoning the water that minorities have to drink." No experience or training in water management. Former ACORN Board member(what does that tell us?)

Van Jones
Green Jobs Czar
(since resigned).. Black activist Member of American communist Party and San Francisco Communist Party who said Geo Bush caused the 911 attack and wanted Bush investigated by the World Court for war crimes. Black activist with strong anti-white views.

Daniel Fried
Guantanamo Closure Czar
Human Rights activist for Foreign Terrorists. Believes America has caused the war on terrorism. Believes terrorists have rights above and beyond Americans.

Nancy-Ann DeParle.
Health Czar
Former head of Medicare / Medicaid. Strong Health Care Rationing proponent. She is married to a reporter for The New York Times..

Vivek Kundra
Information Czar
Born in New Delhi , India .. Controls all public information, including labels and news releases. Monitors all private Internet emails. (hello?)

Todd Stern
International Climate Czar
Anti-business former White House chief of Staff- Strong supporter of the Kyoto Accord. Pushing hard for Cap and Trade. Blames US business for Global warming. Anti- US business prosperity.

Dennis Blair
Intelligence Czar
Ret. Navy. Stopped US guided missile program as "provocative". Chair of ultra-liberal "Council on Foreign Relations" which blames American organizations for regional wars.

George Mitchell
Mideast Peace Czar
Fmr. Sen. from Maine Left wing radical. Has said Israel should be split up into "2 or 3 " smaller more manageable plots". (God forbid) A true Anti-nuclear anti-gun & pro homosexual "special rights" advocate

Kenneth Feinberg
Pay Czar
Chief of Staff to TED KENNEDY. Lawyer who got rich off the 911 victims payoffs. (horribly true)

Cass Sunstein
Regulatory Czar
Liberal activist judge believes free speech needs to be limited for the "common good". Essentially against 1st amendment. Rules against personal freedoms many times -like private gun ownership and right to free speech. This guy has to be run out of Washington !!

John Holdren
Science Czar
Fierce ideological environmentalist, Sierra Club, Anti-business activist. Claims US business has caused world poverty. No Science training.

Earl Devaney
Stimulus Accountability Czar
Spent career trying to take guns away from American citizens. Believes in Open Borders to Mexico . Author of statement blaming US gun stores for drug war in Mexico .

J. Scott Gration
Sudan Czar
Native of Democratic Republic of Congo . Believes US does little to help Third World countries. Council of foreign relations, asking for higher US taxes to support United Nations

Herb Allison
TARP Czar
Fannie Mae CEO responsible for the US recession by using real estate mortgages to back up the US stock market. Caused millions of people to lose their life savings..

John Brennan
Terrorism Czar
Anti CIA activist. No training in diplomatic or Gov. affairs. Believes Open Borders to Mexico and a dialog with terrorists and has suggested Obama disband US military A TOTAL MORON !!!!!

Aneesh Chopra
Technology Czar
No Technology training. Worked for the Advisory Board Company, a health care think tank for hospitals. Anti-doctor activist. Supports Obama Health care Rationing and salaried doctors working exclusively for the Gov. health care plan

Adolfo Carrion Jr..
Urban Affairs Czar
Puerto Rican born Anti American activist and leftist group member in Latin America . Millionaire "slum lord" of the Bronx , NY. Owns many lavish homes and condos which he got from "sweetheart" deals with labor unions. Wants higher taxes on middle class to pay for minority housing and health care

Ashton Carter
Weapons Czar
Leftist. Wants all private weapons in US destroyed. Supports UN ban on firearms ownership in America .. No Other "policy"

Gary Samore
WMD Policy Czar
Former US Communist. Wants US to destroy all WMD unilaterally as a show of good faith. Has no other "policy".

How lucky are we that these are the people who are helping President Obama in the RUNNING of our country and the White House?

ARE YOU MAD YET?

Ms. YeSun
www.ccgagop.org

www.gccrw.org

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free. Ronald Reagan

Thomas Sowell - Did He Write This?

2011-11-24T17:22:00.002-06:00

Sent to me by a friend. I have read enough about Dr. Sowell to know this is what he believes, whether he wrote this article or not.

So do I.

Merle

The current Occupy Wall Street movement is the best illustration to date of what President Barack Obama’s America looks like. It is an America where the lawless, unaccomplished, ignorant and incompetent rule. It is an America where those who have sacrificed nothing pillage and destroy the lives of those who have sacrificed greatly.

It is an America where history is rewritten to honor dictators, murderers and thieves. It is an America where, racism, hatred, class warfare and murder are all promoted as acceptable means of overturning the American civil society.

It is an America where humans have been degraded to the level of animals: defecating in public, having sex in public, devoid of basic hygiene. It is an America where the basic tenets of a civil society, including faith, family, a free press and individual rights, have been rejected. It is an America where our founding documents have been shredded and, with them, every person’s guaranteed liberties.

It is an America where, ultimately, great suffering will come to the American people, but the rulers like Obama, Michelle Obama, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, Joe Biden, Jesse Jackson, Louis Farrakhan, liberal college professors, union bosses and other loyal liberal/Communist Party members will live in opulent splendor.

It is the America that Obama and the Democratic Party have created with the willing assistance of the American media, Hollywood, unions, universities, the Communist Party of America, the Black Panthers and numerous anti-American foreign entities.

Barack Obama has brought more destruction upon this country in four years than any other event in the history of our nation, but it is just the beginning of what he and his comrades are capable of.

The Occupy Wall Street movement is just another step in their plan for the annihilation of America.

”Socialism, in general, has a record of failure so blatant that only an intellectual could ignore or evade it.”

Chef Kevin's Culinary

2011-11-23T19:59:00.001-06:00

Kevin,

I tried 4 times to post a comment on your site today. Site wouldn't accept my comments???

Obama Tries in All Ways to Control the Public's Use of Guns

2011-11-23T19:16:00.001-06:00

Feds bag idea of curbing target practice on public lands. By Miguel Llanos, msnbc.com

The Obama administration on Wednesday backed off a draft policy to restrict target shooting on federal land near residential areas.
Rep. Denny Rehberg, R-Mont., last Friday sent Salazar a letter asking that the draft policy be canned, saying he worried it would be taken advantage of by anti-gun rights groups. "Any draft proposal regarding recreation on public lands must continue to guarantee hunting opportunities," he wrote.

In a statement issued along with a copy of the letter, Rehberg said the Obama administration "is uncomfortable with gun rights, and eager to restrict the Second Amendment at every opportunity."

"In a state like Montana, where the federal government is by far the largest land holder, preserving Second Amendment rights on public land isn’t just a question of good policy," he said. "It’s a question of protecting our way of life from big-city meddlers."

The rationale cited in the draft included public safety on areas maintained by the Bureau of Land Management.

"As the West has become more populated, recreational shooters now often find themselves in conflict with other public lands users, and the BLM is frequently called on to mediate these conflicts," the draft stated.

"Closing areas where risks are high may reduce shooting related conflicts, and may also reduce legal claims against the BLM for shooting-related injuries or damages," the draft concluded.

Rehberg and others opposed to the draft were particularly concerned with criteria they felt would allow land managers to unfairly limit target practices. The draft would have stated that "the specific shooting activity must not:"

•"Cause a public disturbance or create risk to other persons on public lands.
•"Deface, remove or destroy natural features, native plants, cultural resources, historic structures or government and/or private property.
•"Facilitate and create a condition of littering, refuse accumulation and abandoned personal property.
•"Violate existing use restriction, a closure and restriction order, or supplementary rules notice."
A committee that advises the federal government on hunting issues had earlier also voiced concern about the draft.

"The Council concludes that its implementation will have the practical effect of moving recreational shooting off public lands, thereby diminishing public access to public lands," the group stated earlier this month in comments to the BLM.

The group, known as the Wildlife and Hunting Heritage Conservation Council, drafted recommendations such as building berms to enhance safety. Its members include hunting associations as well as The Nature Conservancy and the National Wildlife Federation.
.Browse: environment, interior, second-amendment, gun-rights.

Back Romney? Richard Vigverie Says Probably Not

2011-11-23T15:34:00.007-06:00

And who is Richard Vigverie? Best to look him up on the internet. I believe he is right as I have written on this blog site. In my humble opinion, the Republican who can turn this country around (too many good old boys and girls running the party) has yet to declare.

Too bad for at least 60% of this country.

Jason Mattera on Bush Tax Cuts And MSNBC

2011-11-23T15:17:00.001-06:00

Issue of "Bush Tax Cuts Rises Again With Failure of Super Committee" by Jason Mattera11/22/2011

Comments: By randomly turning on MSNBC at any point throughout the day, you’re guaranteed to see one of the following:

--Chris Matthews’s spittle ricocheting off of the camera;

--Rachel Maddow in a hoodie; or

--Some leftwing politician droning on and on about how the Bush tax cuts must be rescinded… because they weren’t paid for, because they’ve contributed massively to the deficit, because they were for the “rich,” and something about the Koch Brothers and Grover Norquist being a bane upon American democracy.

Indeed, the tax cuts signed into law by President Bush in 2001 and 2003 have taken center stage once again now that the “supercommittee” charged with finding $1.2 trillion in spending cuts admitted failure. The Washington Post wrote that the supercommitte’s undoing has thrust the “much-contested Bush tax cuts into the forefront of next year’s presidential campaign.” As the Post goes on to note, Democrats will “portray Obama’s opponent in the presidential election as a defender of tax cuts for the rich.”

“The wealthiest of Americans, those who earn over a million dollars every year, have to share, too. And that line in the sand we haven’t seen any Republicans willing to cross yet,” said one of the United States Senate’s most uninformed members, Patty Murray (D.-Wash.).

Dan Pfeiffer, official White House hack and Obama bootlicker, said the expiration of the tax cuts “should be a powerful incentive to the Republicans to abandon their politically foolish and substantively absurd position on taxes on the wealthy.”

And the beat goes on.

Except, of course, these shopworn liberal objections to tax cuts are filled with more shinola than Michael Moore’s colon.

Seeing that the Democrats are reviving their favorite campaign talking point, let’s review the facts about “tax cuts for the rich.”

First off, what President Bush enacted into law cut taxes across the board on everyone, not just the upper echelon. The 15 percent rate dropped to 10 percent, 27 percent to 25 percent, 30 percent to 28 percent, 35 percent to 33 percent, and 39.6 percent to 35 percent. Now go ahead and ask a lib which income bracket received the highest cut. Oh, snap: That would be the lowest income threshold, which nosedived five percentage points.

The whole “tax cuts for the rich” is pure bunk, a lie that liberals shamelessly popularize. Not that this should surprise us one bit. Here we have a Democrat Party in America that couldn’t agree on a puny $1.2 trillion in spending reductions over a 10-year-period. That means that Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi’s minions refused to slice off what amounts to $120 billion dollars a year of a federal budget nearly topping $4 trillion. Instead they insisted that taxes be jacked up to pay for their statist programs.

Next up, we have the line that tax cuts blew the lid off of our deficit. That’s funny, because during the last year a Republican budget controlled Congress (fiscal year 2007), the deficit stood at a minuscule $161 billion dollars. $161 billion! That’s at least five years into the tenure of those evil tax cuts. Moreover, as HUMAN EVENTS has previously reported, federal tax receipts actually went up while the tax cuts were accelerating. In other words, the United States Treasury received more money not less because of the Bush tax cuts that Democrats allege ruined America’s economy.

See for yourself:

$1.88 trillion in 2004

$ 2.15 trillion in 2005

$ 2.4 trillion in 2006

$ 2.6 trillion in 2007

The last figure was actually the highest dollar amount brought into the Treasury Department… ever. That’s right, folks. While Democrats wail and whine about tax cuts as the main culprit for this country’s deficit woes, it turns out that we were bringing in bagfuls of money at historic proportions during that same time.

Idiots.

Then there are the politically-savvy, but totally fallacious, calls for "shared sacrifice." Naturally the Democrats don’t use that phrase to describe the nearly 50 percent of Americans who don’t pay any federal income taxes, but instead those who already pay the bulk of all federal, state, and local taxes. That aside, it’s the spending side of the lever that is completely out-of-whack, and has been so for a while. We’re now in our third straight year in a row with deficits exploding past $1 trillion dollars.

So when a lib is babbling to you about “shared sacrifice,” you can remind him that his great leader Messiah Obama shattered two spending records: Giving America her first-ever $1 trillion dollar deficit, and number two, extending that history-making deficit three consecutive years.

Heck, this guy has managed to increase the national debt by more than the first 41 presidents combined (George Washington to George Bush), and he’s done so in a mere 32 months.

You go, Barack!

And there you have it, the cutting evidence you need at your finger tips to eviscerate those unending lefty desires to slam us against the locker room and raid our wallets some more. Time to hit these Dems back with what they can’t get around -- a little something, something called: Facts.

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Mr. Mattera is the editor of HUMAN EVENTS and the author of Obama Zombies: How the Liberal Machine Brainwashed My Generation (Simon & Schuster). He also hosts The Jason Mattera Show on News Talk Radio 77WABC. Previously, he was the Spokesman for Young America's Foundation and a TV correspondent for Michelle Malkin. Follow Jason on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.

Real Thanksgiving Wishes

2011-11-23T14:46:00.007-06:00

To all my other readers, may the year end on a more positive note and that the year of 2012 end with optimism and 2013 come in with a real "change". May you have less to be stressful about than you have had in recent years and months.

Those who say even if my candidate can't win I'm not voting for he or she. Too bad, FOUR more years of disaster for this once great country. Why do I say "once" great? Please read more media like the WSJ and watch more balanced business news like FOX TV.

If you try to understand what Obama is saying and doing, you will understand he knows EXACTLY) what he is doing.

Thanksgiving Wishes

2011-11-23T14:37:00.002-06:00

To Obama and all who strongly support him, you deserve to get the turkey stuffed - up your respective asses whole.

Sincerely,

Merle

More "Market Spiral" Humor

2011-11-21T15:28:00.001-06:00

Forwarded to me by my niece, Kris Widmer. Thanks, Chris.

Merle

Origin of Left & Right

I have often wondered why it is that Conservatives are called the "right" and Liberals are called the "left."

By chance I stumbled upon this verse in the Bible:
"The heart of the wise inclines to the right,
but the heart of the fool to the left."
Ecclesiastes 10:2 (NIV)

"A wise man's heart is at his right hand;
but a fool's heart at his left"
Ecclesiastes 10:2 (KJV)

Thus sayeth the Lord. Amen.

Can't get any simpler than that.

Subject:Spelling Lesson

The last four letters in American..........I Can
The last four letters in Republican.......I Can
The last four letters in Democrats.........Rats

End of lesson. Test to follow in November, 2012

Remember, November is to be set aside as rodent extermination month.

Obama and Democrats Send Market in a Downward Spiral

2011-11-21T15:16:00.002-06:00

Might as well have a good laugh. Not much for investors to laugh about. And don't say "vote the corrupters out". It hasn't worked much yet and the Republican field is weak.

A woman from Los Angeles who was a tree hugger, a liberal Democrat, and an anti-hunter, purchased a piece of timberland near Colville , WA . There was a large tree on one of the highest points in the tract. She wanted a good view of the natural splendor of her land, so she started to climb the big tree.
As she neared the top she encountered a spotted owl that attacked her. In her haste to escape, the woman slid down the tree to the ground and got many splinters in her crotch. In considerable pain, she hurried to a local ER to see a doctor.
She told him she was an environmentalist, a Democrat, and an anti-hunter and how she came to get all the splinters. The doctor listened to her story with great patience and then told her to go wait in the examining room and he would see if he could help her.
She sat and waited three hours before the doctor reappeared. The angry woman demanded, what took you so long?" He smiled and then told her, "Well, I had to get permits from the Environmental Protection Agency, the Forest Service, and the Bureau of Land Management before I could remove old-growth timber from a "recreational area" so close to a waste treatment facility. I'm sorry, but due to Obama Care they turned me down.

GOD BLESS AMERICA

Sears - Read This - It's True

2011-11-18T17:56:00.000-06:00

Forwarded to me by a friend. I agree. Merle

Sears - Christmas shopping this year.

I know I needed this reminder, since Sears isn't always my first choice. It's amazing when you think of how long the war has lasted and Sears hasn't withdrawn from their commitment.
Could we each buy at least one thing at Sears this year?

How does Sears treat its employees who are called up for military duty?
By law, they are required to hold their jobs open and available, but nothing more.
Usually, people take a big pay cut and lose benefits as a result of being called up for active duty.

Sears is voluntarily paying the difference in salaries and maintaining all benefits, including medical insurance and bonus programs, for all called up reservist employees for up to two years.

I submit that Sears is an exemplary corporate citizen and should be recognized for its contribution. I suggest we all shop at Sears at least once, and be sure to find a manager to tell them why we are there so the company gets the positive reinforcement & feedback it well deserves.

Pass it on.

I decided to check this before I sent it forward.
So I sent the following e-mail to the Sears Customer Service Department:

I received this e-mail and I would like to know if it is true. If it is, the internet may have just become one very good source of advertisement for your company. I know I would go out of my way to buy products from Sears instead of another store for a like item, even if it's cheaper at that store.

This is their answer to my e-mail:

Dear Customer:

Thank you for contacting Sears. The information is factual. We appreciate your positive feedback.

Sears regards service to our country as one of greatest sacrifices our young men and women can make.
We are happy to do our part to lessen the burden they bear at this time.

Bill Thorn
Sears Customer Care
webcenter@sears.com

1-800-349-4358

Please pass this on to all your friends. Sears needs to be recognized for this outstanding contribution and we need to show them as Americans, we do appreciate what they are doing for our military!!!

It's verified ! By Snopes.com ; at:
http://www.snopes.com/politics/military/sears.asp

California ; The Land of Honey, Now The Land of Lack of (Money)

2011-11-11T15:00:00.005-06:00

Read blogger "Marathon Pundit" for facts on California's financial nightmare and about the 'occupiers' conduct in Colorado.

Peoria City Council's Hotel Deal

2011-11-11T14:54:00.001-06:00

Refer to blogger "The Peoria Chronicle" for more details on this potential disaster to the Peoria taxpayers.

Why Obama Will Win in 2012

2011-11-11T08:37:00.003-06:00

This is not new to me. I have blogged on this before. I have also blogged that this country will have a revolution before 2050. Approximately four years ago, I said Obama is a "scary" man. Since then, I have determined he is more than scary and this great Republic will be taken over by people described below plus some corporations who benefit greatly by Obama's largess to them. A group not mentioned are the radical environmentalist, whose latest effort to stop the Canada to the United States pipeline has succeeded and will not be revisited until after the 2012 elections.

Merle

The writer denies writing this but I have osted before that unless the republicans find a better candidate than those so far presented, I belive Obama will be re-elected.

Merle

Can President Obama be defeated in 2012? No. He can't. I am going on record as saying that President Barack Obama will win a second term.

The media won't tell you this because a good election campaign means hundreds of millions (or in Obama's case billions) of dollars to them in advertising.

But the truth is, there simply are no conditions under which Barack Obama can be defeated in 2012.

The quality of the Republican candidate doesn't matter. Obama gets reelected. Nine percent unemployment? No problem. Obama will win. Gas prices moving toward five dollars a gallon? He still wins. The economy soars or goes into the gutter. Obama wins. War in the Middle East ? He wins a second term.

America's role as the leading superpower disappears? Hurrah for Barack Obama! The U.S. government rushes toward bankruptcy, the dollar continues to sink on world markets, and the price of daily goods and services soars due to inflation fueled by Obama's extraordinary deficit spending? Obama wins handily.

You are crazy Williams. Don't you understand how volatile politics can be when overall economic, government, and world conditions are declining? Sure I do.

And that's why I know Obama will win. The American people are notoriously ignorant of economics. And economics is the key to why Obama should be defeated.

Even when Obama's policies lead the nation to final ruin, the majority of the American people are going to believe the bait-and-switch tactics Obama and his supporters in the media will use to explain why it isn't his fault. After all, things were much worse than understood when he took office.

Obama's reelection is really a very, very simple math problem. Consider the following:

1) Blacks will vote for Obama blindly. Period. Doesn't matter what he does. It's a race thing. He's one of us.

2) College educated women will vote for Obama. Though they will be offended by this, they swoon at his oratory. It's really not more complex than that.

3) Liberals will vote for Obama. He is their great hope.

4) Democrats will vote for Obama. He is the leader of their party and his coat tails will carry them to victory nationwide.

5) Hispanics will vote for Obama. He is the path to citizenship for those who are illegal and Hispanic leaders recognize the political clout they carry in the Democratic Party.

6) Union members will vote overwhelmingly for Obama. He is their key to money and power in business, state and local politics.

7) Big Business will support Obama. They already have. He has almost $1 Billion dollars in his re-election purse gained largely from his connections with Big Business and is gaining more everyday. Big Business loves Obama because he gives them access to taxpayer money so long as they support his social and political agenda.

8) The media love him. They may attack the people who work for him, but they love him. After all, to not love him would be racist.

9) Most other minorities and special interest groups will vote for him. Oddly, the overwhelming majority of Jews and Muslims will support him because they won't vote Republican. American Indians will support him. Obviously homosexuals tend to vote Democratic. And lastly,

10) Approximately half of independents will vote for Obama. And he doesn't need anywhere near that number because he has all of the groups previously mentioned. The President will win an overwhelming victory in 2012.

-- Dr. Walter Williams

Obituary-Very Interesting!

Born 1776, Died 2008
It doesn't hurt to read this several times.
Someone points out some interesting facts concerning the last Presidential election:
Number of States won by: Obama:19 McCain: 29
· Square miles of land won by: Obama:580,000 McCain: 2,427,000
· Population of counties won by: Obama:127million McCain: 143 million
· Murder rate per 100,000 residents in counties won by: Obama: 13.2 McCain: 2.1
Smeone adds: "In aggregate, the map of the territory McCain won was mostly the land owned by the taxpaying citizens of the country.

Obama territory mostly encompassed those citizens living in low income tenements and living off various forms of governement welfare."

Someone believes the United States is now somewhere between the "complacency and apathy" phase of Professor Tyler's definition of democracy, with some forty percent of the nation's population already having reached the "governmental dependency" phase.

If Congress grants amnesty and citizenship to twenty million criminal invaders called illegals - and they vote - then we can say goodbye to the USA in fewer than five years.

If you are in favor of this, then by all means, delete this message.

If you are not, then pass this along to help everyone realize just how much is at stake, knowing that apathy is the greatest danger to our freedom.

Is This True?

2011-11-11T08:31:00.001-06:00

Passed to me by a friend.

Merle

Rotten to the core I say...................

Guess there's no more than "6 degrees of separation" from corruption, too.
And check out those democrats...

Imagine the odds of this happening:

Do you know the park in NYC that the Wall Street protesters are occupying?
It's Zucotti Park.

Do you know this park is not owned by the city?
It is owned by Brookfield Properties.

Who was just hired by Brookfield Properties, as an attorney?
Vice President Joe Biden's son.

Who sits on the board of Brookfield Properties?
Mayor Bloomberg's live-in girlfriend.

Now, guess what company just received some of the last of the obama Stimulus $$$$$$$.
Thaaaaaaaaaaaaat's right: Brookfield Properties. Isn't life great!

On a completely unrelated note, Wisconsin is shaping up to be the swing state in the 2012 presidential elections. Not Florida. Not Ohio. But Wisconsin.

Now, guess who owns the company that will be tabulating the electronic votes in Wisconsin.
Thaaaaaaaaaaaat's right, the biggest contributor to Obama: George Soros. Whaaaaaaaat a coincidence!

Remember what Stalin said. "He who votes does not have power. He who counts the votes has power".

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Reduce the Deficit, Cut Spending? Fat Chance

2011-11-06T22:23:00.002-06:00

If your read the news, listen to the news and watch the news put out by the major media outlets, you surely suspect that changing parties is not going to be the answer. The answer will lie in electing individuals who understand the "pickle" we are in and take aggressive and personal vote losing action. (in many cases because we are taught to take and not give except to charity). Those common sense, brave people, may only be found in fiction as written by Ayn Rand. They would need to survive being crucified by the liberal medias. (Think Herman Cain)

Twelve years or so, our "leaders" and the Journal Star pushed the ridiculous idea of an interstate to Chicago estimated at $800 million to save a few drive minutes (maybe), I say maybe because shortly after the road would have been built, repairs would start meaning one lane traffic, etc. I say 'to Chicago' where Peoria shoppers would go more frequently to spend and the flow of illegal drugs would be a bit faster.

Then, upon reaching the Chicago area they find traffic backed up for miles negating the time saved in traveling 75 or 80 miles an hour, yes, not 65 as is supposed to be the limit, and then traveling maybe 10 miles an hour during rush hours to their destination hopefully not downtown where the traffic jams are even worse.

And all the old roads would still be needed and maintained. More work and jobs; is that what it is all about?

And then Hi-Speed rail between Peoria and the recipient of Governor Koerner's wise decision of yonder years. Peoria didn't get the "curve" and has been jealous of the growth of Blomington-Normal ever since. As an aside, their ballpark in Normal is MAKING money.

Speaking of jobs, if you take time to watch most of our highway workers, now seeping into the private sector of highway contract workers, of working at a pace that would have made my Dad, if still living, ill, just like it does me. Good hard working highway workers can't show veteran union laborers up. Especially, some hard working women who show the men up so most of these women are assigned to a broom.

Hey, they can lean on a shovel, same as the men.

With all the bridges that need to be repaired or re-built, don't expect it to be accomplished in this generation. And build high speed rails and islands in the rivers, wall in the rivers and mine the silt from the rivers, build more museums with public dollars, finance more businesses like FireFly, the bankrupt solar plants, and hotels, etc? And more welfare payments?

You know, a lot of the things those in "Dreamsville" dream about would be nice if the dreamers just would pay for it themselves instead of spending OPM. Because they want; they spend and let present and future generations pay.

Too late in Peoria. Property owners and all taxpayers, we will see more fee increases like the garbage fees and other fees assessed in lieu of taxes by more and more public bodies.

Reduce the deficit. Cut spending? Fat chance.

Hi-Speed Rail to and From Bloomington-Normal

2011-11-06T21:10:00.002-06:00

Thanks to my friend Dave Hughes from Washington whose words of wisdom appear in the JSEB section of today's paper. Durbin, Mingus, and now, Ardis, and of course, Kohlbuss and Ray LaHood, want to make the State Of Illinois and the City of Peoria "broker" than they are now.

So $10 million or so will be spent on studying this new thoroughfare for years. "At the end of the day" these engineers and consultants will "guess" that the cost will be closer to $300 million plus higher guessed at daily operating and maintenance costs, inconvenience to the those who are affected by property re-designs, space allocations and environmental concerns like tearing up more farmland.

Whoever concocted the low estimates was taking a wild guess just like they thought LaHood's Rt. 29 to Rt. 80 was first guessed to be $300 million and then quickly guessed to be $600 million before they stopped studying this creature of those who are smarter than the rest of us.

This east west and west east hi-speed rail mad idea has so many problems they are almost to numerous to state but then the consultants and engineers will minimize these problems to please the "leaders" who hired them to do the study. But I'll list a few:

Where do you start and end? In Bloomington or Normal; in Peoria or East Peoria.
And exactly where like airport to airport, downtown to downtown, baseball field to baseball field, universities and colleges to universities and colleges, To be effective at all, two rails would need to be laid. Let's say the rail goes from airport to airport. I live on the west end and need to be at the east end by 8:00 while you live on the east end and need to be on the west end by 8:00. Two rails and two trains.

There is no way this plan would work if I have use a vehicle to get to the take-off site, park my vehicle (who will pay for the new parking lots or will I be charged to park?) have someone pick me up (an inconvenience) at the other end or hire a taxi or ride a bus or bicycle or what?

In fact, the rider will have to wait 10 minutes for the train to leave the station; yes, there will be need of a station at each end. And they will need to be at the station on time or they wait for the next run on whih they may be the only passengers.

If the train starts in Peoria, will it stop in East Peoria? What about Morton? or Congerville. And the same on the return trip? And what if I want to go over and have dinner with a friend or customer? Will the trains run at all hours?

If the plan is for only one train reversing direction would create an expensive problem. In fact, it wouldn't work at all if commuters have time schedules to meet.

I'll stop here. This idea is one of the most stupid ideas proposed by any appointed public boss or an elected official. Really intelligent people are not interested in running for office for fear somewhere in their background, they offended some race or woman. Look what the media is doing to Cain and we don't even know if he did anything worth public interest. Large organizations are quick to settle any charge, no matter how stupid, just to get it over and get on with business.

The harassment charges against then Mayor Maloof were so ridiculous but unfortunately Peoria is blessed with more than their share of tort attorneys. (and vindictive women from opposite political parties or ethnic group).

Anyway, it is time to vote out every councilperson but Sandberg, Weaver, Akeson and maybe Dan Irving, who I think is being pissed on by........or anyone who supports the expensive studies on one of the most stupid ideas I have ever heard.

Mingus for a office higher than the one he holds? Another tragedy in Springfield? We already have more than enough. Those lame brainers are still handing out questionable grants when they can't even pay their normal course of business bills.

And who is going to pay for this stupid idea of hi-speed rail? Not the 51% who don't pay income tax, that's for sure.

Obamawisdum at It's Best

2011-11-06T20:56:00.004-06:00

Yes, somebody makes money on every "whys' move this administration makes. No, that's not a mispelling in the title of this blog, either.

Thanks to a friend for posting this "wisdum" math. This populist type of Obama madness may just get him re-elected

Merle

CLUNKER MATH...
> The person who calculated this bit of information is now and has been a professor at the University of West Virginia in Morgantown for the last forty some years.

> A clunker that travels 12,000 miles a year at 15 mpg uses 800 gallons of gas a year.
> A vehicle that travels 12,000 miles a year at 25 mpg uses 480 gallons of gas a year.
> So, the average Cash for Clunkers transaction will reduce gasoline consumption by 320 gallons per year.
> The government claims 700,000 clunkers have been replaced so that's 224 million gallons saved per year.
> That equates to a bit over 5 million barrels of oil.
> 5 million barrels is about 5 hours worth of US consumption.
> More importantly, 5 million barrels of oil at $70 per barrel costs about $350 million dollars.
> So, the government paid $3 billion of our tax dollars to save $350 million.
> We spent $8.57 for every $1.00 we saved.
> But I'm pretty sure they will do a better job with our health care.

Hopedale Wellness Center - A Public Courtesy Blog

2011-11-06T20:50:00.002-06:00

Hopedale Wellness Center Salutes National Family Week

With Special Family Promotion

During National Family Week (November 19-26), Hopedale Wellness Center is offering $20 Family Guest Passes which give families use of the entire facility as well as participate in programs at member rates throughout the week. A Family Pool Party will also be held on Saturday, November 19 from 1-3 p.m. The event is free with Wellness Center membership or $5 per family for non-members.

After National Family Week ends, families taking part in the promotion will be able to join Hopedale Wellness Center with no initiation fee and $20 applied to their first month of membership. When paid in full families will receive an additional one month free on a six-month contract, or two months free on a 12-month contract. This offer expires November 30.

“We are very proud of the Wellness Center and think it’s a great place for families to spend quality time together and stay active,” said Melissa Mohr, Membership Coordinator for Hopedale Wellness Center.

Since 1955, the Hopedale Medical Complex has been consistently recognized for its excellent and compassionate healthcare services to its patients and residents of our surrounding communities. What started as a 20-bed hospital has become a multi-faceted medical complex that includes Hopedale Hospital, Hopedale Commons, Hopedale Nursing Home and Hopedale Wellness Center.

###

Pere Hotel Expansion Insights

2011-11-06T20:26:00.003-06:00

Now that the deal is underwway, I hope it works out over the time frame of the borrowed money.

Thanks for your reply, Dan.

Merle

Hi Merle:

Did not have a chance to reply to you sooner, sorry for the delay.

I voted against this deal until this past Tuesday. The deal is not perfect but according to Patricks numbers, it will sustain itself. I took his analysis one step further and used my own worst case scenario of 50% occupancy and room rates at $100 night. It still sustains and pays for itself WITHOUT using any sales tax dollars. The items that will pay for this are the property tax(developer agreed to not contest), H and R taxes. Plus, the $9 mil developer fee has gone away and the developer makes his money from the operating profits of the hotel.

Call or write me anytime, thank you

Dan Irving

Firefly - Information the Media And Others Would Never Reveal

2011-11-03T17:24:00.004-05:00

In April of 2009, most of us on the Peoria County Board were informed that Peoria County and the City of Peoria were in consultation about buying 60 acres of land at $50,000 an acre for a proposed FireFly expansion that would add 784 new jobs to the area. The deal for the land was proposed to be $300,000 down and $675,000 a year 6% interest. The county had the funds available to acquire the property but the City Of Peoria would need to borrow their share of the cost from the county.

Additional grants from the feds and state would be needed for roadway improvements, etc., to incorporate a technology site at this location.

This informative article stated that "Mr. Widmer wanted to know what kind of property tax FireFly would pay". It was explained FireFly would get a 5 year Enterprise Zone Abatement on property taxes plus other incentives as Pekin, Michigan and Kentucky were also courting FireFly.

"Widmer had other questions to ask but he was advised this was still in the beginning stages but that the City had already spoken to the City Council the county administrator wanted to inform most County Board members as well."

Administration said that emails had already been sent to the Governor's Office, Illinois Finance Authority, Senator Koehler and Risinger, and Representative Leitch saying, "the County can not do this with local dollars alone".

It was debated from what fund the County would take the county investment from and our administrator recommended the Health Fund.

County Board Member Salzer "mentioned that according to sources, Senator Durbin and others "would do what it takes to keep FireFly in the State.

While all this negotiating and discussions were taking place, I and other board members learned of it only on April 28, 2009. As I understand the land is still "available".

All the County and City were waiting on was the "green light" from FireFly.

That's the way government works, folks. Most of you know the "rest of the story". If not just enter "FireFly" on my blog search bar.

And we wonder how and why this country is in the bad financial shape we are in.

Hm.

Peoria Taxpayers Nailed Again

2011-11-03T16:41:00.004-05:00

Two federal lawsuits pending against Peoria Public School District #150 were recently settled for a total of $830,000 with the insurance companies bearing the brunt of the cost. #150 will pay $140,000.

On 10/15/11, the JS reported that a settlement agreement had been reached on a lawsuit against the district filed by 8 white employees in a case that appeared to be one of reverse discrimination. It will probably take an FOIA to find out how much this settlement cost the taxpayers.

Not included in the cost is the legal fees racked up by the school board plus the raise in premiums for liability insurance for years to come.

How many other lawsuits are pending against #150 that I suspect are coming from both past and present administrations? I do not know nor do I suspect all the board members know. I do know of one case that appears to be long and costly.

When I was a member of the Peoria County Board, we settled a lawsuit for over $300,000 (a BelWood incident)that was allegedly caused by a comment made by a board member who was on the board long before I was elected in 2000. When I asked how many lawsuits were pending against the County owned BelWood, the States Attorney's answer was, "there are always lawsuits against Belwood". But at the time, I was only aware of one. Board members are often kept in the dark about pending lawsuits, learning only of them when meeting to discuss how much money we agree to settle the case.

Some people think that people who have a lot of degrees are smarter than the rest of us. Unpaid or low paid or part time board members do not have the ability to hire the right people. While I understand that we are the most litigious society in history, we should be operating our public bodies with well-paid full-time qualified board members.

Cities the size of Peoria are operating in the early 1900's and the tort attorneys are aware. Thus saving money costs far more in the long-run but we have yet to take action to change the system.

Paying more for better talent USUALLY pays off.

Minor League Baseball Facts

2011-11-03T16:38:00.001-05:00

An interesting email from a friend.Merle,

We have some family that lives in Midland, Michigan.
Last time up there my daughter saved me news articles from their local paper.
The story was about developments in the immediate area of their Midwest League ballpark which is near downtown Midland.
Yep , same league that the Chiefs try to play ball in.
As I read the story I thought about the how many years has our fair city been trying to have a Wrigleyville or Fenwayville or some other such nonsense.
So i had to see that neighborhood up close. On occasion we have gone to see games at their stadium. Nice park and impressive footprint. All built Without Public money. Foundations were the order of the day for financing.
Anyhow, a large building to be redeployed and surrounding grounds to build upon.

Another interesting mention in the story was about Lansing, Michigan with the near completion of developments near their downtown Midwest League ballpark. Yep, the state capitol is just up the street from the stadium.

Anyhow it is interesting and good for them that can organize and get the necessary wherewithall to accomplish such tasks that our great city cannot even clearly dream upon.

Hope and Change? Yes, We PRAY For a Change!

2011-11-03T12:39:00.003-05:00

Barack Obama's 32 Month Report Card

by Rich Carroll

Copy this article. You will need researched material to mail your liberal friends and/or relatives.

Mr. Hope and Change wants to create a nation humbled; humiliated, casting-aside capitalism and individual freedoms for one where “we the people” are government controlled. This would be a system that genuflects mediocrity, steals personal aspiration and opportunity, and punishes those who strive to succeed.

A gallon of regular gasoline the day Obama was inaugurated was $1.79 on average in the U.S. Today that price is $3.59, a 100.6% increase. The number of food stamp recipients has risen since Obama took office from 31,983,716 to 43,200,878, a 35.1% jump. Long term unemployment soared 146.2% during the same 32 month period from 2,600,000 to 6,400,000. Staggering “hope and change” isn't it?

American citizens living in poverty have risen 9.5% from 39,800,000 to 43,600,000, and the number of unemployed has jumped almost 25% from 11,616,000 to 14,485,000 as of August 31, 2011. The number of unemployed blacks has risen from 12.6% at the end of George Bush's term to 15.8% today, a 25.4% increase, and finally, our national debt is up 34.4% from 10.627 trillion to 14,278 trillion *

Keep these figures in mind as we recount the number of “firsts” for this presidency:

First President to refuse to show a valid birth certificate.
First President to apply for college aid as a foreign student, then deny he was a foreigner.
First President to have a social security number from a state he has never lived in.
First President to preside over a cut to the credit rating of the United States .
First President to violate the War Powers Act.
First President to be held in contempt of court for illegally obstructing oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico .
First President to defy a Federal Judges court order to cease implementing the Health Care Reform Law.
First President to require all Americans to purchase a product from a third party.
First President to spend a trillion dollars on shovel-ready jobs and later admit there was no such thing as shovel-ready jobs.
First President to abrogate bankruptcy law to turn over control of companies to his union supporters.
First President to by-pass Congress and implement the Dream Act through executive fiat.
First President to order a secret amnesty program that stopped the deportation of illegal immigrants across the U.S. , including those with cr imi nal convictions.
First President to demand a company hand-over $20 billion to one of his political appointees.
First President to terminate Americas ability to put a man in space.
First President to encourage racial discr imi nation and int imi dation at polling places.
First President to have a law signed by an auto-pen without being present.
First President to arbitrarily declare an existing law unconstitutional and refuse to enforce it.
First President to threaten insurance companies if they publicly speak-out on the reasons for their rate increases.
First President to tell a major manufacturing company in which state they are allowed to locate a factory.
First President to file lawsuits against the states he swore an oath to protect (Az, WI, OH, IN)
First President to withdraw an existing coal permit that had been properly issued years ago.
First President to fire an inspector general of Ameri-corps for catching one of his friends in a corruption case.
First President to appoint 45 Czars to replace elected officials in his office.
First President to golf 73 separate times in his first two and a half years in office.
First President to hide his medical, educational and travel records.
First President to win a Nobel Peace Prize for doing NOTHING to earn it.
First President to coddle American enemies while alienating Americas allies.
First President to publicly bow to Americas enemies while refusing to salute the U.S. Flag.
First President to go on multiple global apology tours.
First President to go on 17 lavish vacations, including date nights and Wednesday evening White House parties for his friends, paid for by the taxpayer.
First President to refuse to wear the U.S. Flag lapel pin.
First President to have 22 personal servants (taxpayer funded) for his wife.
First President to keep a dog trainer on retainer for $102,000.00 a year at taxpayer expense.
First President to repeat “the Holy Qur'an tells us,” and openly admit “the early morning call of the Azan (Islamic call to worship) is the most beautiful sound on earth.”

Remember that 32 months of Obama White House we the people have accumulated national debt at a rate more than 27 times as fast as during the rest of our nation's entire history, as the Obama's plan their next extravagant vacation to the IndonesianIsland nation of Bali .

Hope and change anyone?

* sources: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Wall Street Journal, Bureau of Labor Statistics, US Dept of Labor, Standard & Poors/Case-Shiller, Federal Reserve, US Treasury, Heritage Foundation.

Big Al's Owner is Laughing All the Way to the Bank

2011-11-02T16:58:00.003-05:00

Today I received thank you emails from Beth and Chuck, the only two councilpeople who voted against this hugh taxpayer risk, and my friend, Tim Riggenback, who voted for it. When I blogged that this city council and mayor may go down as the worst in history, I did not mean to include Beth and Chuck.

Sandberg didn't show up for the vote. Too bad.

With no insult intended, no $160+ million dollar corporation would have any member of the City Council sitting on their B of D, with the exception of Chuck. And their are a lot of incompetent private and public board members.

It is the people we elect or appoint to office who have caused the cities, states and feds who put us in the pickle we are in. And voters and non-voters need to share some of the blame.

Everyone, including myself, has their hand out. It is up to our elected officials to say yes or no.

Why my comment on Big Als? Do any of you know the cost of the Big Al's contract? Rumor is it is anywhere from $8 million to $11 million, all taxpayer dollars. Not bad work for getting a new a better location plus a new building designed to the owner's specification.

Some knowledgeable and unknowledgeable people say I'm an "aginer". Believe I still see the successful company I founded 48 years ago and sold 20 years ago still uses my name. I'm against putting taxpayers at big risks and lavish entitlements.

I received no financial help from the City of Peoria, just harassment from the fire department by Ray Becker's go-fer, Ernie Russell. Actually, Ernie as Fire Chief, harassed the owner of the building I leased, eventually causing my rent to go up. The Fire Chief suddenly discovered, after 40 years or so that there weren't enough fire plugs. A bad joke. I doubt if the plugs the owner was forced to install and pay for, are still out back of the building but they weren't needed then or needed now.

Such is politics but I'm glad they are sticking it too Cellini. Ten years ago he would have walked and he may yet. As I said, such is politics.

Peoria City Council - A Message From An Experienced Businessman

2011-11-01T15:15:00.002-05:00

This is the message I emailed to the City Council. I challenge anyone to deny my facts.

Merle

To vote yes tonight, will be a serious mistake maybe not noticeable perhaps for 4-6 years from today.

And then, forever.

A reason to proceed? Better present and near future financial condition. relatively meaningless from four years beyond today.

Yes, we need jobs as the union clamor. But this deal is shortsighted. The last two days on the market reaffirm what many believe is that we are already in a double-dip, not highly noticed in Peoria YET.

No projection funded partially by the public has been met this past decade to date. Most obvious one is the ball park. Build a Wrigleyville around this ball park with a financial situation?? You tried it in 2007 when financial conditions were less obvious. (O'Brien Field fails to attract growth, (JS 5/30/07) and "New Stadium Can't Live on Baseball Alone, Vonachen says, (JS) SMG would have the resources to bring other events to the ball park"

They haven't and won't.

Attendance projections were in the 300,000 range. Last year, the drew 188,000. (JS)

The Chiefs couldn't even sell the renewal of the O'Brien name after the contract expired so O'Brien gets a free ride??

Yes, the RivePlex is running but it has not been able to meet the principal and interest from operations as promised by park administration. (See my blog, "RiverPlex: Is it Working Out?" dated October 24, for complete details (except for the lowered risk proposed).

Best wishes,

Merle

Choo-choo-cha-ching

2011-10-29T15:15:00.002-05:00

Never have I agree more with the JSEB and their editorial on October 28. A while back, Mayor Ardis has talked about drinking tne Kool-Aid in the past. Spend an ESTIMATED #106 million for track, etc. and another $28 million for additional equipment purchases plus an ESTIMATED $2.6 yearly (and growing)operating budget?

For MAYBE 75,000 people count trips a year. Ardis is listening too much to Ray LaHood who I thought might have come up with a winner in a four lane highway to Rt. 80 around Chillicothe when the engineers at a meeting I attended said the cost would be $300 million compared with a direct route that the JSEB supported costing $800 million. Within ONE year, the engineers re-estimated the cost thru Chili and Hennepin to be $600 million and later even more. When they went over $300 million, they lost me.

But the consultants and the engineer keep making a LOT of money on all thes plans, like the ring road plans, the maps now grown dusty at the EDC while new "studies" by engineers and consultants" are now in progress. And in a state that is close to bankruptcy.

This mayor and city council may go down as one of the worst in Peoria's history with round-abouts, a warehouse district that will greatly enrich a 2-3 developer, some favored consultants and engineers, more consultants and more engineers, a new Equal Opportunity Training Center in the planning stage, a high risk on an expanded downtown hotel with an ESTIMATED $6.1 million runway connected to a Civic Center that lost $4 million plus last year, an expenditure of approximately $50 million, (includes the cost of borrowed money) on the still-in-progress city library system, an "iffy" museum that 50% of the voting population said they didn't want downtown, Cubs Food, more hiking and biking trails, uncompleted despite the Peoria Park District statements that they have the funding, a rising garbage fee and some want to re-visit buying the water company,and I'm out of breath.

Oh yes, a large budget deficit that maybe the new city manager who left his position as Administrator of the County Board (on which I served 10 years) in a relatively strong financial position, may help them out somewhat.

I say somewhat because he doesn't have quite the power at the city that he had at the county.

Yeah, cha-ching is right. I again quote Don Axt who aptly named Peoria a number of years ago as "Dreamsville" and predicted a baseball World Series between Peoria and Rockford. (Pete Vonachen's baseball team drew 188,000 or so last year, slightly more than they drew at their old Meinen Field location.

Since so much of the money to support the city come from local taxes, it might be interesting to some of you to see what councilpeople and mayor and and city manager pay in, say, property taxes.

And yes, all of those who complain about lack of security and voted or supported all this "stuff", I remind you that our city police chief said the money spent on the libraries alone would have allowed him to put twenty five, that's right, 25 additional officers on the streets of Peoria. Anyway enjoy the cha-ching. It's just borrowed money. Some of it might even be imported from China.

And another oh yes. Whatever happened to the $5 million That Governor Quinn was en route to Peoria to present to the museum? Good question. Also, I note the museum is rather mum on financing except to say the 'BUILDING' IS ON BUDGET. Of course it is. It's spending the quarter cent sales tax amounting, at the time being, to $41 million+ of the overall estimated $90 million.

What about the under-funded endowment??

Hmmm.

Obama Like FDR and Truman? No, Probably More Like Hoover and Carter

2011-10-29T14:30:00.003-05:00

So says Steve Forbes and many other knowledgeable people. "President Obama thinks the road to reelection lies in a mix of FDR and Truman. FDR bashed "economic royalists," who were "selfish" and who had met their match" in the great the great man. FDR won in a landslide. Truman shrilly campaigned against a "do nothing" Republican Congress and pulled off the biggest upset win in presidential history. Sadly for Barack Obama, this stuff won't work in 2012."

Do nothing Republicans? He and his supporters need to read more honest history.
And Truman, the guy that went broke in business 5 times or so, trying to tell business people how to run their businesses?

Good grief.

This article by Forbes is in the November 1 issue of Forbes Magazine. Along with the Wall Street Journal, they are two media's that all informed voters should read, Republicans, Independents , Democrats and especially, the Occupiers. The Occupiers, called BOBB, or Barack Obama's bosom buddies are angry, if only they knew exactly who they were angry about. Most of them appear to know why they are disillusioned but if they are attacking capitalism why aren't they attacking Hollywood, that over-fed Moore nut, Nancy Pelosi, Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, Maxine Waters and there commander-in-chief, BO himself???

Why not? Because they thrash around wildly striking out knowing that something is stinging them but they cant distinguish what is is, bedbugs or African bees.

It's not the honey bees that provide a good they are to blind to see.

Now, the bums and radicals among them are turning to violence. And the union bosses and Democrat bosses are trying to capitalize on their chaos.

So sad.

Americas' Great Lost Civilizations

2011-10-29T14:05:00.003-05:00

What came before what came before what came before? Read 1491 by Charles Mann available in a second reprint in paperback. Among the many revelations in this book is the environmentalist myth that Indians were passive and living lightly on the land before the incursion of the white man.

Central America was probably one of the most populated areas in the world, prior to the arrival of the Spanish and by 1500, the Inca Empire was larger than that of any other on Earth, including China.

What caused the population of the early arrivers in the North America to shrink so rapidly? Not guns but disease, especially smallpox. The Europeans had built up immunities, the last of the early arrivals like the Indians, Incas, had not and thus died in large endemics. What happened to the pre-Inca and pre-Indians can only be speculated on but diisease, cold, (glaciers) volcanoes, drought and famine, and warfare, probably played major roles.

An interesting read.

Kudos to Those Who Get Things Right and Write LTE"S

2011-10-27T17:41:00.002-05:00

Judith Shanahan from Metamora on "Improve Current Roads Instead of Building New Ones', Stephen A. Bill from Washington, "Jobs Bill is a Short-Term Spending Trap", and Douglas H. Hanbury from East Peoria, "Occupy Wall Street Protesters Are Misguided".

Thumb up and write more often.

Thumbs down to my friend and County Board Member Democrat Phil Salzer from Peoria, "Get the Facts Straight About Obama's Jobs Bill". We have got the facts straight about the American Jobs Act and the Recovery act. That's why, if the Republicans can get their act together and with the support of we Tea Party people, we just might stop spending more than we take in.

Even doing that will not pay down the debt. We are paying over $4 billion dollars a year and growing just on the interest on federal borrowed money, not counting states like the Democrat controlled and corrupt State of Illinois. And cities like Peoria and the 8, I believe that have already declared bankruptcy or are near default.

Phil is great on spending OPM. Unfortunately, it is people like him that are causing this great country to slide rapidly to socialism and bankruptcy.

Then there is Democrat Mike Everett, a local union boss, who wrote, "Rebuild America, Cut Unproductive Congressmen First", Republicans, of course, and some Republicans I agree. Mike would like to unionize all businessmen in Peoria, the public sector is already unionized and look at the shape Peoria is in. If you believe the movers and shakers, Peoria is in good shape, wait till the school tax bills hit the property owners and the museum and hotel do exactly like I predicted the RiverPlex and the ball park (JS article dated 5/30/07, "O'Brien Field Fails to Attract Growth) and my $50,000 investment I made when the club was at Meinen Field, is gone.

'O'Brienville', "Lack of Development no Surprise to Some Readers", JS 6/1/07. It was certainly no surprise to me as I wrote in a LTE to the JS, ""New Ballpark too much of a risk" and the JSEB echoed my feeling by writing, "Why should city risk millions on stadium".

O'Brien is getting a free ride on the name. Hard to say whether it helps his dealerships or not.

With attendance falling to near Meinen Field numbers this season, we will probably learn why the ball park is consistently not meeting it's projections.

Well, it's the economy, isn't it???

Ineptocracy

2011-10-27T17:33:00.000-05:00

From my friend, Bob Huschen. How true.

Merle

I just learned a new word and wanted to share it with you! Nobody else may know what it means, but you will!
Ineptocracy (in-ep-toc’-ra-cy) - a system of government where the least capable to lead are elected by the least capable of producing, and where the members of society least likely to sustain themselves or succeed, are rewarded with goods and services paid for by the confiscated wealth of a diminishing number of producers.

Republicans and Flat Tax

2011-10-27T13:12:00.002-05:00

It's way past time for a type of flat tax that would benefit private growth and expedite government reform. The Republicans are at the forefront of these changes. A flat tax, Cain's 9-9-9 plan, both with a little tweaking and a selling job would be a huge improvement over the unfair system we have lived with for years.

Don't expect everyone to get on board. Just enough to get conservative Republicans and a few conservative Democrats elected to kill the Sarbane-Oxley and Dodd-Frank "reforms", amend the Davis-Bacon labor bill, etc.

And slow down the radical union bosses assault on the public sector and their own sometimes naive members.

What are conservatives? An over simplified answer would be, people who don't spend more than they take in and when in deep debt, spend only on high priority projects such as security and infrastructure, with less government regulations on both the private and public sectors.

"Stuff" - Copied From the Perkins Capital Management October News Letter

2011-10-26T21:14:00.004-05:00

The folks who are getting free stuff, don't like the folks who are paying for the free stuff, because the folks who are paying for the free stuff can no longer afford to pay for both the free stuff and their own stuff.

The folks who are paying for the free stuff want the free stuff to stop, and the folks who are getting the free stuff want even more free stuff on top of the free stuff they are already getting!

Now..The people who are forcing the people who pay for the free stuff have told the people who are receiving the free stuff, that the people who are PAYING for the free stuff, are being mean, prejudiced, and racist.

So.. The people who are GETTING the free stuff have been convinced they need to hate the people who are paying for the free stuff by the people who are forcing some people to pay for their free stuff, and giving them the free stuff in the first place.

We have let the free stuff giving go on for so long that there are now more people getting free stuff than paying for the free stuff.

Now understand this. All great democracies have committed financial suicide somewhere between 200 and 250 years after being founded. The reason? The voters figured out they could vote themselves money from the treasury by electing people who promised to give them money from the treasury in exchange for electing them.

The United States of Americas officially became a Republic in 1776, 235 years ago. The number of people now getting free stuff outnumbers the people paying for the free stuff. We have to change that, in 2012.

The Perkins boys send out a lot of interesting and sometimes funny stuff. Example: A nice calm and respectable lady went into the pharmacy, walked up to the pharmacist, looked straight into his eyes and said, "I'd like to buy some cyanide".

The pharmacist asked, "Why in the world would you need cyanide?"

The lady replies, "I need it to poison my husband."

The pharmacist's eyes got big and he explained, "Lord have mercy! I can't give you cyanide to kill your husband, that's against the law? I'll lose my license! They will throw both of us in jail! All kinds of bad things will happen! Absolutely not! You CANNOT have any cyanide!"

The lady reached in her purse and pulled out a picture of her husband in bed with the pharmacist's wife.

The pharmacist looked at the picture and said, "You didn't tell me you had a prescription."

Oh, well. But if you want good financial advise, with a little "stuff" thrown in, subscribe to Perkins Capital Management, 700 East Lake Street, Wayzata, Mn. 53391-1769.

But then, if you are a "hard" Democrat, probably not.

Obama Raises Staff Salaries 17 to 83%????

2011-10-26T21:04:00.002-05:00

According to a friend who claims the Drudge Report reported 17% to 83% raises for 20 Obama staff members.

Can this be true? If so and you know an "occupier" please forward.

Frustrated With Our "Change" Government? Join the Tea Party Patriots

2011-10-26T14:08:00.002-05:00

Passed to me, I to you and you pass on to others who believe our country is changing but not in the way even Obama supporters expected. Some like myself, saw this coming way before he was elected. (Just enter "Obama" on my search bar in upper right hand column for the many blogs I blogged on Obama)

Merle

Dear Patriot,
The American people are justifiably frustrated with the poor decisions from Washington and Wall Street. People are fed up with continued unemployment, skyrocketing foreclosures, and a sputtering economy. It is clear that the time has come to throw the bums out, and political dissent is long overdue. People who are fed up have two options to join a protest: either the Tea Party or ‘occupy.’

The ‘occupy’ agitators continue to disrupt business and break laws across the country as part of the ‘occupy’ protests. They are disheveled, dirty, and continue to show no respect for the land that they occupy. They litter and then expect someone else to clean up their mess. They are the kind of selfish and inconsiderate people who poison workplaces and neighborhoods. They disparage the greatness of this country even as they enjoy the benefits of our unique philosophy. Their protests go on without end because they are either unemployed or are being paid to maintain their presence.

In contrast, business actually competes to host Tea Party functions because we are considerate and spend money. We are law abiding, we secure permits for our rallies, we leave the places that we rally cleaner than we found them, and then we return to our jobs. We are patriotic and honor our military. We proudly sing the national anthem and say the pledge of allegiance. We are frustrated with corruption and dirty politicians, but we are thankful for the opportunities that this great nation has provided us. We are not embarrassed to cling to our guns and religion.

The Tea Party has successfully begun a hostile takeover of the Republican Party by challenging and beating corrupt establishment Republicans. In contracts, establishment Democrats have endorsed and cheered ‘occupy.’ These are the facts, and because we believe in the greatness of the American people, we know that if we give them the facts they will identify with us, the Tea Party! Yet despite these facts, the big-government propaganda machine has been driving a completely different narrative.

Today we released an ad that will help the American people identify with the Tea Party. We are extremely excited about this ad and you can help us in two ways:

1. Go watch the ad…. multiple times! And share it with your friends! The more views we get, the more free exposure the ad gets!

2. Make a generous contribution to help us buy airtime across the television for this important ad and the other ads that will follow!

Thank you,

Todd Cefaratti
Freedom Organizer

P.S. Our strength is in numbers. Please help our efforts by forwarding to a friend.

End the Deficit? Here's How

2011-10-26T13:53:00.002-05:00

Passed on to me and others by my friend, Tom O'Neal. Send this sensible solution to all your friends and contacts.

Merle

Warren Buffett, in a recent interview with CNBC, offers one of the best quotes about the
debt ceiling:

" I could end the deficit in 5 minutes ," he told CNBC. "You just pass a law that says that anytime there is a deficit of more than 3% of GDP, all sitting members of Congress are ineligible for re-election

The 26th amendment (granting the right to vote for 18 year-olds) took only
3 months & 8 days to be ratified! Why? Simple! The people demanded it. That was in 1971...before computers, e-mail, cell phones, etc.

Of the 27 amendments to the Constitution, seven (7) took 1 year or less to become the law of the land...all because of public pressure.

Warren Buffet is asking each addressee to forward this email to 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 idea that really should be passed around.

Congressional Reform Act of 2011
1. No Tenure / No Pension.
A Congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they are out of office.

2. 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. It may not be used for any other purpose.

3. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do.

4. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.

5. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people.

6. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people.

7. All contracts with past and present Congressmen are void effective 1/1/12. 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, so ours should serve their term(s), then go home and back to work.

If each person sends to a minimum of twenty people, then it will only take three days for most people (in U.S.A.) to receive the message. It is time.

THIS IS HOW YOU FIX CONGRESS ...If you agree with the above, pass it on. If not, just delete. You are one of my 20+..

Tom O'Neal

Westervelt, Johnson, Nicoll and Keller LLC

411 Hamilton Blvd. 14th floor

Peoria, IL 61602

direct 309 672 3227

main 671 3550

fax 671 3588

toneal@wjnklaw.com

From: Merle Widmer [mailto:merlewidmer

Solyndra Scandal - A Tea Party Patriots Release

2011-10-26T11:45:00.005-05:00

Yes, it is a huge scandal and the list of characters involved, all Obama's contributors, is growing. Obama's Energy Secretary keeps pouring money into "green" favorites. Tonopah Solar Energy recently received a federal government $737 million loan guarantee wile Sempra Energy received a $330 million loan guarantee. When completed, Sempra will provide 45 permanent jobs at a cost of $1.1 billion.

At the same time, The Energy Information Administration estimates that new natural gas-fired plants will create electricity at a cost of $63.10 per megawatt hour hour compared to Obama and his green's favorites - solar thermal plants and wind - which cost $243.20 and $311.80 per megawatt hour.

Obama's Energy Secretary, Chu says, "If we want to be a player in the global clean energy race, we (taxpayers) must continue to invest annotative technologies, that enable commercial-scale deployment of clean, renewable energy like wind and solar."

We have a government policy in this country to always follow the leaders like World-Com, Enron, Adelphia Global Crossing and banks and corporations to big to fail and Obama Democrats. Now we have Solyndai, a billion dollar cost or more to tax-payers and the private sector vendors who will not be paid. Plus a good likelihood that others will follow like FireFly here in Peoria.

The liberal media has not nor ever will, report the actual total loss to all involved in the "burning out" of can't fail Firefly. Peoria County would have had a greater loss if the hadn't used the Keystone Loan Fund.

Where did the Keystone Loan Fund come from? Guess - the near bankrupt State of Illinois who graciously turned it over to Peoria County.

Leave innovation to the private sector, big government. Just stop the over-burdening regulations and get out of our private sectors way. Our government is ill- equipped to predict the industries of the present, much less the future.

Sure, follow China, who may have had or has huge losses in solar and wind government backed projects never reported to the outside world, after all that is where our government is getting their money.

Some of the information on my addendum to the Tea Party release comes from the WSJ. The Wall Street Journal, the best source for accurate information of any printed media in the U.S.A.

Merle

Dear Patriot,

A man named Steven Spinner, who bundled together over $500,000 in donations for Barack Obama in 2008 and was rewarded with a cushy Energy Department gig, has been exposed for lobbying the White House on behalf of Solyndra despite the fact that his wife was working for the law firm representing the now-defunct company!

The White House was eager to approve an ill-advised loan to the solar energy company, in part due to Spinner's prodding. And after the Obama administration has so richly provided for him and his wife, campaign finance documents show Steven Spinner is again bundling over $500,000 for Obama's reelection campaign!

This corrupt you-scratch-my-back-I'll-scratch-yours attitude is what turned Washington into the cesspool it is, and it's exactly the kind of corruption that Barack Obama ran against in 2008. In addition to Spinner's pay-for-play shenanigans at the expense of taxpayers, the executives of Solyndra TOOK THE FIFTH AMENDMENT WHEN TESTIFYING TO CONGRESS!

Merle's Facebook Errors

2011-10-25T16:36:00.002-05:00

Bill Dennis came by to help[ me better understand Facebook. I believe I erroneously turned many people away who wanted to be friends on my site.

If you are one or know someone who I didn't "confirm" please contact me again, if still interested. I also plan to do more reading and posting on Facebook in the future.

Sorry for offending some. It was through my ignorance of how the system worked and partly because I had a lot of problems with this site that Bill also helped me clear up.

Comcast - Part?????

2011-10-25T16:30:00.002-05:00

Jeff and Chris were here today from Comcast. They believe they have found the problem and it was Comcast all along. We now have an extra modem as the previous Comcast repairman convinced us the old one was dead.

It wasn't the modem. It was problems outside up a pole.

So anyway, my frustrations have been solved (they think).

For my readers, I'll try to post more now. But I am to the point where I need someone to help me and who might want to research my drawers of materials or maybe take my files when I retire (again).

Thanks for reading me.

Muslims: As More Enter the United States of America, Expect The Minority Fundamentalists to Attempt to Impose Sharia Law on Us

2011-10-25T16:21:00.006-05:00

Gaffney: Rise of Sharia Law Will Bring War to the Middle East
Monday, 24 Oct 2011 06:56 PM

By Martin Gould and Kathleen Walter

More ways to share... Mixx Stumbled LinkedIn Vine Buzzflash Reddit Delicious Newstrust Technocrati Share: More . . . A A | Email Us | Print | Forward Article 17
inShare inShare17 War is on its way in the Middle East as Muslim countries are determined to force a showdown over the future of Israel, Ronald Reagan’s assistant defense secretary Frank Gaffney warned in an exclusive Newsmax.TV interview.

“I’m afraid there’s a war coming, a very serious, perhaps cataclysmic regional war,” he said. “It will be presumably over, at least in part, the future existence of the state of Israel. It may involve all of its neighbors, as they have in the past, attacking Israel to try, as they say, to drive the Jews into the sea.

“It may involve the use of nuclear weapons,” Gaffney predicted. “But whatever form it takes and whenever it occurs, it is unlikely to be contained to that region, and we must do everything we can to prevent freedom’s enemies from thinking they have an opportunity to engage in that kind of warfare.”

That means standing “absolutely, unmistakably” as one with Israel and doing everything to prevent Iran getting its hands on nuclear weapons.

Gaffney, who now heads up the nonprofit Center for Security Policy in Washington, D.C., was speaking on the day that the “moderate” Islamist party Ennahda claimed victory at the ballot box in Tunisia and the day after Libya’s new rulers declared that country will be run on Islamic principles and under Sharia law.

The story continues below the video.

Gaffney does not believe Ennahda is really a moderating force. “I don’t believe there is such a thing as a moderate Islamist party,” he said. “The challenge with Islamists is that they seek to impose what they call Sharia on everybody, Muslim and non-Muslim alike.

“They may, as a matter of tactical expediency, choose to do so in incremental ways, often nonviolently, at least initially.

“The problem is that, because ultimately they must — according to Sharia, according to what they believe is God’s will — make everyone feel subdued in order to achieve their God-mandated direction, they will not remain moderate. They will not be satisfied with anything less than the ultimate supremacy of Sharia and they certainly will not resist the use of violence when it becomes expedient to get their way.”

Gaffney, who writes a regular column for Newsmax, foresees a rising tide of Islamist governments growing throughout Middle East and North Africa and spreading even further.

“We’re witnessing not just the violent kind of jihad that these Islamists believe God compels them to engage in, but also, where they must for tactical reasons, a more stealthy kind, or civilizational jihad as the Muslim Brotherhood calls it. We’re witnessing that playing out, not only in places in the Middle East but also in Europe, in Australia, in Canada and here in the United States as well,” he said.

The spread of Sharia, which Gaffney said often is referred to as “Communism with a god,” is “the most urgent and grievous challenge we face as a free people.

“Those who follow this program of Sharia believe that God is directing them to engage in jihad or whatever form of warfare is necessary to accomplish their goals . . . .Through stealth, they have successfully penetrated important parts of the free world including our own government and civil society institutions.”

The Obama administration has to stop “embracing” the Muslim Brotherhood, Gaffney said.

“This is legitimating our enemies,” he said. “It is facilitating their influence operations and their penetration and it greatly increases the prospect that they will be successful at what the Muslim Brotherhood’s own documents indicate is their desire, which is to destroy western civilization from within.”

Gaffney noted that Ennahda had won what appears to be a clean election in Tunisia, but that doesn’t mean there ever will be another vote there.

“The problem is not simply democracy. People are pointing to Tunisia as a perfect example of democracy at work. Democracy is fine if all you want is one-man-one-vote one-time. That is precisely what the Muslim Brotherhood and its like-minded Islamist friends want.”

The Obama administration must apply pressure to ensure that democracy has a future there and elsewhere in the region, Gaffney said.

“The president and his administration are not even pursuing that,” he said. “What we are likely to wind up with, not just in Tunisia, not just in Libya, not just in Egypt, but probably in due course in Syria — as we have in Lebanon, as we have in Gaza and probably will have down the road in Yemen, Bahrain, maybe Saudi Arabia — is the takeover, the unmistakable takeover, perhaps through the ballot box, of people who will not seek or allow others freedom, who will impose Sharia and who will use whatever resources they amass as a result, not only to suppress their own people, but to endanger us.”

RiverPlex- Is it Working Out?

2011-10-24T11:00:00.001-05:00

I re-run this article on the RiverPlex as the City Council gets ready to approve, I believe, the building of the new downtown Marriott that puts the property taxpayers at ONLY an approximately $35 million dollar risk.

I re-print this as a reminder that not ONE publicly financed project in Peoria County has met it's projections in the past 10 years.

Merle

This JS headline on August 21 about the RiverPlex is a clever play on words. Yes, how is it working out? Exactly as I said it would. Another missed projection similar to the "O'Brien" Field where attendance was down considerably this season (188,000) while minor league baseball attendance nationally, was up 1%. On 12/2/98, Rocky Vonachen was quoted in the JS that the ball park would pull in 300-400,000 people in a six month period. Rocky also said the ballpark couldn't exist alone and would need fill-in like concerts,etc. He was right. Another year of under 200,000 in attendance, many of them kids or courtesy tickets to advertisers and probably around $5 million left owing the banks, then what?

My accountant said no need to send him any more year end tax forms as I have no move value to right off. If I have none, then neither do any of the original investors, right?

Back to the RiverPlex. The article said the Riverplex is operating in the red, never in any year, able to meet the principal and interest on the money borrowed. Still owing $6.25 million plus interest on the original $10 million loan. Which means in 10years the PPD has only been able to retire $3.75 million of the original loan leaving $6.25 million debt plus interest, to be paid out over the next ten years.

Maybe, or it may be extended another 10 years. While public facilities are seldom expected to make a profit, PPD officials promised the RiverPlex would be making in excess of $500,000 a year!!

Back to the Chiefs. (I put "O'Brien" in quotes because allegedly, when their building naming rights ran out, they did not renew their contract and allegedly get their name on this stadium for free as Chief management has never been able to sell naming rights to anyone else).

Back to the RiverPlex. Here is what Park President Cassidy said to the JS in an article dated 3/21/99, "The financial analysis done by the Benefield Group, a consulting firm hired by the park, (Merle's recollection is a figure around $50,000) will be able to support its operations and support up to $6 million in public bonds). The PPD as noted borrowed $10 million and 10 years later still owes $6.5 million). Park Board President Cassidy continued, "Most, if not all, the bonded indebtedness will be paid through RecPlex operations".

Are consultants ever right or do they alter figures to fit the ambitions of those who pay their high prices? Hm.

All RiverPlex costs such as Social Security, retirement, FICA, insurance, etc., are charged to various park funds OTHER than the RiverPlex to make the whole RiverPlex deal look financially stable.

Cassidy was also quoted, "Contrary to media reports, there will be no required membership fee. Wrong. If you want to become a member, you pay $49 per month for an individual and $80 for a family, undercutting the privately owned, property tax paying clubs like the Clubs at RiverCity.

While St, Francis paid $4 million before construction started, they still pay $400,000 a year to use the RiverPlex. Abandoning, I believe, a much more accessible site they operated in Pioneer Park. (A high up St. Francis official told me by phone that St. Francis got the "short end of the stick" and were most unhappy with the deal).

While the PPD collects over $13 million a year in property taxes from those in the park's taxing district almost 50% of the RiverPlex users come from outside this district and do not support the deficits of the club.

Most of these figures are taken from the previously mentioned JS article by reporter Dave Haney on August 21, 2011.

Yesterday, I played tennis in a "cloud of dust" at the Glen Oak Park whose courts may still be threatened by the proposed basically unneeded parking lot for the zoo which has easily survived two seasons without additional parking.

In the meantime, unseen by the public, many acres of park owned property continue to erode and extend at least one major earth delta into the Illinois River while the cannons sink at the polluted Glen Oak Pond and playgrounds exist without toilets or running drinking water.

And user fees for other places or events keep rising. The park keeps counting on a rising EAV and so far they have been accommodated as note the rising evaluations of properties that are shrinking in value. My home is an example. Appraised at $218,000 but assessed at $254,000.

Park Super keeps bragging about the hundreds of thousands of people they accommodate yearly, but in reality, many of these are the same people. The RiverPlex hosts many events that could be hosted by tax payer paid facilities such as public schools and private tax paying other entities.

So you could say the facility is "working out" while occupying valuable riverfront swapped for some vacant and basically unusable city property at the equal rate of exchange at $5 per sq. ft. as appraised by local appraiser, James Klopfenstein and recommended by Tom Tincher.

What a deal! And the majority of the City Council approved it. Some of them, keep getting elected.

Governments in trouble. Look up history. I do.

Ray LaHood, Obama's "Gofer" Announces He Will Not Serve Another Term as Transportation Secretary

2011-10-14T15:02:00.002-05:00

I like Ray and the LaHood family. But Ray's ego? caused him to be found at the wrong place at the the wrong time.

Ray seems to have forgotten that to fund hi-speed rail and long neglected infrastructure there must be money left over to "build". After paying billions for engineers, consultants, then more engineers and more consultant types. Plus the purchase of property where needed as for hi-speed rail. Plus the slow speed of union workers and apparent disorganization of our highway planners as many of us have noted over the past couple of decades.

Ray supported the attempt to force Florida to accept a couple of billion from his department for engineers and consultants and land purchase to build high speed rail between Orlando and Tampa Bay, a distance of 80 miles. The Republican Florida governor was smart enough to realize that the feds were giving just enough money to get the project started and then Florida would have been stuck with the completion of this guaranteed "boondoogle".

Yep, Ray, time to hang it up and come back to Peoria to help support a highway to Chicago or a ring road in Tazewell County plus a new bridge across the river. Main recipient of the probably 600 million dollar project?

Guess who? I'll give you a hint, Ray's major campaign contributor plus all engineering and consulting firms and developers, also big contributors to politicians who love to spend OPM.

Politicians learn it's easy to sell any project if it means jobs even if the country has to keep borrowing from China types.

Speaking of the Slightly Diminished Power of Union Bosses

2011-10-14T14:49:00.002-05:00

Note that Obama is FINALLY stating that he supports free trade with South Korea, Panama and Columbia. Now we will see how long it takes the Democrats (and a handful of Republicans who were elected despite living in union strongholds) to agree to get a bill to Obama's desk that he will sign.

Another sign of the presidents realization that he may not be reelected if he keeps allowing his cozy relationships with union bosses and "Occupy Wall Street" types to run this country into a populist and Socialistic state.

Rahm Emanuel? Is He Getting the Message?

2011-10-14T14:38:00.002-05:00

Chicago Mayor Emanuel is attempting to "clean" up Chicago waste hauling corruption. Emanuel was elected mayor despite most all of Chicago's unions backed his opponent. It is apparent that from Obama down, this country is noting that the power held over Democrat party leaders, is slightly weakening.

Now if Emanuel can just support and even lead elimination of the corruption of gerrymandering.......

And not just the Democrat leaders.

Hmm.

Left Behind Or "Teaching To The Test"

2011-10-14T14:24:00.002-05:00

****************************
Of course, I am not an educator but I do have a modicum of common sense. Which is quite a bit more than a majority of our countries leaders. I determined that NCLB was a system designed by people who "lived in ivory towers" whether they were educators or politicians or others who know better than people like myself.

Merle

Jeffrey N. Golub: Common Core Standards Leave Teachers Out of the Equation

By Anthony Cody

Guest post by Dr. Jeffrey N. Golub.

The story goes that, some years ago, a Midwestern university decided to build a new library on its campus. So an architectural firm was commissioned to design and build the building. Within weeks after its opening, however, the new library began to sink into the ground. Seems the architects had not factored in the weight of the books.

Oops!

This tale, it turns out, is actually an urban-legend that has been circulating among students on college campuses and elsewhere for years and years. The situation never actually happened, but I mention this story anyway because it seems a pertinent analogy to describe the problem that plagues the Common Core Standards that have only recently been 'built'. They, too, are not 'well-grounded,' so to speak, because the authors of the standards have failed to factor in some crucial elements or aspects of instruction. This failure of foresight and insight will surely cause the standards to 'sink' - to become ineffective, inappropriate, and intolerable. The biggest problem with this 'sinking' that is sure to happen is that the students, teachers, and indeed, whole school systems that will labor under these burdensome 'goals and expectations' will sink right along with them.

Some of these neglected and omitted aspects of instruction include the following critical elements:

1. The standards may be standardized, but the students are not.

Students are different. They have different needs and abilities, different interests and concerns; they come from different backgrounds and bring different life experiences and different work habits to the classroom and to their study of the content. Imposing a restrictive structure and set of expectations - and insisting they all move through the same content at the same time and in the same way doesn't make much sense, does it?

2. Reading comprehension involves much more than simply learning information from the text.

Of course it is important for students to gain knowledge from informational texts, but competent and comprehensive reading instruction engages students in practicing and developing so many more skills with so many more kinds of literature. Reading poetry, short stories, novels, and so many other literary genres engages students in constructing, negotiating, comprehending, and communicating meanings, and these thinking skills and language competencies are the central business of just about every English class. Where are the goals and expectations for students' ability to engage in transactions with literature (Rosenblatt) and create envisionments (Langer) and experience the universe of discourse (Moffett)?

3. The world of the future that students will inhabit may not be exactly the same as the current world.

The stated goal of the standards is to prepare students for college and careers, but we don't know for certain what careers and opportunities will become available by the time the students complete their Secondary education. What specific job-related skills and competencies will be necessary? Will they be the same as the competencies required today? Maybe. Maybe not. But, if we are to successfully prepare our students for what lies ahead, we had better look to the future and develop envisionments that will inform our current educational efforts.

One envisionment that may have some merit is to adopt a curriculum that develops students' creative, logical, and critical thinking skills. No, the idea is not to teach these skills through direct instruction - such an approach could too easily lead to the establishment of a constrictive and restrictive listing of microscopic sub-goals that would soon reveal the same deficiencies of insight exhibited by the current standards schemes.

Instead, the goal would be to design an increasingly complex series of projects to pursue and real-world problems to solve that would immerse the students in these kinds of thinking skills. The idea is to set up situations in such a way that students would need to draw upon, and thereby develop, their creative, logical, and critical thinking skills. Marion Brady, a distinguished director of instruction, teacher educator, author, and newspaper columnist in Florida, has already designed such an innovative curriculum in which the students engage in what he calls 'Investigations.' His curriculum guide, titled "Connections: Investigating Reality - A Course of Study" and available for free download on his website, outlines collaborative projects in which students investigate and explore patterns of information, relationships, people demographics, environment, shared ideas, and the dynamics of change, among others. Such a series of projects and problems depend heavily on students' thinking skills and reflective behavior. You can't put this kind of instruction on a standardized test...nor should you.

4. The teachers are a critical and integral part of any curriculum development and assessment effort.

Teachers are a critical, integral part of the educational enterprise: they are the designers and directors of instruction, after all, and are decision-makers, too. They make hundreds and hundreds of instructional decisions every day: what to teach, and when and how to teach it; who needs extra help and extra time with the work; what choices should be made available to the students for ways to complete the activity or assignment; what texts and other resources should be used for the content under study...and the list goes on and on.

No high-stakes test can replace the many kinds of ongoing formative assessments and kid-watching strategies that teachers use in their classes every day to determine next steps. Teachers in their day-to-day observations and evaluations of students' language performance, coupled with their own judgments of their students' needs and progress, help teachers to shape and shift their instruction to be continually responsive to the students' emerging competence and literacy through language.

Teachers do not have a problem with accountability. They are responsible for making learning happen for their students, after all, so they welcome authentic assessments of the progress that they, and their students, have made. But they do object, and rightly so, to a situation in which they are being held accountable for a curriculum over which they have no control.

The various standards schemes - with their accompanying high-stakes tests - have substantially taken away teachers' control of their instructional efforts and hampered their work in the classroom. Currently we have a situation in which the teachers' designing and decision-making functions are no longer valued and are severely constrained, a state in which assessment has deteriorated into a frequent, debilitating series of high-stakes tests that leave teachers with almost no time for authentic, substantive instruction -- instead they must devote their and their students' precious classroom time to 'test-preparation' that may or may not have anything to do with developing students' communication competencies and language performance.

It is unfortunate that the teachers and their pivotal instructional roles in curriculum development and assessment are ignored in the Standards, as well as the other crucial elements described above. And so we are left with a 'sinking' document that cannot provide a satisfactory foundation for instruction. But this unfortunate result - an unnecessary and unproductive consequence of these omissions - doesn't have to happen if the authors and other sponsors of the Common Core Standards will stop what they are doing for a moment and consider the critical, integral elements of instruction that they have 'left behind' - that they have not factored into their scheme and structure. These elements are there whether the standards authors acknowledge them or not. To ignore them will surely sink this enterprise. To address them may result in a workable document we can really use to guide our instruction and develop our students' communication competencies and literacy in authentic, engaging, thoughtful, coherent ways.
------------------------------------
DR. JEFFREY N. GOLUB, teacher, author, and consultant in Seattle, Washington, worked for 13 years as Associate Professor of English Education at the University of South Florida [USF], preparing students who wished to teach English in the public schools. For 20 years previously, he taught English, speech communication, and writing classes at both junior and senior high schools in Seattle. In 1990, while teaching at Shorecrest High School in Seattle, he was one of 10 English teachers in the country to win the State Farm Insurance Company's "Good Neighbor" Award for innovative teaching, and in 1994 he was awarded the University of South Florida's Teaching Excellence award. And he loves chocolate. He can be reached at golub62@comcast.net.
------------------------------------
Dept. of Curriculum & Instruction
Southern Illinois University
625 Wham Drive
Mail Code 4610
Carbondale, IL 62901-4610
Phone: (618) 453-4241 [O]
(618) 457-8903 [H]
Fax: (618) 453-4244
E-mail: jbecker@siu.edu

Magnetic Hotel, Motel, Key Card Security

2011-10-13T17:44:00.000-05:00

Grab a refrigerator magnet on your way out the door, we all have tons of
> them!
> Always take a small magnet on your vacation , they come in handy at the
> end of it.
> This is pretty good info. Never even thought about key cards containing
> anything other than an access code for the room!
>
> HOTEL KEY CARDS
> [cid:X.MA1.1316815329@aol.com]
>
> Ever wonder what is on your magnetic key card?
> Answer:
> a. Customer's name
> b. Customer's partial home address
> c. Hotel room number
> d. Check-in date and out dates
> e. Customer's credit card number and expiration date!
>
> When you turn them in to the front desk your personal information is there

> for any employee to access by simply scanning the card in the hotel
> scanner.. An employee can take a hand full of cards home and using a
> scanning device, access the information onto a laptop computer and go
> shopping at your expense.
> Simply put, hotels do not erase the information on these cards until an
> employee reissues the card to the next hotel guest. At that time, the new
> guest's information is electronically 'overwritten' on the card and the
> previous guest's information is erased in the overwriting process.
>
> But until the card is rewritten for the next guest, it usually is kept in
a
> drawer at the front desk with YOUR INFORMATION ON IT!
>
> The bottom line is: Keep the cards, take them home with you, or destroy
> them. NEVER leave them behind in the room or room wastebasket, and NEVER
> turn them into the front desk when you check out of a room. They will not
> charge you for the card (it's illegal) and you'll be sure you are not
> leaving a lot of valuable personal information on it that could be easily
> lifted off with any simple scanning device card reader.
>
> For the same reason, if you arrive at the airport and discover you still
> have the card key in your pocket, do not toss it in an airport trash
> basket. Take it home and destroy it by cutting it up, especially through
> the electronic information strip!
>
> If you have a small magnet, pass it across the magnetic strip several
> times. Then try it in the door, it will not work. It erases everything on
> the card.
>
> Information courtesy of: Metropolitan Police Service.
>
> PLEASE FORWARD to friends and family .
>
>
>
>
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>
>
> -----
> No virus found in this message.
> Checked by

Small Business Saturday For Central Illinois - A Public Service Announcement

2011-10-12T16:41:00.001-05:00

November 26th is Small Business Saturday It's a day dedicated to supporting small businesses throughout our region. The Heartland Partnership, Peoria Chamber, EDC and Illinois River Road are working with SEVERAL regional communities, organizations and small businesses to make Small Business Saturday a huge success. First there was Black Friday, then Cyber Monday. Now there's Small Business Saturday, the day we celebrate the "Shop Small" movement. It's a day dedicated to supporting small businesses, the heartbeat of our communities. Join us and shop small business all throughout the region on November 26th.

We have launched the Small Business Saturday Central Illinois Facebook Page. Find it, Like it and then start sharing your stories about small business and Central Illinois. It's easy to get involved! Your business can post special offers for shoppers, communities can share stories about their small businesses and business owners will have access to innovative marketing tools and social media resources to help them connect with customers.

Visit the national movement at www.smallbusinesssaturday.com and check out their Facebook page for all kinds of great information at Small Business Saturday. Please "like" these pages and contribute by sharing your stories and telling all of your friends about Small Business Saturday Central Illinois.

We'll be adding several new videos that highlight what Small Business Saturday means to our region and our businesses soon. Visit our Facebook page next week to see them!

AND PASS IT ON!!!!

Comcast Problems? Pretty Constant Here

2011-10-10T17:28:00.002-05:00

We've had enough problems with Comcast causing me to seriously consider stopping using my computer. Today was somewhat typical. Computer wouldn't open after wasting a couple of hours trying different ways advised by Comcast and MSN.

Hust as my personal computer technician arrived, my home page opened. As soon as he left, same problem.

Comcast is sending technician over Wednesday. About the 5th time recently. Now I'm open again and will try to post this blog. I could not recommend either MSN or Comcast. Way too many problems to make blogging enjoyable.

Herman Cain May be The Man the Majority of the Country Seeks

2011-10-10T17:26:00.001-05:00

Herman Cain is running for president. He’s not a career politician (in fact he has never held a political office). He’s known as a pizza guy, but there’s a lot more to him. He’s also a computer guy, a banker guy, and a rocket scientist guy.

Here’s his bio:

Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics.
Master’s degree in Computer Science.
Mathematician for the Navy, where he worked on missile ballistics (making him a rocket scientist).
Computer systems analyst for Coca-Cola.
VP of Corporate Data Systems and Services for Pillsbury (this is the top of the ladder in the computer world, being in charge of information systems for a major corporation).
All achieved before reaching the age of 35. Since he reached the top of the information systems world, he changed careers!

Business Manager. Took charge of Pillsbury’s 400 Burger King restaurants in the Philadelphia area, which were the company’s poorest performers in the country. Spent the first nine months learning the business from the ground up, cooking hamburger and yes, cleaning toilets. After three years he had turned them into the company’s best performers.
Godfather’s Pizza CEO. Was asked by Pillsbury to take charge of their Godfather’s Pizza chain (which was on the verge of bankruptcy). He made it profitable in 14 months.
In 1988 he led a buyout of the Godfather’s Pizza chain from Pillsbury. He was now the owner of a restaurant chain. Again he reached the top of the ladder of another industry.
He was also chairman of the National Restaurant Association during this time. This is a group that interacts with government on behalf of the restaurant industry, and it gave him political experience from the non-politician side.
Having reached the top of a second industry, he changed careers again!

Adviser to the Federal Reserve System. Herman Cain went to work for the Federal Reserve Banking System advising them on how monetary policy changes would affect American businesses.
Chairman of the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank. He worked his way up to the chairmanship of a regional Federal Reserve bank. This is only one step below the chairmanship of the entire Federal Reserve System (the top banking position in the country). This position allowed him to see how monetary policy is made from the inside, and understand the political forces that impact the monetary system.
After reaching the top of the banking industry, he changed careers for a fourth time!

Writer and public speaker. He then started to write and speak on leadership. His books include Speak as a Leader, CEO of Self, Leadership is Common Sense, and They Think You’re Stupid.
Radio Host. Around 2007—after a remarkable 40 year career—he started hosting a radio show on WSB in Atlanta (the largest talk radio station in the country).
He did all this starting from rock bottom (his father was a chauffeur and his mother was a maid). When you add up his accomplishments in his life—including reaching the top of three unrelated industries: information systems, business management, and banking—Herman Cain may have the most impressive resume of anyone that has run for the presidency in the last half century.

Anti-Wall Street Protestors With Half-Educated Cause or Causes

2011-10-06T17:00:00.004-05:00

It's easy to see that the majority of the protesters are anti any cause, veterans at protesting, retired union people with good health and retirement benefits, the un-employable, Socialists, vagrants and bums, ex-hippies, Obama supporters who fear he will lose the 2012 election meaning they would lose their "equalization" rights, some excessive welfare benefits, far left liberals and a few well-meaning but poorly informed who got caught up in the moment.

Un-employable? I was a business owner for 28 years and a Sales Manager for 5 years. I can tell you about the people I interviewed that were un-employable. Some I did not hire were hired by the public sector; a sector that relies on the profits of the private sector. The public sector doesn't need to make a PROFIT. They just raise fees and taxes while going into massive debts as this country is now witnessing.

Most of the anti protestors seem to come from the public sector.

Not to mention the college kids who come from affluent families (many who made their money BECAUSE of Wall Street) or are on free, taxpayer funded, scholarship rides.

All the while many are doing drugs and seeking instant gratification.

If you want to close the Federal Reserve, elect politicians who would come up with a better system. I'm no big Federal Reserve, stockbroker, consultant and analyst fan, either.

My message to all of them is oust Obama and get this country back on a sound financial basis, develop a personal work ethic, if you can't find ANY job, move or go to Alabama to replace the fleeing illegal workers, or get an education in something besides how to organize protests and studying lies about global warming.

And while you are protesting, complain about Obama blowing at least a billion of vendors, taxpayer losses on Solyndra. Yes, at least a billion counting all the costs connected to any huge bankruptcy federally funded.

Am I happy with arrogant, greedy, wealthy elites; no, and I've said so on this site more than once. But I protest by being informed on as many issues as I can, reading non-fiction and watching non-fiction TV, publishing my researched blogs, my LTE's and my votes.

Plus running for office and being elected without a dime of taxpayer money. Peoria County had to borrow money to meet some payrolls when I joined the County Board. Ten years later, I retired leaving the county with a balanced budget and large fund balances.

Hey, I'm distressed too by a lot of crooks, some many protesters helped elect, remember Blago and Ryan here in the great state of a Democrat, going broke, the State of Illinois. Wake up, the United States of America. The Socialists, arrogant union bosses and populism are killing this country.

Right now, I'm most distressed by the actions of our current president. And a goodly number of local politicians.

Peoria Opportunity Center

2011-10-04T15:29:00.009-05:00

Flying mainly under the radar (the JSEB did issue a concern about spending for this project on 2/9/2010) is the County and the City of Peoria plans to open a business center (PAOC) to develop a mixed based incubator for minorities and women-owned businesses that is sponsored by the Heartland Foundation who had signed a Memorandum of Understanding on January 31, 2006 with LPA Associates.

I attended the first Town Meeting held on June 29th, 2007 at WTVP Studios. The consultant presenting was Lawrence P. Albertson (LPG). He predicted the new of 30,000 sq. ft. for the project. I was the only County Board Member attending. Since then this project has moved along slowly with the County setting aside $400,000 for what it describes "a location with staff that would provide a centralized location for prospective business owners to get all the information they need to start a business. Currently, entrepreneurs looking to start their own businesses have to visit anywhere from 4 to 7 places for consulting, loans and more."

A sign of our times: When I opened my business in 1964, I had only to consult with my landlord, bank and my suppliers. After 6 months I hired my first salesperson and went from $0 to $11,000,000.00 in 28 years, while trying to borrow money from some of the tightest local banks in the country. And yes, I was a minority as I was not from Peoria and the banks wanted to know who my Dad was and open being told he was a dirt farmer, were reluctant to lend me any money, Commercial Bank offered a $5,000 line of credit which I accepted.

Today, we are borrowing money from China to build sidewalks.

This Opportunity Center appears to be an offshoot of a May, 1993 program to "Build Peoria", a job training center estimated to cost $2.3 million, not including staffing costs, etc. Perhaps parts of this program have gotten off the ground but the plan never went into full effect.

It would appear to me that most entrepreneurs would need job training BEFORE trying to own a business. Unless government funded like, say, FireFly. I trained for 8 years with, at that time, one of the best companies in the country.

With the issuance of a 27 page study bu LPG, came the stunner, the acquisition of sites at 725-741 W. Main, renovation and infill construction came to $4,500,000.00 not including cost of furnishing, staff and staff training, more consultants, etc.

And no estimate of operating costs.

It is interesting to note who was or is on this PABO committee: Bradley's Bob Scott; the projector of the $14 million a year in new spending that the new museum will bring into the Peoria, Roger Luman of Bradley, Sally Hanley, EDC, Susan Gorman of ICC and the Reverends Pierce and Criss.

Rachel Parker, who served with the cities EDC, a short stint on the #150 school board and now a County Board member and with Patrick Urich, now city manager and a strong supporter of the concept, expect this this project to keep moving forward despite a double dip economy. Business people: "Minorities" will be using your dollars when the Opportunity Center opens, to launch new businesses competing against you. While you, if like me, probably never received a dime in taxpayer subsidies.

LPG predicts an 87% survival rate of small businesses coming from incubators.

Coming from a consultant, that appears to be "ABOUT" correct.

This article is just another call to Peoria to "Wake up".
:

All The Kings Horses and All The Kings Men, Can't Put Our Public Education System Together Then Now and Maybe Forever Again

2011-10-03T17:10:00.004-05:00

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The public education system is so badly broken, it make take decades to repair the damage. Nothing new here to me. I've been saying much the same thing since I ran for #150 school board in 1994. The JSEB recommended Deissler, she won ans served for 10 years, Baietto added his name at the last minute making 6 people running for one seat. The woman won and Baietto and I split the male vote.

Too bad.

Merle

From The Washington Post, Tuesday, September 27, 2011. See http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/who-won-a-2007-bet-on-no-child-left-behind/2011/09/26/gIQAwBBi0K_blog.html ; The piece also appeared on the Economic Policy Institute website. Thanks to Bob Schaeffer, Public Education Director at FairTest: National Center for Fair & Open Testing for bringing this piece to our attention.
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A BET ON NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND

By Richard Rothstein

Diane Ravitch is a glass half-empty kind of gal, while I suffer from excessive Panglossian tendencies. In the spring of 2007, we made a bet. The payoff is dinner at the River Café, at the foot of Brooklyn Heights, overlooking New York harbor and the Manhattan skyline, tucked neatly under the lights of the Brooklyn Bridge.

Four and a half years ago, we surveyed the damage being done to American education by NCLB, the No Child Left Behind iteration of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act:

* conversion of struggling elementary schools into test-prep factories;

* narrowing of curriculum so that disadvantaged children who most need enrichment would be denied lessons in social studies, the sciences, the arts and music, even recess and exercise, so that every available minute of the school day could be devoted to drill for tests of basic skills in math and reading;

* demoralization of the best teachers, now prohibited from engaging children in discovery and instead required to follow pre-set instructional scripts aligned with low-quality tests;

* and the boredom and terror of young children who no longer looked forward to school but instead anticipated another day of rote exercises and practice testing designed to increase scores by a point or two.

Diane morosely predicted that, despite this evident disaster, NCLB would certainly be reauthorized with its destructive testing and accountability provisions intact. After all, she moaned, it had the support of elites from both parties, the Washington think tanks, the big foundations, and the editorial boards of The New York Times, The Washington Post, and other influential media outlets. No serious opposition was visible. How could the law not be continued? Indeed, she worried, its supporters were so removed from the reality of classrooms, so impervious to evidence, they could well decide to intensify requirements that schools chase phony test score gains to the exclusion of all else.

I smugly responded, "not a chance." The NCLB accountability system is so self-evidently calamitous that its principles will never survive congressional reauthorization. Don't pay attention to elite opinion, I said. The internal contradictions of a law that orders all children nationwide to perform above-average are so explosive that any attempts to "fix" them (as policymakers were then vowing to do) would never be able to claim a congressional majority, no matter how obstinate NCLB's supporters might be.

For example, I said to Diane, consider the law's absurd demand to prohibit the normal variability of human ability so that all children, from the unusually gifted to the mentally retarded, must achieve above the same "challenging" level of proficiency by 2014. The only way states could fulfill this requirement would be to define "challenging proficiency" at such a low level that even the least talented of students could meet it. NCLB enthusiasts would then cry "foul" and insist that a reauthorized law allow Congress to dictate a national proficiency standard.

But this, in turn, would make the law unacceptable to supporters who had gone along in 2002 only because they felt assured that federal intrusion into state control of education would be limited. Or if, instead, NCLB proponents attempted to mollify critics by giving schools more flexibility - for example, by permitting them to escape condemnation for not meeting impossible academic benchmarks by citing other measures, like attendance rates or parent satisfaction - the NCLB enthusiasts would balk at this backdoor way of "leaving children behind."

There is no way out of this impasse, I assured Diane. NCLB will limp along past its 2007 expiration date, with no possible map for reauthorization, with temporary annual continuing resolutions while proponents fruitlessly attempt to conceive of ways to climb out of the holes into which they had dug themselves.

Eventually, I told Diane, by 2016, we'll still be requiring all children to be proficient by 2014, and declaring virtually every school in the country to be failing. At some point, I predicted, some secretary of education would have no choice but to issue waivers from the law's requirements to every state in the country while the law itself remained on the books, an embarrassing monument to policy foolishness.

Everything I predicted has now come to pass, and I should be able to call Diane's hand and collect my dinner at the River Café. But I'm afraid I must concede. I won the bet on technical points, but Diane won on the merits. The glass really is half-empty, maybe more so.

What I had not anticipated was that a secretary of education (Arne Duncan, it turned out to be) would use his authority to grant waivers to states (now all of them) unable to meet NCLB's requirements, conditioning the waivers on states' agreements to adopt accountability conditions that are even more absurd, more unworkable, more fanciful than those in the law itself. Mr. Duncan's philosophy has been revealed: if a policy fails, the solution should be to do more of it.

So the secretary is now kicking the ball down the road. States will be excused from making all children proficient by 2014 if they agree instead to make all children "college-ready" by 2020. If NCLB's testing obsession didn't suffice to distinguish good schools from failing ones, states can be excused from loss of funds if they instead use student test scores to distinguish good teachers from bad ones. Without any reauthorization of NCLB, Mr. Duncan will now use his waiver authority to demand, in effect, even more test-prep, more drill, more unbalanced curricula, more misidentification of success and failure, more demoralization of good teachers, and more needless stress for young children.

The Obama administration is presenting its waiver proposal as the grant of new "flexibility" to states. Yes, perhaps. If states agree to implement Mr. Duncan's favored reforms of evaluating teachers by student test scores and expanding charter schools, and if states promise to meet even more impossible "college ready" standards established by the federal government, the secretary will let them figure out on their own how to do it.

Some Republicans have complained. The secretary, they say, cannot do an end run around Congress by implementing his own more extreme version of No Child Left Behind, when he has been unsuccessful in getting Congress to enact these very same proposals into the law itself.

But these critics, most of whom supported NCLB in 2002, have only themselves to blame. They initially wrote into the law the right of a secretary to issue waivers based only on his or her own personal fantasies about what constitutes a state pledge to increase (sic) the quality of instruction and improve academic achievement - to be precise, in NCLB's Title IX, Part D, Sections 9401(b)(1)(i) and (ii).

And Arne Duncan has gotten away with this before. Here, Democrats should be ashamed. In February 2009, when the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (the ARRA, or "stimulus" bill) was enacted, Republicans charged that the law had little to do with job creation or economic growth, but was only a subterfuge for the Obama administration to make social policy without congressional debate.

Mostly, the Republican charge had no merit but in the case of education policy, it hits the mark. The secretary has been distributing more than $4 billion in ARRA grants only to states that entered and won his Race to the Top competition by promising to raise standards even higher than those unachievable under NCLB.

These so-called stimulus funds are not distributed to states with the highest unemployment rates but to those that outbid others by promising to establish data systems to evaluate teachers based on students' math and reading scores, be most ruthless in firing teachers and principals in schools with low scores, and replace them with the most rapid expansion of charter schools.

The Duncan policies, like NCLB, will eventually implode. But the damage being done to American public education has now gone on for so long that it will have enduring effects. Schools will not soon be able to implement a holistic education to disadvantaged children. Disillusioned and demoralized teachers who have abandoned the profession or have retired are now being rapidly replaced by a new generation of drill sergeants, well-trained in the techniques of "data-driven instruction." This cannot easily be undone.

Some state education officials have murmured intents to refuse the Duncan waiver conditions, and dare him then to withhold federal education dollars. But there is little indication that these officials will follow through, or that others will join the resistance. Most states will meekly apply for the Duncan waivers. Courage is in short supply among education and policy leaders.

So Diane, start perusing the menu. My victory on points is to no avail. I owe you dinner.
****************************************************
--

Jerry P. Becker
Dept. of Curriculum & Instruction
Southern Illinois University
625 Wham Drive
Mail Code 4610
Carbondale, IL 62901-4610
Phone: (618) 453-4241 [O]
(618) 457-8903 [H]
Fax: (618) 453-4244
E-mail: jbecker@siu.edu

Is Greece Socialism Coming to the United States of America?

2011-10-02T12:33:00.004-05:00

Or is it almost here now? Summing up actions of the Greek political class: "The present government has done absolutely nothing during the last 12 months to speed up privatization, reduce the public sector or open up closed professions", said Athanasios Papandrpoulous, a leading economic analyst. "In these 12 disastrous months, it has not fired even one civil servant. The only thing it is doing is trying to tax the private sector out of existence. Why should we believe they will do something different now?"

My wife and I had planned to visit Greece someday. Not ever now as it would be too dangerous as Greece is heavily unionized.

Taken from and article in the WSJ by Takis Michan on 9/20/11.

A recent report says that International Longshoreman and Warehouse Union was fined by a Federal judge for blocking a train, storming a grain terminal, overpowered security guards, damaged railroad cars and dumped grain.

How much was the fine? $250,000, a pittance plus the fine is being protested and will most likely never e paid. The union got enough scare tactics to warn non-union people.

Never, never, give up your guns, as we may be heading toward disaster for those of us who believe in capitalism, no matter how imperfect it is be at times.

Unions Turn More to Thuggery

2011-10-02T12:23:00.003-05:00

My file is full of actions of thuggery similar or worse than this these violent actions.

Merle

"You guys slash my tires, stab me in the neck, try to beat me up," the construction company official explained to the union organizer.

Given all that, he asked, why should the company hire such aggressive union militants?

"The positives are that the negatives you are complaining about would go away," the union operative reportedly replied.

According to the Buffalo News, the "negatives" include hot coffee thrown at independent-minded workers, sand dumped into the engines of company vehicles, and the wife of a company representative threatened with sexual assault.

And the union toughs just might get away with it.

You see, ever since the Supreme Court's infamous 1973 Enmons decision, union bosses have been granted immunity from federal prosecution for acts of violence and vandalism they orchestrate in the so-called "pursuit of legitimate union objectives."

AFL-CIO union lawyer Jonathan D. Newman told the Buffalo News that "we simply want to make sure that the [federal law] is not interpreted in a way that could have a chilling effect on legitimate union activity."

The union violence in Buffalo is hardly an isolated incident.

As you may recall, the Associated Press reported that hundreds of Longshoreman union militants held security guards hostage for hours at the Port of Longview in Washington State on September 8.

Union thugs reportedly committed numerous acts of vandalism and violence including breaking windows, cutting brake lines on railroad cars, and threatening police officers with baseball bats.

Weeks later, local police have only made two arrests in connection with the September 8 raid.

And now Longshoremen union officials have launched a Wisconsin-style recall campaign against the county sheriff investigating the raid.

Union officials know that if they intimidate local authorities, they can get away with anything.

The loophole in federal law ensures that union officials who may have orchestrated and encouraged the union violence may never be brought to justice, especially where they can intimidate and use political connections to stop local or state prosecutions.

That's why the Freedom from Union Violence Act (FUVA) is so vital. To learn more about FUVA and how you can help urge Congress to take action, please click here.

Your National Right to Work Committee has an aggressive plan of action to force the politicians in Washington, D.C. to stop turning a blind eye to union violence.

Christie Comment Correction

2011-10-01T11:12:00.002-05:00

The WSJ incorrectly quoted Governor Christie. Here is what Christie said. "I favored requiring parental notification in the case of minors seeking abortion."

Howerver, he did not push for such a change in legislation.

Cruel and Usual Punishment by Nonie Darwish

2011-10-01T09:54:00.006-05:00

Another outstanding book compassionate intellects and all others should read. Don't think the many Muslims, radical or not, are intent on taking over the majority of the world and forcing Sharia Law on Christians and others who don't follow the Koran and Sharia Law? Younger people than I need to pay better attention. Many in Germany did but not enough of them. They got Hitler and his thugs, Italy got Mussolini and his thugs and others followed.

Cuba, Argentina, Venezuela, Libya, Iran.......Now our greed, our arrogant elites, too many inept politicians and bureaucrats, too many overly compassionate people, our radical environmentalists and our weak leadership on so many levels led by the current president of this country, is making the United States of America, a country with much unhappiness, worrying about security, personal and financial, disappointed in their future outlook, and disturbed people. Our attempts to correct problems are made worse by too many people wanting to be "politically" correct.

Those of us that are concerned about the future of this country should become more active and outspoken. Fortunately, we have a generally correct group of Tea Party and tea party type people becoming more active.

What do we need to prevent further decay? Find new leadership both within the Democrat and the Republican parties and get the Independents and others to sort out in their own parties who are the ones that can lead us out of this morass. Should it be Herman Cain, a black man? From what I read, see and hear so far, I could support him. Or a Ryan (not George) or anyone who can win the election and oust Obama and his tribe.

Caucasians will be a minority before year 2030. I originally said 2050 but I may need to change it again as I study birth rates across this nation. No wonder so many of the white population are opposed to abortion.

As long as we have the right leadership no matter whether they are black, Hispanic or Jewish. Muslim leadership at high levels of government would not be in the best interests of this country, even though like Germany, where a large number of Germans opposed Hitler, a number of Muslims support the best interest of this country, but they, overall, have not spoken out about the disturbing actions of many of their radical elements.

Read more widely and you will find out why. Not all voters think Obama was the wrong person to be president. Polls did and do show that at least 40% would vote for him again just as polls showed that 30% of voters would have still voted for Blagovich, even after he was indicted.

Believe it can't happen here where it already is in some of the larger cities.starting in the big cities?

Europe would not have been saved by the likes of the compassionate Chamberlain. It took leadership like Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt. Can we come up with the right person in these difficult times?

Ban Skirts and Dresses? Maybe the Officer Was a Muslim

2011-09-30T15:24:00.000-05:00

By John Noel
NBCNewYork.com
updated 1 hour 25 minutes ago 2011-09-30T18:45:16
Print Font: +-Women in a Brooklyn neighborhood on edge over a spate of sex attacks are being told by police that wearing skirts and dresses might not be a good idea.

The surprising message from the NYPD is not being taken well.

"I think that women should be able to wear whatever they want," said Theresa Troupson, a Park Slope resident. "I don't think that they should be held responsible in any way for the actions of criminals."

Lauren, who did not want her last name used, told the the Wall Street Journal that she was walking down the street in shorts and a t-shirt after leaving the gym on Monday when she was stopped by an officer who also stopped two other women in dresses.

Lauren said the officer asked them if they knew what was happening in the area, and asked them if they knew what the suspect looked for.

"He pointed at my outfit and said, 'Don't you think your shorts are a little short?'" she told the Journal. "He pointed at their dresses and said they were showing a lot of skin."

The officer also told them that "you're exactly the kind of girl this guy is targeting," according to Lauren.

NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said the officers "are simply pointing out that as part of the pattern involving one or more men that the assailant(s) have targeted women wearing skirts."

A group called Safe Slope says the NYPD effort is "completely inappropriate."

"There have been reports that the women attacked were all wearing skirts," said Jessica Silk, a Safe Slope founder. "Unfortunately this might be a common link between the women that were attacked but the message shouldn't be that you shouldn't wear a skirt. The message should be that, 'Here are ways that you can protect yourself.'"

1.

Christie Not Running for Republican President Because He is Too Much Like the Demagogue We Now Have in Office

2011-09-30T14:20:00.005-05:00

The Wall Street Journal today reports, "As Christie Clamor Grows, His Positions Face Scrutiny."

Do they ever! Wise Republicans and Independents like myself, favor more natural gas and cleaner coal production. Christie sides with the Greens and last year passed offshore wind laws that will increase electricity costs by more than 2% while killing thousands of birds. (The radical enviros ignore wind turbines killing millions of birds while attacking oil and gas companies for killing 28 birds. (See "A Bird Brained Prosecution, Indicting oil and gas companies but giving wind turbines a pass," in today's WSJ.

He wants to phase out coal fired power plants. He opposes off shore drilling. While he criticized ObamaCare, his state of New Jersey, did not file a lawsuit against the current administration as a majority of other states did,

He favors giving the gangs more fire power while restricting the rights of citizens to protect themselves as the people in Bahrain now find themselves from their own government. If Obama is reelected that day may come sooner than some think in the U.S.

This administration even gave or sold assault weapons to use against our own law enforcement people and innocent border state citizens. (Obama wants to ban all citizen owned guns while Christie wants more control and the ban of assault weapons).

He imposed a one year ban on on natural gas extraction known as "fracking" now widely used by others.

He opposed the need of parental approval for underage daughters having abortions.

He pursued only a handful of illegal immigration cases during his nine years as U.S. attorney in New Jersey, and in 2008 he told a Latino group that "being in this country without proper documentation is NOT a crime."

It appears he is out of step with most conservatives and more in line with Obama. Plus he is hardly a poster candidate for the control of obesity, a disease that is proven to shorten peoples lives and cause ailments, mainly heart, back and knee problems, adding to the cost of taxpayer financed health care.

For me, that makes Cain and Romney as the pair that could win the election and stop our speed towards Socialism and worse

While Romney's actions have been pretty thoroughly scrutinized by the press, I still don't know that much about Cain.

Except that he is beginning to look like the person who I could support in this presidential race. Either as President of V-P.

JS and AP Criticizes Rutherford and Topinka For Salary Increases to Non-Union Staff

2011-09-30T13:50:00.002-05:00

The headline in the JS on 9/27/11, stated, "While critical of the state's fiscal crisis, Rutherford and Topinka awarded raises to staffers." Elected governmental officials usually, but not always, give raises to non-union staff commensurate with raises given to the unionized employees.

These raises will cost taxpayers $305,000.00 this year.

Left out of the headlines and buried further from the headlines criticizing the two Republicans, was the mention that Democrat Jesse White handed out $936,000 to his non-union staffers this year.

It's the headlines most people read and get a fixed perception. The liberal press is schooled in conveying perceptions it if fits their agenda, and believe me, they have agendas.

Further into the article, it states that Rutherford gave the raises because more responsibilities were added, at the same time not increasing his budget.

As for Topinka, also deeper into the article, it states that the unions got a 4.5 pay increase while Topinka's staff received only 3% raises. Topinka's staff also took on more responsibilities.

Fair and balanced reporting? Sure.

Elected Officials Can't Say No

2011-09-29T16:03:00.004-05:00

Several years ago, I posted results of a study of 73 issues involving public risk that were brought before elected boards. 70 passed.

On the Gary Mathews issue expect Turner to vote yes because of his Caterpillar connections (On 4/20/10, now Caterpillar CEO Doug Oberhelman, wrote a LTE urging the council to vote yes on the hotel issue. He wrote, "Caterpillar supports major development that will drive the rejuvenation of Downtown. By boosting occupancy rates, the city will reap the benefits of increased commerce backing such as employment opportunities of about 4000?? hospitality-driven jobs, revenue from local tax receipts and offshoot development (like the off-shoot developments promised around the ballpark?) of small businesses to support the tourism industry, including restaurants, gas stations, dry cleaners and other attractions.

Should the Marriott Hotel go forward? We think the answer is yes."

Perhaps this type of "stick the taxpayer" thinking is partially responsible that Caterpillar stock is 40% off its recent high of $116. Caterpillar's "generosity" will soon stick taxpayers with a highly debated downtown museum and the stockholders with a $50 million Cat Visitors Center, plus approximately $2 million a year total costs. In the meantime Cat is asking for a large property tax decrease which may cause the citizenry to possibly pay higher fees while getting less city services such as infrastructure (think our lousy streets and curbs, safety issues, etc.

Now, if Cat would just guarantee these general obligation bonds, guarantee the County, that the PRM won't be asking for more money to support the new Riverfront museum, buy naming rights to the ballpark (O'Brien didn't renew 3 years ago) they so strongly supported.........??

I might note that the JSEB noted that the Pere currently is operating at 44% occupancy and appears to be in financial trouble, that the Civic Center is upping it's losses to $4,764,988.00 for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, yet can't keep the existing rooms at the Pere occupied, the tax-payer supported ballpark has yet to have a profitable season and the "projected to be" highly profitable RiverPlex overall budget still operates in the red (JS, 8/11/2011)

Then their is Pete's place, or so says the JS and it's sports page, losing money every year since the new stadium opened.

So, along with Turner voting yes, will be Spain and Riggenback, neither of who has seldom seen tax money they don't want to spend; Gulley and Van Auken, who will talk about reasons not to vote yes, but will vote yes, Spears has union work to consider; and if Ardis votes yes, he will again contradict the platform he first promised when running for election to the council.

Dan Irving has encountered a rocky road so his vote is more likely to be yes, so I predict the vote will be in favor of "a better deal for the taxpayers?" 8-3 or 7-4.

In the meantime, the "vision" planned by the "power" structure has yet to come to light in the way intended.

At least, not to this taxpayer whose opinion is I for see a perhaps "rockier" road as more chickens come home to roost; the renovated sewer system projected by the mayor and Stanton Browning to cost $100-300 million, the deteriorating water underground system, Southtown, turn-a-bouts, warehouse district, deteriorating inner city with it's accompanying #150 problems, etc.

And the property tax increase of fees increases will kick in when we property tax payers start paying for all the money borrowed for Peoria Public School District $90 million plus interest for bonds, the Library bonds and BelWood bonds, the later, we are already paying over $3.2 million a year.

Just one man's studied opinion; a man not in the "good old boys and girls club", though.

Hopedale, Illinois - Chicken Dinner Fund Raiser - Public Service Announcement

2011-09-29T15:59:00.002-05:00

For Immediate Release: 9/29/2011
Contact: Larry Noreuil
(309) 449-4415
107 Tremont St.
Hopedale, IL 61747
llnoreuil@hopedalemc.com
www.HopedaleMC.com

Just a reminder.

Merle

Hopedale Medical Complex Chicken Dinner to Benefit the Hopedale Fire Department & Rescue Squad

Hopedale, IL — Hopedale Medical Complex (HMC) is sponsoring a chicken dinner to benefit the Hopedale Fire Department & Rescue Squad. The dinner will be held Sunday, October 16, 2011 from 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. in HMC’s Cafe. Ample parking is now available at the east entrance to the Cafe in a new lot at the Corner of Grove and Railroad Streets.

The dinner will include fried chicken, vegetable, rolls with butter, mashed potatoes, coleslaw, and coffee or tea. The cost of the event is $6.00 for adults and $3.00 for children (ages 3-10). Carry-outs are available by calling (309) 449-4325.

For more information, or to inquire about a fundraiser for your non-profit organization, call Larry Noreuil at (309) 449-4415.

###

Dave Chapman, President of the Local 974, Populist LTE to the JS

2011-09-25T20:49:00.003-05:00

Chapman reiterated the old union saw that. "That when I represent young men and women paying higher tax rates than millionaires, it is class warfare.

Everyone should pay their fair share. If you think job makers do anything but use their extra money to invest overseas, I've got a bridge to sell you."

Dave, you are parroting the bull crap circulated by union bosses and their elected Democrat puppets. I know, you need to do that to hold your presidency of your local.

But, here are the real facts. IRS statistics show those earning over $1 million paid 28.9%in federal income taxes in 2009, compared with 24.6% for those earning from $200,000 to $500,000 and 11.6%for those earning from $50,000 to $75,000.

Corporations going overseas? Of course: one major reason is belligerent union bosses like you have forced these companies to go where they can compete against world producers and make a profit to hire union workers and others while paying higher wages and benefits than most every country in the world.

You've helped force companies like Caterpillar to expand outside of Peoria and Illinois. They have wisely expanded mainly in Right To Work States. As to expanding overseas? That's easy for even a populist to understand. Companies expand where they can make a profit. That's called capitalism.

Other countries have expanded into the U.S. I'm sure you are aware because your union is having a harder time unionizing these foreign companies that locate in the U.S. Your membership has fallen drastically in the U.S. private sector but you still are able to get your cronies elected to public office. That appears to be changing; a change that would be best for the staggering economy of this community, state and country.

You union bosses know better than to spread populist manure but I guess you have to to retain your jobs as union bosses.

So sad.

Perry is a Good Man For Texas

2011-09-25T20:40:00.003-05:00

But not for president of the U.S. Romney, a good man also, has too much baggage to carry. Perhaps Christie with Herman Cain as VP?

In my opinion, none of the Republican candidates to date, can win the vote for president.

On local scene, I like Patrick Sullivan as a person. But the Republican Central Committe had better realize Sullivan can't win the vote. They should remember their poor choice of Montelongo.