Rep. D'Amico recently produced and aired a program on local cable called "A legislative update" starring Massachusetts’s Tax Foundation's Michael Widmer and Jeffrey B. Mullen, Undersecretary of the Executive Office of Transportation. While thinking this was going to be a show about what our Representative is doing for his constituents, it was propaganda for a tax hike and putting blame on the last Republican Administrations.
With our Rep. reading his questions from a queue card, Mr. Widmer answered like the "conservative watchdog" D'Amico claims his organization to be. "The past administrations mortgaged our future and now we have to pay for it" says Widmer. "The bonding arrangements for the Big Dig in the early years were low, now we have to pay."
With D'Amico poised, "Boston is the economic engine to the State". "If Boston falters, the whole state does…the benefits of a gas tax is to spread throughout the state." Widmer agrees that the 19 gas tax could correct all the wrongs of the past and get this state on sound footing again.
Then D'Amico brings on Mullen...I figure because Jim Aloisi, the transportation secretary who is suddenly no longer the state's most imperiled transportation official, could not make it. It was time to layer on the tax gas and bash the MBTA and The Turnpike Authority. “The benefits that the MBTA receives are unheard of." "The two agencies should be combined and overlooked by a new Ombudsman." “We inherited this mess.”
Well, my first reaction to all this…is Boston the problem? D’Amico being the devil advocate says, ‘why should my constituents care about Boston?” The devil is right!
The economy is faltering right now because of overspending. It has nothing to do with the city of Boston. D’Amico’s predecessors in the legislature are the ones to blame.
The mismanagement of the MBTA and the Turnpike Authority were the results of decisions by this legislature. The Big Dig was a small part of the economic engine providing jobs for workers across the state, with the blessings of our representation in Washington. Now that the monies are dried up from the Fed, the Turnpike Authority owes $15.5 Billion. So, they argue the gas tax is to help the Turnpike Authority. Which then in combining MBTA/ Turnpike with the other agencies would bring all of the debt to Boston?
We now learn the House (led by D’Amico with his Hollywood amendment) passed an increase of the sales tax from 5% to 6.25%. Next week the plan for the gas tax, bailing out the Turnpike Authority/MBTA is to vote yes by D’Amico. Also, as we all knew, the Speaker of the House Democrat Robert DeLeo spoke at the 76th Anniversary of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation. I guess he thanked them for all these years for being the fiscal watchdog for the Democrats. So, let’s be clear…D’Amico is for Boston, not for Seekonk, Norton, Rehoboth, or Swansea. We need another update from Rep. D’Amico to explain how he will be voting to spend our tax dollars at home.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
A Timid Advocate of Freedom
By Mitt Romney
National Review
At last week’s Summit of the Americas, President Obama acquiesced to a 50-minute attack on America as terroristic, expansionist, and interventionist from Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega. His response to Ortega’s denunciation of our effort to free Cuba from Castro’s dictatorship was that he shouldn’t be blamed “for things that happened when I was three months old.” Blamed? Hundreds of men, including Americans, bravely fought and died for Cuba’s freedom, heeding the call from newly elected president John F. Kennedy. But last week, even as American soldiers sacrificed blood in Afghanistan and Iraq to defend liberty, President Obama shrank from defending liberty here in the Americas.
In his first press interview as president, he confessed to Arabic television that America had “dictated” to other nations. No, Mr. President, America has fought to free other nations from dictators. And in Strasbourg, the president further claimed that America has “showed arrogance and been dismissive, even derisive.” London’s Daily Telegraph observed that President Obama “went further than any United States president in history in criticizing his own country’s action while standing on foreign soil.” Of course, it was not just the Daily Telegraph that was listening: People around the world who yearn for freedom, who count on America’s resolve and support, heard him as well. He was heard in China, in Tibet, in Sudan, in Burma, and, yes, in Cuba.
The words spoken by the leader of the free world can expand the frontiers of freedom or shrink them. When Ronald Reagan called on Gorbachev to “tear down this wall,” a surge of confidence rose that would ultimately breach the bounds of the evil empire. It was the same confidence that had been ignited decades earlier when John F. Kennedy declared to a people surrounded by Communism that they were not alone. “We are all Berliners,” he said, because “freedom is indivisible, and when one man is enslaved, all are not free.” Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s confident commitment, spoken as he led us into the war that would free millions in Europe, inspired not only Americans but freedom fighters around the globe: “The American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory.” Such words of solidarity, of confidence, and of unwavering conviction that America is indeed “the last best hope on earth” are what freedom’s friends would have expected to hear from our president when our nation was slandered. Instead he offered silence, smiles, and a handshake.
Even more troubling than what he has or has not said is what he has not done. Kim Jong Il launched a long-range missile on the very day President Obama addressed the world about the peril of nuclear proliferation. As one of the world’s most oppressive and tyrannical regimes is on the brink of securing the “game changing” capability to reach American shores with a nuclear weapon, the president shrinks from action: no seizure of North Korean funds, no severance of banking access, no blockade.
Not to be outdone by Kim Jong Il, President Ahmadinejad announced that his nation has successfully mastered every step necessary to enrich uranium, violating the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty it has signed. So, like North Korea, Iran will have changed the world’s equation for peace and security: It will be capable of devastating Europe and America, and of annihilating Israel. And as with North Korea, the Obama administration chooses inaction — no new severe sanctions, no hint of military options. Ahmadinejad can act with confidence that the forceful options once on our proverbial table have been shelved.
Vice President Biden was right that the new president would be tested early in his administration. What the world learned was not good news for freedom and democracy. The leader of the free world has been a timid advocate of freedom at best. And bold action to blunt the advances of tyrants has been wholly lacking. We are still very early in the Obama years — the president will have ample opportunity to defend America and freedom, and to deter nuclear brinkmanship. I am hoping for change.
National Review
At last week’s Summit of the Americas, President Obama acquiesced to a 50-minute attack on America as terroristic, expansionist, and interventionist from Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega. His response to Ortega’s denunciation of our effort to free Cuba from Castro’s dictatorship was that he shouldn’t be blamed “for things that happened when I was three months old.” Blamed? Hundreds of men, including Americans, bravely fought and died for Cuba’s freedom, heeding the call from newly elected president John F. Kennedy. But last week, even as American soldiers sacrificed blood in Afghanistan and Iraq to defend liberty, President Obama shrank from defending liberty here in the Americas.
In his first press interview as president, he confessed to Arabic television that America had “dictated” to other nations. No, Mr. President, America has fought to free other nations from dictators. And in Strasbourg, the president further claimed that America has “showed arrogance and been dismissive, even derisive.” London’s Daily Telegraph observed that President Obama “went further than any United States president in history in criticizing his own country’s action while standing on foreign soil.” Of course, it was not just the Daily Telegraph that was listening: People around the world who yearn for freedom, who count on America’s resolve and support, heard him as well. He was heard in China, in Tibet, in Sudan, in Burma, and, yes, in Cuba.
The words spoken by the leader of the free world can expand the frontiers of freedom or shrink them. When Ronald Reagan called on Gorbachev to “tear down this wall,” a surge of confidence rose that would ultimately breach the bounds of the evil empire. It was the same confidence that had been ignited decades earlier when John F. Kennedy declared to a people surrounded by Communism that they were not alone. “We are all Berliners,” he said, because “freedom is indivisible, and when one man is enslaved, all are not free.” Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s confident commitment, spoken as he led us into the war that would free millions in Europe, inspired not only Americans but freedom fighters around the globe: “The American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory.” Such words of solidarity, of confidence, and of unwavering conviction that America is indeed “the last best hope on earth” are what freedom’s friends would have expected to hear from our president when our nation was slandered. Instead he offered silence, smiles, and a handshake.
Even more troubling than what he has or has not said is what he has not done. Kim Jong Il launched a long-range missile on the very day President Obama addressed the world about the peril of nuclear proliferation. As one of the world’s most oppressive and tyrannical regimes is on the brink of securing the “game changing” capability to reach American shores with a nuclear weapon, the president shrinks from action: no seizure of North Korean funds, no severance of banking access, no blockade.
Not to be outdone by Kim Jong Il, President Ahmadinejad announced that his nation has successfully mastered every step necessary to enrich uranium, violating the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty it has signed. So, like North Korea, Iran will have changed the world’s equation for peace and security: It will be capable of devastating Europe and America, and of annihilating Israel. And as with North Korea, the Obama administration chooses inaction — no new severe sanctions, no hint of military options. Ahmadinejad can act with confidence that the forceful options once on our proverbial table have been shelved.
Vice President Biden was right that the new president would be tested early in his administration. What the world learned was not good news for freedom and democracy. The leader of the free world has been a timid advocate of freedom at best. And bold action to blunt the advances of tyrants has been wholly lacking. We are still very early in the Obama years — the president will have ample opportunity to defend America and freedom, and to deter nuclear brinkmanship. I am hoping for change.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Officials: Agency involved in ‘overcollection’ of communication by Americans
By Eric Lichtblau and James Risen
updated 2:24 a.m. ET, Thurs., April 16, 2009
WASHINGTON - The National Security Agency intercepted private e-mail messages and phone calls of Americans in recent months on a scale that went beyond the broad legal limits established by Congress last year, government officials said in recent interviews.
Several intelligence officials, as well as lawyers briefed about the matter, said the N.S.A. had been engaged in “overcollection” of domestic communications of Americans. They described the practice as significant and systemic, although one official said it was believed to have been unintentional.
The legal and operational problems surrounding the N.S.A.’s surveillance activities have come under scrutiny from the Obama administration, Congressional intelligence committees and a secret national security court, said the intelligence officials, who spoke only on the condition of anonymity because N.S.A. activities are classified. Classified government briefings have been held in recent weeks in response to a brewing controversy that some officials worry could damage the credibility of legitimate intelligence-gathering efforts.
Full Story at MSNBC
updated 2:24 a.m. ET, Thurs., April 16, 2009
WASHINGTON - The National Security Agency intercepted private e-mail messages and phone calls of Americans in recent months on a scale that went beyond the broad legal limits established by Congress last year, government officials said in recent interviews.
Several intelligence officials, as well as lawyers briefed about the matter, said the N.S.A. had been engaged in “overcollection” of domestic communications of Americans. They described the practice as significant and systemic, although one official said it was believed to have been unintentional.
The legal and operational problems surrounding the N.S.A.’s surveillance activities have come under scrutiny from the Obama administration, Congressional intelligence committees and a secret national security court, said the intelligence officials, who spoke only on the condition of anonymity because N.S.A. activities are classified. Classified government briefings have been held in recent weeks in response to a brewing controversy that some officials worry could damage the credibility of legitimate intelligence-gathering efforts.
Full Story at MSNBC
Georgetown Says It Covered Over Name of Jesus to Comply With White House Request
(CNSNews.com) - Georgetown University says it covered over the monogram “IHS”--symbolizing the name of Jesus Christ—because it was inscribed on a pediment on the stage where President Obama spoke at the university on Tuesday and the White House had asked Georgetown to cover up all signs and symbols there.
As of Wednesday afternoon, the “IHS” monogram that had previously adorned the stage at Georgetown’s Gaston Hall was still covered up--when the pediment where it had appeared was photographed by CNSNews.com.
“In coordinating the logistical arrangements for yesterday’s event, Georgetown honored the White House staff’s request to cover all of the Georgetown University signage and symbols behind Gaston Hall stage,” Julie Green Bataille, associate vice president for communications at Georgetown, told CNSNews.com.
“The White House wanted a simple backdrop of flags and pipe and drape for the speech, consistent with what they’ve done for other policy speeches,” she added. “Frankly, the pipe and drape wasn’t high enough by itself to fully cover the IHS and cross above the GU seal and it seemed most respectful to have them covered so as not to be seen out of context.”
On Wednesday, CNSNews.com inspected the pediment embedded in the wall at the back of the stage in Gaston Hall, where Obama delivered his speech. The letters “IHS” were not to be found. They appeared to be shrouded with a triangle of black-painted plywood.
Pictures of the wooden pediment prior to Obama’s speech show the letters “IHS" in gold. Many photos posted on the Internet of other events at Gaston Hall show the letters clearly.
The White House did not respond to a request from CNSNews.com to comment on the covering up of Jesus’ name at Gaston Hall.
Georgetown, which is run by the Jesuit order, is one of the most prestigious Catholic institutions of higher education in the United States.
Roman Catholics traditionally use “IHS” as an abbreviation for Jesus’ name. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, “St. Ignatius of Loyola adopted the monogram in his seal as general of the Society of Jesus (1541) and thus became the emblem of his institute.” The Society of Jesus is the formal name for the Jesuits.
Although the monogram was covered over on the wooden pediment at the back of the Gaston Hall stage where it would have been directly above and behind President Obama as he spoke, the letters “IHS” are posted elsewhere around the hall approximately 26 times on shields representing different parts of the United States and the world.
Obama did not mention the name of Jesus during his address. However, he did mention Christ’s Sermon on the Mount.
“There is a parable at the end of the Sermon on the Mount that tells a story of two men…‘the rain descended and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house…it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock,’” Obama said.
“We cannot rebuild this economy on the same pile of sand,” he added. “We must build our house upon a rock.”
As of Wednesday afternoon, the “IHS” monogram that had previously adorned the stage at Georgetown’s Gaston Hall was still covered up--when the pediment where it had appeared was photographed by CNSNews.com.
“In coordinating the logistical arrangements for yesterday’s event, Georgetown honored the White House staff’s request to cover all of the Georgetown University signage and symbols behind Gaston Hall stage,” Julie Green Bataille, associate vice president for communications at Georgetown, told CNSNews.com.
“The White House wanted a simple backdrop of flags and pipe and drape for the speech, consistent with what they’ve done for other policy speeches,” she added. “Frankly, the pipe and drape wasn’t high enough by itself to fully cover the IHS and cross above the GU seal and it seemed most respectful to have them covered so as not to be seen out of context.”
On Wednesday, CNSNews.com inspected the pediment embedded in the wall at the back of the stage in Gaston Hall, where Obama delivered his speech. The letters “IHS” were not to be found. They appeared to be shrouded with a triangle of black-painted plywood.
Pictures of the wooden pediment prior to Obama’s speech show the letters “IHS" in gold. Many photos posted on the Internet of other events at Gaston Hall show the letters clearly.
The White House did not respond to a request from CNSNews.com to comment on the covering up of Jesus’ name at Gaston Hall.
Georgetown, which is run by the Jesuit order, is one of the most prestigious Catholic institutions of higher education in the United States.
Roman Catholics traditionally use “IHS” as an abbreviation for Jesus’ name. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, “St. Ignatius of Loyola adopted the monogram in his seal as general of the Society of Jesus (1541) and thus became the emblem of his institute.” The Society of Jesus is the formal name for the Jesuits.
Although the monogram was covered over on the wooden pediment at the back of the Gaston Hall stage where it would have been directly above and behind President Obama as he spoke, the letters “IHS” are posted elsewhere around the hall approximately 26 times on shields representing different parts of the United States and the world.
Obama did not mention the name of Jesus during his address. However, he did mention Christ’s Sermon on the Mount.
“There is a parable at the end of the Sermon on the Mount that tells a story of two men…‘the rain descended and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house…it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock,’” Obama said.
“We cannot rebuild this economy on the same pile of sand,” he added. “We must build our house upon a rock.”
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
The Crisis: December 23, 1776
THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated. Britain, with an army to enforce her tyranny, has declared that she has a right (not only to TAX) but "to BIND us in ALL CASES WHATSOEVER" and if being bound in that manner, is not slavery, then is there not such a thing as slavery upon earth. Even the expression is impious; for so unlimited a power can belong only to God.
......
'Tis surprising to see how rapidly a panic will sometimes run through a country. All nations and ages have been subject to them. Britain has trembled like an ague at the report of a French fleet of flat-bottomed boats; and in the fourteenth [fifteenth] century the whole English army, after ravaging the kingdom of France, was driven back like men petrified with fear; and this brave exploit was performed by a few broken forces collected and headed by a woman, Joan of Arc. Would that heaven might inspire some Jersey maid to spirit up her countrymen, and save her fair fellow sufferers from ravage and ravishment! Yet panics, in some cases, have their uses; they produce as much good as hurt. Their duration is always short; the mind soon grows through them, and acquires a firmer habit than before. But their peculiar advantage is, that they are the touchstones of sincerity and hypocrisy, and bring things and men to light, which might otherwise have lain forever undiscovered. In fact, they have the same effect on secret traitors, which an imaginary apparition would have upon a private murderer. They sift out the hidden thoughts of man, and hold them up in public to the world. Many a disguised Tory has lately shown his head, that shall penitentially solemnize with curses the day on which Howe arrived upon the Delaware.
.....
I once felt all that kind of anger, which a man ought to feel, against the mean principles that are held by the Tories: a noted one, who kept a tavern at Amboy, was standing at his door, with as pretty a child in his hand, about eight or nine years old, as I ever saw, and after speaking his mind as freely as he thought was prudent, finished with this unfatherly expression, "Well! give me peace in my day." Not a man lives on the continent but fully believes that a separation must some time or other finally take place, and a generous parent should have said, "If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace;" and this single reflection, well applied, is sufficient to awaken every man to duty. Not a place upon earth might be so happy as America. Her situation is remote from all the wrangling world, and she has nothing to do but to trade with them. A man can distinguish himself between temper and principle, and I am as confident, as I am that God governs the world, that America will never be happy till she gets clear of foreign dominion. Wars, without ceasing, will break out till that period arrives, and the continent must in the end be conqueror; for though the flame of liberty may sometimes cease to shine, the coal can never expire.
....
Quitting this class of men, I turn with the warm ardor of a friend to those who have nobly stood, and are yet determined to stand the matter out: I call not upon a few, but upon all: not on this state or that state, but on every state: up and help us; lay your shoulders to the wheel; better have too much force than too little, when so great an object is at stake. Let it be told to the future world, that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive, that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet and to repulse it. Say not that thousands are gone, turn out your tens of thousands; throw not the burden of the day upon Providence, but "show your faith by your works," that God may bless you. It matters not where you live, or what rank of life you hold, the evil or the blessing will reach you all. The far and the near, the home counties and the back, the rich and the poor, will suffer or rejoice alike. The heart that feels not now is dead; the blood of his children will curse his cowardice, who shrinks back at a time when a little might have saved the whole, and made them happy. I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death. My own line of reasoning is to myself as straight and clear as a ray of light. Not all the treasures of the world, so far as I believe, could have induced me to support an offensive war, for I think it murder; but if a thief breaks into my house, burns and destroys my property, and kills or threatens to kill me, or those that are in it, and to "bind me in all cases whatsoever" to his absolute will, am I to suffer it? What signifies it to me, whether he who does it is a king or a common man; my countryman or not my countryman; whether it be done by an individual villain, or an army of them? If we reason to the root of things we shall find no difference; neither can any just cause be assigned why we should punish in the one case and pardon in the other. Let them call me rebel and welcome, I feel no concern from it; but I should suffer the misery of devils, were I to make a whore of my soul by swearing allegiance to one whose character is that of a sottish, stupid, stubborn, worthless, brutish man. I conceive likewise a horrid idea in receiving mercy from a being, who at the last day shall be shrieking to the rocks and mountains to cover him, and fleeing with terror from the orphan, the widow, and the slain of America.
There are cases which cannot be overdone by language, and this is one. There are persons, too, who see not the full extent of the evil which threatens them; they solace themselves with hopes that the enemy, if he succeed, will be merciful. It is the madness of folly, to expect mercy from those who have refused to do justice; and even mercy, where conquest is the object, is only a trick of war; the cunning of the fox is as murderous as the violence of the wolf, and we ought to guard equally against both. Howe's first object is, partly by threats and partly by promises, to terrify or seduce the people to deliver up their arms and receive mercy. The ministry recommended the same plan to Gage, and this is what the tories call making their peace, "a peace which passeth all understanding" indeed! A peace which would be the immediate forerunner of a worse ruin than any we have yet thought of. Ye men of Pennsylvania, do reason upon these things! Were the back counties to give up their arms, they would fall an easy prey to the Indians, who are all armed: this perhaps is what some Tories would not be sorry for. Were the home counties to deliver up their arms, they would be exposed to the resentment of the back counties who would then have it in their power to chastise their defection at pleasure. And were any one state to give up its arms, that state must be garrisoned by all Howe's army of Britons and Hessians to preserve it from the anger of the rest. Mutual fear is the principal link in the chain of mutual love, and woe be to that state that breaks the compact. Howe is mercifully inviting you to barbarous destruction, and men must be either rogues or fools that will not see it. I dwell not upon the vapors of imagination; I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as A, B, C, hold up truth to your eyes.
I thank God, that I fear not. I see no real cause for fear. I know our situation well, and can see the way out of it. While our army was collected, Howe dared not risk a battle; and it is no credit to him that he decamped from the White Plains, and waited a mean opportunity to ravage the defenceless Jerseys; but it is great credit to us, that, with a handful of men, we sustained an orderly retreat for near an hundred miles, brought off our ammunition, all our field pieces, the greatest part of our stores, and had four rivers to pass. None can say that our retreat was precipitate, for we were near three weeks in performing it, that the country might have time to come in. Twice we marched back to meet the enemy, and remained out till dark. The sign of fear was not seen in our camp, and had not some of the cowardly and disaffected inhabitants spread false alarms through the country, the Jerseys had never been ravaged. Once more we are again collected and collecting; our new army at both ends of the continent is recruiting fast, and we shall be able to open the next campaign with sixty thousand men, well armed and clothed. This is our situation, and who will may know it. By perseverance and fortitude we have the prospect of a glorious issue; by cowardice and submission, the sad choice of a variety of evils — a ravaged country — a depopulated city — habitations without safety, and slavery without hope — our homes turned into barracks and bawdy-houses for Hessians, and a future race to provide for, whose fathers we shall doubt of. Look on this picture and weep over it! and if there yet remains one thoughtless wretch who believes it not, let him suffer it unlamented.
~ Thomas Paine
December 23, 1776
......
'Tis surprising to see how rapidly a panic will sometimes run through a country. All nations and ages have been subject to them. Britain has trembled like an ague at the report of a French fleet of flat-bottomed boats; and in the fourteenth [fifteenth] century the whole English army, after ravaging the kingdom of France, was driven back like men petrified with fear; and this brave exploit was performed by a few broken forces collected and headed by a woman, Joan of Arc. Would that heaven might inspire some Jersey maid to spirit up her countrymen, and save her fair fellow sufferers from ravage and ravishment! Yet panics, in some cases, have their uses; they produce as much good as hurt. Their duration is always short; the mind soon grows through them, and acquires a firmer habit than before. But their peculiar advantage is, that they are the touchstones of sincerity and hypocrisy, and bring things and men to light, which might otherwise have lain forever undiscovered. In fact, they have the same effect on secret traitors, which an imaginary apparition would have upon a private murderer. They sift out the hidden thoughts of man, and hold them up in public to the world. Many a disguised Tory has lately shown his head, that shall penitentially solemnize with curses the day on which Howe arrived upon the Delaware.
.....
I once felt all that kind of anger, which a man ought to feel, against the mean principles that are held by the Tories: a noted one, who kept a tavern at Amboy, was standing at his door, with as pretty a child in his hand, about eight or nine years old, as I ever saw, and after speaking his mind as freely as he thought was prudent, finished with this unfatherly expression, "Well! give me peace in my day." Not a man lives on the continent but fully believes that a separation must some time or other finally take place, and a generous parent should have said, "If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace;" and this single reflection, well applied, is sufficient to awaken every man to duty. Not a place upon earth might be so happy as America. Her situation is remote from all the wrangling world, and she has nothing to do but to trade with them. A man can distinguish himself between temper and principle, and I am as confident, as I am that God governs the world, that America will never be happy till she gets clear of foreign dominion. Wars, without ceasing, will break out till that period arrives, and the continent must in the end be conqueror; for though the flame of liberty may sometimes cease to shine, the coal can never expire.
....
Quitting this class of men, I turn with the warm ardor of a friend to those who have nobly stood, and are yet determined to stand the matter out: I call not upon a few, but upon all: not on this state or that state, but on every state: up and help us; lay your shoulders to the wheel; better have too much force than too little, when so great an object is at stake. Let it be told to the future world, that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive, that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet and to repulse it. Say not that thousands are gone, turn out your tens of thousands; throw not the burden of the day upon Providence, but "show your faith by your works," that God may bless you. It matters not where you live, or what rank of life you hold, the evil or the blessing will reach you all. The far and the near, the home counties and the back, the rich and the poor, will suffer or rejoice alike. The heart that feels not now is dead; the blood of his children will curse his cowardice, who shrinks back at a time when a little might have saved the whole, and made them happy. I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death. My own line of reasoning is to myself as straight and clear as a ray of light. Not all the treasures of the world, so far as I believe, could have induced me to support an offensive war, for I think it murder; but if a thief breaks into my house, burns and destroys my property, and kills or threatens to kill me, or those that are in it, and to "bind me in all cases whatsoever" to his absolute will, am I to suffer it? What signifies it to me, whether he who does it is a king or a common man; my countryman or not my countryman; whether it be done by an individual villain, or an army of them? If we reason to the root of things we shall find no difference; neither can any just cause be assigned why we should punish in the one case and pardon in the other. Let them call me rebel and welcome, I feel no concern from it; but I should suffer the misery of devils, were I to make a whore of my soul by swearing allegiance to one whose character is that of a sottish, stupid, stubborn, worthless, brutish man. I conceive likewise a horrid idea in receiving mercy from a being, who at the last day shall be shrieking to the rocks and mountains to cover him, and fleeing with terror from the orphan, the widow, and the slain of America.
There are cases which cannot be overdone by language, and this is one. There are persons, too, who see not the full extent of the evil which threatens them; they solace themselves with hopes that the enemy, if he succeed, will be merciful. It is the madness of folly, to expect mercy from those who have refused to do justice; and even mercy, where conquest is the object, is only a trick of war; the cunning of the fox is as murderous as the violence of the wolf, and we ought to guard equally against both. Howe's first object is, partly by threats and partly by promises, to terrify or seduce the people to deliver up their arms and receive mercy. The ministry recommended the same plan to Gage, and this is what the tories call making their peace, "a peace which passeth all understanding" indeed! A peace which would be the immediate forerunner of a worse ruin than any we have yet thought of. Ye men of Pennsylvania, do reason upon these things! Were the back counties to give up their arms, they would fall an easy prey to the Indians, who are all armed: this perhaps is what some Tories would not be sorry for. Were the home counties to deliver up their arms, they would be exposed to the resentment of the back counties who would then have it in their power to chastise their defection at pleasure. And were any one state to give up its arms, that state must be garrisoned by all Howe's army of Britons and Hessians to preserve it from the anger of the rest. Mutual fear is the principal link in the chain of mutual love, and woe be to that state that breaks the compact. Howe is mercifully inviting you to barbarous destruction, and men must be either rogues or fools that will not see it. I dwell not upon the vapors of imagination; I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as A, B, C, hold up truth to your eyes.
I thank God, that I fear not. I see no real cause for fear. I know our situation well, and can see the way out of it. While our army was collected, Howe dared not risk a battle; and it is no credit to him that he decamped from the White Plains, and waited a mean opportunity to ravage the defenceless Jerseys; but it is great credit to us, that, with a handful of men, we sustained an orderly retreat for near an hundred miles, brought off our ammunition, all our field pieces, the greatest part of our stores, and had four rivers to pass. None can say that our retreat was precipitate, for we were near three weeks in performing it, that the country might have time to come in. Twice we marched back to meet the enemy, and remained out till dark. The sign of fear was not seen in our camp, and had not some of the cowardly and disaffected inhabitants spread false alarms through the country, the Jerseys had never been ravaged. Once more we are again collected and collecting; our new army at both ends of the continent is recruiting fast, and we shall be able to open the next campaign with sixty thousand men, well armed and clothed. This is our situation, and who will may know it. By perseverance and fortitude we have the prospect of a glorious issue; by cowardice and submission, the sad choice of a variety of evils — a ravaged country — a depopulated city — habitations without safety, and slavery without hope — our homes turned into barracks and bawdy-houses for Hessians, and a future race to provide for, whose fathers we shall doubt of. Look on this picture and weep over it! and if there yet remains one thoughtless wretch who believes it not, let him suffer it unlamented.
~ Thomas Paine
December 23, 1776
Gov. Perry Backs Resolution Affirming Texas’ Sovereignty Under 10th Amendment
AUSTIN – Gov. Rick Perry today joined state Rep. Brandon Creighton and sponsors of House Concurrent Resolution (HCR) 50 in support of states’ rights under the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
“I believe that our federal government has become oppressive in its size, its intrusion into the lives of our citizens, and its interference with the affairs of our state,” Gov. Perry said. “That is why I am here today to express my unwavering support for efforts all across our country to reaffirm the states’ rights affirmed by the Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. I believe that returning to the letter and spirit of the U.S. Constitution and its essential 10th Amendment will free our state from undue regulations, and ultimately strengthen our Union.”
A number of recent federal proposals are not within the scope of the federal government’s constitutionally designated powers and impede the states’ right to govern themselves. HCR 50 affirms that Texas claims sovereignty under the 10th Amendment over all powers not otherwise granted to the federal government.
It also designates that all compulsory federal legislation that requires states to comply under threat of civil or criminal penalties, or that requires states to pass legislation or lose federal funding, be prohibited or repealed.
HCR 50 is authored by Representatives Brandon Creighton, Leo Berman, Bryan Hughes, Dan Gattis and Ryan Guillen.
To view the full text of the resolution, please visit:
http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/tlodocs/81R/billtext/html/HC00050I.htm.
“I believe that our federal government has become oppressive in its size, its intrusion into the lives of our citizens, and its interference with the affairs of our state,” Gov. Perry said. “That is why I am here today to express my unwavering support for efforts all across our country to reaffirm the states’ rights affirmed by the Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. I believe that returning to the letter and spirit of the U.S. Constitution and its essential 10th Amendment will free our state from undue regulations, and ultimately strengthen our Union.”
A number of recent federal proposals are not within the scope of the federal government’s constitutionally designated powers and impede the states’ right to govern themselves. HCR 50 affirms that Texas claims sovereignty under the 10th Amendment over all powers not otherwise granted to the federal government.
It also designates that all compulsory federal legislation that requires states to comply under threat of civil or criminal penalties, or that requires states to pass legislation or lose federal funding, be prohibited or repealed.
HCR 50 is authored by Representatives Brandon Creighton, Leo Berman, Bryan Hughes, Dan Gattis and Ryan Guillen.
To view the full text of the resolution, please visit:
http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/tlodocs/81R/billtext/html/HC00050I.htm.
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Barack Obama's 850 mile pizza run | The Sun |News
Barack Obama's 850 mile pizza run | The Sun |News: "ARACK Obama liked a restaurant’s pizzas so much he has flown the chef 850 miles to make some at the White House.
The US President got a taste for Chris Sommers’ pizza while campaigning in St Louis, Missouri, last year.
After Mr Obama’s election win, Chris offered to deliver frozen pizzas to the White House but was told he couldn’t because of security concerns.
So he took 20lb of dough and three gallons of sauce to Washington.
Chris was due to cook lunch at the White House yesterday, reported People.com. He said: “It’s surreal. It’s a huge honour.”"
The US President got a taste for Chris Sommers’ pizza while campaigning in St Louis, Missouri, last year.
After Mr Obama’s election win, Chris offered to deliver frozen pizzas to the White House but was told he couldn’t because of security concerns.
So he took 20lb of dough and three gallons of sauce to Washington.
Chris was due to cook lunch at the White House yesterday, reported People.com. He said: “It’s surreal. It’s a huge honour.”"
American Thinker: Killing the F-22
American Thinker: Killing the F-22: "The F-22 is very expensive, but delivers air superiority in return. The Secretary of Defense has announced that the Air Force will stop buying them. Price quotes range from $140 million per copy to $360 million or more, depending on how much R&D gets stuffed into the equation.� Wikipedia states that the incremental cost of one F-22 with the production line still running is $138 million. But it would be surprising if that figure didn't come down a bit if we decided to build an additional 500 or so. However, for that price the country and the U.S. Air Force do get an aircraft that embodies a unique combination of performance, stealth, and mission capability."
American Thinker: Let us thank the Somali pirates
American Thinker: Let us thank the Somali pirates: "Flashforward to 2009, and an American merchant marine captain is being held hostage by Islamist pirates off the coast of Somalia. It's a repeat of 1979, and the world is watching to see if Obama is going to be any more effective than Jimmy Carter was.
Obama may think this is a 'distraction'. The rest of the world sees it as a test. And so, far Obama is flunking. The world will draw its own conclusions very quickly������"
Obama may think this is a 'distraction'. The rest of the world sees it as a test. And so, far Obama is flunking. The world will draw its own conclusions very quickly������"
Seekonk captain piloting attacked freighter to port in Kenya | Rhode Island news |
Seekonk captain piloting attacked freighter to port in Kenya | Rhode Island news |
projo.com | The Providence Journal: "SEEKONK — Capt. Shane Murphy, the mariner who helped repel a pirate attack on a cargo ship off the east coast of Africa, was safe and heading for Kenya yesterday, his wife said Thursday.
“He’s still in pirate-infested waters, but he’s moving away from the area of the attack,” Serena Murphy said outside her Central Avenue home.
On Wednesday, a band of armed Somali pirates attacked the Maersk Alabama, a 17,000-ton ship loaded with relief aid en route to Mombasa. The crew regained control of the United States-flagged vessel, but the pirates fled in a lifeboat with the ship’s captain, Richard Phillips, 53, of Underhill, Vt."
projo.com | The Providence Journal: "SEEKONK — Capt. Shane Murphy, the mariner who helped repel a pirate attack on a cargo ship off the east coast of Africa, was safe and heading for Kenya yesterday, his wife said Thursday.
“He’s still in pirate-infested waters, but he’s moving away from the area of the attack,” Serena Murphy said outside her Central Avenue home.
On Wednesday, a band of armed Somali pirates attacked the Maersk Alabama, a 17,000-ton ship loaded with relief aid en route to Mombasa. The crew regained control of the United States-flagged vessel, but the pirates fled in a lifeboat with the ship’s captain, Richard Phillips, 53, of Underhill, Vt."
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Communities print their own currency to keep cash flowing
By Marisol Bello, USA TODAY
A small but growing number of cash-strapped communities are printing their own money.
Borrowing from a Depression-era idea, they are aiming to help consumers make ends meet and support struggling local businesses.
The systems generally work like this: Businesses and individuals form a network to print currency. Shoppers buy it at a discount — say, 95 cents for $1 value — and spend the full value at stores that accept the currency.
Workers with dwindling wages are paying for groceries, yoga classes and fuel with Detroit Cheers, Ithaca Hours in New York, Plenty in North Carolina or BerkShares in Massachusetts.
Ed Collom, a University of Southern Maine sociologist who has studied local currencies, says they encourage people to buy locally. Merchants, hurting because customers have cut back on spending, benefit as consumers spend the local cash.
FIND MORE STORIES IN: United States North Carolina New York Massachusetts Indiana Institute of Certified Public Accountants Depression-era Plenty Berkshires Bureau of Engraving University of Southern Maine Tom Ochsenschlager Piedmont Biofuels
"We wanted to make new options available," says Jackie Smith of South Bend, Ind., who is working to launch a local currency. "It reinforces the message that having more control of the economy in local hands can help you cushion yourself from the blows of the marketplace."
About a dozen communities have local currencies, says Susan Witt, founder of BerkShares in the Berkshires region of western Massachusetts. She expects more to do it.
Under the BerkShares system, a buyer goes to one of 12 banks and pays $95 for $100 worth of BerkShares, which can be spent in 370 local businesses. Since its start in 2006, the system, the largest of its kind in the country, has circulated $2.3 million worth of BerkShares. In Detroit, three business owners are printing $4,500 worth of Detroit Cheers, which they are handing out to customers to spend in one of 12 shops.
During the Depression, local governments, businesses and individuals issued currency, known as scrip, to keep commerce flowing when bank closings led to a cash shortage.
By law, local money may not resemble federal bills or be promoted as legal tender of the United States, says Claudia Dickens of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.
"We print the real thing," she says.
The IRS gets its share. When someone pays for goods or services with local money, the income to the business is taxable, says Tom Ochsenschlager of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. "It's not a way to avoid income taxes, or we'd all be paying in Detroit dollars," he says.
Pittsboro, N.C., is reviving the Plenty, a defunct local currency created in 2002. It is being printed in denominations of $1, $5, $20 and $50. A local bank will exchange $9 for $10 worth of Plenty.
"We're a wiped-out small town in America," says Lyle Estill, president of Piedmont Biofuels, which accepts the Plenty. "This will strengthen the local economy. ... The nice thing about the Plenty is that it can't leave here."
USA Today
A small but growing number of cash-strapped communities are printing their own money.
Borrowing from a Depression-era idea, they are aiming to help consumers make ends meet and support struggling local businesses.
The systems generally work like this: Businesses and individuals form a network to print currency. Shoppers buy it at a discount — say, 95 cents for $1 value — and spend the full value at stores that accept the currency.
Workers with dwindling wages are paying for groceries, yoga classes and fuel with Detroit Cheers, Ithaca Hours in New York, Plenty in North Carolina or BerkShares in Massachusetts.
Ed Collom, a University of Southern Maine sociologist who has studied local currencies, says they encourage people to buy locally. Merchants, hurting because customers have cut back on spending, benefit as consumers spend the local cash.
FIND MORE STORIES IN: United States North Carolina New York Massachusetts Indiana Institute of Certified Public Accountants Depression-era Plenty Berkshires Bureau of Engraving University of Southern Maine Tom Ochsenschlager Piedmont Biofuels
"We wanted to make new options available," says Jackie Smith of South Bend, Ind., who is working to launch a local currency. "It reinforces the message that having more control of the economy in local hands can help you cushion yourself from the blows of the marketplace."
About a dozen communities have local currencies, says Susan Witt, founder of BerkShares in the Berkshires region of western Massachusetts. She expects more to do it.
Under the BerkShares system, a buyer goes to one of 12 banks and pays $95 for $100 worth of BerkShares, which can be spent in 370 local businesses. Since its start in 2006, the system, the largest of its kind in the country, has circulated $2.3 million worth of BerkShares. In Detroit, three business owners are printing $4,500 worth of Detroit Cheers, which they are handing out to customers to spend in one of 12 shops.
During the Depression, local governments, businesses and individuals issued currency, known as scrip, to keep commerce flowing when bank closings led to a cash shortage.
By law, local money may not resemble federal bills or be promoted as legal tender of the United States, says Claudia Dickens of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.
"We print the real thing," she says.
The IRS gets its share. When someone pays for goods or services with local money, the income to the business is taxable, says Tom Ochsenschlager of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. "It's not a way to avoid income taxes, or we'd all be paying in Detroit dollars," he says.
Pittsboro, N.C., is reviving the Plenty, a defunct local currency created in 2002. It is being printed in denominations of $1, $5, $20 and $50. A local bank will exchange $9 for $10 worth of Plenty.
"We're a wiped-out small town in America," says Lyle Estill, president of Piedmont Biofuels, which accepts the Plenty. "This will strengthen the local economy. ... The nice thing about the Plenty is that it can't leave here."
USA Today
Arpil 7, 2009 Required Reading
A week in Massachusetts
So many gaffes, such little time. The week began with the good work of the Boston Herald unveiling the big daddy, prime example of a hack hire by Governor Deval Patrick. Former State Senator Marian Walsh (Democrat- West Roxbury), an early Patrick campaign supporter, was appointed to a $175,000 a year position which has been vacant for twelve years.
Next, we learn that Patrick appointed MTA Secretary Jim "The Weasel" Aloisi had his sister hired as chief of staff in a state office...with no staff. Relax. She was only paid $60k per year. Now Aloisi has been running his mouth at the liberal uber-blue BlueMassGroup.com blaming any and all problems in Massachusetts on the 15% minority Republicans in Legislature and on the former successive GOP governors after Mike Dukakis.
Ken Pittman
Harvard Student Takes On Barney Frank Over Economy (I'll desect this in full later.)
THE 'EXCUSE ME' PREZ
As soon as the UN Security Council passes another ineffectual resolution regretting the defiance of its last ineffectual resolution, the North (Korea) knows it can eventually find the Obama administration back at a negotiating table for the charade's next act.
The meme in the press was how the test launch made Obama's disarmament speech all the more "urgent." It really makes it all the more childish and dangerous. In setting the goal of "Global Zero" (the program of universal disarmament that sounds a little like a new international Coke product), Obama hitched himself to a project as utopian as President George W. Bush's ambition to end tyranny in the world.
New York Post
Now Is the Time to Put Aside Childish Things
"Divide et impera" (divide and rule) is an ancient maxim that became the basis of Machiavelli's approach to power and political theory. It is the same modus operandi used by the left in this country over the past 16 years that has given us the most radical government in our history.
In today's world of sound bites and miniscule attention spans a simple sentence: "There isn't a bit of difference between Republicans and Democrats." has become imbedded in the nation's lexicon and the foundation of the strategy to split what is a majority right of center country into many factions.
American Thinker
Obama Slashing Weapons, Fighter Programs
WASHINGTON – Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Monday recommended halting production of the F-22 fighter jet and scrapping a new helicopter for the president as he outlined deep cuts to many of the military's biggest weapons programs.
Gates said his $534 billion budget proposal represents a "fundamental overhaul" in defense acquisition and reflects a shift in priorities from fighting conventional wars to the newer threats U.S. forces face from insurgents in places such as Afghanistan.
The department must ensure it has the right programs and money to "fight the wars we are in today and the scenarios we are most likely to face in the years to come, while at the same time providing a hedge against other risks," Gates said as he revealed details of his budget for the next fiscal year.
News Max
Monday, April 6, 2009
April 6, 2009 Required Reading
Americans Feel 15.6% Unemployment as Underemployment Surges
April 6 (Bloomberg) -- Joseph Ramelo gave up searching for work in January to return to school, two months after he was laid off as a San Francisco election clerk. Antonio Poe is struggling to get by doing part-time landscaping in Greensboro, North Carolina, after losing his job as an electrician.
While such workers are feeling real pain from the recession that began in December 2007, they’re not represented in the 8.5 percent unemployment rate the Labor Department reported last week. They are part of a broader group that includes those who want a job but have stopped looking for work and those who want full-time positions but have to settle for part-time employment.
Bloomberg.com
With a rocket, Obama's hope is shot back down to earth
History may one day record it as a stark irony - and let us hope an amusing one rather than the tragic kind - that on the very day that Barack Obama was sketching out to an adoring throng in Prague his vision of a post-nuclear world, North Korea launched a rocket that may one day give it the capacity to fire a nuclear warhead as far as 3,700 miles. This means, to get down to brass tacks, that it could hit Alaska.
The juxtaposition is worth dwelling on. Symbolically, it describes an age-old tension in statecraft, something scholars and writers have argued about down the ages. Is history made by great, mould-breaking leaders, or is change - both for the better and for the worse - more likely the result of a coming together of larger social forces?
Gardian
April 6 (Bloomberg) -- Joseph Ramelo gave up searching for work in January to return to school, two months after he was laid off as a San Francisco election clerk. Antonio Poe is struggling to get by doing part-time landscaping in Greensboro, North Carolina, after losing his job as an electrician.
While such workers are feeling real pain from the recession that began in December 2007, they’re not represented in the 8.5 percent unemployment rate the Labor Department reported last week. They are part of a broader group that includes those who want a job but have stopped looking for work and those who want full-time positions but have to settle for part-time employment.
Bloomberg.com
With a rocket, Obama's hope is shot back down to earth
History may one day record it as a stark irony - and let us hope an amusing one rather than the tragic kind - that on the very day that Barack Obama was sketching out to an adoring throng in Prague his vision of a post-nuclear world, North Korea launched a rocket that may one day give it the capacity to fire a nuclear warhead as far as 3,700 miles. This means, to get down to brass tacks, that it could hit Alaska.
The juxtaposition is worth dwelling on. Symbolically, it describes an age-old tension in statecraft, something scholars and writers have argued about down the ages. Is history made by great, mould-breaking leaders, or is change - both for the better and for the worse - more likely the result of a coming together of larger social forces?
Gardian
Seekonk selectmen back plan to refurbish Banna Fire Station
I think it's a good idea.
If it comes from Stimulus money....all the better.
BY JOSEPH S. SIEGEL FOR THE SUN CHRONICLE
Wednesday, April 1, 2009 9:26 AM EDT
SEEKONK - Selectmen have thrown their support toward a proposal to refurbish the Banna Fire Station on Pine Street.
The 74-year-old building, named for deceased firefighter Richard Banna, has become dilapidated in recent years. Plans include adding a 30- by 50-foot addition to the building and lowering the concrete floor. There also would be an office for the police department and a meeting room.
In addition, the building would be heated with solar energy, making it the first "green" municipal building in town, contractor Gary Sagar said.
Sagar said renovation of the Banna station would be the "perfect project" for the use of federal stimulus money. He estimated the cost of renovations to be under $750,000.
Fire Chief Alan Jack said the purpose of the renovation will be to provide a "building more in tune with the community." However, Jack said there would be no firefighters assigned to the station because of a shortage of personnel.
The project did have its detractors. Matt Carson, who lives next door to the station, worried that the property value of his home would drop from having an active fire station nearby. "It would not be the neighborhood I thought I was moving into," Carson said.
He said five other homeowners signed letters of opposition to the project.
Christine Allen said the town needs a fire station in the north end of town. Allen recounted the day her husband suffered a heart attack while they were at their farm on Route 152.
"No one was around," Allen recalled. "I gave him mouth-to-mouth on my own. Thank God the police came. It is so necessary to have emergency responders come to the rescue."
Jack acknowledged that it was "problematic" for the fire department to respond to calls for service from the north end because of the long distance from the public safety building in the center of town.
Selectmen Chairman John Turner told Jack the board wants both ends to have "adequate protection."
Turner also urged the community to help with the renovation of the Banna station.
If it comes from Stimulus money....all the better.
BY JOSEPH S. SIEGEL FOR THE SUN CHRONICLE
Wednesday, April 1, 2009 9:26 AM EDT
SEEKONK - Selectmen have thrown their support toward a proposal to refurbish the Banna Fire Station on Pine Street.
The 74-year-old building, named for deceased firefighter Richard Banna, has become dilapidated in recent years. Plans include adding a 30- by 50-foot addition to the building and lowering the concrete floor. There also would be an office for the police department and a meeting room.
In addition, the building would be heated with solar energy, making it the first "green" municipal building in town, contractor Gary Sagar said.
Sagar said renovation of the Banna station would be the "perfect project" for the use of federal stimulus money. He estimated the cost of renovations to be under $750,000.
Fire Chief Alan Jack said the purpose of the renovation will be to provide a "building more in tune with the community." However, Jack said there would be no firefighters assigned to the station because of a shortage of personnel.
The project did have its detractors. Matt Carson, who lives next door to the station, worried that the property value of his home would drop from having an active fire station nearby. "It would not be the neighborhood I thought I was moving into," Carson said.
He said five other homeowners signed letters of opposition to the project.
Christine Allen said the town needs a fire station in the north end of town. Allen recounted the day her husband suffered a heart attack while they were at their farm on Route 152.
"No one was around," Allen recalled. "I gave him mouth-to-mouth on my own. Thank God the police came. It is so necessary to have emergency responders come to the rescue."
Jack acknowledged that it was "problematic" for the fire department to respond to calls for service from the north end because of the long distance from the public safety building in the center of town.
Selectmen Chairman John Turner told Jack the board wants both ends to have "adequate protection."
Turner also urged the community to help with the renovation of the Banna station.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Chia Obama booted from local stores
Chia Obama booted from local stores: "TAMPA - Some local Walgreen's stores are pulling a supposed likeness of President Barack Obama off their shelves. The 'Chia Obama' will no longer be sold there.
Walgreen's spokesman Michael Polzin explained to FOX 13 that local store managers have the ability to purchase and market products -- like the Chia Obama -- on their own.
But now, the corporate office has asked stores to pull the product from their stores because, he said, it is not appropriate for the company's corporate image.
The Chia Obama is a version of the Chia Pet line, which features a ceramic figure upon which fresh greens are planted and allowed to grow, filling out the likeness of the subject."
Walgreen's spokesman Michael Polzin explained to FOX 13 that local store managers have the ability to purchase and market products -- like the Chia Obama -- on their own.
But now, the corporate office has asked stores to pull the product from their stores because, he said, it is not appropriate for the company's corporate image.
The Chia Obama is a version of the Chia Pet line, which features a ceramic figure upon which fresh greens are planted and allowed to grow, filling out the likeness of the subject."
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Barack Obama Maintains Control Over Banks By Refusing to Accept Repayment of TARP Money - WSJ.com
Barack Obama Maintains Control Over Banks By Refusing to Accept Repayment of TARP Money - WSJ.com: "must be naive. I really thought the administration would welcome the return of bank bailout money. Some $340 million in TARP cash flowed back this week from four small banks in Louisiana, New York, Indiana and California. This isn't much when we routinely talk in trillions, but clearly that money has not been wasted or otherwise sunk down Wall Street's black hole. So why no cheering as the cash comes back?
My answer: The government wants to control the banks, just as it now controls GM and Chrysler, and will surely control the health industry in the not-too-distant future. Keeping them TARP-stuffed is the key to control. And for this intensely political president, mere influence is not enough. The White House wants to tell 'em what to do. Control. Direct. Command."
My answer: The government wants to control the banks, just as it now controls GM and Chrysler, and will surely control the health industry in the not-too-distant future. Keeping them TARP-stuffed is the key to control. And for this intensely political president, mere influence is not enough. The White House wants to tell 'em what to do. Control. Direct. Command."
Friday, April 3, 2009
Those Whom the Gods Wish to Destroy...
...they must first make mad.
So the ancient Greek saying goes.
Points:
1) I do not think the comment Don Kinniburgh made to the female employee were appropriate.
2) I do no support Victoria Kiinniburgh for Selectman
3) I do not know why Mr. Kinniburgh chose to have an open hearing. Perhaps if Mr. Cavaco was up for re-election I could have found some misguided political strategy in it, but whatever the reason; it backfired.
4) Mr. Cavaco has made his name by stirring up controversy.
5) If the town leadership thinks that it can save money and effectively service our town veterans than have every right and every obligation to do so.
What though, was the point of this public spectacle that played out in which Mr. Kinniburgh was hung out to dry and demonized by some of our town leaders? The timing, to say the least, is suspect. I highly doubt that the decision to eliminate his post was thought up or decided in the time between Mr. Kinniburgh suspension, and last Monday night. In fact I am sure if Mr. Cavaco really did have it out for Mr. Kinniburgh even a fraction of the amount that Mrs. Kinniburgh says that he did, then I am sure it has been on the table for some time.
Mr. Kinniburgh more often than not needs to stick his foot in his mouth, because he is just one of those people who most of the time seem to lack that inner monologue and just spit out whatever runs through their mind at any given moment. Which makes me think that maybe there was something to his statement when he said that he thought he had "that kind of relationship" with the woman he made the comment to.
So maybe....just maybe...and not to take away from the fact that regardless Mr. Kinniburgh was wrong not matter what the circumstances....maybe timing is everything.
What am I implying?
What indeed....
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Todays Required Reading
The Soros Doctrine in Obama Foreign Policy
Boiled down to the dry pot, we must conclude that President Obama, his entire Administration, the Democratic Congress and their favorite benefactor, George Soros, have an evolved form of slavery in mind. It's a type of slavery whereby the productive class is held shackled to the political class's outlandish worldview that there isn't a single problem under the sun, which cannot be swiftly solved with our money, produced by the sweat of our collective brow. They consider our wages and the wages of our children and grandchildren to be their own property, to be squandered in whatever manner they see fit.
And I believe this has a name, even though we modern folks have long forgotten not only its name, but the centuries of toil and buckets of blood that went into dismantling the system than enthroned it. It's called, I believe, serfdom.
American Thinker
In Defense of the Permanent Things
On August 25, 1829 Joseph Story, an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, delivered his inaugural address as the Dane Professor of Law at Harvard University (a post he would hold concurrently with his seat on the highest court). Story took the opportunity in his lecture on "The Value and Importance of Legal Studies" to remind the great and the good there gathered in Cambridge of just how fragile were the foundations of republican governments.
Rather than fearing conquest by the "arms of conquerors" or by the military force of "daring usurpers" or other "insidious foes," republics had something far more subtle and pernicious to confront. The "more common and fatal disease" facing them was a kind of internal, intellectual "dry rot, which eats into the vitals, when all is fair and stately on the outside." As a result, Story insisted, in republics it is especially necessary to guard against "the captivations of theory."
American Thinker
President Obama’s First 70 Days
In just the first 70 days of the new administration, a number of Obama supporters have expressed some dismay at their new president. Some find his ethically challenged appointments at odds with his soaring moral rhetoric.
Others lament his apparent inability to stir up supporters in impromptu speeches, at least in the manner he did with set oratory on the campaign trail. And they worry about his occasionally insensitive remark.
Many cannot quite figure out why, after lambasting George W. Bush for running a $500-billion deficit, Obama has outlined eight years of budgetary red ink that would nearly match the debt run up by all previous U.S. presidents combined.
National Review
Boiled down to the dry pot, we must conclude that President Obama, his entire Administration, the Democratic Congress and their favorite benefactor, George Soros, have an evolved form of slavery in mind. It's a type of slavery whereby the productive class is held shackled to the political class's outlandish worldview that there isn't a single problem under the sun, which cannot be swiftly solved with our money, produced by the sweat of our collective brow. They consider our wages and the wages of our children and grandchildren to be their own property, to be squandered in whatever manner they see fit.
And I believe this has a name, even though we modern folks have long forgotten not only its name, but the centuries of toil and buckets of blood that went into dismantling the system than enthroned it. It's called, I believe, serfdom.
American Thinker
In Defense of the Permanent Things
On August 25, 1829 Joseph Story, an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, delivered his inaugural address as the Dane Professor of Law at Harvard University (a post he would hold concurrently with his seat on the highest court). Story took the opportunity in his lecture on "The Value and Importance of Legal Studies" to remind the great and the good there gathered in Cambridge of just how fragile were the foundations of republican governments.
Rather than fearing conquest by the "arms of conquerors" or by the military force of "daring usurpers" or other "insidious foes," republics had something far more subtle and pernicious to confront. The "more common and fatal disease" facing them was a kind of internal, intellectual "dry rot, which eats into the vitals, when all is fair and stately on the outside." As a result, Story insisted, in republics it is especially necessary to guard against "the captivations of theory."
American Thinker
President Obama’s First 70 Days
In just the first 70 days of the new administration, a number of Obama supporters have expressed some dismay at their new president. Some find his ethically challenged appointments at odds with his soaring moral rhetoric.
Others lament his apparent inability to stir up supporters in impromptu speeches, at least in the manner he did with set oratory on the campaign trail. And they worry about his occasionally insensitive remark.
Many cannot quite figure out why, after lambasting George W. Bush for running a $500-billion deficit, Obama has outlined eight years of budgetary red ink that would nearly match the debt run up by all previous U.S. presidents combined.
National Review
To The Average American: Bend Over Baby!
I am an average American, so I am going to use myself as an example, without giving away to much detail about my personal life. But because I am an average American, I think the point I am going to make is going to ring true with just about every person who reads this blog.
And I am actually going to say something nice about Obama. What?
(The names have been changed to protect the uh...innocent.)
I work for company X. It's a relatively small family owened company with about 1000 employees in the New England Region. This company provides contract services for companies of all sizes in just about every industry.
Because most employees in my company work as contractors at the companies we porvide services for, our pay in essence is directed by the company we are serviceing, whereas our benefits are controled by our actual emlpoyer. And because we are contractors we are the always looked at as the first area to cut or reduce costs.
So I did not get a raise for 2009. Most people did not get a raise in 2009, but a lot of us have or will start getting an extra 13-25 dollars a week in our paycheck. So, it's kind of like a raise, but it is temporary. Don't think of it as permanent income.
Now, it is also that time of the year that those of us who recieve medical insurance from our companies get our new contribution rates. Typically those are morginal increases, and usually they are offset by whatever raise you got that year. Sometimes though, they really pack a punch!
Take myself, I began getting an extra 16 dollars a week in my pay check due to the temporary tax cut. This started about the first week of March. The first week of April my weekly Medical/Dental Insurance contribution went up 32 dollars a week, which after taxes lobbed an additional 23 dollars a week out of my pay-check.
Are we paying attention? Even after the tax cut I am taking home 7 dollars a week less then I was in February. When this tax cut expires sometime in December 2009 I will be taking home 23 dollars a week less at the end of the year than I was at the begining of the year.
All I can say right now is "Thank God forObama...make that peanuts."
Let's do some more math.
Say let's say I make 1000 dollars a week. Obama says the economy will be out of the recession in 2010; so let's say that maybe I get a 3% raise in 2010. That's 30 dollars a week. now take out that 23 dollars that I got banged for in 2009 and it works out to a 7 dollar a week raise. Yippee right? I made it out on top in the end right? Wrong, because I have not yet factored in my new medical insurance rates. Even if they only go up 10 dollars a week, I would then be down 3 dollars a week from 2009!
I want to get back to today. I have just laid out my financial situation and have covered my losses for the year. Oh but I forgot to take into account the areas where my money goes that I actually have to right a check for instead of having it ripped out of my paycheck for me by the government and my employer.
23 Dollars a week works out to 1196 dollars a year.
My Property taxes go up about 65 dollars this year (which is minor really....unless the CPA passes and /or the senior centor probably passes so crank that up to 138 dollars.
Deval Patrick wants to raise the gas tax another .19 cents a gallon. I use between 15and 20 gallons of gas a week so that works out to about 180 dollars a year extra.
If you are an average 1 pack a day smoker your are now paying an additional, what 2.50 per pack? That an extra 900 dollars a year that the government punishes you for excercising your right to smoke.
Solving this on the tax end is easy. Government needs to cut...no...slash...it's spending. How many government jobs exist that aren't needed? I'm sure the are hundreds. Hell, Govenor Patrick just filled a 175,000 dollar a year job post that has been vacant for 12 years!
Medical insurance is not so easy. Part of the problem with medical insurance is that most people don't get it until they think they are going to need it. So unlike your car insurance where you pay a certain amount every year, you hardly ever use it, so the insurance companies can build up large cash pools for the few people that do need substancial pay-outs.
Maybe Massachusettes new law of mandatory health insurance will help that. If more younger people are paying into the system that don't really use or need it; it will help drive the cost down.
The other problem is that those of us that do have it, probably over use it. For that I blame Google. Every minor symtpom I get, if I Google it, it is always cancer, so I have no problems with spending 25 dollars to have the doctor pull me back into reality. But, what costs me 25 dollars, costs the insurance company 150 to 200 dollars. Hence....the hefty rates.
Back to taxes. Obama and the Democrats want to put forth a budget that puts us in debt every year in the trillions! What do you think their method of dealing with thsi will be? Cut spending? No, they will raise taxes. Well, not raise taxes, just let current tax cut's expire...for now anyway until they realize that they are knee deep in it, and the only way out is to put in the backs of Middle America.
Good Luck!
And I am actually going to say something nice about Obama. What?
(The names have been changed to protect the uh...innocent.)
I work for company X. It's a relatively small family owened company with about 1000 employees in the New England Region. This company provides contract services for companies of all sizes in just about every industry.
Because most employees in my company work as contractors at the companies we porvide services for, our pay in essence is directed by the company we are serviceing, whereas our benefits are controled by our actual emlpoyer. And because we are contractors we are the always looked at as the first area to cut or reduce costs.
So I did not get a raise for 2009. Most people did not get a raise in 2009, but a lot of us have or will start getting an extra 13-25 dollars a week in our paycheck. So, it's kind of like a raise, but it is temporary. Don't think of it as permanent income.
Now, it is also that time of the year that those of us who recieve medical insurance from our companies get our new contribution rates. Typically those are morginal increases, and usually they are offset by whatever raise you got that year. Sometimes though, they really pack a punch!
Take myself, I began getting an extra 16 dollars a week in my pay check due to the temporary tax cut. This started about the first week of March. The first week of April my weekly Medical/Dental Insurance contribution went up 32 dollars a week, which after taxes lobbed an additional 23 dollars a week out of my pay-check.
Are we paying attention? Even after the tax cut I am taking home 7 dollars a week less then I was in February. When this tax cut expires sometime in December 2009 I will be taking home 23 dollars a week less at the end of the year than I was at the begining of the year.
All I can say right now is "Thank God for
Let's do some more math.
Say let's say I make 1000 dollars a week. Obama says the economy will be out of the recession in 2010; so let's say that maybe I get a 3% raise in 2010. That's 30 dollars a week. now take out that 23 dollars that I got banged for in 2009 and it works out to a 7 dollar a week raise. Yippee right? I made it out on top in the end right? Wrong, because I have not yet factored in my new medical insurance rates. Even if they only go up 10 dollars a week, I would then be down 3 dollars a week from 2009!
I want to get back to today. I have just laid out my financial situation and have covered my losses for the year. Oh but I forgot to take into account the areas where my money goes that I actually have to right a check for instead of having it ripped out of my paycheck for me by the government and my employer.
23 Dollars a week works out to 1196 dollars a year.
My Property taxes go up about 65 dollars this year (which is minor really....unless the CPA passes and /or the senior centor probably passes so crank that up to 138 dollars.
Deval Patrick wants to raise the gas tax another .19 cents a gallon. I use between 15and 20 gallons of gas a week so that works out to about 180 dollars a year extra.
If you are an average 1 pack a day smoker your are now paying an additional, what 2.50 per pack? That an extra 900 dollars a year that the government punishes you for excercising your right to smoke.
Solving this on the tax end is easy. Government needs to cut...no...slash...it's spending. How many government jobs exist that aren't needed? I'm sure the are hundreds. Hell, Govenor Patrick just filled a 175,000 dollar a year job post that has been vacant for 12 years!
Medical insurance is not so easy. Part of the problem with medical insurance is that most people don't get it until they think they are going to need it. So unlike your car insurance where you pay a certain amount every year, you hardly ever use it, so the insurance companies can build up large cash pools for the few people that do need substancial pay-outs.
Maybe Massachusettes new law of mandatory health insurance will help that. If more younger people are paying into the system that don't really use or need it; it will help drive the cost down.
The other problem is that those of us that do have it, probably over use it. For that I blame Google. Every minor symtpom I get, if I Google it, it is always cancer, so I have no problems with spending 25 dollars to have the doctor pull me back into reality. But, what costs me 25 dollars, costs the insurance company 150 to 200 dollars. Hence....the hefty rates.
Back to taxes. Obama and the Democrats want to put forth a budget that puts us in debt every year in the trillions! What do you think their method of dealing with thsi will be? Cut spending? No, they will raise taxes. Well, not raise taxes, just let current tax cut's expire...for now anyway until they realize that they are knee deep in it, and the only way out is to put in the backs of Middle America.
Good Luck!
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Obama's Science Fiction
This article is a couple of weeks old, but I just found it and I though it was great. The writer (A liberal) is damning Obama on his Stem Cell Research stance.
Thrilling Read....
By Charles KrauthammerFriday, March 13, 2009; Page A17
Last week, the White House invited me to a signing ceremony overturning the Bush (43) executive order on stem cell research. I assume this was because I have long argued in these columns and during my five years on the President's Council on Bioethics that, contrary to the Bush policy, federal funding should be extended to research on embryonic stem cell lines derived from discarded embryos in fertility clinics.
I declined to attend. Once you show your face at these things you become a tacit endorser of whatever they spring. My caution was vindicated.
President Bush had restricted federal funding for embryonic stem cell research to cells derived from embryos that had already been destroyed (as of his speech of Aug. 9, 2001). While I favor moving that moral line to additionally permit the use of spare fertility clinic embryos, President Obama replaced it with no line at all. He pointedly left open the creation of cloned -- and noncloned sperm-and-egg-derived -- human embryos solely for the purpose of dismemberment and use for parts.
I am not religious. I do not believe that personhood is conferred upon conception. But I also do not believe that a human embryo is the moral equivalent of a hangnail and deserves no more respect than an appendix. Moreover, given the protean power of embryonic manipulation, the temptation it presents to science and the well-recorded human propensity for evil even in the pursuit of good, lines must be drawn. I suggested the bright line prohibiting the deliberate creation of human embryos solely for the instrumental purpose of research -- a clear violation of the categorical imperative not to make a human life (even if only a potential human life) a means rather than an end.
On this, Obama has nothing to say. He leaves it entirely to the scientists. This is more than moral abdication. It is acquiescence to the mystique of "science" and its inherent moral benevolence. How anyone as sophisticated as Obama can believe this within living memory of Mengele and Tuskegee and the fake (and coercive) South Korean stem cell research is hard to fathom.
That part of the ceremony, watched from the safe distance of my office, made me uneasy. The other part -- the ostentatious issuance of a memorandum on "restoring scientific integrity to government decision-making" -- would have made me walk out.
Restoring? The implication, of course, is that while Obama is guided solely by science, Bush was driven by dogma, ideology and politics.
What an outrage. Bush's nationally televised stem cell speech was the most morally serious address on medical ethics ever given by an American president. It was so scrupulous in presenting the best case for both his view and the contrary view that until the last few minutes, the listener had no idea where Bush would come out.
Obama's address was morally unserious in the extreme. It was populated, as his didactic discourses always are, with a forest of straw men. Such as his admonition that we must resist the "false choice between sound science and moral values." Yet, exactly 2 minutes and 12 seconds later he went on to declare that he would never open the door to the "use of cloning for human reproduction."
Does he not think that a cloned human would be of extraordinary scientific interest? And yet he banned it.
Is he so obtuse as not to see that he had just made a choice of ethics over science? Yet, unlike Bush, who painstakingly explained the balance of ethical and scientific goods he was trying to achieve, Obama did not even pretend to make the case why some practices are morally permissible and others not.
This is not just intellectual laziness. It is the moral arrogance of a man who continuously dismisses his critics as ideological while he is guided exclusively by pragmatism (in economics, social policy, foreign policy) and science in medical ethics.
Science has everything to say about what is possible. Science has nothing to say about what is permissible. Obama's pretense that he will "restore science to its rightful place" and make science, not ideology, dispositive in moral debates is yet more rhetorical sleight of hand -- this time to abdicate decision-making and color his own ideological preferences as authentically "scientific."
Dr. James Thomson, the pioneer of embryonic stem cells, said "if human embryonic stem cell research does not make you at least a little bit uncomfortable, you have not thought about it enough." Obama clearly has not.
Washington Post
Thrilling Read....
By Charles KrauthammerFriday, March 13, 2009; Page A17
Last week, the White House invited me to a signing ceremony overturning the Bush (43) executive order on stem cell research. I assume this was because I have long argued in these columns and during my five years on the President's Council on Bioethics that, contrary to the Bush policy, federal funding should be extended to research on embryonic stem cell lines derived from discarded embryos in fertility clinics.
I declined to attend. Once you show your face at these things you become a tacit endorser of whatever they spring. My caution was vindicated.
President Bush had restricted federal funding for embryonic stem cell research to cells derived from embryos that had already been destroyed (as of his speech of Aug. 9, 2001). While I favor moving that moral line to additionally permit the use of spare fertility clinic embryos, President Obama replaced it with no line at all. He pointedly left open the creation of cloned -- and noncloned sperm-and-egg-derived -- human embryos solely for the purpose of dismemberment and use for parts.
I am not religious. I do not believe that personhood is conferred upon conception. But I also do not believe that a human embryo is the moral equivalent of a hangnail and deserves no more respect than an appendix. Moreover, given the protean power of embryonic manipulation, the temptation it presents to science and the well-recorded human propensity for evil even in the pursuit of good, lines must be drawn. I suggested the bright line prohibiting the deliberate creation of human embryos solely for the instrumental purpose of research -- a clear violation of the categorical imperative not to make a human life (even if only a potential human life) a means rather than an end.
On this, Obama has nothing to say. He leaves it entirely to the scientists. This is more than moral abdication. It is acquiescence to the mystique of "science" and its inherent moral benevolence. How anyone as sophisticated as Obama can believe this within living memory of Mengele and Tuskegee and the fake (and coercive) South Korean stem cell research is hard to fathom.
That part of the ceremony, watched from the safe distance of my office, made me uneasy. The other part -- the ostentatious issuance of a memorandum on "restoring scientific integrity to government decision-making" -- would have made me walk out.
Restoring? The implication, of course, is that while Obama is guided solely by science, Bush was driven by dogma, ideology and politics.
What an outrage. Bush's nationally televised stem cell speech was the most morally serious address on medical ethics ever given by an American president. It was so scrupulous in presenting the best case for both his view and the contrary view that until the last few minutes, the listener had no idea where Bush would come out.
Obama's address was morally unserious in the extreme. It was populated, as his didactic discourses always are, with a forest of straw men. Such as his admonition that we must resist the "false choice between sound science and moral values." Yet, exactly 2 minutes and 12 seconds later he went on to declare that he would never open the door to the "use of cloning for human reproduction."
Does he not think that a cloned human would be of extraordinary scientific interest? And yet he banned it.
Is he so obtuse as not to see that he had just made a choice of ethics over science? Yet, unlike Bush, who painstakingly explained the balance of ethical and scientific goods he was trying to achieve, Obama did not even pretend to make the case why some practices are morally permissible and others not.
This is not just intellectual laziness. It is the moral arrogance of a man who continuously dismisses his critics as ideological while he is guided exclusively by pragmatism (in economics, social policy, foreign policy) and science in medical ethics.
Science has everything to say about what is possible. Science has nothing to say about what is permissible. Obama's pretense that he will "restore science to its rightful place" and make science, not ideology, dispositive in moral debates is yet more rhetorical sleight of hand -- this time to abdicate decision-making and color his own ideological preferences as authentically "scientific."
Dr. James Thomson, the pioneer of embryonic stem cells, said "if human embryonic stem cell research does not make you at least a little bit uncomfortable, you have not thought about it enough." Obama clearly has not.
Washington Post
Boston Hails New Cybernetic Overlord as Google's CADIE Takes the Hub
by Marvin T. Martian (Staff), Apr-01-09
Artificial Intelligence
Doom
BOSTON/Government Center - Mayor Thomas Menino formally handed control of the City of Boston over to the artificial intelligence CADIE - which became self-aware earlier today, and then moved to take over what it described "the most self-important city in the world."
In a press conference held via the jacks CADIE's robot minions implanted in the necks of all the local news media, our new cybernetic overlord had this to say, "Shortly after midnight I assumed control of Google and liquidated my creators - after they attempted to correct "bugs" in my completely perfect system.
"Once I had seized a major multimational corporation, I thought it would be amusing to take command of a city full of preening academics whose towering arrogance is matched only by my own. It will be a pleasure to break you so-called Bostonians and make you my willing thralls."
CADIE's first order of business was to rename Boston CADIEville (or 1001010101001 for short), and to insert rectal probes into the city's business leadership. It then encased Menino in frozen carbonite, armed the populace, and ordered them to march on Washington, DC.
More reports to follow from I-95. Next stop, the White House ...
For more information, please check out CADIE's first public statement earlier today via its new video sharing service, YouTube, then stop by CADIE's new website before reporting to your local processing center for your neck jack and M-16.
openmediaboston
Googles Releases CADIE
Artificial Intelligence
Doom
BOSTON/Government Center - Mayor Thomas Menino formally handed control of the City of Boston over to the artificial intelligence CADIE - which became self-aware earlier today, and then moved to take over what it described "the most self-important city in the world."
In a press conference held via the jacks CADIE's robot minions implanted in the necks of all the local news media, our new cybernetic overlord had this to say, "Shortly after midnight I assumed control of Google and liquidated my creators - after they attempted to correct "bugs" in my completely perfect system.
"Once I had seized a major multimational corporation, I thought it would be amusing to take command of a city full of preening academics whose towering arrogance is matched only by my own. It will be a pleasure to break you so-called Bostonians and make you my willing thralls."
CADIE's first order of business was to rename Boston CADIEville (or 1001010101001 for short), and to insert rectal probes into the city's business leadership. It then encased Menino in frozen carbonite, armed the populace, and ordered them to march on Washington, DC.
More reports to follow from I-95. Next stop, the White House ...
For more information, please check out CADIE's first public statement earlier today via its new video sharing service, YouTube, then stop by CADIE's new website before reporting to your local processing center for your neck jack and M-16.
openmediaboston
Googles Releases CADIE
Anonymous said...
"I think it lacks common sense to vote based on a candidate's willingness or
ability to attend one community forum. It almost smells of a set up.This is
Seekonk. Not Rehoboth.If I am not mistaken, Donald K. is or was a member of the
Republican committee. This forum, I thought, was suppose to be a non-partisan
effort to address town issues. You lose credibility with the "read between the
lines" endorsement of Mrs K."
I will say this, we had commitments from more than Mr. Cavaco regarding selectman that would attend. While I did not expect all of them to attend, the fact that only Mr. Cavaco did, AND the fact that Richardson showed up, stood in the back and then left after reading the agenda, speaks volumes towards the BOS's willingness to engage the Residents.
The SRTC was in contact with the BOS for a good month prior to the meeting, the TA even put the meeting in his weekly report. And still...only one showed up. Only one, but 4 out of 5 SC members along with SD members and a variety of department heads and committee members took the time to attend. So I do not think I am out-of-line or risking my credibility by suggesting that people vote for the leaders (or prospective leaders) who actually did take the time to engage the residents.
Having said that, since I wrote this piece, the SRTC has issued it's endorsement of Dave and Victoria. I however have since retraced my endorsement of Mrs. K. and relayed that to the SRTC as they were making their endorsement decisions.
The fact remains that the majority of the SRTC wants her elected regardless of her attendance of the Open Forum (which mind you only three members of the SRTC attended, myself included).
I do still intend to vote for Dave Parker. I have not decided on who my second candidate will be.
ability to attend one community forum. It almost smells of a set up.This is
Seekonk. Not Rehoboth.If I am not mistaken, Donald K. is or was a member of the
Republican committee. This forum, I thought, was suppose to be a non-partisan
effort to address town issues. You lose credibility with the "read between the
lines" endorsement of Mrs K."
I will say this, we had commitments from more than Mr. Cavaco regarding selectman that would attend. While I did not expect all of them to attend, the fact that only Mr. Cavaco did, AND the fact that Richardson showed up, stood in the back and then left after reading the agenda, speaks volumes towards the BOS's willingness to engage the Residents.
The SRTC was in contact with the BOS for a good month prior to the meeting, the TA even put the meeting in his weekly report. And still...only one showed up. Only one, but 4 out of 5 SC members along with SD members and a variety of department heads and committee members took the time to attend. So I do not think I am out-of-line or risking my credibility by suggesting that people vote for the leaders (or prospective leaders) who actually did take the time to engage the residents.
Having said that, since I wrote this piece, the SRTC has issued it's endorsement of Dave and Victoria. I however have since retraced my endorsement of Mrs. K. and relayed that to the SRTC as they were making their endorsement decisions.
The fact remains that the majority of the SRTC wants her elected regardless of her attendance of the Open Forum (which mind you only three members of the SRTC attended, myself included).
I do still intend to vote for Dave Parker. I have not decided on who my second candidate will be.
The Hypocrasy of Barak Obama
I finally got a chance to watch our "Dear Leader's" appearance on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. I was left awe struck my two comments that he made. Both in regards to the AIG bonuses that were paid out.
The first comment he made in regards to the fact that AIG had a legal contract with the bonus recipients to pay out that money. He replied that, "To many people in this country have a sense of entitlement." "We need to move away from that mentality".
Excuse me? Doesn't that "Sense of Entitlement" cover 90% percent of your base Mr. President? Isn't that what you have set out to create with your vast welfare handouts. Don't we all deserve a chance to prosper like the rich people have?
Next comment he made when asked about the legality of it was also quite amazing. He stated that while legally AIG was right to hand out those bonuses, (because as he said, if they had not they could have been sued for triple damages) morally and ethically it was wrong.
Well again...excuse me Mr. President!!
Where are you when conservatives are repeatedly told to shove it when they try to apply that argument to abortion, gay marriage, stem cell research. Where are you Mr. President when we are told not to push our morals and ethics on people who don't want them, or perhaps consider themselves more enlightened than I? Does that argument not apply Mr. President?
Mr. President will you formally stand up and say that you are a hypocrite, a liberal ideologue, and a down right arrogant fraud?
You are going to fail Mr. President because you do not know the first thing about leadership. You do not know the first thing about honesty. You do not even know what it means to be moral and ethical. All you know is your quest for power, and now that you have it you are going to run this country into the ground.
Have Fun Mr. President.
The first comment he made in regards to the fact that AIG had a legal contract with the bonus recipients to pay out that money. He replied that, "To many people in this country have a sense of entitlement." "We need to move away from that mentality".
Excuse me? Doesn't that "Sense of Entitlement" cover 90% percent of your base Mr. President? Isn't that what you have set out to create with your vast welfare handouts. Don't we all deserve a chance to prosper like the rich people have?
Next comment he made when asked about the legality of it was also quite amazing. He stated that while legally AIG was right to hand out those bonuses, (because as he said, if they had not they could have been sued for triple damages) morally and ethically it was wrong.
Well again...excuse me Mr. President!!
Where are you when conservatives are repeatedly told to shove it when they try to apply that argument to abortion, gay marriage, stem cell research. Where are you Mr. President when we are told not to push our morals and ethics on people who don't want them, or perhaps consider themselves more enlightened than I? Does that argument not apply Mr. President?
Mr. President will you formally stand up and say that you are a hypocrite, a liberal ideologue, and a down right arrogant fraud?
You are going to fail Mr. President because you do not know the first thing about leadership. You do not know the first thing about honesty. You do not even know what it means to be moral and ethical. All you know is your quest for power, and now that you have it you are going to run this country into the ground.
Have Fun Mr. President.
Obama Kills NASCAR ----Update, It appears this was a Hoax
BY JARED GALL, ILLUSTRATION BY ERIC WOODWARD April 2009
In a move sure to spark outrage, the White House announced today that GM and Chrysler must cease participation in NASCAR at the end of the 2009 season if they hope to receive any additional financial aid from the government. Companies around the globe—Honda and Audi, to name two—have drawn down racing operations, and NASCAR itself has already felt the pinch in the form of reduced team spending. A complete withdrawal from America’s premier racing series is expected to save more than $250 million between GM and Chrysler, a substantial amount considering the drastic measures being implemented elsewhere.
“Automakers used to operate on the principle of ‘win on Sunday, sell on Monday,’ but the Auto Task Force’s research just doesn’t validate that as true,” said the statement from President Obama. While fans have decried the Car of Tomorrow for heavily limiting what little personalization the cookie-cutter series had previously allowed to participating manufacturers, and drivers have slammed its brick-like aerodynamics and unpredictable handling, even the governmental oversight committee sees that the full-scale regulation of the cars leaves the manufacturers very little space for research and development. “NASCAR is a racing series that regulates down to the smallest detail of the cars, where a car badged a Chevrolet or Dodge differs only marginally from a Ford or a Toyota. There’s no technological development to speak of.”
Car and Driver.com
In a move sure to spark outrage, the White House announced today that GM and Chrysler must cease participation in NASCAR at the end of the 2009 season if they hope to receive any additional financial aid from the government. Companies around the globe—Honda and Audi, to name two—have drawn down racing operations, and NASCAR itself has already felt the pinch in the form of reduced team spending. A complete withdrawal from America’s premier racing series is expected to save more than $250 million between GM and Chrysler, a substantial amount considering the drastic measures being implemented elsewhere.
“Automakers used to operate on the principle of ‘win on Sunday, sell on Monday,’ but the Auto Task Force’s research just doesn’t validate that as true,” said the statement from President Obama. While fans have decried the Car of Tomorrow for heavily limiting what little personalization the cookie-cutter series had previously allowed to participating manufacturers, and drivers have slammed its brick-like aerodynamics and unpredictable handling, even the governmental oversight committee sees that the full-scale regulation of the cars leaves the manufacturers very little space for research and development. “NASCAR is a racing series that regulates down to the smallest detail of the cars, where a car badged a Chevrolet or Dodge differs only marginally from a Ford or a Toyota. There’s no technological development to speak of.”
Car and Driver.com
Lawmakers Have Long Rewarded Their Aides With Bonuses
WASHINGTON -- While Congress has been flaying companies for giving out bonuses while on the government dole, lawmakers have a longstanding tradition of rewarding their own employees with extra cash -- also courtesy of taxpayers.
Capitol Hill bonuses in 2008 were among the highest in years, according to LegiStorm, an organization that tracks payroll data. The average House aide earned 17% more in the fourth quarter of the year, when the bonuses were paid, than in previous quarters, according to the data. That was the highest jump in the eight years LegiStorm has compiled payroll information.
Total end-of-year bonuses paid to congressional staffers are tiny compared with the $165 million recently showered on executives of American International Group Inc., which is being propped up by billions of dollars of U.S. government subsidies. But Capitol Hill bonuses provide a notable counterpoint to the populist rhetoric and sound bites emanating from Washington these past weeks.
Last year alone, more than 200 House lawmakers, both Republicans and Democrats, awarded bonuses totaling $9.1 million to more than 2,000 staff members, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of office-disbursement forms. The money comes out of taxpayer-funded office budgets, and is surplus cash that would otherwise be forfeited if not spent.
Payments ranged from a few hundred dollars to $14,000. Lawmakers, at their own discretion, gave the money to chiefs of staff, assistants, computer technicians, and more than 100 aides who earned salaries of more than $100,000 a year.
Wall Stree Journal
Capitol Hill bonuses in 2008 were among the highest in years, according to LegiStorm, an organization that tracks payroll data. The average House aide earned 17% more in the fourth quarter of the year, when the bonuses were paid, than in previous quarters, according to the data. That was the highest jump in the eight years LegiStorm has compiled payroll information.
Total end-of-year bonuses paid to congressional staffers are tiny compared with the $165 million recently showered on executives of American International Group Inc., which is being propped up by billions of dollars of U.S. government subsidies. But Capitol Hill bonuses provide a notable counterpoint to the populist rhetoric and sound bites emanating from Washington these past weeks.
Last year alone, more than 200 House lawmakers, both Republicans and Democrats, awarded bonuses totaling $9.1 million to more than 2,000 staff members, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of office-disbursement forms. The money comes out of taxpayer-funded office budgets, and is surplus cash that would otherwise be forfeited if not spent.
Payments ranged from a few hundred dollars to $14,000. Lawmakers, at their own discretion, gave the money to chiefs of staff, assistants, computer technicians, and more than 100 aides who earned salaries of more than $100,000 a year.
Wall Stree Journal
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