EnviroNazis IV

Pomeroy Daily Sentinel story

"The Sierra Club has requested the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency become involved in the regulatory process for Mountaineer’s CCS."

The Sierra Club knows they can't sway Gov. Manchin in West Virginia to cut his state's throat with crazy rules, they are now trying to get Ohio's EPA to try to stop this coal power plant in West Virginia. They will stop at nothing and they have no shame.

If you haven't noticed the Sierra Club's modus operandi yet, here it is.

Make private companies spend millions / billions of dollars to install scrubbers or other devices to reduce the amount of the so called green house gases.

Then when the companies try to obtain permits to run these new devices (that were demanded by the EnviroNazis to begin with) they put up road blocks to slow down or stop the implementation.

They want us to use NO COAL period. It should be obvious by now. The public and our power companies (which we need, by the way) should not bow to these earth worshipers.

They say they care about Meigs county and neighboring counties, they don't, they want to keep us poor and dependent on government handouts. They're not even from here as detailed in a previous post.

On a side note, has anyone wondered why West Virginia is coasting through this economic downturn? Could it be that they have a conservative Governor

that doesn't spend outside WV's ability to repay? The other reason could be that WV is sitting on massive amount of black gold and they do not let the EnviroNazis scare them. We could learn from our friends to the southeast.

Congressman Charlie Wilson votes for more pork

And he's proud of it. It's time for him to go.

Story from The Intelligencer, Wheeling News / Register

Taxpayers for Common Sense (TCS) has been going through the omnibus to pull together a total number of earmarks and dollar amount. TCS found 8,570 disclosed earmarks worth $7.7 billion. All of these items are in the budget bill that Congressman Charlie Wilson voted for.

$300,000 Montana World Trade Center. Rehberg sponsor.
$950,000 Myrtle Beach International Trade and Convention Center. Graham sponsor.
$200,000 Oil Region Alliance. Peterson sponsor.
$190,000 Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Cody, WY for digitizing and editing the Cody collection. Barbara Cubin is the sponsor
$143,000 Las Vegas Natural History Museum, Las Vegas, NV, to expand natural history education programs. Sponsored by Harry Reid
$238,000 for the Polynesian Voyaging Society, Honolulu, HI, for educational programs. Sen. Daniel Inouye is the sponsor.
$381,000 for Jazz at Lincoln Center, New York, NY for music education programs. Jerrold Nadler is the sponsor.

There might be some very nice things to fund in these bills, but is it really the taxpayers job to fund all of these...or any of these for that matter? Also, if there is no money to fund these to begin with, we are writing blank checks that our kids will have to pay back. Didn't excessive borrowing with little means to repay get us into this mess to begin with? Now Charlie Wilson's prescription to get us out of this crisis is to borrow and spend even more.

Strickland / Phillips cut more local school funding

Morgan Local getting 2% cut under Strickland / Phillips plan.

Previous post detailing Athens County's cuts.

Ted Strickland and Debbie Phillips both campaigned on fixing school funding. Especially the perceived inequities between poor Appalachian schools and rich suburban schools.

So, the great irony is that their "plan" to "fix" education funding is to cut funding to most poor schools and give more money to rich districts. I thought the dems were supposed to be for the "poor and disadvantaged".

Since Strickland and Phillips ran on "fixing school funding" and this is the best they can do (cut funding for poor schools and increase funding to rich schools (Upper Arlington = 15% increase, which just happens to be where Phillips attended school), I hope they don't try to help us with anything else. We won't be able to stand too much of government style help much longer.

Slopping the hogs in Athens County

More spending funny money from this so called "stimulus" bill. It's actually a stimulus bill for government at all levels.

"THE OU AIRPORT has asked for $3,193,575 to “remove obstructions in runway approaches, improve aircraft parking apron, and install approach lighting.”"

Athens News story

In Meigs County and Washington County.

This is nothing more than buying your vote with your own money.

I'm still waiting for our Congressman, Charlie (Pork Belly) Wilson, to start saying no to deficit spending. I thought he was supposed to be a "conservative" democrat?

Obama to Seek New Assault Weapons Ban

Obama is a Clintonesque liar.

Sep 2008:
"“Even if I want to take them away, I don’t have the votes in Congress,’’ he said. “This can’t be the reason not to vote for me. Can everyone hear me in the back? I see a couple of sportsmen back there. I’m not going to take away your guns.’’" Obama, just before the Pennsylvania primary."

Feb 2009: ABC story
"The Obama administration will seek to reinstate the assault weapons ban that expired in 2004 during the Bush administration, Attorney General Eric Holder said today. "

Previous post here

Judge: landlord-tenant law needs amended

Finally some common sense, instead of Bolshevik laws. Previous posts here.

Athens News story

"Bain added, however, that based on discussions with Mayor Paul Wiehl, she believes the administration may change how the form is handled anyway.
She noted that Wiehl has suggested that rather then requiring tenants to fill out and sign the form, the city require that it be posted on a door at all rentals."

This makes sense, why didn't we do this to begin with? Instead we charge 3 landlords with a crime and make them spend time and money in court.

"As for whether the city would still pursue the charges against the three defendants if the law is changed, Bain noted that this is Lang’s decision, but added that she thought it might have been “premature” to file the charges in the first place."

I wonder if Patrick Lang has learned just how fast these socialists will leave him holding the bag after they encouraged him to enforce this draconian rule.

"Athens County Municipal Judge William A. Grim has suggested that he may dismiss misdemeanor charges against three local landlords – James Coady, David Sturbois and Penelope Plesset – who were cited for not handing in educational forms filled out by their tenants. The forms were meant to inform tenants about their rights and responsibilities.

Last November, the city filed 65 misdemeanor charges against Coady, 19 against Sturbois and two against Plesset, one for each of the rental properties for which they had failed to submit the form. The charge is a minor misdemeanor, with a maximum penalty of a $100 fine. All three defendants pleaded not guilty and asked for a trial."

Dow and S&P 500 at '97 lows

Big losses send the two major gauges to levels not seen in nearly 12 years.

I thought Obama was going to save us? Perhaps the stimulus bill that Obama and Pork Belly Charlie Wilson passed wasn't very stimulating after all?

Another way to word this headline is "S&P lower during the first 30 days of the Obama administration than it ever was under the Bush administration."

I'm beginning to think that Obama wants the market to collapse, then he could "fix" it.

He's sure playing the media, apparently not to their displeasure. Today he had a deficit "summit". So, now he's worried about the deficit, right after he signed the largest spending bill in history. I'll bet not one reporter will ask him about this obvious inconsistency.

EnviroNazis III

Remember this post when we were wondering where these dirty looking "protesters" came from?

Well, here they are. They are "Mountain Justice". A group dedicated to the stopping of "mountain top removal" coal mining, which has nothing to do with the proposed power plant in Meigs County, but let's not let an inconvenient truth stop a good "photo op"! Another inconvenient truth: they are not just against "mountain top removal" they are against any use of coal, period.

Come to think of it, "mountain top removal" would be good for West Virginians. I'm sure it'd be nice to have some flat ground to grow crops on.

These protesters were here for "spring break".

Like we've said before, there is no groundswell of anti-coal sentiments in Meigs County, no, to get that impression for a film, they have to ship in the EnviroNazis Brown shirt division, their professional protesters.

Below are links to some pics.

using a gas consuming SUV

another one

another one

unloading their gear from a gas guzzling 1 ton Ford truck

Dirt bag getting the hug in Harlan County, KY. is also in the Meigs county "documentary".... Moves from protest to protest.

Here he is on the West Virginia side of the Ohio river looking at the Gavin Plant in Gallia County.

In other words, these are protesters that go around the country protesting whatever their commissar tells them to.

Go to flikr.com and type in mountainjustice and you'll see many of the same EnviroNazis in all the photos at all the different sites.

Upcoming Lincoln Day Dinner in Athens County

The Athens County Republican Party is having their annual Lincoln Day Dinner on March 12th.

Social hour starts @ 5:30pm and dinner starts @ 6:30pm. Cost is $20 for adults and $12 for children over 12. They need a paid registration by March 5th.

Send payment to Randy Morris, 25 S May st, Athens 45701. Call 740-589-6405 with questions.

The speaker will be Ohio Representative Josh Mandel from the 17th district.

Here's an Ohio Right to Life press release from Rep. Mandel.

Here's Rep. Mandel's website.

This would be a great chance to shake hands with a pro-life member of Ohio's House of Representatives.

Of course, it is always a good time to donate to pro-life members of the House and this would be the perfect time to do that.

The media is a democrat protection machine III

After reading this puff piece, I had to comment. Reuters has obviously given up all appeareances (slight as they were) of being objective.
Comments in red:

link to story , though story is not the right description. It's more like a White House press release.

"WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama ordered the U.S. Treasury on Saturday to implement tax cuts for 95 percent of Americans, fulfilling a campaign pledge he hopes will help jolt the economy out of recession. 95% of Americans get a tax cut? There are not 95% of Americans that pay taxes! What he's done, with Congressman Charlie Wilson's help, is take money from those that pay taxes and given it to people that don't pay taxes and called it a "tax cut". It's called Marxism and Orwellian.

The tax cuts are part of a $787 billion economic recovery plan (Deficit creation plan) passed by the Democratic-controlled Congress over Republican opposition. (it's about time, Republican opposition, that is) The aim is to put more money in the pockets of Americans and stimulate the economy by increasing consumer spending. (If you really wanted to stimulate consumer spending, give them a direct lump sump, like Mr. Bush did. It worked then! Giving people about $10 a week through less withholding is a slow drip approach)

"I'm pleased to announce that this morning the Treasury Department began directing employers to reduce the amount of taxes withheld from paychecks, meaning that by April 1st, a typical family will begin taking home at least $65 more every month," Obama said in his weekly radio address.

"Never before in our history has a tax cut taken effect faster or gone to so many hard-working Americans," he said. (Not true, the effect of Bush's lump sum took direct effect)
With tens of thousands of Americans losing their jobs in the midst of a global economic meltdown, Obama has said fixing the U.S. economy is his top priority. He has acknowledged that his success or failure in that will define his presidency. (whatever, the reporter must really need words for this "story")

Obama campaigned for the White House last year on a pledge to roll back his predecessor George W. Bush's tax cuts on the wealthy few and implement a cut for 95 percent of Americans. (notice how the "reporter" states as a fact that Bush's tax cuts "on the wealthy" ...he's just repeating Obama's campaign speeches. It's not true. Every tax payer got a tax cut under the Bush tax cuts. The problem (from a Marxist point of view) is those that did not pay taxes did not get a tax cut under Bush's plan. Again, how do you get a tax cut if you don't pay taxes to begin with?)

His announcement came a day after one of his top economic advisers, former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, said the global economy may be deteriorating even faster than during the Great Depression of the 1930s. (more fear mongering to get us to let Obama do anything he wants to destroy our country in the guise of "fixing" the economy)

Since being sworn into office on January 20, Obama has sought to reassure Americans that his government is tackling the economic crisis boldly and swiftly -- holding near-daily events to announce measures to stem mortgage foreclosures, prop up failing banks, rescue the ailing auto industry and drive his stimulus package through Congress.

The measures have received a mixed early reaction from gloomy financial markets uncertain whether they will succeed in arresting the downward economic spiral. (not "mixed early reaction", the reaction has been 100% negative. the day he was inaugurated to the day he announced his "financial bailout" to this failed "stimulus" bill, the markets have been in a free fall. Yet the media sees it as "mixed early reaction")

The package includes $282 billion in tax cuts -- the Republicans pushed unsuccessfully for more -- and $120 billion for public works projects including highway and rail projects.
'HAZARDOUS ROAD AHEAD' (by the math, this means there is 383 billion worth of worthless pork spending in this travesty of a bill...that our congressman Charlie Wilson voted for, remember)
"But as important as it was that I was able to sign this plan into law, it is only a first step on the road to economic recovery," Obama said in his address.
"None of this will be easy. The road ahead will be long and full of hazards. But I'm confident that we, as a people, have the strength and wisdom to carry out this strategy and overcome this crisis," he said.

His announcement on the tax cuts capped a week that saw him sign the stimulus package into law and announce new measures to help families facing foreclosure and those struggling to make mortgage payments.

He will step up the pace next week when he holds a summit at the White House on Monday to look at how to rein in the country's ballooning deficit and bring government spending under control as the economy starts to recover. (the irony here is unbelievable!)
Lawmakers, academics and business leaders have been invited to share their ideas on how to cut the $1 trillion deficit that Obama inherited along with two costly wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. (Obama and Wilson are adding to this deficit everyday. Now he wants to talk about our deficit? He should have thought about that before he pushed for this deficit creating "stimulus" bill. Notice how the "reporter says he inherited the deficit, yet does not mention Obama's hand in increasing it exponentially)

Obama will follow the summit with a major speech on Tuesday to a joint session of Congress in which he will lay out his domestic and foreign policy agenda. Inevitably, the economic crisis will loom large. (this guy, Obama, is a bigger camera hog than Bill Clinton or Chuck Schumer)
After a short breather (I'm sure he's really needing a rest, all that signing stuff can wear a guy out) on Wednesday to host a concert honoring Stevie Wonder, Obama on Thursday will unveil his proposed budget for the 2010 fiscal year, which will reflect the big increases in public spending as part of the economic recovery plan." (big increases in spending, yeah, he's really going to focus on the deficit isn't he?)

This Obama guy has more inconsistencies than a Bill Clinton affidavit, and this reporter puts it all in one story and we're supposed to make sense of it? Well, it does make sense if you can see that this "reporter" is not concerned about getting to the truth, he's more concerned about promoting Obama.

Brunner, Fisher announce U.S. Senate bids

I can't think of two better candidates for a conservative to run against.

Brunner is a partisan shill who has angered many voters with her Project SOS and ACORN ties.

Fisher ("I never met a gun control bill I didn't like.") is a darling of the anti-gun crowd.

Handgun Control Inc, BOARD OF DIRECTORS: F. Robert Meier, TreasurerLois Hess, Secretary David Birenbaum, John Phillips, Carl Bogus, Helen Raiser, Hon. John Corderman, Maurice Rosenblatt, Hon. Lee Fisher, Jeanne Shields, John Hechinger, Odile Stern, Larry Lowenstein, Edward (Edwin) O. Welles

A real conservative will have a real shot at this senate seat.

Government solutions are not solutions

There are an estimated 2.2 million Americans still unprepared for the digital television transition.

How long have these folks been warned that this change was coming? At least a year.

The government even gave coupons for folks to purchase their own converter boxes. (of course "gave" is not the right word. these "free" coupons were paid for by the taxpayers)

Of course we now have Congressman "pork belly" Charlie Wilson here to "help" us again.

• First he votes for a financial "bailout" bill that cost $700,000,000,000.
• Then he votes for a "stimulus" bill (without reading it) that cost $787,000,000,000.

both of these bills are not paid for. They are deficit spending. Writing blank / bad checks that our kids will (one day) have to pay.

• Now he wants to force banks to renegotiate mortgages with people that signed a contract to repay their loans to the banks. Who will pay for that? You, of course. It doesn't matter that you've paid your bills on time and honored your commitments. Not only will you pay for your house, but now you'll help pay for someone else's.
• Now Congressman Wilson wants to move the deadline for TV stations switching to all digital. So, these people that are not ready for the switch, can get ready. What's he going to do in June when we still have people not ready? We've already had plenty of time.

Wilson thinks the government is the answer to all our problems when it actually is the problem.

Did anyone even notice when the cell phone companies switched from analogue to digital? It was a "seamless" transition that most folks never even knew happened. This is the difference between having the government run a program vs private businesses.

You voters that thought this guy (Charlie Wilson) was a conservative democrat (oxymoron), you've been fooled, he's a full blown Obama style socialist.

Slopping the hogs in Marietta

One thing to remember about these "shovel ready" projects (funded by Charlie Wilson's bad check) is that they are low priority projects. High priority projects have been completed or funded already. These are the 2nd string projects.

Here is a story from the Marietta Register about some of the pork Mayor Mullens wants to fund with Congressman Wilson's funny money:

"We've been working for several weeks in anticipation of this to get organized and have advanced prep on how these things will work through the system," Mullen said." See previous post: Hogs to slop : Democrats to tax money.

Apparently this "stimulus" bill is a government "stimulus" bill. I can't see where it will create any private sector jobs, just more government spending on government wish lists for government employees....government buildings....government properties....you get the picture. More government.

If they really wanted to create jobs Mr Wilson would have tried to cut income taxes, corporate income taxes, capital gains taxes, death taxes. This gets money into the private economy and creates real jobs.

Wasting money on an old building that needs removed and replaced with private property does not create jobs.

• "The city of Marietta has submitted another $1.6 million request for the Armory Square Project, with $500,000 requested to complete energy efficiency upgrades to the Front Street building and another $1.1 million requested to construct a new inter-modal passenger loading zone for bus access and handicap accessibility.
  "The Armory Square project is at $1.8 million right now, and that's short of everything we need to do," Mullen said."

Making city owned buildings more "energy efficient" does not create private sector jobs.

• "The city of Marietta is looking at another $3 million request to upgrade the energy efficiency of other city-owned facilities. "We're in the middle of our energy audit with Swiss Valley Associates so those projects will also be in play," Mullen said."

Paying for a Wi-Fi project does not create private sector jobs...maybe a couple of short term...hang a transmitter in a tree type of jobs, but not long term jobs.

• "Mullen said the city is requesting $425,000 to further develop a Wi-Fi project." "We're trying to build the backbone to have a WAN with a lot of bandwidth capacity and distribute that bandwidth to various sites. We see our initiative as a hub and spoke concept. We build this backbone and use it to extend it out to other areas in the county," Mullen said.

Do you know what a "historic" fence is? It's very expensive. But, who cares, it's just money cashed from a bad check:

• "Finally, the city has requested $160,000 in stimulus funding to restore the historic fence at Mound Cemetery, Mullen said. ""We know there is money out there for historic preservation and that cemetery is one of our city's most significant historic sites," Mullen said."" Maybe, but putting a fence up does not create jobs or help the private sector created jobs.

All of these items might be good things to do, but if there is no money, why would we write a bad check to do them? Didn't free credit start our problems, yet we're using free credit to try to correct the problem. Seems counterintuitive.

One question for Congressman Wilson, did you even read this bill before you voted for it?

EnviroNazis II

It's nice to know that Cleveland based anti-jobs Ohio Citizen Action cares so much about Meigs county that they want to keep us poor.

There's no one on their board that is even from Meigs county..........or even a neighboring county.

AMP, opponents disagree over ‘false’ statements

"LETART FALLS — American Municipal Power-Ohio has taken issue with two opponents of their $3.25 billion power plant after what it feels are “multiple false statements” about the project allegedly made by Elisa Young of Racine and Meigs Citizen Action Now, and Sandy Buchanan, executive director of Ohio Citizen Action."

Previous post with Elisa Young

Hogs to slop : Democrats to tax money

Mayors embrace action on stimulus.

What did we expect? Throw slop in front of a hog and expect it not to eat it with delight?

No matter how much swine shine Congressman Charlie Wilson (D) uses to shine this travesty with....it's still pork.

It's spending money we don't have and putting the costs onto our children.

More good news in Meigs County

Meigs County producing coal once again.

"According to a Gatling spokesperson, the slope at the Yellowbush Mine touched coal on Jan. 29 and the room-and-pillar operation is now producing coal. Though the production of coal at the site is not operating at full capacity while in its mine development production mode, make no mistake about it, coal is being mined in Meigs County once again. When the mine is operating at full capacity, Gatling, Ohio LLC hopes to produce 3.5 million marketable tons of coal per year."

The heart of the matter

Dispatch story

"We're getting free sidewalks and streetlights. It's going to increase the value of our property."

Free? Really? How? This is how freedoms are slowly given away to the government. The empty promise of getting something for "free".

The thoughts of getting new sidewalks and a wider road are good, an improvement. However, nothing is free.

Did all this (getting something for "free" thinking) start with General Mills putting prizes in the bottom of our cereal boxes when we were kids? You'd think that after all these years of buying our own cereal boxes for our own kids, we'd realized that someone had to pay for the cereal.

Priceless

The Athens News' Terry Smith has finally come to the realization that having good intentions doesn't qualify one to be Governor.

At least he's honest. Here's today's Athens News and Terry's column.

"After all this, the people of southeast Ohio who had long tolerated schools with minimal financial resources, always seemingly on the verge of insolvency, excitedly awaited the governor’s reform plan. It had been a long trek through the desert, but finally, the promised land was at hand.
Um, well, no. In the district-by-district breakdown released last week by the governor’s office, here’s how Athens County’s school districts fare under the Strickland education plan:

• Alexander Local School District: No increase in money in fiscal year 2010 and a 2 percent reduction in 2011.
• Federal Hocking School District: 0 percent change in 2010 and 2 percent reduction in 2011.
• Nelsonville York City School District: 0 percent change in 2010 and 2 percent reduction in 2011.
• Trimble Local School District: 0 percent change in 2010 and 2 percent reduction in 2011.
• Athens City School District, (the most prosperous school district in the county): 0 percent change in 2010 and 1 percent increase in 2011.

We’re going to hear a lot of statistical hocus-pocus to explain this but there’s no getting around the fact that schools that have always been considered the ones most unfairly treated under the old system won’t get any new money under the new one, and actually will have to absorb 2 percent reductions.

This is an outrage, and Appalachia Ohio’s native son Ted Strickland should be forced to come up with an explanation."

What must hurt Terry even more is the fact that the Athens News endorsed Strickland and one of the main reasons was his promise of "improved support for education."

"Strickland would accomplish some of his goals -- including more early-childhood education, a focus on science and math instruction, a more effective system of public-private college savings accounts, guaranteed tuition rates -- through tinkering with the funding system. He would try to make it fairer and simpler"

"Strickland is a good man with a sincere desire to improve Ohio's sorry state"

One has to wonder now, that since the Athens News endorsed Strickland and he's turned out to be a disappointment, who else did they endorse that has failed them?

How about Debbie Phillips? Here's The Athens News endorsement of her State Representative candidacy.

"Education is Phillips’ strong suit, as the founder and executive director of the Ohio Fair Schools Campaign. She has an intimate working knowledge of the complex ins and outs of Ohio’s ineffective system for funding schools, and can be depended upon to apply that knowledge in Columbus. She will work with the governor, and hopefully a Democratic majority House of Representatives, to finally reform our unfair system for funding schools."

The Athens News was wrong about her also.

Yes, she's only been a State Representative for a short time, however, Strickland's education funding "plan", looks like it came from Debbie Phillips and her Ohio Fair Schools Campaign, which she was the founder and executive director. It looks like Strickland and Phillips were holding hands while putting this plan together. Take a look at the Ohio Fair Schools Campaign website and see how many initiatives have made it into Strickland's proposal. (It looks like the Ohio Fair Schools Campaign website hasn't been updated since last year, which would lead one to believe that it was purely a vehicle in which Debbie Phillips rode to a State Representative seat.)

While many of the districts she represents are getting funding cuts, see list above, the school she attended (Upper Arlington) is getting 15% and 16% increases over the next two years.

Phillips and Strickland are equally responsible for this debacle of a "school funding plan". The dems have been demagoguing this issue for the past 12-15 years. After all this time, this is the best they could come up with?

While Phillips and Strickland are responsible for this mess, it's up to the voters to hold them accountable on election day.

After this track record of endorsements from the Athens News, one would think that voters should vote against those they've endorsed....for the most part. They get 1 or 2 out of 100 right.


And yes, Terry, you are a liberal.

Outstanding post on YostPost

Strickland's wrong thought process in a nut shell, here.

The EnviroNazis never stop

Green groups fight proposed Meigs power plant

"Three environmental groups are challenging air- and water-pollution permits issued last year by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency to American Municipal Power (AMP) for a proposed coal-burning power plant near Letart Falls in Meigs County.
The National Resource Defense Fund (NRDC), the Sierra Club and the Ohio Environmental Council (OEC) exchanged oral arguments with Ohio EPA Director Chris Korleski before a state appeals commission Feb. 4. A final hearing is scheduled for early August."

These people, mostly outsiders, don't care that we have few jobs. They don't care that Century Aluminum just shut down, costing 679 jobs. Century employed many from Southeastern Ohio.

"Century Announces the Curtailment of Ravenswood, WV Smelter
MONTEREY, CA, Feb 04, 2009 (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX News Network) -- Century Aluminum of West Virginia, a wholly owned subsidiary of Century Aluminum Company (NASDAQ: CENX), today announced its intention to conclude the orderly curtailment of the remaining plant operations at its Ravenswood, WV aluminum smelter by February 20. On December 17, pursuant to the Federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN), the company informed employees of the possibility of curtailment of the entire plant at the end of a 60 day period; it also began the immediate, orderly curtailment of one of the plant's four potlines.
The WARN notice specified that plant operations would be curtailed unless the selling price for aluminum stabilized and the company was able to reduce costs materially and thus reduce the monthly cash losses it has been experiencing.
The Ravenswood smelter, which was constructed in 1957, employs 679 men and women and produces 170,000 tonnes annually at full capacity. The orderly curtailment of the plant's remaining three potlines will begin immediately and will be completed by February 20. The plant will be carefully maintained to allow for the possibility of reopening, if justified by market
conditions. Layoffs for the majority of the plant's remaining 651 employees are expected to be completed by February 20."

Previous posts: here, here, here, here and here.

Snow emergency II

As a follow up to a previous post;

Here's the logical conclusion to making our county Sheriff's....weather men.

This is from a letter to the editor of the Athens News recently:

"I think a Level 3 snow emergency should have been issued on the evening of Tuesday, Jan. 27, because the effects of the ice storm were already in place. Furthermore, the storm could be seen on Doppler radar, as well as the winter storm warning scrolling across our television screens and being sent as text messages.
Some of my friends had taken their children to evening activities, and I began to hear their stories about the awful conditions of the roads as they were driving home. The hill that leads up to Wonder Hills was a slab of ice. It was also dark, making matters much worse.
Can anyone tell me why Sheriff Pat Kelly waited until Wednesday morning? I would like to know. People could have been involved in serious accidents on Tuesday evening. We all know that evenings are the times when children are being taken back and forth to activities."

This person could have signed this "helpless in Athens"

So, these people know it's bad outside and they wait for the Sheriff to tell them if it's safe to go outside or not. They are watching the radar and still go out, just because the Sheriff hasn't declared a level 3. So much for thinking for yourself or being accountable for your own actions.

I wonder what our founding fathers would think of us now, they fought for freedom, in the dead of winter, and we've turned into a nation of people that can't think for ourselves....we want our local Sheriff to tell us if we can go outside or not....and if it's slippery outside and he didn't tell us (even though it's the middle of winter) shame on him!

As far as the authority to declare a "snow emergency", it's made up. There is no specific law that allows this. The law that the Attorneys General mention are 311.07 and 311.08. There's nothing pertaining to "snow emergencies" It's a real stretch to even make it fit under the "preserve the public peace" generic, cover it all words in the ORC.

How did we get from the ORC general statement of preserving the peace to allowing the Sheriff to stop traffic on all roadways in a county?

A morphing action of various Attorney's General decisions.

"1958 Op. Att’y Gen. No. 3039, p. 676; a county sheriff’s duty to preserve the public peace
authorizes him to keep the public highways free of damaged automobiles and remove injured and unconscious motorists and other persons from such highways"

1987 Op. Att’y Gen. No. 87-099 at 2-658; 1986 Op. Att’y Gen.
No. 86-023 at 2-121. “It is evident, therefore, that the sheriff’s duty to ‘preserve the public
peace’ under R.C. 311.07 [and R.C. 311.08] permits him, in the appropriate circumstances, and
in the exercise of a reasonable discretion, to take those actions reasonably necessary to protect the general public welfare.”

1997 Op. Att’y
"Gen. No. 97-015 (a county sheriff may, pursuant to R.C. 311.07 and R.C. 311.08, declare a snow emergency and temporarily close state roads and municipal streets within his jurisdiction when such action is reasonably necessary for the preservation of the public peace"

As far as which roads a Sheriff may close, it's clear that he can close any road he chooses.

http://www.ag.state.oh.us/legal/opinions/1997/97-015.htm

"Moreover, under the rationale used in 1986 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 86-023, there is no reasonable basis for distinguishing between the different types of roads and streets that are located within the county. As stated in the opinion, "_[t]he sheriff is the chief law enforcement officer in the county, with jurisdiction coextensive with the county, including all municipalities and townships._" 1986 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 86-023 at 2-120 (quoting In re Sulzmann, 125 Ohio St. 594, 597, 183 N.E. 531, 532 (1932)); see R.C. 2935.03(A). Accordingly, a county sheriff's duty to "preserve the public peace" extends throughout the entire county. As such, the county sheriff is not only required to "preserve the public peace" on county and township roads during a snow emergency, but is also required to do the same on state roads and municipal streets. Because the power to "preserve the public peace" includes the authority to take those steps reasonably necessary to protect and preserve the safety of the traveling public, 1986 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 86-023 at 2-121, the county sheriff may, pursuant to R.C. 311.07 and R.C. 311.08, declare a snow emergency and temporarily close the state roads and municipal streets within his jurisdiction when such action is reasonably necessary for the preservation of the public peace.2"

Not sure why we are letting our Attorneys General make laws when our legislature should be making specific laws, but there it is.

Unbiased headline

Is the Democrat party writing the headlines for stories in the Marietta Times?

"Ohio Democrats want to create jobs" Maybe it's just me, but the first thought that came to mind was the implication that the Republicans don't want to create jobs. What the headline should have said was "Ohio Democrats want to create government jobs".

A couple of thoughts on this story:

1.

"Sen. Jimmy Stewart, R-Athens, said Monday he's willing to look at Democratic proposals, but has some reservations. For example, he favors the veteran bonus plan vetoed by Gov. Ted Strickland, which would have paid for the bonuses out of the state's rainy day fund.
"The bill that we passed used current resources... instead of going deeper in debt," Stewart said."

Contrast this sentiment to Rep. Charlie Wilson's (D) deficit spending and it's a breath of fresh air.


2.

"Stewart said he's not opposed to the idea but believes fixing the state's unconstitutional education system is the priority and he's skeptical of Strickland's plan.
"That would be helpful," Stewart said of the distance learning initiative, "but what would be even more helpful was if the governor's school funding plan wasn't taking money from some of the poorest districts in the state....""

Then you have Strickland and Debbie Phillips telling us they had an "education funding plan" and they were going to fix "school funding". Then when the "plan" is revealed, it actually reduces funding to many schools in Appalachia....some of the poorest in the state. What kind of a fix is that? As Jimmy stated in another story recently that the Strickland / Phillips plan would actually increase the dependence on property taxes in some districts. This is the main reason Strickland and Phillips said we needed to "fix" school funding in the first place. What they've done is actually made our school funding situation worse.

I hope Strickland and Debbie Phillips don't try to fix anything else!

Rep. Wilson tries to defend his vote on the Porkulas bill

Below is his own statement on his shameful vote on raising our national debt $819 Billion. He'll have another chance to vote on this after the House and Senate "reconcile" their two versions of this travesty. Who wants to bet a Coke that it's higher after they're done "reconciling"?

I've added a few comments in blue.

Wilson on Economic Stimulus Bill

Posted: 2:51 PM Jan 29, 2009Last Updated: 2:51 PM Jan 29, 2009

THIS IS A PRESS RELEASE FROM THE OFFICE OF OHIO CONGRESSMAN CHARLIE WILSON.
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today Congressman Charlie Wilson voted to put Americans back to work, create 3 to 4 million jobs and jumpstart our economy. The U.S. House passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 with a vote of 244 to 188.

Developed with the Obama Administration (Karl Marx et al), this recovery and job creation package will rebuild America (you mean refinance the democrat supporters) , make us more globally competitive and energy independent, and transforming our economy for long-term growth; give 95 percent of American workers an immediate tax cut (what you mean is, take money from folks that pay taxes and give to folks that don't pay taxes via the "earned income tax credit" and call it a tax cut) ; and invest quickly in the economy.
“I was happy to see the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act pass the House today,” Wilson said. “I believe the plan will help us reverse the current economic meltdown. Some have complained that the plan is too big; others have complained that it isn’t big enough. (really, who? a false "compromise") ; As with all legislation, this represents a compromise and I believe we worked hard to develop a plan whose results will be felt in every community in this country. Ohio could receive billions of dollars in federal funds.(Put on the feed bag boys, we're printing money!) That’s huge, and I will do everything in my power to make sure working families and businesses in my district get their fair share of it. (fair share of a massive debt bill? No thanks) It is only fair that the communities that have been the most devastated by recent economic woes get the help they have needed for so long,” said Wilson. (and here he is with your "help", he's here to help you and buy your vote)
“I’m also pleased that the plan includes numerous tax credits that will directly benefit millions of Ohio’s working families and businesses,” Wilson added.
Some of the initial estimates for Ohio include:

Do any of these create jobs in the short term.......in the long term for that matter?

$2,826,874 for Ohio’s Medicaid program. NO
$756 million in Food Stamps to help 1,209,000 Ohio families. NO
$147.2 million to help 257,900 Ohioans who receive Supplemental Security Income NO
$66.1 million to help an additional 16,000 Ohio families take advantage of the Emergency Shelter Grant Program NO
666,416 Ohio workers who’ve lost their jobs will be able to collect additional Unemployment Insurance in 2009. NO
$2,385,026,000 for Ohio’s State Fiscal Stabilization Fund. NO, what this does is let Ohio get around it's balanced budget requirement, just have the federal government invent more money out of thin air and add it to the federal budget deficit.
$472,182,000 for Ohio’s Title I (Disadvantaged Students) NO
$510,428,000 for Ohio’s Individuals with Disabilities Act (Special Education) NO
$36,074,608 for Education Technology State Grants in Ohio NO
$740,000,000 for Education Modernization, Renovation & Repair (both K-12 and Higher Education) in Ohio; NO
$75 million of that would be specifically headed to school districts in Ohio’s Sixth Congressional District. Which will result in massive kickbacks to the dems from the OEA via campaign contributions...using your tax money, of course.
$969,083,888 in Pell Grants to benefit approximately 268,804 college students in Ohio NO
$27,337,915 to for Ohio Head Start NO
$68,140,840 for Ohio’s Child Care & Development Block Grant NO
$155,039,850 for Employment and Training in Ohio NO
$39,979,274 for Ohio’s Community Services Block Grant NO
$49,915,665 for Low-Income Home Energy Assistance (LIHEAP) in Ohio NO
$7,276,756 for Elderly Nutrition Services in Ohio NO
$14,358,180 for Preventive Health and Health Services Block Grant in Ohio NO
$93,043,833 for Byrne Justice Assistance Grants (JAG) NO
$1,036,086,707 for Ohio’s Highways and Bridges Maybe, depends on how much the wages are artificially inflated due to union hiring requirements, which costs the tax payers more.
$150,853,656 for Ohio’s Transit Capital Grants Maybe, see previous.
$24,069,335 for Fixed Guideway Modernization in Ohio NO
$326,786,229 for Ohio’s Clean Water State Revolving Grant NO

Where are the jobs promised from this socialist bill? There are very few. A few highway and bridge jobs. All of these programs might sound well intentioned (sounding like a liberal, I know), but if there is no money, is it fair to our kids and grand kids to put them into debt?

Ted Strickland was well known for voting for the largest tax increase in history when he was our US Representative in 1993....now Charlie Wilson (who replaced Strickland) will be known for voting for the largest deficit spending bill in history.

This is a conservative district and needs to have a conservative representative. We need a Frank Cremeans, someone that is not afraid to be a conservative.

Buying your vote, with your money.

Here comes Congressman Charlie Wilson (D), buying your vote again. Where did he get the money? From your taxes, of course.

Not only did he vote for the first bailout package, he's now voted for another, larger one.

This time he's out hawking it like he's saved southeastern Ohio, when he really put our kids and grand kids into massive debt.

Voting to spend our tax money on low priority projects (if they were high priority projects, they would have already been completed by the State or local governments) to buy votes is shameless.

To all you folks that have told me you're going to vote against anyone that voted for these bailouts, here you go, Rep. Wilson needs to go.

Add Senator Sherrod Brown to your list also.

AEP: Clean coal plant on hold

Daily Sentinel story.

This is different from the AMP power plant that is still a go.

Originally, there were 3 planned plants on slate for Meigs and Mason (WV, right across the river) counties.

• American Municipal power is still going to happen.
• AEP's clean coal power plant is on hold.
• Mason County plant has been approved by West Virginia. This is an identical plant to the one that was going to be built by AEP in Meigs.

So, the environazis should be laughing over their lattes after reading this story. This does nothing, however, to help the 600 Century Aluminum employees who just lost their jobs.

One question for Debbie Phillips, she said she was for clean coal, during the latest campaign for State Representative. Is she working with Gov. Strickland to remove roadblocks for this clean coal plant being built? I haven't heard that she is.

Don't believe Obama

If you've been hearing this, ("We can't expect relief from the tired old theories that, in eight short years, doubled the national debt, threw our economy into a tailspin, and led us into this mess in the first place," Obama said in his radio address.) this weekend. Remember that Obama is lying. The truth is, it was the dems that forced the banks to make risky loans, which inflated and fueled the housing bubble.

The Republicans saw this coming and tried to stop it.

Public Opinion details the time frame of what went wrong.
2004 hearing where dems say nothing is wrong and the GOP is calling for more regulation.
Bill Clinton saying the dems hampered any regulations on Fannie and Freddie MAC.

You won't hear any of this in the media, they are too busy carrying Obama's deficit creation bill through congress for him.

Much ado about nothing

Judge: City's landlord-tenant law 'may violate' due process.

We've been saying all along that the end result of this silly law is that we make criminals out of good citizens.

We are prosecuting citizens based on a law who's intent was to inform tenants of trash pickup, litter laws and code restrictions on the number of tenants. The intent might have been good, but is it really worth making criminals out of upstanding citizens to get it done? Just put a "public notice" in the paper advising them of the information and be done with it.

How much time do we need to spend on this? We have the Law Director spending time on this, we have 3 landlords having to spend time on this, now we've drug a Judge and his court into this mess. How much time and money do we have to spend in the courts to make sure someone knows when the trash pick -up is?

City Council could fix this, just get rid of the law. It serves no purpose that couldn't be handled in a less thuggish manner.

Previous posts on this, here and here.

Phillips to serve on alternative energy

Here's a link to the Daily Sentinel story

"State Rep. Debbie Phillips, D-Athens, was named by House Speaker Armond Budish, D-Columbus, to be Vice Chairman of the Alternative Energy Committee.The Alternative Energy committee deals with the many ways Ohio can incorporate alternative energy initiatives into its economy.
“Bringing jobs to our region is my top priority. To that end, my first meeting in Columbus was held in December with Meigs County economic development officials,” Phillips said."

She's going to help Meigs County with jobs by being on the "alternative energy committee"? They don't need alternative energy when they are sitting on huge deposits of coal, cheap coal, high BTU coal. What Meigs County really needs is for her to call off her environmentalist pack of wolves from laying roadblocks, hindering the building of the proposed power plants. I won't hold my breath on that one....she's one of them.

“These committee assignments put me in a strong position to represent our region"

Maybe the windmill worshiping communes of the Amesville area, but not Meigs County.

Welfare, alive and well on college campuses

Plan recasts state funds for private colleges

"Up to 37,500 students would no longer receive state scholarships to attend private colleges in Ohio under Gov. Ted Strickland's budget proposal."

Why, you ask? You might think that the budget is being cut? Not so.

"Although more money would be allotted for the new block grants -- $70 million, including $30 million for students of for-profit schools"

Here's the reason:

"Three-fourths of the 50,000 Choice Grant students could become ineligible because they or their families earn too much money."

"Eligibility for the Student Choice Grant is not based on need or academic merit." ...well this was the case before Strickland's education plan.

The little help that the "middle class" gets in college financial aid, is now gone, replaced with giving that money to others, based on "needs".

"Instead of requiring a set amount per student, the new program would give private schools the latitude to award different amounts of aid based on students' need, Jones said."

So we've went from a program that was set up to encourage students to stay in Ohio to attend college, to a socialist redistribution of wealth. You didn't know you were wealthy, did you?

It's a distraction

Remember when Sen. McCain (during the campaign) flew back to Washington to help with the financial crisis? He asked Obama to postpone the Mississippi debate to which Obama responded, below:

"'With respect to the debates,'' Obama said in Cleawater, Fla., where he is preparing for the debate Friday night, "it is my belief that this exactly time that the American people need to hear from the person who, in approximately 40 days, will be responsible for dealing with this mess... It is going to be part of the president's job to deal with more than one problem at once....In my mind, it's more important than ever that we try to present ourselves to the American people.''"
Link to the rest of the story

Now, Reuters is telling us that Obama is getting distracted with Dashle's, Killefer's and Geithner's failure(s) to pay their taxes.

It's a "distraction", it's putting Obama on the "defensive". Looks like Mr Obama needs to learn how to "deal with more than one problem at once" as he said.

Out of the closet, faster than thought.

Brundage (Obama's spokesman) said Obama supports reviving the expired ban on assault weapons and making it permanent. And he backs closing the “gun show loophole,” whereby individuals may buy weapons from other individuals without background checks or other regulation.

Here's the story.

This administration is nothing but a Clinton sequel.

"Assault weapons ban": Also known as the Clinton gun ban. It banned guns that people use for hunting squirrels! The Ruger 1022 and other normal hunting guns. You want a concealed carry weapon that has more than 10 rounds? Not if Obama has his way.

"Gun show loophole": So, I can't give my grown child a rifle? My neighbor and I can't trade rifles? My father can't give me his pistol that his father gave him? Yes, this is what it means.

It didn't take long to see what kind of a liar Obama really is.

"“Even if I want to take them away, I don’t have the votes in Congress,’’ he said. “This can’t be the reason not to vote for me. Can everyone hear me in the back? I see a couple of sportsmen back there. I’m not going to take away your guns.’’" Obama, just before the Pennsylvania primary.

Is this "Change you can believe in"?

This has to be a misprint

""State government must be growing now as we face the worst economic recession in 30 years," Sabety said."

This is either a misprint by the Dispatch, or the dumbest thing I've ever heard a government official say.

Meigs County power plant protesters

Remember awhile back I told you there would be more attempts to stop all the jobs coming to Meigs county? Here's the link to that post.

Below is an older story from the Athens News about this very thing. Click on the picture for the story.

Well, they're now trying a different approach. Now they've got a Michael Moore type "documentary" being passed around by the cyber hippies.

I thought it might be a bad idea to give this biased, one sided "documentary" any exposure. However, I feel the folks in southeastern Ohio need to know the type of people that are trying to keep us poor and without work. These, so called, environmentalists apparently can't remember what it was like around here when we were really poor. Septic tanks? Didn't have any. Trash pick up? right. What do they think happened to the trash? Poor people had better things to do that worry about the environment, like keeping the crows out of the corn so they could eat in the winter.

But I digress, back to this "documentary". If you don't have 30 minutes, just go to the next post and forget this one. It takes about 30 minutes to view this "piece of work". I'd encourage those of you that live in Meigs, Galia and Athens counties to view this. If you are out of work and hoping to get a job at this power plant, you'll want to see what type of people want to keep you out of work.

This one is 2:48 minutes. here's the link. Watch the wild eyed crazy man. Apparently he didn't take his meds. This is the Al Gore lunatic part of the "environmentalist" movement.

This one is about 27 minutes long. It's the educated, smooth talking, we're smarter than you part of the "environmentalist" movement.

They both play heavy on emotionalism and little on logic, reason or facts.

Below are my comments that I jotted down while viewing this "documentary". If you haven't viewed the "documentaries" you'll have no idea what I'm saying... so go back up and view the first one. Then open another session and view the second one while looking at the comments below.

These comments are concerning the 2nd, longer, so called "documentary".

1. Notice the horse and buggy. This is where they want to take us. Back to horse powered lives. Have you noticed though, that none of them drive horse and buggies? What kind of examples are they setting?


2. Most of the women in Yellow Springs apparently use the same barber as the men.


3. Yellow Springs gets 35% of their electricity from "renewable" sources. However, their "renewable" sources are drying up. How can that be? Is it renewable / sustainable or not? Note: we haven't run out of COAL.


4. CJ Williams (co-owner of Living Green, really) believes we are going to be "kicked off this earth" if we use coal.


5. Brian Chase mentions the "controversy" in Meigs county. It's not the locals causing this, it's outside agitators.


6. Pulverized coal means nothing more than putting lumpy coal through a mill that basically grinds the coal into a fine dust. It can then be injected using air, for a clean, efficient and clean burn.


7. The big, wide short stacks are cooling towers. The mist coming out of them is water vapor.


8. "This plant will be the fifth power plant in the area" So? It's much safer and "environmentally friendly" to transport electricity via transmission lines than trucking coal to a power plant hundreds of miles away. Of course, they don't really care where it's built, they're against any new coal plant.


9. Is the guy in the green shirt getting ready to plant marijuana? What's he holding?


10. Elisa Young: On her way back from New Mexico, where she attended a Buddhist Boot camp?


11. Coal Gasification: She makes it sound bad. It's making the coal into a gas form, so it will burn cleaner and is in an easier form to use. Cleaner is what they say they want, but again, they really want us to not use coal at all.
    
12. "Contaminated water": The water is treated to as good, if not better condition than when it was brought into the plant. The OEPA is very strict and forces compliance.


13. Am I the only one that thinks that the group hanging out with her haven't bathed for a month?


14. Nothing meaningful happening in the legislature or the regulatory process? What she means is nothing meaningful that she wants.....from her perspective. Locals think that 3,000 construction jobs are meaningful. They also feel that hundreds of operations (full time) jobs are meaningful.


15. "If I wouldn't have moved out here, I never would have looked into this issue." Yes, you heard it right, she moved there....on purpose....and now wants Meigs County to conform to her wishes. (though later in the "documentary" she talks about some of her family being from there).


16. "you've got this whole student movement of conscious" (vs. unconscious?) "people who are moved to action whether or not they are directly impacted. (so these Trotskyites are just down here protesting to be protesting? Is this an assignment from some hippie professor in Athens?).


17. Is that vehicle she's driving propelled by fossil fuels? If she's against using dried up dead dinosaurs for fuel, she also should be against using liquefied dead dinosaurs. She's in a conundrum, if she gets an all electric car, she'd be a 100% hypocrite....rather than partial one like now. A little walking probably would be a good thing any way.


18. Notice all the shots of schools and play ground equipment. This Reeverts fellow must want a job with NBC the way he tries to influence the audience away from the facts.......what he really needed was an OEA member crying that it's all about the children.....just like they do when it's levy time....digressing again.


19. She's worried about global warming? Get with the times sister, now it's Climate Change. If you'd read this blog, you'd know that.


20. More shots of playgrounds. Barney the dinosaur looks cool.


21. Townships using slag on roads? So?


22. She keeps speaking for "our community". She's not...she can't. The vast majority of Meigs county wants the new power plant. She shouldn't give the impression that she speaks for "our community". If she wants to speak for Meigs County, she needs to run for Commissioner.


23. What's insane is sitting on massive stock piles of energy and not using them, while at the same time, buying oil from people that want to kill us.


24. The guy in the welding hat sure doesn't have any logical reasons not to build a power plant or mine coal.