What can I do? VOTE!

THERE ARE NO "OFF" YEAR ELECTIONS. They are all equally important.

Can someone please explain the thought process of only voting during Presidential elections? This completely baffles me.

There is absolutely no excuse not to vote.

Here's what you can do:

1. Register to vote, do it now, don't wait until it's too late!
   
2. Vote on election day.
3. If you want to vote early, request an absentee ballot (from your county's board of elections).
   
4. Make sure your family members vote, at least the conservative ones. If you don't trust them to vote on election day, due to work, forgetfulness or laziness, get them absentee ballot applications, make sure they vote. If they don't vote absentee, drag them to the polling location.
5. Make sure your children are registered as they hit the required age. If they are in your house, they should be a reliable conservative vote. Then make sure they vote.
   
6. Make sure your conservative neighbors are registered to vote.
7. Make sure your conservative neighbors actually vote.
8. Make it as easy on them to vote as you can, just like your family members. absentee ballot applications, etc....
9. Don't spend time on making sure your Marxist neighbors vote or not. Let ACCORN take care of that.
   

We need to vote at every election, period! There are always issues that need more conservative votes. The Statists are happy to see you not vote so their voting effect will be exaggerated due to less overall votes.

A good reason (there are plenty more) we need to vote every time is:

Many State Representatives / Senators were former Township Trustees or City Council members.
Many of our US Representatives were former State Representatives / Senators.
These folks started out in local elections, usually, not a presidential election cycle. You need to vote every time and know who you are voting for just because they are the pipeline to higher office when someone else moves on.

Figure out who is the conservative candidate and vote for them. Even if it's a "non-partisan" election.

More examples where one vote would have changed an outcome in an election:

Here is a link to a previous post detailing two contests in Troy Township that were decided by one vote.

Here's 2 tie votes in one election in Athens County.

Jill Thompson lost in the conservative 92nd Ohio House district by 514 votes. Not much, taking into consideration the amount of votes cast. Meigs County alone could have assured a conservative victory if only 258 of them would have voted for Thompson rather than Phillips.

Meigs would have had a real clean coal promoter, not a do nothing, say nothing to support coal State Rep that Debbie Phillips has turned out to be.

One final comment, conservatives have to turn out in massive numbers. Enough so, that even ACCORN / can't come up with enough fraudulent ballots to change the election results.

Another reason to love Jackson County!

The Telegram / News (Jackson / Wellston / Vinton County) poll on gun ownership.

Poll Result

With the recent rash of home invasions, how do you feel about keeping a loaded gun in your residence to protect yourself and your family?

77%
We already have at least one gun and we'll use it if necessary.

11%
We don't have a gun now but we'll probably buy one soon.

11%
We have issues with having a gun in the house. We'll use other methods to protect ourselves.

You, you insensitive.....

ONN / Dispatch's blog apparently thinks we are being mean by calling EnviroNazis....well,EnviroNazis.

What can I do?

I've been getting questions from folks asking "what can I do?". Specifically, they are shocked at the Marxist President of ours and his followers, like Congressman Charlie Wilson.

They see:

• their tax money being wasted
• our government turning Socialistic, telling private companies how much they can compensate their employees
• Eric Holder using Mexico as an excuse to take our guns (even though Obama promised not to)
• Charlie Wilson and President Obama tying to borrow our way our of debt and spending their way out of a recession
• the EnviroNazis trying to keep poor people poor while they ride around in their SUVs
• etc, etc, etc...this list could go on and on.

That being said, here is a list (which will be expounded on in a post for each bullet point) of things you should be doing if you don't like the way your County, State and Country are individually or collectively headed:

1. VOTE
2. get involved now
3. get involved locally
4. give: time/talent/money
5. get involved nationally
6. communicate
7. educate yourself with facts, not hearsay
   

More to come.....

When you can tell the dems have control of the Ohio House

When you see Marxist ideas like this being considered.

""Although the sponsors of this bill have expressed the intent to rescue homeowners who are currently in foreclosure or risk thereof, it is clearly unconstitutional to interfere with existing mortgage agreements in Ohio," Thompson said. "Any provision authorizing Common Pleas judges or the Ohio Department of Commerce to modify existing mortgage contracts will be stricken from HB 3 upon legal challenge. This will not only negate assistance for current homeowners, but it will leave the statute applying only to prospective mortgage contracts."

"As applied to these prospective mortgages, HB 3 would clearly raise interest rates for prospective homeowners, thus harming more Ohioans than it would help, and enhancing the likelihood of increased delinquencies," Thompson added.

Specifically, HB 3 empowers Common Pleas judges to reduce the principal amount and/or interest rate of the loan. In addition, the measure empowers the Ohio Department of Commerce to"

• Reduce the interest rate on a home loan;
• Extend the period over which a homeowner may repay a home loan;
• Defer the amount of principal due on a home loan;
• Reduce the principal due on a home loan; and
• Utilize "other factors that the director determines are appropriate."

Thompson's complete testimony is available online at www.buckeyeinstitute.org."

If this isn't a lesson on intentions vs consequences I don't know what is. Marxists are known for having perceived good intentions (I don't think they do, but they, at least try to sell the good intentions) but the results are catastrophic.

Letting people renegotiate the principal on their mortgages? Apparently, all of us that pay our bills on time and have either paid down our mortgages or paid them off, have been doing it the wrong way.

So, we should have gotten behind in our payments, by getting ourselves into debt that we never could afford to repay....hoping the housing market would continue to go up and we could sell our house if we ever needed to for a higher price than what we paid for it.

It is fundamentally bad for a civil society to let people break their contracts whenever they have found themselves in a (usually self imposed) predicament.

Now, those of us that follow our contractual obligations, will have to pay to bailout those that don't follow theirs.

Seems fair in a government think sort of way. Sort of like Congressman Charlie Wilson is acting right now. Borrow ourselves out of debt!? Make the taxpayers pick up the tab because our Congress doesn't do their collective jobs by putting the halt to the Marxist in the White House and tell him NO when he wants to put our kids and grandchildren into debt.

Looks like Congressman Charlie Wilson is too happy to get a few table scraps to bring back to the district to help him get re-elected than doing his job by keeping our country solvent.

"a bit of monkey wrenching could significantly raise the costs of coal-fired power"

You need to read this blog post at an EnviroNazi blog.

They are actually comparing their EnviroNazi movement to the civil rights movement on the 50's and 60's.

"I cannot count the number of times I have heard the climate justice movement compared to the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. There are commonalities. We too, at our core, are a movement seeking to bring about a society in which “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” are guaranteed to all people, present and future. However, while the stories we tell share a common goal, they begin in different places. Thus, when we employ tactics such as civil disobedience, we are breaking the law in a very different context. In order for us to come to an understanding of civil disobedience in the climate justice movement, I’d like to draw out some distinctions between the implications of civil disobedience as used in the civil rights movement, the environmental (save the trees and animals) movement, and then come back to climate justice."

In the comments posts, they are talking about sabotaging our country's energy supply.

"Excellent post. I’m wondering how long it will take until we come to the next logical step: monkey wrenching. It seems to me that we should be there already. Why would this make sense? Because a bit of monkey wrenching could significantly raise the costs of coal-fired power, thereby making it less attractive and shifting investment into more climate friendly alternatives. Let’s say, for example, that it became necessary to have guards at all the railway bridges from Wyoming to Georgia over which the trains run hauling coal to the southeastern power plants."

This is the next logical step, as they say. Nothing but SA like storm troopers for the Marxists...and they are too blind to see that they are being used.

Congressman Charlie Wilson tries to change the subject

From the fact that he voted for a bill that he apparently did not read.

Salem News story

""When I voted for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in February, I knew it was a large and imperfect bill and that it would likely contain some mistakes."

But he voted for it anyway, unbelievable!

EnviroNazi training camp

May 17-23, 2009: Mountain Justice Training Camp

Some of these folks are the same ones protesting the AMP power plant in Meigs county.

Foreclosure hike ranks Meigs 2nd

Meigs County had Ohio’s second-largest increase in the rate of foreclosures last year

One more reason Meigs county citizens need to get active and support AMP.

They also need to actively oppose the EnviroNazis who are trying to keep good jobs from coming to one of the poorest counties in the state.

Bridge of Honor dedicated

Pomeroy Daily Sentinel story.

Good news for Pomeroy, Mason, Middleport, Meigs and Mason Counties.

Just when you thought there was a glimmer of common sense in Athens.....

They just make all landlords subject to a dumb law instead of a limited amount.

Grim upholds landlord/tenant law

"Athens County Municipal Judge William Grim has upheld an Athens law dealing with landlord/tenant education forms.

The law, which was passed in 2005, requires every landlord with rentals in the city to provide educational information to each of his or her tenants, and file a form with the Code Enforcement Office listing the tenants and certifying that those tenants have received the information. The forms provide tenants with information regarding issues such as trash pickup, parking, animal control and noise regulations.

Judge Grim had previously suggested that he might 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 three had filed a motion to dismiss the charges, alleging that the city’s law violated the Constitution. Grim denied the motion Monday, and trial is now set for March 31.

Grim ruled Feb. 20 that the city of Athens’ landlord-tenant form ordinance is constitutional as written, though the city’s mode of enforcing it was not, and the law must be applied evenly to all landlords in the city. Prior to this ruling, the Code Enforcement Office only applied the law to properties with 10 or fewer occupants. The court had given the city until Monday to demonstrate that it was applying the law to all properties in the city regardless of the number of occupants.

Athens Law Director Patrick Lang’s office said Grim determined Monday that the city had taken substantial steps toward enforcing the regulations against all properties in the city, and the law was therefore constitutional both as written and as applied.

“All three branches of local government have now had their say,” Lang said. “The law was passed by City Council, signed by the mayor and upheld by the Municipal Court.”

Lang said the city has a duty to enforce the law, and that’s what they will continue to do. Lang’s office said the law requires that landlords have a current form on file with the Code Enforcement Office. Failure, to file a current form is a minor misdemeanor, he said, punishable by a fine of up to $150 for each violation. Failure to file a form for multiple properties constitutes multiple violations, Lang said."

This is a dumb statist type of law who's intent could have been accomplished in a less totalitarian manner....one that Lang could choose to ignore, like his predecessor.

Previous posts, here, here, here and here

NPR in print

U.S. bill seeks to rescue faltering newspapers

"With many U.S. newspapers struggling to survive, a Democratic senator on Tuesday introduced a bill to help them by allowing newspaper companies to restructure as nonprofits with a variety of tax breaks."
Cardin's Newspaper Revitalization Act would allow newspapers to operate as nonprofits for educational purposes under the U.S. tax code, giving them a similar status to public broadcasting companies."

Just what we need, newspaper versions of NPR.

""We are losing our newspaper industry," Cardin said."

Um, WHO CARES? The horse and buggy can still be seen in parades, it's not like they are totally extinct, just irrelevant.

p.s. Maybe, if they would just report the facts and keep their opinions to themselves, people would subscribe...I think it's already too late.

Another reason gas prices are rising

President Obama is tapping the brakes on the development of shale oil.

"Obama is moving to rescind his predecessor’s policies, which were designed to jump-start production of the U.S.' untapped reserves in federally controlled fields in the West, mainly Colorado, Utah and Wyoming."

Ohio University College Repbulicans' Blog

I'm very happy to see the OUCRs have their own blog. It has many good posts.

I'm glad they remember that Republicans are supposed to be conservatives. Some older folks seem to forget that after they get their government jobs.

Here it is

"The Ohio University College Republicans represent the Republican Party on campus and are dedicated to promoting conservative ideals to young people. We believe in economic freedom, personal responsibility, lower taxes and less government. We are an active club that has hosted speakers, debates and various other special events. We have also worked on local, state and national campaigns."

Charlie Wilson's Red Herring

TARP Wage Accountability Act

I'd love to post on other items, but Congressman Charlie Wilson won't stop acting like a socialist for even one day.

First he votes to allow AIG type bonuses, then he says he's outraged at the actual bonuses when they happen, then he submits a bill to stop companies from "significantly increase salaries rather than have to deal with scrutiny of bonuses."

He's definitely against these bonuses now that everyone knows he voted to allow them in the first place.

So, apparently, Charlie Wilson would rather a Wal-Mart greeter run this country's largest insurance company than people that are trained and experienced in it.

The taxpayers have 80% (that's what I've read in the media, so take that for what it's worth) stake in AIG now. Why in the world wouldn't the taxpayer want the best to run a business we have such a huge stake in? We won't have the best and the brightest if we keep cutting their pay. (yes, taking bonuses from people that earned them is cutting their pay) We'll have a third string government team running this show and you know how that will end. The same folks that ran the Social Security fund bankrupt when they had a guaranteed incoming flow of confiscated cash from workers. Now we think the government will run AIG better than that?

On a slightly different note:

What is it with conservatives? Are they also falling for the Bolshevik trap of class envy?

Who cares if someone makes more money than you? Do you think if the government caps what others makes, you'll somehow get a pay raise? It doesn't work like that.

Also, who gets to make the decision of how much is OK to earn? If we start down this socialist path, where does it stop?

If you make 40k a year, there are folks that make 20k / year. What makes you so much better that you make 2X what someone else does?

In Bolshevik class warfare, the only winners are the government.

Charlie Wilson is leading us in this direction, he needs to go.

What have our Meigs County porta-protestors been up to?

Getting arrested in Tennessee.

One thought...sort of unrelated. Why do we call the WWII generation the "greatest generation" when they spawned our anti-American hippies? Then they spawned the EnviroNazis....

I'm rethinking the "greatest generation" thing.

Meigs AMP "permit to install" issued by OEPA

This is one of many permits required.

Pomeroy Daily Sentinel story

They've already obtained:

• the air permit-to-install (finalized February 2008)
• National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit (finalized November 2008)
• 401 Water Quality Certification (finalized January)
• Ohio Power Siting Board (OPSB) Certificate of Environmental Compatibility and Public Need-Generation Facility (finalized March 2008)
• OPSB Certificate of Environmental Compatibility and Public Need-Transmission Line (finalized November 2008)

"An application for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers 404 Permit remains pending and the final air and NPDES permits are being appealed by various opponents of the project. "

I wonder if this is why the Roman Empire fell? Permitted themselves out of existence?

Notice the EnviorNazis are still throwing up road blocks to stop these new jobs from coming to Meigs County.

Where's Debbie Phillips? Is she trying to facilitate the permitting process? One doubts it. She protested the Walmart being built in Athens of all things!

Wilson no "blue dog"

I about fell out of my chair when I read this.

These Trotskyites think Congressman Charlie Wilson is a "conservative" democrat!

I guess it's OK to let them waste their time having people call his office and asking him to support the socialist in chief's agenda.

Here's a little secret. He's no conservative. He has voted for all Obama's deficit spending bills.

Wilson votes to allow AIG type bonuses

Congressman Charlie Wilson has found himself in quite a self imposed bind.

Either:

He read the stimulus bill that allowed these AIG type of bonuses, and voted for it anyway

Or

He did not read the bill before he voted on it.

(Both or either are good reasons why he does not need to be our representative.)

He voted for the stimulus bill which allowed AIG to give bonuses to employees.

I don't have near the concern over these bonuses as some (previous post) however, it's hypocritical of Charlie Wilson to criticize AIG for doing exactly what he voted to allow them to do.

Class envy Bolshevik / AIG style

New York Times Web log of the AIG hearing.

Thoughts on this:

• These employees were offered bonuses last year, before AIG took tax money.
• AIG was contractually obligated to pay.
• How much money would the tax payers have to pay to fight lawsuits when AIG did not follow through with their commitments to pay these bonuses?
• The media is stoking class envy.
• Charlie Wilson is stoking class envy.
• Republicans are stoking class envy for political gain.
• So are the dems.
• Christopher Dodd got us into this mess to begin with with his desire for less regulation on Freddie / Fannie Mae.
• Christopher Dodd lied (again) about not putting wording in the conference bill to allow these bonuses to proceed.
• Dodd admits he inserted this wording, a day after he said he didn't.
• Obama and his administration requested Dodd insert this wording so lawsuits would be avoided.
• Obama used much hubris and anger about these bonuses, when he not only previously knew about them, but had Dodd actually insert the wording in the bill to allow it to happen!
• I would have gained much respect for Obama (starting at none) if he would have manned up and said he requested this wording and here are the reasons. No such luck. Mr. Bush would have been honest, to heck with the poll numbers.
• Where's the media? This lays at Obama's feet and he's (today) talking about immigration reform? The media have been neutered.
• Are we so dumb to forget history when it comes to stoked class hatred? Remember Russia in 1917? Remember the Cultural Revolution in China? Cambodia? All started because someone had more "stuff" than someone else.
• Are the 10 Commandments no longer relevant? "Neither shalt thou desire thy neighbour's wife, neither shalt thou covet thy neighbour's house, his field, or his manservant, or his maidservant, his ox, or his ass, or any thing that is thy neighbour's."
• Lastly, again using Lenin's quote about the media:

"The press should be not only a collective propagandist and a collective agitator, but also a collective organizer of the masses." Vladimir Lenin

Sherrod Brown's culpability in the AIG bonuses

Excellent post on Bizzyblog. There's no need for me to comment on this, it's all in his post.

Faster than even I thought

Yesterday we speculated that our congressman Charlie Wilson would jump on Barney Frank's bandwagon again and castigate a company for following through with their obligations.

Well, here it is. Charlie is a great follower, if you haven't noticed yet, timely too.

How much tax money would be used by AIG to defend the lawsuits that would be brought if AIG did not pay what they said they would pay?

Previous post predicting Charlie Wilson's rush to judgement again.

This AIG bonus furor is nothing more than democrat demagoguery, trying to change the subject, because they are the ones that caused our financial collapse to begin with.

Where's the media asking the tough questions?

Another casino group is offering up a bad bet for Ohio's voters

I don't always agree with everything Thomas Suddes has to say, he defiantly nails it with this column.

No matter how you cut it, or roll the dice, gambling is a bad idea for Ohio.

I just wish our Governor would make up his mind. First he's 100% against it, then he's for it, sort of. Now he's against it again.

Debt clock on Charlie Wilson's website

I found it hard to believe that he would have this on his home page, when he had (and continues to have) such a huge hand in causing our debt to increase.

He voted for the financial bailout bill, the "stimulus" bill, and the pork laden budget bill. All three deficit spending bills.

What he needs is a clock showing how much debt he created personally by voting for these bills.

Unbridled borrowing got us into this mess and Charlie Wilson thinks that unbridled borrowing will get us out of it.


The other thing I'll comment on that is on his website....among other places....is his request of President Obama to create a National office of Rural Policy.

Well, after seeing the results of 40 years of "helping" our inner cities, I'd rather the federal government not do the same thing to our rural areas. Please keep your "help", we don't want it!

Debbie Phillips = more government

Great post at One Oar in the Water blog.

Just cut taxes and let private business grow instead of growing government.

Another point he touched on, I haven't heard Debbie Phillips promoting clean coal. Why not?

Why isn't she having press conferences supporting the AMP plant in Meigs?

We all know the reason, she does not support coal.

Congressman Charlie Wilson's failure to vet the bailout bills

AIG payments to banks stoke bailout rage

I've got another take on this story.

While the media is so fast to blame free enterprise for all our problems** and Charlie Wilson is quick on the trigger when it comes to criticizing banks for putting on charitable events....

Maybe we should look at who's really to blame for this mess we've gotten ourselves into.

It was congress that got us into this financial mess by forcing banks to make bad loans.

It was congress that voted to give money to banks to cover up their previous mess.

Now, it's congress (and the media**) passing blame on financial companies for running their businesses when it was congress that started and exacerbated this problem to begin with.

AIG was contractually obligated to pay these bonuses. Congress should have taken the time to understand all the ramifications of passing the financial bailout bill...before they voted for it.

Of course, our Congressman Charlie Wilson voted for the financial "bailout" bill and who wants to bet that we'll soon see a statement from him expressing his outrage over these bonuses?

The taxpayers are the ones that should be expressing outrage at Congressman Charlie Wilson's rush to judgement, once again.

** "The press should be not only a collective propagandist and a collective agitator, but also a collective organizer of the masses." Vladimir Lenin

I hate using quotes from the same source two posts in a row, but this quote definitely describes our current press.

EnviroNazis VII

Below is video of one of our outside protesters.

Previous post

He's Ivan (how appropriate) Stiefel. He's getting a Brower Youth Award for attempting to keep good paying jobs away from unemployed people in Meigs County and creating a quasi terrorist organization called "mountain justice".

Count how many times he says "collective".

"planning collective", "community organizers", drinking from a "community gourd", collective liberation, etc..."

"Give us the child for 8 years and it will be a Bolshevik forever." Vladimir Lenin

Apparently so!

Congressman Charlie Wilson against secret ballot elections

The deceptively titled: Employee Free Choice Act of 2009

List of co-sponsors for this bill, and yes, that's our Congressman Charlie Wilson at the bottom of the list.

What this bill does is allows unions and forces employers to recognize unions if the unions can get 50% +1 of the work force to sign cards. Rather than having a secret ballot election after the cards are signed. So, there will be coerced signatures on these cards and no secret ballot election.

If you've not noticed yet, unions are all for elections, if it favors them. See post here about unions insisting on secret ballot elections when the issue is union decertification.

"Citing the U.S. Supreme Court, the AFL-CIO argues "that a representation election 'is a solemn…occasion, conducted under safeguards to voluntary choice.'" Moreover, the "representation election system provides the surest means of avoiding decisions which are 'the result of group pressures and not individual decision.'" "

So, by deductive reasoning, Congressman Charlie Wilson thinks it's OK to make "decisions which are 'the result of group pressures and not individual decision" when it comes to the certification vote.

So much for being a "conservative democrat". He is not representing the conservative 6th district. He's representing the union donations to his campaign....$137,700 for the 2008 election.

Previous post here

Slopping the hogs in Morgan County

Using Congressman Charlie Wilson's funny money / deficit spending.

It's scary listening to government officials talking about spending your tax money. Especially when there is a lot of it being spread around in an attempt to buy your vote.

Morgan County Herald story

Comments:

"State Rep. Phillips said she had gotten significant correspondence from people in Morgan County already concerning the cut in school funding proposed for Morgan Local School District in 2010."

Well, she helped create this funding plan, she should explain it from that perspective.

"During the discussion, Vicki Quesinberry, director of the Morgan County Department of Job and Family Services, talked about funding for her office. She said, “We have had four cuts. My help is running out. I don’t know what they want us to do. The finances are not there to support the workforce. There is not enough people to help. We had another layoff today. The TANF funding is totally cut.”"

Hmm, maybe government should act like private businesses (who don't have endless supplies of Wilson's funny money) and cut back spending and do more with less. It's called increased productivity.

"Gary Arnold, a representative for AFSCME, commented, “I represent 55 locals and everyone of our Job and Family Services has been sliced. Job and Family Services is the busiest state agency, and they have laid off three in Noble County and we had the one in Morgan today. We cannot take another $300,000 cut in an agency."

Gary needs to learn government speak. He needs to phrase this "if you keep laying union members off, we won't be able to give you campaign contributions to keep you in office, so you can keep us employed, to give you more campaign contributions...all from the taxpayers, of course."

"Morgan County Commissioner Mike Reed stated, “I was just looking over your projects. We need jobs. We also need money for a new jail. Our crime rate is going to go up. Stress on the system will make the crime rate go up.”"

Please Mike, this is an urban legend. The crime rate during the so called "great depression" was no more than the time period before or after it. Maybe if we lowered the minimum wage, we'd have more people working and less with idle time on their hands.

"County Commissioner Dean Cain talked about the need for a jail in Morgan County. He said the Southeastern Ohio Regional Jail is a tremendous drain on the county. “We send $300,000 to Nelsonville. If we had our own jail we would create a minimum of 10 jobs,” he said. “The cost does not account for the transportation to get prisoners there.”"

Didn't we hear these same arguments, except in reverse, when the regional jail was built? It was going to save money for counties??? Now we want to use more tax money to go the other direction?

"Bill Hutchison talked about the underground economy. “Is there anything to police that type of activity?” he asked. “You can place a law that says you cannot do it, but a lot of people do not pay into Workers’ Comp. The state is out that money.”"

We'd hate having people making money without the state getting their cut, wouldn't we?

"Concerning education, State Rep. Phillips said, “There are a couple of things in there that will make a real difference for Morgan. Supt. Lori Snyder-Lowe has done some great things to get with all the legislators. Nothing is easy right now. People are raising real concerns."

Wow, that really puts people at ease! That's deep man...crazy....

"Shannon Wells, director of the commissioners’ Development Office, talked about Morgan County Transit. She had put in a request for $385,000 to purchase an existing facility to house the rural public transportation system which has eight vehicles and 15 employees. The money request is to also purchase one additional vehicle and vehicle radios. “We can house 15 vehicles at the facility we are looking at. We take 1,500 trips a month taking people to work, to the grocery, to the drugstore, and to the doctor,” she said. “If we have the money we would be able to employ additional drivers plus a caretaker and create 10 jobs.”"

After paying the government mark-up on this, called union workers, it'd be cheaper to hire cabs to give these folks rides. Or better yet, lower people's taxes so they can afford, or have the time to help their neighbors on their own. Of course, no politician would get credit for that, so it will never happen.

"Terry McGrew, director of the Morgan County Health Department, talked about people needing funds to fix their sewer systems. He said, “There is not a lot of assistance for people in Morgan County to fix their systems. One of the requests is for $50,000 to assist Morgan County homeowners in need of household sewage treatment system replacement, repair, or installation.”"

So, we want to reward those that don't keep their sewage system working and penalize those that do by making them pay for those that don't? Seems fair in a government sort of way.

"Rep. Phillips handed three “sticky dots” to each person in the room and asked them to put a “dot” by the project they favored. “This helps. There will be different pots of money for different projects. It is interesting to see how much there is a common sense of priorities in the room. It should start moving very soon. The goal is to get people back to work as soon as possible. Some of the projects are due to be started in three months or so.”"

Leadership by "sticky dots", unbelievable.

One last comment, this stimulus spending is not about "getting people back to work" it's about funding government. Yes, the government started this mess to begin with, but who cares, we've got Congressman Charlie Wilson's funny money to play with.

Husted wants special election for U.S. Senate vacancies

"COLUMBUS, Ohio — An influential state lawmaker wants to see Ohio's governor stripped of his power to fill vacant U.S. Senate seats.
State Senator Jon Husted of suburban Dayton says he is drafting legislation that will require such vacancies to be filled by special election."

Toledo Blade story

Not a good idea.

There are reasons we let state government leaders (in this case the Governor) make these decisions for us:

1. It is the Governor's job to appoint if an opening occurs. We knew this before we elected him, so this should have been taken into consideration when we cast our votes for Governor.
2. It's OK to let a state government take their time and consider who they want to represent the state in the US Senate. This is still supposed to be a Republic, not a media driven, mob ruled, hysterical Democracy. You'd think a Republican (like Husted) would remember that.
3. If the reason for the proposed change is the recent issues in Illinois and their Governor Rod Blagojevich.....we can take care of that by not voting for a Governor candidate like Blagojevich. We should trust the voters.
4. Governor Strickland is no Rod Blagojevich......maybe Jimmy Carter, but not Rod Blagojevich

Leave our system for picking open Senate seats alone. It's worked fine in the past. I don't really want uncle Ted to pick our next Senator (and he probably won't, this is a red herring on Husted's part), and that being the case we should work all the harder in electing a conservative Governor. Let's hope the GOP doesn't end up nominating another Bob Taft liberal.

EnviroNazis VI

Another group of outsiders against jobs in Meigs County.

Here's Elisa Young, again, leading a "Toxic Tour" of Meigs County. These folks are from Cleveland, Cincinnati and Columbus.

Yet, every elected official in Meigs County is in favor of the AMP plant.

One would think that the voters of Meigs, through their elected representatives, could make up their own minds on this issue without outside agitators.

Meigs County Commissioner tells why he's in favor of the AMP power plant

What's the difference?

Between this woman and Congressman Charlie Wilson?

Well, she goes to jail and he gets to ride on Air Force One and brag about all the deficit spending he votes for.

They both are writing bad checks. The other difference is, she wrote 3 bad checks and that effected 3 businesses. However, Charlie Wilson has voted for many deficit spending (bad checks) bills recently and this effects everyone in the district. Not just in the present, but also in the future, with the inflation, higher interest rates, and, of course, the higher taxes.

Friends of NRA banquet in Athens

The Athens County Friends of NRA Dinner and Auction will be Saturday, April 11 at Nelson Commons.

Social begins at 5:30 p.m. and dinner at 6:45 p.m.

Tickets are $50 per person.

A Big Shooter package is $250 (2 tickets, raffle tickets, decal, hat, choice of sculpture or knife, etc., etc.)

Send check payable to: FRIENDS OF NRA and your tickets will be mailed to you.

Pete Couladis
5 Woodshire Court
Athens, Ohio 45701

Program ads and business card ads are available as well.

EnviroNazis V

EnviroNazi training camp. March 7-15, 2009: Mountain Justice Spring Break 2009!

Here they are bragging about their efforts to keep good jobs out of Meigs County.

Couldn't have said it any better

The Obama Economy

As the Dow keeps dropping, the President is running out of people to blame.

Another reason conservatives aren't sad Voinovich is retiring

Ohio Senator Voinovich votes for the D.C. voting rights bill.

Dumb, along with being unconstitutional.

Politics as usual with two "sweeteners" for GOP members to vote for this bill.

1. Getting a temporary reprieve for DC's residents on their gun laws vs an additional permanent anti gun vote in the house, is not a good deal.
2. Getting an additional seat in conservative Utah is not a good deal either. Especially when it is temporary, the population could shift and the freaks in California could end up with this additional seat. Even Utah's Senator Bob Bennett voted against this bill, calling it "unconstitutional"

The NRA needs to be careful what they wish for and look at the big picture, we should not water down the effects of pro-gun votes in the entire United States for those that choose to live in a US territory.

Charlie Wilson's rush to judgement

Congressman Charlie Wilson was in such a hurry to cast blame on a bank that he didn't read the fine print.

Massachusetts' Ambassador from Gomorrah, Barney Frank, sent a letter to the Northern Trust Bank blasting it for, what they thought at the time, wasting money. Charlie Wilson was all too happy to reinforce his new found (maybe not so new found after all) Marxist views and add his signature to this wrongly chastising letter.

Vindy.com story here

"The representatives wrote that they were “dismayed and angered” upon hearing of the banks irresponsible spending habits and said, “...We are demanding you take corrective action.”
“We insist that you immediately return to the federal government the equivalent of what Northern Trust frittered away on these lavish events,” the letter read."

What Charlie Wilson and Barney Frank failed to realize was this was a charity fund raiser that has raised over $50,000,000.

Link to Northern Trust's response

• Northern Trust had net income last year of more than US$640 million, and paid for this event using normal operating funds.
• No Capital Purchase Program funds were allocated for operating expenses, including marketing, advertising, corporate sponsorship or charitable activities.
• Northern Trust did not seek the government's investment under the U.S. Treasury's Capital Purchase Program, but agreed to the government's goal of gaining the participation of all major banks in the United States.
• Northern Trust pays dividends on the Treasury's investment, and will continue to pay them until the capital is returned. Currently, Northern Trust pays the government US$78.8 million on an annual basis as a return on taxpayers' investment – almost US$20 million per quarter.
• Capital Purchase Program funds are supporting high quality loan growth, benefiting both private and institutional clients. As of December 31, 2008, our loans and leases grew to more than US$30 billion, a 21% increase from December 31, 2007.
• This is the second year of Northern Trust's five-year agreement to sponsor the Northern Trust Open. The tournament agreement was signed in 2007 and all associated contracts associated with client education and entertainment were signed months before the U.S. government’s Capital Purchase Program was contemplated.
• During tournament week, more than 2,000 clients and prospects from around the globe participated in activities including three financial education seminars for our personal and institutional clients.
• Over the past two years, Northern Trust has raised US$3 million dollars for the Los Angeles Junior Chamber of Commerce Charity Foundation and the many non-profit organizations it supports. Over its entire history, this tournament has raised more than US$50 million for the Los Angeles community.

If you didn't catch this in Northern Trust's response, look at this bullet point.

"Northern Trust did not seek the government's investment under the U.S. Treasury's Capital Purchase Program, but agreed to the government's goal of gaining the participation of all major banks in the United States."

This was a huge mistake on their part! They should repay the money (for their own good) and never trust the federal government again.....at least not while Charlie (itching trigger finger) Wilson and Barney Frank are in office. Isn't it ironic that Barney Frank, one of the Congressmen that got us into this financial mess to begin with, is now chastising banks for having charitable fund raisers. Apparently the only charity acceptable to the Marxists is charitable giving to the government.

Looks like Congressman Charlie Wilson needs to look at the facts before he jumps into bed with Barney Frank.

Also, surely I'm not the only one noticing the lack of media questioning. It looks like they just cut and paste Charlie Wilson's press releases without asking any questions. Apparently there are no inquiring minds in our local media anymore.