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| Good Monday Morning, My dog is always mystified and amazed at my slight-of-hand tricks, especially when they have to do with making a rawhide strip seemingly appear out of thin air. When I do the same trick for the cat, though I could be using a fresh-caught salmon, if he's got his leg in the air and his face in his nether-regions he's in a world all his own. He'll care when he's clean and not one second before. The Town of Kent has launched its much anticipated recreation needs survey. If you live in that town you can fill out the survey here... and you should. There's a racetrack-like development being proposed for the Route 22 corridor in Patterson, just below Route 164 and between the highway and the Great Swamp. Though the details are sketchy, Winding Glades LLC proposes to build a 25,000 sq ft storage building and a one-mile long dirt track as a location to test car tires and their suspensions as part of a private club. The same people in that town who want to see Patterson Crossing built so that Putnam County residents no longer send their sales-tax dollars to Connecticut and Westchester, are up in arms over this development, one that represents a sport viewed by millions of Americans and that would put Putnam County on the map. Here we have yet another case where the whining of a few, probably NIMBY tree-hugging Libs, would stifle commercial development that will bring tax relief to residents not just in Patterson but across the whole county. Putnam needs as much commercial development as it can get and this proposal, NASCAR North, as one writer put it, is a small price to pay for the huge return that stores and business owners along the Route 22 corridor will see once it is built and in operation.Since the Democrats in Albany refuse to cut spending the governor is proposing a tax on sugared soft drinks. What's next? A tax on taxes? Can Democrats find a way to tax the very air we breathe? Give them enough time and they will. But it's a good thing we have people like Greg Ball and Vinnie Leibell representing us for without them and their fellow Republicans Sheldon Silver and the governor would have no opposition and a blank check. The President didn't do anything this weekend to further his socialistic agenda and he still hasn't come clean on his birth certificate. Sometimes we win, sometimes he obfuscates and hides the truth from the American people. And now, hard facts have come about that seriously questions whether Obama's parents were even married or not when he was born. Not only is Obama's agenda one of race baiting, socialism and the government takeover of American businesses, but he won't even come clean on the simplest of questions. Grab your guns boys, and hold on tight! A poll released on Friday shows that Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee holds a slim lead in a potential 2012 race against Barack Obama. Huckabee leads by 45%-44%. Mitt Romney trails slightly, by 42%-44% for Obama and Obama leads Sarah Palin by 49%-41% though she is the most well liked Republican of respondents. This shows the American people are onto the President and the Democrats and that come 2012 this nightmare will be over and America will once again gain prominence in the world. A lot of people, especially those on the Left, are upset about the Supreme Court ruling that gives corporations the same rights as citizens in issues such as campaign finance laws. The Obama administration has decided to fight the decision and some members of the progressive caucus in Congress have raised the possibility of a Constitutional amendment that would codify bias against American corporations. But they forget that it's the corporations that made this nation the greatest nation in the world. You can buy a GM or a Ford in any country. You can by a Pepsi in the Saharan desert. You have millions of immigrants trying to get in here and they're not doing it because we're some third-world backwater as the Libs would like us to be. No, they're coming because this is the land of promise and opportunity and we got that way because of American style capitalism. This nation needs to make better laws and reduce taxes on business and corporations so that they can flower and grow and lead this nation out of the socialist morass the Democrats have led us into and we have to do this before it's too late.California's Prop 8 supporter Hak-Shing William Tam claims that gays are 12 times more likely to molest children and that allowing them to marry would lead to political pressure from groups such as NAMBLA to lower the age of consent, allowing adults to have sexual relations with young children. Mr. Tam is no stranger to this battle as his name appeared on voter information pamphlets in support of Prop 8 during the last election. We think his ideas have merit and look forward to hearing more from this staunch defender of what's good about America and our Christian heritage. Communist dictator Hugo Chavez has ordered 6 Venezuelan television stations off the air for broadcasting anti-Chavez programming. This is no surprise coming from the man who insisted to reporters that the earthquake in Haiti was the result of a US secret weapon that can alter tectonic plates and I really wish he wouldn't give Obama any ideas. The few honest media outlets that exist in this nation are under constant attack from our Leftist enemies and their Hollywood cronies and we have to protect them at all costs. And now, The News:
Newsflash: First Amendment UpheldAn end to giving political speech less protection than pornography.By BRADLEY A. SMITH Thursday's Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, in which the Court struck down a blanket government prohibition on corporate political speech, is a wonderful decision that restores political speech to the primacy it was intended to have under the First Amendment. To truly appreciate the stakes in Citizens United, one must remember the government's legal position in the case. Implicit in its briefs but laid bare at oral argument, the government maintained that the Constitution allows the government to ban distribution of books over Amazon's Kindle; to prohibit a union from hiring a writer to author a book titled, "Why Working Americans Should Support the Obama Agenda"; and to prohibit Simon & Schuster from publishing, or Barnes & Noble from selling, a book containing even one line of advocacy for or against a candidate for public office. As David Barry would say, "I am not making this up." The Court said "no," and the only shocking thing about the decision is that the four liberal justices said "yes." Hopefully, this ruling marks an end to 20 years of jurisprudence in which the Court has provided less protection to core political speech than it has to Internet pornography, the transmission of stolen information, flag burning, commercial advertising, topless dancing, and burning a cross outside an African-American church. Unfortunately, some in Congress are using this decision to push for a government takeover of political campaigns through the misnamed "Fair Elections Now Act," which has over 100 sponsors (all but three of them Democrats) in the House. This legislation would use tax dollars to fund congressional campaigns. Read More Yes, Mr. President: A Free Market Can Fix Health Careby Michael F. CannonMichael F. Cannon is director of health policy studies at the Cato Institute and coauthor of Healthy Competition: What's Holding Back Health Care and How to Free It. In March 2009, President Barack Obama said, "If there is a way of getting this done where we're driving down costs and people are getting health insurance at an affordable rate, and have choice of doctor, have flexibility in terms of their plans, and we could do that entirely through the market, I'd be happy to do it that way." This paper explains how letting workers control their health care dollars and tearing down regulatory barriers to competition would control costs, expand choice, improve health care quality, and make health coverage more secure. First, Congress should give Medicare enrollees a voucher and the freedom to choose any health plan on the market. Vouchers would be means-tested, would contain Medicare spending, and are the only way to protect seniors from government rationing. Second, to give workers control over their health care dollars, Congress should reform the tax treatment of health care with "large" health savings accounts. Large HSAs would reduce the number of uninsured Americans, would free workers to purchase secure health coverage from any source, and would effectively give workers a $9.7 trillion tax cut without increasing the federal budget deficit. Read More What to Do With An Obama Bumper Sticker?Geoffrey P.HuntBuyers' remorse carries many unwelcome consequences. Chief among the tangible regrets from having supported candidate Obama, to now disavowing actually voting for him as president, is what do with that Obama bumper sticker? Here in New England most of the Obama bumper stickers adorn trunks and tailgates of Volvos and Saabs. Of course a few Subarus sport Obama bumper stickers alongside "Impeach George Bush", "No Blood For Oil" and "Save the Planet, Eat Your Children". While enduring the public scorn from the newly reformed citizens of "Brown 41 Nation", one time Obama acolyte Volvo and Saab owners are stuck with a double problem How to also rid themselves of a car whose brand is flirting with bankruptcy or just fading away? "Out damned spot! out I say". Scraping off an Obama bumper sticker is no easy feat. A variety of solvents, bleaches, degreasers and rubbing compounds , accompanied by a Scotch Brite pad or even steel wool for the most stubborn applications, are necessary to rid the stain of a misbegotten deed. Yet once the Obama bumper sticker is scraped off, there's more trouble underneath. Those Obama bumper stickers were slapped right on top all of the previously hopeless would-be champions. Start peeling and you'll find the remains of John Kerry, Al Gore and Mike Dukakis. And vintage Volvos still have faded reminders from George McGovern. Read More Massachusetts Election Refutes Weak Tea Conservatismby Gene HealyGene Healy is a vice president at the Cato Institute and the author of The Cult of the Presidency. If Republican Scott Brown wins the Massachusetts special election Tuesday, the Bay State will have its first GOP senator since the era when disco was king. And Brown will have the much-derided Tea Party legions to thank. They've turned out in force, hoping he'll provide the vote needed to strangle Obamacare. That ought to give pause to the "reformist" conservatives insisting that Reagan-Goldwater conservatism is dead. Yet the reformists' unofficial leader, former Bush speechwriter David Frum, puts a different spin on what Massachusetts portends. Brown is no "talk-radio conservative," Frum maintains: As a state senator, he "voted in favor of Mitt Romney's health plan" and supported greenhouse gas curbs. It would be "a travesty" if his victory empowered "anger, paranoia and extremism," which is how Frum characterizes rank-and-file "rejectionism." But it isn't a desire for Romneyish RINOism that has Tea Partiers sleeping on couches and getting the vote out for Brown. They're Exhibit A in what Frum recently termed the "furious rejectionist frenzy" motivating the GOP base. Read More Obama's bank bashing killing wealth creationRon LipsmanThere was a period about ten months ago when every time Obama opened his mouth, the stock market plunged another 100 points. At that time, the Anointed One rarely missed an opportunity to trash the insurance industry, the pharmaceutical industry, automobile companies and of course big banks. When he wasn't verbally accosting these industries, he was promising sweeping new legislation and regulations that would supposedly rein them in and curtail their abusive practices. Not surprisingly, the market reacted very negatively to these threats-both to the specific prospects inherent in Obama's threats as well as to the uncertainty caused by their enunciation. Untold hundreds of millions of dollars of asset wealth were destroyed by the resultant decline in the Dow and other indices. Since more than half of Americans are now shareholders, it is not unfair to lay the blame for a decline in the typical American taxpayer's wealth at Obama's feet. It is ironic that, last year, when too many Americans were still under the illusion that Obama's stimulus program, deficit spending and cap and trade and health care monstrosities were going to help rescue the economy (they aren't any longer), his loose tongue was already diminishing the wealth of the American people. It got so bad that even Bill Clinton had to tell him to button it. Read More Head Start Earns an F: No Lasting Impact for Children by First Gradeby David B. Muhlhausen, Ph.D. and Dan LipsAbstract: Recently released results from the Head Start Impact Study indicate that the benefits of participating in Head Start almost completely disappear by first grade. While other studies have previously assessed Head Start's effectiveness, this is the only study that used a rigorous experimental design. Given this strongly negative evaluation, Congress should reconsider spending more than $9 billion per year on a program that produces few positive lasting effects. Furthermore, instead of creating yet another new federal preschool program at a cost of $8 billion, Congress and the Obama Administration should focus on terminating, consolidating, and reforming existing preschool and child care programs to better serve children's needs and to improve efficiency for taxpayers. The federal government spent at least $25 billion on federal preschool and child care programs in 2009,[1] but President Obama has pressed for significant increases in preschool spending. The Administration approved $5 billion in new early education and child care spending in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Congress may soon approve $8 billion in new spending on the Early Learning Challenge Fund in the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act (H.R. 3221), which has already passed the House of Representatives. Read More The day I decided to stop being gayPatrick MuirheadPatrick Muirhead has already reinvented himself as a pilot. Now he wishes to become a father A minor incident in a barber’s shop last week has helped me to realise that I may no longer be gay. Not a fully fledged homo, anyway; perhaps not even a part-timer who helps the team out when it’s busy. It appears I may be going straight. I was in Tenterden, the Kentish village where I was brought up and to which I have lately returned, working at a nearby aerodrome as a helicopter pilot. I was waiting my turn for a chatty Latvian to apply the hot towels and razor. A handsome young dad entered with a small, fair-haired boy at his side. The man took a seat and hoisted the wide-eyed child proudly on to his knee. The first haircut, I speculated inwardly, as an unfamiliar fatherly glow and feeling of mild envy swept over me. I could not tear my attention away from the mirrored reflections. >From time to time, the dad leant forward as they waited and whispered close to his son’s ear, tenderly kissing his fair head. Touching stuff. Read More Just kidding! We'll be back to our normal objective selves on Wednesday. |
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Monday, January 25, 2010
News That Matters - January 25, 2010 - The Patriot Edition
