Here’s day 6, click here for the remaining 29. 

DAY SIX: To help prevent the growth of a new welfare state, the franchise is restricted: no one on the dole, which includes government employees, may vote.

Rockwell’s Next Thirty Days by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.

Government Waste | No Comments »

This morning on WBEN, Bauerle was spouting off about Jim Ostrowski representing George Holt in an election law case.  Granted the 1st Amendment gives Bauerle the right to his opinion and the right to express it, however it would be nice if he responsibly used that right.  Apparently he believes it is OK for Constitutional protections that benefit him, but not for people he doesn’t agree with.  I guess it doesn’t matter to Bauerle that a bad law keeps many people off the ballot as long as George Holt is one of them.

I tried to call in and offer a rebuttal viewpoint to his opinion, but I was told by his screener that it wasn’t the topic of the day.  I’ve listened to Bauerle enough to know that the subjects he talks about are fair game for calls.  At least is used to be that way.  When I pointed out to the screener that Tom was talking about the subject, even as we spoke, and that I didn’t think it was very respectable to prohibit differing opinions, I had a reply along the lines of, “ok buddy, if that’s the way you’re going to be.”  Then the screener hung up.

Bauerle spoke about disgusting politics.  The 608 page election law that rules the petition process is pretty disgusting.  He also said Jim Ostrowski could have refused the case and let another lawyer handle it.  The legal question being challenged was the disenfranchisement of a homeless person trying to participate in the election process.  That applies to many more people than just George Holt’s campaign.  Also, there are not that many attorneys who specialize in New York’s convoluted election law.  Many of the ones who do are already retained by the political machine to prevent them from handling petition challenges.  That leaves only a few attorneys who would even be willing to go up against the Political Machine.

Jim Ostrowski and Peter Reese (co-counsel on Holt’s case) are two of a few who could and would represent George Holt.  Holt is entitled to competent representation under the law and the Constitution.  Thanks to the Courts in the State of New York, another person is banned from becoming a choice for voters.

Perhaps in time, Bauerle, and people like him, will be able to understand the big picture instead of narrowly focusing on one facet of the case.  As a practicing attorney, Jim Ostrowski is completely within the ethical canons of the legal profession.  In fact, challenging New York State’s election law is completely consistent with the goals of Free New York, Inc./Free Buffalo.

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The Army, hurting for fresh bodies, paid out $76,280,000 in bonuses during the  first three weeks of the program.  The failed war in Iraq is already placing a huge debt burden on our country and creating new terrorists faster than we can eliminate them.  Throwing more money at recruits just exacerbates the problem.

The Army, in essence, is bribing new recruits to become cannon fodder at a quicker pace while simultaneously doing severe damage to our economy.

More than 90 percent of the Army’s new recruits since late July have accepted a $20,000 “quick ship” bonus to leave for basic combat training by the end of September, putting thousands of Americans into uniform almost immediately.

Many recruits who take the bonus — scoring in many cases the equivalent of more than a year’s pay — leave their homes within days, recruiters said. The initiative is part of an effort by Army officials to meet year-end recruiting goals after a two-month slump earlier this year. With the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, the Army hopes the extra cash motivates those interested in joining or entices those just considering enlisting.

The program began on July 25, and in three weeks the Army had enlisted 3,814 recruits using the bonus, according to the U.S. Army Recruiting Command in Fort Knox, Ky. Those recruits accounted for 92 percent of the 4,149 recruits who signed contracts between July 25 and Aug. 13.

The $20,000 bonus is a hefty sum for many of the individuals the Army targets most aggressively: young men and women who have not settled on a career. The Army estimates that soldiers coming out of initial training are paid $17,400 a year on average.

Many Take Army’s ‘Quick Ship’ Bonus - washingtonpost.com

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The Buffalo News takes its lumps and deservedly so.   (click the pic for a large version)

I was saddened to read in the Aug. 17 editorial “Time to move ahead” the closing line “While there may be some who are never satisfied until the ‘historic waterfront’ again becomes home to drunks, thugs, prostitutes and rats . . ” I know people who are working in opposition to the Erie Canal Harbor Development Corp. plan for Bass Pro and there is not a one whom such a line could characterize.

We are all thoughtful, deeply committed individuals putting our time and energy into working for the good of Buffalo, including members of the Buffalo Niagara Riverkeepers, the Preservation Coalition, Campaign for Buffalo, the League of Women Voters and many other groups — hardly a group of marginal radicals.

There is a wide range of opinions. But there seems to be general agreement that a big box store should not be located within the 12-acre waterfront site, parking should not be a major usage of the site, such a large public subsidy is questionable and that all planning for the waterfront should be open and public. Such language in “Time to move ahead” can only be regarded as less than respectful. I do not believe it was worthy of a Buffalo News editorial.

Todd Mitchell

The Buffalo News: Everybody’s Column: Bass Pro opponents are poorly portrayed

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A handsom young boy Kevin is just getting out of the shower when the
doorbell rings. His father, heading to the shower himself, asks him to
see who’s at the door, so Kevin wraps himself up in a towel and runs
downstairs. When he opens the door, there stands their next-door
neighbor, Rob. Before the boy could say a word, Rob says, “I’ll give
you $200 dollars if you drop that towel you have on.”

After thinking for a moment, Kevin drops his towel and stands naked
in front of him.Rob looks admirely for a few seconds , smiles and then
hands him $200 dollars,and leaves.

Excited about his earnings, Kevin puts the towel back on and runs upstairs.
His father yells out from the shower, “Who was that?”
“It was Rob from next door,” he replies.
(more…

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Government control freaks will stop at nothing to advocate more socialized health care for the United States.  If one looks beyond the smoke & mirrors of the World Health Organization rankings, a true picture appears.

First let’s acknowledge that the U.S. medical system has serious problems. But the problems stem from departures from free-market principles. The system is riddled with tax manipulation, costly insurance mandates and bureaucratic interference. Most important, six out of seven health-care dollars are spent by third parties, which means that most consumers exercise no cost-consciousness. As Milton Friedman always pointed out, no one spends other people’s money as carefully as he spends his own.

Here’s what is wrong with their study.

The WHO judged a country’s quality of health on life expectancy. But that’s a lousy measure of a health-care system. Many things that cause premature death have nothing do with medical care. We have far more fatal transportation accidents than other countries. That’s not a health-care problem.

Similarly, our homicide rate is 10 times higher than in the U.K., eight times higher than in France, and five times greater than in Canada.

When you adjust for these “fatal injury” rates, U.S. life expectancy is actually higher than in nearly every other industrialized nation.

Diet and lack of exercise also bring down average life expectancy.

This is my favorite part, it shows a clear bias towards more costly and inferior socialized health care.

Another reason the U.S. didn’t score high in the WHO rankings is that we are less socialistic than other nations. What has that got to do with the quality of health care? For the authors of the study, it’s crucial. The WHO judged countries not on the absolute quality of health care, but on how “fairly” health care of any quality is “distributed.” The problem here is obvious. By that criterion, a country with high-quality care overall but “unequal distribution” would rank below a country with lower quality care but equal distribution.

It’s when this so-called “fairness,” a highly subjective standard, is factored in that the U.S. scores go south.

Fairness, while sounding like a noble goal is really a prescription for equal, inferior and more costly health care.  Without competition and direct cost accountability, innovation will suffer and costs to consumers will increase.  Socialized medicine is equivalent to having price controls and price controls always lead to a supply shortage.  One only has to look at the wait times in countries with socialized medicine to realize the serious deficiencies in that type of system.

12% of the people in Ontario can’t find a primary care physician.  The average for all of Canada is 10%.  The average wait time in Canada for routine procedures is 17 weeks, much longer if there is a chance you might die without some quick medical intervention.

The government, with its ability to raise taxes, drives up costs.  The government will also practice cost control when necessary by deciding who merits life saving procedures based on the probability of success.  Those kind of decision belong in the hands of the physician and the patient, not some bureaucrat worried about balancing a budget.

As Ronald Reagan once said, “The government that provides you with everything, also has the power to take it all away!”

Read it all::Why the U.S. Ranks Low on WHO’s Health-Care Study::By John Stossel

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If you want to vote in the upcoming September 18 primary election, you only have a few days left to register or re-register, if necessary.

Voter registrations must be postmarked no later than August 24 or delivered in person to your County Board of Elections no later than August 24.

You can download the voter registration form from this link and also find the address of your local board.

If you are a Ron Paul supporter, and need to re-register, or register as a Republican, to vote for him in the 2008 Presidential Primary, now is a good time to do it so you don’t forget.

If you are not familiar with Ron Paul, check out his website.  You will find a straight talking candidate who doesn’t pander to any special interests.

Buffalo, Erie County, National, New York State, Ron Paul for President | 1 Comment »

The sky last night was filled with interesting clouds.  Speaking of clouds and trees, you can see more here.

Flickr Photo Download: CloudsandSky

Art & Photography | 1 Comment »

Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.  That phrase perfectly describes the result of socialized medicine.  The solution to our health care woes is less government involvement. 

Swinging open the door, I stepped into a nightmare: the ER overflowed with elderly people on stretchers, waiting for admission. Some, it turned out, had waited five days. The air stank with sweat and urine. Right then, I began to reconsider everything that I thought I knew about Canadian health care.

I soon discovered that the problems went well beyond overcrowded ERs. Patients had to wait for practically any diagnostic test or procedure, such as the man with persistent pain from a hernia operation whom we referred to a pain clinic — with a three-year wait list; or the woman with breast cancer who needed to wait four months for radiation therapy, when the standard of care was four weeks.

Government researchers now note that more than 1.5 million Ontarians (or 12% of that province’s population) can’t find family physicians. Health officials in one Nova Scotia community actually resorted to a lottery to determine who’d get a doctor’s appointment.

The rest of the story.

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It appears that transparency is not at the top of Hillary Clinton’s list of values.  I guess even skeletons talk too much for her. 

Although she has swayed many Americans by touting her experience as unique among all candidates, Clinton wants to keep the gory details of that eight-year tenure under wraps and federal archivists are following orders, ignoring hundreds of public records requests in the process.

Nearly 2 million documents detailing Clinton’s White House years are securely locked up in a room at her beloved husband’s presidential library in Little Rock Arkansas. They are, under no circumstances, to be released prior to the 2008 presidential election.

The information includes calendars, appointment and telephone logs, schedules and memos as well as thousands of pages of documents from her work as the country’s miserably failed healthcare reformer.

http://www.corruptionchronicles.com/2007/08/what_is_clinton_hiding_in_whit.html

National, Ron Paul for President | 2 Comments »

This makes a good case for a limited government.

Under democracy one party always devotes its energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule — and both commonly succeed and are right.

— H.L. Mencken, Minority Report

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This week I am going to Cedar Point for 2 days. I was checking out their website for hours, events, etc., and stumbled across a special day on their events calendar.

HOME SCHOOL DAY

Homeschool families will have their own special savings day on August 24, 2007. Regular tickets will be priced at $29, and Junior and Senior tickets will be available for $11.95. No minimum purchase is required. Advance reservations are required. For additional information call Group Sales at 1-800-448-2428.

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If you are like me and believe that coffee is one of the essentials of life, you will be delighted to see the following facts.

• Test subjects dosed with the amount found in a cup of coffee come out ahead on problem-solving tasks.
• By triggering the release of adrenaline to help muscles work harder and longer, caffeine so clearly enhances athletic performance that until 2004 it was considered a controlled substance by the International Olympic Committee.
• The latest findings on coffee suggest that it even staves off disease. Caffeine reduces the risk of Parkinson’s disease, for example, by blocking receptors for adenosine, a neurotransmitter that plays a role in motor function. It is now being tested as a Parkinson’s treatment. Caffeine also heads off migraines by contracting blood vessels in the brain.
• Coffee, like blueberries and broccoli, contains potent antioxidants. It appears to reduce the risk of colon cancer, gallstones, and liver cancer, among other illnesses.In 2005, Harvard researchers found that drinking six cups of coffee or more daily cut the risk of getting type 2 diabetes by half in men and 30 percent in women.
• One study of 80,000 women showed that those who drank more than two or three cups of coffee daily reduced their risk of suicide over 10 years by a third.

Source:  Caffeine Facts

Food & Dining | 4 Comments »

Last week my son was subjected to a search for the privilege of riding the MetroRail.  This week we find out that we are subjected to surveillance in the City of Buffalo by 50 video cameras. 

Mayor Byron W. Brown, standing beneath the state-ofthe- art device, insisted the cameras will not be used for any questionable activities. They are being set up strictly to deter crime, the mayor promised.

Of course, Mayor Brown has no intention of stopping at 50 cameras.  Next we will probably be subjected to the command of “Papers Please” as we go about our business in the city.

Of course the government will do no wrong and use the video equipment for nefarious purposes.  How could we possibly think that could happen in a land where our phone calls and emails are already subjected  to the prying eyes of the government.  Mayor Brown’s assertions are empty.  The temptation will exist and some government official will misuse the video surveillance.  It is only a matter of time.  The slippery slope has begun.

One study by the Civil Liberties Union cites a 2003 report by the U.S. General Accounting Office that concluded there wasn’t enough data to gauge the effectiveness of surveillance cameras when it comes to reducing crime.

But Police Commissioner H. McCarthy Gipson said his department’s review of the technology has reached a different conclusion. Local law enforcers visited Chicago to inspect its elaborate camera system.

Naturally, the Police Commissioner is in favor of the video cameras.  Police never feel like they have enough power.  It would make much more sense, and save money, to have more police out of their cars and walking a beat.  That would increase their knowledge about what is happening in the neighborhoods and improve the relations with the community.  That would be a win-win situation without involving privacy issues.

Cameras that can see through clothing, building materials and automobiles are not far off.  Will they be next in use by the police?  Benjamin Franklin summed up the issue best, “Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

The Buffalo News: Home: City installs cameras in effort to prevent crime

Buffalo | 3 Comments »

Hillary is not a liberal. That’s not really news if you go back to the original meaning of the word liberal.

At the recent CNN/YouTube debate, Hillary Clinton was asked to define what a liberal is and declare whether she was one.

“You know,” the New York senator said, “it is a word that originally meant that you were for freedom … that you were willing to stand against big power and on behalf of the individual. Unfortunately, in the last 30, 40 years, it has been turned up on its head, and it’s been made to seem as though it is a word that describes big government, totally contrary to what its meaning was in the 19th and early 20th century.”

“I prefer the word ‘progressive,’ ” Clinton continued, “which has a real American meaning, going back to the progressive era at the beginning of the 20th century. I consider myself a modern progressive.”

After you dig through the Hillaryspeak, what’s left is an admission that she is in favor of big government - freedom and the individual are damned.

Hillary’s progressive America tells you what you can do while driving, what foods should be banned, where your children should be educated and what kind of health care you should be entitled to. Hillary’s vision of a progressive America will lead to the Stepfordization of America.

Senator Clinton is right about one thing, modern liberalism has nothing to do with freedom.

The failures of the Great Society, bussing, racial quotas, high taxes, the Vietnam War (both its beginning and end), Jimmy Carter’s “malaise,” the nuclear freeze movement, lax law enforcement, speech codes, abortion on demand, bilingual education and, of course, Michael Dukakis: We’re expected to believe none of these things can be weighed against liberalism. Liberalism, after all, is never wrong. It must be those mustache-twirling henchmen Lee Atwater and Karl Rove who are to blame.

One might also ask, if Clinton laments how liberalism has become identified with big government, why it is she wants to revive the progressive label. After all, if liberal is a misnomer for statists, progressive represents a long-overdue return to truth in labeling. In Europe, after all, liberals are the free-market, small-government types. But in America, the same people came to be called conservatives in no small part because they were trying to conserve liberal ideas of limited government amid the riot of social engineering during the Progressive Era that Clinton is so nostalgic for.

Indeed, she’s right that self-described liberals championed the sovereignty of the individual, which is why the authentic liberals were hated by progressives who believed that, in the words of progressive activist Jane Addams, “We must demand that the individual shall be willing to lose the sense of personal achievement, and shall be content to realize his activity only in the connection with the activity of the many.”

It’s going to be a rough ride if Hillary wins. Government plunder will rise to new levels. People who dare to make too much money will surely pay huge penalties. Perhaps Hillary will go so far as to render home schooling an act of treason.

Hillary is correct, she is not a liberal. She is moving left and currently calls herself a progressive. By becoming a progressive she has moved herself closer to the political philosophies of Joseph Stalin and Karl Marx.

Why ‘liberal’ doesn’t quite fit - Opinion - USATODAY.com

Technorati tags: Hillary Clinton, liberal, progressive, communist, socialist, fascist, villiage, redistribution of wealth, socialized health care

National | 3 Comments »