Patriots' Ink

Editorials:

The Abusurdity Of It All!

Author: JoAnn the Plumber

June 14, 2011

On May 15, 2011, while listening to Fox & Friends, I was struck yet again at the absurdity of certain news releases. I listened in horror as the name of the ship which carried Osama bin Laden's body out to sea, the commander's name and the location where the ship is stationed and docked, were announced on international television.

Had this come from the Bush Administration, I would've thought this was possibly an intentional leak and a set up to trap Al Quaeda,but knowing how the Obama Administration welcomes transparency, I seriously doubt it.

And if it is the truth, it is an idiotic release of unnecesary details and an invitation to attack the ship and the commander. Shame on any news outlet that releases news of this type. And shame on the administration for releasing the information in the first place.

The fact that the Navy was the military arm that accomplished this maneuver and OBL's body was buried at sea was news...Big News. But to release these details is idiotic.

What are the thought processes of those who think these releases are proper? Is this part of the "transparency" of this administration? If so, where are the confidential releases of meetings in the White House of George Soros, Andrew Stern and others who are admitted enemies of capitalism, our Constitution and by extension, this Republic?

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The Dreaded Scott Decision

Author: JoAnn the Plumber

March 21, 2011

Governor Scott is to be commended for making the tough decision of telling the Federal Government we don't need the strings attached to their "loan" for the high speed rail nor the probable taxpayer-subsidized operation forever. So often our politicians make decisions based on what looks good on paper. However, practical application has unintended consequences.

Prior to President Eisenhower's introduction of our interstate system, authorized officially in 1956, we had a passenger train system, privately owned and operated. After the interstate highway system became reality and citizens realized they could drive easily to various areas, people quit using passenger trains as their preferred mode of transportation for relatively short trips.

Passenger train ridership had been slipping since the early 1900's, as the onset of automobiles slowly began to be popular and a huge convenience to the car owners. The Great Depression merely added to the problem. The interstate highway system appears to be the nail in the coffin for passenger trains. After only 15 years, the passenger train system (the Atlantic Coastline and the Seaboard Railroad systems on the east coast) was apparently determined to be "too big to fail" and in 1971, Amtrak was born.

Bear in mind, no one bailed out the businesses along the then and currently existing highways (US 1 and 301) traversing the east coast prior to I-95's completion. Taxpayers to this day continue to subsidize this huge boondoggle called Amtrak. Only the Northeast Corridor lines seem to be financially viable.

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Letter To The Editor

No Tax For Track

Author: Nancy Davis

Feburary 28, 2011

I read the article ”Pinellas takes deep look at its transit options” on February 10, 2011. Karen Seel was quoted as saying the reason that Hillsborough County defeated their countywide proposal for light rail was due to the lack of information. I disagree.

I hope that Pinellas County also defeats the rail proposal. It is not needed, and will add unnecessary taxes to us taxpayers. We have sufficient bus and auto transportation, and these are much less expensive than rail transportation.

We need to ask why President Barak Obama and Vice President Joe Biden are pushing a national rail system. Vice President Biden has said that $8 million dollars in seed money has been allocated. The total expense could total $100 billion dollars. Can we afford it? Who would profit from this? Obviously the transit unions, drivers, and those contractors who would build the rails.

Has any light rail system been successful as promoted? The light rail in Portland, Ore., was praised, but few ride it. It runs 18-20 hours a day and only 20-25 people ride it daily. The Baltimore light rail was allocated $18 billion, and expected the ridership to make it worthwhile. But the cars are usually empty, says Randal O’Toole in his book GRID LOCK.

Let the Pinellas County 25-member task force know that you do not want this now or in the future. Go to www. notaxfortracks.com for more information.

Seminole Beacon

Author: Steven D. Lange

Executive Director

Patriots' Ink

The Agenda 21 Petition below can be used by simply copying and pasting the petition into a text editor such as Microsoft Word and or an editor of your choice and changing the title to your city and or state officials. We ask that all of America become familiar with the United Nations Agenda 21 which is implemented by ICLEI, an international organization promoting global governance within our communities under the guise of Sustainable Communities, Smart Growth, Transportation and Land use plans that “we the people” have had no vote or knowledge of . Copy and Past the form and get signatures. Send the form to everyone you know. Use this Petition form to learn who ICLEI is and what Agenda 21 is intended to do and then share what you have learned. If you value your Freedoms you will!

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Remove ICLEI – Restore the Republic!

PETITION TO THE MAYORS, CITY COUNCILS AND COUNTY COMMISSIONERS WITHIN PINELLAS COUNTY FLORIDA

Whereas: under your leadership, this community is imposing the policies of Sustainable Development, and

Whereas: under your leadership, this community is paying dues to an international organization called “ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability,” for the express purpose of creating and imposing Sustainable Development programs based in large part on the theory of global warming, and

Whereas: ICLEI works in secret, violating transparency of government and the public’s right to know, and

Whereas: it is the duty of every elected representative to provide full disclosure and open discussion and debate on policies that affect private property rights, community development, water use and restrictions, restrictions on auto use and parking, open space restrictions, building codes and restrictions, restrictions on types of materials to be used in building, taxes designed to restrict development and auto use, and many more policies that have a damaging effect on the rights of citizens and the economy of the community, and

Whereas: Sustainable Development, based on the unproven and disputed theory of Global Warming, is the driving force behind these policies now being imposed on all the citizens of this community, created, discussed and decided in private meetings rather than before the full community, with ICLEI as the guiding force, now.

Therefore, I the undersigned citizen of the community demand:
That all citizens be allowed to openly discuss and debate these Sustainable Development restrictions on our economy, our property and our way of life, and

That there be a full disclosure to the citizens of this community concerning the financial association with ICLEI and its involvement with these Sustainable Development policies, and finally,

That such contact with ICLEI be immediately terminated and the community have no further dealings with this international organization.

Signed:____________________ Date___________________

Printed: ___________________

Address: ___________________

CART BEFORE THE HORSE!

Author: Hanson Hamilton

January 24, 2011

We have a “republican” form of government under which we live because our founding fathers took it upon themselves to give us the best system in the world for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That system has been corrupted almost beyond recognition.

A very large percentage of the world’s population enjoys the Judeo-Christian belief system. Even the Muslim religion claims to stem from Christianity.
In that belief system, God offered TEN COMMANDMENTS for living and getting along with each other. All of human life on Earth was to be governed by TEN very simple rules to live by.

Govern: According to Webster’s, “the continuous exercise of authority over, and the performance of, functions for a political unit”.
Back in the day, governance was for the purpose of making smooth the road ahead for the people within any geo-political unit, to legislate for the protection of those same people. We honored many of our elders by elevating them to the high offices of government as an expression of our esteem for them.

At some point in our history, our elected officials and their employees turned against us and determined that “governing” meant throwing a very heavy, wet blanket of regulation over the entire population, resulting in much control of the citizenry.
At various points, “mistakes” were discovered in the rules being promulgated. Thus began “special interests” for whom holes in those blankets were made so that “they” could flourish, while keeping the rest of the people contained within that suffocating blanket of legislation.

And, now, ALL new legislation is a continuous array of large blankets specifically created for the purpose of killing originality, ingenuity and energy. Thus, when any segment or group of our society cries out loudly enough, or can raise sufficient re-election funding for any elected official, that group can purchase a “Get out of Jail” card - a special interest piece of legislation on behalf of a very small group of individuals, very often resulting in re-election campaign funds changing hands, exempting that small group from the burdens of that legislation for themselves only, in order to break free from that hugely burdensome blanket of legislation .

That is the basis for thousands of pages of legislation being created all over our governments across the nation. One need only attend any public meeting of elected officials to understand so very clearly that our system of government is now run on the basis of special interest “exceptions” and “exemptions” to that smothering blanket of original legislation.

We the People MUST put the horse back in front of the cart and seek out and then also support as many new candidates for public office as we can lay our hands on!! We cannot allow this smothering legislation with the resultant special exemptions and exceptions for “the powerful” to continue.
GO FIND our new, citizen legislators for the 2012 elections!!!!

Poitical Urban Legands

Author: Walter Steinheimer

January 16, 2011

Lately, people hear or make statements which on the surface seem true. But if we take time to examine the statement being made, is it really true? Once we scratch the surface, does the premise being conveyed stand up under further examination? One major topic which comes to mind: do we still make things here in the United States anymore?

Take this raw data as a sample – since 2001, the US has lost approximately 42,400 factories. As of the first quarter of 2001 there were 398,837 factories operating in the US, where, as of the first quarter of 2009, that figure had dropped to 356,433 – actual decline of 42,404 facilities. What was the cause of this? Have all the jobs gone to China? Or Japan for that matter? Does the US still make ANYTHING?

What is lost in these talking points is that throughout our history, various whole categories of job skills have peaked and waned and disappeared. Think about the days when the ice man used to deliver ice to your home. Or the milkman who delivered your milk. Or the street vendor who pushed his cart around and came to sharpen your knives and scissors. As a kid, this writer remembers when the milkman put quarts of fresh milk in a special insulated box in the early morning on my childhood’s house doorstep. Nowadays, most of us get our milk from the supermarket, or the 7-11, rather than having it delivered by the milkman.

Professor Walter Williams talks about this in his recent column: (http://townhall.com/columnists/WalterEWilliams/2011/01/05/true_or_false)

He cites statistics from an article written by Dr. Mark Perry in The American (12/23/2009) titled “Manufacturing’s Death Greatly Exaggerated”. We learn that for the year 2008, the Federal Reserve estimated the GDP generated by the manufacturing sector in the US totaled $3.7 trillion – placing the US manufacturing sector on par with the entire GDP of Germany for fourth place overall in the world.

US manufacturing job sector employment peaked at 19.5 million in 1979. Since then, Professor Williams points out that the manufacturing workforce has shrunk by 40%, and will continue to shrink. Have all these jobs gone overseas? No. Because of automation, the US worker is three times more productive as in 1980 and twice as productive as in 2000, and this accounts for a major portion of the job losses rather than imports our outsourcing.

Again, reading through our country’s history, the US has always experienced labor shifts. In 1790, 90% of the workforce was engaged in agriculture. By 1900 only 41% of the workforce was employed in agriculture. By 2008, less than 3% of Americans were employed in agriculture. Consider the shift from those who worked in farming who have gone on to work in manufacturing building cars, refrigerators, air conditioners, TVs, washers, dryers, computers, things that were not even dreamed of back in 1790. More recently, look at the telecommunications industry.

In 1970, the telecommunications industry employed 421,000 workers in good paying jobs as long distance operators, handling 9.8 billion calls annually. Today, this same industry employs fewer than 60,000 operators, and yet more than 100 billion long-distance calls are being made annually. That’s a job loss factor of 85% and yet the volume of calls being made has increased ten-fold. Again, technology accounts for these job losses, thus making the cost of long distance calls a fraction of what they once were.

Again, for those who follow history, these cycles of job creation and extinction are what economic historian Joseph Schumpeter called “creative destruction.” Yes, the adjustments can be painful (read GM), but to stand in its way would make all of us poorer in the long run…..Thank you to Walter Williams for another logical, common sense, and insightful viewpoint on this issue.

And don’t even get me started on global warming…….a political urban myths, used by those who seek to advance their hidden agendas.

Shooting in Arizona

Author: JoAnn The Plumber

January 10, 2011

It's now been less than 48 hours since the massacre in Tucson, with details, not opinion, coming out about the shooter. Gabrielle Gibbons, the assassination target, is in critical condition after being shot in the head. She has survived brain surgery and is responding to minimal commands. Six others are dead.

An "altar" with a human skull and dried oranges has been found in Loughner's backyard, underneath a camouflage tent. Former classmates have spoken out about being certain they would be his victims in class and his professor feared him so much that he would not turn his back on him to write on the blackboard. He was finally expelled after 5 attempts to remove him from the school.

It took very little time for the sheriff of the county to accuse right wing talk show rhetoric as the cause of this disturbed young man's actions. He admitted it was his opinion, not facts in the case that caused him to accuse radio talk show hosts. Krugman, of the NYTimes, has accused Limbaugh and Beck of inciting this type of action. How hard is it to use facts, both in police investigation as well in news reporting?

Now lawmakers are attempting to stifle our First Amendment Rights by restricting what they term as "hate speech" against talk show hosts. Lawmakers on both sides have been threatened for years, offices have been vandalized, and Glenn Beck has had a security detail for him and his family for years. Mental instability is not restricted to one political spectrum. To attempt to abridge our free speech rights for rhetoric, not incitement, is an attempt to silence and shut down our freedoms from the highest political levels. And to do this without facts is an abomination.

Patriot's Quote

"Associate with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation; for it is better to be alone than in bad company."

George Washington

God's Word

"Some Pharisees asked Jesus when the Kingdom of God would come. His answer was, 'The Kingdom of God does not come in such a way as to be seen. No one will say look here it is or there it is; because the Kingdom of God is within you."

Luke 17:20-21