OPINION

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The Tax Poem

Author unknown

Tax his land, tax his wage,

Tax his bed in which he lays.

Tax his tractor, tax his mule,

Teach him taxes is the rule.

Tax his cow, tax his goat,

Tax his pants, tax his coat.

Tax his ties, tax his shirt,

Tax his work, tax his dirt.

Tax his chew, tax his smoke,

Teach him taxes are no joke.

Tax his car, tax his grass,

Tax the roads he must pass.

Tax his food, tax his drink,

Tax him if he tries to think.

Tax his sodas, tax his beers,

If he cries, tax his tears.

Tax his bills, tax his gas,

Tax his notes, tax his cash.

Tax him good and let him know

That after taxes, he has no dough.

If he hollers, tax him more,

Tax him until he's good and sore.

Tax his coffin, tax his grave,

Tax the sod in which he lays.

Put these words upon his tomb,

"Taxes drove me to my doom!"

And when he's gone, we won't relax,

We'll still be after the inheritance tax.

By: Nancy Reily IF YOU’VE BEEN ATTENDING THE MARTIN 912/TEAPARTY COMMITTEE MEETINGS, YOU’VE LEARNED ABOUT UN AGENDA 21, SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, AND THE LANGUAGE THAT IS USED TO MOVE US TOWARD GLOBAL GOVERNANCE.

OBAMA REFERS TO THIS AS THE LIVEABILITY PROJECT. ON FEBRUARY 1-2, 2001 MARTIN COUNTY HOSTED A CONFERENCE CALLED “MARTIN A WORLD CLASS COUNTY GLOBAL PLANNING BEGINS AT HOME”

FOLKS THIS HAS BEEN GOING ON FOR A LONG TIME. THE ATTACHED RESOLUTION 708 IS A DIRECT RESULT OF THE UN’S AGENDA 21 SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES PROGRAM.

MICHAEL BUSHA BROUGHT THIS RESOLUTION TO THE SEWALL’S POINT TOWN COMMISSION FROM THE REGIONAL PLANNING COUNCIL OF SOUTHEAST FLORIDA.

GOOGLE YOUR TOWN AND SEE IF THIS IS HAPPENING TO YOU!

WAKE UP, READ, AND QUESTION YOUR CANDIDATES FOR ELECTED OFFICE. FOR MORE INFORMATION GO Out2

Click here to read the entire article

Port St. Lucie swallowed the sales pitch that spending millions to lure Torrey Pines would bring many jobs. So far there have not been many high paying jobs for residents. But there is a financial burden driving St. Lucie’s massive service cuts and higher taxes. Here is an excerpt from the Stuart News report:

PORT ST. LUCIE — The city is picking up unexpected costs to help repay a $40 million bond used to build the Torrey Pines Institute for Molecular Studies because money from impact fees is down and some developers required to contribute toward the debt are struggling financially.

The city made agreements with 10 developers in the southwest annexation area and required them to pay the city a set number of impact fees each year — whether they build or not — to pay back the Torrey Pines debt.

The 10 developers account for half of the $40 million debt and the city picks up the remaining half through impact fee collections on new construction, said city spokesman Ed Cunningham. Those impact fees aren’t coming in as expected, so the city is paying its share from the general fund.

Is the Martin County Commission capable of learning from a neighbor’s experience?

Read the rest of the story at Martin County Defender on the web

From BDB directors’ campaign contributions to your tax payments going to BDB subsidies for favored companies

How did $1 million of property tax revenue get siphoned off for Business Development Board (BDB) “ToolKit” to subsidize a few favored companies?

How did a tax abatement stimulus for a few favored companies get placed on the August 24 ballot as a referendum item?

Those giveaways, which unfairly burden taxpaying residents and small businesses, got there by buying influence with officials – legally, through campaign contributions and lobbying. It’s the American way, from unions and Wall Street bankers getting President Obama to do their bidding, to developer-business promoters getting Martin County commissioners to do their bidding.

It’s rare that a politician explicitly promises on tape to vote a certain way in exchange for money. That would be illegal, as various commissioners from Palm Beach and other counties can attest as they sit in prison. However, there is no need for any written or oral promises. Unspoken understandings, or a wink and nod, can seal the bargain.

Again, it’s perfectly legal. That’s how special interests get what they want – and taxpayers foot the bill. By putting campaign contributions in the sunshine, voters can decide if the matchup between an elected official’s vote and the desires of campaign contributors is an uninfluenced concurrence, or financially bought influence.

Read the rest of the story at Martin County Defender on the web

The August 24, 2010 Republican Primary election is going to determine who will be the next commissioner from District 2. The election pits incumbent Susan Valliere against challenger Ed Fielding.

The contrast between the two is stark in terms of background, campaign contributions, and attitudes toward, growth, contracts, spending transparency, tax shifting, citizen control, and other issues.

The following comparison will make clear why we strongly support Ed Fielding.

BACKGROUND

Valliere: Has served for eight years as County Commissioner from District 2. Was involved in 1990s with husband James in various companies, now inactive; ran small retail business.

Fielding: BS Univ. of Florida; MS Mass. Institute of Technology; served on Local; Planning Agency for four years; Senior Vice‐President, Flagship Bank (Sun Trust); Agricultural Loan Officer, Exchange National Bank Tampa (Bank of America); Broker, General Realty & Finance Corp; market research for Concept Group; general manager of 12,000 acre Belle Glade farm, 50 full time & 400 seasonal workers.

CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS

Valliere: She has stated: “I will accept contributions from everyone”; last election heavily financed by developer-related interests; expected to have much larger campaign treasury than opponent.

Fielding: He has stated: “I’m the financial underdog”; will not accept contributions from developers.

ACCOMMODATING DEVELOPER GROWTH REQUESTS

Valliere: Though not as completely submissive to developer land use changes as other “Gang of 4” * members Smith, Hayes and Ciampi, Valliere has voted in favor of most requests to increase development by changing Comp Plan; authored Valliere Rural Cluster Amendment to facilitate western development.

Fielding: As a member of LPA, voted against all land use Comp Plan changes that could cause sprawl, conversion to industrial or higher residential density.

FIRE/RESCUE AND BDB CONTRACTS

Valliere: Two contracts issued by the County, Valliere voting in favor, have put Martin in financial harm’s way. While other jobs have been cut or salaries reduced by furlough, the fire union got everything it wanted. (NOTE: Union members worked for Valliere’s 2006 election.) The Business Development Board (BDB) contract she approved is so clearly a sweetheart deal, that it is a scandal. (BDB supporters contributed heavily to Valliere’s campaign.)

Fielding: Using his extensive management experience, Fielding would never approve such contracts.

SPENDING TRANSPARENCY

Valliere: BDB exec Ron Bunch refuses to reveal how he is spending $625,000 of tax money. Valliere supports this illegal secrecy by refusing to second a motion to audit BDB books. BDB contract includes fiction that BDB finances are not public records.

Fielding: He strongly supports total transparency on County activities, especially the spending of tax revenue such as BDB.

Read the rest of the story at Martin County Defender on the web

BY Tom Rooney

Recent articles in this newspaper highlighted local road projects financed by last year’s $787 billion “stimulus” bill. Although paving these roads is good for our area, the stimulus was supposed to be more than a road improvement bill.

When President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats sold this bill of goods, they claimed it would put people to work and get our economy moving again. By that benchmark, it has unequivocally failed.

While I’m happy our district is getting some of this funding — after all, we’re paying for it — I’m disappointed that we won’t get our money’s worth, because these projects will never create the jobs or economic growth that our district needs.

Seventeen months after the stimulus passed, unemployment is higher than it was in January 2009. Despite almost $1 trillion in stimulus spending, more Americans are out of work than when this boondoggle began.

The articles note that without stimulus funding, our counties could not afford these projects. Neither can the federal government! Taxpayers already are on the hook for a record $1.4 trillion deficit in 2009. Our national debt passed $13 trillion this month and is continuing to skyrocket.

Now, despite this back-breaking debt, President Obama is asking Congress to pass a second stimulus bill with $50 billion in “emergency” spending. Stimulus Two would bail out states and local governments, again, that are facing potential jobs cuts. These are the same jobs that Stimulus One allegedly “saved.”

The first stimulus didn’t work, so we’re going to try it again?

Congressional Democrats have said that instead of allocating new money for Stimulus Two, we should use unspent money from Stimulus One. While that’s preferable to Obama’s free-spending proposal, it still won’t create the long-term employment we need to grow our economy. In fact, their proposal confirms what I have said about Stimulus One all along:

The bailout wasn’t timely: Seventeen months later, billions of dollars are unspent.

The money wasn’t targeted: Funds went to liberal spending programs that did nothing to create jobs.

The jobs are temporary, but the bailouts never end: Money to bail out state and local governments ran out, so the “saved” jobs are back at risk. The solution? A second bailout.

What’s next? Will Congress continue to pass “emergency” bailout legislation to save the same jobs over and over?

Rather than bailing out states or funding projects that will, at best, create a few temporary jobs, we need to reverse course with the remaining stimulus funds.

My bill, the Economic Freedom Act, would replace the failed stimulus spending with targeted tax cuts to help small businesses grow and create jobs. This is the stimulus we need — not bailouts and earmarks, but relief so small businesses can get the wheels of our economy turning again.

Creating permanent jobs and producing real economic growth is the only way to protect states from coming back to Washington, hat in hand, asking for one bailout after another. I hope that Congress will learn from the failure of Stimulus One and save American taxpayers from the sequel.

Rooney, R-Tequesta, represents the southern Treasure Coast in the U.S. House of Representatives. Read his blog at TCPalm.com/allblogs.

From The London Daily Telegraph

On Foreign Relations

"Let me be clear: I'm not normally in favour of boycotts, and I love the American people. I holiday in their country regularly, and hate the tedious snobby sneers against the United States . But the American people chose to elect an idiot who seems hell bent on insulting their allies, and something must be done to stop Obama's reckless foreign policy, before he does the dirty on his allies on every issue." -- London Daily Telegraph editor -- Alex Singleton, April 11.

One of the most poorly kept secrets in Washington is President Obama's animosity toward Great Britain , presumably because of what he regards as its sins while ruling Kenya (1895-1963).

One of Barack Hussein Obama's first acts as president was to return to Britain a bust of Winston Churchill that had graced the Oval Office since 9/11. He followed this up by denying Prime Minister Gordon Brown, on his first state visit, the usual joint press conference with flags.

The president was "too tired" to grant the leader of America 's closest ally a proper welcome, his aides told British journalists.

Mr. Obama followed this up with cheesy gifts for Mr. Brown and the Queen. Columnist Ian Martin described his behavior as "rudeness personified." There was more rudeness in store for Mr. Brown at the opening session of the United Nations in September. "The prime minister was forced to dash through the kitchens of the UN in New York to secure five minutes of face time with President Obama after five requests for a sit down meeting were rejected by the White House," said London Telegraph columnist David Hughes. Mr. Obama's "churlishness is unforgivable," Mr. Hughes said.

The administration went beyond snubs and slights last week when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton endorsed the demand of Argentine President Cristina Kirchner, a Hugo Chavez ally, for mediation of Argentina 's specious claim to the Falkland Islands , a British dependency since 1833. The people who live in the Falklands, who speak English, want nothing to do with Argentina . When, in 1982, an earlier Argentine dictatorship tried to seize the Falklands by force, the British -- with strong support from President Ronald Reagan -- expelled them.

"It is truly shocking that Barack Obama has decided to disregard our shared history," wrote Telegraph columnist Toby Young. "Does Britain 's friendship really mean so little to him?" One could ask, does the friendship of anyone in the entire world mean anything to him?

"I recently asked several senior administration officials, separately, to name a foreign leader with whom Barack Obama has forged a strong personal relationship during his first year in office," wrote Jackson Diehl, deputy editorial page editor of the Washington Post, on Monday. "A lot of hemming and hawing ensued." One official named French President Nicolas Sarkozy, but his contempt for Mr. Obama is an open secret. Another named German Chancellor Angela Merkel. But, said Mr. Diehl, "Merkel too has been conspicuously cool toward Obama."

Mr. Obama certainly doesn't care about the Poles and Czechs, whom he has betrayed on missile defense. Honduras and Israel also can attest that he's been an unreliable ally and an unfaithful friend. Ironically, our relations with both Israel and the Palestinian Authority have never been worse. Russia has offered nothing in exchange for Mr. Obama's abandonment of missile defense. Russia and China won't support serious sanctions on Iran . Syria 's support for terrorism has not diminished despite efforts to normalize diplomatic relations. The reclusive military dictatorship that runs Burma has responded to our efforts at "engagement" by deepening its ties to North Korea .

And the Chinese make little effort to disguise their contempt for him.

For the first time in a long time, the President of the United States is actually distrusted by its' allies and not in the least feared by its' adversaries. Nor is Mr. Obama now respected by the majority of Americans. Understandably focused on the dismal economy and Mr. Obama's relentless efforts to nationalize and socialize health care, Americans apparently have yet to notice his dismal performance and lack of respect in the world community.

They soon will.

Dear readers,

Fifty seven days after an oil rig explosion triggered an uncontrolled deep water oil gusher in the Gulf of Mexico, President Obama addressed the nation last night about his administration's efforts to address the crisis.

After offering two short paragraphs to explain what is actually being done to stop the oil leak, President Obama devoted most of his speech to explaining why the oil leak means now is the time to dramatically and permanently raise the cost of gas, diesel, and electricity for every American.

Jay Leno gave voice to the widespread puzzlement people have with Obama's misplaced focus last night: "President Obama said today he is going to use the Gulf disaster to immediately push a new energy bill through Congress. I got an idea ... How about first using the Gulf disaster to fix the Gulf disaster?"

Good question, but we think we know why President Obama is not focused on plugging the oil leak and is instead focused on plugging new energy taxes.

President Obama's Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, said at the start of the Obama presidency that "you never let a crisis go to waste," which we now know means that the Obama team never lets a crisis go without out more borrowing, more taxing, and more spending in support of their political allies. We saw this with the $862 billion stimulus law that didn't create jobs, the ObamaCare law that won't bend the health cost curve down, and now with ObamaEnergy that won't lower energy costs and won't increase energy supplies.

Using the present crisis as pretext, President Obama is now urging the Senate to pass cap and trade energy taxes. Even though this has nothing to do with plugging the hole, Obama and his liberal allies in Congress want the power to spend billions in new tax revenues through a massive redistribution of wealth from taxpayers to green energy company shareholders.

The Senate is reportedly going to take up a cap and trade energy tax bill shortly after it returns on July 12th. If it passes the Senate, the House will vote on and approve that new tax in a lame duck session after the November elections.

Our opportunity to stop this new energy tax is now, and the next two months will be absolutely critical. These new energy taxes will hurt you and your family with higher gas and electricity costs. They will kill hundreds of thousands of jobs, prevent small business growth, and ship jobs overseas to China and India.

We cannot afford to pass a massive energy tax in this economic recession, but President Obama is more concerned with redistributing wealth than he is in growing new wealth, even if that means destroying jobs in the process. Cutting up a shrinking pie is apparently not a problem if you're the one wielding the knife and giving away the pieces. It's the rest of us that have to worry about the consequences.

Meanwhile, the oil continues to gush under the Gulf waters. Like Jay Leno, Senator Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat, summed up well this President's misplaced priorities: "The climate bill isn't going to stop the oil leak...The first thing you have to do is stop the oil leak."

The President should listen to his friend Senator Feinstein and plug holes, not taxes.

Sincerely,

Vince Haley, Vice President for Policy

American Solutions

A motto for commissioners throwing tax money and fee exemptions at chosen companies and the BDB

NIMIS NUNQUAM SATIS*

When Business Development Board (BDB) exec Ron Bunch tells Gang of 4 Commissioners Smith, Hayes, Valliere and Ciampi that BDB want lots of tax money, plus Commission adoption of fee exemptions for chosen companies, the Gang poses a “probing” question: How Much?

All that County revenue – and the money lost by exemptions – will have to be made up by higher taxes on residents, as well as cuts in vital services. All this for a long odds gamble that incentives will lure companies. Ron Bunch’s record elsewhere is mixed at best. How likely are the tax enticements to make the difference for a company to relocate? On occasion they may, but note the observation of William Fox, a professor of economics at the University of Tennessee, who specializes in state tax policies:

“Few tax credits have any real bearing on where companies locate or how they spend and hire. Taxes matter, but not very much.”

The Commission started off with a reasonable doubling of the BDB budget to $625,000, though embedding it in a terrible sweetheart contract. BDB did not consider that enough. So $1 million in property taxes will be siphoned off for a Business Development Fund. Some folks see it as the County equivalent of the wasteful Federal Stimulus Package. But wait. BDB wants – and gets – more.

Then the Opportunity Fund is added to throw cash, land or concessions at a company. Still not enough. Well there’s also the Job Creation Grant. How about having the County pay a company’s permit and impact fees? Even that’s not enough.

The Commission majority likes adding a Tax Abatement Program, which will be on the August 24 ballot as a referendum. Don’t think the Gang of 4 really wants citizen input. This one has to go to referendum because of state law. Whatever the commission can push through it will do without a vote by the people.

FLASH!

An unscientific, but revealing, online poll by the Stuart News shows that 86% of 502 respondents voted NO to this tax abatement program. Is the Gang of 4 listening, or too busy sucking up to developers? [See item immediately below.]

“We’ve got to compete with Palm Beach County, which does these things,” say the BDB boosters. Note: the Palm Beach tax rate will go up 13.4% this coming year, in addition to massive service cuts. Is that what we want in Martin?

* Loosely translated: “Too much is never enough.”

by Eric Pfahler

Four years after millions in government incentives were used to draw Torrey Pines Institute for Molecular Studies to the Treasure Coast, area governments are creating different initiatives to create local jobs while trying to avoid too much heat from constituents.

Most government officials agree some form of incentives are a good way to attract business. But the questions from residents concerned about the expense come more frequently as the price tag grows - and as local governments are forced to cut other programs because of declining revenue.

The types of incentives used differ and governments continue to look at new ways to attract businesses. On Tuesday, Martin County approved a package of incentives designed to attract businesses, though they potentially are smaller than multimillion-dollar incentives given by neighboring areas.

Port St. Lucie has matched state money using tax dollars, financing measures or impact fees to provide multimillion- dollar incentives to draw Torrey Pines, Digital Domain and others. Indian River County made a $12 million deal with Piper that, combined with other state and local incentives, kept the company in the county.

All counties can use bigger deals without specific ordinances if inclined to do so. On top of those abilities, Martin and Indian River counties are putting tax abatement measures before the voters this year, along with Vero Beach, as a way to bring in businesses without risking tax dollars.

Companies building facilities that increase their property values can avoid paying taxes on the improvements for some time period through tax abatements.

There also are smaller measures, such as speeding up the application process, that can be difficult to quantify in financial terms but help businesses get started more quickly.

St. Lucie County voters approved tax abatement measures in 1992 and 2002. Since the most recent measure, tax abatement has created 4,280 jobs, according to Michael Brillhart, the St. Lucie County's business and concurrency manager. The numbers do not include agreements made since 2009.

But some critics are complaining the local economic incentives are corporate payoffs, leaving county and city elected officials to defend practices on these deals.

Al Forman, publisher of an e-mail newsletter called The Martin County Defender, wrote in an e-mail to Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers that he approved of previous incentives from Martin County but is concerned about the new ones.

"The government can wisely spend money to tell business prospects what a fine place this is ... But I don't believe in corporate socialism, corporate favoritism or redistributing taxpayer money to corporate owners," Forman wrote.

The bigger projects often are helped with state money, which requires a local match. The agreements also have requirements on the number of jobs created and salary for those jobs.

Larry Pelton, president of the St. Lucie County Economic Development Council, said incentives are important to bring high-paying jobs to the area, especially when other southeastern states are in the bidding.

"It is absolutely critical," Pelton said. "If you're going to be competing with other locations, the conversation with any company does not get very far without talking about what incentives are available."

If Piper meets requirements, the company eventually will receive $12 million from Indian River County and $20 million from the state. Torrey Pines' package includes $32 million from the state, a $40 million facility financed by Port St. Lucie and $10 million from St. Lucie County among other incentives.

Port St. Lucie City Hall critic Kerry Cochell said some economic incentives are OK, but ....

Click here to get the rest of the story

Washington, D.C. -- With federal red ink for April alone reaching a record $82.7 billion and the annual deficit expected to soar to an historic high of $1.56 trillion this year, Americans are fed up with wasteful spending in Washington.

They are tired of the unnecessary, taxpayer-funded projects that have caused this runaway spending. One wasteful program in particular has not only added to the problem but also diverted resources from other critical tools needed by our military – an egregious earmark in the defense budget for an “alternate engine” for the Joint Strike Fighter aircraft.

In 2001 after a competitive bidding process, the military chose Pratt & Whitney’s F135 engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. However, Congress continued to earmark billions of dollars to a partnership of General Electric and the British-based Rolls Royce to build an extra engine for the Joint Strike Fighter.

Since then, despite bipartisan opposition, the extra engine has become the earmark that refused to die. President Bush tried to kill the program during his last two years in office. President Obama and Secretary Gates have urged Congress to eliminate the earmark and have threatened to veto any legislation that includes funding for the extra engine. Despite this veto threat, the Defense authorization bill before the House this week allocates an additional $485 million.

In total, Congress has spent more than $3 billion so far on the extra engine, and the Pentagon projects it will need an additional $2.9 billion to complete the unnecessary program.

The alternate engine’s proponents claim that funding the project creates competition that can lower costs for the taxpayer, but studies have shown that an alternate engine will not save taxpayer dollars. I support competition, but competition does not mean buying two of everything.

The Joint Strike Fighter has an engine that is working well and successfully powering the plane through all its test flights, while the alternate engine – because of developmental problem – will not even be ready to compete for at least another five years.

As a veteran of the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps and a member of the House Armed Services Committee, I am dedicated to defending our national security and to providing our war fighters with the support they need to achieve their missions. I don’t want to see the Defense budget cut; I want to increase it. But I want to make sure that every dollar spent is spent wisely to help protect our country and support our troops.

The Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps have consistently said our servicemen and women don’t need an extra engine on the Joint Strike Fighter, and it not only wates scarce dollars but also complicates their missions. Defense Secretary Gates has said that spending billions of dollars more on this wasteful project would make it more difficult to provide them with the support that they do need. Marine Corps Brig. Gen. David Heinz stated that funding the alternate engine project would “take 50 to 80 tails out of the program.”

That’s right: In order to build a backup engine for a plane that already has a properly working engine, Congress would have to sacrifice 50 to 80 needed aircraft.

Controlling federal spending and protecting our national security are among Americans most urgent concerns. Congress can serve both purposes by eliminating the earmark for the extra engine once and for all, now and forever.

Congressman Tom Rooney (R-FL) serves on the House Armed Services Committee. He has served on the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps and taught constitutional and criminal law at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

In one of the largest outpourings of responses to a DEFENDER report, Martin residents voiced their outrage about how the Business Development Board (BDB) refuses to reveal how $625,000 in tax money is spent. In addition, readers are angry as hell that the Commission would be complicit in approving a sweetheart contract that gives away the responsibility and powers that the public expects elected officials to have.

Here is a sampling of excerpts from their heartfelt, unsolicited letters.

The “Gang of 4” – Slicker Smith, Vinegar Hayes, Cluster Valliere and Gabber Ciampi – blew into town, looted the Piggy Bank of a million bucks for their BDB (Budget Destroyer Bosses), and holed up at their Monterey Road hideout. A Voter Posse is being formed.

Less fancifully ….

At the 5-4-10 meeting of the County Commission, Commissioners Doug Smith, Patrick Hayes, Susan Valliere and Ed Ciampi voted to siphon off $1 million of tax revenue for the Business Development Board (BDB) Toolkit to (maybe) attract new companies years hence. Since the County is desperately short of money, this well intentioned but foolish act will harm residents and small businesses. This is the final straw that breaks the budget’s back.

Only Commissioner Sarah Heard asked pointed, intelligent questions. Why $1 million instead of another figure? You say you cannot provide a financial analysis because all will be on a case by case basis, so why not hold off the allocation until the cases come up? Is the Toolkit more important than the services to be cut to pay for it? And so on. There were no clear answers. “We need real numbers,” Heard said.

Everybody wants more jobs, including us and the many people BDB organized to speak for the Toolkit. But to use that as a rallying cry, and to ignore the resulting service cuts and likely tax increase, as speakers and commissioners did, is irresponsible. First let’s see what BDB has accomplished with the $625,000 given to them this year, then maybe spend more.

Some commissioners did not seem to realize that their arguments in favor were actually reasons not to support the Toolkit. For example, Ciampi read a letter from a Palm City company that had grown from three employees to over 100. But that company did it without receiving Toolkit funds. Further, being here instead of being newly lured here will not get them any of that money.

Residents inevitably will face an extra $1 million worth of reductions in fire/rescue services, less road and drainage maintenance, fewer lifeguards, closed park facilities, and reduced library hours – all depreciating quality of life. For residents struggling to keep their homes out of foreclosure, the likely increase in property taxes, in addition to service reductions, will be a terrible burden.

Small businesses – repair shops, salons, restaurants and a host of retail stores – will suffer the same fate. The BDB funds would go to a few targeted industries, not local retail businesses.

Local business leaders support the $1million giveaway, which will lead to higher taxes. Yet they think this is pro-growth. Grow through more spending and taxes??? With this muddled mentality, there’s a place for them in the U.S. Congress majority.

Note this opinion by a leading local attorney:

“There is no legal authority for diverting general fund revenues to the Economic Development Fund.”

In addition, the “Gang of 4” also approved a referendum that would allow them to give away their tax exemption powers to the BDB, which can then exempt newly selected favorite companies from taxes for ten years. Existing businesses get short shrift.

A PARABLE: When your lifeboat is leaking, you bail faster and stuff the holes. That’s not the time to focus on planning new lifeboat designs.

Saddle up, pardner. It’s a long ride to the Polls, but we’ll remember what the Gang of 4 did to us. We’ll git ‘em before they spend us to death.

The Gulf of Mexico catastrophe makes it clear that companies like BP and government officials don't have a safe and effective plan for dealing with the consequences of more offshore drilling. If you havent done so yet help us urge the Obama administration to demand more of a response at the spill site, and ask him to reconsider opening more coastal areas up for these types of catastrophes.

Capitol Hill is pushing for a bill called the Big Oil Bailout Prevention Act, by Sens. Menendez, Lautenberg, and Nelsen that would force BP to pay substantially more in damages for the oil spill. The bill would increase a $75 million cap for economic damages to $10 billion.

Contact Numbers and Volunteering

BP issued phone numbers for the following response inquiries:

To report oiled wildlife, please call 1-866-557-1401 and leave a message. Messages will be checked hourly. Individuals are urged not to attempt to help injured or oiled animals, but to report any sightings to the toll free number.

To discuss spill related damage, please call 1-800-440-0858.

To report oiled shoreline or request volunteer information, please call 1-866-448-5816.

If you are interested in volunteering for oil spill related clean up, please visit www.volunteerfloridadisaster.org. Opportunities will be posted as they become available.

If you live in these area and want to help:

Okaloosa County call: 850-651-7150 



Bay County call: 763-6587 



Walton County: go to www.waltonso.org and fill out the volunteer app.

Boat Owners - If your boat is capable of handling booms and other spill management and cleanup equipment, contact BP's Vessels of Opportunity program at 281.366.5511. Participation under this program would be compensated by BP. (Commercial fishing boats and similar craft, not appropriate for small recreational boats.)

If you have HAZWOPER certifications or wildlife rehabilitation certification, you may be eligible to work in a paid capacity with BP's contractor Tri-State. Please send an email to certified@oilspillvolunteers.com with your contact information and certification details.

Surfrider recently created this toolkit to assist our chapters and the public in how to get involved with response and cleanup efforts for spills. This is general in nature and not specific to the current Gulf Coast crisis.

(If any folks from the Florida Palm Beach/Treasure Coast area do end up going please email the Florida Regional Manager

Related Links

Florida Department of Environmental Protection

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission

Florida State Emergency Operations Center

Deepwater Horizon Response

NOAA's Office of Response and Restoration

Escambia Disaster Response

Donations Needed

Help already trained personnel prepare for animal response by giving supplies or donating. The Wildlife Sanctuary in Pensacola: www.pensacolawildlife.com/ are looking for the following donations:

Baby blankets

Towels

Heating pads (w/o auto shut off if possible)

Large Rubbermaid containers with lids

Heating lamps

Rubbermaid troughs (can be purchased at Tractor Supply)

Large backyard portable pools like found at Wal-Mart

The Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary in Indian Shores is looking for volunteers and donations of the following supplies:

Linens

Kennels

Towels

Sheets

Dawn dish detergent

Pepto-Bismol and toothbrushes

The sanctuary is a local dropoff center for the donations at 18328 Gulf Blvd., Indian Shores. It is open from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily. See its website for details or call (727) 391-6211 for information, or e-mail jessicag@seabirdsanctuary.com.

Stuart -- Martin County benefits from the Business Development Board (BDB), a public-private enterprise tasked to “meet the County’s strategic goal of increasing high paying jobs and broadening the tax base in selected economic sectors.” However, BDB has apparently developed an inflated sense of self importance. In a grandiose display of hubris, it is requesting that the Commission give it an additional $1 million-plus, over and above the doubled budget approved for this year.

Considering the County’s seriously reduced tax revenue, and the cutbacks in public services that requires, it would be irresponsible for the Commission to approve the $1 million-plus request.

BACKGROUND

The contract between the County and BDB for 2009 provided for the County to pay $340,000 to cover BDB operations. In Sept. 2009, a new contract for 2010 was signed whereby the County would pay $625,000 plus 3%/yr or CPI. (Never waste a crisis?) The DEFENDER supported this huge increase because it was hoped that the extra funding would result in more jobs and successful business operations. We do not know if this improvement has occurred so far. (More on that in a moment.)

However, there are some aspects of the new contract that smack of a sweetheart deal. For example, the contract is for 10 years, rather than a more typical three years. As to termination, it would take the County 2.5 years of jumping through hoops to terminate, but the BDB can terminate on 90 days notice, with or without cause. The understanding between the parties is that BDB would not be subject to Sunshine/Public Records requirements – thereby reducing transparency - though this has not been court tested. Though a commissioner and County Administrator may sit on the 29-member BDB board, they may not sit in on 7-member executive committee meetings – where the most meaningful decisions are made.

THE MILLION DOLLAR REQUEST

A BDB document describing the cleverly named Job Creation Toolkit “recommends setting aside 50%, or at least $1M, of the new tax revenue generated by the FPL Solar facility when it comes on line later this year and investing it in the Economic Development Fund. (Tax revenue to the County is estimated at $2M annually.) In addition, a percentage of new revenue from future economic development projects would be invested in this fund. The fund will be allowed to grow rather than reverting to the general fund.”

SERIOUS PROBLEM #1

There is no mechanism or detailed procedure for monitoring where the $1 million – or even the expanded budget of $625,000 – goes and whether or not it is paying for itself. The contract does “require annual performance reporting to the County,” but it does not specify what must be in that report. Mostly what we get every year are tales of success, a testimonial from a business manager, or some other anecdotal report.

What we do not get is a Congressional Budget Office type of analysis that tells us if the returns justify the expense. For example, with half of the fiscal 2010 year gone, did the doubled BDB budget return double the successes of the same period last year?

Furthermore, BDB is free to spend as it wants without meaningful oversight. Currently, BDB is spending thousands of our tax dollars on self-serving staff time to convince officials and the public that it should give BDB that extra megabuck for their Toolkit. Would we like it if the County were to spend tax money to persuade us to raise taxes? Of course not.

Other County operations report hard facts and statistics to show where our tax dollars go. The sheriff reports arrests and patrols. Fire Rescue reports the number of fire and medical calls. Road repair can show the number of potholes and length of surfacing. Parks has statistics for visitors and teams. Library tells us the number of patrons and books borrowed. We get data from them to track progress. Only BDB relies on speculative extrapolations, not hard numbers. There is no provision for determining if the BDB claims of successes would have happened without BDB. We want BDB to succeed, but we want it to come with hard evidence of results, not public relations talk. The Commission should insist on it.

Such absence of data from BDB makes the $1 million Tool Kit a risky investment.

SERIOUS PROBLEM #2

Spending on business development is the lowest priority of residents.

DEFENDER recently conducted a survey [Issue No. 156] in which we asked residents to rank which County services are their top priorities. We listed six such services. 49% of respondents ranked business development last.

Here are the results for ranking each service either first or second in importance:

Law Enforcement / Sheriff – 57%

Fire/Rescue – 46%

Road/Drainage Repair – 32%

Parks & Recreation – 25%

Libraries – 23%

Business Development – 16%

Residents understand that the amount of tax revenue available is limited. If we siphon off some of it for one service, it means that less will be available for another service. Until there is an objective means to evaluate BDB performance, let’s stick with the $625,000 budget. Thumbs down on an extra $1 million.

COMMISSION TO DECIDE ON MAY 4

On May 4, 2010, the Commission will decide (Agenda Item D7a) whether or not to give BDB that extra $1 million. We wonder which services they will starve if they decide to do it.

Read the rest of the story at Martin County Defender on the web

The irony of this article appearing in the English edition of Pravda (Russian on-line newspaper) defies description. Why can a Russian newspaper print the following item... yet the American media can't or won't see it?

Pravda:

It must be said that like the breaking of a great dam, the American descent into Marxism is happening with breathtaking speed against the backdrop of a passive, hapless sheeple; excuse me, dear reader, I meant people.

True, the situation has been well prepared on and off for the past century, especially the past twenty years. The initial testing grounds was conducted upon our Holy Russia and a bloody test it was. But we Russians would not just roll over and give up our freedoms and our souls, no matter how much money Wall Street poured into the fists of the Marxists.

Those lessons were taken and used to properly prepare the American populace for the surrender of their freedoms and souls, to the whims of their elites and betters.

First, the population was dumbed down through a politicized and substandard education system based on pop culture rather than the classics. Americans know more about their favorite TV dramas than the drama in DC that directly affects their lives. They care more for their "right" to choke down a McDonalds burger or a Burger King burger than for their Constitutional rights. Then they turn around and lecture us about our rights and about our "democracy." Pride blindeth the foolish.

Then their faith in God was destroyed, until their churches, all tens of thousands of different "branches and denominations" were for the most part little more than Sunday circuses and their televangelists and top Protestant mega preachers were more than happy to sell out their souls and flocks to be on the "winning" side of one pseudo-Marxist politician or another. Their flocks may complain, but when explained that they would be on the "winning" side, their flocks were ever so quick to reject Christ in hopes for earthly power. Even our Holy Orthodox churches are scandalously liberalized in America.

The final collapse has come with the election of Barack Obama. His speed in the past three months has been truly impressive. His spending and money printing has been record setting, not just in America's short history, but in the world. If this keeps up for more than another year, and there is no sign that it will not, America at best will resemble the Weimar Republic and at worst Zimbabwe .

These past two weeks have been the most breathtaking of all. First came the announcement of a planned redesign of the American Byzantine tax system, by the very thieves who used it to bankroll their thefts, losses, and swindles of hundreds of billions of dollars. These make our Russian oligarchs look little more than ordinary street thugs in comparison. Yes, the Americans have beat our own thieves in the sheer volumes. Should we congratulate them?

These men, of course, are not an elected panel but made up of appointees picked from the very financial oligarchs and their henchmen who are now gorging themselves on trillions of American dollars, in one bailout after another. They are also usurping the rights, duties, and powers of the American Congress (parliament). Again, Congress has put up little more than a whimper to their masters.

Then came Barack Obama's command that GM's (General Motors) president step down from leadership of his company. That is correct, dear reader, in the land of "pure" free markets, the American president now has the power, the self-given power, to fire CEOs and we can assume other employees of private companies, at will. Come hither, go dither, the centurion commands his minions.

So it should be no surprise that the American president has followed this up with a "bold" move of declaring that he and another group of unelected, chosen stooges will now redesign the entire automotive industry and will even be the guarantee of automobile policies. I am sure that if given the chance, they would happily try and redesign it for the whole of the world, too. Prime Minister Putin, less than two months ago, warned Obama and UK's Blair not to follow the path to Marxism, it only leads to disaster. Apparently, even though we suffered 70 years of this Western sponsored horror show, we know nothing, as foolish drunken Russians, so let our "wise" Anglo-Saxon fools find out the folly of their own pride.

Again, the American public has taken this with barely a whimper...but a "free man " whimper.

So, should it be any surprise to discover that the Democratically controlled Congress of America is working on passing a new regulation that would give the American Treasury department the power to set "fair" maximum salaries, evaluate performance, and control how private companies give out pay raises and bonuses?

Senator Barney Frank, a social pervert basking in his homosexuality (of course, amongst the modern, enlightened American societal norm, as well as that of the general West, homosexuality is not only not a looked down upon life choice, but is often praised as a virtue) and his Marxist enlightenment, has led this effort. He stresses that this only affects companies that receive government monies, but it is retroactive and taken to a logical extreme; this would include any company or industry that has ever received a tax break or incentive.

The Russian owners of American companies and industries should look thoughtfully at this and the option of closing their facilities down and fleeing the land of the Red as fast as possible. In other words, divest while there is still value left.

The proud American will go down into his slavery without a fight, beating his chest, and proclaiming to the world how free he really is. But the world will only snicker.

April 27, 2009 Pravda

We appreciate you giving us the opportunity to meet your transportation needs. As you are shopping for a vehicle, please consider these facts about Toyota of Stuart that will help you make a well informed purchase decision:

In the April 11 paper, editor Mark Tomasik wrote, "We remain committed to holding accountable officials and organizations that have an impact on the lives of local residents."

He went on to say, "It is called watchdog journalism because it includes elements of investigative reporting, public affairs, and campaigning editorials and columns, with a focus on advocacy."

Judging from the absence of attention paid to Sen. Bill Nelson and his high-risk "financial downside" vote on Obamacare, it appears those at the Stuart News in a position to ask him tough questions are not acting as watchdogs.

We need the Stuart News to support the interests of those who actually pay income taxes and recognize senators may not follow through on future promises to make tough entitlement cuts unless newspapers make an effort to confront them.

To date, Nelson can't or won't publicly detail, via town meetings, the half-trillion dollars in cuts and why they can't be done immediately.

We need the power of the Stuart News to confront him and have him outline in writing the half-trillion dollars in Medicare cuts that will make Obamacare cost-neutral. If he can't, then he should guarantee in writing that he will introduce a bill this year to repeal Obamacare.

I asked his office three times for the Medicare cut information, each time receiving the boilerplate letter stating how great this will be for all of us. The letters didn't address my question.

If the Stuart News doesn't act now in our local and national financial best interests, then "watchdog" has a hollow meaning,

Dave Grofic, Palm City

Martin Memorial Health Systems based in Stuart, Florida, is comprised of two hospitals, three MediCenters, and numerous centers and clinics. The system is a not-for-profit, community-based health care organization that offers preventative, primary and acute hospital care, as well as cancer care, wellness and rehabilitation services, and much more.

Visit Martin Memorial Helth Systems on the Web

Martin County -- County officials are struggling to decide which public services should be cut more or less because reduced tax revenue is not enough to continue funding at previous levels. It’s a grim reality that a dollar spent on Service A is a dollar not available to Service B. All expenditures come out of the same property tax money pool.

We wish that the County would reach out to the public at large to find out which services are most and least important to residents – but they have not done so. Instead, they hear from various advocates and special interests.

So DEFENDER has conducted a “Survey of Your Priorities” among 1,000 randomly selected subscribers out of the list of about 5,000 subscribers. Though our readers differ from many residents in terms of being better informed, they constitute an excellent representation of the population. Subscribers include old and young; workers, businessmen and retirees; Republicans, Democrats and Independents; located North, South, East and West.

Our questionnaire listed six major public services, excluding schools because their tax and budgets are beyond the scope of the Commission. We asked recipients to prioritize by marking which services are most important to them. Respondents ranked the six services from 1 to 6, with 1 most important, and 6 least important, no tie rankings.

WEIGHTED RANKING: The final ranking is a weighted value that determines level of priority. This takes into account the whole range of respondent rankings for each service. For example, suppose Service A holds a small lead over Service B in No. 1 ranking votes. However, suppose Service A has a much larger vote for Rank Position 6. By combining the two – weighting them – Service A might come up in second place behind Service B.

Here’s another simplified example: If a service received 50% of votes ranking it as 2, and 50% as 4, the weighted ranking would be 3. A weighted numerical ranking based on overall preferences allows readers to see how far ahead of another service the leader is.

The Priorities Rankings

We compiled the first 100 completed questionnaires to bring the results to you promptly. The combined overall weighted rankings of how important each service is to Martin citizens are shown below. [NOTE: Like golf scores, the lower the number, the higher the ranking.]

1st PLACE: Law Enforcement / Sheriff – Weighted Ranking - 2.6

2nd PLACE: Fire/Rescue – Weighted Ranking - 3.1

3rd PLACE: Road/Drainage Repair – Weighted Ranking - 3.4

4th PLACE: Parks & Recreation – Weighted Ranking - 3.6

5th PLACE: Libraries – Weighted Ranking – 3.8

6th PLACE: Business Development – Weighted Ranking - 5.0

A closer looks at the statistics

We have attached to this issue a detailed breakdown of all the priority votes, presented in graph format to facilitate examination. The voting pattern displayed much individuality. For example, someone voting Rank No. 1 for Law Enforcement might vote Libraries as No. 6. Someone else voting Law Enforcement No. 1, might vote Libraries No. 2. Nevertheless, there are interesting patterns that may be recognized by examining the attached graphs.

For example, though Law Enforcement was the strong leader for No. 1 with 39% of the vote compared to Fire/Rescue’s 16%, the totals of first and second combined are closer: 57% for Law Enforcement, 46% for Fire/Rescue.

Another interesting pattern displays for Business Development. Those who feel strongly in favor (14% for Rank 1) are not inclined to accept Rank 2 (only 2%). However, the largest single group (49%) place Business Development in the lowest No. 6 category. Similarly, other patterns may be discerned.

THE MOST IMPORTANT POLL RESULT IS THAT RESIDENTS PLACE LAW ENFORCEMENT AND FIRE/RESCUE AS THEIR TOP PRIORITIES.

Read the rest of the story at Martin County Defender on the web

Winterling Lighting has been celebrated for their unique approach to lighting design for 26 years. From bali and Indonesia to England and Italy and throughout America and The Caribbean, they have turned darkness into dreamscapes for an elite private and commercial clientele.

Visit Winterling Lighting on the Web

Question: Would you continue to come to Martin County Beaches if there were a charge to get into the park?

Answer: Joanne from Howard Beach, Queens says; absolutely, especially since my cousin lives here".

Out2martincounty.com is a photo journal featuring people, "Who they are, what they do and where they do it".

Do you have something to say, an event to talk about? An event you would like me to cover? Do it here! Email your story or request to me at rshall@out2martincounty.com

Photo by: Dick Hall Out2/Martin County.com

Out2martincounty.com adheres to full compliance with C.O.P.P.A. (Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998)

"Martin County's Photo Journal"

Visit photo archive

Question: Would you continue to come to Martin County Beaches if there were a charge to get into the park?

Answer:Madaline Swift from Toledo says yes I would pay.

Out2martincounty.com is a photo journal featuring people, "Who they are, what they do and where they do it".

Do you have something to say, an event to talk about? An event you would like me to cover? Do it here! Email your story or request to me at rshall@out2martincounty.com

Photo by: Dick Hall Out2/Martin County.com

Out2martincounty.com adheres to full compliance with C.O.P.P.A. (Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998)

"Martin County's Photo Journal"

Visit photo archive

Question: Would you continue to come to Martin County Beaches if there were a charge to get into the park?

Answer:Anggie Swint from Putnam County, Ohio says no she would find another beach.

Out2martincounty.com is a photo journal featuring people, "Who they are, what they do and where they do it".

Do you have something to say, an event to talk about? An event you would like me to cover? Do it here! Email your story or request to me at rshall@out2martincounty.com

Photo by: Dick Hall Out2/Martin County.com

Out2martincounty.com adheres to full compliance with C.O.P.P.A. (Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998)

"Martin County's Photo Journal"

Visit photo archive

Question: Would you continue to come to Martin County Beaches if there were a charge to get into the park?

Answer: Andy from Linden, Mich says he would pay.

Out2martincounty.com is a photo journal featuring people, "Who they are, what they do and where they do it".

Do you have something to say, an event to talk about? An event you would like me to cover? Do it here! Email your story or request to me at rshall@out2martincounty.com

Photo by: Dick Hall Out2/Martin County.com

Out2martincounty.com adheres to full compliance with C.O.P.P.A. (Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998)

"Martin County's Photo Journal"

Visit photo archive

Question: Would you continue to come to Martin County Beaches if there were a charge to get into the park?

Answer: These lovely young ladies from Jackson, Tenn says a slong as they are staying with Grandma this is the place for them and they would pay.

Out2martincounty.com is a photo journal featuring people, "Who they are, what they do and where they do it".

Do you have something to say, an event to talk about? An event you would like me to cover? Do it here! Email your story or request to me at rshall@out2martincounty.com

Photo by: Dick Hall Out2/Martin County.com

Out2martincounty.com adheres to full compliance with C.O.P.P.A. (Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998)

"Martin County's Photo Journal"

Visit photo archive

The Business Development Board (BDB) is a County organization charged with holding and attracting industry. We support this activity because it is to our benefit to expand and diversify the economic base beyond residential construction. When the Commission increased the BDB’s budget to more than $600,000, we stated: “It seems reasonable for the Commission to double the amount contributed by the County to BDB.”

However, BDB has come up with a scheme to siphon off property tax revenue, a plan with good elements, as well as terrible provisions that the Commission should reject.

The extra money that the BDB would acquire, at least $1 million/yr, would be used to bribe, er, incentivize companies to move here. One hopes that Martin will not get caught up in a competitive bidding war race to the bottom. The scheme is to finance the County’s Economic Stimulus fund with 50% of new revenue from future projects. The first bonanza would come from property tax on FPL’s huge new solar project in Indiantown.

The scheme is (heh, heh) painless. Or at least is might seem so to the gullible because it mostly applies to new revenue. Besides, it has the good feature of “clawback” if a subsidized company does not produce promised jobs. And Return On Investment (ROI) software professionally analyzes the benefits a targeted company would provide. That’s the good part. If the “toolkit” plan is not examined closely it is alluring.

Even a couple of Stuart News editorial and column writers fell for this seductive pitch. One of them, abandoning the journalistic skepticism and critical analysis that usually marks her work, said:

“Because the incentive money would come from new property tax revenue, it won’t be siphoned from existing needs. And because the FPL solar plant will not place a big burden on roads or schools, those tax dollars won’t be missed.”

BALONEY!

Here are the hard facts about key provisions that the Commission will need to cut to protect resident interests.

The fund makes subsidizing companies a higher priority than libraries, fire stations, law enforcement and parks!

The money in the property tax revenue pot is fungible. That is, there is no differentiating a fire station dollar from an economic development dollar. We know that to close the $20 million revenue shortfall in the coming year it will be necessary to cut back on vital County services. So the tax on the FPL solar plant would make possible restoration of some of those services that are more important than subsidizing corporations. A mandatory siphoning of the money will prevent such restoration.

The County is obligated to shell out that $1 million even if FPL does not build the solar plant!

Not content with 50% of the added property tax, BDB over-reaches by requesting that $1 million/yr be guaranteed. This could well mean more cuts to libraries, fire stations, law enforcement, parks, roads and other services if FPL does not build, or yields less than the megabuck property tax.

Read the rest of the story at Martin County Defender on the web

It just so happens this is a subject near and dear to my heart since I was in the Textbook business from 1968 – 1998.

The textbook procurement process is a sometime very contentious business and has many deep-seeded roots in the “culture Wars” going on since the ‘60’s when everyone seems to have something to gripe and protest about.

The Gablers, a wife and husband team who set a conservative agenda in Texas going back as far as 1961. They eventually incorporated as Educational Research Analysts in 1973 and the kitchen table enterprise grew into an intellectual activity with national implications.

Another state, California has similar implications. California is another “state adoption” state. They at least have what they call a textbook matrix with at least 4 publisher offerings for the schools to choose from. The big difference in California is that they purchase the rights and the printing plates from the publisher at full price. For example if I sell 100,000 reading books in Texas, I have to print and ship 100,000 books at sometimes $30/book. In California I just have ship the plates and the right to use those plates and I still get $30/book. The state prints, warehouses and ships the books themselves to the schools.

The reason Texas becomes the National template is simply because it is too difficult and costly for publishers to put out multiple editions, so a book rejected by Texas might not be printed at all.

In the 70’s textbook adoptions in West Virginia became so emotionally charged that at a school board meeting someone brought a gun and shot up the school board killing one school board member, all because of the content in a Scott Foresman reading series.

In 1981, I approached the publishers with what I felt was a Para dyne shift in they way media was going to be delivered to the public. What caused that shift, the Internet. It wasn’t called the Internet then; the public knew it as CompuServe or maybe Prodigy.

I explained to my textbook friends as well as trade media friends, falling on deaf ears, that this new application of technology was the future of all of their enterprise.

The bottom line is that there is no reason for school districts to be held hostage to any outside entity. The Supreme Court said that morality is local. As long a “the material” used in the schools comply with state quality standards and the students achieve satisfactory outcomes, content today can be delivered by electronic means.

Curriculum can be made up of a wide selection of multi-media, all available FREE off the World Wide Web.

My newspaper friends have now seen the light and are making changes in their behaviors, now it’s time for my textbook friends to do likewise or pay the same difficult price news media is paying.

The old Navy term of “shape up or ship out” is most appropriate here only it’s “keep up or go out…of business”, that is.

Ed Fielding, a conservation leader who has been deeply involved in efforts to prevent sprawl and over-development, has announced his candidacy for the District 2 Commission seat. He has served on the Local Planning Agency and the boards of Martin County Conservation Alliance and Audubon. He helped found the Rivers Coalition, which has fought against waterway pollution by the Corps of Engineers.

People who have favored non-disruptive slow growth cheered his entrance in the race. They noted that Fielding has stayed involved in public issues over the years, appearing regularly before various County boards.

His business background includes commercial real estate broker, bank vice-president and agri-business manager.

Fielding will face two opponents in the Republican primary. One is incumbent Susan Valliere, who sponsored the Rural Cluster Amendment that promotes development in western agricultural land. She and her husband were found guilty and fined for election law violations in the 2006 election.

The other opposing candidate is Jeff Gorman, a criminal defense lawyer who specializes in drunk driving cases. He was defeated in a 2008 primary bid for the State House. There is little record of any involvement in public issues.

It should be an interesting election.

Read the rest of the story at Martin County Defender on the web

Out2News Editorial – It has come to my attention numerous times over the past few weeks that there is some confusion regarding the Census and the average citizen’s responsibility as to what information is required by the Constitution.

Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann says that she and her family will not be fully filling out the 2010 census forms.

Bachmann, a Republican, said her family will only be indicating the number of people in the household, because "the Constitution doesn't require any information beyond that."

Bachmann believes the upcoming census to be "very intricate" and "very personal" and expresses concerns about ACORN's involvement in the data collection. The community organizing program came under scrutiny after charges of voter registration fraud during the 2008 presidential elections.

"I think what the threat of ACORN would be deluding the ballot box and the effectiveness of our vote," she said. "They will be in charge of going door to door and collecting data from the American public, this is very concerning."

Bachmann also expressed frustration at the president's backing for ACORN, saying he has supplied $8.4 billion to ACORN since he has come into office, a number that far surpasses the $53 million given in the past 15 years.

"ACORN has received $53 million from 1994 to today, but now, since President Obama has come into office, he is making available $8.5 billion – with a 'b' - to ACORN, an organization that is repeatedly under indictment for voter fraud in multiple states across the country," Bachmann said. "This is the last organization that should have the taxpayer's wallet open to them but unfortunately, under President Obama, he is multiplying the amount of money available to them."

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Bachmann may be in trouble if she fails to fill out the entire census. Spokeswoman Shelly Lowe has been quoted that; “anyone over the age of 18 must fill out all the questions and any such person who refuses to answer "any of the questions" faces a $5,000 fine”.

I also encourage readers to watch the UTube video by following the link at the bottom of this story.

If you have a concern about the data being collected my suggestion is to contact your attorney and ask his advise. Also get an agreement from you attorney that he will represent you if the long arm of the Gov’t comes to haul you and yours away. Remember $8.5 Billion pays for a lot Acorn lawyers and court fees.

Get the Census story from News Matrix on The Web

If even a small part of this is true then we are living in a world gone mad not to take advantage of this!

OIL - you better sit down.

Here's an interesting read, important and verifiable information :

About 6 months ago, the writer was watching a news program on oil and one of the Forbes Bros. was the guest. The host said to Forbes, "I am going to ask you a direct question and I would like a direct answer; how much oil does the U.S. have in the ground?" Forbes did not miss a beat, he said, "more than all the Middle East put together." Please read below.

The U. S. Geological Service issued a report in April 2008 that only scientists and oil men knew was coming, but man was it big. It was a revised report (hadn't been updated since 1995) on how much oil was in this area of the western 2/3 of North Dakota, western South Dakota, and extreme eastern Montana ...... check THIS out:

http://bakkenshale.net/bakkenshalemap.html

The Bakken is the largest domestic oil discovery since Alaska's Prudhoe Bay, and has the potential to eliminate all American dependence on foreign oil. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates it at 503 billion barrels. Even if just 10% of the oil is recoverable... at $107 a barrel, we're looking at a resource base worth more than $5..3 trillion.

"When I first briefed legislators on this, you could practically see their jaws hit the floor. They had no idea.." says Terry Johnson, the Montana Legislature's financial analyst.

"This sizable find is now the highest-producing onshore oil field found in the past 56 years," reports The Pittsburgh Post Gazette. It's a formation known as the Williston Basin, but is more commonly referred to as the 'Bakken.' It stretches from Northern Montana, through North Dakota and into Canada.. For years, U. S. oil exploration has been considered a dead end. Even the 'Big Oil' companies gave up searching for major oil wells decades ago. However, a recent technological breakthrough has opened up the Bakken's massive reserves.... and we now have access of up to 500 billion barrels. And because this is light, sweet oil, those billions of barrels will cost Americans just $16 PER BARREL!

That's enough crude to fully fuel the American economy for 2041 years straight. And if THAT didn't throw you on the floor, then this next one should - because it's from 2006!

U. S. Oil Discovery- Largest Reserve in the World

Stansberry Report Online - 4/20/2006

Hidden 1,000 feet beneath the surface of the Rocky Mountains lies the largest untapped oil reserve in the world. It is more than 2 TRILLION barrels. On August 8, 2005 President Bush mandated its extraction. In three and a half years of high oil prices none has been extracted. With this motherload of oil why are we still fighting over off-shore drilling?

They reported this stunning news: We have more oil inside our borders, than all the other proven reserves on earth. Here are the official estimates:

Two recent reports have found that the unfunded liabilities for state and local public employee benefit plans are an impending disaster of monumental proportions across the nation. Professors Barry Paulson and Arthur Hall in one report, and thePew Center in another, found that non-federal government entities were short by $1 trillion. Pension plans, a substantial part of the shortfall, are fully funded in only four states, one of which isFlorida. The National Conference of State Legislatures says it does not expect finances to improve for at least two years.

Separately, federal funding for mandatory programs and entitlements, plus interest on a growing debt, will gobble up 80% of all federal revenues by 2020. So states can not expectWashington to bail them out the way it did the auto companies.

Get the rest of the story at Martin County Defender on the web

Do you remember Abe Beame? He was the mayor New York City during one of the cities most famous financial crisis.

Why was New York City in crisis? Because of unfunded employee benefits.

The best example I can think of is the Transit workers (bus drivers) union contract. Their retirement was available after 20years. The deal also had a provision where a bus driver’s retirement was based on 80% of their last 5 years of pay. That sounds innocent enough in isolation. Now put that deal into action:

By Anne Wortham

Fellow Americans,

Please know: I am black; I grew up in the segregated South. I did not vote for Barack Obama; I wrote in Ron Paul's name as my choice for president. Most importantly, I am not race conscious. I do not require a black president to know that I am a person of worth, and that life is worth living. I do not require a black president to love the ideal of America .

I cannot join you in your celebration. I feel no elation. There is no smile on my face. I am not jumping with joy. There are no tears of triumph in my eyes. For such emotions and behavior to come from me, I would have to deny all that I know about the requirements of human flourishing and survival - all that I know about the history of the United States of America , all that I know about American race relations, and all that I know about Barack Obama as a politician. I would have to deny the nature of the "change" that Obama asserts has come to America . Most importantly, I would have to abnegate my certain understanding that you have chosen to sprint down the road to serfdom that we have been on for over a century. I would have to pretend that individual liberty has no value for the success of a human life. I would have to evade your rejection of the slender reed of capitalism on which your success and mine depend. I would have to think it somehow rational that 94 percent of the 12 million blacks in this country voted for a man because he looks like them (that blacks are permitted to play the race card), and that they were joined by self-declared "progressive" whites who voted for him because he doesn't look like them. I would have to be wipe my mind clean of all that I know about the kind of people who have advised and taught Barack Obama and will fill posts in his administration - political intellectuals like my former colleagues at the Harvard University 's Kennedy School of Government.

I would have to believe that "fairness" is the equivalent of justice. I would have to believe that man who asks me to "go forward in a new spirit of service, in a new service of sacrifice" is speaking in my interest. I would have to accept the premise of a man that economic prosperity comes from the "bottom up," and who arrogantly believes that he can will it into existence by the use of government force. I would have to admire a man who thinks the standard of living of the masses can be improved by destroying the most productive and the generators of wealth.

Finally, Americans, I would have to erase from my consciousness the scene of 125,000 screaming, crying, cheering people in Grant Park, Chicago irrationally chanting "Yes We Can!" Finally, I would have to wipe all memory of all the times I have heard politicians, pundits, journalists, editorialists, bloggers and intellectuals declare that capitalism is dead - and no one, including especially Alan Greenspan, objected to their assumption that the particular version of the anti-capitalistic mentality that they want to replace with their own version of anti-capitalism is anything remotely equivalent to capitalism.

So you have made history, Americans. You and your children have elected a black man to the office of the president of the United States , the wounded giant of the world. The battle between John Wayne and Jane Fonda is over - and that Fonda won. Eugene McCarthy and George McGovern must be very happy men. Jimmie Carter, too. And the Kennedys have at last gotten their Kennedy look-a-like. The self-righteous welfare statists in the suburbs can feel warm moments of satisfaction for having elected a black person.

So, toast yourselves: 60s countercultural radicals, 80s yuppies and 90s bourgeois bohemians. Toast yourselves, Black America. Shout your glee Harvard, Princeton , Yale, Duke, Stanford, and Berkeley. You have elected not an individual who is qualified to be president, but a black man who, like the pragmatist Franklin Roosevelt, promises to - Do Something! You now have someone who has picked up the baton of Lyndon Johnson's Great Society. But you have also foolishly traded your freedom and mine - what little there is left - for the chance to feel good. There is nothing in me that can share your happy obliviousness.

By: Bill Perry

Tabor City – Senator R.C. Soles, 74, shot one of two intruders at his home just outside Tabor City, N.C. About 5 p.m. Sunday, the prosecutor for the politician's home county said.

The victim, Kyle Blackburn, was taken to a South Carolina hospital, but the injuries were not reported to be life-threatening, according to Rex Gore, district attorney for Columbus, Bladen and Brunswick counties..

The State Bureau of Investigation and Columbus County Sheriff's Department are investigating the shooting, Gore said. Soles, who was not arrested, declined to discuss the incident Sunday evening.

"I am not in a position to talk to you," Soles said by telephone. "I'm right in the middle of an investigation."

Soles, a top-ranking Democrat and the longest-serving member of the legislature, already was the subject of an SBI investigation over sexual misconduct allegations with former male clients. (FHW - Now, that sounds more like a liberal to me).

The Senator, who has made a career of being against gun ownership for the general public, didn't hesitate to defend himself with his own gun when he believed he was in immediate danger and he was the victim.

In typical hypocritical liberal fashion, the "Do As I Say And Not As I Do" Anti-Gun Activist Lawmaker picked up his gun and took action in what apparently was a self-defense shooting. Why hypocritical you may ask? It is because his long legislative record shows that the actions that he took to protect his family, his own response to a dangerous life threatening situation, are actions that he feels ordinary citizens should not have if they were faced with an identical situation.

It has prompted some to ask if the Senator believes his life and personal safety is more valuable than yours or mine. But, this is to be expected from those who believe they can run our lives, raise our kids, and protect our families better than we can

Out2martincounty.com is a photo journal featuring people, "Who they are, what they do and where they do it".

Do you have something to say, an event to talk about? An event you would like me to cover? Do it here! Email your story or request to me at rshall@out2martincounty.com

Photo by: Dick Hall Out2/Martin County.com

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Palm City --Those who belong to the Tea Party movement ‘resent being profiled’

With regard to Joe Conason’s column, “Tea Party types toxic to rest of GOP” (Nov. 1), I would offer the following response: My husband and I attended the Tea Party rallies in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 12, 2009, and Orlando, on Nov. 12, 2009. Maybe Conason should have attended one so he could see for himself that we are not “raving mobs that follow radio talkers.” More than 1 million people marched in Washington, but the the mainstream media reported that there were only a few thousand. It was a very peaceful event with not one arrest and no litter left on the streets.

We, like many other members of the Tea Party movement, are respectable, law-abiding citizens who resent being “profiled,” just as we are reminded not to profile other diverse groups.

Conason is careful not to mention the self-proclaimed socialists, Marxists and communists who surround themselves with the president and his administration.

Why has the U.S. attorney general decided to prosecute the CIA employees and government attorneys for the interrogation tactics used on terrorists? Why has he decided to prosecute the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorists in a New York federal court rather than a military court? They are war criminals and should be treated as such. These terrorists killed thousands of civilians in an unprovoked act of war. My daughter was in the first attack on the World Trade Center in 1993 and barely missed being there on Sept. 11, 2001.

My grandfather served in World War I, my father and uncles served in World War II, and my husband interrupted his medical studies to serve in the Vietnam War. I have always been proud to be an American and I will continue to demonstrate and speak up as is my right as a citizen.

So when Mr. Conason decides to label those who don’t agree with his propaganda as “raving mobs,” he should look in the mirror because he and his leftist comrades are the biggest threat to the future of this country.

For too long my husband and I were part of the “silent majority,” but we will be silent no more. We will take back our country from the socialists and radicals who have infiltrated our government and we will expose them for what they really are.

Diane Castellucci -- Palm City

WHAT MARTINCOUNTY COULD, SHOULD AND SHOULD NOT DO TO IMPROVE CONDITIONS

First thing, we must not kid ourselves into believing that the worst is over, that recovery is just around the corner, that we can stop tightening our belts, blah blah blah.

This past week, Amy Baker, chief economist of the Florida legislature reported that the state’s unemployment rate would probably climb to 12% and remain high for some time. When the part-time working underemployed and those who have just given up are included, we believe that the real unemployment figure is at least 18%. Baker noted the depressing effect of the housing surplus. Population migration is outward rather than inward. State revenues will be $3.2 billion lower next year that the $66.5 billion budgeted for 2009-10.

Senate budget head J.D. Alexander said 4% would have to be cut from the budget. Senate President Jeff Atwater stated that the Senate would not increase taxes.

The biotech money pit

According to the Office of Program Policy and Government Accountability, Florida taxpayers spent $767 million to bring Scripps and Max Planck biotech companies to Jupiter, the supposed seed for biotech cluster growth.Almost half of that was from Palm BeachCounty residents. What have they got to show for it? Not much. The number of biotech companies in Palm Beach grew from 46 to only 54. If you count six other biotech companies lured to Florida, some $1.5 billion was spent. This huge state-wide expense brought only 1,100 jobs, not all for Florida residents. That’s over $1.3 million per job.

Read the rest of the story at Martin County Defender on the web

By: Michael Connelly, Ret. Constitutional Attorney

Well, I have done it! I have read the entire text of proposed House Bill 3200: The Affordable Health Care Choices Act of 2009. I studied it with particular emphasis from my area of expertise, constitutional law. I was frankly concerned that parts of the proposed law that were being discussed might be unconstitutional. What I found was far worse than what I had heard or expected.

To begin with, much of what has been said about the law and its implications is in fact true, despite what the Democrats and the media are saying. The law does provide for rationing of health care, particularly where senior citizens and other classes of citizens are involved, free health care for illegal immigrants, free abortion services, and probably forced participation in abortions by members of the medical profession.

The Bill will also eventually force private insurance companies out of business, and put everyone into a government run system. All decisions about personal health care will ultimately be made by federal bureaucrats, and most of them will not be health care professionals. Hospital admissions, payments to physicians, and allocations of necessary medical devices will be strictly controlled by the government.

However, as scary as all of that is, it just scratches the surface. In fact, I have concluded that this legislation really has no intention of providing affordable health care choices. Instead it is a convenient cover for the most massive transfer of power to the Executive Branch of government that has ever occurred, or even been contemplated If this law or a similar one is adopted, major portions of the Constitution of the United States will effectively have been destroyed.

The first thing to go will be the masterfully crafted balance of power between the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches of the U.S. Government. The Congress will be transferring to the Obama Administration authority in a number of different areas over the lives of the American people, and the businesses they own.

The irony is that the Congress doesn't have any authority to legislate in most of those areas to begin with! I defy anyone to read the text of the U.S. Constitution and find any authority granted to the members of Congress to regulate health care.

This legislation also provides for access, by the appointees of the Obama administration, of all of your personal healthcare direct violation of the specific provisions of the 4th Amendment to the Constitution information, your personal financial information, and the information of your employer, physician, and hospital. All of this is a protecting against unreasonable searches and seizures. You can also forget about the right to privacy. That will have been legislated into oblivion regardless of what the 3rd and 4th Amendments may provide.

If you decide not to have healthcare insurance, or if you have private insurance that is not deemed acceptable to the Health Choices Administrator appointed by Obama, there will be a tax imposed on you. It is called a tax instead of a fine because of the intent to avoid application of the due process clause of the 5th Amendment. However, that doesn't work because since there is nothing in the law that allows you to contest or appeal the imposition of the tax, it is definitely depriving someone of property without the due process of law.

So, there are three of those pesky amendments that the far left hate so much, out the original ten in the Bill of Rights, that are effectively nullified by this law It doesn't stop there though.

The 9th Amendment that provides: The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people;

The 10th Amendment states: The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are preserved to the States respectively, or to the people. Under the provisions of this piece of Congressional handiwork neither the people nor the states are going to have any rights or powers at all in many areas that once were theirs to control.

I could write many more pages about this legislation, but I think you get the idea. This is not about health care; it is about seizing power and limiting rights. Article 6 of the Constitution requires the members of both houses of Congress to "be bound by oath or affirmation to support the Constitution." If I was a member of Congress I would not be able to vote for this legislation or anything like it, without feeling I was violating that sacred oath or affirmation. If I voted for it anyway, I would hope the American people would hold me accountable.

For those who might doubt the nature of this threat, I suggest they consult the source, the US Constitution, and Bill of Rights. There you can see exactly what we are about to have taken from us.

Michael Connelly Retired attorney,

Constitutional Law Instructor

Another attempt by the governement to control us, we must stop it do not give them anything other than what is required

2010 Census Warning

This is a warning about the upcoming 2010 Census from the BBB (Better Business Bureau).

The ONLY information that you are required to give to any census taker is as follows:

1) How many people live in your household (only at your address)

2) How many are adults.

You are not required to answer any other questions that are asked.

You may be asked about how many bathrooms you have;

How many bedrooms you have,

How long you have lived at your present address.

Do you own a hand gun,

Have you been to college, and How old you are.

For your own protection only answer questions 1) and 2)..

This warning is for ALL citizens so you may want to pass it on to everyone you know.

ALSO Be Very Cautious About Giving Info to Census Workers!

With the U.S. Census process beginning, the Better Business Bureau (BBB) advises people to be cooperative, but cautious, so as not to become a victim of fraud or identity theft.

The first phase of the 2010 U..S. Census is under way as workers have begun verifying the addresses of households across the country. Eventually, more than 140,000 U.S. Census workers will count every person in the United States and will gather information about every person living at each address including name, age, gender, race, and other relevant data. The big question is - how do you tell the difference between a U.S. Census worker and a con artist?

BBB offers the following advice: ** If a U.S. Census worker knocks on your door, they will have a badge, a hand held device, a Census Bureau canvas bag, and a confidentiality notice. Ask to see their identification and their badge before answering their questions. However, you should never invite anyone you don't know into your home.**

Census workers are currently only knocking on doors to verify address information.

Do not give your Social Security number, credit card or banking information to anyone, even if they claim they need it for the U.S. Census.

While the Census Bureau might ask for basic financial information, such as a salary range, it will not ask for Social Security, bank account, or credit card numbers nor will employees solicit donations. Eventually, Census workers may contact you by telephone, mail, or in person at home..

However, they will not contact you by email, so be on the lookout for email scams impersonating the Census. Never click on a link or open any attachments in an Email that are supposedly from the U.S.. Census Bureau. For more advice on avoiding identity theft and fraud, visit: http:www.bbb.org

By: Nancy Reily

Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, today released its 2009 list of Washington's "Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians." The list, in alphabetical order, includes:

INSTEAD OF A SIMPLE SOLUTION TO AVOID RARE OFFENSIVE MATERIAL, IT PLACES PRIOR RESTRAINT ON ALL FREE SPEECH

The Martin County Commission has a 24-page document called Rules of Procedure. It includes detailed instructions on such matters as how the commissioners conduct their deliberations and votes, how the agenda is prepared and modified, and the rules governing public comment. The Rules are generally reasonable and conducive to the orderly and civil conduct of meetings.

Those Rules for public speakers include a three minute speech limit; speaking at different times on either agenda or non-agenda items, but only once on a subject; completing a Request to Speak form; no partisan politicking; no interrogation of others; no offensive material. This is just the barest summary of two pages of public comment rules. Almost everyone understands and obeys these rules.

Very often, a public speaker wishing to show the basis for a point he or she is making will bring photos, maps or documents, which are placed on a table next to the lectern. An overhead document camera displays that picture on monitor screens that can be seen by commissioners, the public in attendance, and by viewers of MCTV.

Commission meetings are usually held on Tuesdays. It is not unusual for a resident who wants to provide public input not to learn about a particular agenda item until the day before, even though it was published earlier. Or he may not discover an important document until the last minute. Until 11-17-09, such conditions did not affect the presentation of material under the camera. However, on that date, the Commission imposed the following prior censorship rule by Consent Agenda vote (no public discussion):

Any visual material including but not limited to photographs, diagrams, DVD, CD, or other media to be shown to the general public must be submitted for review by the County Administrator or a designee no later than the Friday prior to the meeting at which the material is requested to be shown.

This is an outrageous imposition on the right to public comment!

It bars citizens from conveying visual information that they may not have had available at least four days prior. What brought this on? Well, at the 11-3-09 Commission meeting, some ninny displayed what was considered offensive photographs. Instead of exploring sensible ways to control such rare occurrences, the first thing that pops into the unimaginative minds of officials and staff is prior restraint – on everyone. Pique apparently trumped thoughtful governance. Maybe some commissioners would also like to expand their censorship by requiring an advance written manuscript of what a citizen is going to say.

The issue is less about restrictions on DVD/CDs that few citizens bring to the lectern, restrictions that were already in place, than use of more easily acquired documents, maps and photos displayed by many public speakers.

THERE IS A RELATIVELY EASY NON-CENSORSHIP SOLUTION

All that needs to be done is to install a switch at the Chairman’s or Administrator’s dais position that shuts off the overhead camera if offensive material is displayed. Beyond that cutoff action, anyone attempting to display offensive material can be sanctioned by having to get advance clearance for future displays. That’s reasonable. Applying the Draconian prior censorship filter to everyone is not.

We hope the Commission will have the good sense to modify its suppressive rule accordingly.

For a copy of the entire Rules of Procedure go to:

http://ap3server.martin.fl.us:7778/documents2010/county_policy/POL72.pdf

Commission previously socked it to Intervenors

In addition to public speakers, applicants involved in such quasi-judicial matters as zoning and Comp Plan changes are given both more time and freedom to present their case. Typically, developers and their lawyers have lots of discussion back and forth with commissioners. They can also question staff members.

There is a class of speaker, the Intervenor, who has a direct stake in the matter under consideration. Until last year, a citizen who believed that he would be directly affected by a Commission decision could be sworn in as an Intervenor. Then he would have the same speech and interrogation rights as the developer, and can question the developer applicant. This bothered some of the more pro-developer commissioners. So they changed the rules in 2008 to the following:

In order to be an Intervenor, a person must qualify to receive mailed notice of the subject application in accordance with Section 10.6.E, Land Development Regulations, Martin County Code (property owners within 300 feet of the project if it is inside the urban service boundary, and within 600 feet of the project if it is outside the urban service boundary.

So if you are a homeowner living 301 ft. from a proposed commercial development project looming over your house and blocking your view (for example, a giant boat warehouse next to Rocky Point residences), the Commission does not believe that you are an affected party who should have Intervenor speech rights.

From first hand experience, we can tell you that being an Intervenor is empowering – and that’s why pro-developer commissioners want the fewest ordinary citizens to qualify.

Combining this Intervenor restriction on quasi-judicial hearings with the new display material restriction on public comment reflects a growing repressive attitude on the Commission’s part.

Read the rest of the story at Martin County Defender on the web

Remember the “Lock Box” so prevalent in the 2000 campaign between Bush and Gore.

It was a concept brought to light by Al Gore and the Democratic Party with the discussion about the solution to the Social Security problem at the time, which by the way still has not been addressed by either party. I have my cynical thoughts as to why but that’s for another day.

Today I wish to ask; Would it not be “prudent” (to borrow a phrase), that within any discussion on healthcare legislation that a “lock Box” clause or amendment be part of any Bill that collects public monies for five years before they will be encumbered to provide services, (earmarked), (to borrow a word), so that the money cannot be used for any other purpose.

I don’t think that these characters can pass a healthcare bill in this session or in any session, but a “Lock Box” amendment would be awfully reassuring when and if a conference committee actually offers up something that might get on any calendar for a vote.

A man, whose family was German aristocracy prior to World War II, owned a number of large industries and estates. When asked how many German people were true Nazis, the answer he gave can guide our attitude toward fanaticism. 'Very few people were true Nazis,' he said, 'but many enjoyed the return of German pride, and many more were too busy to care. I was one of those who just thought the Nazis were a bunch of fools. So, the majority just sat back and let it all happen. Then, before we knew it, they owned us, and we had lost control, and the end of the world had come. My family lost everything I ended up in a concentration camp and the Allies destroyed my factories.'

We are told again and again by 'experts' and 'talking heads' that Islam is the religion of peace and that the vast majority of Muslims just want to live in peace. Although this unqualified assertion may be true, it is entirely irrelevant. It is meaningless fluff, meant to make us feel better, and meant to somehow diminish the specter of fanatics rampaging across the globe in the name of Islam.

The fact is that the fanatics rule Islam at this moment in history. It is the fanatics who march. It is the fanatics who wage any one of 50 shooting wars worldwide. It is the fanatics who systematically slaughter Christian or tribal groups throughout Africa and are gradually taking over the entire continent in an Islamic wave. It is the fanatics who bomb, behead, murder, or honor-kill. It is the fanatics who take over mosque after mosque. It is the fanatics who zealously spread the stoning and hanging of rape victims and homosexuals. It is the fanatics who teach their young to kill and to become suicide bombers

The hard, quantifiable fact is that the peaceful majority, the 'silent majority,' is cowed and extraneous.

Communist Russia was comprised of Russians who just wanted to live in peace, yet the Russian Communists were responsible for the murder of about 20 million people The peaceful majority were irrelevant. China's huge population was peaceful as well, but Chinese Communists managed to kill a staggering 70 million people. The average Japanese individual prior to World War II was not a warmongering sadist. Yet, Japan murdered and slaughtered its way across South East Asia in an orgy of killing that included the systematic murder of 12 million Chinese civilians; most killed by sword, shovel, and bayonet. And who can forget Rwanda, which collapsed into butchery. Could it not be said that the majority of Rwandans were peace loving'?

History lessons are often incredibly simple and blunt, yet for all our powers of reason, we often miss the most basic and uncomplicated of points:

Peace-loving Muslims have been made irrelevant by their silence.

Peace-loving Muslims will become our enemy if they don't speak up, because like my friend from Germany, they wi awaken one day and find that the fanatics own them, and the end of their world will have begun.

Peace-loving Germans, Japanese, Chinese, Russians, Rwandans, Serbs, Afghans, Iraqis, Palestinians, Somalis, Nigerians, Algerians, and many others have died because the peaceful majority did not speak up until it was too late. As for us who watch it all unfold, we must pay attention to the only group that counts -- the fanatics who threaten our way of life.

Emanuel Tanay, M.D.

2980 Provincial St.

Ann Arbor, MI 48104

COMMISSION HAS NO AUTHORITY OVER “CANNED” HUNTS

J&R Outfitters has operated a hunting preserve on Fox Brown Road for 20 years, with facilities for overnight guests. That makes it a hunting camp, which is allowed in some agricultural zones, but not in J&R’s A-2 zone designation. Ag zoning has been inconsistent over the years. For example, A-2 does not allow shooting ranges, but A-20 does.

All that technical land use stuff got lost in the protests against hunting, especially supposed “canned” hunts of imported exotic species within fenced preserves. At the 11-3-09 meeting of the Commission, opponents expressed ethical and safety concerns. They demanded that the Commission ban such hunts. Some speakers said J&R hunts were not canned. Apparently the protesters and some commissioners were not aware of what the law says.

Senior Assistant County Attorney Krista Storey did an excellent job explaining that the State Constitution and Statutes gave that authority to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission (FWC). Representatives of FCW, as well as the Department of Agriculture, fleshed out the details of state authority. Martin County was reported to have five licensed hunting preserves. FWC requires a minimum of 200 acres for a hunting preserve. J&R has about 4,000 acres.

What the Commission had to decide was whether to change the A-2 zoning to allow lodging for overnight guest hunters. The Local Planning Agency (LPA) had recommended approval on 9-17-09. After hours of discussion, the Commission voted 4-to-1, Heard opposed, to allow a hunting camp lodge with meals on the already licensed hunting preserves, including J&R. That provides guidance for the county attorney office to craft an ordinance that will come before the Commission for final approval on 11-17-09.

Read the rest of the story at Martin County Defender on the web

HERE IS ONE TO TWIST YOUR TWINKIE -- if you don't know how to curse yet, " I am certain you will after you read this one " !

According to the Trustees for the Social Security Administration, "THERE WILL NOT BE A COST OF LIVING INCREASE FOR THE NEXT TWO YEARS IN SOCIAL SECURITY BENEFITS. ADDITIONALLY THEY WILL RAISE YOUR CO-PAY FOR YOUR RX MEDICARE BENEFITS " !

They, the Congress (BOTH " REPUBLICAN AND DEMOCRATS TOGETHER ") say no increase is warranted because of the losses in gross national product and other cute things.. <

NOW HERE SPORTS FANS THIS IS THE ONE THAT WILL FLIP YOU OUT!! --

THE SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION IS FUNDING TWENTY FOUR MILLION DOLLARS-- LET ME REPEAT THAT AMOUNT... SO YOU UNDERSTAND IT $ 24,000,000.00 DOLLARS FOR NEW ELECTRONIC MEDICAL RECORDS PROCESSING FOR OUR CONGRESSMEN AND SENATORS !!

THEY ARE OBTAINING THESE FUNDS and I QUOTE DIRECTLY FROM THE SOCIAL SECURITY WEBSITE...............

" THIS MONEY WILL BE COME FROM T HE SAVINGS TO BE GENERATED FROM WITHHOLDING " COST OF LIVING INCREASES FOR 2010 & 2011 in SOCIAL SECURITY BENEFITS FOR THE ELDERLY AND A $2.00 INCREASE ON ALL MEDICARE RX BENEFIT CO-PAY"

Please excuse my FRENCH, But do the words " BULL@#$%^&*" ring a bell ?

Please pass this to ALL your friends and have them "PROTEST TO THE IDIOTS WE ELECTED TO CONGRESS " who by the way, have just voted themselves ANOTHER 3% SALARY INCREASE!!!

We must put a stop to this outright thievery! It is THE CONGRESS AND THE SENATE, BOTH REPUBLICAN AND DEMOCRATS, WE CAN'T FIRE THEM, BUT WE SURE AS HELL CAN NOT RE-ELECT THEM, and WE CAN IMPEACH THEM or DEMAND RECALL ELECTIONS !!! HOW ABOUT WE ALL GET TOGETHER AND DUMP THESE CLOWNS.

Just watch. They will spend this money and find the software doesn't work, dump the whole thing and go back to the old steam driven system just like they did with air traffic control several years ago. Don't worry though, they've got health care all worked out.

So here is what we CAN do....

All I ask is that you consider the suggestion here.

The entire Congress of t he United States is corrupt. And I mean both Houses and I mean both major parties.

I realize that a few Members of each House are trustworthy, but, as a group they are absolutely the most corrupt bunch to ever disgrace our Nation.

In November of 2010 the entire House of Representatives will stand for re-election; all 435 of them. One third of the Senate, a total of 33 of them, will also stand for re-election. Vote every incumbent out.

And I mean every one of them. No matter their Party affiliation. Let's start all over in the House of Representatives with 435 people who have absolutely no experience in running that body, with no political favors owed to anyone but their own constituents. Let's make them understand that they work for us..

They are answerable to us and they simply have to run that body with some common sense.

Two years later, in 2012, vote the next third of the incumbents in the Senate out.

We can do the same thing in 2014 and, by that time we will have put all new people in that body as well.

We, the People, have got to take this Country back and we HAVE to do it peacefully.

That's what the Framers of our Constitution envisioned.

I am also suggesting term limits on the NEW BUNCH --8 YEARS FOR REPRESENTATIVES AND 12 YEARS OF SENATORS. NO EXCEPTIONS. THE LONGER THEY STAY IN OFFICE THE MORE POWER THEY GET AND THEY LOVE IT AND WILL DO ANYTHING TO GET RE-ELECTED.

WE HAVE TERM LIMITED THE PRESIDENT -- NOW LET'S TERM LIMIT THE LEGISLATORS.

This thing can permeate this Country in no time. Let's make it happen.**

VOTE THE POWER ABUSERS OUT........LET'S TAKE AMERICA BACK !!!!!!!!!

IF YOU LIKE THE WAY THINGS ARE GOING IN OUR COUNTRY, THEN DO NOTHING.........

This past week the FCC passed "Net Neutrality" rules. They basically don't change anything YET.

The following is what is envisioned if you allow congress to pass any legislation concerning the net.

Obama's version of Net Neutrality is bad from the left side of the spectrum and the Republican's version is just as bad form the right.

The only way to preserve TRUE Jeffersonian Net Neutrality is to prevent anyone from messing with what we got.

If we are not vigilant this is what we will get.

In the 60's there were those who tried to warn everyone of what was coming, we didn't pay attention.

We didn't pay attention back in 1969 and we have our current cable offering. Would you like to have that happen to the Internet?

Don't say you weren't warned.

Click on the link below to view the 1969 warning shown in every theater across this country for years.

View “stop cable TV” ad from 1969

Solution to a problem?” wonders the Stuart News editorial discussing the proposed conversion of 1,782 Consolidated Citrus acres in western Palm City from agricultural to industrial [see DEFENDER No. 130]. After quoting the glowing anticipation of the Chamber of Commerce president and the landowner’s VP, the editorial goes on to pose these questions:

Would Martin Highway have to be widened?

Will the tree canopy on Martin Grade be protected?

Will utilities be provided by a package plant or Port St. Lucie?

All valid, but relatively niggling little questions compared with the important questions that the editorial should have asked:

Will this be the precedent and pattern for massive conversion of ag to industrial land?

In practice, will this essentially undermine the Urban Services Boundary that prevents sprawl?

Will this raise taxes to pay for added infrastructure, especially when Impact Fees (except for roads) have been abolished to appease developers?

Will the proposed canal bridge connecting the 1,782 acres to Port St. Lucie’s huge nearby industrial complex be the start of Western Martin Industrial Megopolis?

Inquiring minds want to know.

Read the rest of the story at Martin County Defender on the web

I put this to you in the form of a question because the real question is; how did any corporation become so big, so massive, so ingrained into our economy, society and now Government that we cannot let them fail?

Yin and yang, disjunct or opposing forces are interconnected and interdependent in the natural world, giving rise to each other in turn. The concept lies at the heart of many branches of classical Chinese science and philosophy, the interactions of people with each other and how they perceive one another. Good v evil, light v dark, FOX “Fair and Balanced”, basically if we have a little bit of both sides it come out well in the end.

With this philosophy in mind the answer to the that question is; “you don’t let them become too big to begin with”.

Going back in time, for the sake of this argument, 119 years, we have been “trust busting” since “Teddy”. If you need to be told which “Teddy” I’m referring to you will not understand this argument anyway. I digress. “Trust Busting” was an effort to keep Railroads, Steel and Oil from becoming so big that they could not be controlled because of the monopoly that would be created. Large corporations in the latter part of the nineteenth century sand the early portion of the 20th century would buy out or force out of business their smaller competitors. When they became the last man standing they controlled everything. They controlled supply of raw materials, the transportation of those raw materials to the point of manufacture, the distribution of the final product to market and finally the marketplace itself.

The most famous effort to eliminate monopolies was the Sherman Antitrust Act (Sherman Act, July 2, 1890, requiring the United States Federal government to investigate and pursue trusts, companies and organizations suspected of violating the Act. It was the first Federal statute to limit cartels and monopolies, and today still forms the basis for most antitrust litigation by the United States federal government. The problem is that of late no administration has the guts to enforce the law.

The last time the law was enforced was against AT&T in the 70’s which for a short time provided new products, new services, and lower prices. We all have watched what has happened to the “baby bells” over the last twenty years.

Ronald Regan had an Attorney general named William French Smith, a guy who never saw a buy-out he didn’t like. Dick Snyder of "Sliman and Shyster" almost bought out all of the publishing industry in the mid-nineteen eighties.

General Motors in 1965 was the largest corporation in the world only to be the target of a Government take over less than fifty years later.

The only reason these situations arose is because of corrupt democrats and republicans alike. It fine to be a Democrat or a Republican in a political environment. Somewhere along the line you have to govern. Governing is not political it’s administrative.

Too Big to fail, from AIG to GM to health care get the government involved and you upset the Yin and Yang. That’s fair and balanced and faire and balanced will win out every time.

ON 10/10/09, WE INTERVIEWED LESLEY BLACKNER, CO-AUTHOR OF FLORIDA HOMETOWN DEMOCRACY AMENDMENT 4, WHICH WILL APPEAR ON THE 2010 BALLOT

Defender: Would you please summarize what Amendment 4 does?

Blackner: This grassroots Amendment to the State Constitution simply requires that when city and county commissions want to change the land use provisions in their Comprehensive Plans, residents get the opportunity to approve or disapprove. Opponents with vested financial interests do not tell the truth about Amendment 4. You can go to our new website (www.floridahometowndemocracy.com) for t he correct details.

Defender: Giving voters a choice seems reasonable, so why do many developer and business organizations oppose it?

Blackner: For many years, those people used their money and connections to influence commissions to gain a free hand to build, build, build. They do not want to be subject to the will of residents who care about their communities.

Defender: Isn’t that just healthy growth?

Blackner: Look around you. Tens of thousands of foreclosures, plunging home values, record high unemployment, a flood of business failures – all triggered by the collapse of the over-development bubble. That’s not healthy.

Defender: How will Amendment 4 prevent that?

Blackner: Unlike developers, who are hungry for money, and politicians anxious about re-election, residents are interested in protecting their home values. They want to preserve their quality of life. Amendment 4 allows citizens to decide if land use changes are beneficial. This will prevent irresponsible development abuses. Collectively, residents are much wiser than developers and politicians.

Defender: Won’t slower growth reduce jobs and increase taxes?

Blackner: Just the opposite. Amendment 4 offers stability. It will support steady jobs by avoiding boom and bust over-supply and layoffs. There are already enough approved building sites to last for several decades. So far as taxes go, study after study has shown that infrastructure costs exceed tax revenue from residential development. So Amendment 4 will prevent growth-induced tax increases.

Defender: May I ask a somewhat personal question? Organizations like the Florida Chamber of Commerce and their allies spent millions in their unsuccessful effort to keep Amendment 4 off the ballot. They are ready to spend millions more to try to defeat Amendment 4. That seems like following the understandable principle that one needs to spend money to make money. I understand that you have spent much of your own savings in fighting for Amendment 4. What will you get out of it personally?

Blackner: I have children. Someday I hope to have grandchildren. I want them, and everyone’s children, to grow up and live a decent life in a state that offers a desirable environment, both physically and economically. Destructive over-development must be controlled by the people living here. Amendment 4 is the only means for achieving that goal. That is all I hope to get out of it.

Click here to read more at Martin County Defender on the web

Two developers have submitted plans to build massive industrial and office complexes on agricultural land, according to excellent reports by reporter George Andreassi in the Stuart News. To carry out these plans, the County Commission would have to change the Comprehensive Plan that has just undergone the most far ranging pro-growth changes in many years.

This bold outrage is reminiscent of when consultant Urbanomics, on whom county staff wasted $50,000, came in with a recommendation that large areas be turned into commercial and industrial parks. It was so off the wall that when it came before the Commission in March 2007, even the all-for-business commissioners had little interest in discussing it. Like a phoenix-vulture, it has risen again.

I have not written anything I a very long time but I just couldn’t resist this one.

Sheriff David Barkett of Alexander County, Ill. has a problem. The bank just repossessed his police cars. That’s correct they repossessed his police cars. He has gone to Springfield to seek assistance but it appears that the state is coming up a little short in Barkett’s behalf.

To the rescue Sheriff Ken J. Mascara, he has a few retired police cars that were about to be put up for auction where, according to Mascara he would probably only realize about $3,000 each from the auction.

Mascara said; “We needed a lot of help in 2004 and 2005 from the hurricanes that hit our community. We got help from all over for our disaster and it appears that this is a disaster for Alexander County”.

You have to appreciate Sheriff Mascara for his sense of gratitude for all that was done by so many to help all of us on the Treasure Coast at our time of need.

My thoughts simply keep going back to that bank that foreclosed on the Alexander Sheriff’s office to begin with. I have a great idea; “The next time somebody holds up that bank, tell them they don’t have any cars to chase those robbers”. Don’t these guys get it? Sheriff Mascara does!

On 9/21/09. the Economic Council of Martin County issued the following false statement:

“Amendment 4 will leave Florida in Permanent Recession. Amendment 4 – a statewide “Vote on Everything” initiative – is a grave threat to Florida’s future. The passage of this amendment could mean a permanent recession for Florida’s economy and indefinitely stall our states economic health.”

The truth is that Hometown Democracy Amendment 4 on the 2010 b allot will prevent the over-development bubble that bursts, and the boom-and-bust cycle that has triggered the economic recession. It will provide stability instead of the lost jobs, business failures and foreclosures that current law and developer influence foster.

Amendment 4 does NOT require a “vote on everything,” as claimed by the Economic Council. Amendment 4 does NOT require a popular vote on budgets, taxes, land regulations, ordinances, appointments, hiring, inter-local agreements, site plan approvals, impact fees, leases, capital improvements, property transfers, PUD agreements, real estate acquisitions, zoning variances, labor contracts and a host of other decisions made by the Commission.

Amendment 4 DOES require that voters approve changes to the Comprehensive Plan, the state-approved legal guide that is like the Constitution for our county. Vital changes that affect huge infrastructure costs and quality of life should not depend on 3-to-2 Commission votes. Citizens should have a voice in such crucial matters.

The reason developer/business interests are resorting to this falsification of what Amendment 4 does is because they are desperate and do not trust voters. They don’t want residents to protect their own communities from the over-development that has ravaged so much of Florida. They want to continue their free-wheeling, public-be-damned projects. They fear – and have good reason to fear – that approval of Amendment 4 will limit their power and restore measured, sensible growth that benefits all residents.

Get the rest of the story at Martin County Defender on the web

Thanks to Jeannie Ferarra for her assistance in bringing you todays QOD.

Stuart, Hutchinson Island -- The Martin County Business Development Board Annual Luncheon always provides a unique once a year opportunity for Out2 to ask Martin County's business leaders a topical "Question-of-the-Day".

This year is no exception, we hope you find this years question and answers insightful, interesting and entertaining.

Question: With all of the Town Hall meetings this summer and with all the different legislative packages beginning to emerge from Congress. What do you think the impact of a broad based health care program in this country will have on our business community?

Answer: Tom Wilkenson – SeaCoast Bank “Business is going to have to pay for it.”

Out2martincounty.com is a photo journal featuring people, "Who they are, what they do and where they do it".

Do you have something to say, an event to talk about? An event you would like me to cover? Do it here! Email your story or request to me at rshall@out2martincounty.com

Photo by: Dick Hall Out2/Martin County.com

Out2martincounty.com adheres to full compliance with C.O.P.P.A. (Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998)

"Martin County's Photo Journal"

Thanks to Jeannie Ferarra for her assistance in bringing you todays QOD.

Stuart, Hutchinson Island -- The Martin County Business Development Board Annual Luncheon always provides a unique once a year opportunity for Out2 to ask Martin County's business leaders a topical "Question-of-the-Day".

This year is no exception, we hope you find this years question and answers insightful, interesting and entertaining.

Question: With all of the Town Hall meetings this summer and with all the different legislative packages beginning to emerge from Congress. What do you think the impact of a broad based health care program in this country will have on our business community?

Answer: Claire Mason – “Ultimately, I think it will impact business negatively.”

Out2martincounty.com is a photo journal featuring people, "Who they are, what they do and where they do it".

Do you have something to say, an event to talk about? An event you would like me to cover? Do it here! Email your story or request to me at rshall@out2martincounty.com

Photo by: Dick Hall Out2/Martin County.com

Out2martincounty.com adheres to full compliance with C.O.P.P.A. (Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998)

"Martin County's Photo Journal"

Thanks to Jeannie Ferarra for her assistance in bringing you todays QOD.

Stuart, Hutchinson Island -- The Martin County Business Development Board Annual Luncheon always provides a unique once a year opportunity for Out2 to ask Martin County's business leaders a topical "Question-of-the-Day".

This year is no exception, we hope you find this years question and answers insightful, interesting and entertaining.

Question: With all of the Town Hall meetings this summer and with all the different legislative packages beginning to emerge from Congress. What do you think the impact of a broad based health care program in this country will have on our business community? Answer: David Ralicki – Rolicki Wealth Management “I think we are taking back our country.”

Out2martincounty.com is a photo journal featuring people, "Who they are, what they do and where they do it".

Do you have something to say, an event to talk about? An event you would like me to cover? Do it here! Email your story or request to me at rshall@out2martincounty.com

Photo by: Dick Hall Out2/Martin County.com

Out2martincounty.com adheres to full compliance with C.O.P.P.A. (Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998)

"Martin County's Photo Journal"

Thanks to Jeannie Ferarra for her assistance in bringing you todays QOD.

Stuart, Hutchinson Island -- The Martin County Business Development Board Annual Luncheon always provides a unique once a year opportunity for Out2 to ask Martin County's business leaders a topical "Question-of-the-Day".

This year is no exception, we hope you find this years question and answers insightful, interesting and entertaining.

Question: With all of the Town Hall meetings this summer and with all the different legislative packages beginning to emerge from Congress. What do you think the impact of a broad based health care program in this country will have on our business community?

Answer: Niki Gozdoz – Crossroads Architecture “I am trying to educate myself, but I am a little scared. Being a small business is going to be tough.”

Out2martincounty.com is a photo journal featuring people, "Who they are, what they do and where they do it".

Do you have something to say, an event to talk about? An event you would like me to cover? Do it here! Email your story or request to me at rshall@out2martincounty.com

Photo by: Dick Hall Out2/Martin County.com

Out2martincounty.com adheres to full compliance with C.O.P.P.A. (Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998)

"Martin County's Photo Journal"

Thanks to Jeannie Ferarra for her assistance in bringing you todays QOD

Stuart, Hutchinson Island -- The Martin County Business Development Board Annual Luncheon always provides a unique once a year opportunity for Out2 to ask Martin County's business leaders a topical "Question-of-the-Day".

This year is no exception, we hope you find this years question and answers insightful, interesting and entertaining.

Question: With all of the Town Hall meetings this summer and with all the different legislative packages beginning to emerge from Congress. What do you think the impact of a broad based health care program in this country will have on our business community?

Answer: Tim Doyle – “I'm one of those who is happy with my insurance coverage.”

Out2martincounty.com is a photo journal featuring people, "Who they are, what they do and where they do it".

Do you have something to say, an event to talk about? An event you would like me to cover? Do it here! Email your story or request to me at rshall@out2martincounty.com

Photo by: Dick Hall Out2/Martin County.com

Out2martincounty.com adheres to full compliance with C.O.P.P.A. (Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998)

"Martin County's Photo Journal"

Thanks to Jeannie Ferarra for her assistance in bringing you todays QOD

Stuart, Hutchinson Island -- The Martin County Business Development Board Annual Luncheon always provides a unique once a year opportunity for Out2 to ask Martin County's business leaders a topical "Question-of-the-Day".

This year is no exception, we hope you find this years question and answers insightful, interesting and entertaining.

Question: With all of the Town Hall meetings this summer and with all the different legislative packages beginning to emerge from Congress. What do you think the impact of a broad based health care program in this country will have on our business community?

Answer: Michelle Morgan – Riverside Bank “I try not to keep up with it too much, I am terrified what is going to happen to our healthcare.”

Out2martincounty.com is a photo journal featuring people, "Who they are, what they do and where they do it".

Do you have something to say, an event to talk about? An event you would like me to cover? Do it here! Email your story or request to me at rshall@out2martincounty.com

Photo by: Dick Hall Out2/Martin County.com

Out2martincounty.com adheres to full compliance with C.O.P.P.A. (Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998)

"Martin County's Photo Journal"

Thanks to Jeannie Ferarra for her assistance in bringing you todays QOD

Stuart, Hutchinson Island -- The Martin County Business Development Board Annual Luncheon always provides a unique once a year opportunity for Out2 to ask Martin County's business leaders a topical "Question-of-the-Day".

This year is no exception, we hope you find this years question and answers insightful, interesting and entertaining.

Question: With all of the Town Hall meetings this summer and with all the different legislative packages beginning to emerge from Congress. What do you think the impact of a broad based health care program in this country will have on our business community?

Answer: John Carr – Halsey Griffith; “For some businesses good, for some, not so good.”

Out2martincounty.com is a photo journal featuring people, "Who they are, what they do and where they do it".

Do you have something to say, an event to talk about? An event you would like me to cover? Do it here! Email your story or request to me at rshall@out2martincounty.com

Photo by: Dick Hall Out2/Martin County.com

Out2martincounty.com adheres to full compliance with C.O.P.P.A. (Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998)

"Martin County's Photo Journal"

Thanks to Jeannie Ferarra for her assistance in bringing you todays QOD Stuart, Hutchinson Island -- The Martin County Business Development Board Annual Luncheon always provides a unique once a year opportunity for Out2 to ask Martin County's business leaders a topical "Question-of-the-Day".

This year is no exception, we hope you find this years question and answers insightful, interesting and entertaining.

Question: With all of the Town Hall meetings this summer and with all the different legislative packages beginning to emerge from Congress. What do you think the impact of a broad based health care program in this country will have on our business community?

Answer: John Danner – Rebel Development, Inc. “God knows.”

Out2martincounty.com is a photo journal featuring people, "Who they are, what they do and where they do it".

Do you have something to say, an event to talk about? An event you would like me to cover? Do it here! Email your story or request to me at rshall@out2martincounty.com

Photo by: Dick Hall Out2/Martin County.com

Out2martincounty.com adheres to full compliance with C.O.P.P.A. (Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998)

"Martin County's Photo Journal"

From Jonathan Stempel on Reuters.com, reporting on the Federal Reserve's requests to keep details on banks in bailout programs secret, posted on August 27th:

"The U.S. Federal Reserve asked a federal judge not to enforce her order that it reveal the names of the banks that have participated in its emergency lending programs and the sums they received, saying such disclosure would threaten the companies and the economy.

The central bank filed its request on Wednesday, two days after Chief Judge Loretta Preska of the U.S. District Court in Manhattan ruled in favor of Bloomberg News, which had sought information under the federal Freedom of Information Act.

Preska said the Fed failed to show that revealing the names would stigmatize the banks and result in 'imminent competitive harm.' The Fed asked the judge not to require disclosure while it readies an appeal."

. . . and from market analyst and metals expert Jim Sinclair, in a posting on his JSMineSet.com website on August 26th:

"The FDIC decision to set high thresholds for private equity to buy banks will result in a decrease on what private capital will pay for busted banks. If private money can't bid up the price, then the regular buyers of busted banks, if there are any left, will make lower bids that will cost the FDIC more money.

Commercial real estate loans start coming due in large amounts. US Banks have more than $250 billion in unrealized loans on their books in commercial loans. There are estimates by reasonable and accredited people that forecast as many as 500 regional banks could go bust on unrealized losses on loans on their books. This is a massive problem. There is a trillion dollar problem out there. With the shadow banking system in disarray there is no one to turn to. This also feeds into some SIVs. Interpretation of this is an awful problem which only the FDIC can functionally handle, and they will have to go to the treasury. That will further increase the US Federal Budget deficit. That will in turn put additional downward pressure on the US dollar."

. . . and from Richard Russell, editor and publisher of Dow Theory Letters, in remarks posted on his website on August 27th:

"No nation (the US) can be both the world's leader and world's biggest debtor. In his fight to thwart the bear market, Bernanke is sowing the seeds for the future demise of the United States. The law of unintended consequences is about to become operative.

A huge problem ahead is this -- will the dollar decline slowly, as it has been doing, or will the dollar crash, setting off a world crisis?

Prediction -- Where ever you are now will be your best situation for years to come. The trick ahead will be to hold on to what you have. I've been warning that a 'hard rain is a'coming.' So far, we've only experienced a drizzle."

. . . and finally, from Mary Anne and Pamela Aden, editors of The Aden Forecast, in an update posted on their website on August 26:

"The gold price is coming closer to its 'moment of truth.' Gold is poised to rise in an intermediate rise we call C but . . . whichever way gold breaks out of its six month triangle will point to the next short-term direction. Gold is strong above $942 (basis December) and it would show good strength above $956, and especially above $970. A clear C rise would then be underway and a new record high would be likely. On the downside, if gold closes below $927, it would be breaking down from the triangle and $910 could then be reached.

Silver is similar. It's firm above $13.85 and it would be 'break out' strong above $15."

Submitted by: John Demaree

JUST IN ...

Democrats, realizing the success of the President's "Cash For Clunkers" rebate program, have revamped a major portion of their National Health Care Plan.

President Obama, Speaker Pelosi, and Sen. Reed are expected to make this major announcement at a joint news conference later this week. I have obtained an advanced copy of the proposal which is named....

"CASH FOR CODGERS": and it works like this...

Couples wishing to access health care funds in order to pay for the delivery of a child will be required to turn in one old person. The amount the government grants them will be fixed according to a sliding scale.. Older and more prescription dependent codgers will garner the highest amounts.

Special "Bonuses" will be paid for those submitting codgers in targeted groups, such as smokers, alcohol drinkers, persons 10 pounds over their government prescribed weight, and any member of the Republican Party.

Smaller bonuses will be given for codgers who consume beef, soda, fried foods, potato chips, lattes, whole milk, dairy products, bacon, Brussel sprouts, or Girl Scout Cookies.

All codgers will be rendered totally useless via toxic injection. This will insure that they are not secretly resold or their body parts harvested to keep other codgers in repair.

RUN, MY OLD FRIEND, RUN!!!

HINT: IT’S NOT THE LAND COST. IT’S THE TAXES

There is a good reason why residential builders want to develop Martin County’s western agricultural land. It’s not because the cost per lot is necessarily lower, even though the cost per acre is lower. To maintain lower population density, larger lots are required. It’s because there are huge savings available in ag land property tax. Of course, there are also savings in road construction by clustering houses in PUDs (Planned Unit Developments), but that is obvious and applicable anywhere. Only in ag land are the huge tax savings obtained.

To understand how this occurs, let’s look at two top quality vacant lots, each with a value of $400,000. One20is in a residential area, perhaps two prime acres on waterfront. The other is a 20-acre lot used to raise cattle, the minimum size for a residence on land zoned agricultural. Using round numbers to illustrate, the millage rate, or annual ad valorem tax per $1,000 of value, is about $15 for both.

RESIDENTIAL TAX VS. AG TAX

So the lot in a residential area would be taxed at 400 x $15, or $6,000/yr. (For less costly residential lots, just scale down the tax.) The 20-acre ag land lot, in sharp contrast, would be valued for property tax purposes at only $240/acre, despite its real market value. So 20 acres times $240 produces a total taxable value of $4,800. Using the same calculation as above, 4.8 x $15 would produce a total tax of only $72/yr. Rest assured that this is not a typographical error. Only $72/yr tax for a $400,000 parcel!

The reason for this ridiculous result is that the State of Florida has established a public policy intended to preserve agriculture. Specifying a taxable value of $240/acre for cattle range (or $800 to $2,800/acre for groves) somehow, maybe, relates to the value as a business income producer rather than its true market value.

CALCULATIONS FOR A 50-HOUSE DEVELOPMENT

Now let’s consider what happens, not with a single house, but with a development of 50 houses. Using the same numbers as the above example, say a developer gets approval to build 50 houses on a vacant 100-acre tract zoned residential. His annual property tax just for the land would be 50 x $6,000, or $300,000/yr. As people buy these lots for future homes, those buyers would assume the obligation to pay the tax. So if, after a period of time, the developer sold ten of the lots, his annual tax would reduce to $240,000.

Now let’s examine the developer with a 1,000-acre tract with cattle in ag land. If he developed 50 lots of 20-acres each, his annual property tax bill would be 50 x $72, or a mere $3,600/yr until he sold the lots. And until the new owners stopped the farming and built houses, their annual property tax would remain at $72.

It’s much the same financial results with cluster-PUDs under the Land Preservation Incentive Amendment (aka Valliere Rural Cluster Amendment). The only difference is that half of a 500-acre minimum parcel must not be developed. So in the 1,000-acre example, 500 acres would remain as farm or preserve, while 50 houses on 2 to 10 acres each would be developed. If perhaps the 50 houses were on 5 acres each, that would leave 250 acres for amenities. The inducement to cluster is lower construction costs. Again, the total ag property tax would be $3,600/yr, a far cry from the $300,000 it would be in a residential zone.

Hardly anyone – other than developers, builders, land use lawyers, speculators, planners, large landowner/farmers, environmental and engineering consultants, bankers and accountants – understand how this tax “benefit” works for the growth industry. Now you know. NOTE: Most commissioners and legislators do not understand this slick gimmick.....

Get the rest of the story at Martin County Defender on the web

Here's a Cliff Notes version of some of the Health Care bill sitting in the house. Obama is set to lecture about it in a few minutes. He has NOT read the bill, The person writing this originally stated that he had!

If you don't think this will affect business, read on. It is obscene!

_________

Pg 22 of the HC Bill MANDATES the Govt will audit books of ALL EMPLOYERS that self insure!!

Pg 30 Sec 123 of HC bill - THERE WILL BE A GOVT COMMITTEE that decides what treatments/benes you get

Pg 29 lines 4-16 in the HC bill - YOUR HEALTH CARE IS RATIONED!!!

Pg 42 of HC Bill - The "Health Choices Commissioner" will choose your HC Benefits for you. U have no choice!

PG 50 Section 152 in HC bill - HC will be provided to ALL non US citizens, illegal or otherwise

Pg 58HC Bill - Govt will have real-time access 2 individuals finances & a National ID Healthcard will be issued!

Pg 59 HC Bill lines 21-24 Govt will have direct access to your2banks accts for elect. funds transfer

PG 65 Sec 164 is a payoff subsidized plan for retirees and their families in Unions & community orgs (ACORN).

Pg 72 Lines 8-14 Govt is creating a HC exchange to bring priv HC plans under Govt control.

PG 84 Sec 203 HC bill - Govt mandates ALL benefit pkgs 4 priv. HC plans in the Exchange

PG 85 Line 7 HC Bill - Specs for of Benefit Levels for Plans = The Govt will ration your Healthcare!

PG 91 Lines 4-7 HC Bill - Govt mandates "linguistic appropriate svcs". Example - Translation for illegal aliens

Pg 95 HC Bill Lines 8-18 The Govt will use groups i.e., ACORN & Americorps 2 sign up indiv. for Govt HC plan

PG 85 Line 7 HC Bill - Specs of Ben Levels 4 Plans. #AARP members - Your Health care WILL be rationed

PG 102 Lines 12-18 HC Bill - Medicaid Eligible individuals will be automatically enrolled in Medicaid. No choice

pg 124 lines 24-25 HC No company can sue GOVT on price fixing. No "judicial review" against Govt Monopoly

pg 127 Lines 1-16 HC Bill - Doctors/ #AMA - The Govt will tell YOU what u can make. (Sorry, Homer!)

Pg 145 Line 15-17 An Employer MUST auto enroll employees into pub opt plan. NO CHOICE

Pg 126 Lines 22-25 Employers MUST pay for HC for part time employees AND their families.

Pg 149 Lines 16-24 ANY Emplyr w payroll 400k & above who does not prov. pub opt. pays 8% tax on all payroll

pg 150 Lines 9-13 Biz w payroll btw 251k & 400k who doesnt prov. pub. opt pays 2-6% tax on all payroll

Pg 167 Lines 18-23 ANY individual who doesnt have acceptable HC accrdng 2 Govt will be taxed 2.5% of inc

Pg 170 Lines 1-3 HC Bill Any NONRESIDENT Alien is exempt from indiv. taxes. (Americans will pay)

Pg 195 HC Bill -officers & employees of HC Admin (GOVT) will have access 2 ALL Americans finan/pers recs

PG 203 Line 14-15 HC - "The tax imposed under this section shall not be treated as tax" Yes, it says that!

Stuart -- Just before the critical July 21 Commission workshop, where commissioners sensibly did not support TCDs (so-called Traditional Community Developments), a keen observer of the local political scene asked me: Isn’t it a done deal that the Commission is going to approve putting county-wide TCDs in our Comp Plan?

My answer was: Hopefully not. Many of us are working hard to make everyone aware of how adverse to our quality of life and tax burden TCDs would be. We’re urging residents to speak out and let commissioners hear their views.

And speak out they did. Commissioner Heard reported receiving 1,200 emails. On most issues, commissioners often don’t even get 12. That does not even count phone calls and clippings, almost all in opposition to TCDs. A thumbs up salute to all citizens who stood up to be counted (and especially many of our readers).

Some experienced political observers have opined that for each expressive communication an elected official receives, there are 20 others who did not take the time to do so. Other observers guess the ratio could be not 20, but 40-to-1.

Whatever the number, Commissioners Valliere, Hayes, Heard and Ciampi have done the math and the right thing. They did not support TCDs in their instruction to staff. That is as it should be because we elect them to represent all of us, not just those influentials seeking financial gain. Our sincere thanks to each one of them. Only Commissioner Smith seems unable to understand such an outpouring by citizens, or perhaps he is too wed to developer interests to care.

This week, commissioners have a demanding schedule, meeting Monday through Wednesday, July 27-29. We wish them well. Their toughest job will be working on the 2009-2010 budget and capital improvements. They will have to be tough minded about spending when so many residents are hurting financially.

Commissioners will also workshop EAR Comp Plan amendments that may cover rural PUDs (Planned Unit Developments) in rural areas, drainage, rules for coastal areas, and TDRs (Transfer of Development Rights), among others. The latter is worrisome because TDRs can become a shifting shell game for development, contrary to the wishes of the many people who were so persuasive in putting mixed use TCDs to rest.

The residents of Martin County simply do not want sprawl and higher densities. They look north and south and see where that leads.

Watch it all live on MCTV

The July 27-29 meetings noted above, starting at 9:00 am, will be televised live by the county’s excellent TV service, MCTV, on Comcast channel 20. Re-broadcasts of regularly scheduled Commission meetings (which may be different from workshops) are scheduled for Wednesdays at 9:00 am and 11:00 pm, and Fridays at 4:00 pm. So including the live cablecast, the regular meetings normally air four times. However, with three meetings this week, the schedule may change.

In addition, you can watch the entire meeting or a particular Commission item by visiting the county website, www.martin.fl.us, and using the Video On Demand (VOD) service. VOD is invaluable for checking back on votes and comments on specific issues.

Read the rest of the story at Martin County Defender on the web

John Smith started the day early having set his alarm clock

(MADE IN JAPAN ) for 6 am.

While his coffeepot

(MADE IN CHINA )

was perking, he shaved with his

electric razor

(MADE IN HONG KONG )

He put on a dress shirt

(MADE IN SRI LANKA ),

designer jeans

(MADE IN SINGAPORE )

and tennis shoes

(MADE IN KOREA)

After cooking his breakfast in his new electric skillet

(MADE IN INDIA )

he sat down with his calculator

(MADE IN MEXICO )

to see how much he could spend today. After setting his watch

(MADE IN TAIWAN )

to the radio

(MADE IN INDIA )

he got in his car

(MADE IN GERMANY )

filled it with GAS

(from Saudi Arabia )

and continued his search:/b> for a good paying AMERICAN JOB.

At the end of yet another discouraging and fruitless day checking his Computer

(made in MALAYSIA ),

John decided to relax for a while.. He put on his sandals

(MADE IN BRAZIL ),

poured himself a glass of wine

(MADE IN FRANCE )

and turned on his TV

(MADE IN INDONESIA ),

and then wondered why he can't find a good paying job in AMERICA AND NOW HE'S HOPING HE CAN GET HELP FROM A PRESIDENT

MADE IN KENYA

The July 9, 2009 meeting of the Local Planning Agency (LPA) started off well. Growth Management Department’s Senior Planner Clyde Dulin made an excellent presentation of staff’s proposals. He clearly explained why they were recommending changes in Comp Plan Chapter 4, Future Land Use. Staff’s proposed changes were reasonable. They focused on clarifying certain rules, such as density transitions between existing homes and new development, that were confusing enough to provoke litigation. Basic policy was not being changed.

Dulin noted that he was talking only about the updated staff draft, not Traditional Community Developments (T.C.D.’s), the outrageously bad mixed use developer proposal discussed in previous DEFENDER’s.

24 members of the public addressed the five LPA members, 14 of them opposing TCDs and other efforts to weaken Comp Plan protections. The other 10 were almost entirely people who would benefit financially by massive changes to a Comp Plan, a plan that has been working fine as is.

The first speaker, developer Tom Kenny, very briefly mentioned.....

Read the rest of the story at Martin County Defender on the web

This is only one State...............If this doesn't open your eyes nothing will !

From the L. A. Times

1. 40% of all workers in L. A.. County ( L. A. County has 10.2 million people)are working for cash and not paying taxes. This is because they are predominantly illegal immigrants working without a green card.

2. 95% of warrants for murder in Los Angeles are for illegal aliens.

3. 75% of people on the most wanted list in Los Angeles are illegal aliens..

4. Over 2/3 of all births in Los Angeles County are to illegal alien Mexicans on Medi-Cal , whose births were paid for by taxpayers.

5. Nearly 35% of all inmates in California detention centers are Mexican nationals here illegally

6. Over 300,000 illegal aliens in Los Angeles County are living in garages..

7. The FBI reports half of all gang members in Los Angeles are most likely illegal aliens from south of the border.

8. Nearly 60% of all occupants of HUD properties are illegal.

9. 21 radio stations in L. A. are Spanish speaking.

10. In L. A. County 5.1 million people speak English, 3.9 million speak Spanish. (There are 10.2 million people in L. A. County )

(All 10 of the above are from the Los Angeles Times)

Less than 2% of illegal aliens are picking our crops, but 29% are on welfare. Over 70% of the United States ' annual population growth (and over 90% of California , Florida , and New York ) results from immigration. 29% of inmates in federal prisons are illegal aliens.

We are a bunch of fools for letting this continue

HOW CAN YOU HELP ?

Send copies of this article to at least two other people. 100 would be even better. This is only one State...............

And you wonder why Nancy Pelosi wants them to become voters!

HERALDING THE END OF MARTIN COUNTY AS WE HAVE KNOWN IT

Agenda item 8B at the July 14, 2009 Martin County Commission will focus on three groups of EAR Comp Plan amendments: Future Land Use; Conservation and Open Space; Drainage and Water. All are important, but Future Land Use is the most critical because it will cover the most radical Comp Plan changes proposed by Future Group. They would massively, irreversibly and destructively impact what Martin County is. The lives of residents will never be the same unless commissioners stand up to exploitation.

The Commission’s key vote on the Comp Plan changes will wait until September. However, the commissioner workshop discussions and directions to staff as to what should be included in proposed amendments will make the September vote a foregone conclusion.

The Future Land Use amendments have been explained in detail in DEFENDER Nos. 99 and 108. Here we will briefly touch on a few of the ways that you, as a Martin County resident, will be affected.

None of these unhappy anticipations are wild speculation. All are based on what has happened to people living in other South Florida counties which have allowed the rampant development that current proposals by growth machine supporters will make possible here for the first time. [See unsolicited reader reports below.] As so many other Floridians have learned, once these radical changes are implemented it is almost impossible to reverse them. Martin needs slow growth, not unrestrained growth.

Read the rest of the story at Martin County Defender on the web

I’ve noticed a lot of noise lately about the potential ill effects of suggestions by the Future Group. As many of you know, I’m one of the people who has participated in the Future Group working discussions of the Comp Plan.

Most people who are interested in this know that the EAR process is required by statute to update Comp Plans across the State to make sure future land use practices adapt to changing circumstances and preserve the vision local communities have for their futures. The statute recognizes that things change, predictions aren’t always accurate, and our Comp Plans need to be flexible enough to handle these changes. That’s why it requires this periodic review.

The statute also identifies a very effective process for this review. It provides for public comment, review of the public comment by County Staff, the Local Planning Agency and the Board of County Commissioners. It even allows for workshops at all these levels. The process is thorough and effective.

Here in our county, there are some who don’t seem to think that this statutory process is good enough. As a result, those participating in the statutory process, and that includes the Future Group working group, others who have provided comment to County staff, County staff itself, the LPA and the Board of County Commissioners have become subject to personal attacks, misrepresentation of their positions and accusations of misguided motives. What has been glaringly absent from these attacks is any inclination to participate in the statutory process. It occurs to me that they could have submitted their suggestions to County staff for their review, they could have met with staff to discuss the pros and cons of their ideas, as many of us have done, and participated in this civil process. The statutory process invites them to do so. Instead, I hear their noise, twisting the suggestions of others to reflect some danger to our way of life here in Martin County.

It seems they may have given us too much credit. These attacks assume that County Staff, the LPA and the Board of County Commissioners are all minions of the Future Group, have no opinions of their own and could care less about our quality of life. I find it hard to believe that so many intelligent people could be fooled in this way.

Demagoguery can be defined as making use of popular prejudices and false claims and promises in order to gain power. What kind of power, and to what purpose I have no idea. But this definition seems to fit the noise I’ve been hearing. If the citizens of our county want to know what we think, ask us. We have nothing to hide, and we don’t need someone else to translate and redefine our suggestions for us. And neither do you.

View County Commission meetings on Cable Channel 20 or by clicking below

Martin County Commission videos

The following is a summary of highlights in the 48-page opinion issued by an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) relating to charges filed by the Florida Election Commission against Susan and Jim Valliere. The summary was prepared by Attorney Virginia Sherlock.

ALJ Robert Meale has determined that Susan Valliere and Jim Valliere each violated two counts of Florida Elections Laws violations brought against them by the Florida Elections Commission. Each has been fined the maximum fine of $1,000.00 per count -- $2,000.00 each.

The remaining counts have been dismissed. The ALJ found no proof of coordination of activities between the Valliere Campaign run by Susan Valliere and the PAC run by her husband Jim Valliere.

The 48-page opinion essentially finds that Jim Valliere was "controlling and manipulative" and that Susan and Jim literally split up during the months prior to the launching of her campaign, with Susan running her own campaign and Jim left to run the PAC as he chose, without coordination or agreement between them (despite the fact that Jim was also the treasurer of Susan's campaign). The ALJ's decision appears to turn on his understanding that Susan Valliere had little or no control over Jim Valliere and simply let him do whatever he wished without her knowledge or participation.

This passage sums up the ALJ's apparent understanding of the situation:

"After spending many hours in hearing with Mr. Valliere, the Administrative Law Judge finds it highly likely that, at various times during the campaign, Ms. Valliere was fed up with him, aggravated with him, and estranged from him. It is equally unlikley that Mr. Valliere would be deterred by Ms. Valliere's feelings about his actions, ostensibly on his wife's behalf . . . Mr. Valliere was obstinately going to attend to the myriad, detailed tasks that he had set for himself in his political committee, regardless of his wife's desire, consent, or even knowledge."

The ALJ found various facts "suggestive" or "suspicious" of unlawful coordination of activities between the Valliere Campaign (Susan) and the PAC (Jim) but ultimately concluded there was no proof of "the level of coordination that robs the political committee's expenditures of their independent status."

The ALJ also accepted the Vallieres' assertion that it was Jim's son, Jonathan, who put an incorrect disclaimer on the campaign signs (Approved by Susan Valliere), finding no evidence proving that Susan Valliere actually approved the signs before they were erected.

The Counts on which Susan was found liable were willfully failing to sign and certify two campaign treasurer's reports. The Counts on which Jim was found liable were filing an incorrect treasurer's report and certifying that Bob Lennon was a member of the PAC's finance committee when, in fact, Bob Lennon had never been asked or agreed to serve. (This latter count was previously dismissed by the same ALJ, so it's likely the finding of liability on this count will not stand, and Jim Valliere will be liable only on one count.)

"The violations involving campaign treasurer's reports are serious, as they undermine the reporting obligations that are the cornerstone of Chapter 106, Florida Statutes," the ALJ wrote. Also, "neither party exhibited good faith in trying to comply with the laws that they have been proved to have violated."

As a result, "the fines for the two offenses that the (Florida Elections Commission) has proved against each respondent should be the maximum allowed by law, given the seriousness of . . . the violations, the lack of good faith, and Mr. Valliere's role in the two violations of Ms. Valliere."

Get more stories at Martin County Defender on the web

Whether you are an Obama fan, or not, EVERYONE IN THE U. S. needs to know....

Something happened... H. R. 1388 was passed yesterday, behind our backs. You may want to read about it. It wasn't mentioned on the news... just went by on the ticker tape at the bottom of the CNN screen.

Obama funds $20M in tax payer dollars to immigrate Hamas Refugees to the USA. This is the news that didn't make the headlines...

By executive order, President Barack Obama has ordered the expenditure of $20.3 million in "migration assistance" to the Palestinian refugees and "conflict victims" in Gaza.

The "presidential determination", which allows hundreds of thousands of Palestinians with ties to Hamas to resettle in the United States, was signed on January 27 and appeared in the Federal Register on February 4.

Few on Capitol Hill, or in the media, took note that the order provides a free ticket replete with housing and food allowances to individuals who have displayed their overwhelming support to the Islamic Resistance Movement(Hamas) in the parliamentary election of January 2006.

Let's review... itemized list of some of Barack Obama's most recent actions since his inauguration:

His first call to any head of state, as president, was to Mahmoud Abbas, leader of Fatah party in the Palestinian territory.

His first one-on-one television interview with any news organization was with Al Arabia television.

His first executive order was to fund/facilitate abortion(s) not just here within the U. S., but within the world, using U. S. tax payer funds.

He ordered Guantanamo Bay closed and all military trials of detainees halted.

He ordered overseas CIA interrogation centers closed.

He withdrew all charges against the masterminds behind the USS Cole and the "terror attack" on 9/11.

Now we learn that he is allowing hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees to move to, and live in, the US at American taxpayer expense.

These important, and insightful, issues are being "lost" in the blinding bail-outs and "stimulation" packages.

Doubtful? Click here to verify this for yourself

Pres. Obama meets tomorrow with a bi-partisan group from Congress to "jump-start" plans to pass a giant amnesty for 12-20 million illegal aliens.

Your very short phone call to the White House is needed today.

The pro-amnesty forces are bragging this week that they have generated more than 25,000 pro-amnesty phone calls to the White House this month.

You can be sure that Pres. Obama will use these calls in his special White House amnesty meeting tomorrow to back his claim that the American people now support giving permanent work permits and U.S. citizenship to 12-20 million illegal aliens.

Please call and overwhelm the switchboards with a different message:

Main line 202-456-1414

Leg Affairs: 202-456-2230

You will encounter busy signals. You will also have to follow instructions to get to a recording device or a real person. But please be persistent and be counted.

Make one of these talking points:

Windfall Tax on Retirement Income

Adding a tax to your retirement is simply another way of saying to the American people, you're so darn stupid that we're going to keep doing this until we drain every cent from you. That's what the Speaker of the House is saying. Read below...............

Nancy Pelosi wants a Windfall Tax on Retirement Income. In other words tax what you have made by investing toward your retirement. This woman is a nut case! You aren't going to believe this.

Madam speaker Nancy Pelosi wants to put a Windfall Tax on all stock market profits (including Retirement fund, 401K and Mutual Funds! Alas, it is true - all to help the 12 Million Illegal Immigrants and other unemployed Minorities!

This woman is frightening.

She quotes...' We need to work toward the goal of equalizing income, (didn't Marx say something like this?), in our country and at the same time limiting the amount the rich can invest.' (I am not rich, are you?)

When asked how these new tax dollars would be spent, she replied:

'We need to raise the standard of living of our poor, unemployed and minorities. For example, we have an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in our country who need our help along with millions of unemployed minorities. Stock market windfall profits taxes could go a long way to guarantee these people the standard of living they would like to have as 'Americans'.'

(Read that quote again and again and let it sink in.) 'Lower your retirement, give it to others who have not worked as you have for it'. This lady is out of her mind and she is the speaker of the house!

By: Leslie Harris

Imagine it's 1953 and a steel strike threatens to shut down defense plants crucial to President Truman's prosecution of the Korean War. Faced with a national emergency, Truman seizes the steel plants, claiming an inherent power to act. The Supreme Court disagrees, limiting the President's power to seize private property absent a constitutional or statutory mandate to do so. Now fast forward to earlier this week when two Senators introduced a bill that "Give 'em Hell Harry" would love; a bill that gives the President the power to seize and shut down the Internet or any other "critical infrastructure " in the "interest of national security."

Read that last sentence again; no imaging here. The bill is real and now pending before the United States Senate. The bill, dubbed the "Cyber security Bill of 2009," sponsored by Sens. Jay Rockefeller and Olympia Snowe, is the opening salvo in what promises to be a pitched battle about how to best protect the nation's critical infrastructure -- including its privately held communications and information networks -- from increasing threats in a way that does not undermine privacy and civil liberties.

Rockefeller and Snowe do not tread lightly into the fray. Instead, they propose a sweeping federal take over of all cyber security efforts that gives the President plenary power over the Internet and other as yet to be identified "critical infrastructure." In addition to the power to seize and shut down the Internet in the U.S., the President is given the power "in an emergency" to limit Internet traffic to any "critical infrastructure information system," and puts the Commerce Department at the helm of a federal cyber security clearinghouse with the express power to override all laws and regulations, including those designed to protect privacy, to "obtain access to all relevant data" concerning critical infrastructure information systems and networks owned by the private sector. And for those of you with free time and a stiff drink, there is much, much, more.

It's clear our national cyber security efforts can't -- and shouldn't -- be left to idle. The cyber-threat is real and growing. The New York Times recently wrote of the discovery of a whispery international spying operation that had compromised government computers in 103 countries. And no one is exactly sure who is behind this "ghostnet." But it's real, it's dangerous and such efforts will only grow in sophistication and intrigue.

So, we have to protect our house and we must craft a policy able to deal with an "electronic Pearl Harbor," but it also has to be done smart, in the sunlight and with much forethought. For the past eight years we have known almost nothing about what the government is doing with respect to cyber security. There are hopeful signs that is about to change. A 60-day review of the nation's cyber security efforts, ordered by President Obama, is due out sometime next week.

The team preparing the 60-day report solicited the views of all comers, from privacy advocates to industry to academics. We don't know whether we will like the outcome but it has been a thoughtful and inclusive process. And now, just days before the report is due, the Rockefeller-Snowe bill is lobbed on to the White House lawn. There are some sensible provisions in this bill, and some hard questions that have to be resolved, but it's hard to focus on them when the rest of the bill turns the Internet into a big, brass ring and the President is only one riding the Merry-Go-Round.

Leslie Harris is the President and CEO of the Center for Democracy & Technology. Ms. Harris is responsible for the overall vision, direction and management of the organization and serves as the organization's chief spokesperson. Since joining CDT, she has been involved with a wide range of issues related to civil liberties and the Internet, including, government data- mining for counterintelligence, government secrecy, privacy, global Internet freedom, intellectual property, data security and Internet censorship.

Ms. Harris has over two decades of experience as a civil liberties, technology and Internet lawyer, public policy advocate and strategist in Washington. She testifies before Congress on issues related to technology, the Internet and civil liberties and writes, speaks on Internet issues and is regular contributor to several online publications and blogs.

Prior to joining CDT, Ms. Harris was the founder and president of Leslie Harris & Associates, a public policy a firm committed to harnessing the power of new information technologies for public good. She has played a lead role in several key pieces of Internet-related legislation, including E-rate, the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act and the Technology Education and Copyright Harmonization Act. She was also a key strategist and spokesperson in the effort to defeat the Communications Decency Act.

Prior to establishing Leslie Harris & Associates, Ms. Harris served in senior leadership positions in two prominent civil liberties organizations, People for the American Way, and the American Civil Liberties Union.

Thomas J. Dodd and Christopher J. Dodd, here we go again his ol’ man should have been thrown out of the Senate and he should also.

The people of Connecticut are either stupid or fools, why you may ask, the reality is that they’re no different from the rest of the sheep in this country on the way to the slaughter.

Sen. Christopher Dodd lied about adding an amendment to the AIG bail-out deal and now we know why. The AIG email released this week showing that AIG execs were told that if they had their subordinates and their families contribute to his campaign fund he would provide a service in the future. That service turned out to be the very same bonus program he lied about having known about.

What makes this so outrageous is that he is the son of a Senator who in 1967 was censured by the Senate for using campaign funds for personal reasons. Beyond the Senate Ethics Committee's formal disciplinary action, other sources (such as investigative journalist Drew Pearson and Jack Anderson's Congress in Crisis) suggest Dodd's corruption was far broader in scope. (The Case against Congress: A Compelling Indictment of Corruption on Capitol Hill, by Drew Pearson and Jack Anderson, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1968)

By connecting a few more dots that appear to be lying on the table you also find that Mr. Dodd the elder was defeated for a Connecticut Senate seat in 1956 by none other than Prescott Bush father of President Bush #41, he later successfully won the second seat from that state. Bush and Dodd served together for the next 7 years until Prescott’s retirement from the Senate in 1963.

As F. Lee Bailey once told Judge Ito in court regarding the Lt. Ferman testimony; once you catch them in a lie you expect the rest of all testimony to be tainted.

This Senator should be removed from the Senate, not just another slap on the wrist. This guy, along with Cong. Barney Frank are probably the two single most guilty culprits in creating the current financial crisis not only encouraging banks since 19994 to give loans to individuals who don’t deserve them but coercing banks into conducting unsound business decisions. Remember Dodd is Chairman of The United States Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, and has jurisdiction over matters related to: banks and banking, price controls, deposit insurance, export promotion and controls, federal monetary policy, financial aid to commerce and industry, issuance of redemption of notes, currency and coinage, public and private housing, urban development and mass transit, and government contracts.

Since this is my opinion let me go further, I believe that these guys knew exactly what they were doing all along. Much as I hate to say this; “these guys are not stupid” just arrogant. Understanding the way Washington works from a civics perspective can be equated to a chess game. Being an “Independent” I have said for more than 40 years that there is no difference between a Republican or a Democrat. The actions in Washington these past seven months have only proven me to be dead on accurate.

The Republicans have their Corporate welfare and the Democrats have their Social welfare and we that taxpayer pay the bill. When the Republicans are in office they do everything they can gain back the ground they lost the last time the Dems were in office. Throw in a little get even from the 2000 election and we have what we’ve got now. The coercion of the banking industry goes back even further. Social Dems like Barney Fran and Chris Dodd has more to do with open housing in this country than bad banking. I believe that these guys seeing the disaster “Public Housing” was under the “Great Society” in 1965 massing the poor into close quarters turned out to be a bad idea. However, integrating these same people would have become a “NIMBY” (not in my backyard) situation and therefore not politically palatable. However, give these same non-working, illiterate populations homes throughout the country hoping beyond belief that housing prices would continue to rise was not sustainable. Now what you are going to have, are people who would never get into that home down the street in the past, their home will be declared a toxic asset and since it was not their fault but the fault of greedy bankers, real estate and mortgage brokers, we have a social responsibility not to put these poor populations out on the street.

Let’s have Chris Dodd and Barney Frank pay for it.

Jensen Beach -- Last week a business member of the Palm City Chamber of Commerce was given a citation at their place of business, and an order to appear in court, for violation of the recently amended Martin County Noise Ordinance.

Since the Noise Ordinance was amended on February 10, 2009 three Jensen Beach Chamber of Commerce business members have received noise complaints. During the first night of the Marti Gras event (Friday, February 20) Crawdaddy’s in downtown Jensen Beach was warned by a Martin County Sheriff Deputy to lower music or face a $500 fine because the deputy had received one anonymous complaint. Mulligan’s received a visit from a Sheriff’s Deputy following a complaint during their St. Patrick’s Day event (Tuesday, March 17), and JB Pip’s Tiki Bar had two noise complaints made against them from the same person.

It is unfortunate the Jensen Beach and Palm City business communities, especially those businesses that had previously voiced concerns over the proposed noise ordinance amendment, were not informed of the Commission meeting date when the amendment to the noise ordinance was placed on the agenda as was promised by the Martin County Community Development director.

According to Palm City Chamber officials “it is never too late for our voices to be heard. The amendment in theory is good but its’ wording is poor. Our elected officials did unanimously pass the amendment based on the complaints from squeaky-wheel residents. These residents asked for no noise ever and that is what was voted on. The additional language the complaining residents asked for is NOT a compromise between our businesses and residents, but a Big Brother shut them down technique.”

The revenue and taxes lost as a result of this noise ordinance amendment by these businesses, and other gallery and boutique businesses that benefit from restaurant customers, can jeopardize jobs - a scenario that is unnecessary in these difficult economy times.

Please note: Below are Minutes of the February 10th Commission Meeting pertaining to the Noise Ordinance proposed changes. Only two people spoke during public comment.

6. PUBLIC HEARINGS

A. PUBLIC HEARING REGARDING A PROPOSED ORDINANCE AMENDING

NOISE STANDARDS FOR PLACES OF PUBLIC ENTERTAINMENT WITHIN THE UNINCORPORATED AREAS OF MARTIN COUNTY

Pursuant to Administrative direction, the Building, Legal and Sheriff Departments have collaborated to develop an amendment to the current noise standards of Martin County as it relates to Places of Public Entertainment in order to aid local law enforcement officials in the determination and enforcement of a noise standard violation for those establishments and venues that generate noise beyond their property lines and disturb the peace.

AGENDA ITEM: 80449082 RESOLUTION NO. 09-2.16 and ORDINANCE NO. 815

Larry Massing, provided staff's presentation to the Board.

Chairman Valliere solicited public comment.

Charles Johnson and Ed Maxwell spoke about this issue.

Motion: I would move approval of the ordinance change as presented. Moved by Doug Smith, Vice Chair ,seconded by Patrick Hayes, Commissioner. Motion carried unanimously.

Major Robert Pryor with the Sheriff's Office addressed the Board and answered Board questions.

AYES: ALL

Please contact the commissioners and support the efforts of the Palm City Chamber of Commerce and the Jensen Beach Chamber of Commerce to have a balanced solution and to undo the unfair language currently in place. eciampi@martin.fl.us, dsmith@martin.fl.us, svallier@martin.fl.us,phayes@martin.fl.us,sheard@martin.fl.us

CURRENT WORDING OF ORDINANCE.

67.305.K. Places of public entertainment. It shall be unlawful for any public entertainment establishment or person associated with or working for said establishment to operate, play or permit the operation or playing of any radio, television, phonograph, drum, musical instrument, sound amplifier, or similar device between the hours of 11:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. in such a manner as to create noise across a real property boundary.

CURRENT AMENDMENT

"Additionally, at no time may any such noise originating from a place of public entertainment be audible more than 150 feet beyond the property boundary of said establishment.”

Once upon a time a man appeared in a village and announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for $10 each.

The villagers, knowing there were many monkeys, went to the forest and started catching them. The man bought thousands at $10 and, as supply started to diminish, the villagers stopped their effort.

He then announced that he would buy monkeys at $20 each. This renewed the villagers efforts and they started catching monkeys again.

Soon the supply diminished and people started going back to their farms. The offer increased to $25 each and the supply of monkeys became so scarce it was an effort to even find a monkey, let alone catch it!

The man now announced that he would buy monkeys at $50 each! However, since he had to go to the city on some business, his assistant would buy on his behalf.

The assistant told the villagers, "Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that my boss has already collected. I will sell them to you at $35 and when my boss returns, you can sell them to him for $50."

The villagers rounded up all their savings and bought all the monkeys for 700 billion dollars.

They never saw the man or his assistant again, only lots and lots of monkeys!

Now you have a better understanding of how the WALL STREET BAILOUT PLAN WORKS !!!

It doesn't get much clearer than this........

Dear IRS,

I am sorry to inform you that I will not be able to pay taxes owed April 15, but all is not lost.

I have paid these taxes: accounts receivable tax, building permit tax, CDL tax, cigarette tax, corporate income tax, dog license tax, federal income tax, unemployment tax, gasoline tax, hunting license tax, fishing license tax, waterfowl stamp tax, inheritance tax, inventory tax, liquor tax, luxury tax, Medicare tax, city, school and county property tax (up 33 percent last 4 years), real estate tax, social security tax, road usage tax, toll road tax, state and city sales tax, recreational vehicle tax, state franchise tax, state unemployment tax, telephone federal excise tax, telephone federal state and local surcharge tax, telephone minimum usage surcharge tax, telephone state and local tax, utility tax, vehicle license registration tax, capital gains tax, lease severance tax, oil and gas assessment tax, Colorado property tax, Texas, Colorado, Wyoming, Oklahoma and New Mexico sales tax, and many more that I can't recall but I have run out of space and money.

When you do not receive my check April 15, just know that it is an honest mistake. Please treat me the same way you treated Congressmen Charles Rangle, Chris Dodd, Barney Frank and ex-Congressman Tom Daschle and, of course, your boss Timothy Geithner.

Ed Barnett, Wichita Falls

P.S. I will make at least a partial payment as soon as I get my stimulus check.

MEXICO IS ANGRY !!! The shoe is on the other foot and the Mexicans from Sonora don't like it. Can you believe the nerve of these people? It's almost funny.

State of Sonora is angry at Influx of Mexicans into Mexico. Nine state legislators from the Mexican state of Sonora traveled to Tucson to complain about Arizona's new employer crackdown on illegals from Mexico.

It seems that many Mexican illegals are now returning to their hometowns and the officials in the Sonora state government are ticked off about it.

A delegation of nine state legislators from Sonora was in Tucson on Tuesday to say Arizona 's new employer sanctions law will have a devastating effect on the Mexican state. At a news conference, the legislators said Sonora - Arizona's southern neighbor, made up of mostly small towns - cannot handle the demand for housing, jobs and schools it will face as illegal Mexican workers here return to their hometowns without jobs or money.

The law, which took effect Jan.1, punishes employers who knowingly hire individuals who don't have valid legal documents to work in the United States. Penalties include suspension of, or loss of, their business license. The Mexican legislators are angry because their own citizens are returning to their hometowns, placing a burden on their state government.

How can they pass a law like this?' asked Mexican Rep. Leticia Amparano-Gamez, who represents Nogales. 'There is not one person living in Sonora who does not have a friend or relative working in Arizona, she said, speaking only in Spanish.

Mexico is not prepared for this, for the tremendous problems it will face as more and more Mexicans working in Arizona and sending money to their families return to hometowns in Sonora without jobs,' she said. 'We are one family, socially and economically, she said of the people of Sonora and Arizona .. Wrong!

The United States is a sovereign nation, not a subsidiary of Mexico, and its taxpayers are not responsible for the welfare of Mexico's citizens.

It's time for the Mexican government, and its citizens, to stop parasitically feeding off of the United States and to start taking care of its/their own needs.

Too bad all the US states don't pass a law just like Sonora . Maybe that's the answer, since our own Congress will not do anything!

New Immigration Laws: Read to the bottom or you will miss the real message...

1. There will be no special bilingual programs in the schools.

2. All ballots will be in this nation's language.

3. All government business will be conducted in our language.

4. Non-residents will NOT have the right to vote no matter how long they are here.

5. Non-citizens will NEVER be able to hold political office

6. Foreigners will not be a burden to the taxpayers. No welfare, no food stamps, no health care, or other government assistance programs, any burden will be deported.

7. Foreigners can invest in this country, but it must be an amount at least equal to 40,000 times the daily minimum wage.

8. If foreigners come here and buy land... options will be restricted. Certain parcels including waterfront property are reserved for citizens naturally born into this country.

9. Foreigners may have no protests; no demonstrations, no waving of a foreign flag, no political organizing, no bad-mouthing our president or his policies. These will lead to deportation.

10. If you do come to this country illegally, you will be actively hunted &, when caught, sent to jail until your deportation can be arranged.

All assets will be taken from you.

Too strict?......

The above laws are current immigration laws of MEXICO!!! These sound fine to me. NOW, how can we get these laws to be America's immigration laws??

WAKE UP, AMERICA - we are losing our country.........

Shortly after class, an economics student approaches his economics professor and says, "I don't understand this stimulus bill. Can you explain it to me?"

The professor replied, "I don't have any time to explain it at my office, but if you come over to my house on Saturday and help me with my weekend project, I'll be glad to explain it to you." The student agreed.

At the agreed-upon time, the student showed up at the professor's house. The professor stated that the weekend project involved his backyard pool.

They both went out back to the pool, and the professor handed the student a bucket. Demonstrating with his own bucket, the professor said, "First, go over to the deep end, and fill your bucket with as much water as you can." The student did as he was instructed.

The professor then continued, "Follow me over to the shallow end, and then dump all the water from your bucket into it." The student was naturally confused, but did as he was told.

The professor then explained they were going to do this many more times, and began walking back to the deep end of the pool.

The confused student asked, "Excuse me, but why are we doing this?"

The professor matter-of-factly stated that he was trying to make the shallow end much deeper.

The student didn't think the economics professor was serious, but figured that he would find out the real story soon enough.

However, after the 6th trip between the shallow end and the deep end, the student began to become worried that his economics professor had gone mad. The student finally replied, "All we're doing is wasting valuable time and effort on unproductive pursuits. Even worse, when this process is all over, everything will be at the same level it was before, so all you'll really have accomplished is the destruction of what could have been truly productive action!"

The professor put down his bucket and replied with a smile, "Congratulations. You now understand the stimulus bill."

A MESSAGE FROM AN APPALLED OBSERVER:

Today I went to visit the new World War II Memorial in Washington, DC. I got an unexpected history lesson. Because I'm a baby boomer, I was one of the youngest in the crowd. Most were the age of my parents, Veterans of 'The Greatest War,' with their families. It was a beautiful day and people were smiling and happy to be there.

Hundreds of us milled around the memorial, reading the inspiring words of Eisenhower and Truman that are engraved there.

On the Pacific side of the memorial, a group of us gathered to read the words President Roosevelt used to announce the attack on Pearl Harbor:

"Yesterday, December 7, 1941-- a date which will live in infamy--the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked."

One elderly woman read the words aloud:

"With confidence in our armed forces, with the abounding determination of our people, we will gain the inevitable triumph."

But as she read, she was suddenly turned angry. "Wait a minute," she said, "they left out the end of the quote. They left out the most important part. Roosevelt ended the message with 'so help us God.'"

Her husband said, "You are probably right. We're not supposed to say things like that now."

"I know I'm right," she insisted. "I remember the speech." The two looked dismayed, shook their heads sadly and walked away.

Listening to their conversation, I thought to myself, 'Well, it has been over 50 years. She's probably forgotten.'

But she had not forgotten. She was right.

I went home and pulled out the book my book club is reading --- "Flags of Our Fathers" by James Bradley. It's all about the battle at Iwo Jima.

I haven't gotten too far in the book. It's tough to read because it's a graphic description of the WWII20battles in the Pacific.

But right there it was on page 58. Roosevelt's speech to the nation ends in 'So help us God.'

The people who edited out that part of the speech when they engraved it on the memorial could have fooled me. I was born after the war! But they couldn't fool the people who were there.

Roosevelt's words are engraved on their hearts.

Now I ask: "WHO GAVE THEM THE RIGHT TO CHANGE THE WORDS OF HISTORY?

US Senator Dianne Feinstein hopes to update President Barack Obama's $838bn economic stimulus package so that American ISPs (Internet Service Providers) can deter child pornography, copyright infringement, and other unlawful activity by way of "reasonable network management."

Clearly, a lobbyist whispering in Feinstein's ear has taken Comcast's now famous euphemism even further into the realm of nonsense.

According to Public Knowledge, Feinstein's network management amendment did not find a home in the stimulus bill that landed on the Senate floor. But lobbyists speaking with the Washington DC-based internet watchdog said that California's senior Senator is now hoping to insert this language via conference committee - a House-Senate pow-wow where bill disputes are resolved.

"This is the most backdoor of all the backdoor ways of doing things," Public Knowledge's Art Brodsky said; "Conference committees are notorious for being the most opaque of all legislative processes."

This is unacceptable for any Americans who value a free and open internet, which I assume is 99.9%. Please contact your representatives and urge them to fight back against this shady backdoor violation of the spirit of the internet.

As Media Matters has documented, during the Bush administration, the media consistently allowed conservatives to dominate their shows, booking them as guests far more often than progressives. The rationale was that Republicans were “in power.”

It appears that old habits die hard. Even though President Obama and his team are in control of the executive branch and Democrats are in the majority in Congress, the cable networks are still turning more often to Republicans and allowing them to set the agenda on major issues, most recently on the debate over the economic recovery package.

On Sunday, conservatives began an all-out assault on President Obama’s economic recovery plan, with House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) both announcing that they would vote against the plan as it stood. Despite Obama’s efforts at good faith outreach, congressional conservatives have continued to attack the stimulus plan with a series of false and disingenuous arguments.

The media have been aiding their efforts. In an analysis of the data, it has been found that the five cable news networks — CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, Fox Business and CNBC — have hosted more Republican lawmakers to discuss the plan than Democrats by a 2 to 1 ratio this week:

In total, from 6 AM on Monday to 4 PM on Wednesday, the networks have hosted Republican lawmakers 51 times and Democratic lawmakers only 26 times. Surprisingly, Fox News came the closest to offering balance, hosting 8 Republicans and 6 Democrats. CNN had only two Democrats compared to 7 Republicans.

The drastically imbalanced coverage isn’t the first time that the news networks have effectively supported attacks on the recovery plans.

Commentary: Are we being preped for a return to the fairness doctrine?

Some of these media outlets, at the end of a program or story will note that the oposition was asked to be part of the program and did not wish to participate.

I get inundated with the propaganda that it is the Iraq war and the war on terror that is bankrupting us.

Here are 14 items that show we don’t need to increase spending we need to cut spending. I also have included the URL's for verification of all the following facts.

1. $11 Billion to $22 billion is spent on welfare to illegal aliens each year by state governments.

Verify at: http://tinyurl.com/zob77

2. $2.2 Billion dollars a year is spent on food assistance programs such as food stamps, WIC, and free school lunches for illegal aliens.

Verify at: http://www.cis.org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.html

3. $2.5 Billion dollars a year is spent on Medicaid for illegal aliens.

Verify at: http://www.cis.org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.html

4. $12 Billion dollars a year is spent on primary and secondary school education for children here illegally and they cannot speak a word of English!

Verify at: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.0.html

5. $17 Billion dollars a year is spent for education for the American-born children of illegal aliens, known as anchor babies.

Verify at http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html

6. $3 Million Dollars a DAY is spent to incarcerate illegal aliens.

Verify at: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html

7. 30% percent of all Federal Prison inmates are illegal aliens.

Verify at: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html

8. $90 Billion Dollars a year is spent on illegal aliens for Welfare & social services by the American taxpayers.

Verify at: http://premium.cnn.com/TRANSCIPTS/0610/29/ldt.01.html

9. $200 Billion dollars a year in suppressed American wages are caused by the illegal aliens.

Verify at: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html

10. The illegal aliens in the United States have a crime rate that's two and a half times that of white non-illegal aliens. In particular, their children, are going to make a huge additional crime problem in the US.

Verify at: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0606/12/ldt.01.html

11. During the year of 2005 there were 4 to 10 MILLION illegal aliens that crossed our Southern Border also, as many as 19,500 illegal aliens from Terrorist Countries. Millions of pounds of drugs, cocaine, meth, heroin and marijuana, crossed into the U.S. From the Southern border.

Verify at: Homeland Security Report: http://tinyurl.com/t9sht

12. The National policy Institute, estimated that the total cost of mass deportation would be between $206 and $230 billion or an average cost of between $41and $46 billion annually over a five year period.'

Verify at: http://www.nationalpolicyinstitute.org/pdf/deportation.pdf

13. In 2006 illegal aliens sent home $45 BILLION in remittances to their countries of origin.

Verify at: http://www.rense.com/general75/niht.htm

14. 'The Dark Side of Illegal Immigration: Nearly One million sex crimes Committed by Illegal Immigrants In The United States.'

Verify at: http://www.drdsk.com/articleshtml

The total cost is a whopping $ 338.3 BILLION DOLLARS A YEAR.

”The solution is not BIG GOVERNMENT, The problem IS BIG GOVERNMENT”. Ronal Reagan

U.S. New York Representative Pete King (Republican, Long Island) introduced a new bill in Congress this month H.R.414: "To require mobile phones containing digital cameras to make a sound when a photograph is taken. The title of the bill is simply, "Camera Phone Predator Alert Act."

From the bill:

" (a) Requirement- Beginning 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, any mobile phone containing a digital camera that is manufactured for sale in the United States shall sound a tone or other sound audible within a reasonable radius of the phone whenever a photograph is taken with the camera in such phone. A mobile phone manufactured after such date shall not be equipped with a means of disabling or silencing such tone or sound.

(b) Enforcement by Consumer Product Safety Commission- The requirement in subsection (a) shall be treated as a consumer product safety standard promulgated by the Consumer Product Safety Commission under section 7 of the Consumer Product Safety Act (15 U.S.C. 2056). A violation of subsection (a) shall be enforced by the Commission under section 19 of such Act (15 U.S.C. 2068)."

This bill only applies to cell phones. So if some predator wants to try to sneak photos of kids in the locker room all they would have to do is use a regular old point and shoot camera which this bill doesn't apply to. In fact, spy type cameras have been around for years and if someone really wants to try to take stealthy photos, they certainly can without the need to use their cell phone camera. The law also does nothing to address video.

Situation; A predator takes a young lady to a motel and records the entire tryst on his cell phone lying on the table. He can do that bad deed with a camera that doesn’t beep.

Situation; Teachers, police, doctors, dentists in that past few years have been rayed out so-to-speak with the use of cell phone video. These are all people in authority and been given in one form or another, our public trust. Too many times in the recent past it not for the cell phone video as evidence these abuses of public trust would never have come to the light of day.

Now I'm a father of three children, and nobody wanted to protect their children from predators more than I did. I wish this technology existed when my kids were young.

Finally there are many times that you don't want your camera to make audible noises. Let's say you’re shooting your own kid in the school play. Having a bunch of disruptive beeps going off every time someone takes a photo is annoying. There are many times when you want to shoot something being less disruptive not being more disruptive. There are certainly plenty of times and places where it is perfectly appropriate to try and be as quiet as you can while shooting.

Now let’s get down to the real motivation to pass legislation of this type. Have you ever heard of the expression CYA? I submit for your consideration UNIONS. Police, teachers, etc., all victims of recent and quite expensive law suits where their members were caught in the act of being themselves. The technology does not invade the privacy of a public school classroom when a teacher verbally or physically abuses a student; there is no expectation of privacy there. The technology does not invade privacy of an individual being beaten on the side of a road by a police officer or officers; there is no expectation of privacy there.

These UNIONS have a lot of clout in our state capitals as well as Congress. Make sure you at lease know where your representatives stand on this issue and make them aware of how you feel on this issue.

It seems to me like this bill is yet another example of a really bad idea coming from government. It’s not the first boneheaded idea that government has fostered upon us just look at the past 120 days. I believe that there should be a law passed that no cell phone manufacturer be allowed to make one of these phones. Remember these organizations can coerce the private sector as well.

Obviously I’m a news freak. I also am from New York City which automatically makes me a cynic.

Last Sunday I watched 60 minutes in which they had a small piece about the virtues of a low caloric diet. Remember CBS is historically the most far left political T.V. news source on the planet. This is a diet consuming less than 800 calories a day or fewer. I watched as these emaciated individuals expounded the virtues of their rigorous lifestyle. They were particularly excited about the “fact?” that their way of life will extend their life to upwards of 120 years or more. They also spent time discussing the “fact?” that it helped their memory and fought-off Alzheimer’s. Point of fact; “you don’t know if you had Alzheimer’s until your autopsy. That story in isolation is fine and good for them.

Fast forward to a small piece on NBC nightly news last evening of the “downsizing” of consumer products, the point was being made that we as consumers are being ripped-off when we buy a pond of coffee that is only 12oz., we don’t mind if they reduce the size of a box of cereal, a bar of Dial soap, etc. In fact they professed that a majority of consumers would rather pay the same for less than have a price increase. This story was a follow-up to a local piece on the same subject by the consumer advocate John Matareece on the Sunday local news “Doesn’t That Stink”.

This morning on the Today show a Dr. Nancy Sneiderman formerly of ABC said that there are virtues to a caloric reduced diet. Once again increased memory and a positive impact on Alzheimer’s, remember they can’t have any real data to this fact because you don’t even know if you have Alzheimer’s until you’ve been autopsied.

These small little bits of information started me thinking, we are about to go into a period of significant economic difficulty to say the least. The Federal Government and U.S. industry is going to be faced with some pretty unhappy baby-boomers whom have never in their lifetime known hard times. Are you being set up? Remember Jimmy carter saying in 1979 that we should set our thermostat to 68 degrees. Research showed that we would be a healthier nation if we did so. Turns out he was just simply trying to get us to turn down our heat and air-conditioning. By the way 68 degrees was also just plain old cold. Set the public up with a sense of lower expectation and you avoid the revolution.

Is our government preparing you to be out in the cold once again? No sense in having a pound of coffee if it costs too much for you to buy it. Reduce your caloric intake; “it’s healthy for you”, so the next time your stomach is scratching against your backbone your wife and kids say something about where’s the beef you can reply; “it’s healthy for you”. Our government historically in the past has used the media to get their message out to sell whatever they want. Be prepared.

I thought this information was quite compelling and thought you might like to look at it. It is a map of the USA by State and County and how residents voted, and there is a sheet with information we would not ordinarily think about.

Professor Joseph Olson of Hemline University School of Law, St. Paul, Minnesota points out some interesting facts concerning the Presidential election:

You probably missed this in the rush of news, but there was actually a report that someone in Pakistan had published in a newspaper, an offer of a reward to anyone who killed an American, any American.

So an Australian dentist wrote an editorial the following day to let everyone know what an American is. So they would know when they found one.

(Good one, mate!!!!)

'An American is English, or French, or Italian, Irish, German, Spanish, Polish, Russian or Greek. An American may also be Canadian, Mexican, African, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Australian, Iranian, Asian, or Arab, or Pakistani or Afghan.

An American may also be a Comanche, Cherokee, Osage, Blackfoot, Navaho, Apache, Seminole or one of the many other tribes known as native Americans.

An American is Christian, or he could be Jewish, or Buddhist, or Muslim. In fact, there are more Muslims in America than in Afghanistan.The only difference is that in America they are free to worship as each of them chooses.

An American is also free to believe in no religion. For that he will answer only to God, not to the government, or to armed thugs claiming to speak for the government and for God.

An American lives in the most prosperous land in the history of the world.

The root of that prosperity can be found in the Declaration of Independence , which recognizes the God given right of each person to the pursuit of happiness.

An American is generous. Americans have helped out just about every other nation in the world in their time of need, never asking a thing in return.

When Afghanistan was over-run by the Soviet army 20 years ago, Americans came with arms and supplies to enable the people to win back their country!

As of the morning of September 11, Americans had given more than any other nation to the poor in Afghanistan. Americans welcome the best of everything...the best products, the best books, the best music, the best food, the best services. But they also welcome the least.

The national symbol of America , The Statue of Liberty , welcomes your tired and your poor, the wretched refuse of your teeming shores, the homeless, tempest tossed. These in fact are the people who built America .

Some of them were working in the Twin Towers the morning of September 11, 2001 earning a better life for their families. It's been told that the World Trade Center victims were from at least 30 different countries, cultures, and first languages, including those that aided and abetted the terrorists.

So you can try to kill an American if you must. Hitler did. So did General Tojo, and Stalin, and Mao Tse-Tung, and other blood-thirsty tyrants in the world. But, in doing so you would just be killing yourself. Because Americans are not a particular people from a particular place. They are the embodiment of the human spirit of freedom. Everyone who holds to that spirit, everywhere, is an American.

Congress turned over the power to issue currency to a contracted central bank in 1913. The Federal Reserve Act grants 12, privately owned banks the exclusive right to print all U.S. legal tender.

The process works like this:

First, the government sells bonds to raise spendable capital. The Fed buys all the government bonds the general public, to include other governments, does not buy. To accomplish this, the Federal Reserve Bank writes a "check" to buy the notes from the Treasury. This "check" is not a check in the normal sense, it is a simple accounting entry registered with the U.S. Treasury. In other words, there is no backing collateral for the check residing in a bank account, it is best called "new currency" or "freshly printed money," as is effectively created on the spot, by the powers granted to the private member banks in the 1913 Federal Reserve Act.

Next, by calling these "purchased" bonds new banking reserves, the bonds are used as collateral for all U.S. banking institutions, so they may create nine or more equivalent interest bearing notes via normal bank function. In this very real sense, the national debt is approximately ten times the advertised amount which only includes interest due on the fraction owed directly to the Federal Reserve, but the people also owe interest on the additional currency created via normal fractional reserve banking.

The currency that the Federal Reserve created on the spot, and gave to the Treasury in exchange for the bond, is accounted for in the national debt, as borrowed with interest due the owner of the note, the Federal Reserve banks. It is then spent by the government. This is the sole source of the macro economic phenomenon called monetary "inflation." The larger pool of monetary currency, the less each unit of currency is worth.

The currency that commercial banking institutions created created on top of the Fed's bond collateral, is the source of all the bank loans made to businesses and individuals around the world and carried on the books.

A basic "follow-the-money" flow of monetary instruments is:

Government Debt --> Securities Asset --> Federal Reserve Check --> Government Deposit --> Government Check -->Commercial Bank Deposit --> Bank Reserves --> Excess Reserves --> Bank Loans --> Bank Currency --> People's Money Supply

It boils down to this:

The Federal Reserve's sole function is to sell freshly printed government spending money to finance whatever budget deficit the U.S. Congress wishes to run. They call this a loan, with both fees and interest due. The new currency issue dilutes the total currency pool, devaluing previously existing currency a precisely corresponding amount.

The people pay for the new currency issue via a hidden tax on everything, known as inflation.

The Fed accrues interest and fees on the new currency.

Congress is allowed access to any amount of additional funds it wants to spend without overtly raising taxes

As a single Mom for over 10 years I had some difficulty during my son’s teen age years keeping him involved and challenged. My son, David attended the Firehouse Youth Centre in PSL for several years. There he had the support & guidance he desperately needed that I could not provide on a regular basis. I truly believe that because my son attended such a wonderful program geared just for his age group and the issues they face he is the well grounded and responsible young adult he is today.

I would highly recommend any parent, single or not with teenagers to check out the Firehouse Youth Centre. It could make the positive difference your family is looking for.

Who We Are

The Firehouse Youth Centre is a non-profit corporation established in 2000 to serve the youth and teens of St. Lucie County. Our mission is to make a difference in the lives of the youth and teens in our community by providing a safe place for them, both physically and emotionally.

We know that growing up is tough. There are a lot of pressures on teens today. There are also many more negative influences in their lives today than ever before. Teen suicide is believed to be the second highest cause of death among teens. Drug and alcohol abuse contributes to the leading cause of death, motor vehicle accidents. Sexual activity among teens and gang involvement are rampant. So how do we fit in?

The goal of the Firehouse is to provide programs that help youth and teens realize there are positive choices to all of the negative options in their lives. We want to teach them that those positive choices can, in turn, help others as well. A spirit of mentoring is woven throughout everything we do. We realize that “rules without relationships create rebellion,” so we strive to build a relationship with the teens so they know we truly care about them and their future.

Our Purpose:

Fed Bail-Out nothing new here!

This morning I heard Tom Brokaw equate the current financial crisis being played out in the White House yesterday to 1932 and the efforts FDR and the “Brain Trusts” came up with in 100 days that ultimately was known as the “New Deal”.

Please remember the only things that were not ultimately ruled unconstitutional were the FDIC and Social Security. Historically at least we had people with the stones to challenge this governmental behavior.

Going back as far as the Federal “bail-out” of the Pennsyvania and New York Central Railroads, an action taken by the Federal Government in 1971and was intended to save the railroad passenger industry. We the tax payer ended up with AMTRAK (The National Railroad Passenger Corporation). Later in 1976 we also ended up with CONRAIL (Consolidated Rail Corporation). All the time America had profitable and successfully running railroads with business models that worked not withstanding the growing trucking industry aided by the installation of the Interstate Highway System. Finally who did the federal government hire to run these new entities…. The same people who ran them into the ground.

Let’s not forget Chrysler, at least that deal had an exit strategy and got us out of the auto industry. That does not mean it wasn’t unconstitutional to begin with.

Now we come to the Saving & loan disaster of the middle 1980’s. A corporation called the “Resolution Trust Corporation” was created to take possession of the assets of some unsuccessful S&L’s and we (tax payer) still have the RTC and a large Federal burocracy.

Now we come to today’s latest and greatest disaster. Once again the federal government is here to come to the rescue. Has anyone suggested, “let’s use the exisiting buraocracy within the RTC to oversee this problem”…no!

Here's why. The federal government is one of limited powers. It may only constitutionally engage in behavior that is specifically authorized in the Constitution. The Constitution's General Welfare Clause requires that all the federal government's expenditures be for the general welfare, such as a highway, or a national park, or a military installation; something from which everyone can directly benefit. Shareholders of Freddie, Fannie, and Bear Stearns AIG, Morgan Stanley, Washington Mutual are a small limited class of persons whose well-being hardly enhances the general welfare.

The reason this type of behavior was never authorized is two-fold. The first is that the federal government cannot favor shareholders of one company by relieving them of their risk or debt over shareholders of another similarly situated company whose risk and debt is permitted to stand without violating the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution. That clause requires that the federal government treat similarly situated persons and entities in a similar way.

Second was a fear the Framers had that if the government became a market participant, it would tilt the playing field in favor of itself or its patrons. That's why they wrote in the Contracts Clause that no state may interfere with a contract, and in the Due Process Clause in the Fifth Amendment that the federal government as well may not do so.

If Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac or any entity collapses because of market forces or poor management, and the Congress insulates the shareholders of the collapsing entity from the consequence of the collapse, it is favoring those shareholders over other shareholders of other companies that might also be on the verge of financial demise.

It simply does not matter whether Congress favors the shareholders by loaning them money, by guaranteeing to their lenders that the taxpayers will repay the loans, or by purchasing their equity. The result is the same. Their contracts — their agreements with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — are not being enforced. And they are being relieved of a debt while other shareholders of other corporations are not.

Perhaps the only public agreement that Jefferson and Hamilton had about the Constitution was that the federal treasury would be doomed and capitalism would expire if the treasury became a public trough. If it does, the voters will send to Congress those whom they expect will fleece the treasury for them. That's why the Founders wrote severe spending limitations into the Constitution.

Everyone in government takes an oath to uphold the Constitution. Shouldn't we expect that they will comply with their oaths?

In closing allow me to ask these questions;

1. Do we (tax payers) want to own all the airlines except for Southwest. Southwest has a successful business model?

2. Do we (tax payers) want to own the auto industry?

3. Do we (tax payers) want to own the banking industry?

4. Do we (tax payers) want to hire back those who brought the banking industry to run the new financial entities?

I decided that since today was the Business Development Boards Annual business recognition awards the following question might be appropriate.

Knowing that a number circles want to change from "Treasure Coast" to "Research Coast"... What do you prefer?

Question: Do you prefer "Treasure Coast" or Research Coast"?

Answer: Ignacio "Iggi" Fiallos from Conceptual Graphics prefers "Treasure Coast"

Question: Do you prefer "Treasure Coast" or Research Coast"?

Answer: Julie Bindl from Sand Hill Cove prefers "Treasure Coast"

Question: Do you prefer "Treasure Coast" or Research Coast"?

Answer: Stuart Shay from TurboCombuster prefers both "Treasure Coast" as well as "research Coast".

Question: Do you prefer "Treasure Coast" or Research Coast"?

Answer: Charlie D' Agata from Staffing Solutions prefers "Treasure Coast"

Question: Do you prefer "Treasure Coast" or Research Coast"?

Answer: Jennifer Jean Libratore prefers "Treasure Coast"

Question: Do you prefer "Treasure Coast" or Research Coast"?

Answer: Mark Liratore President and CEO of Liberator Medical prefers "Treasure Coast"

Question: Do you prefer "Treasure Coast" or Research Coast"?

Answer: prefers "Treasure Coast"

Question: Do you prefer "Treasure Coast" or Research Coast"?

Answer: John Justak from Advanced Technologies prefers "Treasure Coast" He admits he should prefer "Reasearch Coast" he still prefers "Treasure Coast".

Question: Do you prefer "Treasure Coast" or Research Coast"?

Answer: Ken and Marisol Guntkowski of Ameritas Investment Corp. prefers "Treasure Coast"

Question: Do you prefer "Treasure Coast" or Research Coast"?

Answer: Lynn Krieger - instructor of Computer Sciences from IRSC Chastain Capmus prefers "Research Coast", of course she says.

Question: Do you prefer "Treasure Coast" or Research Coast"?

Answer: Nancy Prywitowski of Sea Coast Bank prefers "Treasure Coast"

Question: Do you prefer "Treasure Coast" or Research Coast"?

Answer: Dale Martinez from Sea Coast Bank prefers "Treasure Coast"

by: annonymous

This is the most interesting thing I've read in a long time. The sad thing about it, you can see it coming.

I have always heard about this democracy countdown. It is interesting to see it in print. God help us, not that we deserve it.

How Long Do We Have?

About the time our original thirteen states adopted their new constitution in 1787, Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor at the University of Edinburgh , had this to say about the fall of the Athenian Republic some 2,000 years earlier:

A teacher speaks

This is a subject close to my heart. Do you know that we have adult students at the school where I teach who are not US citizens and who get the PELL grant, which is a federal grant (no pay back required) plus other federal grants to go to school? O

ne student from the Dominican Republic told me that she didn't want me to find a job for her after she finished my program, because she was getting housing from our housing department and she was getting a PELL grant which paid for her total tuition and books, plus money leftover.

She was looking into WAIT which gives students a CREDIT CARD for gas to come to school, and into CARIBE which is a special program (check it out - I did) for immigrants and it pays for child care and all sorts of needs while they go to school or training. The one student I just mentioned told me she was not going to be a US Citizen because she plans to return to the Dominican Republic someday and that she 'loves HER country.'

I asked her if she felt guilty taking what the US is giving her and then not even bothering to become a citizen and she told me that it doesn't bother her, because that is what the money is there for!

I asked the CARIBE administration about their program and if you ARE a US Citizen, you don't qualify for their program. And all the while, I am working a full day, my son-in-law works more than 60 hours a week, and everyone in my family works and pays for our education.

Something is wrong here. I am sorry but after hearing they want to sing the National Anthem in Spanish - enough is enough. Nowhere did they sing it in Italian, Polish, Irish (Celtic), German or any other language because of immigration. It was written by Francis Scott Key and should be sung word for word the way it was written. The news broadcasts even gave the translation -- not even close.

Sorry if this offends anyone but this is MY COUNTRY.

IF IT IS YOUR COUNTRY SPEAK UP -- tell everyone and anyone who will listen. I am not against immigration -- just come through like everyone else.

Get a sponsor; have a place to lay your head; have a job; pay your taxes, live by the rules AND LEARN THE LANGUAGE as all other immigrants have in the past -- and GOD BLESS AMERICA!

PART OF THE PROBLEM, Think about this: If you don't want to this aricle with someone else for fear of offending someone -- YOU'RE PART OF THE PROBLEM! It is Time for America to Speak up If you agree.

Out2MartinCounty always gets the story correct because YOU WRITE THE STORY.

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