If colleges do not "play the political game" they will lose out on State grant funding.
This column presents a conservative viewpoint about items of interest in our community and our lives. Focus is on items impacting your pocket book, your personal freedoms, and your rights. I hope you will read the column regularly and it occasionally influences your opinions and actions. Now, on to the subject of the week:
I want to begin by applauding our competitors, the Floridan, for having the courage it took to write their front page story of January 9, where they criticized the use of political influence by Chipola College through the strategy of employing existing and former State politicians in order to assure full participation as the State "crats" shovel out our tax monies in the form of grants. It is unpopular with many local alumni and supporters for Chipola to be criticized in any manner. However, right is right….and wrong is wrong.
This issue rose to the surface when our illustrious Speaker of the Florida House of Representative was placed under a Grand Jury investigation after he took an unadvertised job for $110,000 per year with North West Florida State College after he helped them obtain some $35,000,000 in construction funding….while he continues to draw his salary as a legislator.
This questionable situation has led to possible legal action being taken against this powerful politician. The grand jury is meeting on this case as I write this column.
For many in Jackson County this immediately turns the spotlight to our own Representative Marti Coley, and our past legislator, Robert Trammell. Coley has a $60,000 per year job, and Trammell has a $57,787 per year job. Coley’s job is supposedly a fund raiser for the Chipola Honors Program, and Trammell is supposedly the "Special Assistant for the Development of Alumni Affairs".
In my opinion, their real purpose and justification is to be sure Chipola has its hands in the State grants "Grab Bag" to be sure our college gets as much funding as their political clout can muster. Unfortunately, that is the system and that is the game colleges in our state are forced to play to succeed. It is a dirty, costly game.
Virtually every college is forced to bear the extra administrative expense of keeping past and present legislators on their payrolls in order to be sure their College is treated fairly by the State funding systems. Of course the legislators do not want to correct this way of doing business, since it creates a lucrative, no attendance required, no work duties, benefits laden job for them while they are in office and after they leave office. It a great perk for being one of the "chosen" of our society.
Do you think it has been by accident that Chipola has received funding for a new administrative building, a great swimming pool, a sports complex, a new fine arts center, and the many other great new buildings on campus…while student enrollment has grown at a much slower pace than capital expenditures? The system is certainly working for Chipola.
As I understand the situation this creates for Marti Coley (and many others across the state), she is now drawing two full salaries from the state, when she retires she will receive a legislative retirement check, a college professors retirement check, and if she wishes to enter the "DROP" program she can get a huge lump sum retirement payment, and then come back to work as a College Professor at full salary. Not bad, eh…how much will you be getting Mr. Common Taxpayer?
Rudiments – Odds and Ends Worth Mentioning:
♦ Hey Taxpayers! You had better quit cheating on your tax returns! We are about to have a new democratic selected as the Secretary of the Treasury (which includes being the boss of the IRS), Mr. Tim Geithner, who is an experienced tax evader. He knows all of the tricks, so watch out!
♦ I want to applaud the Marianna City Commission for the manner in which they are analyzing the possibility of the City purchasing their electrical system and becoming a municipal utility. They are taking it step by step in a cautious, professional manner.
♦ As I gathered information and conducted interviews for the front page story defending Dozier from the effects of previously printed bad press. Many were angry and wanted to tell the public the truth about operations at Dozier. Others were hesitant to speak publicly, but privately defended Dozier. I do not think they are "Getting It Right:".
Note: The opinions stated in this column are solely those of the author and do not represent those of Hatcher Publications.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Getting It Right 1/21/09
Getting Our "Fair Share" ...Politics As Ususal Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance
This column presents a non-partisan, conservative viewpoint about items of interest in our community and our lives. Focus is on items impacting your pocket book, your personal freedoms, and your rights. I hope you will read the column regularly and it occasionally influences your opinions and actions. Now, on to the subject of the week:
"Shoveling money at Shovel Ready projects."
This is the criteria apparently being pushed to the forefront as the new administration in Washington engages in a "rush to employ" program in a desperate attempt to plug the worsening hole of growing unemployment which threatens to "sink" the American economy. In response to this oncoming "geyser" of funding which is about to spew from the federal bureaucracy, our local governments and agencies are rushing to develop a presentation plan for projects we hope will be funded in this tidal wave of money.
I have no problem with local initiatives to prepare for funding in stimulus plan, but I do have a lot of problem with the administration’s approach on a national basis. Doing all of these "Porkish" projects in public works to build water systems, pave roads, build public buildings, tearing up serviceable items so they can be replaced with shiny new ones, may put a significant number of people to work for a year or two. However, these projects will NOT solve the real problem facing our nation. This problem must be solved before we can ever hope to restore our national economy to any semblance of its former glory. We must solve the problem of how to make our products competitive in the world market. If we can not do this…we will never succeed as a nation. If we can not succeed in this effort, we are doomed to a continuing downward spiral. This economic threat is real and must be faced with wise, astute direction.
A major portion of the available funding for a recovery program must be directed at projects which improve our ability to compete as a nation. To ignore this requirement is lunacy.
As I have stated previously, projects which reduce our future energy dependence on the greedy, anti-Christian sheiks of the Mid-East who hope to destroy our society must be given top priority. These projects would include wind farms, solar energy research and development, a national delivery system for our vast reserves of natural gas, building nuclear energy plants, clean coal research, development of known oil reserves, and increased search for new reserves. The plan should also provide for conversion of vehicles to accommodate several energy sources such as electric, gasoline, and natural gas, with industrial assistance to help manufacturing conversion, and retail stations conversions.
On the scene of international trade, I would favor resumption of the practice of imposing duties and trade restrictions on any nation that does not engage in "fair" trade. We are currently engaging in a "free trade" philosophy with many nations which continue to use forced labor and child labor in their manufacturing, where the government subsidizes the cost of manufacturing of goods which will be exported in order to give their products a competitive advantage on the international scene, and with countries that still restrict the free access of American products to their markets. Our politicians have made stupid deals in these instances. They in effect, have "given away the farm", and our domestic industries are paying for it.
In the "Short Term" –Public works projects maybe the best approach to stopping the current frightening climb of unemployment in our nation. This approach is certainly better than giving every person a $500 check to use to run to Wal-Mart to buy a foreign made TV. It will at least create jobs until the defined projects are over, maybe one or two years. However, at the end of that time we will again be facing huge debts and will have no long term jobs for our population.
I hope our new leadership will have the strength of resolve and character that will be required to lead our nation out of the existing "economic dilemma".
Rudiments- Odds and Ends Worth Mentioning:
· $145,000,000 on the Inauguration. Waste?
· ‘Baby Doc’ Duvalier in Haiti had a 5 million dollar wedding in the national palace while people were starving outside the palace in the streets. This wasn’t that bad…but in these declining economic times, it somehow reminded me of the action of that Dictator.
· I understand there may be a serious Port - A - Potty problem at inauguration. Our infinitely wise federal bureaucracy ordered 5,000 of these much needed johns to serve the crowd of 2 million or more that will herd into the capital for the event. By codes applied to industry, they would need double that number to properly serve the needs of the throng….There may be a lot of fidgeting in the audience, with strained looks on faces.
· Today we have a new President….Let us all hope he has a high level of wisdom, and let us all pray he has an equally high level of principle. If he demonstrates these qualities, he will be "Getting It Right".
Note: The opinions stated in this column are solely those of the author and do not represent those of Hatcher Publications.
This column presents a non-partisan, conservative viewpoint about items of interest in our community and our lives. Focus is on items impacting your pocket book, your personal freedoms, and your rights. I hope you will read the column regularly and it occasionally influences your opinions and actions. Now, on to the subject of the week:
"Shoveling money at Shovel Ready projects."
This is the criteria apparently being pushed to the forefront as the new administration in Washington engages in a "rush to employ" program in a desperate attempt to plug the worsening hole of growing unemployment which threatens to "sink" the American economy. In response to this oncoming "geyser" of funding which is about to spew from the federal bureaucracy, our local governments and agencies are rushing to develop a presentation plan for projects we hope will be funded in this tidal wave of money.
I have no problem with local initiatives to prepare for funding in stimulus plan, but I do have a lot of problem with the administration’s approach on a national basis. Doing all of these "Porkish" projects in public works to build water systems, pave roads, build public buildings, tearing up serviceable items so they can be replaced with shiny new ones, may put a significant number of people to work for a year or two. However, these projects will NOT solve the real problem facing our nation. This problem must be solved before we can ever hope to restore our national economy to any semblance of its former glory. We must solve the problem of how to make our products competitive in the world market. If we can not do this…we will never succeed as a nation. If we can not succeed in this effort, we are doomed to a continuing downward spiral. This economic threat is real and must be faced with wise, astute direction.
A major portion of the available funding for a recovery program must be directed at projects which improve our ability to compete as a nation. To ignore this requirement is lunacy.
As I have stated previously, projects which reduce our future energy dependence on the greedy, anti-Christian sheiks of the Mid-East who hope to destroy our society must be given top priority. These projects would include wind farms, solar energy research and development, a national delivery system for our vast reserves of natural gas, building nuclear energy plants, clean coal research, development of known oil reserves, and increased search for new reserves. The plan should also provide for conversion of vehicles to accommodate several energy sources such as electric, gasoline, and natural gas, with industrial assistance to help manufacturing conversion, and retail stations conversions.
On the scene of international trade, I would favor resumption of the practice of imposing duties and trade restrictions on any nation that does not engage in "fair" trade. We are currently engaging in a "free trade" philosophy with many nations which continue to use forced labor and child labor in their manufacturing, where the government subsidizes the cost of manufacturing of goods which will be exported in order to give their products a competitive advantage on the international scene, and with countries that still restrict the free access of American products to their markets. Our politicians have made stupid deals in these instances. They in effect, have "given away the farm", and our domestic industries are paying for it.
In the "Short Term" –Public works projects maybe the best approach to stopping the current frightening climb of unemployment in our nation. This approach is certainly better than giving every person a $500 check to use to run to Wal-Mart to buy a foreign made TV. It will at least create jobs until the defined projects are over, maybe one or two years. However, at the end of that time we will again be facing huge debts and will have no long term jobs for our population.
I hope our new leadership will have the strength of resolve and character that will be required to lead our nation out of the existing "economic dilemma".
Rudiments- Odds and Ends Worth Mentioning:
· $145,000,000 on the Inauguration. Waste?
· ‘Baby Doc’ Duvalier in Haiti had a 5 million dollar wedding in the national palace while people were starving outside the palace in the streets. This wasn’t that bad…but in these declining economic times, it somehow reminded me of the action of that Dictator.
· I understand there may be a serious Port - A - Potty problem at inauguration. Our infinitely wise federal bureaucracy ordered 5,000 of these much needed johns to serve the crowd of 2 million or more that will herd into the capital for the event. By codes applied to industry, they would need double that number to properly serve the needs of the throng….There may be a lot of fidgeting in the audience, with strained looks on faces.
· Today we have a new President….Let us all hope he has a high level of wisdom, and let us all pray he has an equally high level of principle. If he demonstrates these qualities, he will be "Getting It Right".
Note: The opinions stated in this column are solely those of the author and do not represent those of Hatcher Publications.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Getting It Right - Nation Prepares for “Porkfest” 1/15/09
National feeding frenzy about to begin
This column presents a conservative viewpoint about items of interest in our community and our lives. Focus is on items impacting your pocket book, your personal freedoms, and your rights. I hope you will read the column regularly and it occasionally influences your opinions and actions. Now, on to the subject of the week:
"Washington is about to host a huge feast….and the main entre’ will be PORK!"
On Thursday, just as this issue hits the streets, the Jackson County Development Council (J.C.D.C.) led by Director Bill Stanton, is hosting a meeting at Jim’s Buffet and Grill, for representatives of local municipal governments, our county government, and many bureaucratic departments within local governments. The purpose of this meeting is to assure Jackson County gets "it’s fair share" of all of the monies that are about to be shoveled out of Washington as part of the Obama "economic stimulus" effort.
Does this form of reasoning sound familiar? It is the same old "grab all you can and spend it before someone else gets it" philosophy which has led to billions in government waste and has helped lead our economy into the cesspool.
Glenn Beck on talk radio recently told of a town in North Alabama located near Anniston which had submitted stimulus requests for their community. Their "wish list" totaled $320,000,000 and included switching all of the city lights to solar, putting a solar power system in city hall, and many, many other energy justified requests. The only problem, the total population of the community is 194. That results in federal expenditures of over 1.6 million dollars per citizen. This is just an initial example of the type of bureaucratic thinking which will go into the national "grab bag" funding we are about to experience.
For our local group of hungry "crats", I would recommend consideration of some of the following requests for Jackson County to make to our new leadership in Washington D.C.:
♦ None of the high schools in Jackson County have swimming pools. We certainly need to have swimming teams at all of our schools, so we should request pools for every high school and middle school. (Heated of course.)
♦ Only Marianna High has a $350,000 lighted girls softball field with nice dugouts. We need similar fields for all other schools in the county.
♦ Chipola needs a new tennis and racquet ball complex.
♦ All of the sports arenas in the county need new stadium seating, preferably padded with back rests.
♦ The Caverns Golf Course needs nine more holes, preferably easy ones.
♦ All city and county buildings need to convert to solar energy. Stained glass windows would also be nice.
♦ All city and county owned vehicles should be converted into more expensive hybrid electric-gas vehicles. Sun roofs and mud flaps should be considered.
♦ In Marianna we need sidewalks from downtown to Wal-Mart along Highway 71. We also need to connect the sidewalk from the new High School to the existing one which ends at Citizens Lodge. (I think this is already planned.) Also needed is a new sidewalk along Penn Ave to Middle School. In Graceville we need a sidewalk from downtown to the Outlet Mall. Dellwood desperately needs sidewalks leading to Kelly’s Store.
♦ The Chamber needs to buy at least two more "incubator" business start-up houses on Russ Street.
♦ This looks like a great opportunity to get our new $18,000,000 County Administration Building built at no cost. We might want to add a couple of floors.
♦ Jacob desperately needs an airport.
♦ Museums seem to be popular in the stimulus packages, Las Vegas is asking for a gangster museum. In our county we need an Indian relic museum in Marianna, a Peanut Processing museum in Greenwood, and a Faye Dunaway museum in Bascom.
♦ This is the ideal time to remodel the ugly Jackson County Court House. "White columns over Lafayette" would be a nice theme.
♦ Two Egg needs a lot of downtown redevelopment.
♦ We can restart the River Port at Sneads, even though the river is about dry.
♦ Now is the time to get the water slide and other items to create a water amusement park at Blue Springs Park.
♦ Several of our towns need new City Hall facilities, with solar power systems and employee cafeterias.
♦ Cottondale and Malone need Civic Centers. Marianna can now proceed with the unjustified civic center it is planning for all of our conventions and wrestling matches. Then they can do away with the ridiculous 4% Bed Tax we have which is hurting all area lodging businesses.
♦ We need to expand our county and municipal code enforcement staffing, and they should each be equipped with fast cars and guns.
♦ We need an Emergency Operations Center in Graceville, just in case something happens in that end of the county sometime this century.
♦ We need at least four additional deputies at the court house to guard our judges and "crats".
I hope this list helps those that are preparing our local stimulus package requests which will be submitted to the Federal-Crats. I hope I had a few ideas they had not thought of.
The local architectural and engineering firms must be licking their lips in anticipation of the lucrative fees these projects will bring their firms.
Folks, this type of wasteful, ridiculous thinking is occurring all across our nation as local governments prepare for the "Porkfest" which is about to occur. The jobs which will be created will be temporary in nature, and many of the projects will do nothing to provide long term employment, improvement of our international competitive position, or to make meaningful improvements in our infrastructure.
I can tell you one thing for sure…Filtering project money through all of the inefficient, wasteful bureaucracies is not the right approach to solving the problems within our economic systems.
Instead of spewing money out across the nation on wasteful pork items they should consider rebuilding the national rail system to accommodate a high speed transportation system to give the traveling public relief from a broken, over burdened, and ineffective air transportation system. We should build more nuclear energy plants. They should develop all known oil reserves and seek discovery of more. They should build a national delivery system for our vast reserves of natural gas. They should help Pickens build his wind farms. Our national power grid needs rebuilding….these are all lasting projects that permanently improve our country and help our industries.
At the same time we should begin to charge tariffs on products coming into our markets from countries which will not allow all of our products free access to their population. If countries engage in government subsidies to aid their industries and thus give their producers an advantage over ours, or if they use forced labor and poor ecological controls, we should charge tariffs. Free trade should only exist in instances of "fair" trade. These steps would aid many of our struggling industries and would boost our economy.
This type of thinking and planning is what is needed at this time….not soliciting a "wish list" of "pulled pork" plates for every community in the country. If our astute leadership will only turn in this direction…they will be "Getting It Right".
Rudiments: Odds and Ends Worth Mentioning-
♦ Our hard working, underpaid Washington congressmen just gave themselves a $4700 per year raise. That is your tax money at work.
♦ Florida Public Utilities added another 11% increase to power rates, effective in your January bill. Be prepared. The Marianna City Commission will meet on discussions on the renewal of their franchise at their January 21 meeting at 5:00. I plan to be there, I hope you will also come.
♦ Quote by Jean Rousseau: A country can not subsist well without liberty, nor liberty without virtue". (Quote provided by Dave Nicholson)
♦ Happy New Year!! (Let’s hope it is a good one.)
Note: The opinions stated in this column are solely those of the author and do not represent those of Hatcher Publications.
This column presents a conservative viewpoint about items of interest in our community and our lives. Focus is on items impacting your pocket book, your personal freedoms, and your rights. I hope you will read the column regularly and it occasionally influences your opinions and actions. Now, on to the subject of the week:
"Washington is about to host a huge feast….and the main entre’ will be PORK!"
On Thursday, just as this issue hits the streets, the Jackson County Development Council (J.C.D.C.) led by Director Bill Stanton, is hosting a meeting at Jim’s Buffet and Grill, for representatives of local municipal governments, our county government, and many bureaucratic departments within local governments. The purpose of this meeting is to assure Jackson County gets "it’s fair share" of all of the monies that are about to be shoveled out of Washington as part of the Obama "economic stimulus" effort.
Does this form of reasoning sound familiar? It is the same old "grab all you can and spend it before someone else gets it" philosophy which has led to billions in government waste and has helped lead our economy into the cesspool.
Glenn Beck on talk radio recently told of a town in North Alabama located near Anniston which had submitted stimulus requests for their community. Their "wish list" totaled $320,000,000 and included switching all of the city lights to solar, putting a solar power system in city hall, and many, many other energy justified requests. The only problem, the total population of the community is 194. That results in federal expenditures of over 1.6 million dollars per citizen. This is just an initial example of the type of bureaucratic thinking which will go into the national "grab bag" funding we are about to experience.
For our local group of hungry "crats", I would recommend consideration of some of the following requests for Jackson County to make to our new leadership in Washington D.C.:
♦ None of the high schools in Jackson County have swimming pools. We certainly need to have swimming teams at all of our schools, so we should request pools for every high school and middle school. (Heated of course.)
♦ Only Marianna High has a $350,000 lighted girls softball field with nice dugouts. We need similar fields for all other schools in the county.
♦ Chipola needs a new tennis and racquet ball complex.
♦ All of the sports arenas in the county need new stadium seating, preferably padded with back rests.
♦ The Caverns Golf Course needs nine more holes, preferably easy ones.
♦ All city and county buildings need to convert to solar energy. Stained glass windows would also be nice.
♦ All city and county owned vehicles should be converted into more expensive hybrid electric-gas vehicles. Sun roofs and mud flaps should be considered.
♦ In Marianna we need sidewalks from downtown to Wal-Mart along Highway 71. We also need to connect the sidewalk from the new High School to the existing one which ends at Citizens Lodge. (I think this is already planned.) Also needed is a new sidewalk along Penn Ave to Middle School. In Graceville we need a sidewalk from downtown to the Outlet Mall. Dellwood desperately needs sidewalks leading to Kelly’s Store.
♦ The Chamber needs to buy at least two more "incubator" business start-up houses on Russ Street.
♦ This looks like a great opportunity to get our new $18,000,000 County Administration Building built at no cost. We might want to add a couple of floors.
♦ Jacob desperately needs an airport.
♦ Museums seem to be popular in the stimulus packages, Las Vegas is asking for a gangster museum. In our county we need an Indian relic museum in Marianna, a Peanut Processing museum in Greenwood, and a Faye Dunaway museum in Bascom.
♦ This is the ideal time to remodel the ugly Jackson County Court House. "White columns over Lafayette" would be a nice theme.
♦ Two Egg needs a lot of downtown redevelopment.
♦ We can restart the River Port at Sneads, even though the river is about dry.
♦ Now is the time to get the water slide and other items to create a water amusement park at Blue Springs Park.
♦ Several of our towns need new City Hall facilities, with solar power systems and employee cafeterias.
♦ Cottondale and Malone need Civic Centers. Marianna can now proceed with the unjustified civic center it is planning for all of our conventions and wrestling matches. Then they can do away with the ridiculous 4% Bed Tax we have which is hurting all area lodging businesses.
♦ We need to expand our county and municipal code enforcement staffing, and they should each be equipped with fast cars and guns.
♦ We need an Emergency Operations Center in Graceville, just in case something happens in that end of the county sometime this century.
♦ We need at least four additional deputies at the court house to guard our judges and "crats".
I hope this list helps those that are preparing our local stimulus package requests which will be submitted to the Federal-Crats. I hope I had a few ideas they had not thought of.
The local architectural and engineering firms must be licking their lips in anticipation of the lucrative fees these projects will bring their firms.
Folks, this type of wasteful, ridiculous thinking is occurring all across our nation as local governments prepare for the "Porkfest" which is about to occur. The jobs which will be created will be temporary in nature, and many of the projects will do nothing to provide long term employment, improvement of our international competitive position, or to make meaningful improvements in our infrastructure.
I can tell you one thing for sure…Filtering project money through all of the inefficient, wasteful bureaucracies is not the right approach to solving the problems within our economic systems.
Instead of spewing money out across the nation on wasteful pork items they should consider rebuilding the national rail system to accommodate a high speed transportation system to give the traveling public relief from a broken, over burdened, and ineffective air transportation system. We should build more nuclear energy plants. They should develop all known oil reserves and seek discovery of more. They should build a national delivery system for our vast reserves of natural gas. They should help Pickens build his wind farms. Our national power grid needs rebuilding….these are all lasting projects that permanently improve our country and help our industries.
At the same time we should begin to charge tariffs on products coming into our markets from countries which will not allow all of our products free access to their population. If countries engage in government subsidies to aid their industries and thus give their producers an advantage over ours, or if they use forced labor and poor ecological controls, we should charge tariffs. Free trade should only exist in instances of "fair" trade. These steps would aid many of our struggling industries and would boost our economy.
This type of thinking and planning is what is needed at this time….not soliciting a "wish list" of "pulled pork" plates for every community in the country. If our astute leadership will only turn in this direction…they will be "Getting It Right".
Rudiments: Odds and Ends Worth Mentioning-
♦ Our hard working, underpaid Washington congressmen just gave themselves a $4700 per year raise. That is your tax money at work.
♦ Florida Public Utilities added another 11% increase to power rates, effective in your January bill. Be prepared. The Marianna City Commission will meet on discussions on the renewal of their franchise at their January 21 meeting at 5:00. I plan to be there, I hope you will also come.
♦ Quote by Jean Rousseau: A country can not subsist well without liberty, nor liberty without virtue". (Quote provided by Dave Nicholson)
♦ Happy New Year!! (Let’s hope it is a good one.)
Note: The opinions stated in this column are solely those of the author and do not represent those of Hatcher Publications.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Getting It Right - "A Year of Change"
2009 will undoubtedly be a year of change for us all.
By Sid Riley
This column presents a conservative viewpoint about items of interest in our community and our lives. Focus is on items impacting your pocket book, your personal freedoms, and your rights. I hope you will read the column regularly and it occasionally influences your opinions and actions. Now, on to the subject of the week:
"Will it be change for better…..or, will it be change for the worse? Time will tell."
Well, 2009 is here! During campaign rhetoric this was touted at the beginning of a time of change. We have just changed our calendars. In a few weeks we will change Presidents and White House Administrations. With the world’s economic condition being one of "Global Economic Cooling", I would not want the task of running the show for the next four years.
Although I personally detest the growing stem of socialism in our society, our economy, and our government…which is the approach Obama apparently believes is best for our nation, I am forced to also remind myself that the majority has spoken (via the election), and we are ultimately all in the same boat. For that reason I resolve to be as positive and supportive of our new President as possible as he straps on the harness of running the most powerful nation in the world (I think we may still be slightly ahead of China.).
I fear this will be a year which will test the mantle of our society. If we work in unison to attack our problems and shore up our weaknesses our prospect for success will be greatly improved. However, if we continue as a force divided by loyalties to self serving elements instead of being united by a common devotion to the same nation, our suffering and pain will be long and torturous. We must cast aside our differences and build upon our commonalities, without recourse or criticism of the other camp.
Decades ago an angered Russian Premier Nikita Khrushchev banged on the podium at the United Nations stating that his country would eventually see the United States destroyed from within. He was referring to the potential problems a capitalistic society will experience from abuse of freedoms, greed, and political corruption. Are we evolving to the eventual truthfulness of his prediction?
Democrat or Republican, black or white, majority or minority, gay or straight, liberal or conservative, far religious right or far left zealot….we must all remember we are all AMERICANS! We must all work to expedite the restoration of a healthy, well managed economy within our nation. We are in an economic war.
I believe the Mid-Eastern enemies of the U.S.A. are using our thirst for their oil as a means of manipulating and harming our economy. The unrivaled spiral of oil pricing during 2007 and most of 2008 caused a historical and disastrous transfer of wealth out of our society to their part of the world. These soaring costs triggered a chain of related cost increases for the American citizen which included the cost of electricity, cost of government, cost of food, and the cost of anything which had to be transported.
Through manipulation of oil pricing they can influence our elections, and weaken the framework of our economy. It is more harmful to America than having them fly airplanes into our skyscrapers. It is a form of attack.
These costs struck at the heart of a majority of struggling American homesteads, who were already working from week to week, paycheck to paycheck. As a result of the increased differences between family income and family expenses, failures began to escalate. This caused huge increases in mortgage foreclosures, personal and business bankruptcies, a decline in retail purchasing, and thus the downward roller coaster ride for our economy was initiated. Like a snowball rolling down a hill of new fallen snow, the problems grew, and grew, and grew.
Our collective task at this time is to slow and finally stop this downhill economic ride. We must use the resources we have at hand to restore confidence in our basic systems and institutions, to create meaningful incomes for American families based on needed, productive, long lasting work, and to create an economic climate for our industries in which they are able to successfully compete with the rest of the world. Philosophies based on personal greed, party gains, passing the blame, pushing for wasteful "pork" projects, clinging to unnecessary, ineffective programs and other items which weaken and diminish our economy must be identified and cast away. In 2009 the "year of change", it is the manner in which our society and our government functions that must be changed the most. If we can accomplish this task, we can save our country and will undoubtedly be "Getting It Right".
Rudiments- Odds and Ends Worth Mentioning:
● Our astute legislators in Washington D.C. are in the process of designing programs for stimulating our sagging economy and restoring prosperity and growth. The course of action they are proposing is to initiate massive programs for rebuilding the aging infrastructure across the nation. On the surface this approach might make sense, but there are problems.
♦ The reality of what is about to occur came to me over the holidays. Just before Christmas the local J.C.D.C. arranged what was intended to be a secret meeting of representative of local city and county representatives in order to initiate planning for requesting stimulus monies for perceived "needs" in their area of control. In other words, they were told to go out and look for anything that might qualify them for getting their hands in the pot of this "tsunami of money" that was about to come.
♦ What this really means is the Federal Government is going to take a trillion dollars of our great grandchildren’s tax money (they have already squandered all of the taxes we or our children will ever pay), and filter it through every state, county, and municipal bureaucracy for anything they can think of for doing some rebuilding and temporarily putting some people to work.
♦ Every bridge, sidewalk, curbing, public building, street, water system, sewage system, in the country is subject to being torn up and replaced with shiny, new construction. The smell of "pork" emanating from our shores will cover the planet. Unless each project is very carefully evaluated, controlled, and justified by an independent, virtuous administrative process, it will become a "feeding frenzy" of waste as every bureaucracy tries to get it’s portion…whether they need it or not.
● In my opinion the public projects should all be pointed at infrastructure projects that significantly add to our ability to compete in the world market, aid struggling industries, and lead to long term jobs creation.
♦ One suggestion I have would be to invest in the rebuilding and modernization of our national railway network. Due to lobbying activities by the airline industry over the decades our nation has become totally dependent on air travel for public transportation across the nation. This system is now over burdened, ineffective, and has become a national "experience of misery" when one has to use it for travel.
♦ We desperately need a high speed, modern rail network north and south, east and west across our nation that integrates with air travel, and provides an option for the traveling public. Rebuilding this system would take years, would provide hundreds of thousands of jobs, and would leave the country with a better infrastructure for use by the public and industry for decades into the future. It would also save significantly on national fuel consumption.
♦ This type of project is much better than the wasteful ripping out and replacement of still usable sidewalks and bridges by inefficient bureaucracies as they play the same old "grab it and spend it" money games. We need to all notify our representatives in Washington and encourage them to take a more worthwhile approach to solving the problems within our faltering economy. Help them make good decisions at this critical moment…and you will be "Getting It Right".
● Franklin Delano Roosevelt - "We have always known that heedless self-interest was bad morals; we know now that it is also bad economics." (Quote provided by Dave Nicholson)
By Sid Riley
This column presents a conservative viewpoint about items of interest in our community and our lives. Focus is on items impacting your pocket book, your personal freedoms, and your rights. I hope you will read the column regularly and it occasionally influences your opinions and actions. Now, on to the subject of the week:
"Will it be change for better…..or, will it be change for the worse? Time will tell."
Well, 2009 is here! During campaign rhetoric this was touted at the beginning of a time of change. We have just changed our calendars. In a few weeks we will change Presidents and White House Administrations. With the world’s economic condition being one of "Global Economic Cooling", I would not want the task of running the show for the next four years.
Although I personally detest the growing stem of socialism in our society, our economy, and our government…which is the approach Obama apparently believes is best for our nation, I am forced to also remind myself that the majority has spoken (via the election), and we are ultimately all in the same boat. For that reason I resolve to be as positive and supportive of our new President as possible as he straps on the harness of running the most powerful nation in the world (I think we may still be slightly ahead of China.).
I fear this will be a year which will test the mantle of our society. If we work in unison to attack our problems and shore up our weaknesses our prospect for success will be greatly improved. However, if we continue as a force divided by loyalties to self serving elements instead of being united by a common devotion to the same nation, our suffering and pain will be long and torturous. We must cast aside our differences and build upon our commonalities, without recourse or criticism of the other camp.
Decades ago an angered Russian Premier Nikita Khrushchev banged on the podium at the United Nations stating that his country would eventually see the United States destroyed from within. He was referring to the potential problems a capitalistic society will experience from abuse of freedoms, greed, and political corruption. Are we evolving to the eventual truthfulness of his prediction?
Democrat or Republican, black or white, majority or minority, gay or straight, liberal or conservative, far religious right or far left zealot….we must all remember we are all AMERICANS! We must all work to expedite the restoration of a healthy, well managed economy within our nation. We are in an economic war.
I believe the Mid-Eastern enemies of the U.S.A. are using our thirst for their oil as a means of manipulating and harming our economy. The unrivaled spiral of oil pricing during 2007 and most of 2008 caused a historical and disastrous transfer of wealth out of our society to their part of the world. These soaring costs triggered a chain of related cost increases for the American citizen which included the cost of electricity, cost of government, cost of food, and the cost of anything which had to be transported.
Through manipulation of oil pricing they can influence our elections, and weaken the framework of our economy. It is more harmful to America than having them fly airplanes into our skyscrapers. It is a form of attack.
These costs struck at the heart of a majority of struggling American homesteads, who were already working from week to week, paycheck to paycheck. As a result of the increased differences between family income and family expenses, failures began to escalate. This caused huge increases in mortgage foreclosures, personal and business bankruptcies, a decline in retail purchasing, and thus the downward roller coaster ride for our economy was initiated. Like a snowball rolling down a hill of new fallen snow, the problems grew, and grew, and grew.
Our collective task at this time is to slow and finally stop this downhill economic ride. We must use the resources we have at hand to restore confidence in our basic systems and institutions, to create meaningful incomes for American families based on needed, productive, long lasting work, and to create an economic climate for our industries in which they are able to successfully compete with the rest of the world. Philosophies based on personal greed, party gains, passing the blame, pushing for wasteful "pork" projects, clinging to unnecessary, ineffective programs and other items which weaken and diminish our economy must be identified and cast away. In 2009 the "year of change", it is the manner in which our society and our government functions that must be changed the most. If we can accomplish this task, we can save our country and will undoubtedly be "Getting It Right".
Rudiments- Odds and Ends Worth Mentioning:
● Our astute legislators in Washington D.C. are in the process of designing programs for stimulating our sagging economy and restoring prosperity and growth. The course of action they are proposing is to initiate massive programs for rebuilding the aging infrastructure across the nation. On the surface this approach might make sense, but there are problems.
♦ The reality of what is about to occur came to me over the holidays. Just before Christmas the local J.C.D.C. arranged what was intended to be a secret meeting of representative of local city and county representatives in order to initiate planning for requesting stimulus monies for perceived "needs" in their area of control. In other words, they were told to go out and look for anything that might qualify them for getting their hands in the pot of this "tsunami of money" that was about to come.
♦ What this really means is the Federal Government is going to take a trillion dollars of our great grandchildren’s tax money (they have already squandered all of the taxes we or our children will ever pay), and filter it through every state, county, and municipal bureaucracy for anything they can think of for doing some rebuilding and temporarily putting some people to work.
♦ Every bridge, sidewalk, curbing, public building, street, water system, sewage system, in the country is subject to being torn up and replaced with shiny, new construction. The smell of "pork" emanating from our shores will cover the planet. Unless each project is very carefully evaluated, controlled, and justified by an independent, virtuous administrative process, it will become a "feeding frenzy" of waste as every bureaucracy tries to get it’s portion…whether they need it or not.
● In my opinion the public projects should all be pointed at infrastructure projects that significantly add to our ability to compete in the world market, aid struggling industries, and lead to long term jobs creation.
♦ One suggestion I have would be to invest in the rebuilding and modernization of our national railway network. Due to lobbying activities by the airline industry over the decades our nation has become totally dependent on air travel for public transportation across the nation. This system is now over burdened, ineffective, and has become a national "experience of misery" when one has to use it for travel.
♦ We desperately need a high speed, modern rail network north and south, east and west across our nation that integrates with air travel, and provides an option for the traveling public. Rebuilding this system would take years, would provide hundreds of thousands of jobs, and would leave the country with a better infrastructure for use by the public and industry for decades into the future. It would also save significantly on national fuel consumption.
♦ This type of project is much better than the wasteful ripping out and replacement of still usable sidewalks and bridges by inefficient bureaucracies as they play the same old "grab it and spend it" money games. We need to all notify our representatives in Washington and encourage them to take a more worthwhile approach to solving the problems within our faltering economy. Help them make good decisions at this critical moment…and you will be "Getting It Right".
● Franklin Delano Roosevelt - "We have always known that heedless self-interest was bad morals; we know now that it is also bad economics." (Quote provided by Dave Nicholson)
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