Republicans enjoy better mental health than Democrats

To say Democrats are deranged would risk offending those with legitimate mental disorders. Suffice it to say the liberal agenda of the likes of Hillary, Obama and Guliani (Oops! He's a Republican!) seem to be the rumblings of political insanity.

Data provided by a November Gallup poll reveals that Republicans view themselves as possessing a higher degree of mental health than the Democrats' self-perception.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/102943/Republicans-Report-Much-Better-Mental-Health-Than-Others.aspx

Yoo-Hoo!! Aren't we under attack?

Hasn't anyone in more powerful circles than mine noticed that we are under attack and seem to be right in the crosshairs of China's sights? Do you really need an advanced degree in some international discipline or to work at a very high level in the Pentagon or at the State Department to see it?

The Chinese are insidious at best and down right in our faces otherwise. They have tried to poision our children and pets, and some healthcare products like toothpaste (terrorism) . You'd think that they'd change their methods of production at the first sign of problems. No, they are happy to continue on. They don't care because that is their plan.

What about the number of espionage cases involving the Chinese? Pretty high, probably higher than any other country's. Why? Because we have what they want and we have a ridiculous idea that anyone who is not American should be educated at our universities and given jobs before Americans. Thanks to our businesses going offshore, our national security could clearly be at stake, and thousands and thousands of jobs are now in China along with huge American investments in factories and infrastructure.

Now, US Navy ships have been denied a safe harbor out of dangerous storms at sea. I suppose that is just another misunderstanding? Nope, that's in our faces and just about as plain as it'll get with the Chinese until there is an overt attack.

Not very inscrutable if you ask me....

From KY with love: more subsidies for corporations and special interest groups

Ford recently received $60 million in taxpayer subsidies...

For excerpts on the C-J article about this-- along with my analysis-- see my lengthy posting on this at SchansBlog...

Enjoy!

TEACHERS UNION OPPOSES PROPERTY TAX REFORM

The Indiana State Teachers Union and Patrick Bauer must really take us for idiots!

ISTA's basis for rejecting the referendum on school building projects is "Rich communities would approve referendums while poor ones would not, further widening the gap between school districts." Where's the data showing rich communities would approve while poor ones would reject school building projects? Can you name any people in the Fodrea and Lincoln school districts, where Bartholomew's poorest students attend school, who carried the blue petition against the$115 million building project back in 2001? I can't.This is a fallacy, along with the fallacy that fancy buildings improve education and narrow the achievement gap. Where's the data to back up any of these claims by the teachers union?

ISTA's proposal that we keep the same clunky remonstrance process for classrooms and only use referendums on non-classroom projects is a joke. Franklin Central's school administration promised about 10 new "classrooms" would be built with the new posh multi million dollar college calibre football stadium a couple of years ago. School officials said the "classroom addition" under the stadium would alleviate school overcrowding. The so-called classrooms turned out to be luxurious offices for coaches and athletic meeting rooms! Community members are very angry about how they were misled. I promise you, there will be few, if any, referendums, with ISTA's property tax reform proposal, because the administration will find a way to mislead folks into thinking all projects are for "classrooms" and all objections would have to be addressed through the clunky remonstrance.

ISTA intends to fight the state taking over all general operating costs because it "...threatens the stability of public school funding". Instead, it wants the state to "....take over school transportation costs and capital projects because those are growing faster and causing property taxes to rise faster than school operating costs." School administrators want you to believe they have been victim to higher fuel costs and construction costs. Yes, those areas have risen quickly, but those fund expenditures have also risen rapidly partly because schools have been doing a shell game with the money, paying salaries and utilities out of the transportation and capital project funds in order to give themselves all of those pay raises we really couldn't afford.

ISTA President Nat Schnellenberger said "Property taxes are a stable source of revenue. In an economic downtown, both income and sales tax revenue slump leaving the legislature with no easy way to fund education." With almost 237 sheriff's sales taking place in Bartholomew county in 2007, and probably that many or more inLawrence County and elsewhere, and some Bartholomew county realtors estimating foreclosures will double in 2008, can any sane person think property taxes are a stable source of revenue? The teachers union better wise up and take the governor up on his offer.

Speaker of the House, Patrick Bauer's statement that having the state assuming all general fund expenditures means giving up local control. What local control? ISTA gives marching orders here to teachers and they all fall into line. As an example, at teachers' contract time, our teachers fixate on ISTA contract guidelines like its the Bible. Teacher's contract negotiations are another REAL clunky process for the 393 school corporations in Indiana. To see how tremendous the increases have been in all local government & school funds during 2000-2006, go tohttp://www.ista-in.org/uploads/figure%203.pdf

Billie Whitted

Huckabee takes a beating from Novak

A long but good and powerful indictment from Bob Novak on Mike Huckabee's limited conservatism... Some excerpts:

Who would respond to criticism from the Club for Growth by calling the conservative, free-market campaign organization the "Club for Greed"? That sounds like Howard Dean, Dennis Kucinich or John Edwards, all Democrats preaching the class struggle. In fact, the rejoinder comes from Mike Huckabee, who has broken out of the pack of second-tier Republican presidential candidates to become a serious contender -- definitely in Iowa and perhaps nationally.

Huckabee is campaigning as a conservative, but...he is a high-tax, protectionist, big-government advocate of a strong hand in the Oval Office directing the lives of Americans. Until now, they did not bother to expose the former governor of Arkansas as a false conservative because he seemed an underfunded, unknown nuisance candidate. Now that he has pulled even with Mitt Romney for the Iowa caucuses with the possibility of more progress, the beleaguered Republican Party has a frightening problem on its hands.

The rise of evangelical Christians as the motive force that blasted the GOP out of minority status during the past generation always contained an inherent danger if these new Republican acolytes supported not merely a conventional conservative but one of their own. That has happened now with Huckabee, a former Baptist minister educated at Ouachita Baptist University and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. The danger is a serious contender for the nomination who passes the litmus test of social conservatives on abortion, gay marriage and gun control but is far removed from the conservative-libertarian model of Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan....

Admitting the difficulty of nation-building and reducing our political goals in Iraq

cross-listed on SchansBlog...

My analysis of Gov. Daniels' poll numbers

cross-listed at SchansBlog...

The Suffering of Columbus

Read John Harmon's opinion today on Columbus' plight. We are all suffering tremendously. Why? Because laws are being enforced - specifically immigration laws.

I don't know about you, but I am tired of the Chicken-Little rhetoric that is continuously being spewed by the Left. Global warming has been all the rage for the past year or so (it has seemed like a lifetime), and along with that has been this issue of ILLEGAL immigration. [Emphasis mine.] The truly pathetic thing about Harmon's post though is that Columbus is suffering. "Who will do the factory work?" "Who will do the service jobs?" OH MY GOSH! Oh the tragedy of it all!

I worked in a factory for several years. In fact, the one I used to work in had to lay off several hundred people for months just recently. Why? Not because of the INS coming in and taking ILLEGAL immigrants [Emphasis mine - again] (As an aside...can we just call ILLEGAL [emphasis mine - yet again] immigrants what they truly are - criminals?) and deporting them back to their homeland. Get this...it was because sales were down. Imagine that! Sounds like a vast right-wing conspiracy to me.

And what service jobs? I have no problem getting my hair cut when I want. I do not have trash piling up outside in my yard either. My landscaping has not suffered much to my knowledge, although I am having some trouble with a fungus in my grass. I definitely have no need for manicures either, but I do understand those are a hallmark of the "creative class" - especially men.

Nope...I have yet to see how my life is being negatively impacted by criminal immigrants being sent back to their land of origin.

I wish that instead of breaking the very laws they enact or their predecessors enacted, that lawmakers would act in the spirit of our Constitution. Change the laws if you do not like what is happening today, but don't just disregard existing ones. We are a Republic - a nation of laws. At least I thought we were.

I am amazed at the audacity that people display in their attempts to circumvent and undermine that founding document. I am even more amazed though of the even larger number of people who allow them to get away with it.

Democrats as the political party representing the rich

Cross-listed at my blog: a report on Democrats representing the wealthier districts-- and commentary from me on the ways in which they fail to support the working poor and middle class...

Mike Huckabee on immigration

Securing our borders must be our top priority and has reached the level of a national emergency.

The Governor supports the $3 billion the Senate has voted for border security. This money will train and deploy 23,000 more agents, add four drone planes, build 700 miles of fence and 300 miles of vehicle barriers, and put up 105 radar and camera towers. This money will turn “catch and release” into “catch and detain” of those entering illegally, and crack down on those who overstay their visas.

In this age of terror, immigration is not only an economic issue, but also a national security issue. Those caught trying to enter illegally must be detained, processed, and deported.

The Governor opposes and will never allow amnesty. He opposed the amnesty President Bush and Senator McCain tried to ram through Congress this summer, and opposed the misnamed DREAM Act, which would have put us on the slippery slope to amnesty for all.

The Governor opposes and will not tolerate sanctuaries for illegals. The federal government must crack down on rogue cities that willfully undermine our economy and national security.
The Governor opposes giving driver’s licenses to illegals and supports legislation to prevent states from doing so.

The Governor will stop punishing cities which try to enforce our laws and protect the economic well-being, physical safety, and quality of life of their citizens.

The Governor opposes and will not tolerate employers who hire illegals. They must be punished with fines and penalties so large that they will see it is not worth the risk.

The Governor opposes the economic integration of North America that would create open borders among the United States, Canada, and Mexico. He will never yield one iota or one inch of our sovereignty.

The Governor will take our country back for those who belong here. No open borders, no amnesty, no sanctuary, no false Social Security numbers, no driver’s licenses for illegals.

Governor Huckabee knows that securing our borders must be our top priority and has reached the level of a national emergency. He is as sick and tired as you are that it is harder for us to get on an airplane in our home town than it is for all these illegals to cross our international border unchallenged.

We cannot stem the tide of illegals until we turn the tide. Before you fix the damage to your house caused by a leaking roof, you have to stop the leak, which the Governor is determined to do.

The Governor supported the $3 billion Congress passed this summer for border security. This desperately-needed money will train and deploy 23,000 more agents, add four drone planes, build 700 miles of fence and 300 miles of vehicle barriers, and put up 105 radar and camera towers. This money will turn “catch and release” into “catch and detain” of those entering illegally and crack down on those who overstay their visas.

But where is this $3 billion? The President threatened to veto the bill it was part of! Now the Senate has again voted for this money as part of the Defense Bill. The Governor will continue to fight until we get these funds.

In this age of terror, immigration is not only an economic issue, but also a national security issue. We must know who is coming into our country, where they are going, and why they are here. All those who are caught trying to enter illegally must be detained, processed, and deported. As Governor, he ordered his state troopers to work with the Department of Homeland Security to arrest illegals and enforce federal immigration law.

The Governor opposes and will never allow amnesty. He passionately rejected the amnesty bill that President Bush and Sen. McCain tried to ram through Congress this summer after secret meetings of an under-the-radar cabal of amnesty-loving senators.

The Governor opposed the misnamed DREAM Act, which was a nightmare because it would have put us on the slippery slope to amnesty for all. Because once we open that door even a crack, we’ll never get it closed again.

The Governor opposes and will not tolerate sanctuaries for illegals. The federal government must enforce our existing laws by cracking down on rogue cities and towns that willfully undermine our economy and our homeland security by giving benefits and protection to illegals. The consequences for illegal entry must be swift, certain, and uniform throughout our country.

The Governor opposes giving driver’s licenses to illegals, such as Governor Spitzer is trying to do in New York. The Governor supports legislation that would prevent the states from granting this privilege to illegals. In 2005, he signed legislation that prevents illegals in Arkansas from getting driver’s licenses.

The Governor will stop punishing cities which are trying to enforce our laws. He will appoint judges who will uphold the law, not side with the ACLU against cities like Hazelton, Pennsylvania, which are trying to protect the economic well-being, physical safety, and quality of life of their citizens.

The Governor will not tolerate employers who hire illegals – they must be punished by fines and penalties so large that they will understand it is not worth the risk. Once again, as with Hazelton, liberal judges are gumming up the works. Right now, a court in San Francisco -- Pelosiland – has delayed enforcement of the “no match” letters for Social Security numbers that the Department of Homeland Security will use to crack down on those who hire illegals. If illegals cannot find work, they will go back where they belong. The Governor will do everything he can to hasten their trip home by denying them employment.

The Governor strongly opposes the economic integration of North America that would have open borders among the United States, Canada, and Mexico. He knows we must have closed and secure borders. He will never yield either one inch or one iota of our sovereignty. He will recognize no authority but our Constitution.

Governor Huckabee will take our country back for those who belong here and those who are willing to play by the rules for the privilege to come here. No open borders, no amnesty, no sanctuary, no false Social Security numbers, no driver’s licenses for illegals.

http://www.mikehuckabee.com/index.cfm?FuseAction=Issues.View&Issue_id=4

Huckabee's Achilles hill: Illegal immigration

posted by Kenn Gividen
Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee seems to be the current front-runner among conservative presidential candidates. But not all view his candidacy favorably. One blogger, ArkansasFreedcom.com, berates the former Arkansas governor for positioning himself on the wrong side of illegal immigration.

Then there is the matter of Huckabee’s illegal Mexican Consulate in Little Rock. In defiance of Article 1, Section 10 of the U.S. Constitution which forbids states making deals with foreign entities, he traveled to Mexico to broker a deal for a Consulate which acts as a clearing house for illegal Mexicans. Then he used taxpayer money to subsidize it. In just 6 months, they already can’t keep up with numbers of illegals seeking Matricula Consular I.D. cards, which aren’t even accepted on their own by the Mexican government…but accepted by all sorts of U.S. predator businesses/agencies greedy for every buck they can squeeze, regardless of the consequences to the country or our citizens.

http://arkansasfreedom.com/2007/11/15/why-does-chuck-norris-continue-to-beat-the-drums-for-huckabee.aspx

The blog publisher has an obvious axe to grind: He supports Ron Paul.

Bella!

From my blog on the movie, Bella...

There's nuthin' better...

Baron Hill believes Social Security is "probably the best government program ever created"!

If you want to read all about it, click here...

Sodrel and (Hill) on property taxes

I've blogged at length on Mike Sodrel's recent op-ed piece on property taxes-- as well as the bloggery's response-- on my website.

Click here to read more...

Why is there any debate?

After reading an editorial in the Indy Star by Andrea Neal, Back to the Same Old Debate, at http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs/dll/article?AID+/20071121/ColumnistS05/71121334/1002/OPINION I realized just how far off track some states have gone. I have always believed that America was singularly blessed by God Almighty when he provided that a small group of men from different backgrounds, educations, professions, and religions came together in a specific moment in time, working together to create an unheard-of form of government based on individual freedoms and run by a people who chose to govern themselves. All of the main rules are laid down in our Constitution which has stood the test of time and it has had many a severe test.

Now, almost every day, some self important idiot who believes he/she is more intelligent or more visionary than the collective intelligence of the men that put this nation together insists that he/she can "fix" it. Personally, I don't understand what needs to be fixed. According to these people everything is "broken" - the government, immigration policy, schools, etc. But are they really broken, or just not seen to as a nation of self governing people should do?

A change in the Constitution of this magnitude, led by the minority majority states, is an example of slipping into Third World status, elections decided only by direct majority vote. We all know how those elections are run. Why would these people want to emulate anything that happens in the Third World? Power some would say, but what are the "leaders" in the Third World powerful over? Millions of starving, sick and frustrated people, some natural resources they themselves can't develop or keep going without foreign help, and maybe their military, if they're lucky, is with them some of the time. Big Deal....

I hope the people of Indiana have the good sense to not go along with this folly and stop voting for people based on their genetics rather than their ability in politics.

Huckabee (and Paul) surge in Iowa

Mike Huckabee had a remarkable showing in an ABCNews poll in Iowa released today, tripling his support from 8% to 24% sincelate July. Expected to be competitive with Romney in the country's first straw poll, Huckabee has already drawn even.

Interestingly, Ron Paul also tripled his support-- a much more modest increase from 2% to 6%. This brought him even with John McCain and only 7-9% behind Thompson and Giuiliani. Along with his recent fund-raising prowess, this would seem to be news as well. But for some reason, the ABCNews press release makes no mention of Paul in the text of the release. (The gracious and reasonable explanation would be that it would dilute the big story. Of course, there are less gracious and more conspiratorial explanations available.)

In recent months, both Huckabee and Paul have stepped up into the first tier of the Republican candidates. Both have increased in the polls, especially Huckabee. Paul has had remarkable fund-raising successes. Both are getting much more press. And both are being attacked on a regular basis-- probably the best litmus test for having "arrived".

From what I've seen, Huckabee is a solid social conservative with a very mixed record as other types of conservatives-- someone in the Bush mold. That doesn't satisfy me. But for social conservatives-- who generally aren't all that concerned about fiscal conservatism and nanny-state paternalism-- his record works well enough. Will it be enough for another man from Hope to occupy the White House? I doubt it. But stay tuned...

Winning the war vs. building a nation

From Robert Novak on an aspect of this vital distinction on TownHall.com...

Goldberg on Huckabee and Paul

Jonah Goldberg, in National Review, with some great insights on Huckabee and Paul. For the brief excerpts I'll post here, I'll focus on his remarks about Huckabee.

What’s so scary about Huckabee? Personally, nothing. He seems a charming, decent, friendly, pious man. What’s troubling about The Man From Hope 2.0 is what he represents. Huckabee represents compassionate conservatism on steroids....

For example, Huckabee would support a nationwide ban on public smoking. Why? Because he’s on a health kick, thinks smoking is bad and believes the government should do the right thing.

And therein lies the chief difference between Paul and Huckabee. One is a culturally conservative libertarian. The other is a right-wing progressive...

In this respect, Huckabee’s philosophy is conventionally liberal, or progressive. What he wants government to do certainly differs in important respects from what Hillary Clinton wants, but the limits he would place on governmental do-goodery are primarily tactical or practical, not philosophical or constitutional. This isn’t to say he — or Hillary — is a would-be tyrant, but simply to note that the progressive notion of the state as a loving, caring parent is becoming a bipartisan affair.

Indeed, Huckabee represents the latest attempt to make conservatism more popular. Contrary to the conventional belief that Republicans need to drop their opposition to abortion, gay marriage and the like in order to be popular, Huckabee understands that the unpopular stuff is the economic libertarianism: free trade and smaller government. That’s why we’re seeing a rise in economic populism on the right married to a culturally conservative populism. Huckabee is the bastard child of Lou Dobbs and Pat Robertson....

I would not vote for Paul mostly because I think his foreign policy would be disastrous (Also, he’d lose in a rout not seen since Bambi versus Godzilla). But there’s something weird going on when Paul, the small-government constitutionalist, is considered the extremist in the Republican party, while Huckabee, the statist, is the lovable underdog. It’s even weirder because it’s probably true: Huckabee is much closer to the mainstream. And that’s what scares me about Huckabee and the mainstream alike.

All my heros are black men

by Kenn Gividen

Well, maybe not all. But those I respect the most are invididuals willing to choose truth and suffer the consequences of contradicting the common rheteroric of political correctness, peer acceptance and (seemingly) common sense.

Such as the stuff that compelled America's founders to launch a war of rebellion against the insane King George. Among those I admire most are black men (and women) willing to vocally oppose the mindlessness of the minority-group victim cult.

So who are those heroes?

Hint. None are named Jackson, Sharpton or King.

In no particular order, I would place Larry Elder at the top of the list. Elder expresses his commitment to his community, not by pandering to baser patronization, but through blunt honesty. Yesterday I noted Elder's Top Ten Things You Can't Say In America. Among those are that blacks are more racists than whites and white condescension is as real as black racism. Both run against the tidal wave of political correctness. Perched atop that wave is Elder on his surfboard, high above the nonsense of the black left.

Another black man I admire is not a man at all. What's more, she is (contrary to the previous hint) Dr. Alveda King, niece of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. In a blunt and forthright evaluation of reality, King offered this observation: Hopeless in the black community is being fed by abortion. "If African-Americans feel that life will not get better, I have to believe that abortion is feeding into that hopelessness," she said. King was referring to a recent Pew Research poll high levels of 'hopelessness' in black communities across the United States.

King's pro-life views are largely ignored by the mainstream media, but not by Alan Keyes, another figurehead on my mental Mt. Rushmore. Keyes features King's views on his web site.

A committed Roman Catholic, Keyes had the nerve in 2006 to challenge the Holy Father's view that "nothing justifies the spilling of innocent blood."

"If this is so," Keyes reasoned, "how could there ever be a just war, e.g., a battle fought by good and decent people to defend their lives and homes from the violent depredations of the wicked?"

He has a point. Were it not for the spilling of innocent blood, the American revolution never could have transpired.

Thomas Sowell deserves a place at the head table. In a recent column he lamented the lame phraseology bantered about by liberals. Specifically he noted that "'making a difference' and 'giving back' irritate me like chalk screeching across a blackboard." He then added, "...we are not 'giving back' anything to those people because we never took anything from them in the first place."

Writing of government schools, Sowell observed, "They are not giving back anything except condemnation, often depicting sins common to the human race around the world as peculiar evils of 'our society.'"

There are few observable things about Sowell that I don't like. The corny photo to the left is one of those exceptions.

Not everyone knows La Shawn Barber. They should.

Googling her name will take you to her blog and bits of unreserved conservative insight. Recently Barber fumed over the notion that gun restriction laws could make Washington DC a more habitable place to live by cutting violent crime rate.

"Wrong, wrong, wrong," she wrote.

Barber notes "...violent crime, particularly murder, went up. The ban deprived law-abiding citizens of the constitutional right to bear arms and to protect themselves, while thugs ran free and killed without conscience."

Add Barber to my list of heroes. And, again, she's (obviously) not a man. But she is black.

Ten things you can't say in America

Larry Elder has published his list of ten things you can't say in America. Conservatives may not agree with Elder on every point, but coming from a noted black columnist and radio personality, his views carry particular weight:

1. Blacks are more racist than whites
2. White condescension is as real as black racism
3. The media bias: it's real, it's widespread, it's destructive
4. The glass ceiling: full of holes
5. America's greatest problem: illegitimacy
6. The big lie: our healthcare crisis
7. The welfare state: helping us to death
8. Republicans vs. Democrats: maybe a dime's worth of difference
9. Vietnam II: the war on drugs, and we're losing that one too
10. Gun control advocates: good guys with blood on their hands

View Elder's website here ►

The Ideal America

What would it be like to live in an ideal America?

Here are my suggestions...

1. Accomodate languages other than English
“Press one for English” only makes sense if you actually understand the language. But why the only other option is español baffles me. After all, there are other folks in our great nation who speak languages other than English and Spanish. It seems to me other ethnic groups should get their own telephone buttons to press.

In my ideal world, the one button would be for English, the two button for Spanish, the three button for Dixie and the four button for Ebonics. Then, would hear the following message, “Press one for English. Prensa dos para el Español. Y’all mash the three button now, ya hear?

continued...

Here’s a four part series of articles by the Greene County Daily World about Gov. Mitch Daniel’s property tax relief proposal

Part 1 http://gcdailyworld.com/story/1290682.html
Part 2 http://gcdailyworld.com/story/1290998.html
Part 3 http://gcdailyworld.com/story/1291264.html
Part 4 http://gcdailyworld.com/story/1291463.html

Murder charged in unborn baby's death

News report...

A 24-year-old man whose speeding vehicle crashed head-on with a car carrying two women, one of whom was pregnant, was charged today with first-degree murder with "extreme indifference" in the unborn child's death.

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2007/nov/15/murder-charged-unborn-babys-death/

If supply-side is good enough for formerly communist countries...

From Stephen Moore in the WSJ, a nice defense of supply-side tax cuts...

Note that "supply-side" refers to reductions in marginal tax rates-- which provide greater incentives to supply work and entrepreneurial energies, to be more productive. Bush cut marginal tax rates slightly-- half of the tax cut; the other half was a Keynesian mail-out of checks which affected demand-side factors like consumption.

PROPERTY TAX REVOLT

Confused about the new property tax plans coming out of the statehouse? You aren't alone. The new Indiana Property Tax Repeal Alliance denounced Governor Daniel's and Senator Luke Kenley's property tax plans on November 17th. The Alliance vows to return trust, thrift, and transparency to government by; abolishing property taxes permanently through a constitutional amendment, setting a state spending cap, eliminating all assessors, and allowing voters to decide by referendum school building and other local government building projects.

The Governor's Plan is shortsighted because, without a state spending cap, the out-of-control local school spending by local school money managers could continue by the new state money managers. The Governor's Plan projects a 33% decrease in property taxes, and is meager according to some Lake and Marion County residents who saw 300% increases.

Senator Luke Kenley's Plan, has MAJOR FLAWS per the Alliance, in that the Harvard lawyer living in a big house in Noblesville doesn't think we are smart enough to vote in a referendum on school building projects, the biggest reason for the huge property tax increases! School administrators and teachers unions LOVE people like Mr. Kenley. He helps line their pockets. Kenley's Plan projects a 50% reduction in property taxes. But, Kenley must of skipped Logic 101 in school. Kenley's Plan focuses on raising sales and income taxes, with no state spending cap, and no % cap on property taxes. Bart Peterson raised income taxes in Marion County and voters kicked him out on election day.

The slogan for the Indiana Property Tax Repeal Alliance is "NO MORE TAX BAND-AIDS." You can learn more about the Alliance by going http://www.indianavotersleague.com/

Billie Whitted

No Farmer Left Behind...

From the WSJ editorial piece of the same title in today's issue, a lovely piece on farm subsidies...

...food prices are rising faster than at anytime in 17 years. Milk now costs $3 a gallon in many states. Eggs, oranges, peas, tomatoes and rice are selling at or near all-time highs. The biggest winners have been corn producers, as corn prices have doubled in two years-- thanks in part to new mandates for ethanol. All of this is translating into the best gains in farm wealth in decades. Total farm income is expected to leap by 44% to $73 billion this year, according to the USDA....And yet Congress is writing another five-year farm bill as if this were 1936 and the Okies roamed the plains.

In a rare moment of self-reflection, Iowa liberal and Senate Agriculture Chairman Tom Harkin recently admitted that farm subsidies are "very hard to justify when we're having record prices and incomes." No kidding.

As always, for details on direct farm subsidies, go to the Environmental Working Group's fabulous database.

Pelosi remarkably candid...

from U.S. News and World Report, a shockingly-candid and politically-sobering assessment by Nancy Pelosi...

"If you asked me in a phone call, as ardent a Democrat as I am, I would disapprove of Congress as well."

--Nancy Pelosi, House speaker, agreeing with public disapproval of the Democratic-controlled Congress

Global warming primer

Concise and easily understood, this pdf file directly answers questions regarding global warming in a poignant manner.

http://www.ncpa.org/globalwarming/GlobalWarmingPrimer.pdf

Who really pay the most taxes???

Here's an interesting clip from The American

The latest data show that a big portion of the federal income tax burden is shoul­dered by a small group of the very richest Americans. The wealthiest 1 percent of the population earn 19 per­cent of the income but pay 37 percent of the income tax. The top 10 percent pay 68 percent of the tab. Meanwhile, the bottom 50 percent—those below the median income level—now earn 13 percent of the income but pay just 3 percent of the taxes. These are proportions of the income tax alone and don’t include payroll taxes for Social Security and Medicare.