Saturday, October 07, 2006

VISIT OUR NEW SITE

Thanks to the assistance of Blogger and Blogspot we are developing a new site and you are invited to enjoy the new look and enhanced features of this site.

Our new address is
http://dictionarydogs.blogspot.com

This is a new type of site and involves a main site for hot news and then sub sites featuring our Dictionary Dogs, each waitng in a dog house to track down information for you. These are different breeds and each was selected for the information needed.
Subjects relate to politics, your home and general living, your health and your finances and what ever we think might interest you.

Please check us out. Here is an easy link.

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

N.Y.TIMES AND NIC REPORT

The New York Times claims Iraq War worsens threat of Terrorism.

It really seems a shame when something of this importance is clouded with controversy over bias. And it is a shame the New York Times does not follow the standards of the Los Angeles Times which are based on the code of ethics of the American Society of Newspaper Editors.

The LA Times standard says that anonymous sources will be used as a last resort.
Our first amendment protected us against the hiding from the public all facets of a news story. We should be given reliable information from reputable sources that are disclosed and we should be given all facts and information supporting all sides of a story. The New York Times seems to be silent on this issue. If they had refused an unconfirmed story would someone have gone public? Or if they pressured the President would he have released the story? We already have a call for an investigation in Congress and that will slow down other legislation.

I remember when I was attending a very competent school and starting to learn to write term papers and articles. I used what I thought was a highly regarded source (almost 60 years ago) the New York Times. But my professor made an example of my poor choice before the class and I learned the importance of going to source documents, not articles in newspapers for an acceptable dissertation. Scholars with higher degrees know they do not advance if they do not use documented references.

The New York Times has published an article that is based on the anonymous comments of a dozen people. No confirmation of anyone for the record.
Our courts will not accept testimony unless it is from a witness directly.
The New York Times will accept unsubstantiated tips which places doubt in our minds as to the motives of the Times and their tipsters.

Already we are hearing that the information was based on only a part of the report referred to. We know the Times has been reported to be biased against the administration and Washington DC is reported to lean in thought against the current administration. In particular, there are strong feelings in part of the intelligence community. An NIC report before the Iraq war started predicted the possibility of an increase in terrorism and possibly the intelligence community is anxious to say we told you so!

The press is given strong powers of access and freedom but what standards must the press follow to retain those privileges? I have explained some issues in greater depth and you will find these comments if you click here.

Monday, September 25, 2006

Reports of death might be exaggerated?

OSAMA BIN LADEN

Please do not be overly enthused about reports of Bin Laden’s death. I believe in the strong probability these reports are part of the propaganda war being waged by the terrorists against the West and in particular, the USA.

An effective war strategy is to encourage confusion among the citizens, build our hopes then break them down and cause depression, cause us to divide with each other and our allies. “Divide and conquer” is a historical weapon and the group including North Korea, Iran, Venezuela and a couple of others know how to stimulate, confuse and detract us.

Iran and Venezuela spoke against our government with very disrespectful terms that caused us embarrassment and division as we watched the world gleefully applaud the speeches.

The depressed us and now they might be giving us a carrot by suggesting Bin Laden is deceased but will then snatch away the carrot and depress us and play with our emotions.

So do not play their game. Stay aloof.

I have discussed this with you before. Please see my posting:

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Increase income with government reform.

GIVING YOUR SELF MORE INCOME!!!!

There is a bill in congress right now with many co-signers that will pass as soon as enough of us add our support and ask them to pass the bill. Read along and I will tell you how this bill is going to increase your income dramatically.

A group of successful business men have put together twenty million dollars and hired economists and accountants to make a study and they have discovered some very interesting things about our income tax that will help you. In fact, if they can implement their findings your income will increase, much of the IRS staff will be absorbed into other duties, social security and even Medicaid will be fully funded. As a bonus our economy will expand as money from all over the world comes back to the USA for its tax advantages.

What this hired brain trust found was that in each product we buy, the price is increased by the cost of taxes paid by each participant of producing the product. Corporate income taxes, workers share of taxes paid by the companies, income taxes paid by truckers and other contract workers. The amount of tax paid varies by product but if you buy something like a VCR for $100.00 an average of $22.00 is going to pay taxes. So the brain trust says stop taxes so the price will drop to $78.00 and then add back in $23.00 as a built in consumption or sales tax and now the price will still be about $100.00 but now there is a big difference.

Look at your last pay check and note the amount that is deducted for taxes and social security. If that amount were paid to you instead of being deducted see how much your taxes will increase! You see, your taxes will be paid by a consumption or sales tax that replaces the corporate taxes passed on to you during the preparation of the items you buy.
This will eliminate wasted dollars spent complying with or avoiding taxes, costs that are passed on to you in the purchase price. The consumption tax will be on every new item you buy and people who never pay taxes will be helping you each time they buy something.
That $100 VCR is still going to cost you $100 or maybe $101 but your paycheck will increase by the amount of taxes you had deducted for income and Social Security and Medicare!

PLEASE READ THESE LAST TWO PARAGRAPHS AGAIN. IT IS IMPORTANT TO UNDERSTAND THIS CONCEPT.

And that is not all the increase in income you will receive.

All heads of households will receive a payment each month to advance to them the cost of the consumption tax for the basic necessities of that household for that month.
Explain please: Let’s say you are a married couple and you have two children. At this time, the government has decided it will cost you $25,660 for your basic household requirements. If someone earned or spent below that amount it is defined as below the poverty level.
Don’t worry about the name, it is just the way to establish a figure to say that all income at or below that amount is required to give your family the basics. It has then been decided that a family should not pay sales tax on that amount. It would be unfair and cause a burden in taxation for lower income people. So the bill before congress requires the government to refund you in advance the tax on that amount which is $491.82
a month for a family of 4. It is called a prebate. Did you look at the withholding from your payroll stub? Let’s say you are having about $350 taken out for taxes: Add to that the $492 prebate and your income will increase almost $850 a month.
When was the last time your income went up about $10,000 per year? The fair tax has been recognized as the fairest treatment for lower income people. (Even if you are not working your income will increase by the amount of the prebate).

Now let us examine this big increase. Most of that, the $492 is intended to go for the consumption or sales tax. But remember the paragraphs above; when you get the corporate taxes that are passed on to you out of the sales price the final price you pay at the cash register will be almost identical to the price you paid before so that prebate of $492 plus taxes saved for a total of $850 will really be a net increase in the money in your pocket. I charted incomes before and after the change and I discovered it is a huge increase in take home pay or cash in your pocket.

Do you know what happens when more consumers have more to spend? More of you can qualify for and afford to buy your own house so real estate will boom. With more money many of you will increase consumption so the economy will increase. Some of you will save some of that money so with increased savings in banks mortgage rates will decline and more of you can afford mortgages which will also help the real estate market.

Without income taxes and taxes on savings more people will take their savings out of foreign deposits designed to skirt our taxes and deposit that money here in US banks. In fact our tax treatment for investment and savings will suddenly become the best or one of the best in the world so lots of money will flow into our banks. This will reduce mortgage rates, encourage investment and growth for our country and you will be much better off. There will be better jobs, a higher demand for your work and you will be very happy.

You can also always buy used items and save paying a consumption tax, it is OK. There will be a lot more spending and lots of taxes will be paid in just from the consumption of a more affluent America.
Tourists will come and they will help pay our taxes through their consumption. People who obtained money by various means whether it was a gift or it was stolen or it was for some unreported sales will now pay for their share of your taxes when they spend their money.

You do not have to worry about Social Security or Medicare any more; it will be funded and is provided for.
You should approach the Fair Tax as an investment. If you are going to learn about this powerful and exciting proposed change in the taxing system you will be investing time and you might spend a few dollars attending rallies or even donating.

A little time is well invested in reading the enjoyable Boortz-Linder “The Fair Tax Book”. This is vital because there are a few special interest groups who want to stop the program for their own financial benefit. They are inclined to feed you erroneous information. When you do your own research you will learn the truth.

This reading time is an investment. You could do other things with your time that would bring you a return and your mail is probably full of offers.

When you invest you might consider a safe bank CD at 3% and if you find a return at 5-6% you will think it is a good return. 10% would be excellent, if you thought you could get 25% you would be very, very happy and I am showing you an investment that will exceed anything you have ever done. Normally, if someone promised a high return I would say run to the nearest exit, but when the Fair Tax is passed you have great potential. Do not let this opportunity pass by.

I am showing you that time worth about $100 and invested in the Fair Tax will return over $100,000 to you in a little over 10 years. This return will be expanded when you realize that your family will save also so you could add $100,000 for each child you have.

In addition we are going to redirect billions of wasted dollars toward productive gains for you and the results are expected to be amazing. American families and businesses could be wasting as much as $600 billion each year in trying to comply with or legally avoid the current tax code. The real secret is that businesses do not pay any of the costs of the taxes. Business does not exist without a reasonable profit, all other expenses; including taxes are passed on to you as part of the selling price of the product. You are paying this cost.
When the fair Tax is passed the businesses will not have any more taxes to pass to you. In fact, the magic of the program is that you will pay about the same price for products but the portion that went for business expenses related to taxes will now be used to pay our federal taxes. The economists who figured that out are heroes!

There is also about $1 trillion dollars in illegal transactions that take place each year. These include all illegal sales of stolen valuables, drugs, and other items. With the Fair Tax these profits will be taxed when the people involved spend their profits on consumer items. Purchases such as big cars, yachts, new homes, jewelry and so on. Part of their conspicuous consumption will be given to support the government, reduce your taxes and help pay for your Social Security and Medicare.

The same is true of visitors and tourists from other countries. They will help pay for your government and its programs.

Our present tax code has many discouraging elements. If you earn a significant amount of money or you own a corporation you are pressured by high tax rates on savings to find off-shore locations where you can save thousands of dollars a year. This takes money out of our domestic banks where it helps reduce interest rates and benefits the economy of the country where it is placed. With taxes eliminated it will be cheaper, safer and a lot more convenient for large savings funds to be kept in a reliable domestic banking system. With extra money to invest, competition will drive down interest rates you pay on your house and on credit cards. Just make a quick estimate of what you think your average credit card balance is for any year. If cheaper money caused lower interest rates you could save 10% or more. So take your average credit card balance and add 10% of that amount to your return on your investment in the Fair Tax. While you are at it add 2-3% of your mortgage balance to that return also.

We will eliminate the federal death tax and federal taxes on savings and there is a list provided below that will describe other taxes that discourage working, investing and the economy.

Because of no federal taxes our domestic products will be more competitive in the world trade without the taxes increasing their cost. Increased US sales will help increase our economy which will increase worker demand making your salary increase. At the same time, foreign goods will be sold with the embedded tax that will help reduce their advantage while helping to pay the costs of our government.

There are many professionals now working on tax code compliance and avoidance. This wonderful brain power will be concentrated on how to improve the efficiency of business, how best to invest the money and how best to improve products and customer service in order to help their companies earn their share of the expanding economy.

Your Government can concentrate on issues that are important to citizens rather than negotiating over who gets certain tax benefits.

I have given you some high lights of how you benefit from supporting the fair tax. If you would like more detail, here is a place to go. There are many more benefits that I have not explained.
http://50reasons.blogspot.com

Deborah maintains this site with 50 reasons why she supports the Fair Tax. These were provided by Ken Van Dellen. Deborah will also give you links to the various Fair Tax sites. Great job, Deborah. Thank you.

We should also thank the fine Houston business executives who invested the time and money to hire experts to develop the Fair Tax solution. http://www.fairtax.org Thanks to Congressman John Linder for his untiring efforts to prepare the act, promote it and get many co-sponsors and finally to talk show host Neil Boortz who has taken the time to learn the system and educate us.

Now, it is up to you and me to spread the word. We need to increase the numbers in our support group. If this article helps, please copy it and distribute it.

Thank you for your interest.

Stewart “Stew” Rusby
When I find worthy causes or develop what might be a solution I invite you to join me in searching for a silver bullet solution to this and other problems at http://divinebullet.blogspot.com

Monday, September 18, 2006

WAR IS NOT A GAME

ARE WE AT WAR OR MAKING BELIEVE WE ARE AT WAR?

Part of our government is convinced that we are being attacked by terrorists and they are attempting to protect us and wage war against the attackers.

Part of our government only wants us to wage war under certain conditions which would not infringe upon the rights of the enemy.

Our armed forces are trained to destroy and kill. If they win, they are successful, but to win they must destroy the enemy.

It is very simple. The objective is to win. When you win, you can go home, that is the exit strategy. If the enemy loses then everything they own, including their land belongs to us.

We entered into an agreement with many other countries in 1941 and it was called the Geneva Convention. The countries who signed the documents agreed to treat their prisoners a certain way.
John McCain was a prisoner of one of these countries but they did not meet the terms of the agreement. We lost that war as McCain sat in prison while we argued if we should release our full military might.
Not many have been as fair and considerate as the United States. There are many terrorists in various groups and they want to rob you and kill you. Unless they are in uniform and represent some country they would not be entitled to treatment under terms of the Geneva Agreement. These are terrorists, thugs, and gangsters. They do not negotiate unless in a position of distress where they cannot win. If they think they can win, they will not negotiate and will try to kill you. If they are part of some Far East cells who believe they will be a martyr if they die trying to kill you, nothing will stop them, there is no negotiation, just game playing until they get the advantage. They will laugh at your stupidity in trying to bargain with them.

We have thugs and killers in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. We were holding them until the fighting ended where we took them from the battlefields.
Our Supreme Court has decided we must give these thugs all the rights of the Geneva Agreement even though they are not fighting for a country or were in uniform. They hide in civilian clothes and often hide behind women and children. The court decision was 5-3 and would have been 5-4 but one member did not participate because he had already ruled on the case. If he voted it would have been 5-4. This one vote difference ruled the military tribunals that tried these prisoners were unconstitutional and illegal under the Geneva Conventions. They did say the prisoners could be tried in military tribunals authorized by congress. The court said the Geneva Convention applied to civil wars and thus to thugs and terrorists.

The problem is two fold. First, the Geneva conventions were written in a way that gave an incentive to countries to join the agreement to insure better treatment for their prisoners. By giving the benefits to all, it takes away the incentive to join the agreement.

Second, the decision interferes with the rights of the Commander in Chief to have unusual wartime powers. He (or she) must move quickly to protect the citizens and there is not always time to wait for debate. We are seeing extended bickering between the Congress and the President and the President and the Supreme Court in an attempt to limit the powers of the President. This bickering can cost us dearly during times of emergency.

If these powers are questioned will decisions made in the past be reversed?
Remember that the Emancipation Proclamation prepared and signed by President Abraham Lincoln was done using his wartime powers and was not challenged by the judiciary at the time. This resulted in the freedom of the first slaves. Is the Court now going to try to reverse that?

In addition our units that interrogate these prisoners are now afraid of being charged with a crime. There is only one result from this action. If we take a prisoner and we cannot try to obtain information from him then he is of no value to us. It is useless to take prisoners so the incentive will be to terminate him in the battle zone.

Now we have another situation. We ask our men and women to volunteer for service. We put them in harms way having carefully taught them to destroy our enemies. 7 Marines and 1 Navy Corpsman see a man on the opposite side of the road carrying an AK47. That is an assault rifle used for killing people. It is a battle weapon. If he is going to carry it around areas where our military is he should be expected to be shot at.
In 1941 there were German Submarines operating in the Western Atlantic. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt ordered them sunk. He said that if you see a snake poised to strike you crush him before he strikes. In fact, we have discussions going on now with many suggesting that we strike Iran and North Korea before they strike us.
Should the marines terminate this threat with an AK 47? They then noticed he was carrying a shovel and he started to dig alongside the road. With all the damage and death resulting from road side bombs and mines it seemed obvious the armed intruder performing an act that could cause death and destruction must be eliminated. It happened.

There are still 3 marines being held for this act and they are charged with a crime. They are lining up attorneys to defend them and their families will no doubt lose their homes and savings in an attempt to save their sons from these terrible charges.

There is only one result from this action. Our brave young men will no longer want to volunteer for the military. The risks and the costs are too high. The people at home will not appreciate their service and we will not defend their action.

It is obvious we are not serious about defending ourselves and our families from the terrorists. I believe we need to tell our children not to have any more children. If we are not going to fight with the intention of winning then we will surely lose and we should not want to place our future generations in the position of the horrible and brutal tactics that are used by those who will conquer us. They are thugs, murderers, rapists, opportunists and they are intent on using us as their slaves, converting us to their beliefs or destroying us.
They are very clever and patient. They have stolen a peaceful religion and profess edicts that were not intended. They feel that the actions of the westerners have caused the deaths of many of their people so when they kill us it is just an eye for an eye. And when they kill us they believe they become martyrs and will go to a rewarding afterlife.

If they want to play the game of an eye for an eye we should fight fire with fire. We can hire mercenaries to intercept and destroy them. We can increase our security. We can support tribes and countries that want to destroy them. We have done it before and could do it now. But we must not hesitate. We have to be committed and it all starts right now with you and me. Other wise, quit having kids, you are condemning them to a life worse than hell.

If you disagree, tell me. (DTM)
If you agree, tell others. (ATO)

Friday, September 15, 2006

MEXICO SECRETLY HELPING BORDER PATROL

MEXICO SECRETLY HELPING IMMIGRATION

Why were we not told about the work in Mexico that will help reduce the number of illegals coming across our border? Is this of no interest to the press? It is not a secret.

The basic problem in Mexico is the economy and the lack of jobs. This causes the Mexican citizens to endanger themselves during trips to the United States to find work.

Mexico imports $120 billion of U.S. goods a year.
The gross national product of Mexico was $200 billion in 1987 and by 2005 reached $769 billion.
Interest rates in Mexico in 1987 were 120 percent and they have dropped to 9.2 percent.
The economy continues to be strong in Mexico even though there has been a political crisis.
The electronics industry is booming in Mexico. Your flat screen TV might be a Japanese Sony but it might have been made in Mexico.

What is causing this boom in Mexico?
NAFTA

What is my source for this information?
Hector Marquez, director of Mexico’s Trade and NAFTA Office in Washington, D.C. His office will even offer incentives, including grants and loans, to help businesses begin trading with Mexico. (His visit to Daytona Beach was reported in the News-Journal on 9/14.)

Was it just about two weeks ago that we heard Electrolux was moving to Mexico?
Was it yesterday we heard about the worker program in Canada where low cost labor is transported to Canada to work on various crops, housed and then after 7 months and paying taxes are shipped back home to Mexico? Nice, they summer in the north and winter in the warm south.
NAFTA was first proposed under Bush-I and finally enacted under Clinton. Ross Perot was opposed because he felt it would draw labor away from the U.S. (That is a solution to one of our problems but Perot was correct in his prediction.) Actually, 60% of Clinton’s party in congress voted against NAFTA. It was with Republican help that it passed with strong union opposition. Clinton signed. Both sides had their own objectives. Vincente Fox wanted to use NAFTA to generate free passage of citizens across the border but 9/11 has directed the concentration of the U.S. into protection of the border.

I had proposed a complimentary program for along the border that would provide fencing and security plus industrial expansion and jobs by making use of low cost Mexican labor without allowing non citizens access to the U.S. but would give access to enclosed industries along the border. See:
http://divinebullet.blogspot.com/2005/09/mexican-lemonade.html

We still must insist on keeping the border controlled.
We still must insist on taking action against employers of illegals.
Sorry guys, you can hire them but do it legally. Push for the Canadian plan.

And look at the benefits of the Fair Tax program which will bring the investment we want to support programs like building industry along the border. We want good things for you. If NAFTA has some non beneficial effects on our labor and economy they will be swept away by the expansion effects of the Fair Tax program. Our only problem will be to find enough workers to keep up with the production potential. We will experience a renewed advance in machine efficiency out of necessity but a guest worker program like Canada uses would be helpful.

If you disagree, tell me. (DTM)
If you agree, tell others. (ATO)

Stew Rusby

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

TORTURE,DEPRESSION AND THE TERRORISTS

YOU ARE BEING TORTURED

Right now you are being tortured. It is happening day after day and it is cruel.

The online encyclopedia states that:
Torture is any act, by which severe psychological pain is intentionally inflicted on a person as a means of intimidation.

Right now, we are receiving information by acts of our terrorist enemies that cause severe psychological pain on each of us.

Countries like Iran, North Korea, and Venezuela and in the past, Cuba and Iraq have disseminated information that confuses us and cause us psychological pain.
Terrorists like Bin Laden, AlQuida, the Taliban, Hezbollah and Communists
have also been involved.

Iran for example will indicate an interest in meeting for negotiations but then will send terrorists to Iraq and Afghanistan to stop our efforts to help those citizens and the terrorists kill them to show we are weak or they will attack our military. After a time period they announce they do not want to meet with us and will proceed with nuclear expansion. When they attack us they hide behind innocent civilians and if we counter attack we are charged with being the terrorists who slaughter women and children. We become depressed and suffer psychological pain.

Is Bin Laden alive? We have not seen him for months on any of his films. Soon we will start to believe he is dead. Then he will appear. We will be depressed, confused and suffer psychological pain and Bin Laden will have won again.

North Korea tells us they will meet with the major powers and we relax a little, then they test fire a missile They say they will only talk to us one on one and announce if anyone threatens them they have missiles aimed toward South Korea and will kill millions of innocent families. It makes us look bad, confuses us, depresses us and we suffer psychological pain and the terrorists will have won again.

We are getting threats from Venezuela who is also getting very cozy with Cuba

This action of giving us hope and then changing the tone or attacking us is a psychological ploy designed to cause pain and discourage us and put us in opposition with each other. It is one of the oldest tools of war to confuse and divide the enemy. The terrorists boldly announce that we cannot win and we will lose.

The saddest thought of all is that they are right. We are divided, we cannot agree on how to fight them, we are afraid to fight them. We are more worried about criticism than we are about protecting our children from a horrible future. The press and the media play the enemies tapes over and over and we listen like robots. Our enemies control what their citizens look at or hear. They are taught that we are the enemy and they must sacrifice their children to stop us. We get depressed and suffer psychological pain.

In addition to the psychological attacks they weaken us in other ways. They attack others and we try to help them. Our money for oil is used to help finance their munitions, then they offer to help finance reconstruction, we try to keep up with them by making contributions and we expend enormous funds to keep ourselves defensive and support incursions. We sacrifice and become depressed and suffer psychological pain.

We better be careful about conserving fuel, the media we look at and the press we read or believe.
We better start believing in each other.

It starts right here, right now.
If you disagree tell me.
If you agree, tell others.
Now.

Saturday, September 09, 2006

THE FAIR TAX PART 3


You should approach the Fair Tax as an investment. If you are going to learn about this powerful and exciting proposed change in the taxing system you will be investing time and you might spend a few dollars attending rallies or even donating.

A little time is well invested in reading the enjoyable Boortz-Linder “The Fair Tax Book”. This is vital because there are a few special interest groups who want to stop the program for their own financial benefit. They are inclined to feed you erroneous information. When you do your own research you will learn the truth.

This reading time is an investment. You could do other things with your time that would bring you a return and your mail is probably full of offers.

When you invest you might consider a safe bank CD at 3% and if you find a return at 5-6% you will think it is a good return. 10% would be excellent, if you thought you could get 25% you would be very, very happy and I want to show you an investment that will exceed anything you have ever done. Normally, if someone promised a high return I would say run to the nearest exit, but when the Fair Tax is passed you have great potential. Do not let this opportunity pass by.

I am going to show you that time worth about $100 and invested in the Fair Tax will return over $100,000 to you in a little over 10 years. This return will be expanded when applied to your family.

I have already told you about the pay raise you will receive; it could be $7,500 to $10,000 a year or more. Remember that each head of household receives the prebate so your children will also receive the benefit when they set up their own households so the return on investment expands as your family grows.

In addition we are going to redirect billions of wasted dollars toward productive gains for you and the results are expected to be amazing. American families and businesses could be wasting as much as $600 billion in trying to comply with or legally avoid the current tax code. The real secret is that businesses do not pay any of the costs of the taxes. Business does not exist without a reasonable profit, all other expenses; including taxes are passed on to you as part of the selling price of the product. You are paying this cost.
When the fair Tax is passed the businesses will not have any more taxes to pass to you. In fact, the magic of the program is that you will pay about the same price for products but the portion that went for business expenses related to taxes will now be used to pay our federal taxes. The economists who figured that out are heroes!

There is also about $1 trillion dollars in illegal transactions that take place each year. These include all illegal sales of stolen valuables, drugs, and other items. With the Fair Tax these profits will be taxed when the people involved spend their profits on consumer items. Purchases such as big cars, yachts, new homes, jewelry and so on. Part of their conspicuous consumption will be given to support the government, reduce your taxes and help pay for your Social Security and Medicare.

The same is true of visitors and tourists from other countries. They will help pay for your government and its programs.

Our present tax code has many discouraging elements. If you earn a significant amount of money or you own a corporation you are pressured by high tax rates on savings to find off-shore locations where you can save thousands of dollars a year. This takes money out of our domestic banks where it helps reduce interest rates and benefits the economy of the country where it is placed. With taxes eliminated it will be cheaper, safer and a lot more convenient for large savings funds to be kept in a reliable domestic banking system. With extra money to invest, competition will drive down interest rates you pay on your house and on credit cards. Just make a quick estimate of what you think your average credit card balance is for any year. If cheaper money caused lower interest rates you could save 10% or more. So take your average credit card balance and add 10% of that amount to your return on your investment in the Fair Tax. While you are at it add 2-3% of your mortgage balance to that return also.

We will eliminate the federal death tax and federal taxes on savings and there is a list provided below that will describe other taxes that discourage working , investing and the economy.

Because of no federal taxes our domestic products will be more competitive in the world trade without the taxes increasing their cost. Increased US sales will help increase our economy which will increase worker demand making your salary increase. At the same time, foreign goods will be sold with the embedded tax that will help reduce their advantage while helping to pay the costs of our government.

There are many professionals now working on tax code compliance and avoidance. This wonderful brain power will be concentrated on how to improve the efficiency of business, how best to invest the money and how best to improve products and customer service in order to help their companies earn their share of the expanding economy.

Your Government can concentrate on issues that are important to citizens rather than negotiating over who gets certain tax benefits.

I have given you some high lights of how you benefit from supporting the fair tax. If you would like more detail, here is a place to go. There are many more benefits that I have not explained.
http://50reasons.blogspot.com

Deborah maintains this site with 50 reasons why she supports the Fair Tax. These were provided by Ken Van Dellen. Deborah will also give you links to the various Fair Tax sites. Great job, Deborah. Thank you.

We should also thank the fine Houston business executives who invested the time and money to hire experts to develop the Fair Tax solution. http://www.fairtax.org Thanks to Congressman John Linder for his untiring efforts to prepare the act, promote it and get many co-sponsors and finally to Neil Boortz who has taken the time to learn the system and educate us.

Now, it is up to you and me to spread the word. We need to increase the numbers in our support group. If this article helps, please copy it and distribute it.

Thank you for your interest.

Stewart “Stew” Rusby
When I find worthy causes or develop what might be a solution I invite you to join me in searching for a silver bullet solution to this and other problems at http://divinebullet.blogspot.com

Thursday, September 07, 2006

ARE YOU REALLY INTERESTED?
(DO YOU VOTE IN THE PRIMARIES?)

After the primary election in Florida I wanted to review the statistics and see if there was any trend or indicator that would let us know how interested voters would be in the national elections.

This figure might not have any significance because a triggering incident could change the thoughts of the public and change the outcome. Therefore, any information developed must be related to today and considered with tongue in cheek as a future indicator. Researchers in the break rooms kid about the BS estimate (Blue Sky thinking) or the ever popular WAG (wild a—guess) or the old reliable wyswyg (what you see is what you get) and so on but they can be rough on each other because it is a serious business.

I found very little. Search after search failed to develop projections or analysis. There was a report in the Miami area about the rains keeping voters away and the turn out being about 15%. A blogger reported a 20% turn out which was more dependable because projections were based on 85% of the precincts reporting. The State did give good figures so I could look at the turnout but had to go back to the previous year for registered voters.

I would say the turnout was between 20% and 25% and if I studied some past elections I would think the figure is about what you would expect. One comment was the turnout reflected the lack of confidence in the voting machines and system. The Times commented on the prospects of Democrats gaining on the Republicans.

Actually the Democrats have more registered voters than the Republicans. But the Republicans had a higher percentage of turn out.
Am I wrong to believe that the major metropolitan areas in Florida are controlled by the Democrats and the voting systems would be led by individuals elected by their Democratic constituency? Would that also include the Miami area where Bush was accused of having stolen the election? The cable channel Fox News admitted the major TV channels reported the outcome of the election going to the Democrats when the polls closed, forgetting that the polls in the panhandle were open another hour because of the time zone difference. They estimated a loss in votes of about 15,000 because so many thought the election was over and decided. Of this 15,000 about 12,000 would have gone to the Republican side. This fact is always ignored in the projection or wishful thinking of the press.

Marc Ambinder of the Hotline wrote an article for the Washington Post about how the Independents are gaining strength as the political parties lose steam. Interesting article that would make Neil Boortz and his Libertarians happy. The article has some good points that can be applied to the activity in the Northeast where independents are stronger. The article I saw was reprinted in a local Liberal paper alongside a Times article about the GOP forgetting its principles.
We can’t argue with that can we? We have the life long dream of many seasoned Republicans with control today of both houses of congress and the Presidency. It is hard to overlook the wasted effort with the pork barrel spending of those who have the power. It is so disappointing. But even with all that the Republicans still outperformed the Democrats in Florida.

My conclusion? Don’t give up on the dedicated yet, they are still plugging away. There was an old story that said the plodders will always win. The hot shots come and go but those plodders who stay at it and keep plodding along and will get there in the end after the hot shots have fallen by the wayside.

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

CONGRESS WIGGLES-MILITARY SUFFERS!!!

It seems such a long time ago that I spent several years in the military and probably one of the most discouraging events was when the chicken in our diet increased from twice a week to 4 times a week. It was obvious to us that the government balanced the national budget on the enlisted man’s diet. It was so obvious it was ridiculous. We knew.

Is it happening again? Or should I say it is still happening!!!

Last week there was a comment on the Fox News that the Central Military Command was anticipating military reductions. This uncertainty was heightened by a possible shift in power in congress.

Then I noted some printed comments followed by media notation about the reduction in military from 2.4 million members to the present 1.4 million members and concerns of further reductions.

I did not find any information in searches of regular web sites so I shifted my sources and started looking at blog sites. I found some information and clarification and wrote this great blog, but then it turned out not to be a good source and I had to drop the posting. Now I have been able to revise it and thank you for your patience.

What is facing the Republican controlled congress is a major quandary. We all know the publicity has been negative by the main stream press and the opposition is gaining strength in opposing the war in Iraq, The President made a strong speech today explaining the support needed to maintain our strength and commitment. The Republicans are trying to avoid a confrontation between moderates and conservatives in the party and to hold them together until after the November elections.

At stake is the need to reduce the budget and balance what is left of the budget between factions of the party to hold them in the fold.

It is a tough fight and in the meantime our brave armed forces; those honored volunteers are getting a lot more chicken. They might also be facing other cuts.
There are indications that something must be cut and it might be shifted to domestic cuts with some belt tightening of some sensitive programs. This will all be played out in the future. We have to expect stalling until after the election and see what happens then. In the meantime, our troops must wonder what will happen if one of the houses is lost and how this would probably seriously affect their future. We cannot expect them to sit and wonder without it affecting them.

We, the public have to be strong. We are being pressured with concern about our budget deficit. Actually, although at a high figure, in relation to the increase in our total gross domestic product it is not that high, it is under control and being reduced by the pump priming method used by the President. This priming had been used before by JFK and Reagan with good success. I am looking for current reports to give you up to date figures but they are elusive. If a man makes 50 thousand a year and a neighbor makes 500 thousand a year the man with the higher income will have more debt but it will probably be less as a percentage of his total income than the man with the smaller income. That is how the US is today. It is making big bucks and has more debt but it is less of the total income than when the country was smaller. So do not let the press or the politicians mislead you.

We need to raise enough money to support our military. If they want to cut spending, cut out the pork, take a hard look at the Fair Tax which will expand our economy and also develop more energy production at home to keep more of our expenditures working for us instead of the enemy. We voted in the majority to send them over there. Now, are we going to leave them in poor equipment and skimp on their food? With every serving of chicken, we send the message-you are on your own-sorry-we don’t care anymore. Oh yeah, don’t worry about replacements. We don’t have the money. We need another bridge in Alaska, you know-getting me elected is more important than getting you home.

But most of all-have faith.

Sunday, September 03, 2006

PRIMARY ELECTION VOTING

PRIMARY ELECTIONS

There will be 13 states plus 3 possessions having their primary elections in September.

If you have the opportunity to vote in the primary I hope you realize this election is just as important, maybe even more important than the general election in November. The primary is organized so party members can select the candidate to run in the November general election.

For the past 8 years the main stream media (or drive by media) has decided that the majority of the American voters made some serious mistakes and the media is out to show them why they are wrong.

The media is not mean or vicious. They believe in what they are doing. They cannot believe that the public does not feel what they feel and believe as they do. For the past 8 years they have been trying to make us realize that the public made mistakes and they will try to get us back on track.

They put out information as they think it should be and then report on polls that seem to reflect some success on their part in correcting our thinking. The general public is influenced by the pressure and direction of the media. The general public tends to read only the headlines or at best, a few words of a couple of paragraphs. They start to have doubts about themselves and with the belief that they are out of step with everyone else they begin to allow themselves to be influenced.

This was our founding fathers greatest fear, that a press, controlled by the government would be able to influence the masses. Instead, we have a press controlled by the attitude of large city influential giants and the result is as bad as the influence the first amendment tried to avoid.

Now, it is because of you and interested people like you that the primary is so important.
You have read past the headlines and you have visited some websites like mine and maybe some of those links on the side, you have learned about digging for the truth and have made up your own mind.

Congratulations to you. You are a part of a powerful and informed group and it rests on your shoulders to help direct our nation. The average person will not vote in this election, only those like you who care enough to be informed will take an interest in voting. That is why I commend you and encourage you to vote. Select the person who can best help your party achieve its goals. You might even have to vote for someone you don’t want as the candidate, but you have to pick the one who can win in November. That person might not
meet all your requirements but will be better than the alternative. Think about the opposition. What will happen if they win?

Who will make it safe? Who will make it safer for your grandchildren? Who will support your principles? Who will look at our constitution as a protector of the people, not of the politician?

Polls are being published and we do not know if we should trust these polls often based on one or two thousand people.
Do they reflect the feeling of those who will actually vote?
Do they reflect special interests groups who might make an extra push because a spark has stimulated their interest?
Has some group discovered a way to influence the polls by introducing questional votes?
Will new voting equipment stop or change the way a person votes?
Will the new early voting trends stimulate new groups to vote, groups that have not voted before?
Will some sudden push in publicity or event stir some individuals to vote?

Most of these events will occur in the general election, while the primary will tend to be those like you who consistently take an interest and know what is happening. The primary selection is where you can be sure you will have an influence.

We thank you for voting.

Friday, September 01, 2006

Saddam,Castro,Iran, Chavez

DO YOU WANT TO CONNECT SOME DOTS?

Sometimes things happen and then we forget about them and something that might have been important gets lost in the shuffle. Do you remember when we found some brand new fighter jets buried in the sand in the desert in Iraq?

When I first read this I was reminded of a former client of a member of our company who made parts for jet engines. I stopped to see him one day and he was kind enough to show me through his shop. He pointed out some equipment he used for cleanliness and he commented on the high internal speed of jet engines and how certain contaminants could destroy an engine in a short time period. This coincided with my experiences of automobile engines and how we did serious damage to a beautiful classic engine because we drove it before changing and flushing the lubricant.
A jet engine with sand can be flushed but it runs a serious risk of running no more than an hour or so before it fails. However, Saddam could use them for short trips to neighboring countries to drop suitcases of bacteria, chemical weapons or other dirty bombs. Certainly no risk to the U.S.

Then we find information on the internet about the Saddam-Castro connection and claims they had a secret lab in Havana making chemical weapons. Could it be true? Could that be the use for the airplanes? If Saddam transported the sand contaminated planes to Cuba, they took off low heading South and then curved out over the gulf to fly to Miami a couple of them could surely make it and our radar might not show where they were coming from. They would be Saddam’s planes and if he was lucky no connection would be made to Castro.

Radar. Remember Saddam giving big rewards to whoever could shoot down our fighter jets? What about the one he did get? Could he have taken equipment from that plane and mounted it in his own jet so it would look like one of our own jet fighters on our radar?

If you connect enough dots you can find for certainty some risk to the U.S.

Or is this the delusions of an old Navy non-com with too much time on his hands?
Time will tell….

Oh, there is one more Peter Falk issue.
It is now reported that the collaboration has moved from Saddam, and Castro to Iran, Castro and Chavez in Venezuela. It is also reported the lab has been packed up and flown to Venezuela.

Mix in a long range rocket from North Korea, some big cash from Iran and Chavez and we have a great conspiracy theory or a great plot for a scary movie.

(Sources: Search Google for Saddam Castro Connection).

THANKS DANIEL FREEDMAN
Click on the link to Daniel Freedman on the links section and read his article about “Why is Good News Buried?” Great article about the 2nd Iraqi province being taken over by Iraqi security forces and no mention of it in the MSM.

Thursday, August 31, 2006

FORMER PRESIDENT JAMES EARL CARTER, JR. 1977-1981

I turned 50 when Mr. Carter was President. I was very active in Real Estate Brokerage.
I had spent some time as an elected official and was tuned in to the political process.

I was in North West New Jersey with a large family and concerned about the accident at 3 mile island in Pennsylvania. There was a nuclear accident at a power plant and there was tension as to what to do to be safe.

Suddenly President Carter shows up at the scene and most of us were thinking “What is he doing there” and “Please don’t let him touch anything”. President Carter was not held in high regard by the American public.

Sometime after that incident I was caught off guard by one of those stories on Paul Harvey’s, “Now you know the rest of the story”. Paul Harvey told about a nuclear accident in Canada and that there was a potential melt down and how our government asked a young Naval Officer and nuclear engineer to volunteer to wade into the mess and save the world. He told how that young hero did agree to go and he stopped the reaction and was quite a hero. Then he told us that hero was President Jimmy Carter when he was a young man and I was really embarrassed that I had such doubts about this brave man.

While preparing to write about this for you I did a search to confirm Carter’s presence and brave action but I failed. What I did learn on historic sites was that Carter went there as part of a team. One of the web sites was a history of the town in Canada where the event occurred and the historian who was a physicist at the power plant described how their people were already clearing up the contaminated water and Carter arrived as part of a team that came to help with that project. Carter had been trained as a nuclear u-boat captain during his time in the U.S. Navy.

Now, knowing more about the truth of his history I am very concerned about his current foray into the diplomatic stumbling that he is doing. He recently went to England and chastised Prime Minister Blair for being so supportive of the President of the United States. When Mr. Carter was President we had great pride in our country and no one was tolerated who left our shores and criticized our government overseas. It was not done but seems to be common now.

Ghazel Omid, a young lady who escaped from Iran has written a book, “Living in Hell” and has a web site of the same name. Ms. Omid has explained that Mr. Carter is going to meet with the former President of Iran and this act will be viewed by the radical Muslims as a defeat for the United States and that Iran will be able to gain international prestige by forcing a highly placed individual from the United States to meet with Iran.

This is a very sad situation in our international prestige and our history.
I do not believe our President should have allowed this man to visit us other than address the UN and get out. But I am concerned that the forces out to win the next election have such strong support from the press and media that they weakened the President and in his moves to avoid controversy is making mistakes.

This is my viewpoint. I know it is not the same as yours or others but then I do not think like you or others. For a more profound viewpoint please go to the link on the left for Hugh Hewitt and he will give you the rest of the story.

THE WEATHER

By this time you know that Ernesto has fizzled and just brought us rain which we appreciated.
This happens a lot in North East Florida where we live. For about two weeks a hurricane
heads toward Florida and then turns North and devastates some other area with less publicity.

There is a hurricane named John that is headed toward the Baja Peninsula off Mexico and it is a huge storm. They are sweating out the same situation. Will it turn before it destroys some resorts?

I have cable and my TV, telephone and computer are all from the same service. It is fast, the lines are buried and it is usually dependable. The high speed computer service was off for awhile this morning so I am late posting the news today. I have some clean up to do with putting storm supplies away and then I will be back on schedule.

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Lexington, Lieberman,Morris,Blankley,blog

GOOD MORNING, August 30, 2006

While contemplating my thoughts for today I am reminded of a couple of statements I made, For example, yesterday I commented on the waste in building big airport towers if no-one was going to look out the big windows and notice a plane was on the wrong runway. Especially in a low traffic airport like Lexington.
A few hours later the FAA admitted allowing the airport to operate with one air traffic controller on duty when there should have been two. Even if there was a violation the controller should have checked. Especially after the taxiway had been redesigned.

When Joe Lieberman lost his primary I pointed out the mix of voter registrations and predicted, as did others, that he would do well in the polls and the election. His poll numbers are up and that prediction is coming true.
Richard Morris (a former Clinton advisor) stated last night on TV that the party that promotes the concern about the war on terror will win the election. Iraq is a negative, protection against terrorism is a positive and we will see these items come into focus.

I also read an article by Tony Blankley about an article in the Jerusalem Post about Ghazi Hamad, an official spokesman for the Hamas controlled Palestinian Authority where he called upon the Palestinians to change their ways. You can read the article at the link below.
Tony Blankley: The bacteria of stupidity

It would be nice if the Muslims started listening to some forward thinking members of their groups. That could go for Iraq also. All they have to do is look for peace and try to live comfortably in a world that will care for them. Instead, they are fighting among themselves for personal power. And causing its benefactors great stress during the process.

BLOGGING

I was recently introduced to this world of blogging by a book telling about the profound effect bloggers have had on the world in the past few years. I find people in 3 groups. Those who do not know anything, those who have heard about it and those who do it. There are about 20 million blogs on the internet right now. There are a few dailies and some of these rise to the top and are read by thousands each day. They are a source of unedited news and you can select the bias you want. There are places to search by subject and title.
Some that can establish a level of confidence and trust with their readers succeed. Some, that have an angle succeed for awhile but do not stay.
There are some that are business oriented and some are extensions of a company web site. One of these is http://www.palmcoastd.com where you will see my wife and her position featured on the home page. In effect, this is a blog oriented toward a specific market and the publishing business. It helps the customers understand the services offered and is a friendly link and introduction to a business organization.

You can search news from a blog, see my link to Google on the left. You can also search for” Google search blog” and you will find a search engine that will search blogs by title or subject or phrase.
Many people are rejecting newspapers and taking their news from the blog world.

WEATHER and news

Speaking of news, I expected to be looking at a lot of rain and wind as a hurricane approached us today. It has turned into another tropical storm and we are looking forward to some much needed rain without the ultra high winds. The Carolinas could do worse if the storm strengthens over the Atlantic Ocean.

I cannot believe we flew that character back first class and released him after he conned us into thinking he killed JonBenet. Well, now you know how to get a free air trip.

More later and thanks for reading.

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Ernesto update at 9 AM

There was a computer model update at 2 AM and at 8 AM which agree on a prediction that Ernesto will enter Florida along the SW gulf coast as a tropical storm nearing hurricane level one speed. Ernesto is then expected to travel north through Florida and exit near Palm Coast or St. Augustine as a weakened tropical storm and then re-enter the South in SC or NC possibly as a hurricane then disapating over land.
The prediction is based on slight weakening of cold front and high pressure areas in the southern states.
I am not going to board up my windows now but will have the wood handy if there is a change. Storms usually do not come through our area and this is unusual.
I have given an opinion based on opinions and estimates of others. Do not rely on me, you need to do your own investigation and make your own decisions.
Good luck.
Stew

Lexington,New Orleans, FEMA,Los Angeles, Northridge and Ernesto

LEXINGTON AIRPORT.

My wife has been flying in and out of the Lexington airport this year related to a special project connected to her work. We have been watching the reports of the tragic accident there with great interest and the scenes shown on TV are very familiar to her.
There are two things we know for sure:
1. The airport runways are not marked clearly so you can tell which one you are using.
2. The control tower has big windows so you can see the airport but no one looked out to see if the plane was headed in the right direction and on the correct runway. They have excused themselves and said they are too busy to “baby sit” the aircraft. Why then are we building high towers with big windows so they can see what is going on? Just one quick peek would have saved 50 lives and many reputations and maybe a small airline. Do they have computer screens that show the location of larger aircraft and that it is on the wrong runway? How many planes took off that morning? Were they that busy that they could not look?
Watch for the answers to these questions and other airports need to review their own procedures. The towers are under management of the same organization that oversees major highways, FEMA and Amtrak.

NEW ORLEANS

We have every politician who can make it in New Orleans working to blame the other party.
Of course, we remember 4:31 A.M. January 17, 1994. I was sitting in my recliner in front of the TV checking the morning paper. My wife was just about to get up and prepare for her first day at a new job. We were temporarily staying in an apartment on the ground floor of a 3 story building. We were in the valley near Los Angeles about 4 miles from Northridge where at least 16 people living on the ground floor of buildings just like ours were about to die.
A large roar started. The TV fell off and bruised my leg. I got up to go for my wife and she was calling me, as I tried to call back to her and nothing came out of my mouth. I tried to walk back through the hallway but the shock waves made it feel as if I were stepping into valleys and peaks but the floor was solid concrete. It seemed to take forever but I made it and we huddled together in a door frame.
We slept in our car for a few nights until our building was approved for occupancy. The President flew into town with a lot of publicity. We were directed to visit FEMA offices where we would be made “whole” or put back into the position we were in before the earthquake. Whole for us meant hundreds of dollars in broken items and we were not able to start work because nothing was open so we were losing income and paying rent on a building we could not occupy.
FEMA was sorry but they could not make us “whole”. There were a couple of reasons I have tried to block out. It was not impressive sitting before this group of high paid “experts” telling us why they could not help us after enticing us with all the wonderful things they had promised. We even heard people calling into talk shows on the radio stations that were operating and bragging about how they had been able to get two and three payments for rent amounting to thousands of dollars. It seems if you lied, you could get money and some of the people knew how to con FEMA and helped each other.

FEMA was screwed up then and it is still screwed up. Do we blame the heads of government of both parties or do we look at the career professionals who have been running the agencies for many years? Pros who the news tells us are being paid about double the average salary of non governmental employees.

NO GO ERNESTO

Right now we are basing the projected hurricane track on yesterday’s computer models.
Only one model was updated early this morning and that shows Ernesto reduced to a tropical storm over Cuba and then traveling up the gulf to the Sanibel area and then crossing Florida to South of New Smyrna and going along the coast up toward Cape Hatteras.
The strength of the storm is not clear. Based on older models it will be a tropical storm but based on the latest computer model it could gain some strength as it travels part way up the gulf coast in warm water.
We do know it will not go up to the New Orleans area. The cold front and high pressure areas in the southern part of the US tend to push it down and to the east into the Atlantic as it travels north.
I have to decide if I should board up my windows and will do that later this morning and will let you know what the latest computer models show at that time. It will start raining here later today. We need that rain.

Have a great day if you can.

Monday, August 28, 2006

Ernesto,Cuba, Florida, Rumsfeld and news bias

HEADLINE NEWS AUGUST 28, 2006.

At the top of the news today is Hurricane Ernesto. As it passes directly over Haiti and now Cuba it is expected to lose strength. If it can recover this strength on the way to Florida, it will become a category one hurricane. There is the possibility it will not recover.
The computer models are influenced by a cold front and the high pressure centers behind the front which causes the computers to calculate the hurricane will move eastward and pass directly over or through Florida. In any scenario Miami to Ft. Myers will take the full force of the storm. If it travels north through Florida it will weaken while over land before it reaches the Jacksonville area. If it travels north along the coastal waters it will stay strong or even gain some strength.
We must watch the storm the next couple of days. The projected path puts the center of the storm at my location in Florida at 2 AM on Thursday. I will be busy getting storm panels ready to insert in the windows. We have metal panels ordered but we are on a waiting list for delivery and installation.
We have found these storms often change at the last minute and will at least provide some needed rain.
Stay in touch for daily updates. If my postings stop you know it is headed here and we ran away for a couple of days.

In other news I note the local paper has a headline
RUMSFELD: DEFENSE SHIELD INADEQUATE.
From the Google News Search (Link on my web site) the headline is:
CONFIDANT RUMSFELD REVIEWS DEFENSE SHIELD.

It is amazing how our thoughts about the war are controlled by the press we are exposed to. I usually watch Fox news which tries to be objective and concentrate on facts. Some of the editorials do lean in certain ways. However, news reporters like Smith are objective. O’Reilly tries to be in the middle While Hannity and Coombs give both viewpoints. It is interesting to see that O’Reilly is accused of each side of taking a non objective view, no doubt the result of not spewing forth the talking points.
For the news, I scan the Google news, Check one side with the New York Times and the other with the Washington Times. I also give a link to a reporter with the New York Sun.

Try to stay warm.

Sunday, August 27, 2006

Blame for the Oil Shortage and Prices

WHO TO BLAME FOR THE OIL MESS!!!

You, Me, all of us.
It is our fault that oil prices are so high and we just will not do anything about it.

I have given an analysis of this before. Go to the archives of July 2006 and then January 2006.

I hear people say we should build mass transportation.
Even if they built it we would not use it. We love our cars and unlike other countries we are too affluent to not use them.

Building mass transportation and changing the attitude of the population will take years. You need to read my postings above and learn about our transportation systems and how we have abandoned them for the car. Sure, I try to offer a solution, but it will take help and years to convert our way of thinking.

In the meantime there are some things we could do to reduce our usage of oil which all involve conservation and better habits. If I mention them someone will say they are silly but I am going to take a shot at it anyway.
Do the following:
Read my comments as listed in the archives.
Slow down. Our traffic on the interstate is moving at 75 mph. We could save a significant amount of fuel if we slowed down to 55. We all have to slow down.
Do some planning for trips to the store and shopping and work. Can you reduce a few trips by planning? Can you ride with someone else or give someone else a ride?
Can you have the children ride the bus and not join the long lines at schools?
Check the air pressure in your tires every 2 weeks.

Ask the big money and politicians to cut back on use of private jets and yachts.
Show some interest in conservation, alternative fuels and finding new sources of fuel.
When the futures traders see your interest and efforts and anticipate a reduction in price they will sell crude futures short before the price drops. This will absolutely cause oil prices to drop and reduce the profit going to terrorist supporters.

Need an incentive? The terrorists are supported by your excessive use of fuel. Without the billions we send them they would have to cut back on financing the death of our troops and people around the world. Think about please. We are sending them money to kill us! It is a lot easier to cut back at home.

News:Centanni,Ernesto,Iran and shuttle


HEADLINE NEWS SUNDAY AUGUST 27.

Centanni and Wiig released, Ernesto now Hurricane and heads for Florida, Iran pledges fight for nuclear use and US plans sanctions, shuttle delayed.

The journalists have been released and are safe as confirmed by CNN, Fox News and New Zealand diplomat. The photo above is one I took of Steve Centanni covering a presidential appearance in Daytona Beach

Ernesto has achieved hurricane status and is moving closer to Cuba. Computer models show it turning NE toward Florida and hitting Jacksonville area Thursday night. I will get my window covers ready, but the track could change and probably will the next few days. 4 of 5 computer models show it turning into north Florida.

Iran opened its heavy water plant needed to enhance uranium, the UN is softening its approach so the US is promising to enforce its own sanctions and might be alone. Other countries want a share of the billions of oil money flowing into Iran.

The shuttle launch pad was hit by lightening which is normal. Inspections to be made and possible launch target is just after 4 PM on Monday.

Saturday, August 26, 2006

Attorney General and Reporters Undisclosed Sources

The Attorney General announces position on reporters being required to reveal undisclosed sources.

I have seen only one newscast about this subject and I expect there will be ample discussion and argument over the next weeks and months regarding this subject.
Reporters feel they have some first amendment rights to disclose information without revealing their sources.

I do not agree with them because they have already told us they should not use this practice unless it is a last resort. How can that be?

The constitution was very vague about the freedom of the press. In the first amendment a very short statement about congress not making any laws to abridge the press leaves a situation open to interpretation and argument as to what is the press that has this power.

I even found statements that it was better not to give any details so that it would slide through ratification easier. It was ratified by 9 states and it is interesting to review the states and their rural nature and possibly simpler expectations.

The press itself seemed to recognize the lack of definition and I believe, but am not positive, that they set up their own standards which helped define the press that would be protected by the first amendment.

Many feel the press is not conforming to its own standards and if not, I put forth the argument that if the press does not meet the definition of the press which it has helped to define, then it is not the “press” and not entitled to the protections given it. This would include the excessive use of undisclosed sources which some leading papers have covered in their standards as only being used in certain circumstances and as a last resort.

You can read my original posting on this subject, please go to Archive, select August 2006, and scroll down to August 11 under “Press, Free Press and Congress then The Freedom of the Press”

Happy Saturday America!

August 26, 2006
WEATHER:
The weather map has changed overnight so your newspaper map is outdated. Storms are shown this morning extending from North Texas up through Missouri to Illinois. Spotty rain showers along gulf coast of Texas and the west coast of Florida. There is rain in Jacksonville and the east I-4 corridor.

Tropical storm Ernesto is well organized and could develop into a strong hurricane. Watch this closely, it is in the Caribbean and is projected to head into the Gulf of Mexico about Tuesday. Key West should feel rain early Tuesday morning but many changes can take place.

Tropical Depression Debby is still out in Atlantic and will make a curve to the north and then northeast Sunday. If you are on a ship avoid the area.

Tropical storm Ileana is in the pacific and slowly weakening.
Hurricane Ioke is in the Pacific west of Hawaii.


HEADLINES TODAY:
Thank you Europe. The EU has pledged about half the troops needed for the occupation of Lebanon. From 5600 to 6900 will be sent and added to those already pledged. The French with the experienced foreign legion will head the groups.

The UN resolutions call for disarmament but Annan says it will not be by force? How do you disarm terrorists? They are like hit and run robbers-so one holds you up and you talk him into giving up his gun? I don’t think so. When you confront crooks with overpowering force they might give up or they might fight to the death.

The US is checking on the use of cluster bombs by Israel. Their use in Lebanon violated some agreement we have with them.

TODAY’S OTHER HEADLINES:
A psychology student from Lafayette College in Pennsylvania was found to have a stick of dynamite in his checked luggage on a flight from Argentina. There were 7 incidents yesterday of disruptions to US flights. Is it a full moon?

Iran has responded to UN demands with blah, blah, blah. They keep stalling. When it gets close to crunch time they will start an incident somewhere else. Let’s see, it is time for Noriega to create an incident or maybe even Castro.

Friday, August 25, 2006

Late news, Steve Centanni

Friday, August 25
There is late breaking news on Saturday night that some progress is being made with the captives of Steve Centanni of Fox News and his cameraman.
You can see a photo of Steve when he was in my area for the visit of The President in Daytona Beach, FL. Check the photo and my comments by going to the August archives and scroll down to august 15.
TAX REFORM OR MORE SNOW JOBS?
A second posting with more Fair Tax income.

In the first section of this subject of tax reform I introduced the Fair Tax to you and explained that your income would increase by the amount now deducted for withholding taxes and Medicare. Some employers might even pass along the amount they are now charged for their share of your withholding taxes.

I want to reveal to you another source of income that will also help to increase your monthly income.
Let me say that all the information I am giving you now is covered in the Fair Tax Book by Neal Boortz and John Linder. You should buy the book and study it. I am highlighting a few details to stimulate you and maybe clarify a couple of issues. I have found a couple of items I question and I will get to those also in future postings.

Now for another source of income. All heads of households will receive a payment each month to advance to them the cost of the consumption tax for the basic necessities of that household for that month.
Explain please: Let’s say you are a married couple and you have two children. At this time, the government has decided it will cost you $25,660 for your basic household requirements. If someone earned or spent below that amount it is defined as below the poverty level.
Don’t worry about the name, it is just the way to establish a figure to say that all income at or below that amount is required to give your family the basics. It has then been decided that a family should not pay sales tax on that amount. It would be unfair and cause a burden in taxation for lower income people. So the bill before congress requires the government to refund you in advance the tax on that amount which is $491.82
a month. Did you look at the withholding from your payroll stub? Let’s say you are having about $350 taken out for taxes: Add to that the $492 prebate and your income will increase almost $850 a month.
When was the last time your income went up about $10,000 per year? The fair tax has been recognized as the fairest treatment for lower income people.

Now let us examine this big increase. Most of that, the $492 will go for the consumption or sales tax. But remember the first lesson, when we get the corporate taxes that are passed on to you out of the sales price the final price you pay at the cash register will be almost identical to the price you paid before so that refund of $850 will really be a net increase in the money in your pocket. Do you know what happens when more consumers have more to spend? More of you can qualify for and afford to buy your own house so real estate will boom. With more money many of you will increase consumption so the economy will increase. Some of you will save some of that money so with increased savings mortgage rates will decline and more of you can afford mortgages which will also help the real estate market.

Without income taxes and taxes on savings more people will take their savings out of foreign deposits designed to skirt our taxes and deposit that money here in US banks. In fact our tax treatment for investment and savings will suddenly become the best or one of the best in the world so lots of money will flow into our banks. This will reduce mortgage rates, encourage investment and growth for our country and you will be much better off. There will be better jobs, a higher demand for your work and you will be very happy.

You can also always buy used items and save paying a consumption tax, it is OK. There will be a lot more spending and lots of taxes will be paid in just from the consumption of a more affluent America.
Tourists will come and they will help pay our taxes through their consumption. People who obtained money by various means whether it was a gift or it was stolen or it was for some unreported sales will now pay for their share of your taxes when they spend the money.

You do not have to worry about Social Security or Medicare any more; it will be funded and is provided for.

OK, that is enough for today. Absorb this and I will come back with some additional information. In the meantime you can read the book and you can go to the web site at www.fairtax.org. There might be a group of volunteers in your town who will explain more of the tax to you.
MEMORIES OF AN OLD MAN.

I remember the thirties.
I remember the poverty.
I remember people with college degrees begging for jobs as delivery boys.
I remember working all day for 50 cents.
I remember when I was about to be drafted to go into the army and crawl through rice fields in Korea and be killed.
I remember joining the Navy so I could have a shower before I died.
I remember donating shoes to send to our army in Korea because our defense budget could not afford to buy them.
I remember visiting countries where we traveled in groups for safety.
I remember seeing poverty so bad the people did not care about living.
I remember seeing young people offering to sell themselves for pennies.

And how I remembered seeing our flag flying over our possessions, our military bases and our ships at sea.
I remember seeing that flag and the protection and warmth it offered me and my comrades. When we were close to that flag we were embraced in a cocoon of protection and comfort.
Many of our veterans have died to protect that flag and make it strong.
I remember a number of almost a million servicemen and women have died so that flag can fly and lead us back to warmth and protection.

Our veterans who have died and many, many more who were wounded have asked you for a simple favor, it is an easy favor to ask and you probably think it is trivial and unimportant.

Please, as a very small favor to all who died or were wounded to give protection to your rights and freedom, will you please treat that flag as a part of their lives and think of them when you see it, handle it or retire it.

We veterans beg of you. Please allow us the simple courtesy of protection for that which we hold so dear. It is our life and our sacred duty to protect that flag so it will mark the way for you when you need to seek comfort.
We know we are asking something that might seem to be a sacrifice to you but please remember how much we gave for you and the small favor we ask in return.

Weather and headlines, Friday,August 25, 2006

WEATHER:
The US map is well visited by numerous highs and lows. Today the lows could dominate the east coast and influence tropical storm Debby. That storm will start to turn north this weekend but the influence of other forces could re-direct it to the north east coast of the US. Debby has just become better defined and we will watch it.
There are storm patterns right now in North Texas with rain headed east to Oklahoma.
There are also storm patterns around the great lakes drifting to the east over Lake Huron.
There is a tropical storm #5 in the South Caribbean that is well defined and will become tropical storm Ernesto soon. Predictions are for it to head west but that could change.

HEADLINES TODAY:
I see a typical pattern here of France talking about sending 4000 troops then reducing that to only 200 and now offering 1500 for Lebanon. The press reports that they agreed to increase from 200 to 1500 and it makes France look wonderful. Actually, they have let everyone down by dropping from 4000 to only 1500. That is 500 more than Spain and will probably allow France to still be in charge.
Meanwhile Kofi Annon is chatting with Iran and seeming to be opposed to sanctions. Time to investigate the flow of money?

TODAY’S OTHER HEADLINES:
The JonBenet maybe killer is in jail in the US. Will have to be charged today because that is the law in Colorado. If they left him in LA there would have been more time to investigate because the law gives more time. The smart money says the DA in Colorado is savvy and must have some other evidence. We will see….

Now we have a morning after pill. Good. Can only be purchased if over 18. Will result in large sales indicating high sexual activity at age 18 but unwanted pregnancies will decline in ages under 18. Potential for stem cell research will decline because of reduced birth rate.
There are no restrictions for stem cell research. When the federal government was authorized by the current administration for the first time to give money for research it was restricted to certain sources of cells. There are no fund restrictions for research when the funds are from private or public sources.

South Korea and Japan say North Korea probably has 1-2 nuclear bombs. That is a problem and this has been stirred up while Iran is under scrutiny. Too much activity is stirred up by Iran. Also Chavez is visiting China and was recently in Cuba.

Do we have enough military to take on more problems? A search of the internet indicates about one million four hundred thousand active military. Most of our troops in Iraq seem to be from reserves. Do we have a lot of military administration sitting around bases throughout the world? I have suggested we get about 800,000 on a training exercise around Iraq with the message that this sleeping giant is disturbed and the world better slow down and pay attention. See my previous post: “What would Teddy Do?”

Watch out for your laptops! The way things are going I would not be surprised to see some restrictions placed on carrying laptops on aircraft. Let us hope this settles down.

The final item is the most ridiculous item and that is the man in India who named his restaurant after someone we all hate. So is there a lesson to be learned here? If you want world wide publicity do what he did. Name your business after someone everyone hates. He selected Hitler. After the world talks about it, apologize and change the name and now you are known as the place that used to be named after Hitler but you are world famous and have lots of business.
Using this lesson I can get publicity for my blog by naming it after someone who is really hated by everyone. But who is hated by everyone?
“Saddam’s notes” maybe? Or the Enron Chronicles or the “Big Oil Pool” wait, I know who gets blamed for everything and the press says he is hated around the world- I will call it the “Bush Blast”
I am sorry; I did not mean to offend anyone.
I am changing the name back to the Divine Bullet (Dreaming up the silver bullet).
Have a great day.

Thursday, August 24, 2006

IRAN ATTACK OF OIL RIG

IRAN ATTACKS ROMANIAN OIL RIG
Late yesterday gun boats from Iran attacked an oil rig belonging to Romania in waters off Iran in a commercial dispute. Guns were fired and the workmen are being detained by the Iranian troops.
This was not reported in any of the papers and is still not on the wires. I received a tip and searched the internet for details.
GOOD MORNING AMERICA. Thursday, August 24, 2006

WEATHER:
When the newspapers went to bed last night they showed a low pressure area in the Dakotas and a high around Indiana producing moderate conditions throughout the country. This morning a low has formed in Southern California, 2 highs near Arizona and New Mexico which is good and a low near the Georgia, Alabama border. We can expect some activity developing today around those low pressure zones so check on those areas later in the day.
Tropical storm Debbie is expected to make a turn away from us and is still far out to sea and will not be expected to be a mainland problem.
NEWS:
It is interesting that a new stem cell procedure has been found that will not harm embryos. Still some controversy but looks promising. Headlines always refer to current administration as failing to sign bill that would allow stem cell research to expand but they fail to mention that it is the first administration ever to allow any stem cell research paid for with federal funding. Research paid for by private funds is not federally controlled.
Also in the headlines are Iran and Lebanon.
Iran is now willing to negotiate. The UN resolution called for sanctions if uranium enrichment for nuclear weapons not stopped. Iran’s’ offer to talk and negotiate is about everything but enrichment and they state they will not stop.
We have a dilemma. If we wait until they have the bomb we have to nuke them before they nuke us and hundreds of thousands of civilians will die. If we go in before they have the bomb we can use conventional weapons as in Iraq but there will still be casualties and much criticism as we have about Iraq. I doubt that we have the heart for it. I have offered a solution using a TR or JFK show of force. See my previous posting “What would Teddy Do”. The proposal will become more appropriate as time goes on.

Lebanon says if peace breaks down other militant forces will step in to help them. (Mostly terrorist groups). The peace is already breaking down due to UN failure to act and now China is pulling back now so the UN will not be helpful.

Some papers are discussing falling prices in real estate with a bubble about to burst. In my 25 years in real estate I saw this pattern before. Sellers will tend to rent their homes out until the prices firm up and will rent homes where they are moving to. Some will delay their moves and the impact will not be as bad as you might expect. In some areas there is an overbuilding of rentals and condos, these areas will suffer more because condo sales will slow except to investors at low prices and with financing. The cycle will change in about 5 years.

I posted my second part of the dialog request about issues instead of individuals and finished with my thoughts about grass roots movements. This second section should be read after reading the first part the day before. I split it because it was more than you want to read at one sitting.

Thanks for checking in.
Stewart “Stew” Rusby

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Democrat,Republican, Libertarian or Independent? Continued

A grass roots movement by bloggers toward the goal of changing campaign finance looks very interesting to me, even if we had to start a new party as great grandfather helped do or we selected candidates and worked to help them regardless of party line. Our representation has been bought out and we stood by and watched them do it. Now, with our blogs, we have the power to improve it.

Just as Lincoln was the result of a grass roots movement and there have been others such as anti discrimination movements. Right now there is a movement pushing tax reform with the Fair Tax program. The group and movement are growing with rallies of thousands in Atlanta and Orlando.

Also think about the growth of our huge grass roots movement of blogs throughout the world. Bloggers are bringing news directly without the control of editors or publishers and the movement is well documented in the book “Blog, Understanding Reformation” by Hugh Hewitt and published by Nelson Books. I will quote a couple of facts from his book but I urge you to buy it and read it. Our world is leaving the traditional newspaper world and taking news directly from the internet. It is not difficult to find blogs that are reliable and informative. You can tune into the life of citizens in many countries and learn what is happening immediately. You do not wait for tomorrow’s paper; you can get the news as it happens from where it happens. Good bloggers are great researchers. They dig and dig until they get reliable facts and report the information to the public with or without a viewpoint, however you want it. There is software available that will list blogs when you turn on your computer and you can scan those you like as often as you like. The best bloggers post several times a day. There are millions of blogs to choose from and search engines to help you find what you want. Some bloggers read many blogs before they post their own. Those who have developed a following of 20,000, 50,000, and 120,000 and so on keep in touch with what is happening. They are well informed, have developed a following and are relied upon for facts. I was really impressed with Hugh Hewitt’s style of documenting the source of all important information. His book is a resource and directory which speaks well for his law training and professorial credentials. He learned early that when learning and exhibiting skills academia does not accept news articles as source documents, they are very unreliable, you need source documents and the blog community only allows those who appreciate that to climb to relevance.

Howard Dean got a big boost from bloggers during his campaign and the Republican National Committee lists a blog on its current site.
When Hugh Hewitt wrote his book two years ago there were about 4 million blogs and there are about 60,000 being created each month and one estimate places the current total at 19 million. This huge growth took place in just a few years. Hewitt’s book is filled with statistics about the growth of the blogs and the influence they have had, the influence on the problems of Trent Lott, mistakes made by the New York Times, John Kerry’s claims about Christmas in Cambodia and lots more. Bloggers found information and spread the word and interfered with the influence of the main stream press.

I would like to see that power turned loose on the political scene. However, I do not want to start condemning any politician, after all, we allowed them to put themselves in this mess. But we must be heard and we must support those who will place their civic responsibilities ahead of personal goals. The Contract with America was a good example and demonstrated that many good politicians would place the community first. It was a goal of Newt Gingrich who is a historian which complements his problem solving abilities and I noticed just today there is renewed interest in him.

(Sometimes I start writing and the discussion seems to be influenced. Maybe great grandfather or my dad has more influence than we think.) Our country is in a mess with campaign finance and the influence of big money. We might as well not even vote! The candidates are selected by who will finance them and how well they can raise money, not on their interest in representing us. We are fed information by headlines carefully worded to steer our thinking and then we are polled to see if the influence is there and then our politicians tell us they will vote the way we want them to. But often they listen to their big dollar contributors and figure out ways to mislead us.
Blgos have the power to change it all. Blogs can give the people a chance to be heard.
GOOD MORNING AMERICA. Wednesday, August 23, 2006

WEATHER:
Much of the country is dominated by high pressure centers which tend to push storms away. There are a couple of lows moving across the center of the country. Storm is in northern Wisconsin this morning and another just moving off North Carolina. There is a tropical storm “Debby” just moving east from the coast of Africa that we will watch and a tropical depression “Hector” in the Pacific. Ileana and Ioke are still active in the Pacific.

NEWS:
Everything about the same as it was when you went to bed.
Iran is still game playing with typical efforts of terrorist’s states to keep us unsettled. They gain when they get our hopes up and then knock them down and depress us. The more they can do to depress us and make us unhappy with our leadership improves their position and makes us weaker and more willing to move back.

See my posting titled “What would Teddy do?” as to our best course of action.

The New York Times has brought up the UN peacekeeper rules of engagement from last week.

France is still dallying about how many to send to Lebanon. Is it 1500 or 3000 with higher figure being reconsidered so maybe they can be in charge?

Fox news taking note of increase in Bush approval polls.

O’Reilly had a segment about the decrease in welfare rolls due to legislation pushing welfare recipients back to work. His outlook was positive.
A local paper had an editorial citing same law and how it was failing and leaving many in poverty.
We need to sort this out. Who is correct?

Late yesterday I posted my thoughts about my political affiliations. I am trying to get a dialog going with people of different viewpoints so I am discussing my background.
I will follow that up today with some additional thoughts and action needed to remove the influence of campaign finance funds. Our politicians must sell their principles to get into and stay in office. I believe we must take some of the blame because we stood by and watched while congress got themselves into this mess. A representative is only in office 2 years and must spend most of that time raising funds to stay in office. There is little time left for serious leadership us so we are cheated out of our representation. This is an issue that should concern all citizens regardless of political outlook.
We can change this and I will talk to you about how we can do that. Later today.
Thanks for checking in.
Stewart “Stew” Rusby

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Democrat,Republican, Libertarian or Independent?

This is a touchy subject but one that we should review. None of us are too far apart in our beliefs of core values and I would like to reach members from all parties or points of view. I will explain why and also why I have been active as a Republican.

About 110 years ago my Great Grandfather, John Rusby joined a grass roots movement that was important to all of us. John had a community store in Franklin Township, NJ. The name of the town has since been changed to Nutley and the Rusby store was near the school.

A grass roots movement had started in the Midwest and spread across the North to the East. John became a member and supporter. The movement had a singular purpose and that was to end slavery. It was decided to start a new party and then they elected Abraham Lincoln as their candidate. Lincoln was elected and they went to war with the states that did not want to end slavery and during that war President Lincoln used his war time powers to sign and enact the Emancipation Proclamation which freed many slaves.

Lincoln took a big gamble but the strategy worked and resistance was overcome.
These are the same war time powers we are fighting over now in the attempt to intercept communications between terrorists. A number of presidents have used the same powers and there was an incident with FDR when he planned to appoint several more judges to the Supreme Court in order to control a ruling he needed to proceed with the war. Things worked out for him anyway so he did not proceed with the plan.

My Grandfather was a conservative minister and when Sears and Roebuck decided to sell alcoholic products in their popular home catalog Grandfather placed a large sign on his lawn on a very busy road and along with others placed great pressure on the company to change.

My Father sometimes took me with him as he worked as a Republican county committeeman to try to get candidates elected. My first memory of a campaign was when we stood along a small village street handing out flyers for Tom Dewey who was running against FDR. Mr. Dewey was across the street and he watched me handing out his flyers and must have wondered why we did not cross that small street and meet him. I might have even received an autograph. But Dad would not cross that street. He was a deacon in the church and Mr. Dewey was standing in front of the hotel bar. My dad never walked on that side of the street where there was a bar.

In later years I worked on other campaigns and the time came for me to decide if I wanted to run for public office. I wondered if I should continue on as a Republican, was I doing it because I believed in the goals or just because my Father was a Republican? I went to the library and looked up the principles of the Republican and Democratic Parties. It seemed that the Republicans were better organized in their goals and I felt closer to the goals so I stayed with them. I ran for an office of township committee and lost. Two years later I ran again and won as the only Republican with the other four Democratic members. In the next election we won two more seats and I became chairman with the honorary title of mayor, the youngest in my town. We moved to another part of our county and I did not run for re-election but then the bipartisan county committee appointed me to an economic development committee and we made a difference in our county.

Now I am looking at our goals of both parties. My Dad would have been so excited to see us with control of both houses of congress and the white house. For about 40 years the Democrats had control of at least 2 of the three and the Republicans could not fulfill their goals of smaller government and more conservative spending.

When we did achieve some control we were conservative for awhile with Mr. Gingrich but then we went on a spending spree and lost all our principles. Now the pork barrel is so big that many great republicans would be disappointed and ashamed.

Right now our government is lost to the control of rich individuals, the media, corporations and big movements who finance the campaigns and buy power from those running for office. Even their staff can now accept gifts so if you want to bring an issue to a congressperson you have to get it past an aide that might be paid off to block you.

Today I heard a part of the Neal Boortz radio show. Neal is a Libertarian and has given much assistance to the Fair Tax movement. Today he quoted some figures about the numbers of illegal aliens caught and returned under the Clinton administration and the number of companies fined for hiring illegal aliens. He then gave the figures for the same groups since Mr. Bush has become President. I must say I was shocked when he quoted figures showing both sets of the numbers had gone way down since Bush has been in office. We are talking thousands being reduced to hundreds or less. And then he hit us with which states had benefited the most. No one reports this. Boortz noted the Republican business community wants the workers and the end result is that it brings the Democrats more votes so neither side has fought this issue. I have to check Boortz sources and report back to you. For now consider it unverified however, Boortz is usually reliable but he does preach not to believe anything you hear on his show or see on his website without verifying it yourself.

If we, that is you and I concentrate on issues instead of party propaganda we could start our own grass roots movement and force a change in campaign finance. We have to take back control of our politicians and put them back to work for us. We cannot have them under the influence of those who do not represent the American people. Even if we were to provide the cost of their campaigns, better decisions and less pork barrel grabs would probably more than pay the large cost involved.