Friday, January 29, 2010

THEY SIGNED FOR US

http://www.personalliberty.com/bob-livingston/they-signed-for-us
They Signed for Us
By Chip Wood • Jul 3rd, 2009

Half a century ago two patriotic ladies in the Midwest wanted to help others learn more about the remarkable men who signed the Declaration. Merle Sinclair and Annabel Douglas McArthur wrote a delightful book about the events of that time, including a history of each of the signers. They called it, They Signed For Us.

Every schoolchild in America knows why we celebrate the Fourth of July. Flags and fireworks commemorate the day we declared our independence from Britain.
On July 4, 1776, after months of heated debate, representatives of the Continental Congress voted unanimously that, “These United Colonies are and of right ought to be Free and Independent States.”

Thirteen colonies voted to become something new in history—the United States of America. Now, all they had to do was to win their independence from a government that would consider them traitors.

Fifty-six men bravely affixed their signatures to the Declaration of Independence. What sort of men were they? And what became of them?

Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists, 11 were merchants, nine were farmers or plantation owners. They were well-educated men of means. All of them had a great deal to lose when they voted to defy what was then the most powerful nation on earth. Yet they willingly risked everything when they pledged to each other “our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.”

How many of us can name even a handful of the signers of the Declaration of Independence? What do we know, really, about the men who risked their lives, and everything they owned, in the cause of freedom?

“SUDDENLY THE BIG BELL in the State House steeple pealed joyously. The appointed signal! Cheers rose from the waiting crowds.
“‘Proclaim liberty throughout the land….’
“Cannon boomed, drums rolled. Church bells rang, sounding the death knell of British domination!

“News of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence spread like wildfire. Ready messengers leaped into their saddles to ride and spread the word. The Declaration had been ordered printed on a single large sheet approximately eighteen by fifteen inches. These broadsides were distributed with all possible speed, to be read in the provincial assemblies, pulpits, market places, and army camps.”

The story continues:
“On July 8, the Liberty Bell summoned citizens of Philadelphia to the State House yard for a public reading of the document. Colonel John Nixon mounted a high platform and spoke the noble lines in a strong, clear voice. The crowd, now hushed, listened intently throughout.

“‘…for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.’

It was almost a month later that the Declaration was engrossed on parchment and ready for signing by the delegates to the Continental Congress. Members gathered on August 2 for the ceremony.

The only person who had signed the Declaration on July 4 was John Hancock, a delegate from Boston who had been elected president of the Continental Congress. He wrote his signature in large, bold letters and as he did, in a reference to the near-sightedness of the British king, he declared, “There! John Bull can read my name without spectacles and may now double his reward of £500 for my head. That is my defiance.”

As the delegates gathered around a desk to sign the Declaration, William Emery, one of the representatives from Rhode Island, moved as close as he could. “I was determined to see how they all looked as they signed what might be their death warrants,” he later wrote. “I placed myself beside the secretary, Charles Thomson, and eyed each closely as he affixed his name to the document. Undaunted resolution was displayed on every countenance.”

Contrasting with Hancock’s confident signature was the shaky scratch of Stephen Hopkins from Rhode Island. Hopkins was the second-oldest signer and suffered from palsy. As he handed the quill to the next person, he valiantly proclaimed, “My hand trembles, but my heart does not!”

As one or two delegates hung back, seemingly reluctant to add their signatures to such a momentous declaration, John Hancock encouraged them. “We must be unanimous,” he said. “There must be no pulling different ways. We must all hang together.”
Legend has it that Benjamin Franklin replied, “Yes, we must all hang together. Or most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.”

Happily, none of the signers was hanged by the British. But all of them were considered traitors to the Crown. And many of them suffered terribly for the cause they so ardently supported.

When New Jersey signer Richard Stockton returned to his home after signing the Declaration, he learned that British troops were coming to arrest him. He fled to a neighbor’s house with his wife and children. But a Loyalist, as supporters of the British cause were called, betrayed the family’s hiding place. Here is how Merle Sinclair and Annabel Douglas McArthur describe what happened to him:
“The judge was dragged from bed and beaten, then thrown into prison. This distinguished jurist, who had worn the handsome robes of a colonial court, now shivered in a common jail, abused and all but starved.

“A shocked Congress arranged for his parole. Invalided by the harsh treatment he had received, he returned to [his home at] Morven to find his furniture and clothing burned, his fine horses stolen, and his library—one of the finest private collections in the country—completely destroyed. The hiding place of exquisite family silver, hastily buried, had been betrayed by a servant.

“The Stockton’s were so destitute that they had to accept charity. For the judge’s fortune was gone, too. He had pledged it and his life to his country. He lost both. He did not live to see the Revolution won.”

John Morton, a delegate from Pennsylvania, was the first of the signers to die. His last words for his family, before his death in April 1777 (just eight months after he signed the Declaration), were, “…tell them that they will live to see the hour when they shall acknowledge it to have been the most glorious service I ever rendered to my country.”

The following month, Button Gwinnett, the commander in chief of Georgia’s militia, was badly wounded in a duel with a political opponent. He died a few days later—the second signer to die.

But by and large, the signers of the Declaration of Independence were a hardy bunch. Three of them lived until their 90s—a remarkable accomplishment in a time when most men did not see their 50th birthday.

Only two of the signers were bachelors. Sixteen of them married twice. Records indicate that at least two, and perhaps as many as six, were childless. But the other 50 signers were a prolific lot, having a total of 325 children between them! William Ellerey of Rhode Island had 17 children; Roger Sherman of Connecticut had 15.
Fifty years after the united colonies declared their independence from Britain, plans were made for jubilant celebrations on July 4, 1826. Only three of the original signers were still alive—Charles Carroll, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams. Here is how Sinclair and McArthur describe what occurred that day:

“In a dramatic climax that even their agile minds would not have contemplated, these two principals in the struggle for Independence left the nation awestricken and touched, by dying hours apart on the Fourth of July. Jefferson died at one o’clock in the afternoon, Adams toward evening.”

Ten days earlier, Jefferson had written the mayor of Washington, expressing his regret that ill health prevented him from coming to the nation’s new Capitol to join the festivities.

“I should, indeed, with peculiar delight, have met… with the small band, the remnant of that host of worthies, who joined with us on that day, in the bold and doubtful election we were to make for our country, between the submission or the sword.”

And he concluded by writing, “Let the annual return of this day forever refresh our recollection of these rights, and an undiminished devotion to them.”

Northwoods Patriots - Standing up for Faith, Family, Country

545 PEOPLE

545 PEOPLE

Charlie Reese is a former columnist of the Orlando Sentinel Newspaper and has been a journalist for 49 years. He writes:

Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.

Have you ever wondered why, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, we have deficits?

Have you ever wondered why, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, we have inflation and high taxes?

You and I don't propose a federal budget. The president does.

You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does.

You and I don't write the tax code, Congress does.

You and I don't set fiscal policy, Congress does.

You and I don't control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.

One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one president, and nine Supreme Court justices, 545 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.

I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central bank.

I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a president to do one cotton-picking thing. I don't care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash.
The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator's responsibility to determine how he votes.

Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party.

What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating deficits. The president can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it.

The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes. Who is the speaker of the House? Nancy Pelosi. She is the leader of the majority party.
She and fellow House members, not the president, can approve any budget they want. If the president vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to.

It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million cannot replace 545 people who stand convicted -- by present facts -- of incompetence and irresponsibility. I can't think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people. When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist.

If the tax code is unfair, it's because they want it unfair.

If the budget is in the red, it's because they want it in the red.

If the Army and Marines are in IRAQ, it's because they want them in IRAQ.

If they do not receive social security but are on an elite retirement plan not available to the people, it's because they want it that way.

There are no insoluble government problems.

Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power. Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like "the economy," "inflation," or "politics" that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do.

Those 545 people and they alone, are responsible.

They and they alone, have the power.

They and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses.

Provided the voters have the gumption to manage their own employees.

We should vote all of them out of office and clean up their mess!

Northwoods Patriots - Standing up for Faith, Family, Country

Saturday, January 23, 2010

TWENTY TALKING POINTS ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING

The inconvenient science: Twenty talking points about global warming
By Art Horn, Icecap

1. Surface temperature records show that global temperature fell from 1875 to 1910. Temperature rose from 1911 to 1943. Temperature fell again from 1944 to 1976. Temperature rose from 1977 to 1998. There has been no warming since 1998. We are now in the 8th year of cooling. While all these changes were happening carbon dioxide levels did nothing but go up.

2.There are 5 major centers that collect global temperature data, The Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia, Remote sensing systems, The University of Alabama Huntsville, The Goddard Institute for Space Studies and the Nation Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration. All of these centers show no warming since 1998 and all show cooling to varying degrees for the last 8 years.

3. Using surface temperature records to track global temperature change has numerous problems. The number of worldwide climate measuring sites has dropped from 6,000 in 1970 to under 2,000 today. Two thirds of the weather stations that were closed in this period were in the country. They had the colder night time temperatures. They are gone. What we are left with is a high percentage of urban weather stations with warmer night time readings due to pavement, buildings and general urban sprawl. This fact alone biases the temperature record warmer as the urban areas have grown around the world in the last 50 years. Several studies indicate that perhaps half the warming in the data base in the last 50 years is due to these land use changes. So while there has been warming the magnitude of it has been artificially magnified. That in itself is the real man made (made up) global warming.

4. NASA said that in the summer of 2009 the oceans were warmer than ever before. This was accomplished by subtracting the satellite measured ocean temperatures from the ocean temperature data base. NASA also does not use the 3307 ARGO buoys deployed in the world oceans because they show ocean heat content has been falling since the buoys were deployed in 2003.

5. There is no statistical relationship between carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere and temperature during the last 150 years. There is a strong statistical relationship between the cyclic Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) and global temperature. The PDO is a 60 year cycle of warming and cooling of the Pacific Ocean. In every instance over the last 150 years when the PDO was in the cool phase the global temperature went down. When the PDO was in the warm phase the temperature went up. The PDO has shifted back to cool and the air temperature is falling again.

6. The total carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is 3.8 one hundredth of a percent. The total increase by volume of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere in the last 150 years is one hundredth of a percent. This increase has benefited agriculture, trees, flowers and other plants. They grow faster with more carbon dioxide and are more resistant to drought.

7. Carbon dioxide is not pollution. Everything that grows on earth needs it. The source is irrelevant. Remove all the carbon dioxide from the air and the earth dies.

8. There are many large organizations including but not limited to Governments, Wall Street brokerage houses, environmental groups, corporations, universities, media outlets and political parties that have a strong financial interest in having you believe carbon dioxide is pollution. The saying “follow the money”

9. Ice cores show that increases in carbon dioxide in the past were the result of warmer temperature, not the cause of it. The laws of nature have not changed. Most of the increases in carbon dioxide in the air are the result of nature. The human component is very small, on the order of 3 percent per year. Half the carbon dioxide emitted into the air by human activity each year is immediately absorbed into the biosphere. Carbon dioxide is 3.5 percent of the greenhouse effect. Water vapor is 95 percent. Since human activity only adds 3 percent a year and half of that is absorbed into the biosphere the total human contribution to the greenhouse effect each year is about one tenth of one percent. Reducing this amount by some fraction will have no effect on temperature.

10. There is a strong relationship between the strength of the solar wind and global temperature. Strong solar wind equals a warmer earth, weak solar wind equals a cooler earth. Variations in cosmogenic isotopes of carbon 14 and beryllium 10 in ice cores prove this. Right now the solar wind is weaker than anytime that NASA has been able to measure it, nearly 50 years and the earth is cooling. The solar magnetic index (AP) is the lowest since measurements began in 1932 and it’s continuing to go down. The Pacific Ocean is in its cool phase and will be for another 25 years. The Atlantic is showing signs of cooling. The sun is weak and will likely be so for the next two solar cycles. We are heading for colder temperatures, not warmer.

11. The cyclic downward trend in the amount of ice left in the Arctic at the end of the summer has ended. The ice data from polar orbiting satellites clearly shows the extent of arctic ice is increasing. There is today 25 percent more ice than 2 years ago.

12. In the 1960s there were an estimated 5,000 polar bears, today there are 25,000. In a typical biased story in April of this year TIME magazine reported there were “only” 25,000 left. Once again this story had major input from environmental groups.

13. Satellite measurements show there is more ice in Antarctic than 30 years ago. News media reports only talk about shrinking ice in the Arctic, never about growing ice in Antarctica. They are selling fear. The reporters and news anchors know nothing about climatology. I know this because I worked with them for 25 years.

14. The melting of glaciers is not new. The “Little Ice Age” was from 1400 to 1850. The coldest temperatures were in the 1600s. Global temperature has been rising unevenly for 300 years. Glaciers have been retreating unevenly for at least 250 years.

15. Computer models say that there should be a rapid warming of the upper troposphere between 30 degrees north and south of the equator if global warming is proceeding as they predict. Measurements with weather balloons over the last 50 years so no such warming at all. This proves the computer models do not understand how the climate system works. These models can’t predict the climate 50 to 100 years in the future. Computer model forecasts of warming are not evidence of climate change. They are marketing tools for research institutions and universities to continue their funding from our government.

16. Data from the Earth Radiation Budget Satellite show outgoing longwave radiation (heat) increased by 4 watts per square meter in the 1980s and 1990s while the oceans were undergoing a cyclic warming. Computer models predicted outgoing longwave radiation would decrease as oceans warmed. All the models used by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) were wrong. This means the models make the wrong assumptions about how the climate works and are useless in making any climate policy.

17. The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was formed in the late 1980s to prove human burning of fossil fuels causes global warming. From the beginning it was never a scientific organization. It was formed with a biased political agenda. Their true goal is to capture power through climate treaties partly to insure the institutions own survival. These treaties give the UN the legal power to redistribute the developed nations wealth as they see fit. They will use the concept of “climate debt” owed to third world countries as justification. The debt will be retribution for the industrialized nations sin of “polluting” the climate with carbon dioxide and using all the available carbon space in the air. It is the UN’s goal to use global warming to extract money from developed nations without having to work for it. Recently the chairman of the IPCC Rajendra Pachauri announced “We’re at a stage where the warming is happening at a much faster rate.” Apparently he does not look at real world data.

18. Large environmental groups, political “leaders” and eco-activists believe the climate system is so simple that it behaves like a room in your house. Simply turn down the thermostat or in other words reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and we can regulate the world temperature. People who think this way are far more dangerous than any global warming because some of these people are in power.

19. As for Al Gore...He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. His message of fearing global warming has reached the third world. The nations of the third world are now demanding “climate reparations” for damage the western world has inflicted on the climate system over the last 150 years. They now say we owe them “climate Debt” because we have used up all the carbon space in the air. This is not promoting peace, it is causing more tension and anger in the developing countries towards the west. Gore’s “peace prize” is having the opposite effect. As for Gore’s financial investments in “green companies” I say “beware of the prophet seeking profits”. The urge to save the world is always a cover for the need to rule it.

20. The “climategate” emails prove that there is at best blind ambition among some of the world’s leading climate scientists and at worst criminal activity. The reaction of much of the mainstream media in the United States is proving to be very revealing. They either don’t report the story or they defend the actions of the climate scientists. Some of these leading scientists were caught intimidating scientific journals to keep skeptics from publishing and altering data to make the case for man made global warming. The emails also reveal that these scientists have deleted data or refused freedom of information requests and have deleted emails relevant to those requests, a criminal offence. NASA’s Goddard Institute of Space Studies has also been stonewalling freedom of information efforts. It is clear from the emails that a small but powerful group of leading climate scientists have used their lofty positions to pervert the science of climate change.

“CO2 for different people has different attractions. After all, what is it? – it’s not a pollutant, it’s a product of every living creature’s breathing, it’s the product of all plant respiration, it is essential for plant life and photosynthesis, it’s a product of all industrial burning, it’s a product of driving. I mean, if you ever wanted a leverage point to control everything from exhalation to driving, this would be a dream. So it has a kind of fundamental attractiveness to bureaucratic mentality.” - Richard S. Lindzen, Ph.D. Professor of Atmospheric Science, MIT

As we read there are hundreds of scientifically clueless politicians from all the countries of the world plotting in Copenhagen on how to destroy the economy of the United States by forcing us to pay trillions of dollars of reparations for the nasty CO2 which we have mercilessly dumped into the atmosphere.

Wake Up America !!!

CB

Monday, January 11, 2010

545 vs 300,000,000

READ THE FOLLOWING AND THEN REALLY THINK ABOUT OUR CURRENT POLITICAL DEBACLE.

Charley Reese has been a journalist for 49 years.

545 PEOPLE -- By Charlie Reese

Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.

Have you ever wondered, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits?

Have you ever wondered, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes?

You and I don't propose a federal budget. The president does.

You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does.

You and I don't write the tax code, Congress does.

You and I don't set fiscal policy, Congress does.

You and I don't control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.

One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one president, and nine Supreme Court justices equates to 545 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.

I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central bank.

I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason.. They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a president to do one cotton-picking thing. I don't care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator's responsibility to determine how he votes.

Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party.

What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating deficits.. The president can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it.

The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes. Who is the speaker of the House? Nancy Pelosi. She is the leader of the majority party. She and fellow House members, not the president, can approve any budget they want. If the president vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to.

It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million can not replace 545 people who stand convicted -- by present facts -- of incompetence and irresponsibility. I can't think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people. When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist.

If the tax code is unfair, it's because they want it unfair.

If the budget is in the red, it's because they want it in the red .

If the Army & Marines are in IRAQ , it's because they want them in IRAQ

If they do not receive social security but are on an elite retirement plan not available to the people, it's because they want it that way.

There are no insoluble government problems.

Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power. Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like "the economy," "inflation," or "politics" that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do.

Those 545 people, and they alone, are responsible.

They, and they alone, have the power.

They, and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses.

Provided the voters have the gumption to manage their own employees.

We should vote all of them out of office and clean up their mess!

Charlie Reese is a former columnist of the Orlando Sentinel Newspaper.

What you do with this article now that you have read it.......... Is up to you.


This might be funny if it weren't so darned true.

Tax his land,
Tax his bed,
Tax the table
At which he's fed.

Tax his tractor,
Tax his mule,
Teach him taxes
Are the rule.

Tax his work,
Tax his pay,
He works for peanuts
Anyway!
Tax his cow,
Tax his goat,
Tax his pants,
Tax his coat.
Tax his ties,
Tax his shirt,
Tax his work,
Tax his dirt.

Tax his tobacco,
Tax his drink,
Tax him if he
Tries to think.

Tax his cigars,
Tax his beers,
If he cries
Tax his tears.

Tax his car,
Tax his gas,
Find other ways
To tax his ass.

Tax all he has
Then let him know
That you won't be done
Till he has no dough.

When he screams and hollers;
Then tax him some more,
Tax him till
He's good and sore.
Then tax his coffin,
Tax his grave,
Tax the sod in
Which he's laid.

Put these words
Upon his tomb,
Taxes drove me
to my doom...'

When he's gone,
Do not relax,
Its time to apply
The inheritance tax.
Accounts Receivable Tax
Building Permit Tax
CDL license Tax
Cigarette Tax
Corporate Income Tax
Dog License Tax
Excise Taxes
Federal Income Tax
Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA)
Fishing License Tax
Food License Tax
Fuel Permit Tax
Gasoline Tax (currently 44.75 cents per gallon)
Gross Receipts Tax
Hunting License Tax
Inheritance Tax
Inventory Tax
IRS Interest Charges IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax)
Liquor Tax
Luxury Taxes
Marriage License Tax
Medicare Tax
Personal Property Tax
Property Tax
Real Estate Tax
Service Charge T ax
Social Security Tax
Road Usage Tax
Sales Tax
Recreational Vehicle Tax
School Tax
State Income Tax
State Unemployment Tax (SUTA)
Telephone Federal Excise Tax
Telephone Federal Universal Ser vice FeeTax
Telephone Federal, State and Local Surcharge Taxes
Telephone Minimum Usage Surcharge=2 0Tax
Telephone Recurring and Non-recurring Charges Tax
Telephone State and Local Tax
Telephone Usage Charge Tax
Utility Taxes
Vehicle License Registration Tax
Vehicle Sales Tax
Watercraft Registration Tax
Well Permit Tax
Workers Compensation Tax

Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago, and our nation was the most prosperous in the world. We had absolutely no national debt, had the largest middle class in the world, and Mom stayed home to raise the kids.

WISCONSIN ACCOUNTING PRINCIPLES

http://www.legis.state.wi.us/assembly/asm40/news/2010%2001%2008%20-%20Petersen's%20E-Press.html

Representative Kevin Petersen's E-Press
State Representative -- 40th Assembly District

According to a report released by the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance, the generally accepted accounting principles state deficit for the 2008-09 fiscal year hit $2.71 billion.

The $2.71 billion figure was calculated using data from the 2008 – 2009 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report published in December by the Wisconsin Department of Administration.

Generally accepted accounting principles (often referred to as GAAP) are standards accountants use while calculating the financial statements of businesses and non-profit organizations. These standards are widely followed to maintain integrity in budgeting. Publicly traded companies are required to use generally accepted accounting principles by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Instead of using generally accepted accounting principles, Wisconsin’s state government calculates its finances using month to month revenues and expenditures. This less stringent type of accounting ignores future obligations and covers up spending gimmicks used to balance bloated government spending.

For example, imagine two families purchasing a refrigerator during a “no money down, no payment and no interest for 2 years” sale. The 1st family uses generally accepted accounting principles, which will add the cost for the refrigerator to their monthly budget from the day of purchase until the payment’s due date. However, the 2nd family uses month to month current expenses budgeting. Their failure to account for the purchase will result in not having the means to pay for the refrigerator when the payment is due.

Wisconsin is much like the 2nd family which failed to address its impeding debt. In the current budget, the state purchased $2.71 billion of goods and services with no means to pay for them when their bills come due. Thus, the state’s structural deficit continues to grow into the future.

Since Governor Doyle took office, government spending has increased 32%; from $47.1 billion to $62.2 billion in the latest biennial budget. In fact, despite experiencing the worse recession in 30 years, spending increased over 6% in the current budget alone.

To break our debt down, according to the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance, the state’s generally accepted accounting principles deficit is $445 per person. In other words, Wisconsin has the highest structural deficit per capita in the nation.

Businesses use generally accepted accounting principles to ensure their solvency. It’s time for Wisconsin’s government to do the same. I’ve co-sponsored a bill that requires the preparation and passage of biennial state budgets using generally accepted accounting principles.

If Wisconsin is to chart a financially sustainable path, we must be honest in our budgeting and get spending under control. To not do so will burden our children with an unsustainable amount of debt.

Respectfully,

Kevin Petersen
State Representative
40th Assembly District

Monday, January 4, 2010

REASONABLE QUESTIONS TO ASK

The following are questions that should be asked of our elected representatives:
1. Did you vote for or against the proposed amendment that would make members of Congress subject to the same healthcare reform as the general public. How could you ever vote for a bill where members of Congress are exempt from the "reform" that you are forcing on your constituents?

2. The health care reform act proposes to spend roughly 1 trillion dollars over the next 10 years in order to save money. Does anything about that last statement sound wrong to you? Further, based on more objective accounting principles, the Heritage Foundation estimates the cost at just over 2 trillion dollars. Historically, actual costs are about 5 times the estimated costs (eg Medicare). That means that the actual cost will be between 5 and 10 trillion dollars. How do you expect to pay for this? What effect do you expect this will have on the economy?

3. You voted for a bill that includes a public option. The public option is widely recognized as the fastest route to socialized medicine. Is this what you really want? If so,
a) Why? Please give me an example of where socialized medicine works well.
b) Why don't you have the integrity to say that socialized medicine is what you want rather than cloaking it in the guise of the public option?

4. What is your commitment to the Right to Life?

5. Both the House and the Senate bills rely on dramatic expansions of Medicaid benefits. Medicaid is paid for by the states, and is the leading item in most state budgets. Most state taxes are already high, and now they are about to go much higher. Weren't we promised that taxes on the middle class would not go up? what effect do you think higher taxes will have on states' economies which are already hurting?

6. Items of responsible reform you should be fighting for:

1. Tort reform.

2. Increase competition among health insurance companies by eliminating restrictions on sale of insurance across state lines.

3. Make insurance portable - it should not be tied to your job.

4. Give the same tax breaks for health insurance to individuals as you do to employers.

5. Establish state-wide high risk pools for people with preexisting conditions so they can get insurance at reasonable rates.

6. Encourage health saving accounts.

These reforms taken together would not cost a dime and would dramatically improve the healthcare system we have, which happens to be the best healthcare system in the world. Please do not destroy it.

Sunday, January 3, 2010

CONGRESS

THIS IS HOW YOU FIX CONGRESS!!!!!

My friend and neighbor wants to promote a "Congressional Reform Act of 2009". It would contain eight provisions, all of which would probably be strongly endorsed by those who drafted the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

I know many of you will say, "this is impossible". Let me remind you, Congress has the lowest approval of any entity in Government, now is the time when Americans will join together to reform Congress - the entity that represents us.

We need to get a Senator to introduce this bill in the US Senate and a Representative to introduce a similar bill in the US House. These people will become American hero's..

Thanks,

A Fellow American

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Congressional Reform Act of 2010

1. Term Limits: 12 years only, one of the possible options below.

A. Two Six year Senate terms
B. Six Two year House terms
C. One Six year Senate term and three Two Year House terms

2. No Tenure / No Pension:

A congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they are out of office.

3. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security:

All funds in the Congressional retirement fund moves to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, Congress participates with the American people.

4. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan just as all Americans.

5. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.

6. Congress looses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people.

7. Congress must equally abide in all laws they impose on the American people.

8. All contracts with past and present congressmen are void effective 1/1/11.

The American people did not make this contract with congressmen; congressmen made all these contracts for themselves.

Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and back to work.

The Fundamental Transformation of America

To those who are noticing things are fundamentally and dramatically wrong, this can help you get up to speed.

For those who have not yet noticed or are content to be observers, this is for you.
And for all those who know others who are not aware or cannot understand.
The Fundamental Transformation of America

When Obama wrote a book and said he was mentored as a youth by Frank, (Frank Marshall Davis) an avowed Communist, People said it didn't matter.

When it was discovered that his grandparents, were strong socialists, sent Obama's mother to a socialist school, introduced Frank Marshall Davis to young Obama, People said it didn't matter.

When people found out that he was enrolled as a Muslim child in school and his father and step father were both Muslims, People said it didn't matter.

When he wrote in another book he authored "I will stand with them (Muslims) should the political winds shift in an ugly direction."
People said it didn't matter.

When he admittedly said, in his book, he chose Marxist friends and professors in college, People said it didn't matter.

When he traveled to Pakistan, after college on an unknown national passport, People said it didn't matter.

When he sought the endorsement of the Marxist party in 1996 as he ran for the Illinois Senate, People said it doesn't matter.

When he sat in a Chicago Church for twenty years and listened to a preacher spew hatred for America and preach black liberation theology, People said it didn't matter.

When an independent Washington organization, that tracks senate voting records, gave him the distinctive title as the "most liberal senator," People said it didn't matter.

When the Palestinians in Gaza, set up a fund raising telethon to raise money for his election campaign, People said it didn't matter.

When his voting record supported gun control, People said it didn't matter.

When he refused to disclose who donated money to his election campaign, as other candidates had done, People said it didn't matter.

When he received endorsements from people like Louis Farrakhan and Mummar Kadaffi and Hugo Chavez, People said it didn't matter.

When it was pointed out that he was a total, newcomer and had absolutely no experience at anything except community organizing, People said it didn't matter.

When he chose friends and acquaintances such as Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn who were revolutionary radicals, People said it didn't matter.

When his voting record in the Illinois senate and in the U.S. Senate came into question, People said it didn't matter.

When he refused to wear a flag lapel pin and did so only after a public outcry, People said it didn't matter.

When people started treating him as a Messiah and children in schools were taught to sing his praises, People said it didn't matter.

When he stood with his hands over his groin area for the playing of the National Anthem and Pledge of Allegiance, (As recently as 11/11/09) People said it didn't matter.

When he surrounded himself in the White house with advisors who were pro gun control, pro abortion, pro homosexual marriage and wanting to curtail freedom of speech to silence the opposition, People said it didn't matter.

When he aired his views on abortion, homosexuality and a host of other issues, People said it didn't matter.

When he said he favors sex education in Kindergarten, including homosexual indoctrination, People said it didn't matter.

When his background was either scrubbed or hidden and nothing could be found about him, People said it didn't matter.

When the place of his birth was called into question, and he refused to produce a birth certificate, People said it didn't matter.

When he had an association in Chicago with Tony Rezco, a man of questionable character, who is now in prison and had helped Obama to a sweet deal on the purchase of his home, People said it didn't matter.

When it became known that George Soros, a multi-billionaire Marxist, spent a ton of money to get him elected, People said it didn't matter.

When he started appointing czars that were radicals, revolutionaries, and even avowed Marxist/Communist, People said it didn't matter.

When he stood before the nation and told us that his intentions were to "fundamentally transform this nation" into something else, People said it didn't matter.

When it became known that he had trained ACORN workers in Chicago and served as an attorney for ACORN, People said it didn't matter.

When he appointed cabinet members and several advisors, who were tax cheats and socialist, People said it didn't matter.

When he appointed a science czar, John Holdren, who believes in forced abortions, mass sterilizations and seizing babies from teen mothers, People said it didn't matter.

When he appointed Cass Sunstein as regulatory czar and he believes in "Explicit Consent," harvesting human organs without family consent, and to allow animals to be represented in court, while banning all hunting, People said it didn't matter.

When he appointed Kevin Jennings, a homosexual, and organizer of a group called gay, lesbian, straight, Education network, as safe school czar and it became known that he had a history of bad advice to teenagers, People said it didn't matter.

When he appointed Mark Lloyd as diversity czar and he believed in curtailing free speech, taking from one and giving to another to spread the wealth and admires Hugo Chavez, People said it didn't matter.

When Valerie Jarrett was selected as Obama's senior White House advisor and she is an avowed Socialist, People said it didn't matter.

When Anita Dunn, White House Communications director said Mao Tse Tung was her favorite philosopher and the person she turned to most for inspiration, People said it didn't matter.

When he appointed Carol Browner as global warming czar and she is a well known socialist working on Cap and trade as the nation's largest tax, People said it doesn't matter.

When he appointed Van Jones, an ex-con and avowed Communist as green energy czar, who since had to resign when this was made known, People said it didn't matter.

When Tom Daschle, Obama's pick for health and human services secretary could not be confirmed, because he was a tax cheat, People said it didn't matter.

When as president of the United States, he bowed to the King of Saudi Arabia, and even lower, to the Emperor of Japan, People said it didn't matter.

When he traveled around the world criticizing America and never once talking of her greatness, People said it didn't matter.

When his actions concerning the middle-east seemed to support the Palestinians over Israel, our long time friend, People said it doesn't matter.

When he took American tax dollars to resettle thousands of Palestinians from Gaza to the United States, People said it doesn't matter.

When he upset the Europeans by removing plans for a missile defense system against the Russians, People said it doesn't matter.

When he played politics in Afghanistan by not sending troops the Field Commanders said we had to have to win, People said it didn't matter.

When he started spending us into a debt that was so big we could not pay it off, People said it didn't matter.

When he took a huge spending bill under the guise of stimulus and used it to pay off organizations, unions and individuals that got him elected, People said it didn't matter.

When he took over insurance companies, car companies, banks, etc. People said it didn't matter.

When he took away student loans from the banks and put it through the government, People said it didn't matter.

When he designed plans to take over the health care system and put it under government control, People said it didn't matter.

When he set into motion a plan to take over the control of all energy in the United States through Cap and Trade, People said it didn't matter.

When he finally completed his transformation of America into a Socialist State, People finally woke up........ but it was too late.

Any one of these things, in and of themselves does not really matter. But.... when you add them up one by one you get a phenomenal score that points to the fact that our Obama is determined to make America over into a Marxist/Socialist society.

All of the items in the preceding paragraphs have been put into place.

All can be documented very easily. Before you disavow this, do an internet search. The last paragraph alone is not yet cast in stone. You and I will write that paragraph. Will it read as above or will it be a happier ending for most of America? Personally, I like happy endings.

If you are an Obama Supporter, please do not be angry with me because I think your president is a socialist/marxist.

There are too many facts supporting this. If you seek the truth you will certainly be richer for it. Don't merely belittle the opposition. Actively search for the truth. I did. Democrats, Republicans, Independents, Constitutionalist, Libertarians and what have you; we all need to pull together. We all must pull together or watch the demise of a society that we all love and cherish. If you are a religious person, pray for our nation.

Never before in the history of America have we been confronted with problems so huge that the very existence of our country is in jeopardy. Don't rely on most television news and what you read in the newspapers for the truth. Search the internet. Yes, there is a lot of bad information, lies and distortions there too but you are smart enough to spot the fallacies. Newspapers are a dying breed. They are currently seeking a bailout from the government. Do you really think they are about to print the truth? Obama praises all the television news networks except Fox who he has waged war against.

There must be a reason. He does not call them down on any specifics, just a general battle against them. If they lie, he should call them out on it but he doesn't.
Please, find the truth, it will set you free.

Our biggest enemy is not China, Russia, Iran; no, our biggest enemy is a contingent of elitist power hungry politician/despots in Washington, DC.

"Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear."
Harry S Truman, August 8, 1950

"In the string of amazing decisions made during the first year of the Obama administration, nothing seems more like sheer insanity than the decision to try foreign terrorists, who have committed acts of war against the United States, in federal court, as if they were American citizens accused of crimes." --economist Thomas Sowell

Tough times don't last... Tough people do
Anomyous