April 28th and we are now working for ourselves.
Here is some information from the folks at The Tax Foundation about Wisconsin:
Link
Senator Hansen is once again screaming that the “Big Oil” companies are “gouging” us here in Wisconsin and in the US. He cites Exxon-Mobil stating “Exxon-Mobil reported first quarter profits of $8.4 billion (up 7% over last year) setting a record for the fifth-highest quarterly profits ever recorded by a publicly-traded company” this information is correct if all you looked at was the bottom line but the truth is in the details.
Exxon-Mobil had a net US profit of $2.3 billion (down 8% over last year!!!!) making up only 23% of the net profit of the company. Last year the net profits from the US made up over 31%.
If Exxon-Mobil were gouging us, wouldn’t they have made more money than this time last year?
Bottom line for those out there like Senator Hansen…if prices are higher this year than last and profits are lower this year than last…GOUGING IS NOT OCCURRING!!!!!
Our Senator has once again made an asinine comment by stating that our “indefinite presence of large numbers of U.S. forces there tends to weaken our ability to fight the global terrorist networks that threaten us today.”
Indefinite?!?! Does Mr. Feingold realize that we have had soldiers stationed in Germany since the end of major operations in WWII!!!! I don’t see him asking for their immediate redeployment. I believe that the decision to leave should be based on what our active military people on the ground say not by what some Washington bureaucrat thinks.
Now I know what the response will be…well soldiers aren’t being killed in Germany…after some 60 years I would hope that the Nazi’s aren’t still terrorizing the people over there. We need to allow the Iraqi government and military to gain control and then we can work on leaving. Our presence in the country will be there for as long as the government requests us to be there.
Once again Mr. Feingold uses fear to try to move opinions by stating that our operations in Iraq “weaken our ability to fight” terrorist networks. Weakening our ability to fight terrorists would be what Russ is doing by calling for our withdrawal of troops before an area is secure and by tying our NSA’s hands when it comes to listening to international calls!
Our enemy is watching us and every move that Feingold makes only makes them happy.
Mr. Hansen is upset with the Republican Senate today because they would not take up SB 373. Most people will never look up the bill and take Mr. Hansen’s word that it would curb price gouging in this state but I actually read the bill and had quite a laugh! (HERE IS THE BILL)
SB 373 prohibits charging a price for products that “grossly exceeds the price at which similar goods or services are sold” or “that grossly exceeds the average price at which similar consumer goods or services were sold in the 12−month period immediately preceding a sale of the goods or services.” SB 373 goes on to define for us what products would not be able to be grossly overpriced and they include, in part, items such as transportation, food items, investment opportunities, and personal business opportunities.
So lets think about this for a moment…
- Transportation: My SUV cost $35,000 but a Hummer H1 costs $150,000…similar products but is the Hummer dealership over charging?
- Food Items: Has Mr. Hansen ever bought a bottle of water? The price ranges are huge…are they gouging or is it market forces determining the price?
- Investment Opportunities: A share of General Electric right now is $33 but a share of 3M is $85…who can we sue…I think we are being gouged!!
- Personal Business Opportunities: I’ve recently looked into opening an ice cream shop and found that similar businesses had very dissimilar prices for start up costs. They ranged from $100,000 to $1,300,000 does that mean someone is charging too much?
SB 358 which has been proposed by Senator Kedzie, and others, is meant to deal with real price gouging. It responds to acts of blatant price fixing in order to unduly burden people that have suffered a disaster and to profit from the loss. (HERE IS SB 358)
I am glad that SB 373 will never see the light of day. I’m ultimately thinking that Senator Hansen just wanted to “have his cake and eat it too” and since he can’t he is just suffering from sour grapes.
I just got back from a visiting the great state of Washington. I flew into Seattle and got to drive across half of the state and I have to say I was amazed by something.
There was a large number of Toyota Prius’s on the road.
While this shouldn’t have surprised me since I was in the “Granola State” it did and here is why:
In the news we are continually hearing how the federal government needs to step in and do something to curb the rising cost of gasoline and how the oil companies are “gouging” us at the pump and yet here in the “grunge capitol” of the world capitalism is making its mark. People, such as me, have realized that they are spending too much on gasoline and opted to buy a vehicle that is more fuel efficient. They spent the extra money to buy a car that can get 50+ miles to the gallon…this is how capitalism works. Market forces will move this country to produce and build new alternatives to the gasoline engine. Once the technology and the price is equivalent to what is currently available people will be willing to buy them. Up until now gasoline has been cheap so the demand for alternative energy hasn’t been there.
Now, based on what I saw in Washington State, maybe we don’t have to wait for Washington D.C. to do something: People are already making a monumental shift!
Here is the Prius:
Here is the Escape Hybrid: I own this one!!!
It looks as though the American will far surpasses the Federal governments stall tactics.
The Minuteman Civil Defense Corps has decided that if the Federal Government will not secure our borders, they will.
They have opened discussions with many land owners and are working to begin building a fence along the border to keep out illegals that wish to cross the Arizona/Mexican border. The fence should cost around $125 - $150 per foot and they are seeking donations. You can find out more and donate HERE.
They expect groundbreaking to take place on Memorial Day!
Yes, I know that this post is late...
I know that Mark Belling talked about it on his show...
I know that the article is from last week...
But it is just one more scientist in the field saying what most of us know instinctively.
Climate of Fear by Richard Lindzen
Are the people that make up Voces De La Frontera truly bilingual?
They are planning on holding another “civil rights” march. If they are bilingual, why do they have such a hard time understanding that illegal immigrants to not have “civil rights” here?
Civil rights are the protections and privileges of personal liberty given to all citizens by law (See Wikipedia).
Illegal immigrants are not citizens and thereby do not have civil rights in this country!
Immigration is good for America…illegal immigration is not.
Voces De La Frontera, if you want to have an impact, encourage people to come here and become citizens not to come here by nefarious means. Stop these protest marches that only serve to divide a country while allowing people who are here illegally to continue to break the law.
The marches held by Voces De La Frontera only continue to prove that our officials look the other way when laws are being broken. If the INS, local, state, and federal officials would do their job they would be at these rallies and round up those that are here illegally and send them back to their country of origin.
Senator Zien (R-Eau Claire) is once again calling for the Wisconsin State Legislature to mandate 10% ethanol (E10) in all gasoline in Wisconsin. (Link)
Senator Zien is working under a false premise he is saying: “Why wouldn’t you work to decrease foreign oil dependence and grow our own fuel in corn fields, keeping that money right here Wisconsin?” Unfortunately Senator Zien hasn’t actually read any of the research done on the fuel consumption with E10. If he had he would know that under the best of circumstances E10 reduces fuel efficiency by a minimum of 10% thereby not reducing our dependency on oil but increasing the cost per gallon that we pay.
E10 and E85 (85% ethanol content) are available to those who wish to use it but I do not want our elected representatives misleading the people into believing that this will reduce our dependency on oil. Nor do I want these elected officials touting a fuel source that is more expensive than what is currently available.
If Senator Zien and his type would like to really have a significant impact on oil dependency then why is he not mandating that all cars sold and driven in Wisconsin have Hybrid or Fuel Cell technology? The reason why is simple: Those industries have not contributed enough to his campaign. Senator Zien may call himself a Republican but for considering a mandate, I believe him to be more of a RINO.
During tax time every year many of us wonder why we have such an inefficient system for collecting taxes. There are other ways of imposing a tax and not bending to special interest groups.
The first one that comes to mind is the Flat Tax. A Flat Tax is as easy as it sounds, take your income and send a flat percent of it to the federal government. This idea has a long history of followers, it’s most famous is former Presidential candidate Steve Forbes.
With a Flat Tax there would be a level of income that would be exempt and every dollar over that limit would be taxable at a flat rate. There would be no other exemptions or deductions allowable.
Example: All incomes over $50,000 would be taxed at 15%.
If you earned $45,000 your federal tax bill would be $0.00.
If you earned $55,000 your tax bill would be $750 ((55,000 – 50,000) x 15% = $750).
If you earned $10,000,000 your tax bill would be $1,492,500 ((10,000,000 – 50,000) x 15% = $1,492,500).
More information can be found here.
Another idea is implementing a National Sales Tax. This tax would be implemented at the retail sale of all items. No one would be exempted from this tax. Items purchased as necessity would be allowable for a refund of the taxes paid.
This system would be easily implemented in 45 states (sine they already collect state sales taxes) and the transition for the remaining states could be done quickly.
A better description of this can be found here with the actual legislation found here.
This form of taxation is gaining momentum…can true tax change be possible?
I have read quite a bit from the left lately trying to prove that Wisconsin is not the tax hell that it is. But thanks to the good people at The Tax Foundation (read more here) we can see exactly what Wisconsin looks like.
Here is how Wisconsin ranks:
- We are 20th based on Population.
- We are 21st based on Personal Income.
- We are 7th in total tax burden.
- We have the 12th latest tax freedom day (April 28th).
- We are 1st in gas taxes.
- We are 11th highest in total taxes collected.
- We are 11th highest in corporate tax collections.
- We are 32nd in business tax climate (neighbors MN and IA are worse at 38th and 42nd respectively).
- We are 10th in local property taxes per capita.
- We are 11th in State property taxes per capita.
- We are 7th in personal income taxes per capita.
High taxes drive businesses away…when will we learn?
Okay well maybe not an invasion as any military strategist would label it but with over 12,000,000 illegal immigrants in this country are we on the receiving end of Entryism?
From Wikiedia (Link)
Entryism (or entrism or enterism) is a political tactic by which an organization encourages members to infiltrate another organization in an attempt to gain recruits, or take over entirely.
In situations where the organization being "entered" is hostile to entryism, the entryists may engage in a degree of subterfuge to hide the fact that they are, in fact, an organization in their own right. In the case of the Militant Tendency, this was done by claiming that the tendency was in fact simply a newspaper, Militant, its editorial board and readers. Militant was open about its support for Trotskyism and revolutionary socialism. Other entryist groups have gone to the extent of hiding both their political views and their organizational existence.
Entryism does not involve dissolving the small organization into the larger one. Entryism is often (but not always) done secretly and often in organizations run on democratic centralist lines. Entryism is seen by some as a logical conclusion from Leninist political theory which postulates that a "revolutionary vanguard" can successfully foment a revolution within a larger capitalist society, but according to some, the strategy of entryism is as old as politics itself.
We are hearing Vincente Fox and the other presidential contenders for Mexico say that they all believe that Mexican immigrants "regardless of legal status" deserve better treatment. Are we not treating them well? Why would the Mexican president care since these people supposedly are coming here for a better life than the one they had back at home?
Now some may claim that I am just nuts but look at the numbers. With over 8,000,000 illegal immigrants being of Mexican origin if they were to vote as a block any of the past 5 elections could have been turned on it's ear. Is this simply attempt of the Mexican Government to usurp the power of the US? If we allow these illegal people to stay where do their loyalties lie?
Those on the left are crying that we are an occupying force in Iraq because we have just over 100,000 troops there while back here at home we are being occupied by an illegal force with over 12,000,000 people. What is the difference? Some of you bleeding hearts will say that these illegals do not have weapons of any kind but have you been reading the news carefully coming out of the border states? Probably not! There have actually been Mexican militay excursions into the US in what appear to be helping of illegals to cross the border.
So I'll ask the question are, bearing witness to the largest case of entryism the world has ever seen? What will come of this movement? Will there be a war? Can non-Americans actually force those that represent US taxpayers to create laws that help illegals? If it succeeds, what is next for this country?
Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager endorses illegal immigrants protesting in Wisconsin and around the country!
See press release HERE.
This is a woman who is supposed to be our top law enforcer of the State!! In her alcohol soaked mind believes that those that are here illegally are fighting the good fight. And she is “proud to join” them in this fight!!
She actually thinks that Washington is out of touch with America on this issue! Excuse me but Washington is only out of touch with the illegals that are protesting!!!
Boy I can’t wait until JB defeats her!!!
I just can’t hold my tongue anymore!!!
If you are in this country illegally you are breaking the law and it is time for you to go home!! I don’t care if the numbers are true. If there are 12 millions illegals here we need to begin the process of deporting them NOW!!
I believe that the INS and the Justice Department are failing us as taxpayers by not attending these marches and asking people to present proof that they are here legally. If they are not legal they should be immediately sent back to their country of origin.
It is really that simple.
I believe that this country is the best place in the world. I’m not surprised that people from around want to come here to live and work but I resent those that come here illegally and feel they deserve something.
Jan Phelps had a letter to the editor in the Racine Journal Times a few days ago that stated the case better than I have ever heard it before…and most of her letter was quoting Theodore Roosevelt:
Teddy's perspective
Teddy on immigration....No, not that one. The REAL one as follows."In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American and nothing but an American....There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag....We have room for but one language here and that is the English language...and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people." Theodore Roosevelt 1907
"No man is above the law and no man is below it; nor do we ask any man's permission when we require him to obey it." "Obedience to the law is demanded as a right; not asked as a favor." Third Annual Message to Congress Dec. 7, 1903.
I'm sure there are many of us who could not have said it any better.
Jan Phelps
Racine
From the Journal Times Website…Link.
I can’t believe it just yet but it looks from this report that some liberals are turning their backs on Hillary.
I’m still looking forward to the Hillary/Condi match up. I believe, as Dick Morris states in his book, that if Hillary were to get the Democratic nod Condi would be the only chance for the Republicans.
I believe that the best option for the Republican Party is to convince Condi that her time is now! She needs to run. She is the best qualified person to run for the office…there isn’t a republican out there that would be more qualified than her…maybe G.H.W. Bush but none of us want to see that retread again.
Since 2003 I was telling friends that Bush should have Dick Cheney resign midterm and nominate Condi as his VP. This would do a few things: Show just how racially unequal the Dems really are…they would stop at nothing to demonize her just so she would not become VP. This move would also ensure a successor for Bush and it would be someone he truly trust and believes could do the job.
Lets hope that Hollywood is not the last group of people to turn on Hillary and lets try to get Condi to run!!!
I’m not sure what to make of this:
According to the 2006 CAGW (Citizens Against Government Waste) Pig Book, Wisconsin ranked 3rd in Agriculture Pork receiving $17,361,000. Thank you Mr. Kohl and Mr. Obey!
On a per capita basis Wisconsin ranked 41st brining $21.28 of pork per person to the state or $117,819,000. This is down from last years ranking of 31st.
CAGW estimates approximately $29 billion in waste for 2006. This total is up from $27.3 billion last year.
My favorites are listed on page 29 of the report (link here) where two education programs are listed. One is out dated and spends over $65.6 million and the other has no requirements and spends $41 million. That would be over $106,000,000 for those of you keeping count!!!
How in the world do these things get passed?
Cynthia McKinney is trying to prevent a severe fine and possible jail time for striking a Capital Officer last week.
McKinney has once again tried to use race as an issue where race did not play any part in the actions that transpired. When she thought this was a great way to grab media attention she called out that it all related to her color but now the heat is on she is willing to offer this apology.
She was in the wrong. Her Democratic colleagues have not joined her battle and members of the Black Caucus are distancing themselves. So what is she to do? Give up!
The Federal Prosecutor has convened a grand jury and will likely charge her by early next week.
Cynthia, you were wrong to accuse this officer of racism. You now have to face the consequences of your actions. No apology at this point will make things right. Your choice is simple plead guilty when the charges are issued, pay the fine, and do your time.
Welcome to Hicksville.
We here in Caledonia had an opportunity to elect a board that saw the future for Caledonia. In stead we got a board that wants us to stay a backwater community.
The ‘Save Don’t Pave’ group created fear of development and elected a group of trustees that want to keep the taxes high and allow development to take place in Mt. Pleasant and Oak Creek. We spent 4 years going through the neighborhood planning I was hoping to see it put to good use. We just elected a trustee that only wants 5 acre lots in Caledonia and where does she think we are going to get the money to keep the lights on in the Village. We need to allow farmers to develop some of their land for commercial uses…if we follow the plan it will work. I don’t want to see the whole community “Paved” but if we do things right we could be an example to the rest of the communities around us.
I wish the best of luck to Delagrave and Wanggaard…they are going to have a heck of a time working with this board.
Remember to Vote!
Caledonia is in need of good hard working people that are willing to look to the future for the community and preserve the rights of the land owners. We do not need a Village Board that will sit by and let communities around us become economic powerhouses.
While I do not favor “paving” Caledonia, I do support developing the land to make it useful. Farmers own their land and they should have the right to do something with it once their farming days are done.
Lets make Caledonia a place to Live, Work, and Play…not just another bedroom community.
Before last week how many of us have heard of Cynthia McKinney? I’m not surprised that many have not heard of her. It wasn’t until I did a little searching and came across some quotes of hers that I remembered McKinney. (link)
"What did this administration know and when did it know it, about the events of September 11? Who else knew, and why did they not warn the innocent people of New York who were needlessly murdered? What do they have to hide?"
"What is undeniable is that corporations close to the administration have directly benefited from the increased defense spending arising from the aftermath of September 11th."
Some may recall 2002 when she was unseated by a Republican her words were bitter blaming the Republicans of distorting her words and record. I think her words are quite clear and there is no need to distort anything.
She was reelected in 2004; to the same seat she had lost 2002.
But the question still remains were we duped? Was Cynthia McKinney just trying to get back into the spotlight? Was this her way of getting a little free press leading up to another potential loss of her congressional seat? Why else would you have Danny Glover and Harry Belafonte stand by your side after you assaulted a police officer? Or send your lawyer out the press to claim you are “just a victim of being in Congress while black?”
"Let me be clear, this whole incident was instigated by the inappropriate touching and stopping of me, a female black Congresswoman. I deeply regret this incident occurred and I am certain after a full review of the facts, I will be exonerated" Said McKinney.
And I am certain that she has just secured her reelection bid for congress.
