What the School Bond Issue 28 Teaches Xenia Children

Posted on October 30, 2009 by | 3 comments

By Daniel Downs

One question rarely asked during elections is what children learn. Having spent a lot of time studying education, this is probably the most neglected issue about election campaigns. That is why this article addresses what children will likely learn from one particular campaign: the campaign to pass a 2.7 mill bond issue and 0.5 mill levy for rebuilding five elementary schools in Xenia.

After comparing the text of the bond issue with advertisements and statements made by school officials and supporters, I have come to the conclusion that one thing children may learn is that dishonesty pays. The text of Bond Issue 28 repeatedly states $34.57 million is for “renovating, improving, and constructing additions to existing facilities.” Yet, school officials, the Xenia Education Association, and supporters claim the state will only fund 5 new schools. If state rules prohibits the use of its money for renovations our schools, the state would not have approved the text of Issue 28.

So what buildings do school official plan to repair or renovate? The central office building? Warner Middle School? Xenia High School?

One thing is certain, Spring Hill Elementary will not be one of them. School officials claim state geologists tested the land on which Spring and found springs of water underground. Those springs are the reasons for flooding in the school’s basement. Therefore, the state determined the current site is unfit for building a new school.

School officials expect voters to believe soil sampling was neither performed 50 years ago nor were officials aware of those springs back then. Because they say so, voters are also to believe underground water seeping through unrepaired cracks in the basement makes the site unfit to build a new school. Didn’t anyone suggest building a new school without a basement. Buildings are probably built over supposed high water tables and springs often.

Another thing Issue 28 will likely teach children is government extortion is okay. Extortion is defined as obtaining money by using force, threats, or some other unacceptable means.” Isn’t getting taxpayers hard earn income by deceitful means unacceptable? So was the means states employed to get $200 billion from tobacco companies, of which Ohio got $10 billion.

According to the Cato Institute, tobacco companies were not held responsible for tobacco-related illnesses for over 40 years. In 1994, states began suing tobacco companies to recover medical expenses due to smoking. In the meantime, states changed laws making it possible to win their law suits based on charges that the companies were violating racketeering law. Congress helped the state by crafting master settlement legislation that forced tobacco companies to pay the states for tobacco-related medical expenses indefinitely. Yet, everyone knows smokers choose to smoke knowing the health risks. The money extorted by the governments was to fund medical costs, programs to reduce youth smoking, and programs to prevent tobacco related disease.

How then does building schools help youth quit smoking or prevent cancer?

I image some children will catch the message that government extortion is regarded by many as a good thing. So why we not regard cheating on tests, theft at work, and a host of similar behaviors as good too?

Issue 28 is an object lesson of how the rule of law has been made a bad joke. Rule of law is not whatever politicians say is law. It is not whether a majority agree with an idea, a plan, a party platform, or legislation that violates just laws. The rule of law is the supreme law. It is above all and is applicable to all, even elected and unelected politicians. Federal and state constitutions are the supreme law, not unjust legislation.

Just as states extorting money from tobacco companies violates the rule of law, so does Issue 28. The consolidation of elementary schools and the future middle schools violates the Ohio Revised Code. As I wrote in previous articles, Ohio law requires the building of small schools. I also referred to studies that proved the optimal size of an elementary school less than 350 students. Yet, school officials claim the Ohio School Facilities Commission refuses to fund construction of schools with less than 350 students. Either OSFC does not know Ohio law or doesn’t care. The consolidation plan further demonstrates that the rule of law is a huge farce.

The unlawful and unethical practices of public officials demonstrate that schooling has become the justification for all kinds of vices, corrupt, and illegal practices. Our children are nothing more than pawns in their political strategies.

And what Bond Issue 28 teaches the children of Xenia is that dishonesty and law breaking pays.

Previous posts on the proposed bond issue:

Xenia Community Schools Rebuilding Plan : What I Learned at the Forum, October 21, 2008

Xenia Community Schools Rebuilding Plan : Why Small Schools are Best, October 22, 2009

Xenia Community Schools Rebuilding Plan : Its All About the Money, October 23, 2008

Xenia Deserves Better Schools Than Proposed by Issue 20, November 3, 2008

Comparing City and School Revenues and Their Respective Tax Issues, January 31, 2009

May 5 Xenia Community Schools Bond Issue Text, April 30, 2009

Maintaining the Status Quo in Education, August 13, 2009

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King on water issues affecting Xenia Township and City of Xenia

Posted on October 30, 2009 by | Leave a comment

By Alan King

Imagine with me for a moment that you and your neighbors live above a great pool of natural gas. The people in the town over the hill want to pump your gas to the townsfolk so they can stay cozy in the winter. You’re a good neighbor and say, “Fine.” After all, there’s plenty of gas. Why not share the wealth? Now imagine that your country cousins living near the town want to get some of that gas for themselves. The pipeline is right there and all it takes is a hookup. Of course, they should pay for it, just like the townsfolk do. After all, it does cost something to put in the pipes and pump it up the hill.

Without belaboring this story, let me say that this is just the scenario that we now have in Xenia Township. Except that we’re talking about water. The water that flows from the taps in all of Xenia’s neighborhoods comes from a well field in Xenia Township near Oldtown. Two or three million gallons every day.

And Xenia bumps up their water rates 50% for all of that Xenia Township water sold in Xenia Township. In Amlin Heights and Murray Hill. On Wilson Drive, Purcell Drive, and Fairground Road. On Robert Lane and Richard Drive. These families live right next to city residents that are paying just $360 annually for water. Township residents pay $530. In Wilberforce, it’s even worse. The water gets sold to Greene County and then resold to them at a markup. The average Wilberforce family pays more like $720 a year for their water. Double.

Sewer rates are the same for everyone. And fuel oil, electricity and gas. Cable TV and phones. Gasoline. Not Xenia water, though.

This does not seem fair. If we charged Xenia a fraction of a penny a gallon for depleting our natural resources, we’d make millions. And Xenia pumps extra Township water every day that goes to Cedarville and Shawnee Lake. Do we share in any of that money? Not so much. The Xenia City Council has a right to be proud of their efforts to keep water rates low for its citizens, but I think that it is time that Xenia Township folks got a fair shake as well. And now we have some leverage that we can use to get this fixed.

Xenia is asking the Township for extensive restrictions on a large area of land around the Oldtown well fields in order to make them safer for future generations of water consumers. I applaud this foresight and think that the Township should cooperate in making this happen. Before we do what they want, though, I would just like to have a little conversation with the City about fairness. How about city people paying a bit more for their water and township people paying the same?

After all, the water and the air should belong to all of us and it should be up to all of us to protect them and use them wisely. And nobody should make rip-off profits from their neighbors just because they can. We’re not that kind of people around here.

Alan King For Xenia Township Trustee

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Time to End the Giveaway to Big Labor

Posted on October 30, 2009 by | Leave a comment

By Marc Kilner

If there was a law that increased the cost of government projects, deprived Ohio companies of work, and was used as a tool for businesses to harass rivals, you would think there would be a strong push for its repeal. But if that law is Ohio’s prevailing wage law, you find little effort from legislators to eliminate it. This law is simply a way to divert taxpayers’ money to union-controlled construction firms and damage non-union companies. It’s time for Ohio policymakers to help the state’s economy by getting rid of the prevailing wage law.

Enacted in 1931, the law requires companies to pay workers on most government construction projects what a government-mandated “prevailing wage.” This wage is determined by a complex set of bureaucratic guidelines, and violating these guidelines — even if the violation is only for a few dollars and is unintentional — can lead to big fines.

The intended purpose of the prevailing wage law is to keep government construction projects from depressing local wages. Its real effect, though, is to increase the cost of these projects to taxpayers since by mandating higher wages than would otherwise be paid and decreasing the number of bids for the project. Taxpayer-funded construction could be done for less money if this law was repealed, helping both local governments and the state during this period of severely decreased tax revenue.

Not only are taxpayers hurt, but so, too, are the companies which unintentionally violate the law’s complex regulations. There are many instances of companies filing complaints against other businesses in order to stifle competition.

The misuse of this law to harm competition (and taxpayers) was on clear display last year when non-union companies lost bids on the construction of the Huntington Park Stadium. Although their bids were lower than unionized competitors, the companies had a few prevailing wage violations in previous years, making them ineligible for county work. So companies that submitted higher bids won while taxpayers lost.

The latest fight on the prevailing wage front comes with the Ohio Valley Associated Contractors and Builders levying complaints against union firms for violating the law. They are doing this to show just how ridiculous the regulations are and in the hope that it will lead to reform. While it may be poetic justice that union firms are now suffering under a law long used to hurt nonunion companies, in the end no one wins in this battle.

This political jockeying could be ended if the prevailing wage law were repealed. Businesses would no longer have to worry about unintentionally violating the law. And with the increased competition on government construction projects and the ability of local governments to accept the lowest bid for these projects, taxpayers would see significant savings.

This law’s repeal would be a winning proposition for most Ohioans. Some businesses would no longer be as competitive for these contracts, though, and some union bosses would no longer have the leverage they possess today. Protecting inefficient businesses and the power of Big Labor should not be a priority for Ohio’s legislators, though.

The prevailing wage has a long and dark history in Ohio. It has caused almost eighty years of wasting taxpayer money and conflict between union and nonunion businesses. In the midst of deep economic difficulties for the state, repealing the prevailing wage law would help stimulate the economy and reduce government spending. It’s time for this pernicious law to go.

Marc Kilmer is a policy analyst with the Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Solutions, a research and educational institute located in Columbus, Ohio.

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King’s Campaigns for Indian Tourism Wampum

Posted on October 27, 2009 by | Leave a comment

By Alan King

The village of Oldtown, the home of Xenia Township’s offices, is located on the site of one of the principal villages of the Shawnee which the first settlers called Old Chillicothe. In 1768, one of the most famous Shawnee chiefs, Tecumseh, was born “three arrow flights” southeast of the village near what is now Tecumseh Elementary School.

Tecumseh befriended early Xenia area settler James Galloway and his family and they taught him to read and write. He visited the Galloways many times and often discussed his belief that the land should belong to everyone. “Why not sell the air, the great sea, as well as the earth?” he wrote. In the end, he saw that the treaties with the settlers were constantly broken and his people’s traditional lands were being lost. He believed that by uniting the tribes, his people would be able to deal with the flood of settlers from a position of strength.

Between 1808 and 1812 Tecumseh led the last great effort of all the eastern tribes to defend their territory. His effort was unsuccessful, but as a great man and a great leader, his story should be told. There are historical signs in Oldtown marking the location of Old Chillicothe and one nearby on US 68 marking the gantlet which the famed woodsman, Simon Kenton was forced to run during his captivity by the Shawnee. The Galloway cabin has been preserved by the Greene Co. Historical Society, but there are no local memorials or historic sites dedicated to Tecumseh and the Shawnee.

A rich and diverse Native American population existed in this area for many centuries before the arrival of the white settlers. Creating a historically accurate Old Chillicothe site would be a project that could attract tourism to our area and help create jobs as well as providing an educational resource for Xenia area students and residents. As Xenia Township Trustee, I will work to bring to life this important but neglected era of our area’s history.

Alan D. King, MST
Candidate for Xenia Township Trustee
King1075@sbcglobal.net

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Issue 3 : Should Out-of-State Bookies be Allowed to Operate Casinos in Ohio?

Posted on October 21, 2009 by | Leave a comment

By Citizens For Community Values

Two out-of-state companies are attempting to write their business plan into Ohio’s constitution by creating a monopoly that would allow them to build four casinos in our state.

Penn National Gaming, which currently operates 32 gambling facilities in the U.S. and Canada, has partnered with Dan Gilbert, a billionaire from Michigan, who owns Quicken Loans and the Cleveland Cavaliers, to place ISSUE 3 before the voters on November 3, 2009.

During a recent ISSUE 3 debate at the Cleveland City Club Gilbert was asked a question about his 1981 arrest for illegal bookmaking. (Read the Columbus Dispatch article here.) (Listen to the debate on Podcast here.)

Unidentified Questioner: “I understand you were arrested in the past for illegal bookmaking. So if issue 3 passes can you tell me what crimes do you believe should preclude individuals from getting a gaming license, and specifically is bookmaking one of those crimes?”

Dan Gilbert’s Reply: “Yeah so when I was 18 years old in Michigan State when I was a freshman in the dorm room, we had those you know those little card NFL cards that you play. I don’t know, Bernie might have been playing, I don’t know, and somebody walked into some policeman on the corner, came in and they swept the dorms and they took out four, five, or seven I can’t remember the number, and then they dropped the case a few months later and no money was ever exchanged and that’s what happened to me at Michigan State. But so as far as what crimes, I don’t know, probably murder, rape, extortion of funds, larceny, things like that.”

FACT CHECK…Line by Line

Gilbert said: “Yeah so when I was 18 years old in Michigan State when I was a freshman in the dorm room, we had those you know those little card NFL cards that you play.”

USA Today describes it this way: “Gilbert was arrested with three other students in 1981 on charges of operating a bookmaking ring at Michigan State that handled $114,000 in bets on football and basketball games.’’

Gilbert said: “…somebody walked into some policeman on the corner came in and they swept the dorms…”

Forbes.com describes it this way: “One kid who couldn’t cover his debts panicked and called his father, who alerted the authorities. A wired undercover cop, posing as the kid’s dad, busted the ring. ‘It was a pretty sophisticated operation,’ says Jeffrey Patzer, who prosecuted the case, ‘way above average for what I knew of so-called organized crime.’ ”

Gilbert said: “…then they dropped the case a few months later…”

USA Today describes it this way: “Gilbert was accused of conspiring to violate state gambling laws. He was fined, given three years’ probation and ordered to do 100 hours of community service, the paper said. The felony was dropped after he completed the sentences.”

Anyone can understand the embarrassment of stupid youthful indiscretions, particularly when it has to do with violations of the law. If these are all of the facts, it sounds like Gilbert got off pretty easy.

But with today’s 24-hour newscycles and instant access to so much of the past with a click of the mouse, Gilbert should know that lying about something that is so easily discoverable and getting caught again may well say more about who he is today than who he was when a freshman in college.

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Alan King runs for Xenia Twp Trustee, Partly On 5 Acre Lots

Posted on October 20, 2009 by | 3 comments

By Alan King

As many of you may already know, I’ve decided to take on another part time job around Xenia that I think needs doing. I am running for Xenia Township Trustee in this November’s election. I think that there are some things that need fixing and I think that I have some good thoughts about how to go about making them better. As part of my campaign, I would like to share a few of these thoughts with you. This will be the first of about 6 emails along these lines. The Township Trustee job is non-partisan and I am running with the hopes of serving all of the residents of Xenia Township.

Here’s what I think about 5 acre lots:

I love to live in the country. My home is on a little over 2 acres in Xenia Township. When I first moved here in 1973, there was a field next door that was so big that only one house was within a half mile of me on that side. There were other homes nearby, but if I wanted to go outside and see farmland, there it was. Corn or beans or cattle always alternated outside my windows. Then they built the 35 bypass and now I live next to a busy highway with the sound of semis so nearly constant that I only notice the silence when it arrives in the middle of the night.

Irreplaceable farmland is vanishing slowly but inexorably from much of Xenia Township as our rural population grows. And I blame 5 acre lots for part of that loss. Sometime in the past it was decided that the best way to prevent farmers from selling off their land for houses would be to restrict Township lots to 5 acres or more. The reasoning was that the average new home buyer couldn’t pay for 5 acres, so he would just stay in town. This may have worked at one time, but as housing prices climbed into the 6 digits, the cost of 5 acres has become a smaller part of the investment. People still want to move to the country, so farmers are selling off long skinny lots stretching way back into their most fertile fields. A typical 5 acre lot in Xenia Township is 250 feet wide and almost two tenths of a mile deep.

Five acres is too much land to take care of, but not enough to do much with. Newcomers to the country often think that they will build a barn and keep a horse or two out back. This is a charming fantasy, but it soon becomes evident that 5 acres is enough to raise a horse, but not enough to go for a ride. After a few years of killing themselves mowing it all, many of these homeowners never venture into their “back three” and it devolves into useless scrub brush. And that is a terrific waste of good farmland! Wouldn’t it be better to allow smaller lots and leave more of the good land in crops?

If it is inevitable that we are going to have more people moving to the country, we need flexible zoning in Xenia Township based on intelligent land use, not one-size-fits-all lot sizes. Many of the older homes in the township, like mine, are on an acre or two and they have ample space for a nice country home and a well and a septic system. There is plenty of space for a garden and a barn and you can’t hear what your neighbors are watching on TV. Even a couple of acres is a lot to take care of. Rather than try to mow it all, my son Eric and I planted an acre of walnut trees on our lot back in 1976 and now we have a nice woods. An acre or two is plenty of room for real country living.

There is plenty of land in the township that is really unsuitable for farming. Some of it is too hilly, or the soil is poor, or it is too wet to farm. That land would be great for small country homes and should be zoned that way. The good, rich farmland should stay in farms and farmers should be encouraged to hold their land together. But if we are going to welcome 50 new families into the Township next year, wouldn’t it be better to put them all on a total of 50 or 60 acres than to use up 250 acres of our best farmland just to put them each on a 5 acre lot?

_____________________________________

Some of you are probably asking who is this guy, Alan King? He is a Xenia native. He and his partner of 24 years, Karen, are proprietors of Kiddie Kingdom Childcare and Express Yourself Coffeehouse. In case you haven’t guessed, he digs land ( BS in Geology), and likes working with children (MS Teaching). He is also an Army veteran.

Have you got questions? He can be reached at King1075@sbcglobal.net or 937-372-4986

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Semi-Annual Hydrant Flushing Week, Oct. 19-13

Posted on October 17, 2009 by | Leave a comment

A few weeks ago I bought a bar of soap imported from Jordan. That is the foreign county Jordan, which also possesses a slice of the Jordan River. Actually, I didn’t buy the soap because of exotic origins. I bought it because it contain salt and mud from the Jordan River.

Why would anyone buy a soap with mud in it, you ask?

Well, out of curiosity. I wanted to know what it was like to wash with soap containing salt and mud from notorious Jordan River.

I quickly discovered that bathing with Jordan mud soap eventually began to smell and taste like … well … like salty mud.

Imagine that!

Xenia resident will get a change to see, feel and taste muddy water this week, October 19-23. Why? Because this is the semi-annual fire hydrant flushing week. Whenever the city flushes out the hydrants, the water turn muddy brown.

If you want to find out what water mixed with salt and mud from the Jordan River is like, just add some sea salt to your glass of water, cup of coffee, tea, or you bath and enjoy.

So that you’all won’t miss out on a muddy Jordan River like experience, I have included the city’s fire hydrant flushing schedule below. City workers will begin flushing hydrants at 8:30AM and end at 3:00 PM.

Mon. 10/19: North of W. Church St., North of Market St. and North of W. Main St. and West of N. Detroit St. (Beverly Hills, Timber Ridge and Laynewood Plats)
Tues. 10/20: West of St. Rt. 35 and Northwest of Bellbrook Ave. (The Colorado Sections of Arrowhead, Sterling Green, Childers and the Reserve of Xenia)
Wed. 10/21: North of East Church St. and East of N. Detroit St. including Amlin
Heights and Old Springfield Pike. (Stadium Heights and Greene Memorial Hospital Areas)
Thur. 10/22: South of Main Street, East of US 35 and North of Bellbrook Ave. South of Church Street and North of Third Street, East to the Corporation Limit.
Fri. 10/23: South of E. Third Street and East of Cincinnati Ave. Also included is Wright Cycle Estates.

Warning: Washing clothes and other stainable materials is not recommended while water is muddy. Letting your water softener recycle could prolong the fabulously muddy experience. Too much of a strangely good thing could not turn out to be such a good thing.

The same can be said of washing with muddy Jordan soap–trust me.

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Congress Moves Closer to Health Care Takeover

Posted on October 15, 2009 by | Leave a comment

Yesterday, the final Congressional committee approved a fifth “version” of health care reform legislation. The truth is: there wasn’t a single page of actual legislative language passed. The Senate Committee passed a list of non-binding concepts – not a real bill. All the projected costs were based on “estimates” from concepts.

This health care debate is so complicated that Senators cannot deal with the thousands of pages of legal construction. It is too big for them or any single government agency to handle. This whole process proves the federal government is not designed to run the nation’s health care. The current bills are an unconstitutional expansion of federal authority and a dangerous threat to your civil rights.

Here are the “concepts” the Senate Committee voted to make law yesterday:

  • New mandates to force Americans to purchase insurance with tax penalties imposed on individuals and employers, enforced by the IRS.
  • New powers for the HHS Secretary to define benefits for every private plan in America and redefine those benefits annually.
  • Health care premiums for millions will go up, not down, starting in 2010.
  • Largest expansion in Medicaid since 1965, enrolling 14 million more at an estimated cost of $345 billion.
  • Medicaid expansion will be paid for by cuts to Medicare ($404 billion).
  • Medicare cuts will include a 25% payment cut to physicians in 2011.
  • Medicare cuts will also include cuts to Medicare Advantage ($117 billion), which will result in a 70% reduction in benefits.
  • Premium insurance plans will be taxed at 40% above set limits (expected to raise $201 billion in new taxes).

Real legislative language won’t be available until after these “concepts” are merged behind closed doors with an earlier version passed by the Senate Health Committee.

Physician groups, such as the American Academy of Ophthalmology, have now “taken the gloves off” to oppose the Senate Finance Committee bill. The insurance industry is finally waking up to this grave threat. Docs, hospitals and insurers made a TERRIBLE strategic mistake trying to cut their own deals with Congress. Now the true dangers of this government takeover are being exposed and the future of private health care in America is under fatal attack.

Within a few weeks we will likely see a consolidated Senate bill, as well as a House bill (consolidating three different versions) brought to the floor for a vote. Contacting your Representatives and Senators more critical than ever!

Source: The American Policy Roundtable, October 15, 2009.

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The Constitution, Federal Legislation, and Ohio

Posted on October 14, 2009 by | Leave a comment

By Matt Meyer

“First do no harm” should hang above the halls of Congress. Unfortunately, those four simple words aren’t a consideration in our nation’s capital. How else could you explain the budget-busting global warming and national health care bills currently dominating the public debate? Separately, each measure is fiscally irresponsible. Taken together, the bills will devastate Ohio’s weak economy and place enormous unfunded mandates on the state’s Swiss cheese budget.

First, there is the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill. With Ohio’s natural abundance of coal, almost 90% of Ohio’s energy is produced by CO2 producing coal-fired power plants. Those power plants feed electricity to what is left of Ohio’s manufacturing plants, which produce still more CO2 emissions. All of that production translates into jobs. On the renewable energy side of the fence, Ohio isn’t blessed with an abundance of sunshine, consistent wind, or powerful rivers to power solar panels, wind turbines, or hydro plants. Although Ohio currently has two nuclear power plants, there appears to be no political will to build additional nuclear power plants.

Given these irrefutable facts, it is hard to imagine a scenario in which Ohioans don’t suffer increased costs, job losses, and economic decline should the cap and trade bill pass. Unlike the future made-in-Hollywood catastrophes portrayed by the global warming crowd, those costs, losses, and decline will be immediate and real for Ohioans.

On health care, Medicaid spending already consumes 39% of the state budget. The Baucus national health care bill would restrict Ohio from setting eligibility requirements, which would increase the load on states by $37 billion according to the Congressional Budget Office. Because Ohio is the seventh largest state and possesses an anemic economy, a big slice of that $37 billion will fall on Ohio taxpayers.

With these enormous economic stakes, Ohio’s two senators must put aside partisan urges, resist trendy but illogical policy options, and work toward solutions that are in the state’s best interests. To do otherwise is not only bad for Ohioans, but would actually go against the Founders’ original intent for the Senate when it was first established in the Constitution.

For America’s first 126 years, U.S. senators were elected by state legislatures. The reason rests in the Founders use of checks and balances to keep the political system in harmony. With U.S. representatives elected by popular vote in apportioned districts based on each state’s share of the total U.S. population, the House served as the place where the “will of the people” ruled. In theory, if a handful of large states with a majority of representatives banded together, they could pass legislation harmful to the other states.

In the Senate, however, to check the tyranny of the majority, the Founders allocated each state only two senators, thereby structurally blocking large states from riding roughshod over the smaller states as could happen in the House. To further check the accumulation of power in the federal government, the Founders placed the election of senators in the hands of state legislatures who would ensure that those individuals elected to the Senate would protect the interests of the states regardless of what the passions of the people wanted. For example, a majority of people in a state may want a federal program that individually costs them very little in taxes, but would place large unfunded costs on the state.

In 1913, the passage of the 17th Amendment altered this finely tuned structure by placing the election of senators in the hands of the people. Not surprisingly, shortly after this structural change to the Constitution, the era of big government in Washington, D.C. unchecked by the states began its march. Congress went from the New Deal to the Great Society to the era of unfunded mandates to today when Washington simultaneously considers bills that would nationalize 17% of the U.S. economy, and imposes additional burdens on our energy production just months after exploding the federal deficit, nationalizing car companies and banks, and passing the largest single year budget in American history.

So, how could Ohio’s senators or senate candidates support legislation like the Waxman-Markey or Baucus bills? When they no longer have to be accountable to the state they represent because it has no power to check their votes (i.e., a legislative threat not to reelect them should they vote yea), they can place other special interests and even their own ideological views ahead of what is best for Ohio, its economy, and its citizens.

The irony, of course, is that these “reforms” will hit Ohioans regressively so that the very middle class workers and poor that they claim to fight for will be hit the hardest.

Source: Buckeye Institute Weekly News Digest, October 12, 2009.

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The Truth About the Flu Shot

Posted on October 13, 2009 by | Leave a comment

By Sherri Tenpenny, DO

What’s in the regular flu shot?

 
  • Egg proteins: including avian contaminant viruses
  • Gelatin: can cause allergic reactions and anaphylaxis are usually associated with sensitivity to egg or gelatin
  • Polysorbate 80 (Tween80™): can cause severe allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis. Also associated with inferility in female mice.
  • Formaldehyde: known carcinogen
  • Triton X100: a strong detergent
  • Sucrose: table sugar
  • Resin: known to cause allergic reactions
  • Gentamycin: an antibiotic
  • Thimerosal: mercury is still in multidose flu shot vials

Do flu shots work?

Not in babies: In a review of more than 51 studies involving more than 294,000 children it was found there was “no evidence that injecting children 6-24 months of age with a flu shot was any more effective than placebo. In children over 2 yrs, it was only effective 33% of the time in preventing the flu.

Reference: “Vaccines for preventing influenza in healthy children.” The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 2 (2008).

Not in children with asthma: A study 800 children with asthma, where one half were vaccinated and the other half did not receive the influenza vaccine. The two groups were compared with respect to clinic visits, emergency department (ED) visits, and hospitalizations for asthma. CONCLUSION: This study failed to provide evidence that the influenza vaccine prevents pediatric asthma exacerbations.

Reference: “Effectiveness of influenza vaccine for the prevention of asthma exacerbations.” Christly, C. et al. Arch Dis Child. 2004 Aug;89(8):734-5.

Not in children with asthma (2): “The inactivated flu vaccine, Flumist, does not prevent influenza-related hospitalizations in children, especially the ones with asthma…In fact, children who get the flu vaccine are more at risk for hospitalization than children who do not get the vaccine.”

Reference: The American Thoracic Society’s 105th International Conference, May 15-20, 2009, San Diego.

Not in adults: In a review of 48 reports including more than 66,000 adults, “Vaccination of healthy adults only reduced risk of influenza by 6% and reduced the number of missed work days by less than one day (0.16) days. It did not change the number of people needing to go to hospital or take time off work.”

Reference: “Vaccines for preventing influenza in healthy adults.” The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 1 (2006).

Not in the Elderly: In a review of 64 studies in 98 flu seasons, For elderly living in nursing homes, flu shots were non-significant for preventing the flu. For elderly living in the community, vaccines were not (significantly) effective against influenza, ILI or pneumonia.

Reference: “Vaccines for preventing influenza in the elderly.” The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews.3 (2006).

What about the new Swine Flu shot?

Some of the new H1N1 (swine flu) vaccines are going to be made by Novartis. These shots will probably be made in PER.C6 cells (human retina cells) and contain MF59, a potentially debilitating adjuvant. MF-59 is an oil-based adjuvant primarily composed of squalene.

All rats injected with squalene (oil) adjuvants developed a disease that left them crippled, dragging their paralyzed hindquarters across their cages. Injected squalene can cause severe arthritis (3 on scale of 4) and severe immune responses, such as autoimmune arthritis and lupus.

Ref: (1): Kenney, RT. Edleman, R. “Survey of human-use adjuvants.” Expert Review of Vaccines. 2 (2003) p171.

Ref: (2): Matsumoto, Gary. Vaccine A: The Covert Government Experiment That’s Killing Our Soldiers and Why GI’s Are Only the First Victims of this Vaccine. New York: Basic Books. p54.

Federal health officials are starting to recommend that most Americans get three flu shots this fall: one regular flu shot and two doses of the vaccine made against the new swine flu strain. School children who have never had a flu shot are targeted for four shots in the fall – twice for seasonal flu, twice for pandemic swine flu. (July 15, 2009 news)

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has been talking to school superintendents around the country, urging them to make plans to use buildings for mass vaccinations and for vaccinating kids first. (CBS News, June 12, 2009.)

Is Mandatory Vaccination Possible?

1946: US Public Health Service was established and Executive Order (EO) 9708 was signed, listing the communicable diseases where quarantines could be used. 1946 and 2003, cholera, diphtheria, TB, typhoid, smallpox, yellow fever, & viral hemorrhagic fevers were added.

April 4, 2003: EO 13295 added SARS to the list.

April 1, 2005: EO 13295 added “Influenza caused by novel or re-emergent influenza viruses that are causing, or have the potential to cause, a pandemic.” EO 13295 also: The president gave the Sec. of HHS the power to quarantine, his or her discretion. Sec of HHS has the power to arrange for the “apprehension and examination of persons reasonably thought to be infected.” A cough or a fever could put a person at risk for being quarantined for an extended period of time without recourse.

January 28, 2003: Project BioShield was introduced during Bush’s State of the Union Address. This created permanent and indefinite funding authority to develop “medical countermeasures.”

The NIH was given authority to speed approval of drugs and vaccines. Emergency approval of a “fast tracked” drug and vaccine can be given without the regular course of safety testing.

December 17, 2006: Division E: The Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act (PREPA) was added as an addendum to Defense Appropriations Bill HR 2863 at 11:20p on Saturday night, long after House Committee members had signed off on the bill and gone home for the holidays.

Section (b)(1) states: The Sec of HHS can make a determination that a “disease, health condition or threat” constitutes a public health emergency. He or she may then recommend “the manufacture, testing, development, administration, or use of one or more covered counter measures…” A covered countermeasure defined as a “pandemic product, vaccine or drug.”

Division E also provides complete liability protection for all drugs, vaccines or biological products deemed a “covered countermeasure” and used for an outbreak of any kind. In July, 2009, complete liability protection was extened to drug companies that included any product used for any public health emergency declared by Sec of HHS.

Pharma is now protected from all accountability, unless “criminal intent to do harm” can be proven by the injured party. They are protected from liability even if they know the drug will be harmful.

“By 1853, Parliament began passing laws to make the untested vaccine compulsory throughout the British Empire. Other countries of Europe followed suit. Once the economic implications of compulsory vaccinations were realized, few dared to disagree. Then, as now, the media were controlled by the vaccine manufacturers and the government, who stood to make huge money from the sale of these spurious vaccines.”… Tim O’Shea, D.C.

For more info, visit Dr. Tenpenny’s website at www.drtenpenny.com

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