Category Archives: politics

A Human and Civil “Right to Life” Voter Guide

Of all human rights, the right to life is the cornerstone to all others. For without Constitutional protection for this most basic right, American have no genuine security, no protection, no limitation to government, no real freedom, and no future. With the enjoyment of this inherent and unalienable God-given right, the right to liberty, the right to the pursuit of happiness, and to all other human and civil rights are meaningless words. And, yes, the 5th amendment does at least partially defends the right to life.

That is why all it is very important for all citizens to understand the positions of both John McCain and Barak Obama (as well as all elected officials).

The U.S. President is the only elected official who takes an oath to “preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution” to the best of his or her ability. All others, whether members of Congress, the judiciary, federal agencies, state and local governments, give lip service by oath to support the Constitution.  Because only the Executive is given veto power, the President is the only elected official with legitimate power of constitutional review, which is completely separate issue that will not be discussed further.

Because the purpose of the President is to preserve, protect, and defend the meaning and purpose of each and every part and principle of the Constitution, it behooves Americans to know whether he or she will in fact do so. If a candidate for political does not support the Right to Life, it is just and right to assume that such a candidate will neither defend it or any other if he/she and his/her party have other plans.

The National Right to Life has produced an excellent guide summarizing the positions of Biden, McCain, Obama, and Palin. You can consult their helpful guide by clicking here;.

Life News also offers an excellent and more comprehensive guide to the positions of candidates running for both federal and state offices. Their online voter guide may be reviewed by going to their www.lifenews.com/2008prolifevotersguide.htm;

PS: The mention of Lord, God, Providence, Creator, and the like in America’s founding documents were regarded by most Christians as encompassing a trinitarian view. Respectable historians and law professors like James Hutson and Philip Hamburger have convincingly repudiated the claims of popular books like The Godless Constitution and Blasphemy : How the Religious Right is Hijacking Our Declaration of Independence that the mention of those terms meant something other than a Christian view of God. The authors of those books attempt to support their claim by using biased historical data to claim that Revolution and Constitution-making era Americans were not very religious and most of the key leaders were deists or Unitarians. The fact is most of the Congressmen who created the Declaration and who rewrote the Constitution were members of churches upholding Trinitarian beliefs. That is significant because the meaning of God to such members of Congress and state legislatures included Jesus as an incarnate member of the triune Godhead. Therefore, the term year of our Lord in the preamble of the current Constitution refers to the Christian God, and the abundant terms for the Christian God employed in the Declaration objectively supports the reality that America was legally founded as a Christian nation.

Because it was, the God-given and unalienable right to life is a political principle rooted in the Christian theology of God, human nature and redemption. And, the fact that even the secular professors have concluded that America was founded by a covenant with God as well as a social contract further supports the Christian theological view underlying their founders’ natural law philosophy, which supplied the principles of our national Constitutional compact.

Because human life is eternal, the Right to Life is the most important issue.

What the Chemical Industry Doesn’t Want You to Know about Everyday Products

A September 18, 2008 article published on AlterNet reports that the chemical industry has enlisted its lobbyists, scientists, and “yes we can” legislators in their efforts to discredit scientific and medical evidence showing bisphenol A (BPA) is destructive to animal and human lives. This research has been growing for decades. Yet, the federal government still panders to the big chemical companies and their big dollar lobbies.

The chemical industry is a $3 trillion dollar business and BPA is a billion dollar concern. What Dow Chemical and other businesses are concerned about is not the health of society but the potential loss a product that makes them $6 billion a year. The value of BPA-based manufactured goods, from cell phones and computers to epoxy coatings and dental bindings, is probably incalculable.

University of Missouri-Columbia scientists Frederick Vom Saal and Wade Welshons are credited are the first scientists to discover that miniscule amounts of bisphenol A (BPA), an artificial sex hormone and integral component of a vast array of plastic products, caused irreversible changes in the prostates of fetal mice.

Their findings has touched off a steady drumbeat that has led to a ban on BPA-laden baby bottles in Canada, mounting support for a similar ban in the U.S., major retailers pulling plastic products off their shelves, a consumer run on glass baby bottles and a blizzard of scientific reports raising increasingly disturbing questions about the chemical’s dangers at the trace levels to which people are routinely exposed.

Washington State University reproductive scientist Patricia Hunt found that low-levels of BPA scrambled chromosomal alignment of eggs in mice.

A Yale University medical school research team discovered that after injecting African green monkeys for 28 days with BPA at the level the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says is safe for people, the researchers found the chemical causes destruction of synapses in brain cells. In humans, these losses could lead to memory and learning problems and depression.

In April, a study published in Environmental Health Perspectives reveals scientific evidence that low-levels of BPA also damage the human immune system.

Could BPA be the root problem of the growing number of people with the Alzheimer and other degenerative diseases?

Another major problem with BPA is the ease with which the chemical can leach into our food, air, and skin cells. Plastics made with BPA break down easily when heated, microwaved, washed with strong detergents or wrapped around acidic foods like tomatoes, trace amounts of the potent hormone leach into food from epoxy lacquer can linings, polycarbonate bottles and other plastic food packaging. According to Dr. Mercola, cans of infant formula have been shown to be some of the worst offenders; just one to three servings can contain BPA levels that have caused serious adverse effects in animal tests.

The Chemical Industry and corporations like Dow Chemical are using every means possible to hinder any responsible action against their cash cow, bisphenol A. Earlier this year, the industry spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to defeat a California legislative proposal to ban BPA in food packaging. The Chemistry Council and allied companies and industry groups hired an army of lobbyists, including Navigators LLC, the Washington firm that ran Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 2003 campaign and his 2004 budget reform drive. Tactics included an industry email to food banks charging that a BPA ban would mean the end of distributions of canned goods for the poor.

And more recently, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) forced Mary Gade to quit her job as head of the EPA’s Midwest office after her interactions with Dow Chemical. Gade had been locked in a heated dispute with Dow about long-delayed plans to clean up dioxin-saturated soil that extends 50 miles beyond its Midland, Michigan plant. The company had been dumping the highly toxic and persistent chemical into local rivers for most of the last century.

In an interview on May 1, 2008, Gade said of her forced resignation: “There’s no question this is about Dow. I stand behind what I did and what my staff did. I’m proud of what we did.”

The FDA recently evaluated these claims backed by over 100 studies, by health and consumer advocates, by lawmakers, and by scientists. The typical response of the FDA was to favor big dollar industry science.

According to Dr. Mercola, the FDA upheld their decision that BPA is safe and can remain in food packaging, including infant formula containers and baby bottles, despite the more than 100 independent studies linking the chemical to serious disorders in humans, including:

    * Prostate cancer
    * Breast cancer
    * Diabetes
    * Early puberty
    * Obesity, and
    * Learning and behavioral problems

There are several things you can do about this issue. You can ontact your state and federal representatives encouraging them to create and support legislation that will eliminate the manufacture and sale of products containing BPA. You can also buy products from a growing number of manufacturers that offer products without BPA. A list of BPA free resources may be found on Dr. Mercola’s website.

Sources:

Alternet September 15, 2008

Current Natural Health Newsletter October 11, 2008

Ohio Led-Democrats Trample Down Law to Get More Votes

According to a report by the Washington Post, the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati ruled late Tuesday to deny the Ohio Republican Party’s emergency motion for an injunction limiting same-day early voter registration and voting. Under the direction of Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, a Democrat, county boards of election are allowing voters to register and vote on the same day, during a one-week window from Sept. 30 through Oct. 6.

Republicans argue that because state law requires voters to be registered for 30 days before casting a ballot, the procedure should be banned. Brunner said the process should continue because the votes will not be counted until Election Day. The Supreme Court of Ohio and a federal district court in Cleveland on Monday agreed with Brunner.

Politicians making it easier to register and vote is good policy. Shredding current law with the blessing of the Courts is another, which what SS Brunner and her blacked robed supporters sitting on high did.

Is it really to reduce long lines or to enfranchise more voters? Not really. Violating current law can never be justified by great political schemes. Scheming democrats know leftist activists are in the hoods convincing people to register and vote. The hint is that if they do their brotha’ will help them become more middle class through better community welfare programs. This is standard policy of get-out of poverty by voting for their Democrat (read it quick and cough a few times) benefactors.

This practice has been going for a long time and the poor are still poor. They still have the same issues with blighted neighborhoods, poor city services, low-income, crime on every street corner, little good health care, poor diets, and on and on. Unless they are true believing dependents on sugar daddy uncle Sam, they still have the same problems they have had for decades.

Some of advocates like ACORN, and others are seeking to help the poor. Sometimes they do. They helped them get loans and mortgages that they cannot not pay. They often have had to pay 3-4 times more to get payday loans for quick cash. Some inner-city poor actually work hard but still have little hope to achieve the American Dream. Many are single parenting moms, who should vote.

The problems is–and I have worked for ACORN while living in another state–multimillion dollar activist organizations like ACORN do not help people move beyond poverty they maintain. It’s true they make being poor a little better. With the cooperation of Washington politicians and rich elites, many poor are enabled to enjoy much of the good life, meaning having a decent place to live, cars, cell phones, computers, nice clothes, good food, and other stuff. It must be wonderful to have all that stuff only for the price of human dignity, much dependency, and little freedom.

Leading Ohio Dems desire to continue their paternal role over their poor benefactors. They also want the blessing of the superiors in party and on Capitol Hill. I’m sure Obama and company will shower may blessing on them and their grateful children.

I think the poor would show less prejudice by voting for McCain and Palin. They would be better off if while doing so they speak with one voice their demand for serious investment in their community, more justice economic policies to assist all willing to work to move out of poverty in order pay their own way. And just think, real prosperity and productivity would increase the local tax revenues and circulation of earned money, more consumerism, more employer-employee purchased health care insurance, paid more genuinely qualified loans, and the economic and political elites would still see the wealth trickle up into their coffers.

Wouldn’t that make a better world in which to live?

Vectren’s $27 Million Natural Gas Rate Increase and Your Opportunity To Not Pay It

All of the jubilation over gas prices declining may soon be over. The bad news is not that gasoline is going to rise again; that is inevitable. The bad news is that your property taxes and natural gas bill may be increasing shortly.

Property taxes are going up because our government reassessed property values upward. If local voters approve the various November tax levies, you will be paying an additional $202 in 2009. Three levies that will increase you property taxes are Xenia Community School bond issue, Greene County Children Services and Community Mental Health operational issues.

According to the Office of the Ohio Consumer’s Council (OCC), Vectren asked the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio for permission to raise its natural gas delivery rates. Vectren wants to raise the $7 customer charge listed on your monthly natural gas bill to $16.75 beginning this November and ending in April 2009. From the low usage period beginning in May and ending in October, Vectren proposes to decrease the rate to $10 per month. Vectren’s ultimate goal is a winter monthly rate of $20.04 and summer rate of $11.96. The customer charge covers the property and facilities, metering, meter reading, billing, and other administrative costs.

At the same time, Vectren proposes to reduce its delivery service rate. This is a charge based on the volume of natural gas delivered to your home. The current rate is $0.1199 per CCF (100 cubic foot) for up to 50 CCF. Above 50 CCF, the rate decreases to $0.1044. Vectren wants to reduce further the rate beginning this November to $0.10937 and to $0.01397 in May 2009. In November 2009, Vectren proposes to reduce the delivery rate further to $0.08754 during the winter months and $0.07534 during the summer season. Vectren probably hopes consumers will think they are balancing the cost of natural gas delivery by further reducing this rate, but you will see later that it is not the case.

Using US Department of Energy data, the average Ohio residents used about 834 CCF in 2007 of natural gas in 2007. Extrapolating this data to Vectren’s 318,000 customers, natural gas customers in the Miami Valley used about 265,076,177 CCF and paid Vectren around $29.7 million in delivery costs. Applying Vectren’s proposed new rates, local customers will pay $29.6 million from November 2008 to October 2009. During the next 12 month period, local customers will pay a measly $21.7 million.

By comparison, Miami Valley customers paid about $26.7 million in customer charges. Applying Vectren’s proposed increases, local customers will pay $51 million during the period from November 2008 through April 2009. Vectren’s ultimately wants Miami Valley customers to pay $61.1 million a year beginning November 2009.

The total first year increase to Miami Valley natural gas users is $24 million and addition $2 plus million the second year, which is a total increase of $26 million.

Vectren’s proposed delivery rate increase does not include the cost of natural gas. It does not include a pipeline replacement cost recovery rider that will be added to every customer’s bill. It does not include the other half-dozen cost and lost revenue recovery riders also billed to all Vectren customers. It is not reflect the increasing profits made from commercial customers. It does not reflect increasing profits from fees charge to other gas companies for delivering their gas to your home.

Vectren’s CEO has about $202 million reasons for increasing your natural gas rates in order to continue growing Vectren’s investor dividends. I image most of the board of director are similarly motivated. And that is not all; they also intend on owning all public pipelines paid for by all member of our communities. As wrong as that is, Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) collusion with Vectren’s plans is unconscionable.

That is why all natural gas customers have an opportunity to oppose Vectren’s proposed plans. You can write PUCO at the address listed below:

Public Utilities Commission of Ohio
Attn: Docketing Division
180 E. Broad Street
Columbus, OH 43215

Tell Vectren and PUCO No To Their 129% Natural Gas Rate Increase

A proposal by Vectren Energy Delivery of Ohio to shift natural gas charges from a usage-based to a fixed customer rate will disproportionately increase bills to low-income, low usage customers and make it more difficult for them to maintain affordable natural gas service, the Office of the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel (OCC), said in testimony filed on July 23 at the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO).

The PUCO staff has recommended approval of Vectren’s request to raise the current customer charge from $7 to $16.75, during the winter months of November 1-April 30, 2009 while lowering the volumetric charge. A $10 customer charge would be in effect only during the lower-usage months of May-October, 2009. Overall, Vectren is requesting a rate increase of $27 million, and the OCC believes it should only be $3 million.

The OCC opposes raising the flat-rate customer charge, stating that this change will have an adverse effect on lower-usage, lower income customers and also have a negative impact on energy efficiency efforts by creating a disincentive to use less gas. Shifting to a higher fixed-rate customer charge, known as the “straight fixed variable rate design” (SFV) will negatively affect customers who can least afford to sustain such an increase, based on the testimony filed by the OCC with the PUCO.

In addition, adoption of the SFV rate design will adversely affect senior customers in smaller homes who tend to use less natural gas but who would end up paying the same fixed rate as higher usage customers in larger homes. The testimony concluded that the difficulty in affording a higher rate is also affecting more moderate income levels.

“Increasing a flat-rate customer charge creates an undue hardship for people who can least afford it,” said Janine Migden-Ostrander, Consumers’ Counsel. “Not only does this approach discourage residents from conserving energy, but research supports the conclusion that the low-income and elderly population will be put more at risk by adopting this approach.”

The OCC has also filed objections with the PUCO stating that Vectren has failed to prove that it needs to increase its rates to the magnitude it requested, stating that the company has overstated some of its costs and investments.

The OCC encourages individual customers to share their opinions with the PUCO by writing letters. All letters and envelopes should reference Case Number 07-1080-GA-AIR. Letters should be sent to:

Public Utilities Commission of Ohio
Attn: Docketing Division
180 E. Broad Street
Columbus, OH 43215

The OCC also hopes Vectren customers will attend one or more of the following public hearings scheduled during the first week of September:

Sidney – 201 W. Poplar Street
Sidney Municipal Building, Council Chambers
Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2008 at 6 p.m.

Dayton – 101 W. Third Street
Dayton Municipal Building, Council Chambers
Thursday, Sept. 4, 2008 at 2 p.m. and 6 p.m.

Washington Court House – 1179 S. Elm Street
Fayette County Commission on Aging
Monday, Sept. 8, 2008 at 6 p.m.

For more information, visit the OCC website at www.pickocc.org.

Barco is the Leading Supplier of Visualization Equipment to the Beijing Olympics

The 8 August Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games, at Beijing’s celebrated ‘Bird’s Nest’ stadium, was by and far the most coveted ticket of this year’s Olympic program. The stellar event was attended by some 90,000 spectators, including a large contingent of world leaders and dignitaries, and enjoyed a worldwide television audience estimated at four billion viewers.

The much-anticipated event was directed by renowned Chinese filmmaker, Zhang Yimou (Curse of the Golden Flower, Hero, House of Flying Daggers, Raise the Red Lantern). The highly imaginative show was powered by a number of Barco cutting edge visual display solutions, including a total of 78 Barco High End Systems Orbital Heads, which allowed the production team to reposition the images anywhere in space – in this instance, onto different scenic elements on the field.

Working in conjunction with the Orbital Heads was a record 110 Barco High End Systems Axon Media Servers and 5 Wholehog 3 consoles. No visual event to date has incorporated so many servers of this type.

In addition to its role in the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, Barco is also providing LED solutions to many of the other Olympic venues. At the 12 Olympic Live Sites, Barco LED screens make it possible for millions of Beijing people to watch the games in large groups, live and in the outdoors, causing a great atmosphere of unity and excitement. At the landmark Jingxin Building, home to China’s largest outdoor LED screen, the 758 square meters LED screen beams Olympic images to millions of visitors on Beijing’s 3rd Ring Road. The Olympics soccer field in Shanghai is also lit up by a 391 square meters Barco LED screen.

In a 3rd major role, Barco is involved in ensuring the security and safety for the Olympics and its millions of visitors. Barco Security and Monitoring products are responsible for the surveillance in the Bird’s Nest and other venues, for guiding the flight traffic at Beijing’s new Terminal 3, and for directing all the road traffic at the city’s Urban Traffic Control Centre.

Xenia Barco, which specializes in simulation and virtual reality technologies is a regional branch of Barco International.

Cell phone use during pregnancy and childhood behavioral problems

In the July edition of Epidemiology, researchers reported that children whose mothers used cell phones while pregnant were more likely to have emotional and behavioral problems.

A team of scientists looked at a group of more than 13,000 children, including their time in utero. When the children reached age 7, mothers were asked to complete a questionnaire about their own cell phone use in pregnancy and their child‘s use of cell phones, as well as their children‘s behavior and health.

Children with both prenatal and postnatal cell phone exposure were 80 percent more likely to have emotional problems, conduct problems, hyperactivity, or problems with peers. Children who were only exposed prenatally had a higher likelihood of behavior problems compared to those who were only exposed postnatally, but not as high as those who were exposed at both times.

Dr. Mercola believes that an 80 percent increase in behavior problems is pretty drastic. In a recent article on the subject, he wrote,

“Could it be, as some have suggested, that mothers who use cell phones frequently are simply not very attentive parents? Sure. But those children who were only exposed in utero had significant increases in behavior problems too, which suggests there may be something deeper going on.”

Dr. Mecola also explained that something deeper.

“Electromagnetic radiation from cell phones poses a unique hazard to a developing fetus. Animal studies have shown that electromagnetic fields in that frequency range can affect their liver enzymes, glands, muscles, hormone balance, and heart and bone marrow. In fact, the cellular stresses caused by information-carrying radio waves can actually alter the DNA structure of both you and your child.

Autonomic nervous system expert Dr. Dietrich Klinghardt has noted this radiation can easily flip certain genes in the mitochondria. If this gene sequence is altered in a pregnant woman, she can pass her damaged mitochondria on to the child.

The child can then develop a mitochondrial disorder, which can include muscular atrophy and severe developmental problems. Even autism has been associated with cell phone use.

Because children are still growing, they also have far thinner skulls than adults. This makes their brains far more susceptible to these information-carrying radio waves. If you are, say, holding your infant while talking on a cell phone, the radiation plume can easily reach the child and penetrate their skull.

Of course, if you allow your child to talk on the cell phone himself, then this radiation will reach him directly.

To see an illustration showing just how much higher the electromagnetic radiation absorption rates are in a 5- and 10-year old’s brain versus that of an adult, see this article from a previous newsletter.

It’s very important that you keep cell phones away from infants, babies, children and pregnant women now, as the damage may not start showing up for 10 years or more, and by then it will be too late.

So, why hasn’t our government done something about this? A part of the deeper problem is that they are powerless. They serve the interests of the powerful, which means those corporations and politicians making big money. Yes, the FDA, FCC, and EPA have called for research on the problem, but the study reported by Epidemiology was conducted in the Netherlands not the USA. Dr. Mecola also goes into greater detail why the federal agencies are not doing much about the problem.

I should add that scientists have known about 20 years (maybe more) that high doses of electromagnetic waves is harmful to animals and humans. As Dr. Mercola points out, “[t]hese radio waves are literally everywhere, transmitting signals to wireless computers, cordless phones, cell phone base stations and countless other wireless technologies.”

In another article by Dr. Mecola, “Why Your Cell Phone Can Hurt Your Children,” a list of health problems caused by RF radio waves (cell phone, wireless, etc.) included:

*  Alzheimer’s, senility and dementia
*  Parkinson’s
*  Autism
*  Fatigue
*  Headaches
*  Sleep disruptions
*  Altered memory function, poor concentration and spatial awareness
*  Cancer and brain tumors
*  Sterility
 

Notice, health problems like sleep disruptions, headaches as well as the problems mentioned in the Epidemiology study such as hyperactivity, emotional and behavioral problems are related. In a previous post, I reported on the discovery that ADD and hyperactivity were often related to lack of sleep and even mild appendicitis. Yet, children have been drugged out the wazoo for profit not for a cure. The cure is to limit or end cell phone, wireless computer, iPod, and cordless phone use and maintain good health practices.

Read Dr. Mecola’s articles for tips on cell phone safety, good health practices, or for more in-depth information.

Dayton Avenue Redevelopment : Will It Be Apartments, Houses, or YMCA

by Daniel Downs

Have you noticed the empty space on Dayton Avenue where Kroger’s and other retail stores were once located? Xenia official’s Downtown Strategic Plan envisions the vacant site filled with townhouses and a mini-park. That is why Paran Developers of Cleveland purchased the land. They want to build those apartments, but council members are still debating whether it right thing to do.

I’m wondering why any city official would welcome another apartment complex especially across from Cox Elementary? Would it bring in more tax revenue? Would it create more profit for Allison Avenue businesses? Would it improve the residential area that exists on both sides of that vacant space?

Council members John Caupp and Dale Louderback addressed the first question during a June council meeting. Councilman Caupp said that renters do pay property taxes because those taxes are included in their monthly rental rate. By adding more high-end apartments like those at Deer Creek, Caupp believes Xenia would benefit by more tax dollars. Councilman Louderback, who is involved in the real estate market, disagrees with Councilman Caupp. He said “very little [tax] revenue is generated from apartments.” He also pointed out that there is little demand for more apartments evidenced by three unoccupied apartment buildings and no waiting list at the newly developed Deer Creek complex.

Although the City may get some tax revenue from more apartments, the relatively little amount alone does not justify more of them.

Looking at the Plan, I count about 44 rental units. If half of high-end apartment renters would buy gas from the nearby Sunoco station, some food from Aldi, pizzas occasionally from Cassano’s and Domino’s Pizzerias, and occasionally some prescription drugs, those businesses net profits would increase but not by very much. Using US Department of Commerce 2006 data, net profit margins of retail gas stations is about 6.5 percent. For grocery stores it is around 5 percent. The average profit margin of pharmacies is 3 percent and probably 3 percent or less for Pizzerias. If each of the 22 new residents purchased 20 gallons of gas each week plus cigarettes or food items, Sunoco owners would see annual net profits increase about $5,950. JB Williams claims retail profit on gas alone is only one cent per gallon. If so, Sunoco’s annual profits would only increase by $228 if the hypothetical new residents only bought gas. Likewise, if 22 of the new residents bought $30 in groceries from Aldi each week, Aldi’s annual net profit would increase about $1,716. Other nearby store would benefit even less. Therefore, it is unlikely that the Council could justify the building of more apartments based on any substantial benefits to nearby businesses.

It must be admitted any quality development in that ugly empty space would be an aesthetic improvement. However, an apartment complex towering between nearly houses would look odd. Like the residents who signed the petition against this development—which by the way, never stopped any such development in the past—the planned apartment complex does not seem like a good idea. Single occupant houses or condos would be a better design. This type of development might not give the developers residual income but it would be more appropriate to the exist housing.

There is another reason to oppose the proposed apartment complex. In the city plans, a recreational development also was proposed. Councilman Caupp said, “the council would love to have the property developed for recreational use. Unfortunately, no one has come forward to purchase that land to make that type of investment in our community.” The YMCA has considered building its new facility on the vacant site. It is understandable why there has been little mention of it. The Council, Xenia School Board, and many others are hoping voters will approve the plan to build new schools and especially the Under-One-Roof plan.

With various financial experts claiming the effects of recession will last several years, voters approving a $66.5 million bond issue is a very big contingency. There is no guarantee citizens will be crazy enough to increase their tax burden. With the apartment proposal not likely to ease their tax burden, the City Council should not approve any proposed development plan until after November elections. Who knows, the council may get its wish for a new recreational development.

Councilman Louderback is right; whether voters approve the bond issue or not, city council should not approve any plan until they know what the area residents want. It is their neighborhood; it is their city, not residual-profit seeking developers.

The Plan to Restore Constitutional Order

June 30, 2008 may be remembered in history as the day Americans began, in earnest, the moral and solemn process of holding their (servant) Government accountable to the Constitution — under threat of withdrawal of allegiance, support and tax money.

To secure this end, the People have begun to claim and exercise a little-known, but unalienable, “Right of Redress,” rather than depending upon the will of the majority as defined by precinct voters, those who cast votes on Capitol Hill, and those that vote from the inner sanctums of our Courthouses.

Most do not know that this profound natural Right, first articulated 800 years ago in Magna Carta, is embodied and protected by the Petition clause of the First Amendment — the same Amendment which protects your voice in the defense of Freedom. Very importantly, academic research since 1986 makes clear the Right to Petition for Redress is NOT a redundant statement of the Right of Speech. It is in fact, the individual exercise of Popular Sovereignty.

To be sure, the widespread exercise of this Right holds significant implications for our nation and are most worthy of your interest. Here’s what the Founders sitting as the first Congress had to say:

“If money is wanted by Rulers
who have in any manner oppressed the People,
they may retain it until their grievances are redressed,
and thus peaceably procure relief, without trusting to despised
petitions or disturbing the public tranquility.”

Journals of the Continental Congress, 1:105-113

On June 30, 2008, approximately 1200 American citizens will begin the process of exercising the Right by formally serving a Legal Notice and Demand for Redress upon the President, the Attorney General and every member of the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate at their local district offices.

Demanding an official response within forty (40) days, the Notice includes seven (7) Petitions for Redress of Grievances regarding substantial violations of the Constitution:

1. The Iraq invasion in violation of the war powers clauses.
 
2. The Federal Reserve System’s violation of the money clauses.
 
3. The USA Patriot Act’s violation of the privacy clauses.
 
4. The direct, un-apportioned taxes on labor in violation of the tax clauses.
 
5. The federal gun control laws in violation of the Second Amendment.
 
6. The failure to enforce immigration laws in violation of the “faithfully execute clause.”
 
7. The construction, by stealth, of a “North American Union” without constitutional authority.

 

We the People cannot elect our way out of tyranny. Any assertion that by electing either McCain or Obama we can cure the ills that now plague America is simply naive or based on a lack of information regarding the corrupting forces that truly influence and control our government and political process.

If Liberty and Constitutional Order are to survive in peace, it is imperative that the People learn about and exercise the unalienable Right of Redress. For details about the Plan to Restore Constitutional Order, visit: www.GiveMeLiberty.org/revolution.

Ohio Democrat Seeking to Outlaw ‘Pit Bull Terrier’ Ownership

Why in the world do Ohioans keep voting Democrats into office. There are a bunch of unreasonable, if not always immoral, dictators. Here is a perfect example of their dictatorial bent.

In the “Final solution proposed in Ohio” published by the Ronaoke Times, Nona Nelson reports that Cincinnati Democrat Rep. Tyrone Yates introduced House Bill 568, Sec. 955.111 last week. The bill amends Sec. 955.11 of the Ohio Revised Code first by omitting pit bull dogs from the category of vicious dog, and then by adding the new sections criminalizing owner of pit bull dogs. The text of bill is as follows:

(A) Beginning ninety days after the effective date of this section, no person shall own, keep, or harbor a dog that belongs to a breed that is commonly known as a pit bull dog.

(B) Not later than ninety days after the effective date of this section, a person who owns, keeps, or harbors a pit bull dog on the effective date of this section shall surrender the dog to the dog warden. Not later than ten days after receiving the dog, the dog warden shall euthanize the dog.

(C)(1) Beginning ninety days after the effective date of this section, if an officer has probable cause to believe that a dog is a pit bull dog, the officer may apply to a court of competent jurisdiction for a search warrant. The court shall issue a search warrant for the purposes requested if there is probable cause to believe that a dog is a pit bull dog.

(2) After obtaining a search warrant, an officer shall seize the pit bull dog and surrender the dog to the dog warden. Not later than ten days after receiving the dog, the dog warden shall euthanize the dog.

In a report by MyFox Clevelend, Rep. Yates is quoted, saying, “I think eliminating vicious dogs is as important to reclaiming our cities as controlling gun violence and making sure our young people are going to school.” He forgot to mention eliminating transfat and making certain immorality is legally protected.

Opposing Yates is Dave Vickers, Director of the Humane Society of the United States. He said, “Enforcing leash laws will keep most of the attacks from happening…. dogs very rarely attack on a leash because they can be pulled back.”

Nelson also found it interesting that two organizations seldom in agreement of legal matters oppose this bill. The Humane Society and the American Kennel Club are campaigning against the bill. Nelson says she plans to launch her own campaign. She intends on sending a letter to Yates asking him to withdraw this bill and not punish innocent dogs and their families for the deeds of human criminals.

Yates bill is the first step to a doggie of the Nazi final solution. It will open the door to criminalizing owners of any breed of dog that can be regarded as vicious. As pointed out by Nelson, breed specific legislation already exists “in other states, counties and cities that bans not only bully breeds, but rottweilers, Dobermans and German shepherd dogs.” According to the Vickers, it is home insurance companies that will determine which breeds are dangerous.

Nelson is right. Bills like Ohio HB 568 set a dangerous precedent and infringes on the rights of law-abiding citizens, but then infringing on our rights has never been of great concern to Democrats.

The bill has been sent to the State Government and Elections Committee.
Because it has no co-sponsors, the bill will likely get lost in the Committee. Nevertheless, your representative should know what you think about bills like HB 568. You can join the Humane Society, American Kennel Club, and pit bull owners like Nona Nelson in opposing HB 568 by writing, emailing, faxing, or calling your state representatives.

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