Posted on October 16, 2015 by Ben Crystal
If you’re anything like me, then the members of the Democratic Party hate you. And I don’t mean they disagree with your politics. I don’t even mean they disagree vehemently with your politics. I mean the Democratic Party despises you with the white-hot intensity of a thousand suns. And lest you think there might be common ground upon which both you and the Democratic Party can stand, consider the bile that flowed out of their leading presidential candidates’ blowholes during Tuesday evening’s debate on CNN.
Hillary Clinton, who has made a career out of being married to an alleged rapist, certainly didn’t hide her disdain for anyone outside her box. When game-show-host-turned-talking-hairstyle Anderson Cooper asked her: “Which enemy that you made during your political career are you most proud of?” Madame Clinton responded: “(T)he NRA, the health insurance companies, the drug companies, the Iranians; probably the Republicans.”
I suppose we should be flattered that somewhere in the neighborhood of half the country made the list alongside the next islamofascist terrorists to ride the Obama train to Nuketown. The old white woman wants to be president of all of us but viscerally hates half of us. Moreover, she’s proud of that attitude.
Joining Nana Clinton on the stage was self-titled “democratic socialist” Sen. Bernie Sanders. His popularity probably says more about Clinton’s lack thereof than it does about Sanders’ own palatability.
Let’s face it: Bernie Sanders looks like he should be sitting on a park bench, feeding pigeons stale bread crumbs and muttering about “these kids today, with their rock ‘n’ roll and their crazy clothes.” And for anyone out there who somehow managed to avoid knowing anything about Sanders before Tuesday, the old boy plans to use the presidency to resurrect the governing principles of fun guys like Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin.
During his opportunities to rant at the camera, Sanders not only proudly declared himself a devotee of the bearded Bolsheviks, he promised to annex huge swaths of the nation’s economy like Russia gobbling up the Ukraine. Free college, free healthcare, free stuff aplenty awaits us in Bernie’s America. Sanders failed to mention that government-run means government-owned. And that requires government money by the truckloads. Since the government doesn’t actually have any money, Bernie plans to use yours.
As Barack Obama’s IRS scandal served to remind us, if the government wants your money, it takes it. If you don’t offer it willingly, then it takes it by force. Bernie, who loudly claims no affinity for the capitalist system that has employed him for the past 35 years, will literally need trillions of our dollars to paint America a nice shade of Russian red.
Both Clinton and Sanders agreed to no small fanfare that they’re “sick and tired of” Clinton’s “damned emails.” According to polling, at least half of Americans believe Clinton’s worsening breaches of national security are a legitimate campaign issue; and as many as 70 percent believe an independent special prosecutor is already overdue. Clinton’s and Sanders’ fatigue over her scandals is miniscule — and wildly different — compared to ours.
Of the other three placeholders propped up behind lecterns next to the senior citizen front-runners, former Sen. Jim Webb was the only one who made any impact. Webb, who spent most of the evening looking as out of place as a cat in a rat’s nest, accidentally maneuvered the seriously left-leaning audience into reminding the rest of us how interested they are in our fates.
When the show moved to the blame-guns-for-crime segment, which has apparently become standard for any gathering of two or more “progressives,” Webb protested meekly: “(W)e have to respect the people in this country who want to defend themselves and their family from violence.” When he dared to suggest that all lives matter, as opposed to just the darker-hued ones, the audience acted like he’d set fire to the stage. The poor guy’s own party hates him because he reminds them of everyone else.
Of course, the left’s telling the rest of us that they rank us somewhere between “cancer” and “Ebola” isn’t exactly a new development. Obama, easily the most divisive president in at least a century, runs his entire regime based on the guiding principles of division and hate. “You didn’t build that, someone built that for you.” So quit acting like you earned your way, you “bitter clinger.”
Jon Gruber, one of the chief architects of Obama’s signature “accomplishment,” says American voters are “too stupid to understand.” Take that, you racist! It’s only a side effect of your own dim-witted conservatism that you don’t see how defrauding the nation of trillions of dollars will make you healthier and wiser.
However, while the Democrats are jockeying to prove who hates the most voters the most, not one of them is currently projected to do more next November than deliver a concession speech. Despite the noisiest efforts of Sanders’ supporters, the only slightly younger Clinton is still handily winning the walker wars by 15- to 20-point margins. And at her best, Nana Hilldawg loses to at least four of the current GOP contenders.
It’s a good thing conservatives don’t hate liberals as much as liberals hate pretty much everyone else. Beginning in January 2017, the Democrats will learn just how lucky they are.
–Ben Crystal
Democrats to America: We hate you
Message from the Illinois State Rifle Association
|
SRA Thursday Bulletin – October 15, 2015
|
|
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE
In the last couple of weeks we have watched and listened to anti-gun messages blasted across America, assisted by the mainstream media. Hillary Clinton compared the NRA and by inference its members, to negotiating with Iran or communists. As insulting as this reference is, it does give hope to gun owners. When Hillary was Secretary of State she got her clock cleaned by both of these groups – witness to the situation in the Middle East.
The question that is always asked is how we can stop such tragedies. The media and the left-wing politicians are always looking for laws and regulations that will do the job. The fact is that no law or regulation will do the job. Everything they propose attacks law abiding gun owners and just makes it harder for them to defend themselves.
Here is the fact that everyone loves to avoid. When an attack happens, whether it be on one person or a group, the only people who can stop such an attack is the intended victim(s). This is not something some people want to talk about, but it is the reality.
When Dr. Ben Carson suggested the intended victims would have been better off had they attacked the perpetrator, he was ridiculed by the mainstream media. Remember, we are living in a time when schools hire outside consultants to help us decide if kids should play dodgeball or tag. School officials haven’t even got the backbone to make such a decision. They don’t want competition because it might be too harsh. These people are developing a new class in the United States – the victim class. The anti-self-defense crowd and the anti-gun crowd are fellow travelers. They will make us a nation of sheep if we let them.
When such tragedies happen the anti-gunners usually pass some piece of feel good legislation that makes no sense. For example: California Governor Jerry Brown just signed a bill that bans licensed concealed carry holders from carrying a gun within 1000 feet of a school. I guess the Governor wants to make sure that students in California have absolutely no chance, if attacked.
We are going to see the same nonsense in the next legislative session. Remember that just because it is a bad idea doesn’t mean it won’t pass in the Illinois Legislature. The ISRA will be there.
By now you have probably received the 112th Anniversary mailing. I hope you will participate. Please return your order form as soon as possible.
REMINDER: ISRA Annual Sighting-In Day is October 24th at the ISRA Range (Ranges 2, 3, and 5) from 9:30-3:30 – open to the public and free parking.
Thanks for being an ISRA member. If you are not a member, please join.
|
Report: EPA ‘Running a $160 Million PR Machine’
EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy / AP
BY:
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) spent over $15 million on outside public relations consultants despite employing nearly 200 full-time in house PR workers.
A new report on EPA spending released by Open the Books, a nonprofit organization dedicated to transparency, found numerous examples of questionable expenditures within the agency.
Among them, the EPA spent over $15.1 million on outside public relations consultants between 2000 and 2014. The funding was on top of the $141.496 million in salaries and $1.5 million in bonuses on full-time public affairs officers the EPA has spent since 2007. As of 2012, the EPA employed 198 public affairs employees. The average EPA employee salary is $111,165.
“Everyone is under the impression that the EPA is spending money to ‘clean the environment.’ But, it turns out EPA is running a $160 million PR Machine, $715 million police agency, a near $1 billion employment agency for seniors, and a $1.2 billion in-house law firm,” said Adam Andrzejewski, the founder of Open the Books.
“The EPA wasting $160 million on public relations dwarfs our recent exposure of their high-end furniture purchases ($92 million),” he said. “Nothing is emblematic of government excess like an army of highly compensated PR agents sitting in their easy chairs. It’s simply waste.”
Open the Books also found the EPA spent $261,456 on badges and insignia, millions on gym equipment, and $17,820 on “Games, Toys and Wheeled Goods.”
The agency spent $23,884 for awards and trophies for the EPA Office of Research and Development (ORD) ceremony in 2012 and 2013.
“The EPA culture of wasteful spending extended into their own award ceremonies,” said Andrzejewski. “Tagging the awards as ‘athletic and sporting equipment’ in their checkbook, they spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to pat themselves on their own backs.”
Andrzejewski noted that the EPA also has given $144 million in performance bonuses since 2007. “It’s an imbedded culture that gave $4 million in additional awards, badges, and trophies to themselves paid for at taxpayer expense,” he said.
The report found that the EPA has spent 35.2 percent more on contracts during the first six years of the Obama administration than in the Bush administration, an increase of $2.5 billion.
Open the Books combed through $92.692 billion in EPA contracts and grants between fiscal years 2000 and 2014 to compile their findings.
“Public participation is a key component of EPA’s mission to protect human health and the environment,” said a spokesperson for the agency. “EPA is legally obligated to communicate the work of our programs with the American public, Congress, stakeholders, and the media—including publicizing public hearings and citizen comment periods. This report cherry picks and falsely misrepresents the work of two administrations whose job it is to ensure people are informed about the critical work of EPA.”
Rahm Done In By Government Incompetence!
- Chicago has a $27 billion underfunded pension (remember Illinois has an even larger one) Chicago’s underfunded pension works out to $100,000 per citizen (population 2.7 million)
- Rahm has proposed the largest tax increase in Chicago history, a $588 million dollar increase is real estate taxes.
- Rahm has proposed a complicated scheme of special tax breaks (homeowner exemptions) so over half the city will not have a tax increase. This has been dubbed “the bungalow exemption” for all homes valued at less than $250,000
- All taxes are collected and administered by Cook County.
- Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle said they don’t have robust enough computer systems to implement this proposal.
Chicago, the city that works!
Emanuel tax plan won’t work, Preckwinkle says—and here’s why
Greg Hinz on Politics
http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20151014/BLOGS02/151019925/chicago-property-tax-break-wont-work-cook-president-preckwinkle-says
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle dropped a political bomb on Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s proposed 2016 city budget today, saying it’s technically impossible to implement a special break Emanuel wants in order to largely shelter city homeowners from the $588 million property tax hike he plans.
“We can’t do it,” said Preckwinkle, referring to an expanded homestead exemption Emanuel wants, a measure that would have to be administered by the county’s property-taxing system. “There’s no way we can get our computer software to do it.”
Preckwinkle’s comments, which came during a meeting with Crain’s editorial board on her own proposed 2016 budget, followed a meeting this morning between her and other county officials, notably including County Treasurer Maria Pappas, whose office actually sends out the property tax bills. Preckwinkle said her understanding of what is and is not technically possible came largely from Pappas.
Pappas, in a phone call, complained that Preckwinkle is “using” her as part of a political feud with the mayor, but she did confirm that, indeed, the county’s current, antiquated computer system cannot neatly divide properties and their tax rates between those located in and out of the city.
“They can’t do it. I’m 95 percent sure they can’t do it,” said Pappas, noting that the county only recently began to move to replace its quarter-century-old mainframe computer.
Perhaps an outside technical consultant might find a way to crunch the numbers, Pappas said. But such a person hasn’t even been hired, she added.
POLITICAL COVER
Emanuel offered the homestead exemption as a bit of political cover, enabling aldermen to tell constituents that anyone with a home worth less than $250,000 would pay none of the $588 million hike, and those with more valuable property that they would get a partial break.
The plan was already in trouble with Gov. Bruce Rauner, perhaps under pressure from owners of business property, strongly suggesting he opposes legislation needed to implement the proposal.
Democratic legislative leaders nonetheless have promised to push the legislation, but if Preckwinkle and Pappas are right, some lawmakers might conclude they have no reason to make a tough vote.
Emanuel’s office had no immediate response to Preckwinkle’s statement. He and Preckwinkle have had a frosty relationship, with the county board president nearly running against Emanuel’s re-election bid last winter.
Asked if she has any substantive thoughts on the mayor’s proposed tax break, which some say will raise rents on minority apartment dwellers, Preckwinkle replied: “I think I’ll stick with what the treasurer told me. There’s no way we can do it.”
Americans for Prosperity is doing a phone bank supporting a property tax freeze
I wanted to take a moment to introduce myself and let you know about a volunteer opportunity this Saturday, October 17th. My name is Todd Koehn and I am now the Americans for Prosperity Field Director in your area. Giulia Volini has decided to take a new direction in her career; she will be greatly missed by all of us at AFP and we wish her the best success in her new endeavor.
This Saturday, October 17th from 10am to 2pm we will be reaching out to voters to let them know about the proposed property tax freeze and urging them to contact their state lawmakers. I don’t have to tell you how Illinois has some of the highest property taxes in the nation, but we need your help reminding voters that they can make a difference.
Americans for Prosperity
Property Tax Freeze Phone Bank
Saturday, October 17th
10am – 2pm
924 N State St.
Lockport, IL
FREE Food and Drinks will be provided
Before joining Americans for Prosperity I had spent five years with the Illinois House Republicans as a communications analyst and also as a campaign manager during the campaign season. Through this work I was able to see first hand the dysfunction of Illinois’ state government. Illinois ranks near the top in highest debt, most corruption, highest property taxes, and most outmigration; we can do better.
Now more than ever we need people to stand up and make their voices heard.
I joined AFP because they are taking a stand against the reckless tax and spend policies of Springfield. Illinois is at a crossroads and I know that you are ready to take back your state. I hope that you will come to consider me a resource in making your voice heard. Together we can make a real difference in our community and hold our elected officials accountable.
Join us this Saturday, October 17th from 10am – 2pm and help turn the tide against ever-increasing property taxes.
To RSVP you can simply send me an email at tkoehn@afphq.org or call my cell phone 224-239-5311.
Sincerely,
Todd Koehn
Field Director
Americans for Prosperity – Illinois
P.S. Our AFP Lockport office, located at 924 N State St., will remain open going forward and I hope to utilize this space as a meeting point for like-minded conservatives who are tired of seeing their tax dollars wasted. We have the latest tools available to reach out to our local communities and we plan to use these tools to educate voters and bring about a real change in our government. If you would like more information about how you can make a difference, click here.
Remains of Youngest Saint in Orland Park Today; Mass Tonight
Originally posted on the Orland Park, IL Patch
St. Maria Goretti’s holy relic will be available for public viewing until 11 p.m. A solemn Mass is scheduled for 7 p.m.
On Thursday, the Vatican-sponsored Pilgrimage of Mercy U.S. Tour comes to Plainfield at St. Mary Immaculate Church, 15629 South Route 59. Six federal agents from the Department of Homeland Security and a Chicago Police honor guard watch over the remains of St. Maria Goretti during the tour.
St. Maria Goretti was an 11-year-old Italian girl stabbed to death while resisting a neighbor trying to rape her in 1902. Maria is said to have forgiven her attacker, Alessandro Serenelli, as she lay dying of infection from 14 stab wounds inflicted with a metal file. Serenelli was sentenced to 30 years in prison. According to the official Vatican account, he had been in prison for six years when Maria appeared to him in a vision and handed him white lily flowers she had picked from a garden.
The gesture of forgiveness is said to have filled Serenelli with the light of the Holy Spirit. He immediately became contrite, and finished the rest of his sentence in tranquility. His behavioral change was so dramatic that he was released three years early. He eventually joined the Capuchin Franciscans as a lay brother.
She was officially canonized by Pope Pius XII on June 24, 1950. Known as a model of mercy, her remains are embedded in a silver box inside a wax likeness and displayed in a glass case.
The relics were previously displayed at parishes in Philadelphia prior to Pope Francis’ visit. Within the last few weeks, the relics were in New York, at Sing Sing Prison, and in Massachusetts, Connecticut and Michigan. (Visit MariaGoretti.com for the rest of the tour schedule.)
A special Tridentine Mass scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Monday in Chicago.
Number of labor force dropouts at historic high
Posted on October 2, 2015 by Personal Liberty
The Obama economy keeps setting and breaking records — the bad kind.
September’s jobs report, released Friday, shows the U.S. labor force participation rate at yet another record low, undercutting the already-underwhelming numbers that have been reported in recent months.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the labor force participation rate now stands at 62.4 percent, its lowest ratio in nearly four decades. That figure means 94,610,000 otherwise-qualified Americans had dropped out of the labor force as of Sept. 30.
That’s more than one-fourth of the population, including those not of working age, who are now unemployed — and who are convinced, for various reasons, that there’s no point in looking for work right now.
Leaving out all the people who find it pointless to job-hunt, regardless of whether there are 10 or 100 million of them, allows the government to present a sunny unemployment rate of 5.1 percent.
“The labor force participation rate declined to 62.4% after three months in a row at 62.6%. Participation remains near the lowest levels in decades,” a Forbes analysis observed following the report’s publication. “The U-6 rate, which measures under-employment, came in at 10% in September versus 10.3% in August and down from 11.3% a year earlier. The employment-population ratio was 59.2% from 59.4%.”
In addition, the August report — itself already a disappointment — was revised dramatically downward, following the accretion of more data a month after its initial release.
“[Job] [g]ains for August, initially recorded at 173,000, were revised lower to 136,000,” Forbes noted.
This Affects All Northern Illinois Residents/ Smart Meters
Message from DuPage Tea Party regarding Smart Meters:
Com Ed in Northern Illinois is forcibly implementing the Smart Meter Program that we have been concerned about as part of the Agenda 21 objective to actively monitor and control your usage of electricity, water and gas in your home with or without your consent.
What does this mean to you? In addition to being a violation of our 4th amendment rights under the Constitution to private property rights which is a basic fabric of American protection against an overzealous government, they are also security risk as they are easily hackable by anyone. They are as safety concern as they have been known to cause fires by spontaneous combustion, they are a health risk as they constantly emit radio active frequencies and overlap with neighbors frequencies creating an intensified radio active distructive zone that permeates your home, and over billing…would we expect anything less from Com Ed than to make you pay for NOT having the Smart Meter?
The interactions to date we’ve had with Com Ed personnel is just what we would expect. They are condescending and completely ignorant of the real ramifications of Smart Meters. It’s their “job” to use their own talking points and that’s all they do.
In addition, most of our municipal governing bodies are completely ignorant of what is being forced upon us…and them. They just know what they’ve been told by Com Ed.
What can you do? What must you do?
Let our voices be heard loud, strong!
1. If you are a Darien resident, come to a very important village council meeting on:
OCTOBER 19th. 2015
the City of Darien Village Hall
1702 Plainfield Road
Darien, IL
Meet/Greet with the Mayor 6-7 p.m.
Pre-Council Work Session: 7-7:30 p.m.
City Council Meeting: 7:30 p.m.
We need a strong showing of people at this meeting.
2. If you are NOT a Darien resident, find out from your local municipality when they will be discussing the Smart Meter implementation. It has already started in many communitites. Send the info to me at dupageteaparty@gmail.com and I will blast it out to our tea party group so people can be informed and make their voices heard loud and clear on their home turf.
3. Below are suggestions of questions to get you started that you can ask.
1. Am I legally required to accept a Smart Meter, since this violates my 4th Amendment Rights?
2. Since there exists no mandate from the Illinois Commerce Commission, State of Illinois or Federal Government by what right can a Smart Meter be installed on my private property?
3. Is it true that my energy use information will be sold to third party vendors, in order to market products or track my activities in some way?
4. What current evidence proves smart meters to be safe, and meets FCC guidelines? What protocol studies of privacy, safety, security, health, and over-billing issues were done to dateon Smart Meters, and what were the results to any installation?
5. Are utilities getting financial kickbacks in forcing Smart Meter installation, incentivizing and/or bribery in other industrialized countries, under the guise of multi-national Smart
Meter or Smart Grid initiatives?
4. Get educated. This is our last chance to fight this overreach of government on our own homefront.
Stop Smart Meter Websites For Additional Information Include:
1. www.stopsmartmeters.org
2. www.takebackyourpower.net
3. www.stopsmartmetersnow.com
4. www.refusesmartmeter.com
While the Republicans in the federal government continues to fight against Conservatives in the House, the forces behind Agenda 21 continues ever strong in our local communities to take control over our lives. We as “tea party” conservatives must understand that we have the most important fight of our lives in the next year or so until after the election and, God willing, a new President who is not out to destroy America takes office. Those who wish to destroy America as we have known it are going to be overwhelming us with everything they can until then. We dare not give up or think that the battle is over. We must be diligent. This is a fight for our survival. Are you ready?
Claire Van Horn
Founder of the DuPage Tea Party
Taxes in Illinois
|
|||||||||||||
|
Strong Cities Network / Will police controlled by the UN patrol our streets and maintain UN law
The American people have not figured out yet the attack on our Freedom is ongoing and will not stop till the Government has total control. I for one do not want anything to do with the UN. It is an organization that is in contradiction to the U. S. Constitution, Declaration of Independence, and Liberty as we know it.
Letting the UN have any authority in protecting Americans is absurd. We have rights still, Big Government wants to take them away and the UN is the easiest tool to achieve the goal. This must be kept a secret or the Citizens may rise up and stop it, so there is no traditional media covering it. Is this why Obama has been giving military equipment to local police, why various agencies are buying up all the Ammo, why they want to take our guns, and why they are doing exercises in American cities like Jade Helm.
Americans do not want to see UN police in a position of Authority in our country!
http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxWj0LySPB4
http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_2e-PpBPJs&list=PLcQftgOqDfYRWXWgrTQv2DJqI8-TiA6rP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhRLCZ_TYus
