Category Economy

Oct 31 2011

What is important?

What is important?

 

The Democrat Party has been making it increasingly easier for commonsense Mainers to make correct decisions in the voting booths come November.  After the Republican Party passed legislation to safeguard the integrity of our voting system in Maine, the opposition cried foul.  They waited for the throngs to join them.  To their disappointment, the numbers were not as large as they had hoped.  Mainers are far too endowed with powers of perception to fall for the same old Democrat lies.  After all, they have heard them for forty years and have gotten use to the pattern.  So how to create a throng?

Well, you can’t just go out and work up Maine people because they might ask tough questions like, “What’s wrong with protecting our votes?” or “Don’t you want to help out overworked town clerks on election day?” and the very embarrassing and awkward “You don’t want to stop voter fraud…why?”  That just wouldn’t work.  So, the Democrats have run to their old standby, the far-left fringe groups such as Maine People’s Alliance.  These groups are great at creating calamity out of tranquility, confusion out of clarity, and joblessness out of prosperity.  Ah yes, the wonderful “community organizers”.

Your humble columnist has had opportunity to engage in battle with the MPA on a few occasions.  It is a shame to see the lengths these groups will go to create instability, specifically economic instability, throughout the communities of Maine.  One such time, a large company, HoltraChem, had made some mistakes in its handling of chemicals and was required by the State to follow stringent regulations to clean it up.  They did and the expense of which was the demise of their company.  They sold out to another company, which finished the cleanup and maintained the landfills of contaminated soil to State standards.  This was not good enough for the MPA.  They saw an opportunity to bankrupt another big company.  They demanded this company and the town dig up the inert mercury soil now safely contained, reactivate the soil, drag it through Maine towns in rail cars and trucks to Canada, expose the environment, the townspeople of Maine and Canada to reactivated mercury, and burden another business with insurmountable operational expenses.  Why?  Was it to protect the environment or the townspeople?  Certainly not!  Their goal was to destroy another business.

These are the extremists that the Democrats have aligned themselves with to obstruct the people of Maine from securing protection of the sacred trust of Democracy.  Yes, the Democrats seem to think the process to purchase a bottle of whisky or a pack of cigarettes takes precedence over the process to insure the integrity of basic liberties.

They cry that there is no voter fraud; yet, a quick google of the words “voter fraud” will immediately grant you 20,000 entries having to do with voter fraud in the nation.  The most recent has an imminent arrest of Democrat leaders in Buffalo, New York.  Another reaches all the way to the Oval Office questioning whether Barack Obama should have ever been on the ballot in Indiana.

Fellow Mainers, we know better.  This is not about identifying voter fraud.  It is about preventing voter fraud.  Prevention is worth a pound of cure unless you don’t want to be cured.  So perhaps we should ask the Democrats that uncomfortable question again. “Why don’t you want to prevent voter fraud…again?”  The Maine Conservative Voice urges all its readers to vote “No” on 1.  It’s commonsense.  All of our readers in Dexter area make sure you go out and vote for Ray Wallace.  Let’s Set Maine Free!

Jul 18 2011

A Fine Mess

        Recently, the State Chairman of the Democrat Party published an article belittling the accomplishments of the new Governor of the State of Maine.  With the usual arrogant smug detachment from reality that generally accompanies any discourse from the deep yawning cavern of a liberal mind, this man fairly gloated over the what he characterized as a lack of improvement from the forty years of fiscal catastrophes that he and his Democrat friends have worked so hard to compile.  After all, the Governor has had all of 180 days.  Shouldn’t Governor LePage have corrected the litany of Democrat mismanagements by now?  The good Chairman, that’s sarcasm by the way, chose to ignore the fact the Governor LePage did one thing in six months that the Democrats didn’t do in forty years.  Enact welfare reform.  Oh, there is that.

But the Democrats are so proud.  They are so proud of this mountain of debt they have worked so hard to build.  It’s not everyone that can plan so perfectly how to make promises that you never intend to keep.  Then keep layering more lies upon broken promises upon false hopes until the bloated cancer is so entrenched it is virtually immovable.  Only Democrats could create such a scheme and get away with it and no Governor is going to turn this fiasco around in six months.  The Democrats are crowing with glee because no one, and they mean no one, can create a mess like a Democrat can.  “See,” they say, “this Governor can’t clean up our mess.  It’s… too….messy.”  Well, he did institute healthcare reform, just a trifle.  And he did make good on some promises that Governor Baldacci made and neglected to keep.

Which really burns the Democrats biscuits, doesn’t it?  Can’t Governor LePage understand that you just make the promises?  You don’t keep them?  The liberals had a good thing going.  Just promise “pie in the sky”, keep the entitlements flowing and keep raising those taxes.  Who cares if you can’t pay for it?!  We’re politicians.  We don’t have to pay for it.  We just vote our own salaries.  Raise the taxes!!!  What?!  Governor LePage just instituted one of the biggest tax cuts in Maine history and he plans to do more?  Ehh, Gaaddss!!!!  What does he think he’s doing?  Putting money back in people’s wallets?  This is unsettling to a Democrat’s delicate constitution.  Weelll, I can’t say that word either because it has negative implications to a Democrat, perhaps a Democrats delicate persona.

They comfort themselves with the knowledge that they have created such a gargantuan forty year mess that it will take much longer than six months to turn things around.  And with the help of their moderate Republican allies they just might be able to stall the cure long enough for the folks to get impatient.  Then they can have their power back and keep that big slimy stinking mess they’ve worked so hard over forty years to pile up.

Now, they’ve created a website called the “61% ers” or something.  Which is appropriate because Democrats have always viewed voters as merely numbers anyway.  It’s a “seeourmessissobadtheGovernorwillnevergetreelectedcausehecan’tfixourmesscauseitisreallybad” website.  I guess…if you like that kind hypocrisy…..

Oh, the Democrats are so proud.  So proud of the mess they’ve made.  Can’t you hear it in their voices?  They don’t think anyone can fix it.  We’ll see….  By the way, if you would like to ask the Governor and his commissioners about the mess the Democrats are so proud of, he will be holding a “Capital for a day” town hall meeting at Center Theatre in Dover-Foxcroft, Thursday at 6 PM.  Doors open at 5:15 PM.  See you there!!!!

Jul 4 2011

WHAT IS CLEAN?

Nearly 3,000 miles separate us from Arizona yet in recent days a Supreme Court decision has linked this western State with this most eastern State of Maine.   The Supreme Court has declared the Arizona State Clean Elections system unconstitutional.  The State of Maine has a Clean Elections Law that is a mirror image of Arizona’s.  It doesn’t take the deductive powers of Sherlock Holmes to figure out Maine’s Clean Elections may not be so clean under the keen scrutiny of the Constitution of the United States.

What the Supreme Court discovered in their deliberations is something the voting populace has understood for years.  It is morally reprehensible to take money from the public and then, in turn, use those monies to fund entities, programs or individuals that taxpayers may not agree with.  Of course, the citizens are endowed with an abundance of certain positive character traits that most politicians quickly find repulsive upon the acquisition of public office, those being, common sense and a moral compass.

For example, if candidate A and candidate B choose to run for public office and do so as clean elections candidates they receive an initial lump sum from the taxpayer, you and me.  This in itself creates a moral dilemma, as both conservative and liberal taxpayers must fund through their tax dollars candidates whom they find objectionable to their personal convictions and would not support if they had free choice.  Now, you might say that both sides have their standards violated so it’s essentially fair, it washes out.  Ummm….weeeeell….You, ….you really wouldn’t say that, would you?

But Clean Elections takes this travesty upon the public one step further with its matching funds provision.  If candidate B, who is a Conservative, works his tail off to raise $100,000.00 from his supporters, candidate A, who is a Liberal, doesn’t have to do a blasted thing and the taxpayers must pay candidate A the matching amount.  So essentially, for every dollar you give your candidate you support, you are forced through Clean Elections to give a matching dollar to the candidate you do not support.  Doesn’t that just make you feel warm and fuzzy all over?

This is the essence of elitism, which permeates the Democrat Party.  Only elites, who have freed themselves from the shackles of common sense, which so easily encumbers the lowly populace, can be trusted with the weighty decisions of society and its futures.  Aware that if the voters had free access to an uncomfortable thing called “the truth”, their progressive elite candidates would not fair so well.  But what if Democrats had the ability to force Conservatives to fund the very candidates they hope to defeat?   That, coupled with the various tax loopholes arranged for their George Soros type benefactors would make it almost impossible for Conservatives to compete in the message game and lies and half-truths would rule the day.

Then there is the Constitution.  Oh, that crusty old Constitution.  You see, Liberals, who pine after European Socialism, long for the day when the United States will mirror the crumbling societies of the lands across the sea.  In their eyes, government is the answer for the people and should rule over them.  Government knows better and can protect the people from themselves.  That’s why they espouse these many government programs, which stifle the voice of the public and eliminate voters’ right to choose.  But a bunch of guys in funny wigs and hats, who left Europe and wanted nothing to do with Europe, collaborated to create a document called the Constitution to insure we would never become Europe.  And this is the final levee against the onslaught of tyranny in our Country.

Our President doesn’t like it.  He called it a document of “negative liberties”.  It stands as a roadblock to the Democrat agenda.  The Supreme Court has ruled in favor of the people, but instead of learning the lessons of the Constitution, the liberals have responded with a Time magazine article asking, “Does the Constitution really matter?”  Yes, yes, it does.  Thank God, it really, really does.

Mar 22 2011

THE FACE OF DISCIPLINE

Stoic, resilient, these are words that have been rightly used to describe the Japanese people in recent days.  In the wake of horrific tragedy, there has been one description of our friends in Japan that has left a marked impression on this columnist.  That word is discipline.  The Japanese people are a people of great discipline.

This column is not intended to debate the minutia of Japanese traditional faith and family, its perceived or real flaws, and or its comparison to the Judeo-Christian value system we, as a nation, once embraced.  This columnist simply wants to examine the template of a disciplined society in the face of impending chaos.

It has been reported that, in spite of the massive devastation in the little island country, there has been no looting.  Citizens are waiting in lines calmly for hours on end to find needed food, water and fuel.  A Japanese gentleman finally reached the store to find only 12 bottles of water on the shelf.  Witnesses say he quickly grabbed them for he and his family, then stopped himself, turned back to the shelf and replaced 10 of what he desperately needed in respect for those coming after him.  No crime.  No anarchy.  Perhaps it is time we as Americans take a hard look at our lack of discipline juxtaposed against the amazing discipline of the Japanese and decide what that means for the future of this great Nation.

In the 1960’s and 1970’s, the “me generation” was spawned.  The rigid confines and demands of the family structure and discipline were railed against as an obstruction to free thinkers.  The intellectual elite mocked fathers and mothers, who placed strong emphasis on honor, respect and faith in their homes.  Opportunistic professors at colleges instructed the children from these homes that rebellion against their parents; authority was the only hope for society.  The strict “unbending” rule of parents was now dysfunctional.  The age of Dr. Spock was born.

A new, “better” progressive society immerged.  They raised their children with a new discipline.  Now it was all about respecting themselves, first, before others.  Just believe in themselves and all would be alright in the end.  No set standards to adhere to.  No higher justice to answer to.  Just find your own inner peace by expressing yourself in whatever way you saw fit and utopia would be on its way.

Dr. Spock would find the Japanese family hierarchy very dysfunctional.  Parents demand (Yes, I said that word…oh dear…) obedience from their children.  It is rumored that authorities actually say “no” in Japan.  Bringing dishonor to their family, their country and their faith is an unspeakable thought.  But now, we see the fruits of their belief system.

The Japanese now face these grim unfolding tragedies with the same stoic, unflinching discipline they have been trained through the generations to portray.  It is their honor and they refuse to relinquish it to disaster.  In so doing, they have been a calming influence on the world.

Here in the United States, by contrast, we watch as college students, enraged by some perceived affront, jump atop an innocent bystanders car and completely destroy it.  We watch union teachers in Wisconsin drag first grade students into the capital rotunda and lead them in anti-government and pro-union chants.  Lenin would be so proud.  Honor has been replaced with opportunism and relativism.   Standards are manipulated to accommodate the situation rather than situations being judged by an unchanging standard.  Our society believes itself far too sophisticated to be judged by an overriding moral standard that is a sounding board for good behavior.  So our nation’s moral compass continues to vacillate from crisis to crisis.

If we as Americans wish to face uncertain futures with the same strength exemplified by the Japanese, we must reestablish our strong family units.  We must do this in the face of the inevitable mockery that will come from the Hollywood, social and media elites.  Our strength does not come from government.  The strength of a nation will always be God and family.