Category Politics

Oct 10 2011

Amazing

Amazing!

 

A man will protect the things he values.  A people will defend the integrity of the things they revere.  The people of Maine have watched in incredulous dismay as the very things important to them have been flippantly tossed and maneuvered like so many pawns on a game table. Their leaders’ behavior has been a stark juxtaposition to the desires of Maine people.

“Restore integrity to the Democracy we so treasure” was a cry and demand sent to our political leaders.  Now efforts have been made to ensure the validity of the voting process.  Laws were passed to relieve the unnecessary workload of clerks and registrars.  But some have cried foul seeming to prefer the cloak of ambiguity.  While some would say that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, others seem to think that the pound of cure provides much needed job security for the various and sundry governmental regulatory investigative agencies.

It is ironic indeed that an individual wishing to purchase a bottle of whiskey or a pack of cigarettes has to prove that he qualifies to participate in the purchase of these socially acceptable vices.  These laws were put into effect to relieve the pressure on the poor clerk at the local convenience store who has to decide whether this customer has satisfied the legal adherence to purchase these products.  Keen to the uncomfortable responsibility that weighs upon the cashier who has to “make the call”, Laws were enacted that demanded verification of a purchaser’s right to purchase these products; thus, the integrity of the system was hoped to be maintained and only legal buyers could buy.  It is amazing to see that some hold the purchase of a bottle of whiskey or a pack of cigarettes in higher regard than the maintenance of the integrity of our Democratic system.

It is sad to read that a representative of the people would so callously use his constituents as a political battering ram against an opponent.  In Allagash, Senator Troy Jackson is furious that Governor LePage has not meet with him on the Senator’s timetable.  Residents of Maine would like to gently remind Mr. Jackson that Governor Lepage is Governor for the whole State of Maine and runs a pretty tight schedule.  The Governor has made two attempts to meet with the Senator.  Mr. Jackson’s most recent rant, fuming that he could not schedule a meeting with the Governor to address the lack of work because they were….working, certainly gives fellow Mainers, those who aren’t working, pause.

No one, especially not the Governor, has ever denied that the logging industry needs to recover if Maine is to recover.  But, sadly for the people of Allagash, some leaders are more concerned with using their unfortunate situations as a thinly veiled opportunity to try and embarrass a political opponent rather than find solutions.  The loggers of the Allagash may find it better to sidestep the unsightly mess of Senator Jackson’s temper tantrums and meet the Governor themselves.

Oct 3 2011

Oops

Oops!

 

Readers of this column may be taken aback that this columnist would immediately delve into controversy with this title.  Perhaps no word has triggered so much debate as to the when, where, why and how that definitively defines an “oops”.  Is it that scrumptious honey glazed spiral ham you so graciously brought to your neighbor’s celebration dinner for their son’s Bar Mitzvah?  Or is it wearing your favorite Peyton Manning jersey to an exclusive tour of Gillette stadium by Robert Kraft?  How about that date with your dream hottie, who spends the whole night peppering you with questions about your younger brother?  Ah, ever the eternal nagging question.  What is an “oops”?  Well, the leaders of the Democrat Party and their allies have been kind enough in recent weeks to give some much needed clarity to this highly contentious and, yes, confusing issue.

The recent almost religious fixation with green energy from the Democrat Party has driven the nation deeper and deeper into the red.  More than half a billion dollars was awarded to one business, Solyndra.  This is, well was, a solar panel company which had a brilliant business model of producing solar units at a production cost of  $6 per unit and selling them at $3 per unit.  You know I’m just a logger turned construction guy but even I can tell that’s probably not a good business model to work from….probably….just saying.  Anyway, no surprise that Solyndra along with a myriad of other green energy companies created a log jam at the President’s door at the advent of the last stimulus engorgement bemoaning the fact that their businesses could not survive or even get off the ground without an infusement of tax dollars.  In a normal world, at this point a government would remind these businesses that government does not pick winners and losers.  If their business cannot withstand the scrutiny of the free market, it is not worthy to stand in the free market.  But we are in the new normal.  We have hope and change.

Solyndra convinced the Obama administration that building units for $6 and selling them at $3 is new cutting-edge business and, not to worry, losing money at a $3 per unit clip is indeed a safe and secure way for the taxpayers to realize a return on their precious hard earned funds.   One company alone was given more supposed job creating stimulus dollars than 35 States combined received for “shovel ready” jobs.  Then this company went bankrupt, the money disappeared and no one is talking.  That’s a colossal “oops”!

Or is it?  Somehow the name Rahm Emmanuel keeps popping up intertwined with all of this.  The owners of many of these green energy, cutting-edge, now-over-the-edge businesses are major Democrat donors.   Billions of dollars are funneled or given (did I say funneled? Oops) to these businesses and few weeks later they go belly up, bankrupt.  And the money disappears.  Oh, and all the workers who are not so stimulated as they are now out of work are being given tax payer funded “trade adjustment assistance”.  More money, as if half a billion wasn’t enough.

You know, in some sectors of society, say like the underworld of Chicago for an example, a business that is created to do nothing but lose money is called a front for the ….well, you know.  Oops!  Did I say that?  Oh, yes I did!  And there is more to come in the “Oops Saga” -both in Washington and right here in Maine.  See you next week!

Sep 20 2011

On the Lemmings March

On the lemmings march

 

They tramp

They tromp

They fit and fuss and stomp

 

They call for this

Protest for that

To dodge the calls to stay on track

 

With jobs a must

It’s jobs or bust

The answer? One more stimulus

 

When the people do say, “but,

How to pay for all this glut?”

They smile and say,  “There is a way”

“We’ll tax your bony butt.”

They cry,

 

“On, on and on the lemmings march

Be not deterred

From what we’ve heard

Ignore the damage we’ve incurred

Despite the fright

The nations plight

We’ll game the same

From frame to blame

We have the nation’s wealth to parch

Here on the lemmings’ march”

 

A scheme

For green

Hid by a solar dream

 

So now we see

A bankruptcy

A half a bill passed out for free

 

What jobs? You sigh

For you and I

There’s plenty for the FBI

 

When the people say, “No more.

Your record here is poor.”

They say, “You bet, but don’t you fret.

We’re funding fifteen more.”

They shout,

 

“On, on and on the lemmings march

Be not deterred

From what we’ve heard

Ignore the damage we’ve incurred

Despite the fright

The nations plight

We’ll game the same

From frame to blame

We have the nation’s wealth to parch

Here on the lemmings’ march”

 

With no one the wiser

Save maybe the Kaiser

Money keeps drifting

A political gifting

Through channels unchecked

No accident, you bet

All will march by

Without a hue or a cry

And do as they’re told

With integrity sold

They wait for the shout

For the citizens to flout

They march,

 

“On, on and on the lemmings march

Be not deterred

From what we’ve heard

Ignore the damage we’ve incurred

Despite the fright

The nations plight

We’ll game the same

From frame to blame

We have the nation’s wealth to parch

Here on the lemmings’ march”

On, on and on the lemmings march….

Sep 16 2011

What Emily hates

What Emily hates

 

The tender shoots of young job growth are beginning to break through the volcanic ash, which is the residue of the 40-year liberal scorching of the business landscape of Maine.  Democrats are now faced with the stark realization that the first steps the LePage administration have made towards making Maine palatable to business again are working.  Despite the work of Emily Cain’s “Party of No” and their obstructionist moderate allies in the Republican Party, the effects of a pro-jobs Governor on Maine’s business climate has been quickly evident as we discussed last week.  This did not sit well with the minority party.  This was no more evident than through the words of the Democrat leader Emily Cain.

After the legislature had passed an admittedly imperfect budget (it was much too large for a conservative), Ms. Cain told the media emphatically that she and her Caucus “just hated these tax cuts, just hated them!” This after moderates had helped to grant the Democrats concessions beyond the Governor’s liking.  This is just a reminder that a Democrat’s 40-year definition of bi-partisan is “do everything our way”.  It seems those tax cuts Emily hates are sending a message, both to entrepreneurs within the state and without, that Maine is truly open for business.

But why does Emily hate them so? Could it be that the advent of job growth, prosperity and the independence it brings signals the end to the strangle hold the Democrat party has held upon the futures of the people of Maine?  With more of their own money left in their pockets to spend and save for their own future, residents will begin to feel that heady sense of accomplishment that comes from providing ones own needs from the fruit of ones own labor.   Instead, Ms. Cain seems to prefer we remain in the Democrat’s pattern of choice that has the people being herded into entitlement systems like so many cattle. Back, she wails, to the dependence on big Democrat government to get us through the endless meager years under the grey drab famine of socialism.

Is this why she hates tax cuts so?  Perhaps, by extension, she hates the inevitable fiscal independence prosperity will bring to Mainers?  The people will begin to realize this truth.  They don’t need government.  Government needs them.  Maybe it is the great sense of satisfaction a young businessperson can feel by growing a business that they can pass on to their young ones that she hates so much?  Or maybe its that sense of calm that comes to a family when they know there is enough work to pay the bills and even get ahead that she takes exception to?  One thing we know for sure, Emily Cain hates tax cuts.   She “just hates them”.

Simply put, tax cuts give the people’s money back to the people.  Tax cuts show businesses we are serious about bringing them back to Maine.  Tax cuts are the tried and proven way to fix an economy.  Now Emily Cain, how could you hate a thing like that?  We the people don’t.