Feb 5 2010

“PROFESSING TO BE WISE, THEY BECAME FOOLS”

The title of this column is a quote from the Bible. (Across the State of Maine liberals are fainting with horror. “There has been a disturbance in the Force,” they cry.) No, it’s just the Apostle Paul berating the Romans who abandoned the worship of God for the worship of man, birds, four footed animals, and creeping things. I’m sure none of us know any liberals that would do that, right? (sarcasm alert) Historians agree that the debauchery so prevalent in both secular and Christian Roman society, that Paul railed against, would be the single largest contributing factor to the decay and fall of the greatest empire the world has ever known.

We have been assured by elitists that a modern society such as ours is immune to such short sightedness. Recent speeches from noted Democrats would cause one to wonder. Remember, wisdom is the ability to view history, and learn from it’s mistakes. The glaring evidence points to the fact that Democrats’ only connection to history is the blind zealous desire to replicate its folly.

For years Democrats have touted their leftist environmental laws as necessary to protect the pristine natural beauty of Maine. We’ve been assured that if we except the menagerie of tax-funded environmental initiatives that, in return, we would see the preservation of Maine’s gorgeous landscape for generations to come. Environmentalists long have demanded that they alone be entrusted with the sacred duty of safeguarding Maine’s natural treasures from the erosive influence of the “human footprint”. Their self validated qualification for this responsibility is a possession of a keener understanding of the ways of nature.

Now, we are presented with the necessity of green energy. It is inevitable we are told. We have to keep up with new horizons. It is progress after all. So slowly but surely wind mills are popping up all over our “pristine” Maine landscape.

Naturalists want us all to breathe a sigh of relief that the regulatory restrictions they imposed to chase business out of Maine have liberated us from all those cumbersome jobs. In its place is …. wind energy, otherwise known as, liberals in debate. Governor Baldacci has promised it has the “potential” to produce jobs by 2030. I’m just thankful Mainers are patient enough to wait until 2030 for a job. (yeah, another sarcasm alert.)

It’s fitting that the Environmentalist answer to job creation and the protection of nature is a giant behemoth glaring white, slap you in the face brilliant white, did I say bright white, wind mill. Lots of them dotting the Maine landscape and coastline. We know all those Maine businesses were awful terrible job providing establishments, but at least they were at building structure height within town limits. What the environmentalists give us is so huge it needs blinking lights to keep small aircraft from flying into it. Try to blend that into the fall foliage. If environmentalist are one thing consistent, they are hypocrites. This is the environmental protection they promised for our tax dollars; a landscape covered with large “pristine” white windmills.

Let’s go a little farther south to where Governor Patrick is trying to stop the exodus of Massachusetts citizens by …. imposing new taxes. Can’t you hear the squeal of tires on I-93 north as families are turning around now that they can have a candy tax too? Or maybe it’s the cars accelerating.

The Democrats in Massachusetts are also planning to reintroduce a bill to give illegal immigrants free in state college tuition. Now that’s an inventive way to tap into the angst among the citizens. No wonder the population in Massachusetts has dwindled so much in the past 40 years that the State has lost four House seats.

Last but certainly not least, we have our President. In his mind numbing 70 minute State of Himself speech, the President rebuked the Congress, the Supreme Court, and the voting citizens for his inept lack of focus in the past year. He blamed all the problems of the country on George W. Bush and the lost decade. Wait!! What the.. What?!! He lost a decade, too!! President Obama, you have exponentially increased the federal deficit, caused unemployment to spiral out of control, given up on Middle East peace because it’s “too hard”, and now, on top of that, you’ve lost a decade to boot.

Mr. President, we can forgive a lot, but decades are pretty important to us. We demand you appoint a Decade Czar and find that poor little lost decade.

Feb 5 2010

Set Maine Free (The State of a Poor State)

Poverty has many faces; none of which are very pretty. It is certainly not “comfortable” as Governor Baldacci implies. Forty years of Democratic power in Augusta has coincided with an ever deepening economic downturn for our great State. Every year young families, who still doggedly live in Maine, weather another financially devastating winter. They toil feverishly through the short summer months in an effort to recover from the winter’s fiscal debilitation just in time to face a recurrence of its doom again. As leaf peepers crowd Maine’s roads in search of postcard like pictures of foliage, the vibrant deciduous colors only herald the coming yearly calamity to many a Maine resident’s family budget.

It is the sickening Maine cycle. Winter approaches again. The few affluent left in Maine batten down the hatches to the proverbial money tree and Maine’s young working future is left out in the cold shivering to survive. Governor Baldacci calls this our “comfortable past.” Excuse me, as I gag wretchedly with disgust.

The most glaring example of poverty was exemplified in the “State of the State” speech last week. In our Governor, we see the abject poverty of leadership.

For forty years the Democratic party has offered Maine nothing but weakness and lack of purpose with a complete disregard for the citizens of this State. Couple this with a stupefying arrogance that blinds these liberals to blatant dire consequences of the socialist policies they espouse. So we, the citizens, are stuck shielding ourselves from the cold winds of a perpetual fiscal winter. The Democrats are “comfortable” with this. We the people should not be.

Arthur Laffer in his “Rich States, Poor States” Economic Competiveness Index ranks Maine 47th of 50. Maine was listed as one of 10 “tax hells” by Money magazine. Mr. Laffer notes that socialism must necessarily have a “Berlin wall” to maintain enough citizens to support it. Maine does not have such a wall. Mainers have been voting their opinion of Maine’s tax policies in the form of a mass exodus of the State. A Party that once touted itself as the party of the worker is having a hard time explaining why workers are fleeing the effects of Democratic legislation in droves throughout the Northeast. It seems that only “trust fund” elites are “comfortable” with tax and spend Democrats.

The Governor “addressed” the need to utilize our natural resources to create jobs; in fact, he acknowledged a need for “burning urgency.” Mr. Baldacci warned that “we can not wait; too much is in the balance.” Then, with a straight face, he tells us that these new wind power initiatives will be online in 2020 and others in 2030. So much for “burning urgency.” We are assured that “in the birth of a new technology, it’s just a blink.” Governor, bill collectors don’t operate on “new technology” time. They won’t wait until 2030.

What, pray tell, was missing from the Baldacci Blarney on natural resources? Oh yes, natural gas in the Gulf of Maine. He wants us to wait until 2030 for new technology, with its effectiveness still in question (but its just a blink), while the Governor conveniently omits the one natural resource we know is there; natural gas. No, not the Governor’s speech. The natural resource out in the Gulf of Maine waiting for us to tap into and create jobs, revenue, stability…..Oh, OK…. Lets just wait for 2030.…..altogether now….Let’s blink.

Ah, and of course, he talked about education. He failed to mention that we spend per student in the top one-third of the country while we perform in the bottom one-third of the country. Oh great! The Governor’s answer?! Let’s spend more money!! How is that for fiscal sanity? Forthwith, the terms Democrat and sanity should not be used in the same sentence with the expectation of compatibility.

Sarcasm aside, fellow Mainers, we must acknowledge that our State has been under the binding rule of Democrats for forty years and have been left with nothing but the shackles of malaise and mediocrity. The only answer to this is for the citizens to arise, unify, and revolt by voting conservative Republicans into power into 2010.

I do stand in agreement with the Governor on these points. We as the citizenry need to “come together to say enough, to put our foot down, and put an end to the circumstances that have held our people and our economy hostage.” Furthermore, Governor, I can agree that “I am not sullen or deterred by the road ahead” for as I look at the road ahead I see a large exit sign with your name on it and, hopefully, your Party. Then the Conservatives can move ahead unfettered by your liberal misguidance and, once again, bring Maine back to financial stability.

Jan 22 2010

This Land is our Land Part 2

This columnist has come to realize that quoting from any portion of legislation has the potential to devastate one’s word count with extreme prejudice. In addition, this writer has developed a strong empathy for those who approach the workings of Augusta with a look of wild-eyed terror. A simple shy glance at the legal papyri that liberals pass with indifferent regularity is enough to scare the proverbial “legislation” out of anybody.

Rural Maine faces a perfect storm, if you will, of liberal forces converging upon it with one singular purpose in mind; a cleansing of all traces of human industry in the Northeast regions. They wish to create a “wildland”. No roads. No homes. No people.

Why Maine? Simply put, Maine offers the easiest legislative road to success. It’s called a joint committee. It’s not for medicinal purposes either. This committee system was designed to “streamline” the legislative process. Anyone who has studied government at any length will come to a quick realization that “streamlined legislation” is about as appealing as a large pregnant bovine with a bad case of diarrhea.

Our founding fathers knew the worst thing for a society was an “efficient” government. They did not want government to be a well oiled machine. So they installed checks and balances. Things like separate committees for separate Houses. This would insure that the minority would still have a way to stall bad legislation. But our liberal friends in Augusta also knew this would inhibit legislation. They wanted an “efficient” government to speed the process of legislation.

So Augusta instituted the joint committee system. One committee for both Houses and all legislation. Since then, Enviro-leftist have passed a slew of leftwing zealot environmentalist “streamlined legislation”. A visit to the DEP website will reveal a never ending list of such “streamlined legislation” most of which has been repealed because they stink so bad.

In last weeks column we examined the fact that the ambiguous MNRPA has been a breeding ground for a never ending compounding legislation. Take for instance, Maine’s Significant Vernal Pool legislation. Now this is “streamlined legislation” if ever one has been smelt. Vernal pools are defined as “ephemeral pools that fill with spring rain water and generally dry by summer’s end”. At least that’s one definition. To this simple hick from the sticks, that sounds like nice fancy way to say mud puddle.

Heaven forbid a expectant frog, who couldn’t make the birthing pond down the way, stops at a mud puddle in your dooryard and in her last throes of labor deposit’s a gelatos mound of “endangered” tadpoles in your mud puddle. You, friend, have just had your mud puddle elevated to “significant”, your dooryard is now a “fragile habitat”, and….DEP wants your land….to protect those defenseless tadpoles. See how it works. No, we didn’t see. That is the problem.

All over this State, under the guise of environmental protection, the government is taking private land in the name of a bug, frog, or salamander. The biggest travesty is that we are letting them.

Professor Jon Reisman has studied this issue relentlessly and has much to say about it. In a speech in Albany, N.Y., Reisman addressed the Property Rights Foundation of America. He chillingly predicts that within 20 years rural eastern Maine to be a “wildland” with no people, roads, or economic activity. While his prediction is startling to be sure, it is not without merit. We see even Republican Snowe and Collins supporting these liberal initiatives to create a Northeast Wildland.

Liberals claim this Vernal Pool legislation will create jobs. It seems to this writer that standing around a mud puddle performing a rain dance in a desperate plea for a job extension is somewhat tenuous at best. It’s sure not what a Mainer would call job security.

The Vernal pool campers want more and stricter legislation on vernal pools citing the need to address the different sizes of vernal pools. Like we didn’t know that mud puddles come in different sizes. These “studies” are done through government grants, of course…..taxpayer funded government grants….of course. Seems that by studying vernal pools they are able to learn about the struggles of urbanization …..yeah boy?!……What the……?!…..What in the…..?! People….can anybody say corruption!!!

Well, I’ve had it!! If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. I’ve decided to apply for a government grant….to study moose drool. Why? Do I need a reason? Well, it’s to better understand the mind of a terrorist….oh, oops,…sorry, can’t say that word.

Jan 19 2010

This Land is our Land Part 1

“The Legislature finds and declares that the State’s rivers and streams, great ponds, fragile mountain areas, freshwater wetlands, significant wildlife habitat, coastal wetlands and coastal sand dune systems are resources of State significance. These resources have great scenic beauty and unique characteristics, unsurpassed recreational, cultural, historical and environmental value of present and future benefit to the citizens of the State and that uses are causing the rapid degradation and, in some cases, the destruction of these critical resources, producing significant adverse economic and environmental impacts and threatening the health, safety, and general welfare of the citizens of the State.”

What you have just read is a confluence of ambiguity, also known as, a great gathering of nothing (or liberal legislation), but, a strategic nothing to be sure. From the Maine Natural Resources Protection Act (MNRPA), which was passed in the early 1990’s, has emerged a myriad of legislative acts which have served to lace the State with innumerable layers of constrictive regulatory bands effectively decimating our economy.

Because the MNRPA was written with such fluid ambiguous language, it’s lack of definitive parameters is now the fertile seedbed to every legislative manipulation to further “protect” any minutia of a microscopic organism discovered in a environmentalist daydream. Can anyone say job security?

Certainly not for the working men and women of Maine, but it definitely has been a boon for the environmentalist movement which largely functions off taxpayer funded government grants. How ingenious of liberal Democrats to craft legislation which is a veritable sugar tree of taxpayer handouts. For elitist entitlement seekers, simply creating a plausible endangerment for some micro-ecosystem will insure a tax funded research project with the inevitable tax hike as a consequence.

It’s more than ironic that the very people who are paying for this “research” bear the fiscal brunt of the findings. It’s no wonder that the size of Government is growing faster than the private sector; in fact, it’s safe to say that, in Maine, the private sector is shrinking. Overtaxed and under appreciated, Maine’s workers, our financial strength, has been bolting for greener pastures for some time now. As the environmental screws tighten, the speed of the exodus increases.

One would think that the leftist, out of self preservation, would see the handwriting on the wall and opt for a more common sense approach to the governance of our natural resources. That grasp of reality seems to be just beyond Augusta’s fingertips. So with our natural resources locked away out of our reach and many of our fellow Mainers leaving the State in search of a job, who is going to fund all the environmental mandates? With no funds to function and no citizens left to protect the environment from, will there be a future for the DEP?……. Just wondering…..a little.

But in the here and now, the enviro-leftist laws from Augusta have increasingly wedged a divide between the Northeast and the Southwest regions of Maine. A study by Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Maine, Kathleen Bell, showed that on many of the environmental regulatory issues, the Southwest part of the State voted favorable while the Northeast voted consistently against these measures. Interestingly, many of these regulatory laws have had more of an impact on the northeastern areas of the State.

One determent factor for the disparity in regional voting patterns given by Ms. Bell was the higher education of the South compared to the North. Really!! Well, La De Da!! Perhaps the study should have factored in the intellectually debilitating effect of liberal elitist arrogance or the impact of mind numbing self absorbed infatuation. Maybe the influence of free thinking common sense would be a better way to describe the thought process of hard working rural Mainers.

This points to the crux of the issue. Elitist snobs feel they know better how to run your land than you. Our State Government has exalted itself to landlord of the great State of Maine. But in a Government run by the people, even land that is “owned” by the Government still belongs to the people. The State has begun to make alarming grabs for private property under the guise of environmental protection. We must begin to demand that Augusta repeal back the legislative layers of this stinking rotten environmental onion until we can find a common sense balance between prosperity and the pristine beauty of Maine.