The Islamic Challange to Freedom

Just because you can’t see it doesn’t mean it isn’t there. Just because the news media or the government doesn’t bring it up doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist. In this case, I’m talking terrorism.

The Obama news media has been quiet of late about Islamic terrorism. For them terrorism is no longer newsworthy. Currently the big issue is the national budget, national debt, and inflation, all of which, according to the left, are problems caused by George Bush. But terrorism is still alive and killing innocents around the world.

Since January first this year to the end of March, Islamic terrorists have killed 2,063 non-combatants and injured 3,857. These are not random acts but are a part of a plan to destroy freedom throughout the world. They are designed to eliminate Christianity, Judaism, and all religious beliefs other than those of Islam. These attacks, and their intended outcome, are as direct an invasion on our country and civilization as have ever existed.

They are spreading throughout the world and are producing death and destruction on a scale unimaginable. To put the size of this Muslim massacre in proper perspective consider the countries being targeted: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Chechnya, Dagestan, Ethiopia, Egypt, Gaza, Germany, Great Britain, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Israel, Kurdistan, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, Russia, Somalia, the Sudan, Thailand, the United States, Turkey, Yemen, and this only in the first three months of 2011.

The terrorists were nondiscriminatory in choosing their victims: twenty-three parishioners incinerated by a Shahid suicide bomb attack on a New Year's Day church mass; a folk healer murdered by Islamists; hardliners attacked a rival mosque and shot four people to death; the Taliban decapitated a hostage with a knife; a regional governor was assassinated at a cafe for appealing on behalf of a Christian woman jailed for blasphemy; Islamic militants slit the throat of a Christian mother of four; a young French aid worker and his friend are kidnapped from a restaurant and murdered by al-Qaeda; children were among the victims when Muslims attacked a Christian village; Muslims hacked sixteen to death and burned their homes; a policeman boarded a train and opened fire on a group of elderly Christians while yelling “Allah Akbar.” A 71-year-old victim died on the scene; A young Buddhist math teacher was shot three times in the head by Islamic terrorists; eighteen people on a bus were torn apart by fundamentalist bombers; a woman and daughter were among six Christian villagers hacked to death in the middle of the night during two separate Muslim raids; nine Buddhists returning from a hunting trip were blown to smithereens by Muslim bombers; Muslim raiders invaded four Christian villages and hacked fourteen people to death in their own homes.

Our political leaders accept the murderers of 2,752 civilians by Islamic terrorists at the 9/11 bombings, and have offered apologies to Muslims for the “provocations” committed by the United States which “prompted” those murders. Despite of the fact that deaths at the World Trade Center were 500 greater than those at Pearl Harbor in 1941, Obama and his administration have not made a commitment to capture and punish those responsible for terrorist attacks against the United States. Obama apologized for the attitude of the United States which, he suggests, was ultimately responsible for Muslim actions against United States sovereign territory both at home and abroad.

The people of the United States fail to understand that Islamic attacks around the world, as well as on the United States, are not the result of a group of intermittent radicals. Islamic leaders have been trying to overthrow world governments and religion since the fourth century. Their ideology, beliefs, and tactics, have not changed. Their objective is world rule. Their tactics are murder, terror, and the elimination of all religious belief other than that of Islam.

It is estimated that by 2020 fully one quarter of the world population will consist of Islamic believers, that Europe will be controlled by Islamic law, ruled by Muslim governments.

The United States refuses to recognize the problem. It has failed to learn from past history. The Koran spells out Islamic objectives and tactics, clearly defining the means of accomplishing both.

The lesson of Adolph Hitler has been wasted. His book Mein Kampf defined his plans for the conquest of the world, laid out the Holocaust, the invasion of the Soviet Union, all of it. But nobody listened. The result of that was World War II. The result of not believing what is written in the Koran will lead to a more disastrous end, the end of freedom and liberty in the United States of America and world wide as well.

Our country, freedom, and lives are at stake from a murderous religious cult, Islam, and its Muslim followers. Make no mistake about it. Islam is the enemy. Muslims are the soldiers. The Koran demands the death of all people who do not profess Islam. There can be no doubt as to the goals of Islam, the destruction of the United States and what it stands for and terrorism is the method. The facts are clear. It is not possible to be a Muslim and an free American at the same time.

We are losing our country. Contributing to the ignorance of the American citizen about Islam and its Muslim brotherhood are the American education system which teaches political correctness in place of history, politicians who care more for power than responsibility, civil servants who care more for financial gain than freedom, and Americans who trade liberty to get on the public dole, traitors all.

Not all the propaganda from Washington, the teleprompter speeches from Obama, the court decisions permitting acts by Muslims which are forbidden to United States citizens, nor legislation from the Congress which daily weakens our security and limits our freedom, can change the fact that we are losing our country, our freedom, and our heritage to Islamic Muslims.

The American people haven’t learned from past experience. They lost the ability to think for themselves. Years of political correctness have lead them to believe that Muslims and Islam are just another sort-of religion. Get real. You and your freedom are in danger. Prepare for the religious war which will be fought on American soil.

More Americans Work For Government Than Manufacturing, Farming, Fishing, Forestry, Mining, Utilities — Combined

If you want to understand better why so many states—from New York to Wisconsin to California—are teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, consider this depressing statistic: Today in America there are nearly twice as many people working for the government (22.5 million) than in all of manufacturing (11.5 million). This is an almost exact reversal of the situation in 1960, when there were 15 million workers in manufacturing and 8.7 million collecting a paycheck from the government.

It gets worse. More Americans work for the government than work in construction, farming, fishing, forestry, manufacturing, mining and utilities combined. We have moved decisively from a nation of makers to a nation of takers. Nearly half of the $2.2 trillion cost of state and local governments is the $1 trillion-a-year tab for pay and benefits of state and local employees. Is it any wonder that so many states and cities cannot pay their bills?

Every state in America today except for two—Indiana and Wisconsin—has more government workers on the payroll than people manufacturing industrial goods. Consider California, which has the highest budget deficit in the history of the states. The not-so Golden State now has an incredible 2.4 million government employees—twice as many as people at work in manufacturing. New Jersey has just under two-and-a-half as many government employees as manufacturers. Florida’s ratio is more than 3 to 1. So is New York’s.

Even Michigan, at one time the auto capital of the world, and Pennsylvania, once the steel capital, have more government bureaucrats than people making things. The leaders in government hiring are Wyoming and New Mexico, which have hired more than six government workers for every manufacturing worker.

Now it is certainly true that many states have not typically been home to traditional manufacturing operations. Iowa and Nebraska are farm states, for example. But in those states, there are at least five times more government workers than farmers. West Virginia is the mining capital of the world, yet it has at least three times more government workers than miners. New York is the financial capital of the world—at least for now. That sector employs roughly 670,000 New Yorkers. That’s less than half of the state’s 1.48 million government employees.

Don’t expect a reversal of this trend anytime soon. Surveys of college graduates are finding that more and more of our top minds want to work for the government. Why? Because in recent years only government agencies have been hiring, and because the offer of near lifetime security is highly valued in these times of economic turbulence. When 23-year-olds aren’t willing to take career risks, we have a real problem on our hands. Sadly, we could end up with a generation of Americans who want to work at the Department of Motor Vehicles.

The employment trends described here are explained in part by hugely beneficial productivity improvements in such traditional industries as farming, manufacturing, financial services and telecommunications. These produce far more output per worker than in the past. The typical farmer, for example, is today at least three times more productive than in 1950.

Where are the productivity gains in government? Consider a core function of state and local governments: schools. Over the period 1970-2005, school spending per pupil, adjusted for inflation, doubled, while standardized achievement test scores were flat. Over roughly that same time period, public-school employment doubled per student, according to a study by researchers at the University of Washington. That is what economists call negative productivity.

But education is an industry where we measure performance backwards: We gauge school performance not by outputs, but by inputs. If quality falls, we say we didn’t pay teachers enough or we need smaller class sizes or newer schools. If education had undergone the same productivity revolution that manufacturing has, we would have half as many educators, smaller school budgets, and higher graduation rates and test scores.

The same is true of almost all other government services. Mass transit spends more and more every year and yet a much smaller share of Americans use trains and buses today than in past decades. One way that private companies spur productivity is by firing underperforming employees and rewarding excellence. In government employment, tenure for teachers and near lifetime employment for other civil servants shields workers from this basic system of reward and punishment. It is a system that breeds mediocrity, which is what we’ve gotten.

Most reasonable steps to restrain public-sector employment costs are smothered by the unions. Study after study has shown that states and cities could shave 20% to 40% off the cost of many services—fire fighting, public transportation, garbage collection, administrative functions, even prison operations—through competitive contracting to private providers. But unions have blocked many of those efforts. Public employees maintain that they are underpaid relative to equally qualified private-sector workers, yet they are deathly afraid of competitive bidding for government services.

President Obama says we have to retool our economy to “win the future.” The only way to do that is to grow the economy that makes things, not the sector that takes things.

(Reprinted by permission of Investmentwatch, http://investmentwatchblog.com)
(Origionally Published April 1, 2011)

New Philadelphia Airport Restaurant Lease Transfer Creates New Questions

When will the City start following the rules? The latest of the Administration’s debacles appears in the Times-Reporter article of April 6, 2011, “Airport restaurant’s lease to be discussed.”

According to the article, a special Council meeting will be held on Thursday, April 7, at 6 p.m., in City Council chambers to discuss the Perfect Landing Restaurant at New Philadelphia airport. There is some confusion, according to Council President Joel Day, about the lease agreement between Holly Nelson of the Oh Holly Corporation, which holds the lease on the restaurant building, and Calvin Schwartz of Hootie Bear Limited.

It appears that Nelson, for reasons yet undetermined, has ended her lease agreement with the City. In some mysterious way Schwartz has assumed the lease. For the past few weeks, Schwartz has been remodeling the restaurant. Information about this change of lease holders has created a number of questions. As Day put it, there is “a lot of misinformation” and “some council members are hearing things about the way the situation has been handled.” His solution? An executive session to discuss the matter on April 7.

This recent inept handling of the City’s business by the Administration and Council President resulted in a call by Mayor Taylor for an executive session to discuss the problem. An executive session is one which is closed to the public. The matters for which City Council can go into an executive session are strictly limited by Ohio Revised Code . The discussion of such items as the lease between the City and Oh Holly Corporation does not fall under R.C. 121.22. (http://codes.ohio.gov/orc/121.22).

When this situation first came to light in the March 14 Council meeting, I asked the Law Director’s office for copies of the last two lease contracts between the City and Oh Holly. While I did not talk directly with Michael Johnson, I left a message with one of his clerks. Some two weeks after, in a short discussion with the Law Director, I was told that the lease contracts would be sent shortly. As of this writing, I haven’t seen hide nor hair of them. Seems strange that the Law Director Johnson, who is responsible for representing the City in such matters is hesitant, or reluctant, to provide such public information to those who ask.

City Law Director Johnson is quoted in the Times-Reporter that Oh Holly could assign its lease to another company with city approval and “the city is required to consent unless there is a substantial reason to not consent.” There is something missing in this statement and that’s the part about obtaining written consent from the City. Since the agreement between Oh Holly and the City of New Philadelphia was approved by legislation by City Council, it requires City Council approval for any revision to that agreement. It is obvious that such approval was never granted.

There is no question that City Council was not informed, a fact supported by the desire of Day to have an emergency meeting to get answers. Rumor, from sources outside the City Administration, indicate that the news of this “transfer” of the lease to Hootie Bear may have come as a surprise to the Mayor as well.

Who made the decision to improperly transfer the lease from Oh Holly to Hootie Bear? Mayor Taylor? Service Director Zucal? Law Director Johnson? They are the only ones who have direct contact with Oh Holly and Hootie Bear.

Who gave permission to Hootie Bear to remodel the restaurant if they are not the lease holders?

Why was City Council not informed until after the fact that Hootie Bear was taking over the restaurant management?

How much money was owed by Oh Holly to the City, or visa versa, and what became of those funds?

Why is an executive meeting being called to discuss this highly questionable situation other than to hide the true facts from the public? Who is being protected?

Why does City Council not demand public hearings on issues which are in the public interest instead of continuing the use of secret, anti-Sunshine Law meetings to hide the City’s business from public scrutiny?

Is this another reason to question the integrity of New Philadelphia’s Administrative and Legislative procedures? Why must the City operate behind closed doors? What are they hiding?

Is the Perfect Landing lease transfer another part of a questionable trend in City government?

New Philadelphia Gas Aggregation Letter Questioned

A recent letter from Michael Taylor, Mayor of New Philadelphia, urges city residents to sign a contract with Constellation Energy which will lock them into a two year contract for natural gas. Before you do anything read it all and understand it before you make any commitment. It is a strange document to come from a public official and raises questions that beg to be answered.

The implication is that the users of natural gas for heating, hot water, and cooking will save money should they buy into the Constellation program. This is not necessarily true. To a natural gas buyer using a supplier which charges more per cubic foot of gas than Constellation, the price Constellation is offering is a good deal. But Constellation’s price is not the least expensive available.

First, check to find out what going prices are available. Two sites on the Internet, http://www.puco.ohio.gov and http://www.pickocc.org, will give you prices which are being charged by the gas suppliers which supply consumers in New Philadelphia. A comparison of prices will expose quite a variance.

All suppliers of natural gas pay the same amount per thousand cubic feet, the price set by the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX). This is the exchange in New York City where natural gas is sold to all suppliers in the United States. The price on Thursday, March 31, 2011, was $4.27 per thousand cubic feet of gas. The supplier then adds his expenses and profit to this price.

The total charge then appears on your gas bill with an entry similar to "Gas Cost 13.4 MCF @ $6.59 $88.31", which is the charge for the gas delivered. Added to that is a 6.5% tax bringing the cost of the gas to $94.05. Delivery charges added to the cost of the gas by Dominion East Ohio which include a basic charge of $19.63, Usage-Based charges for delivery in the amount of $2.4149 per thousand cubic feet, and a 4.6044% tax on the distribution charges, all of which are added to the total bill. 30% of the monthly gas bill is made up of service charges and taxes.

With that in mind, when the letter you received from Mayor Taylor talks about a fixed rate of $5.89 per thousand cubic feet, it must be remembered that charge applies only to the cost of the gas delivered and is not the entire charge.

Questions have been raised as to the legitimacy of the letter sent by Mayor Taylor. The first line of the letter states the City of New Philadelphia has approved Constellation as the natural gas supplier for the city. This statement is misleading and suggests that other gas suppliers are not approved for distribution of gas within New Philadelphia. The Mayor has neither the right nor authority to approve or disapprove of any gas distributor operating within the city.

Use of the City logo on a sales pitch for Constellation is in bad taste as it indicates the backing of the City to a commercial enterprise.

Do not be misled by a letter which does not include signatures of all principle parties involved in any proposed business deal. Constellation did not sign the promotion letter. By his lone signature Mayor Taylor accepts full responsibility for the letter’s contents, offers, and promises. Constellation accepts no responsibility for the contents of the letter nor of the attachments.

It is amazing that the Mayor would endorse one particular competitive business operating in the City to the detriment of others. His responsibility is to provide a good business climate to all enterprises which choose to provide goods and services to New Philadelphia citizens.

The conditions of this offer contained in the materials of this mailing are not consistent.

On one hand cancellation of the contract with Constellation is said to be possible at any time, but the contract itself requires a 30 day written notice.

An attachment to the Mayor’s letter states “you have the ability to cancel the Agreement at any time without penalty.” However, the contract states “You may terminate this Agreement without penalty if you relocate outside the service territory of the Utility.” The long and the short of that is that if the contract is signed there will be a termination charge if you do not move out of Constellation’s service area.

If a waver of the early termination charge is not in the contract, oral agreements have no validity. A signed contract always rules over verbal promises. As with any contract, be careful before you commit. Once signed, only the contract is binding. Oral promises are written on the wind. There is no recourse once you have put your name to paper. Be careful. Seek advice. Do the research. It is your money. Be certain you fully understand what you are agreeing to before signing the required long term contract with Constellation.

What was the reason that Mayor Taylor, Service Director Zucal, and Councilman Zucal, pressed so hard for a gas aggregation program in New Philadelphia? Why was an outside broker, Buckeye Energy, chosen to drive this project? Why was Buckeye Energy retained as the City’s broker after its incompetence was displayed when its first recommendation of a supplier was one involved in an active legal action with New Philadelphia? Why was Constellation chosen by the city when it was fined millions of dollars by the federal government because of illegal activities in the supply of natural gas? Questions unanswered.

Is there more to this agreement between the City, the broker, and the supplier than we imagine?

(Editor’s Note: For background articles see blogs “New Philadelphia Gas Supplier Agreement Questioned”, 12/8/2010, and “New Philadelphia Committee Mishandles Gas Aggregation Proposal”, 12/22/2010.)