SMALL TOWN QUEEN REIGNS OVER 83000 OF US

"IS" congratulates Rayvn Stringfield, new Queen of Suffolk's largest festivel.  A top student in King Fork High School. I think back to the forties when twice as chairman of our  annual four day festival  I had to pick the Queen. In addition to the usual qualifications we could not allow a daughter of our Lion Club member compete. This alone potentially eliminated 50  high school girls. Nor would a girl with black skin even consider applying  for the  honor. I'm ashamed to say that in our town there were no people with black skin. It wasn't allowed by civic leaders. Nor could a black person passing though expect to be served in any resturant, or sleep in a motel. It could still be that way, we came south in 1972.

Even choosing between white girls was not easy. It is amazing how quick the pressure comes from parents, school teachers, politicians, etc.  Not beholden to any of them I picked whom I considered right for the job. I'd like to know how it was done here.

PLAIN ORDINARY LIES OR JUST ANOTHER OBAMA ERROR

As Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said earlier this year when federal judges first began to rule parts of the Health Law unconstitutional, “As recently as last week, the President said: ‘This law will lower premiums’, yet since its passage we continually hear the opposite: insurers across the country are raising premiums to cover the cost of all the new mandates they’ll have to comply with.

 Most Americans have opposed this bill from the start because they were skeptical of all the claims that were being made about what it would do. The process that was used to jam it through Congress made it even less popular. But the reality has been even worse than people feared. It violates the Constitution — which is reason enough to repeal it — it’s driving up premiums, increasing costs, and driving people off the plans they have. . . . Democrats made a lot of promises about this bill. Virtually every one has proved to be empty.”  Employers must pay these increasing costs, therefore no increase in wages or other benefits.

SO THIS IS WHERE OBAMA LEARNED THAT

“There are two ways to conquer and

enslave a nation.

One is by the sword. The other is by debt.”

John Adams 1826

A REAL EYE OPENER

 I have always  suspected that the Fast & Furious plot was a political scheme hatched to raise the public’s ire against legally held guns.  Just another one of Eric Holder’s botched political gambles I suspect but I hope this one sticks to him and forces him out of office!  But no, too many of the “Republicans” in Congress are no more supportive of conservative values and individual responsibility than are the Democrats.  The Republicans just want to get back in charge so that they can overspend and start diverting our treasury to their political supporters rather than watching the Democrats do the same thing to their own.

It’s amazing that the left gets to frame the debate in terms that invariably denigrate individual responsibility, gun ownership, property ownership, wealth building, the sanctity of innocent life as opposed to crying over the SOBs rightly placed on death row for praying on their own species, and people in “flyover country” who still believe in teaching our children fundamental values and principles that—yes—come from the bible, our Founding documents, and from our Judeo-Christian heritage.  And we allow it.

"IS" Staff

TICKETS ARE ONLY $6O

Here’s your chance to booze it up at the tax payer provided facility in the company of Suffolk’s elite, the most politically privileged classes of a society. No need for a designated driver, what cop in his right mind would approach anyone involved in this annual affair and suggest blowing into a machine, or walk a line this time of night especially if that person were attired in rented tux or formal gown, It just isn’t done if the event dispensing hard stuff is to foster any part of culture. After all, they are guilty only of a little fun while raising funds for those who, hopefully, will follow in their footsteps.

DON'T PASS THIS UP

Lovers of wine, beer, food and art can make themselves at home at the Art D’Vine fundraiser for the Suffolk Center for Cultural Arts.
The event, which is put on by the SCCA Foundation Board, will be held at the center at 7 p.m. Oct. 7. “It’s not only a wonderful time to socialize and have fun with members of the community and meet new people, but it’s fun,” said Susan Rawls, the co-chair for the event. “It’s just become one of the events that I look forward to every year, and so many other people do too.” The fifth annual Art D’Vine will feature a large wine selection with food pairings, a beer tasting, live music and both silent and live auctions. “It’s our major fundraiser for the center for the year,” Rawls said. “The reason we have this is to, of course, keep our building running. Our big goal is to keep our education department thriving.” She said the center hopes to raise as much as $75,000 to continue to provide arts classes for both children and adults.

from the suffollk news herald

IT HAS BEGUN

In the wake of Bin Laden's death, Radical Muslims have gone on a rampage in Southern California, killing anyone who's a legal US citizen. Police fear the death toll could reach as high as 12. I will keep you posted on future developments.

THE SPOTLIGHT IS ON

“The Scottish folk artist, who will play the season opener at the Suffolk Center for Cultural Arts next week, intentionally incorporates words and subject matter into his songs that nobody else has used in a song before. That from the SNH and it brings additional words to my mind, like squeezing nearly half a million of collected taxes and then expect them to pay for tickets at $35 to $45. and come early for dinner. Not exactly Times Square prices but high enough to keep even culture seekers from filling the seats.
“I do try to use language that isn’t in other songs,”  he said. “I try to write about subject material other people haven’t written about. There are a lot of words that never get to be in songs, and I think it’s unfair to them.” So said the season’s first star, a one man show.

Unfair to words that never get used in a song?  Now that is culture 

GOP BETTER WATCH OUT FOR AN END RUN

Democrats can still win the next election. If, for example, a strong run by a prominent anti-war leftist, such as Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich of Ohio or former Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, would expose Mr. Obama’s weakness, his plummeting popularity among the party’s base. Outside of blacks, key constituencies of the Democratic Party - feminists, labor unions, gays and lesbians, Hispanics and Jews - are frustrated with his performance. They hunger for change. That person is Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. A liberal candidate probably could win 37 percent, maybe even 40 percent of the vote, against Mr. Obama in Iowa or New Hampshire. Inexorable pressure would build for Mrs. Clinton to throw her hat into the ring, casting herself as the Democrats’ savior. If she were to run, she would beat Mr. Obama in a primary fight - thereby fundamentally altering the 2012 election landscape. The presidential campaign would be transformed from a probable Republican landslide to a horse race. A Hillary-Perry or Hillary-Romney face-off would  be easy for the GOP to lose.

mment

Class war at its best.

The folks who are getting the free stuff, don't like the folks who are paying for the free stuff,

Because the folks who are paying for the free stuff, can no longer afford to pay for both the free stuff and their own stuff,


And, the folks who are paying for the free stuff, want the free stuff to stop.

And the folks who are getting the free stuff, want even more free stuff on top of the free stuff they are already getting!

Now...

The people who are forcing the people who Pay for the free stuff,
have told the people who are RECEIVING the free stuff,
that the people who are PAYING for the free stuff,
are being mean, prejudiced, and racist.

So...

The people who are GETTING the free stuff, have been convinced they need to hate the people who are paying for the free stuff,

By the people who are forcing some people to pay for their free stuff and giving them the free stuff in the first place.

We have let the free stuff giving go on for so long that there are now more people getting free stuff than paying for the free stuff.

Now understand this. All great democracies have committed financial suicide somewhere between 200 and 250 years after being founded. The reason?

The voters figured out they could vote themselves money from the treasury by electing people who promised to give them money from the treasury in exchange for electing them.

BTW, the United States officially became a Republic in 1776, 235 years ago.

The number of people now getting free stuff outnumbers the people paying for the free stuff.

We have one chance to change that in 2012. Failure to change that essentially means the end of the United States we inherited. It wasn't perfect; it needed some change. But one Party thought tearing it down ("fundamental change" without explanation if I recall) was the answer!

ELECTION 2012 IS COMING. A Nation of Sheep Breeds a Government of Wolves! Take a Stand!!!

TALK TO YOUR CONGRESSMAN OR ELECT A NEW ONE.

---

-----   MEDICARE PREMIUM INCREASE

For those of you who are on Medicare, read the article below. It's a short but important that you probably haven't heard about in the mainstream news.

They will RAISE  the monthly price per person as scheduled by Obama's Plan.

.    

            Annual cost per person   

2011                        $1157

2012                        $1250   

2013                        $1442                  

2014                        $4548   that is nine grand plus

    

Welcome to Government By Spoiled Children!

So I read again that Congress is threatening to shut down the government because they can’t reach agreement over how to cover disaster response funding following a series of disasters this year--Joplin, Irene, Lee, etc. Republicans are willing to fund FEMA for what they can document needing but insist that the funds need to come out of existing programs. Democrats predictably argue that any unexpected expenses be covered by more borrowing and increasing the national debt and that they will shut down the govenment rather than pull a dime out of other programs! Sound only too familiar?

This is Congress today as we know it! They refuse to conduct the People's Business anymore because they are too busy playing partisan political games. Both Parties overspend like drug addicts and whenever the American public’s frustration generates more heat than Congress can ignore, Republicans pretend to start looking for areas to cut spending but always fail to sell even the most common sense cuts to the American Public. As their dancing partners, the Democrats invariably pull up the same critical areas of Government: Defense, Disaster Relief, Border Security, Social Security, and Medicare and frame the argument as if these are the ONLY places where funding cuts could POSSIBLY come from--just to guarantee the American public gets as irritated as possible! And it's no different at the State or municipal level folks. Remember Curtis at this year's City Council budget meeting? Paraphrasing because I don't have it in front of me, "We can't possibly make a change to any item of the city's budget without the whole house of cards falling down!" Right! Seriously???

As this charade takes place multiple times a year without effective actions to address the overspending and the lack of a rainy day fund in the first place, both Parties remain clueless to explain why public support for the Tea Party is exploding and why Tea Party supporters seem to be the only people with common sense! All I can say is that if the Republicans are really interested in cutting spending but are unable to convince the American public that there are HUNDREDS of places in the Federal, State, and municipal budgets across the country where the majority of spending is inefficient if not wasteful, going into programs that don’t work or aren’t even needed, or don't fall under the Constitutional responsibility of Government in the first place, the Republican leadership needs to be sacked and sent home! When the Democrats get away with saying that we can't cover emergency Disaster Recovery expenses by cutting wasteful or lower priority spending in countless other programs, and the Republicans are incapable of articulating the absurdity of such a position to the voters, none of these fools deserve to remain in Office. Cut their benefits and cushy retirement programs and send them all back to the private sector to figure out how people really decide between what’s necessary and what’s nice when they have only a set amount of money to work with.

This country desperately needs a Balanced Budget Amendment since the children we elect to represent us only know how to throw temper tantrums whenever We the People tell them we can’t afford everything they can think of!

JUST LIKE THAT

The Suffolk Planning Commission could have said “no” just as easy as they said "yes" and not approve a new floodplain plan. For crying out loud, as we used to say, if 554 homes are to be added to a flood zone and 700 being removed, what  technology were they using  back when they determined the original flood plain? Or have we since then been hit with earthquakes and a tsunami. Charles Jordan’s property lies in the flood zone in the new maps. He has hassled the Council  at every public meeting. “I stand before you today not in favor of this ordinance, because the maps are wrong and I can prove it.” So where is this going?

BE READY TO FIGHT THIS TRAVESTY

It is possible Suffolk city officials are well into devising plans to force home-owners with private wells to cough up fees or taxes for using ground water. Of course it matters not what you paid for drilling the well, or the cost of bringing water from 500 feet down to your home via piping, pumps and electric motors. It is easy for the powerful elected to ignore all but the fact that your water is free, while those without wells pay through the nose for it and sewers as well. Then there is the additional cost of maintaining a well. Somehow they will figure it is merely they are “going greener.”  Watch out for these people, you didn’t plan on paying for your trash pickup or being forced to recycle.  Officials might better study the opportunities to cut programs that aren’t working, aren’t constitutional, and not the government’s responsibility in the first PLACE.  Forget getting even more revenue from the public.       

  

I WAS RIGHT ABOUT THAT

I brought up the subject of recycling several times in my recent travels and the majority tells me they are unhappy with the additional stress and labor of being forced to comply. First off the color of the container is garish, in no way connected with nature, more with Disney Land or a Walmart birthday cake.. You cannot hide the damn thing. Twenty lashes to the city committee that chose the blue purple cow. If we are going green why are the containers blue? Most of us would paint ours a color that blends with nature, well we would if we were sure the crime would not include jail time. Unless you live in a castle there is no room inside your dwelling and two of those tubs side by each are the size of a third bathroom.
Here is how it works at our home. At the bottom of the five steps down to the garage are two medium size plastic trashcans, one labeled trash, the other, recyclable. From the top of the stairs  it is an easy shot with a can or bottle.  But paper seldom follows the flight plan in to the second barrel and requires an  occasional assist from others after. They, when full, must be hand-carried; transferred to the biggie, hell on older folks. In our late eighties it is a life change.

COMPUTER CRASH CAUSES DELAY

I imagine the crash was caused by the gentleman whose stuff seldom gets by us because of the insulting comments he  writes about a certain Councilman. It appears that truth means little in some of the lengthy diatribe. At any rate we were down a week so I went fishing. I managed to let large catfish drag two rods and reels comepletely off the dock before I could react. So maybe you have wondered why your comments weren't published until today.  We noticed one writer keeps changing his name, the one mentioned above.

We took the sick computer over to Express Solutions for quick service and got it in two days. And the price was right. Sorry about the time devoted to "IS", it was skimpy at best.

BLUE COW WOULD HAVE MADE A GOOD FOX HOLE

 Blue Cow would have served as a foxhole in World  War II. And where to put it. Short  women  can't open it  or pour in trash from a smaller container. My wife  hates the color  swearing it is purple, and has  no idea where to hide it. But there was a happy note attached to one of the four dumped off in our tiny subdivision and the owner stuffed it into his pocket. It referred to a way  to earn $25 each month for recycling. If you have one of these please tell us what it says.  I called him   and  he said he was checking it out on web. Did it really hint we could  make $25 while spending just spending seventeen?  Well, he just called back to say it is one of those make points deals,you won't get rich but you might become a better recycler. I'm getting flack from a son-in-law for having said I have never recycled. I wasn't bragging, just admitting green guilt. What I said long ago was that I'd never recycle until it meant many jobs for people. Now it does.                                                      RecyclingPerks       click on that  and you figure.                                                                                                                                          
                                                 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

THE WAY IT WAS AND STILL IS

Thoughts of the past during a different scene early Thursday morning when at least 500 Longshoremen and sympathizers stormed the Port of Longview and broke windows in the guard shack, according to Longview Police Chief Jim Duscha. As men wielding baseball bats and crowbars held six guards captive, others cut brake lines on boxcars and dumped grain, the chief said.
A freight train carrying 107 cars of corn from Splitrock, Minn., destined for the Longview port was vandalized, spilling grain from 72 of the freight cars onto the tracks, said Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway spokesman Gus Melonas. Oh yes,  the good  old  days. How to get and keep your job.

CONTINUING FOUNTAIN OF CASH

City Council ended efforts to build an emergency access road to the Hollywood neighborhood and a trail in the Eclipse community, saying both projects are becoming too expensive because of certain hardships.

Impossible, it could not have happened, Council, at the suggestion of someone stopped work on an emergency access road to Hollywood and multi-use trail up in Eclipse just because they were getting too expensive. Not impossible in Suffolk another $1,900,000 turned up in the books and they spent it without

discussion on other projects they considered more important. Actually the money was just dollars allotted to other projects but never spent. But it’s amazing how often and how much spendable dollars turn up now and then.

SLOPPY BOOKKEEPING

Here is an example of city government. They are flushed with pride when they bring out the silver shovels to celebrate the opening of a new tax  producing business.  Every dollar coming in counts when it appears our officials intends to spend them all. I’ll bet spender’s ears pricked up when the new assessor proclaimed that 35 of 46 organizations claiming the right to tax breaks have not filed for relief properly. It could mean that a closer look might result in kickbacks to the city spenders. Not just the current year, perhaps unfair tax breaks have been allowed for many years.  We can assume this “error” in qualifying is no different than breaking a law but which “party” is responsible?  Could that situation be why we suddenly acquired a new Assesssor?                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

MORE THAN LIKELY

I admit to never having recycled before today and I am nearly 87.  And knowing my wife as I do we have saved millions of gallons of clean fresh water. But that’s over now because there is no way she would toss out a glass or plastic can or bottle without washing or at least rinsing it. There will be no ketchup hiding in there or applesauce and I believe that idiosyncrasy is universal with women. So there is already an extra expense. I’m convinced both the Mayor and City Manager being distaff will also waste their time and water neatening up the used containers because not to could create threatening odors in the neighborhood.  Another thought disturbs me…how and who separates the 90- gallon mess at the plant? Unless you are a recycling nut the stuff goes in the blue cow on a daily basis. In our case we won’t be dragging the behemoth to the street until it is full, giving the contents ample time to settle into inseperable layers, as has the Grand Canyon.   Please note that in one of the comments to this post is a phone number you can call to arrange a tour of the recycling plant.  Might be a good idea for your org.             

WHAT'S THE PUNISHMENT THIS TIME AROUND

There is little reason to point out that Raleigh Henderson Issacs is the Sheriff’s son, the Sheriff is not guilty by association or responsible for his son's behavior. The "boy” is 50 years old and his first arrest was in 2006. Many  wonder why he was never properly punished unless they understand the probable relationship between prosecutors and elected officials.  You must agree that this drunk driver still is one after many appearances before the law but the leniency is not the fault of the father. He more than likely was as embarassed as any father would be. But what this time, isn't everyone treated the same in our courts?   

COUNCILMAN MIKE DUMAN RESPONDS

Pock,

I will attempt to clarify the new 'Refuse Enterprise Fund' created during the budget process.  It is still rather amazing to me how many of our citizens were surprised when the big blue cans started appearing at their doors.  I have answered quite a few calls and hopefully this will help get the information out.

This should not be construed as an official response from the city, but merely an explanation as I understand it.  Every attempt has been made to ensure the facts are correct, but nothing has been reviewed by city personnel to guarantee accuracy.

First, I think it is important to recognize that the 'refuse fund' transferred trash collection, recycling and related services from the operating budget to this dedicated fund.  As such, it must be self supporting.  The reasoning presented by its proponents is to better contend with the eventual dissolution of SYPSA and/or changes that will occur once the city's contract expires.

I will attempt to "explain the math".  Each household (approx. 32,000) is being charged $17.50 per month.  This equates to approx. $6.7M income.  The expenses are approx. $4.2M- $4.3M that was transferred from the operating budget to pay for day to day trash collection services plus the cost of TFC recycling is $4 per month per household which equates to approx. $1.5M. In addition, the hazardous waste program costs about $65,000 and the recycling convenience centers are budgeted at $70,000.  Add all this together and you get expenses totaling roughly $5.9M.  If my math is correct, that leaves about $800,000.  This balance would be accommodate contingencies such as rising fuel costs, etc.

It should be noted that the recycling fee of $4 per month will appear on your semi-annual real estate tax bill.

I hope this assists your readers in their comprehension of this newly created fund and related costs.

Those of you who are cognizant of local government actions know my position and how I voted on these issues.  If anyone would like to discuss this or any other matter further please call me at (757) 449-9688.

IT AINT FAIR

Coincidental? My neighbor  reports a fifty dollar increase in his Charter costs and then they went off the air for several days. Perhaps it was deliberate so he would more appreciate the programming when it came back on. A more important  event would be the city finding some competition for Charter. Is one cable company to choose from a smart way to go?  We were victims in Suffolk when the power  went off for several days and we  were forced to pay $3.53 per gallon of gas to run generators or see freezers full of expensive  food go bad.  While residents on King's  Fork lost no power or cable. Is it really those holes in the ozone?