Newsletter 313
Newsletter 313
Citizen Newsletter #313 Henry Citizen ([email protected]) [email protected]; Saturday, December 17, 2011 8:22 AM
Issue # 313
www.scribd.com/Henry_Citizen View or download at www.scribd.com/Henry_Citizen In This Edition Boortz: War on Christmas Fiber Optic Network Carroll Schools Downgraded TEA Party 2.0 Shelve Your Sovereignty U.K. Stands Alone YOUR VOICE Becoming Illegal Water: The Key to Life Jack Elkins Honored Do you have a story to tell? Become a Citizen contributor. Submit your opinions, commentaries and articles to [email protected]
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I think its safe to assume that anyone who has been awake over the last few years knows that the economy, from a global perspective down to the county and municipal levels is in a shambles. Uncertainty in the future is stalling recovery and job creation. Yet the Henry County BOC seems to be oblivious to the problem. They continue to beat the dead horse of the 180 miles of county (read taxpayer) funded fiber optic network. AT&T saw the commercial potential and ran fiber to my house and I have 15 MB internet now. Some of my friends have a similar service with Comcast. Interestingly, both Comcast and AT&T do this as a part of a profit generating business ad they have built the infrastructure and knowledge base to do it effectively. Not so Henry County. If there was ANY commercial need or prospect of one then ATT or Comcast would have already installed it. Our county BOC needs to look at how to raise revenues without further burdening the taxpayers (read those of us with jobs that pay taxes). A few ideas might be to make the soccer fields and other parks pay for themselves, let the bike riders pay for the use of the special lanes we painted for them on Jonesboro Rd and Eagles Landing by requiring license tags and restricting access to roads with bike lanes on them (Austin, TX does this), or looking for other expenditures that affect other small special interests in the county as opposed to the general
welfare. Frankly, I don't think the majority of Henry County residents play soccer or dress up in spandex to clog up Chambers road in the summer on their bikes. Richard Price
The Citizen newsletter #312 has had over 300 reads at Scribd.com, our online venue. That is over double the average reads for a single issue. The lead stories are Henry County 'investing' in a fiber optic network AND the fact the Friday, Dec 16th "public meeting" is at 9am (work hours for the rest of us) AND the meeting will not be televised or available for online viewing. Our own poll on Facebook is 30 to 1 against the 'investment.' Gotta love accountable, responsive, representative government. The commercial aspect of the proposal is the problem. For the County to invest in government-only access thru fiber optic is a good idea. Opening the doors to private business and individuals is just wrong. It is not a proper role of government. GREG ALLEN WROTE: I oppose the fiber optic project for two reasons. First, the financial aspect of it. The commission is looking at taking on $340 in debt for every household. We need to be reducing debt, not increasing it. Second, why would the commission be looking at an in ground infrastructure as a solution? The technology exists for privately operated cellular broadband and long distance WiFi systems. My suggestion would be to ditch the fiber optic proposal for now, and re-evaluate the situation years down the road when and if the economic situation improves.
County technology director Clark Rainer spoke briefly but positively about the project saying the cost of borrowing (bonded debt) was low now. Bruce Holmes stood to leave the room and Warren Holder halted his exit to adjourn the meeting. Later offline conversations with county officials indicated that, perhaps, a January meeting would follow for further discussion. It seems there are two options: proceed with a government-only access fiber optic network; or, make plans for future expansion to include ISP services for public access. A major factor in this project is participation by the Henry County School Board. In fact, that government entity would the largest single user and beneficiary of the fiber network. The glitch may come from the Board of Education. They will be expected to provide a large portion of project funding based on bonded debt. Failing that option, the entire fiber optic project may fall flat due to insufficient funding.
moms is learning how to get out the vote, raise money and set up political action committees. They are working to overcome the territorial rivalries that dogged the Tea Party in 2010, when groups backed multiple primary challengers and often allowed the establishment candidate to win. Because the Tea Party energy produced a larger than usual turnout for a mid-term election, however, the young movement propelled the Republican Party to the biggest midterm swing since 1938, with a mad scramble to staff phone banks and knock on voters' doors. "We came to the game late last time," says Bob Orbin of the Northeast Pennsylvania Tea Party, who is a vice president at an investment advisory firm. "It was sheer craziness. We're light years ahead of that now." One thing the activists have learned is that they must unify behind one candidate rather than let a number of conservative contenders split the vote. A Tea Party coalition has already done this in Indiana, where they hope to unseat six-term incumbent Senator Richard Lugar. Tea Partiers are keen to avoid embarrassments such as Christine O'Donnell's unsuccessful U.S. Senate bid in Delaware last year. They now realize that the higher the office, the more they need someone with a political track record, name recognition, fund-raising ability and organization. To make sure there are qualified candidates in the pipeline, Tea Party groups around the country are recruiting candidates for lower offices with the aim of producing qualified politicians for Congress in 2014 and beyond. "We've had to learn a lot of patience," said Karen Hurd of the Virginia Tea Party Alliance. In her state, Republicans failed to win outright control of the state Senate in November, yet Tea Party-backed candidates did win races further down the ticket. The Mechanicsville Tea Party, for instance, backed five successful supervisory board candidates in Hanover County. According to a Reuters/Ipso poll this week, 43 percent of Republicans either identify (23 percent) or identify strongly (20 percent) with the Tea Party. Among all Americans those figures are: identify 13 percent, strongly identify 10 percent. "The Tea Party still doesnt seem to be in a majority position in the electorate," said James Henson, a politics professor at the University of Texas in Austin. "The question is whether there will be uneven voter mobilization in the primaries. Will moderate Republicans show up in greater numbers? There is a lot of cleavage within the Republican Party at the national level." The key to the Tea Party's grassroots strategy is to master the mechanics of state and local politics.
GERMAN
AND
FRENCH
E UROPEAN
STATES TO
French President Nicolas Sarkozy smiles as he greets German Chancellor Angela Merkel prior to their meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris, on Dec. 5.
An end to sovereign control over European budgets. That was the big idea that GERMANY's ANGELA MERKEL and FRANCE's NICOLAS SARKOZY outlined in a letter to EUROPEAN COUNCIL PRESIDENT HERMAN VAN R OMPUY Wednesday. THE D AILY TELEGRAPH is also reporting that Mr. Van Rompuy has written a paper to be discussed tomorrow on fiscal union, which calls for a "higher degree of surveillance and discipline in the conduct of national policies.
Critics pointed out that this was a recipe for potential disaster, with countries able to borrow at lower rates than their ability to repay would indicate. Proponents argued that rules governing how much debt as a percentage of GDP members could take on would mitigate any risks. But most national politicians simply flouted the rules, attendant to their voters' demands that money be spent and aware that the European Central Bank had no power to compel compliance or remove them from office. Merkel and Sarkozy want to address this structural flaw. "The current crisis has uncovered the deficiencies in the construction of [European Monetary Union] mercilessly. We need to remedy those deficiencies."
The day Europe (And the U.S.) lost patience with Britain
REUTERS BRUSSELS (Reuters) - It was billed as a summit to save the euro. It may be remembered as the day Europe lost patience with Britain, as most of the continent threw its lot in with EU founding members France and Germany and committed to binding their economies ever more tightly. There was plenty of talk of history in the making in the week before the Dec 8/9 gathering of European Union leaders - the eighth this year. But it was all about the currency and whether it would survive the strains of a debt crisis that over the past two years has engulfed Greece, spread to Ireland, Portugal, Spain and Italy and now threatens France and even mighty Germany. As the summit began, there was no hint of the drama that was to come in the early hours of Friday, the moment when Europe split, 26 against one, after about 10 hours of talks. Britain has always had an uneasy relationship with its EU partners, choosing not to join the single currency or sign the open borders Schengen treaty and often kicking against what it sees as Brussels "interference." But this was a low point. The first time in 39 years that a British prime minister had used a veto to block an EU agreement. David Cameron cast it is a bold and necessary decision to protect British interests. Most of the rest of Europe appeared to regard it as reckless and went a different way. Hours later, when the leaders briefly reconvened to finish their discussions, Cameron cut a lonely figure. French President Nicolas Sarkozy appeared to avoid an extended hand as Cameron walked to his seat. The build up to this last summit of the year had been much like the previous seven. The language had been recognisable too, even if market pressures had added an unprecedented degree of urgency to glacial EU decision making. Overnight borrowing from the European Central Bank hit its highest level since March at the start of December, showing the degree of tension amongst banks. PROFOUND CONCERN U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner had spent several days in Europe before the summit. The United States, like all of Europe's trade partners, had been watching the accelerating debt crisis with profound concern, worried for their own economies and banks. In meetings with the head of the ECB, Mario Draghi, and euro zone finance ministers the conversation was all about the two-year-old debt crisis and how to resolve it. The issues: the role of the ECB, how far should or would it stand behind countries to buy them breathing space, the scale of the euro zone's rescue fund, the part to be played by the IMF, and should the EU let private bondholders off the hook. Geithner spent time in Frankfurt, Berlin, Paris, Marseille and Milan. London didn't figure on his itinerary. During the same week, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Sarkozy spoke frequently and met in person. There were contacts with Spain's incoming Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy. Draghi was closely involved in discussions at all stages, insiders say. Once more, Cameron was peripheral. Immediately before the summit, the U.S. assessment of Europe's progress was, in broad terms, they know what they need to do but they need to work out how they're going to do it. As one U.S. official put it, fixing the flaws of the 13-year-old single currency - a monetary union without coordinated budget policy - could not happen overnight. But the Europeans were moving closer to addressing the problem at its root. Germany - Europe's biggest economy - was intent on changing the European Union's treaty to enshrine stricter budget discipline and penalties for countries that failed to adhere to them, to ensure there could be no repeat of the current crisis. From the German perspective, only by reforming economies, cutting social benefits and working longer would the indebted members of the euro zone and the single currency emerge from the turmoil. Printing money would buy only a temporary respite and would remove the incentive to reform. France was ready to back Germany in a push for full-blown treaty change, but really favoured the idea of an intergovernmental treaty - akin to a sideline agreement - among the 17 euro zone members, anchoring the single currency and its members at the heart of a new Europe. BRITAIN'S ISOLATION Then came dinner and the start of the meeting that was to end in Britain's isolation. Sources involved described how events unfolded. The intention was to get the 27 leaders to agree on what they wanted for a stronger euro zone first, and then work out how to achieve it, officials said. It was disagreement over the means, not the objective that led to the break down. An official present at the negotiations said Cameron had begun by saying that he understood there was a desire for treaty change, and that he wanted it too, but if Britain were to give its backing, it needed something
in return. "His reasoning appeared to be: 'you want treaty change, I want treaty change', 'I need something because you are asking for something'," the official said, describing it as logic that wasn't going to fly. At that point, the British prime minister set out two concessions he wanted in exchange for Britain's support on treaty change. "One was a safeguard on the internal market ... but that was not the problem," the official said. "Then he launched the idea on financial services." DEAD FROM THE START At that point old enmities came into play, rooted in a widely-held French view that Britain never really belonged in the European Union in the first place. "The French were using all this as a really perfect alibi to get rid of the British. Sarkozy used the proposals of the British to justify an intergovernmental treaty," the official said, explaining that intentionally or otherwise, Cameron had played straight into Sarkozy's hands. "It took 10 or 20 minutes to see that most of the participants were not pleased at all with the idea of Britain getting an opt out or exceptional treatment for their financial services and it didn't fly at all. There was no understanding for it. David Cameron obtained nothing. Just nothing." Another official present at the talks recalled the moment, in the early hours of Friday, when European Union President Herman Van Rompuy, who chaired the meeting, proposed moving forward with an intergovernmental agreement of the 17 euro zone nations, with an open invitation for other countries to join. "France said yes, immediately followed by Germany and then one by one, in a matter of seconds the member states of the euro zone backed the Franco-German call. Within a few minutes, the non-euro zone member states decided they wanted to be in and left Cameron completely isolated. The swing was very, very quick. Everybody was on board in a matter of minutes. I think it was obvious inside the room that Cameron was shocked by the swiftness with which his allies left him alone."
YOUR VOICE
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Henry County and District 111 need a tough, effective, conservative leader in the State House. As an Assistant District Attorney, I go toe to toe with criminals. Ill take that experience to the State House to deliver conservative reforms for Henry County. Now more than ever, we need tough leaders who will do what they say and get the job done. You have my word that I will be effective in getting the job done, and Ive got a plan to do it. That's why I'm running. You can rest assured that I will provide the people of this district with the tough, effective conservative leadership we deserve.
Signature Broadcasting
Trea Pipkin
Sixty-four percent of Americans say big government will be the biggest threat to the country, one percentage point lower than the record high, and more than twice the number who say the same about big business (26%).
If Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, loses, he's a footnote in history, not even a William G. McAdoo or a George Romney, both of whom aimed at the presidency twice and are largely forgotten today.
If Gingrich, who ended four decades of Democratic House control, loses, he's still a historic figure. It's a fight for the ages, and for the future.
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Because getting a state ID is FREE, and the only reason Democrats have for crying foul is that their rampant cheating is threatened by it (see ACORN under indictment in 20+ states).
Mayor John DeStefano of New Haven, Connecticut, wants the state legislature to allow the estimated 11,000 illegal aliens who live in New Haven to vote in municipal elections. Approving that proposal would not only condone illegal behavior, but would be fundamentally unfair to citizens and legal immigrants.
Becoming Illegal
Dear Senator Harkin, As a native Iowan and an excellent customer of the Internal Revenue Service , I am writing to ask for your assistance. I have contacted the Department of Homeland Security in an effort to determine the process for becoming an illegal alien and they referred me to you. My primary reason for wishing to change my status from U.S. Citizen to illegal alien stems from the bill which was recently passed by the Senate and for which you voted. If my understanding of this bill's provisions is accurate, as an illegal alien who has been in the United States for five years, all I need to do to become a citizen is to pay a $2,000 fine and income taxes for three of the last five years. I know a good deal when I see one and I am anxious to get the process started before everyone figures it out. Simply put, those of us who have been here legally have had to pay taxes every year so I'm excited about the prospect of avoiding two years of taxes in return for paying a $2,000 fine. Is there any way that I can apply to be illegal retroactively? This would yield an excellent result for me and my family because we paid heavy taxes in 2004 and 2005. Additionally, as an illegal alien I could begin using the local emergency room as my primary health care provider. Once I have stopped paying premiums for medical insurance, my accountant figures I could save almost $10,000 a year. Another benefit in gaining illegal status would be that my daughter would receive preferential treatment relative to her law school applications, as well as 'in-state' tuition rates for many colleges throughout the United States for my son. Lastly, I understand that illegal status would relieve me of the burden of renewing my driver's license and making those burdensome car insurance premiums. This is very important to me given that I still have college age children driving my car. If you would provide me with an outline of the process to become illegal (retroactively if possible) and copies of the necessary forms, I would be most appreciative. Thank you for your assistance. Your Loyal Constituent, (hoping to reach 'illegal alien' status rather than just a bona fide citizen of the USA ) Donald Ruppert Burlington , IA
How to Collect, Clean, and Store the Key to Life: Water (Part 1)
By Paul C. Scheib Other than air there is no more critical element to life than water. You can survive 3 weeks without food, but just days without water. In the article Urban Survival: Learn the Five Risk Factors in Deciding to Shelter in Place, one of the key considerations to sheltering in place is the ability to access water if the municipal supply is cut off. For most of us, we will not have the money or expertise to dig a well. That gives you two other options: ...... Read the rest of this article here: http://www.thegeorgia912project.org/event_archive/2011/survival_training.html#theArticles
I attended the Georgia Farm Bureau State Convention last week-end in Jekyll Island, GA. Jack Elkins was the Past President of Henry County Farm Bureau for 9 years and a very close friend. He did many good things for Farm Bureau and Henry County. His wife, Dianne Elkins accepted a Distinguished Service Award on his behalf at a special ceremony this year. Jack passed away unexpectedly in 2010 and is dearly missed. Thanks and have a great Christmas and Happy and Prosperous New Year.
Eleanor Toppins
Henry County Farm Bureau Women's Chair GEORGIA FARM BUREAU HONORS JACK ELKINS WITH DISTINGUISHED SERVICE AWARD
MACON, Ga. The Georgia Farm Bureau Distinguished Service Award was presented posthumously to Jack Elkins of Henry County during the organizations 2011 annual convention. Elkins wife, Dianne, accepted the award from GFB President Zippy Duvall on Dec. 4.
This award is the highest honor Georgia Farm Bureau gives to a volunteer leader and is designed to recognize Farm Bureau leaders who have made an outstanding contribution to Farm Bureau and agriculture over a long period of time. Elkins served as a director on the Henry County Farm Bureau Board of Directors from 1990 to 1997 and as HCFB president from 1998 until his death Feb. 1, 2010. He led HCFB through a period of change during the 1990s when the county was one of the nations fastest-growing counties. Though the countys transition from rural to suburban was swift, Elkins was instrumental in HCFB continuing as an active county Farm Bureau chapter. Elkins grew horse-quality hybrid Bermuda hay with his wife, Dianne, on their family farm. Georgia Farm Bureau prides itself on being a grassroots organization that serves as the voice of Georgia agriculture. Jack embraced our mission statement with his whole heart and worked passionately as an advocate for agriculture not only in Henry County, but on the state and national level, too, Duvall said.