What no news outlet cites or even alludes to concerning Mr. Obama
If you delve 'not too deeply' you will find that the pillars of 'hope and change' are founded in extreme radical philosophy spelled Saul Alinsky. His 'community organizing' methodology and philosophical thinking are nothing short of catastrophic for America or any civilized society. Suffice it to say among his brainwashed students are Hillary Clinton and Mr. and Mrs. Obama which tells you all you need to know when you scratch your head and say 'what the hell is going on here' OR 'this can't be happening'!
The basic premise of community organizing in this warped context is the abandonment of ethics and morals as obstacles to political success. Political success here is changing the United States from the present form replete with disparity of wealth to some perverse Utopia. Proponents want all the power and want these changes, but cannot articulate what they'll do with it; it seems that it's all about the struggle, the destruction as an end in and of itself. Changing the world from the as it is to as it should be requires any/all tactics to justify their ends and nothing can or should stand in the way. Constant struggle, diviseness, agitation and upheaval in any/all forms are from the Alinsky playbook (Rules for Radicals) pitting the 'haves' against the 'have nots'. There exists an inherent evil in all of this that would shake any free-thinking, God fearing and patriotic American to his or her very soul.
There's so much more to all of this that there is not enough paper here to expound. My purpose is to simply surface the bedrock issue of what's happening and the fact that no one, not even the 'honest' FOX News will broach the subject for various reasons not the least of which is being branded 'racist'. There is a lot wrong and our country is not perfect and we clearly can improve and change in positive ways. I do not believe however, this is the way to do it I opine. GOD BLESS AMERICA and deliver us from this evil.
B.J. Levitch
Cave Creek
Arizona gubmint: is it hate or stupidity?
Actually it is hate, multiplied by stupidity, squared. I was a freelance journalist in the North Phoenix area during the Tres Equis Superbowl calamity. When the MLK holiday was finally passed as pennance to the NFL, I was the only reporter to cover the first MLK breakfast in Scottsdale. It was sponsored by a newly formed, Institute for the Celebration of Cultural Diversity. None of the invited City dignitaries bothered to show. Not even the Chief of Police. No comment from the City was available because – they all had the paid day off for the MLK holiday!
They sure didn't like seeing that in print. Scottsdale Community College offered some office space for an official Cultural Diversity Center, then replaced the African American founder and director with a nice blonde white lady! Cultural diversity, donchaknow. Somehow, after I left the state, another African American became director. One day the friendly local KKK left a welcome package at the door that blew his hands off.
The city is named after Winfield Scott, who was Chaplain for the original 10th Cavalry Buffalo Soldiers stationed at Ft. Huachuka, Ariz. The official Buffalo Soldier Museum is there. I also covered a Buffalo Soldier re-enactors group and their program for underprivileged, inner city kids for five years in the Scottsdale and North Phoenix region.
Jan Brewer was in state or county government the whole time.
Thomas Blaney
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Veterans: Sacrificial Lambs
Our Legislators have no qualms sending our men and women in uniform into
harms way. We who served and those who continue to serve do what is
expected in service for our Country, even if it means the giving of our
life. Eventually we become Veterans.
Some of us at some point need help from our government, usually in the
form of VA benefits. A Senate Bill S.1982 would have included disability
compensation, pensions, survivor benefits and education, vocational
training rehab, opening of new VA clinics and medical facilities and cost
of living adjustments for military retires; naming a few benefits.
S.1982, titled: Comprehensive Veterans Health and Benefits, a Bill to
improve provisions of service and benefits to veterans. The Bill failed
passage in the Senate by a vote of 56 to 41, needed was 60 Yea votes. All
Democrat Senators voted Yea. The Bill failed because of the Republican
vote of Nay. Those Senators who disagreed was due to $21 billion budget
spread out over ten years. Our veterans are not worth the dollars. Where
does that place the veterans, they still have to continue to beg for VA
benefits.
Where is the accountability when it come to veterans benefits? It seems
many of our legislators do not understand accountability. Must veterans
continue to carry budget cuts on their backs?
There is still an active House Bill HR-543, The Vietnam Agent Orange Act
for Blue Water Navy. Will this Bill fail as well? We used to be able to
count on our elected Congress and Senate who would send us off to war. We
counted on them to do the right thing when we would be in need of help, no
more, so what happened?
All Americans should contact their respective members of Congress and
Senate and advise them to do what is right for our veterans.
By: John J. Bury, U.S. Navy, retired
Media, Pensylvania
Georgia first in history
I have fantastic news from The Peach State!
Earlier this afternoon, Georgia become the first state in American history to pass the Convention of States application to limit the power and jurisdiction of the federal government.
The House voted to approve the Senate's version of the resolution by a vote of 107-58.
Our deepest thanks go to our volunteers in Georgia. They took a stand for self-governance and history will remember what happened today. Because they decided to write letters, make calls, attend hearings, and meet with their state representative, they can tell their children and grandchildren they made a difference in the fight to preserve liberty.
We expect many more states to follow Georgia's lead in the months ahead. These are historic times — I encourage you to remember this day and what it will mean for the future of our great country.
Sincerely,
Mark Meckler
Co-Founder, Convention of States Project
President, Citizens for Self-Governance
P.S. You can join the team in your state by signing up in the Action Center.
The Convention of States Project is a project of Citizens for Self-Governance.
What's in it?
This past Sunday was the fourth anniversary of Nancy Pelosi’s infamous quote: “We have to pass the bill, so that you can find out what is in it.”
Therefore, it’s worth remembering who helped “pass the bill”: none other than Congresswoman Kyrsten Sinema.
She crafted it.
She campaigned for it.
She sticks by it to this day.
Well, Arizonans finally know what’s in the bill – and they don’t like it.
“Kyrsten Sinema has closer ties to ObamaCare than any other freshman member of Congress in the country. It’s no wonder she considered switching seats, she knows how out-of-touch she is. Sinema is going to have to explain to Arizonans why she’s behind such a flawed law.”
Matt Gorman
NRCC Spokesman
Where Congress falls short ... and where it doesn’t
At a public gathering the other day, someone asked me how I’d sum up my views on Congress. It was a good question, because it forced me to step back from worrying about the current politics of Capitol Hill and take a longer view.
Congress, I said, does some things fairly well. Its members for the most part are people of integrity who want to serve their constituents and the country. They also strive to reflect their constituents’ views, though they tend to under-appreciate voters’ pragmatism and over-estimate their ideological purity. Still, they’re politicians: their success rests on being accessible to their constituents, understanding what they want, and aligning themselves with that interest.
Yet for all the attractive individual qualities that members of Congress display, their institutional performance falls short. They argue endlessly, pander to contributors and powerful interests, posture both in the media and in countless public meetings, and in the end it amounts to very little. They discuss and debate a lot of problems, but don’t produce effective results.
This may be because many members of our national legislature have a constricted view of what it means to be a legislator. They’re satisfied with making a political statement by giving a speech, casting a vote, or getting a bill through the chamber they serve in, rather than writing legislation that will make it through both houses of Congress, get signed by the President, and become law. The days appear to be over when members of Congress strove to be masters of their subject matter and legislators in fact as well as in name.
Perhaps because they’re forced to spend so much time raising money and listening to well-heeled people and groups, they also seem to have trouble seeing current affairs from the perspective of ordinary people. They fall captive to the politics of any given issue, rather than thinking about the much harder question of how you govern a country with all its residents in mind. They don’t see the necessity, in a divided Congress and a divided country, of negotiation and compromise.
Plenty of forces are responsible for this state of affairs, from the outsized role of money in the political process to today’s hyper-partisanship to TV-driven sound-bite debates. But in the end, it’s still a source of great frustration to the American people, me included, that well-meaning, talented individuals cannot make the institution work better.
Lee Hamilton
Director of the Center on Congress at Indiana University
Maricopa County Treasurer "Hos" Hoskins’ take on House Bill 2381
PHOENIX – A bill sponsored by Representative Jason Olson will do considerable harm to the citizens of Arizona as well as the overall economy. The bill is HB2381 and Mr. Olson is the lone sponsor. This is the second year he has been persuaded by renown lobbyist Michael Preston Green to sponsor this legislation.
The bill changes the Arizona property tax lien process to allow third party investors to become enriched at the expense of property owners that are financially stressed, takes money away from low income elderly homeowners, and uses taxpayer money to subsidize their enrichment. In order to understand how HB2381 does this you need a general understanding of how the delinquent property tax lien system works. It's really quite simple.
Taxes are a lien on the property and if they are not paid the lien is offered for sale at auction to any investor that is willing to pay a principal amount that includes all of the taxes, interest and fees. Investors are effectively offering their money in exchange for a lien on the property that is superior to all other liens and can be foreclosed after three years. Instead of bidding a dollar amount the investors bid an interest rate from zero to 16 percent that they are willing to accept on their money. The lien can be redeemed by the property owner any time prior to foreclosure by paying the county treasurer the principal amount due the investor at an interest rate of 16 percent simple. As an example; if the investor's principal amount was $1,000 and it was redeemed at one year the redemption amount would be $1,160. If the investor's bid amount was 8% he would get $1,080 and the remaining $80 is deposited into a fund to help low income elderly homeowners in Maricopa County pay their property taxes. Other counties do not participate in the elderly assistance program and the redemption rate would be the principal amount plus the bid rate, or $1,080. More details can be found on the Maricopa County Treasurer's website at: www.treasurer.maricopa.gov.
The tax lien process has worked very well for many decades and the statewide foreclosure rate where a property actually changes ownership is less than one half of one percent. The average for Maricopa County over the past six years covering the Great Recession is less than four-tenths of a percent and less than half were owner occupied residences. Maricopa County just completed the annual lien auction that included liens for tax year 2012. The 2012 tax bills were mailed in August 2012, and those liens cannot begin foreclosure until February 2017 which takes several months to complete. This gives the property owner about 4.5 years to redeem the lien with no payments required during that time.
House Bill 2381 would allow a property owner that is unable to pay his taxes to assign the lien to a third party prior to the auction. They would enter into a separate, foreclosable, agreement and the third party (defined in HB2381 as the "assignee") would pay all of the taxes, interest and fees to the County Treasurer and be issued a first position lien. The already financially challenged property owner would then begin making periodic payments to the assignee that can foreclose three years after the date of the agreement if it is not paid. The assignee will also pay the taxes for subsequent years which will increase the amount of the periodic payments creating a situation not unlike a variable sub-prime mortgage.
If there is a mortgage on the property the mortgage company would have to redeem the lien held by the assignee to protect their security. The cost incurred by the mortgage company would be added to the mortgage and might trigger a mortgage insurance payment if equity is reduced.
Since the property owner does not redeem the lien from the county treasurer, the revenue source for the elderly assistance fund would be reduced. The fund currently has a surplus due to the increase in the number of delinquencies as a result of the Great Recession, but that surplus will be used up over time when the number of delinquencies return to pre-recession levels.
The bill would allow the assignees first choice of the liens leaving the less desirable ones for the other investors whose participation level may drop causing less money going to the schools and other tax districts.
Implementation of HB2381 would require considerable programming cost that would be borne by the taxpayers as well as ongoing administrative costs.
To summarize, HB2381 would add to the financial hardship of a property owner, take money away from low income elderly, and would use taxpayer funded resources to enrich the assignees. Most of the assignees would be out-of-state companies causing money to flow out of the Arizona economy.
Any legislative candidate that has an opponent with this bill on their voting record will probably be smiling so broad they'll have to be careful to avoid swallowing their ears.
Charles "Hos" Hoskins
Maricopa County Treasurer
Outrage
If a group of students were to threaten violence against anyone displaying the American flag, would you punish the perpetrators or would you ban the flag?
Unbelievably, one public school chose to ban the American flag, with a school administrator even calling it "incendiary." Even worse, a federal appeals court agreed, upholding the school's American flag ban.
Here's the worst part, not every flag is banned, just the American flag.
Patriotic speech should be celebrated in our schools, not banned. In fact, the Supreme Court has held that students don't lose their First Amendment rights at the schoolhouse gate.
We're fighting back against this outrage. When the case is appealed, we will file a critical amicus brief, aggressively defending the flag and patriotic free speech.
If you don't want the American flag banned in our schools, take action with us.
Sign the Brief to Defend the American Flag Today.
Jay Sekulow
ACLJ Chief Counsel
