Americans Have Become Ameri-can’ts
Broken Promises Fall All Around Us
It is hard to imagine that most Americans thought this was “the great change President.” Obama promised all of us a new nation we could be proud of. Remember the promise of saving “Main Street” from being exploited? Recall the promise of helping middle class Americans? Well, where is this changed America?
During his first six months President Obama had already broken and/or forgotten most of his promises to the American people, who had the audacity to believe him. If you want to know where to find Obama, it’s easy — just follow the trail of his broken promises.
Obama tells us the U.S. economy is healing. However, what most of the American people see is a wide array of endless debt. Congress keeps on spending more money that we do not have. Our debt as a nation is growing significantly. The American people have no jobs. Daily living costs have increased dramatically. Credit card companies are still wreaking havoc with our lives. Individual debt is increasing.
Remember Obama pointing his finger at the “Drill baby, drill” lobbyists and saying no, we will not drill? Well, another broken promise is the Gulf of Mexico rig explosion and subsequent oil spill that shortly is going to become the largest spill in U.S. history.
Obama’s promise to save the middle class has vanished and so has our middle class. He also promised to return our soldiers from Iraq and to use diplomacy to encourage world peace; however, we have dug deeper into the Iraq foxhole, have escalated a major war in Afghanistan and have increased our military influence around the world. Nothing gained but more broken promises.
Obama promised to save the homes of Americans by providing a major refinancing program at low interest rates and he assured us all that banks will work with homeowners instead of foreclosing on their homes. However, Bank of America and others agreed to work with homeowners, signed contracts to divert foreclosures and then began foreclosure processes anyway. When homeowners complained to the federal government about these banks, they were told to file lawsuits against the banks. There was no protection or enforcement by the government to help homeowners from the bank’s manipulations and home slaughter.
The bottom-line is that Pres. Barack Obama sold Americans a bill of goods. He went on many television talk shows and rubbed elbows with Hollywood stars, showing he was just another good guy trying to become a star himself, but the truth is that the President is a liar and that he works for the Corporate-Military Complex that has taken over our Congress and directs the future of the U.S. Unfortunately, we did not heed the words of former President Dwight D. Eisenhower who in his 1961 farewell address warned us to beware of the take-over. Currently, the U.S. evidently is on course to create a World Order that is directed and supported by Corporations and enforced by the Military. The American middle class has become an endangered species and will be driven into extinction. There will be only the significantly wealthy and the tragically poor. It is the new direction of U.S. growth, a nation of right and left extremists with no balance in sight. We are pushing Face Book and Twitter on the populace. Those in charge want to flood the information highways with false and provocative “facts” that prove nothing but create rumor and confusion.What this does is to clog-up the truth. How do we wade through all the informational garbage out there and find the truth? It is getting harder to locate the truth than ever before, even with the information highway at our fingertips. This is a pre-determined process, to promote confusion and fear.
We have another President in power that has forgotten about the lives of mainstream Americans. Middle America is still being exploited by the Corporate-Military complex and there is nothing left to do about it. President Obama wants total amnesty for 40 million illegal immigrants who reside and work in the U.S. because our government does NOT enforce the laws that prohibit American companies from hiring illegal immigrants. In the process, our government has chosen to forget about the majority of Americans who cannot afford their daily living expenses and who have no voice in the direction of this nation’s growth. When the corporate sector and Wall Street tell Congress what they want, Congress jumps to complete the task. When the American people need their Congress to protect them from ongoing corporate oppression, Congress turns its head elsewhere.
There is little hope for the majority of Americans. Our Constitution no longer protects our civil rights. The checks and balances no longer are inherent within our government. Our leadership does the bidding of the Corporate-Military Complex and so, Americans are doomed. Is there a cure short of a complete revolution? It’s doubtful. Will there be a revolution on the grand scale that became the French Revolution when the ruling class became out-of-control and the people revolted? It is highly doubtful. Pick up the phones, email the President and Congress, Face Book and Twitter to your heart’s content, but remember the broken promises of a new President and his administration who promised all of us positive change.
Whatever we say about the Democrats we can say twice about the Republicans. The two-party system has failed Americans.
Once upon a time we used to be Americans, but now we are Ameri-can’ts.
Peter Stern, a former director of information services, university professor and public school administrator, is a disabled Vietnam veteran who lives in Driftwood, Texas.
The Continuing ‘Fukushima 3-11’ Radiation Catastrophe
and Its Relevance to ‘Oslo-Utøya 7-22’
By Major William B. Fox,
W. Leon Smith,
and Dr. James H. Fetzer
“Dr. Janette Sherman, a highly respected physician and acknowledged expert in radiation exposure who has reported a north-east United States 35% baby death spike since Fukushima fall-out reached the nation, concurs with estimates that world wide, the Chernobyl Kill is one million people killed to date reported NOVA News. Extrapolating, worldwide deaths by Fukushima radiation could eventually be hundreds of millions of people, becoming the most significant depopulation event to date…” 1 — Experts: Fukushima ‘off-scale’ lethal radiation level infers millions dying by Deborah Dupre, Examiner.com, Aug. 5, 2011.
Despite silence and coverups in U.S. mainstream media and the recent Japanese government talk about “cold shutdowns,” the Fukushima crisis has actually been growing steadily worse. Radiation levels are spiking higher across the United States, and plumes circling the northern hemisphere are still raining out in Europe and Asia as well as in North America. Please see for example:
Phoenix EPA Data Showed 700 CPM Beta Yesterday 2, by Dr. Majia Nadesan, majiasblog.blogspot.com, 13 Dec 2011. Please also see also the prior blog entry: Phoenix Radiation Increases and Why They Matter 3 by Dr. Majia Nadesan, majiasblog.blogspot.com, 12 Dec 2011.
NYT: Experts suspect melted fuel may be threatening groundwater — “Battle of epic proportions” says Koide — Concerns over recriticality 4 by ENENEWS Admin, 16 Dec 2011.
Iodine-131 now detected in Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary… other countries — An indicator of nuclear chain reaction — 10 days after criticality talk at Fukushima 5 by ENENEWS Staff, 11 Nov 2011.
U.S. Deaths Increasing Due To Japanese Radiation 6 by W. Leon Smith, Publisher, The Lone Star Iconoclast, 6 Nov 2011.
According to the aforementioned article by Deborah Dupre, “…the famous physicist, Dr. Chris Busby told the Japanese people this week [in late July 2011] that radioactive air contamination there is now 300 times that of Chernobyl and 1000 times the atomic bomb peak in 1963, inferring that hundreds of millions of people are now dying from Fukushima radiation, including people in the United States.”
When Dr. Busby visited the Fukushima Prefecture in July he also observed:
“It’s all invisible. The trees are still trees, people are shopping, the birds are singing and dogs are walking in the street . . .When you bring out the (Geiger) machines, you can see everything is sparkling and everybody is being bitten by invisible snakes that will eventually kill them.” 7
“Fukushima Teacher Muzzled on Radiation Risks for School Children” by Takahiko Hyuga, bloomberg.com/news, July 28, 2011
No amount of internalized radiation is good for you, particularly when it involves radioactive nanoparticles from fallout that can get inhaled, ingested, or otherwise absorbed into the body. These particles have the capability to get inside every kind of cell in the body, where they disrupt cellular function and encourage every kind of disease and dysfunction known to man. Examples range from increased rates of cancer, cardiovascular ailments, and diabetes to premature aging, birth defects, and lowered IQ’s. We must continue to stay out of the rain (when most fallout comes down), and watch what we eat and drink as radionuclides continue to accumulate in our food and water supplies.
The unspeakably evil effects of radioactive contamination can persist for decades or even centuries. According to the 2003 documentary film.hernobyl Hem
According to Ms. Moret, one can reasonably estimate that every month that goes by, an additional 500,000 to a million Americans are getting tagged with early deaths, and the total excess death toll over the next 25 years in the United States alone could easily range from 20 to 50 million people. In fact, all told, the long term reality we currently face could be even worse than this.
“Denial” Remains a Critical Issue
Many individuals fail to protect themselves because they simply cannot believe that such an extremely serious crisis could actually be in progress without strenuous civil defense warnings by their government, national media, and other alleged guardians of society. Many more fellow citizens find it even harder to accept the idea that extremely evil people have risen to the highest levels and are deliberately causing horrific events while deliberately obstructing the efforts of honest citizens to save their fellow citizens.
There is strong evidence that the ultimate cause of the Fukushima reactor melt-downs was sabotage by the Stuxnet virus, developed by the CIA for Israel’s Mossad. It is well documented that Mossad has already sabotaged Iranian nuclear facilities with this virus. Israeli security firms were in charge of the Fukushima facilities in fall 2010. At that time, the Stuxnet virus was detected on Japanese computer systems. For more background on what really coincided with the massive 3-11 earthquake and tsunami in Japan, please see our Fukushima crisis overview page. 10
We have extensively documented major “black operations” (or “false flag” attacks) conducted since 9/11 by a completely psychopathic power elite at war with common citizens around the world. Please refer to the following online works, and give web pages time to load – they are often very long and filled with information:
a) The Mission of Conscience series 11 by Major William B. Fox.
b) The BP Gulf Catastrophe overview web page.12 This was a “dress rehearsal in high treason” where globalists prepared the Obama administration and its Department of Energy for a new magnitude of evil called Fukushima.
c) Fukushima 3-11 overview page.13 This is the horrific tale about the deliberate radiation genocide of a great people;
d) “Aerial Dance of Death” radiation charts and news items. 14 This helps individuals visualize the “invisible” forces of mass “soft kill” destruction circling the northern hemisphere.
e) Oslo-Utoya 7-22 overview web page.15 This involves another false flag “rat attack” directed against another noteworthy people. It was very likely orchestrated by the same criminal cabal as Fukushima.
On the Oslo-Utøya 7-22 web page, we provide extensive evidence that the alleged “lone nut” gunman Anders Breivik did not act alone, but instead has ultimately served as a patsy for intelligence agencies. Major William Fox, a coauthor of this alert, believes strongly that the Oslo-Utøya 7-22 tragedy is relevant to Fukushima 3-11. In both cases Mossad-CIA-MI6 is the most likely culprit. Significantly, both 3-11 and 7-22 took place on occult dates with the same “divisible by 11” false flag attack numerological pattern as New York 9-11, Madrid 3-11, and London 7/7.
Oslo-Utøya also has a likely “nuclear connection.” In the aforementioned interview with Dr. James Fetzer, Dr. Chris Busby described a “Red Mercury”-type mini-nuke manufactured in Dimona, Israel that was very likely used in New York City to help bring down the World Trade Towers on 9/11. Major Fox believes it was probably also used in the 2002 Bali bombing 16 as well as in the Oslo 7-22 attack.
On the Oslo-Utøya 7-22 web page, Major Fox applies his own sociological analysis to explain how an international criminal elite could rise to power and perpetrate such evils as Oslo-Utøya 7-22 and Fukushima 3-11. Understanding the false flag nature of one event helps to gain a deeper understanding of the other, and vice versa. In regard to Oslo-Utoya 7-22, Major Fox also provides a unique personal perspective as a Norwegian-American.
The ultimate issue in this case is not whether others happen to agree with Major Fox’s social and political analysis, but rather if fellow citizens can acquire enough insights to break free of the “deer in the headlights” denial syndrome. Responsible citizens around the world must rigorously conduct their own independent analysis. They must directly confront what is becoming the greatest crisis ever to face mankind — a possible major extinction event for much of humanity.
We, the people, must overcome our fears and develop the insights and conviction necessary to do whatever is necessary to protect ourselves on a grass roots level. We must identify and support honest leaders capable of developing effective strategies that can minimize Fukushima radiation damage as soon as possible. Last, but not least, we must also overcome sinister power elites, governments, and national media whose evil acts and deceptions are literally destroying us.
* * * * * * * * *
W. Leon Smith, publisher of The Lone Star Iconoclast, comes from a long line of champions of liberty who extend directly back to Deaf Smith and other heroes of the Texas War of Independence. Dr. James H. Fetzer, founder of Scholars for 9/11 Truth and host of The Real Deal talk show, is professor emeritus at the University of Minnesota Duluth and a former U.S. Marine Corps officer. Major William B. Fox, president of the America First Institute and America First Books, is a former Marine officer who once ran a reserve intelligence unit. He is also an honors graduate of the Harvard Business School with experience in media, Wall Street, and real estate.
Additional References:
Leuren Moret author archive page, http://tinyurl.com/64m37tq
Dr. Chris Busby author archive page, http://tinyurl.com/3k4zsty
American Nuclear Industry crisis web page, http://tinyurl.com/3tb6t9u
Energy News Radiation monitoring thread, http://enenews.com/post-radiation-monitoring-data
Footnote URLs:
1 http://www.examiner.com/human-rights-in-national/experts-fukushima
-off-scale-lethal-radiation-level-100s-millions-deaths
2 http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2011/12/phoenix-epa-data-showed-700-cpm-beta.html
3 http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2011/12/phoenix-radiation-increases-and-why.html
4 http://enenews.com/nyt-experts-suspect-melted-fuel-may-be-threatening-groundwater-battle-of-epic-proportions-says-koide-concerns-over-recriticality;
see also
German Radiation Expert: No way to stop nuclear fuel that’s melted-through — Can only pray it does not touch underground water vein (VIDEO) by ENENEWS Admin, 4 Dec 2011, http://enenews.com/german-radiation-expert-stop-nuclear-fuel-melted-only-pray-touch- underground-water-vein-video;
Russian Expert: ‘Fukushima situation far from stabilizing’ by ENENEWS Admin, http://enenews.com/russian-expert- fukushima-situation-stabilizing;
State of Cold Shutdown: Hosono Says “No One Knows Where the Fuel Is, But I’m Confident It is Cooled” by ex-skf-blogspot, http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/2011/12/state-of-cold-shutdown-hosono-says-no.html ;
Reactor 4 is falling apart by Mochizuki, Dec 12, 2011, “The wall of the south side is falling apart at reactor 4. Reactor 4 is in the most serious situation. It is assumed that if another aftershock hits it to drop the spent fuel pool hung in the building, the entire area in eastern Japan would be too contaminated to be inhabitable,” http://fukushima- diary.com/2011/12/reactor-4-is-falling-apart/;
Hartmann: Fukushima…Has the China Syndrome now officially begun? (RT Video), 6 Dec 2011, “Paul Gunter, Beyond Nuclear joins Thom Hartmann. The crisis at Fukushima continues…According to a French nuclear research institute – since the Fukushima nuclear crisis began in March – the plant has leaked more radioactive material into the ocean than has ever happened before in the history of the planet…it’s inevitable that nuclear fuel has leaked into the groundwater – meaning the `China Syndrome’ is officially upon us. He also warned that if underground water gets overheated – it could trigger a hydrovolcanic explosion”;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-H7LjPIBfkU&feature=g-all; lastly,
Fukushima Part II? Tokyo to begin burning massive amounts of radioactive waste from disaster area — Burns will continue for at least 2.5 years, until March 2014 (VIDEO), by ENENEWS Admin, September 30, 2011, “We are basically recreating Fukushima all over again -Arnie Gundersen, nuclear engineer,” http://enenews.com/tokyo-begin-burning-radioactive-waste-disaster-area-will-continue-march-2014-city-process-1-billion-pounds.
5 http://enenews.com/just-in-iodine-131-now-detected-in-several-european-countries-iaea-believes-levels-do-not-pose-a-public-health-risk-not-from-fukushima. See also
Major Website: Mystery cloud of dangerous iodine-131 over Europe is absolutely cause for concern — Certainly deserves more than 129 words by IAEA by ENENEWS Staff, 16 Nov 2011 at: http://enenews.com/major-website-mystery-cloud-of-dangerous-iodine-131-over-europe-is-absolutely-cause-for-concern-certainly-deserves-more-than-129-words-on-by-iaea.
6 http://iconoclastnews.com/2011/11/06/u-s-deaths-increasing-due-to-japanese-radiation/
7 http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-28/fukushima-teacher-muzzled-on
-radiation-risks-for-school-children.html
8 Chernobyl Heart (41:10) According to Wikipedia: “a 2003 documentary film by Maryann De Leo. The film won the Best Documentary Short Subject award at the 2004 Academy Awards. The full length version embedded at http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/chernobyl-heart/.
9 http://tinyurl.com/3ukrghe; Transcripts also posted at Veterans Today under the title for hour one: Catastrophic Effects of Radiation Contamination at:
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2011/11/09/catastrophic-effects-of-radiation-contamination/ and hour two: New Bombs and War Crimes in Fallujah at:
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2011/11/03/new-bombs-and-war-crimes-in-fallujah/.
10 http://tinyurl.com/4924xzn.
11 http://tinyurl.com/yh2r3zl
12 http://tinyurl.com/39lrrb8
13 http://tinyurl.com/4924xzn
14 http://tinyurl.com/3wm3rkw
15 http://tinyurl.com/7o7uk44
16 Chapter 17; The Bombing Beat Goes On and On: The JFK Assassination Subplot, the McVeigh Subterfuge, Bali and Amman Explosions of the Mission of Conscience series by William B. Fox at http://tinyurl.com/rdhdwz.
Genetically Modified Mosquitoes To Be Released In U.S.
FLORIDA KEYS, Fla. — Genetically modified mosquitoes could be released into the United States environment as early as January 2012, according to Oxitec, the creator of the insects. Planned U.S. target is the Florida Keys, the first beta testing grounds to determine whether the mosquitoes lead to detrimental environmental and genetic impact.
Residents of the area will be subjected — without choice — to these genetically manpulated insects, unless the private firm decides to seek permission.
The first mosquito release took place in the Cayman Islands in the Caribbean in 2009. On Sunday, Oct. 27, the release was discussed in a scientific paper by the journal of Nature Biotechnology with the report concluding the releases’ success. A second trial occurred in 2010, where 6,000 mosquitoes were released in Malaysia for further experiments. The mosquitoes are genetically modified with a gene designed to kill them unless given an antibiotic known as tetracycline. Offspring of the GM mosquitoes will receive this same lethal gene which will kill the offspring before it can ever reach adulthood. As more genetically modified mosquitoes mate with wild mosquitoes, the idea is that more and more offspring will be produced with the lethal gene, thereby reducing the mosquito population.
Of course the risks these mosquitoes pose both on the environment as well as the health of all living creatures are highly unknown, leaving everyone with many more questions than answers. Genetic modification can terribly threaten the environment and human health, yet people are still moving toward a genetically modified world. With the release of genetically modified insects could come the downfall of both local and global ecosystems as well as negative consequences concerning the food chain. There is currently no way of knowing what could happen by replacing the naturally born life forms on planet earth with genetically modified creations.
Some questions that still remain unanswered:
· Will Oxitec, the creator of the insects, need to acquire the free and informed consent of residents in Key West for the release of the GM mosquitoes? With the previous release of the mosquitoes in the Cayman Islands there was no public consultation taken on potential risks and informed consent was not given from locals.
· With 0.5 percent of the released insects being female (the gender which bites humans), what happens to humans if bitten by the female mosquitoes?
· What could happen to the ecosystem and local food chain with the major decrease in the Aedes aegypti mosquito population?
· Who will regulate the release, and who will be responsible in the event of complications – to any degree?
‘Wallace, you never can jail us all’: but Wells Fargo can
http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/2011/12/wallace-you-never-can-jail-us-all-but.html
I am still totally pissed off at Wells Fargo after they callously and mercilessly ruined a friend of mine’s credit by charging her outrageous fees for an “overdraft protection” service that she never signed up for. http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/2011/03/wells-fargos-illegal-overdraft.html.
And now I’m all pissed off at Wells Fargo for about 16 trillion other reasons as well — none of them cool.
According to Rep. Alan Grayson’s revealing synopsis of the GAO’s recent Federal Reserve audit, “The main, if not the sole, qualification for getting help from the Fed was to have lost huge amounts of money. The [16-trillion-dollar] Fed bailouts rewarded failure, and penalized success.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rep-alan-grayson/the-fed-bailouts-money-fo_b_1129988.html
Hey, if my friend’s credit is so bad, then why didn’t the Feds bail her out too — like they did Wells Fargo?
But Wells Fargo isn’t the only target for my wrath. I’m also pissed off at General Electric and will never ever ever buy another appliance or light bulb or drone from them ever again. And you shouldn’t either. Those guys are evil zombie war profiteers, sucking America’s very life-blood away — at our own expense.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNkX6LJSaWE&feature=relmfu
In fact, I am totally pissed off at just about everyone who is stealing from America’s treasury — K Street lobbyists, Supreme Court justices, war-profiteers, Wall Street insiders, the Federal Reserve, White House staffers, congressional puppets of the corporatocracy, off-shore out-sourcers, mountain-top removers, ALL of those corporate-welfare-receiving pirates who are happily busy raping and pillaging America.
And now all these evil corporatist bad guys are threatening to throw us in jail? To throw anyone who objects to being robbed by America’s new robber barons in jail? That’s what I’m hearing from internet chatter — that corporatists are now building concentration camps especially designed to hold all us average salt-of-the-earth Main Street schmucks who are finally getting pissed off.
Back in the 1960s, when thousands of us marched on Montgomery with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., we all sang a song that went something like this: “Oh, Wallace, you never can jail us all!” Well, those days are gone and now Congress and Obama and Cheney and General Electric and Wells Fargo are also threatening to jail us all — but, unlike Wallace, they CAN.
http://www.bagnewsnotes.com/2011/12/occupy-forcing-militarized-pds-to-show-their-colors/
.
According to the ACLU, “The Senate voted last Thursday [December 1, 20011] to pass S. 1867, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which would authorize the president to send the military literally anywhere in the world to imprison civilians without charge or trial. Prison based on suspicion alone. The power is so sweeping that the president would be able to direct the military to use its powers within the United States itself, and even lock up American citizens without charge or trial. No corner of the world, not even your own home, would be off-limits to the military.”
http://www.aclu.org/blog/tag/NDAA
And why shouldn’t corporatists want to jail us all? Just think of all that access to free labor they’ll get!
Corporatists in Germany back in the 1940s profited a lot from prison-camp labor. So why shouldn’t corporatists today also give it a whirl? Why indeed.
See ya in the hoosegow, folks.
And I’m calling “dibs” on the first bottom bunk to the left of the tent flap.
****
PS: That’s a photo of me, marching in Montgomery while seven months pregnant with baby Lorraine. Love the glasses, made the dress myself.
Osborne: Rights At Stake
To The Editor,
The Preamble to the Constitution of the United States reasserts the Declaration of Independence’s contention that no ruling king or class of people had rightful power over any others. To wit, under the law of the land all men are created equal and endowed with certain inalienable rights and that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness (Constitutionally redefined as property).
These are rights due an individual that are protected within our form of government by the courts. And the justice receipt of such rights within our “ever more perfect union” (the direction of ever increasing liberty also prescribed in the Preamble to the United States Constitution) is assured by law as ultimately defined by the highest court.
A lynch mob declaring itself to be just WE THE PEOPLE in exercise of majority rule is no more of a legitimate exercise of power than is treating a woman as nothing more than a container that is subject to risk and damage in survival service to some supposed other potential person that is so defined and judged to be more precious by some religious fanatics bent on public demonstration of nothing more than their own great piety.
Anyone thinking of themselves as being so pure of purpose that they can disregard the good of an individual, that is doing no more than finding and minding their own affairs, will one day find themself unwillingly martyred within the holier-than-thou sanction with which they have blessed themselves. “He who would burn a witch at the stake will one day go up in smoke,” ~ Anon. Or, “What goes around comes around,” same source in youth.
In the meantime, who protects us from Newt?
Sam Osborne,
West Branch, Iowa
Taxpayers Forced To Support Perry
Taxpayers in Texas have decided to forgo an adequate education for their children and instead feed that money to Governor Rick Perry to help pay for his Presidential bid.
Unfortunately for some, this means that Perry, through Texas taxpayer theft, has stolen a 100 percent endorsement of all Texans, even those who know him as scum. You don’t donate to a Presidential campaign unless you support the candidate, do you? This rule, of course, does not apply in Texas, where lobbyists and corporatists decide where the money goes and who gets supported, not you and me.
Several weeks before making his bid official, Perry decided that it was okay for the Texas Department of Public Safety to pay for his security.
“I’m going to be promoting Texas,” he said. “I’m going to be traveling to places where the Texas story needs to be told, and we will tell it.”
One might argue that other Presidential candidates in the past have done the same thing to Texans, including former Gov. George W. Bush, to the tune of $3.9 million. Other candidates currently running for the GOP title aren’t sinking to these tactics, so why does Perry think it is okay for Texans to lavish him as he snaps at the dangling carrot?
If you are pro-Perry, you might argue that he needs protection and deserves it.
Actually, the only protection he needs is what he’s willing to personally pay for. He has the money, more than most Texans.We owe his campaign absolutely nothing.
What he has pulled is an un-American stunt, stained with the type of filth that is reminiscent of something Santa Anna might applaud. Forcing people to help pay for his deceptive campaign is about as low as you can get.
The Iconoclast opinion is that if you are planning to venture out into the rain, carry your own umbrella, not mine.
We do not need yet another terrorist in the White House who will strive to ruin this country.
Perry’s record in Texas is horrible. Do we really want to have another idiot like George W. Bush in charge? If honesty, integrity, and accountability were involved, Bush would today be stomping at rats in his cell at Sing Sing, as would his papa.
Perry is a dumbified version of Bush, if you can sink that low.
He should pay for his own security. That’s what a true Texan would do. He, obviously, is not one.
— W. Leon Smith
Crime Pays For Texas Legislators
Texans for Fiscal Responsibility
Kerr
That Texas’ part-time legislators are eligible for a lucrative pension is a scandal in itself, made worse when one realizes even pleading guilty to a felony for their official actions doesn’t dent their lifetime payout.
The dirty little secret in Austin is that crime does pay… for members of the Texas Legislature.
State Rep. Joe Driver (R-Garland) was recently sentenced to five years of deferred adjudication after being caught double-charging his campaign and Texas taxpayers for travel expenses. Justice served? Not really.??
While Mr. Driver has said he will not seek reelection, he does plan to finish out his current term by “serving” the same constituents defrauded (he says he didn’t know it was wrong).
Despite his felony conviction and sentencing for “double-dipping,” Driver will continue pocketing taxpayer dollars to the tune of nearly $60,000 a year, for the rest of his life.
That’s some pension for a part-time job that pays just $600 a month – or $7,200 annually!
The state’s generosity toward those who have betrayed the trust of those they have pledged to serve isn’t limited to Joe Driver, of course.
Texas taxpayers are also funding the retirement of disgraced former legislator Terri Hodge (D-Dallas); she’s getting nearly $40,000 a year.
Hodge, you might recall, plead guilty to lying on her tax forms about thousands of dollars in bribes she accepted from a Dallas-area real estate developer.
Surely, in all the bureaucratic red tape surrounding public pensions there must be a stipulation that nixes retirement payments to convicted felons… Nope.
That’s why State Reps. Van Taylor (R-Plano) and Eric Johnson (D-Dallas) filed legislation this past session that would have ended payouts to corrupt public officials. (Johnson replaced Hodge)
Rep. Johnson’s legislation (which carried a long list of bi-partisan co-authors) would have made any public official ineligible for their pension if they committed a felony involving bribery, embezzlement, theft of public money, extortion, or perjury while acting in their official capacity.
Johnson’s bill was eventually attached as an amendment to a larger catch-all employee retirement bill authored by Sen. Bob Duncan (R-Lubbock). Despite the amendment’s support in the House, it was mysteriously stripped out of the bill during Sen. Duncan’s conference committee.
The pension program for our part-time legislators should be abolished; please name any part-time job that grants full-time pensions after just 10 years of service!
At a bare minimum, legislators guilty of crimes committed in office should have their pensions stripped. Does the fact that such a commonsense reform died in a smokey back room in the Capitol say something about the guilty consciences of many serving in the Texas Legislature?
Andrew Kerr is the executive director of Texans for Fiscal Responsibility (www.EmpowerTexans.com).
Secret Chemicals Revealed In Common Household Cleaners
SPECIAL TO THE ICONOCLAST
AUSTIN, Texas – There could be a dirty secret lurking in your favorite household cleaning product, according to new independent lab testing on 20 popular products that found nearly all contained undisclosed toxic chemicals.
Alexandra Scranton, director of science and research for Women’s Voices for the Earth, says people deserve to know to what chemicals they’re being exposed so they can avoid products that may cause allergic reactions or serious long-term health problems – such as cancer, birth defects or pregnancy complications.
“Currently, there are no requirements for them to label or disclose any ingredient. Some of the companies are doing this voluntarily, but they’re still keeping some chemicals hidden. So, we do think there needs to be mandatory ingredient disclosure laws, so that people know what they’re being exposed to.”
Some of the products tested in the report include Tide Free & Gentle detergent, which is marketed to people with sensitive skin but was found to contain a probable human carcinogen. The line called Simple Green Naturals was found to contain phthalates, a chemical associated with reproductive disorders and birth defects. Allergens were found in several products marketed as “fragrance-free.”
The report coincides with national legislation called the Cleaning Product Right-to-Know Act, which is being introduced today in Congress, Scranton says.
“This is a bill, very simply, that will require cleaning-product companies to put on the label of all their cleaning products all the ingredients that they include.”
Some manufacturers have maintained that the ingredients in their products are proprietary.
A fact sheet with a list of products tested and results is online at <womensvoices.org>.
