Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Can Connecticut's Corrupted Government Ever Be Fixed?

I do not know-can Connecticut's corrupted state government ever be fixed?  We as taxpayers support this abusing system through taxpayer funded public finance laws.  Taxpayers monies go into this
Citizens Election Fund which allows for state taxpayers monies to pay for the campaigns of all state offices from Governor and all of its offices to State Senator and State Representative.  Why?  Especially after the Chris Donovan scandal with roll your own shops and its pending legislation?  Did politics in Hartford actually become cleaner since this law?
No in my opinion, Connecticut's politics has become even more corrupted through this system.  Intensive lobbying and buying of votes in Hartford seems to be commonplace.  Laws are now passed circumventing our state constitution as was seen in this last session.  There is also a law which makes failure to report a bribe a crime.  What part of this law was misunderstood in the Donovan scandal?  Why didn't the Attorney General investigate why Donovan did not report the bribes along the way to influence the pending law?  The scandal has been swept under the carpet-Donovan had to have known what was going on-his claim of ignorance was astounding.
And we still have corruption in the state.  And it will not be going away any time soon.  Only when state taxpayers start to say no to paying taxes to support this corrupted form of government will it change. 
The scandals will continue.  The state will continue its economic failures.  The state will continue to rank near first in taxes and near last in business and economic friendliness, growth and development.  Our best and brightest will continue to move away.  And our corrupted leaders and officials will continue to profit at the taxpayers expense.
Citizen’s Election Fund, gives full public financing to candidates for state senator and state representative, as well as governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, state comptroller, secretary of state, and state treasurer. Connecticut is also beginning a pilot program for the - See more at: http://www.commoncause.org/site/pp.asp?c=dkLNK1MQIwG&b=4773825#sthash.qsA1FOYi.dpuf
Citizen’s Election Fund, gives full public financing to candidates for state senator and state representative, as well as governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, state comptroller, secretary of state, and state treasurer. Connecticut is also beginning a pilot program for the public funding of municipal elections, which began in with financing for mayoral candidates.

- See more at: http://www.commoncause.org/site/pp.asp?c=dkLNK1MQIwG&b=4773825#sthash.qsA1FOYi.dpuf

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Times Sure Have Changed! From Senator Obama's Senate Speech on 4/13/2005

Times Sure Have Changed!  From Senator Obama's Senate Speech on 4/13/2005

 "What the American people don't expect is for one party — be it Republican or Democrat — to change the rules in the middle of the game so that they can make all the decisions while the other party is told to sit down and keep quiet.

The American people want less partisanship in this town, but everyone in this chamber knows that the majority chooses to end the filibuster. If they choose to change the rules and put an end to Democratic debate, then the fighting and the bitterness and the gridlock will only get worse.

We need to rise above the "ends justify the means" mentality because we're here to answer to the people - all of the people - not just the ones that are wearing our particular party label.

If the right of free and open debate is taken away from the minority party, and the millions of Americans who asked us to be their voice, I fear that the already partisan atmosphere in Washington will be poisoned to the point where no one will be able to agree on anything. That doesn't serve anyone's best interests, and it certainly isn't what the patriots who founded this democracy had in mind. We owe the people who sent us here more than that - we owe them much more."

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

The Maryland Rain Tax-Or Coming To Your State Soon?

If the rain comes they run and hide their heads.
They might as well be dead.
If the rain comes, if the rain comes.
When the sun shines they slip into the shade
(When the sun shines down.)
And sip their lemonade.
(When the sun shines down.)
The Beatles-"Rain" 1966


Yes there is a rain tax.  Now in Maryland.  In a state where Democrats run the State House and Senate (sound familiar?).  A new “Storm Water Fee” has gone into effect in the state for anyone who owns land in Maryland.  You are taxed based on the amount of square footage that will constitute an impervious surface on the land you own.  You may be now wondering where this new rain tax monies will go?  On the surface it seems to be another Democrat feel good program to fund storm water remediation mandates that the  legislature passed awhile ago.  However in my economic opinion I can see all of this tax money being dumped into a general fund to increase spending in other areas.  And you will probably still have the same amount of storm water as you did before.  And you can view this as just another example of government trying to force an economic outcome with negative results.

Maybe there is a crisis in Maryland with regards to storm water?  Maybe there is a crisis in Maryland that not enough taxes are being collected?  The best part of this tax is how different it is from county to county-Baltimore city has the highest fees while Republican controlled Frederick County is only charging 1 cent per residential property.  Obviously the Republicans have been able to solve their storm water crisis while the City of Baltimore can not.

Here is just another example of what one party rule can do to economically damage an economy.  And could it be coming to a state near you?  Like Connecticut?

If the rain comes they run and hide their heads.
They might as well be dead.
If the rain comes, if the rain comes.

Tuesday, July 09, 2013

The Emperor's New Clothes-New York Politics Reinvented

The Emperor has new clothes.
I had to laugh to read that the former Governor of New York Eliot Spitzer wishes to petition to run for Comptroller of New York.  In case you did not hear Spitzer had to resign because of his dealings with prostitutes while Governor.  I guess he truly respects both his wife and women in general.
But hey what is the big deal?  I see more and more politicians who really have no ethics or morals.  Their egos being as large as they are really have no need or respect for rules or laws that we common citizens must follow.  This is why Anthony Weiner is running for Mayor of New York City.  To me he is another politician who has no ethics or morals and thus is confident of his omnipotent power.  But in both cases neither man has anything to offer to the positions they are running for other than satisfying their bloated egos.
Power corrupts more and more each day in our political system.  The disconnect between economic reality and our political system grows daily.
And we as citizens and taxpayers must continue to view the folly of these stale and corrupted politicians forcing themselves upon the voting public.  But then again I have enough corruption to deal with here in Connecticut-New York's neighbor.  Both Spitzer and Weiner are hypocrites in the purest political sense.

Wednesday, July 03, 2013

237 Years Of Freedom - July 4,1776 - July 4, 2013

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated  Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

— John Hancock

New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts:
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut:
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York:
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware:
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland:
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia:
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina:
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia:
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

Tuesday, July 02, 2013

Connecticut=Poor Government + Excessive Taxes

Connecticut has poor government and poor governing. Connecticut has excessive taxes.  It has a government which knowingly breaks a constitutional law and gets away with it.  It raise taxes on its morbid economy and says it does not raise its taxes.  It lies to taxpayers.  It lies to the remaining business and industries in our economy.   It blames others for its own spending problems.  It takes away even more personal and economic freedoms on a daily basis.  It creates even more laws which make no sense to taxpayers. Government will break laws whenever they wish to.
Hartford's One Party Rule is the only ruling body in our state now.  Its liberalism continues to fail our economy on a daily basis.  Why does it continue to be unchecked?
July 1 our state economy has absorbed even more taxes which will transfer purchasing power from the economy to the command economy of Hartford.  And the net result is even more debt, more poverty and more problems for Connecticut.
Connecticut equals poor government and poor governing. Connecticut equals excessive taxes.   The Democrats in Hartford own the economy today.  We must blame them completely.