Homeland

9/14/2011: Let's start with a bit of good news. TWO GOP folks just got elected to Congress. One out of New York and one out of Nevada….Is there a message in this? IF so, for who?

Lets look at money: Meaning our Tax Dollars

Mississippi received more that 455,000,000.00 since 9/11/01
2003 to 20007 another 27,500,000.00

Last ten years Mississippi has received grants of yet another 120,000,000.00

Another 108,000,000.00 (Disease Control.)

Also, and thank goodness, DeSoto County got an explosive-detecting dog with a Homeland Security grant. ( Money well spent by any measure.)

These grants from Homeland Security and Center for Disease Control are just the starting point….Our two senators have pork-barrels much more than these grants over the last decade.

We are also informed that Mississippi is at the bottom of these grant lists and that many states have gotten ten times these amounts. (I can't imagine what those other state dollar numbers might be.)

It would take years of research to discover how all this money was spent and for what. The question buried in all of this IS: If Mississippi hadn't gotten this grants along with the pork barrel money what would our State's finances have looked like?

Let's leap to a bigger picture of the last ten years to the national level. If we factor out Government spending for the last ten years the net results would have been a loss of 1% of GDP per year. So instead of 'doing well' as our government has been reporting to us with the support of the liberal media the country has been in a decline and the voters have been in la-la-land

Meanwhile the First Regional Library system in Mississippi is crowded with students and others trying to use the library and mainly the computers. DeSoto County library says it has had to make appointments for computer use. The Regional system wants another 1,417,896.00 so they can update and replace their older computer some well over four years old. (Also, many of the libraries need more parking space. Oxford got some more parking a few years back.)

As a percentage of the overall population the citizens who use the libraries are fairly small but so important to them and to the state. Here in Oxford the library is mostly busy all the time.

Our learning centers should be at the top of our money distribution chain. (?)

Blowing in the wind:

There are many changes coming our way and one of the most important ones to me is people spending people's capitol and doing the things that need doing and shutting government out of the loop.

Oxford has a person, recently hired, to organize communities activities her name Kelly Shannon. She hit the ground running and on short notice she organized a group of about 175 people to this past weekend: To pull weeds, lay mulch, pack boxes for The Pantry, and a whole slew of other stuff that needed doing around Oxford.

I have a belief that people want to participate, they want to contribute, they want to feel they are a part of something greater than themselves. The above is one example. Now let me give another…

About three or so years I came across a web site called KIVA. (Some of you may know it. If you don't, go to the KIVA web page and read what their mission is.)
KIVA operates outside this country and arranges microloans for people around the world. When I first found them they had a number of thousand of loans in the poor parts of the world. Now, just a few years later, they have millions.

Below is a link so you can see in a very visual way what they have accomplished.
Click on the link: A picture of the world will open and in the lower left hand corner you will a chart that list colors. Read this chart so that you will have an idea of what you are seeing as the video runs. It takes some time for the video to load so just give time.

http://vimeo.com/28413747

It is people's and people capitol who will change our world, not governments spending our tax dollars. It is people's capitol that is helping to make a difference in these elections. The New York congressional seat just won by a Republican has been a Dems seat since, I think, before the country was founded. This was really loud message to all who would hear.

Lets just say, since we are just chatting, we win the House again, the Senate, and the Presidency. Then what? (Besides breathing a sigh of relief.) Then what is the heart of the issue.

They, them, those elected people (new hires) cannot set things right. They can help. They can do their part but when grandchildren get tucked in each night know that it's we who run this country. This is our watch….So, we must be clear about what we want done. It is we who must frame the discussion. It is we who must point the way. Then it is then their job to 'get-her-done.'

One of my friends, Steve Hopkins, in the MS Tea Party sent me a response to a idea I posted on the Tea site:
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Steve:

Well 1st I totally agree with the last email I read. ALL aid to foreign countries MUST STOP until our financial house is in order and for most of those countries aid should never be given again.
 
Next Abolish ALL Federal Grants and for those who immediately start crying about that punishing the education system needs to read these examples below.
 
#1 A total of $3 million  has been granted to researchers at the University of California at  Irvine so that they can play video games such as World of Warcraft.  The  goal of this "video game research" is reportedly to study how "emerging  forms of communication, including multiplayer computer games and online  virtual worlds such as World of Warcraft and  Second Life can help  organizations collaborate and compete more effectively in the global  marketplace."

#2 The U.S. Department of Agriculture gave the University of New Hampshire $700,000 this year to study methane gas emissions from dairy cows.

#3 $615,000  was given to the University of California at Santa Cruz to digitize  photos, T-shirts and concert tickets belonging to the Grateful Dead.

#4 A professor at Stanford University received $239,100  to study how Americans use the Internet to find love.  So far one of  the key findings of this "research" is that the Internet is a safer and  more discreet way to find same-sex partners.

#5 The National Science Foundation spent $216,000 to study whether or not politicians "gain or lose support by taking ambiguous positions."

#6 The National Institutes of Health spent approximately $442,340 to study the behavior of male prostitutes in Vietnam.

#7 Approximately $1 million  of U.S. taxpayer money was used to create poetry for the Little Rock,  New Orleans,  Milwaukee and Chicago zoos.  The goal of the "poetry" is  to help raise awareness on environmental  issues.

#8 The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs spent $175 million  during 2010 to maintain hundreds of buildings that it does not even  use.  This includes a pink, octagonal monkey house in the city of  Dayton, Ohio.

#9 $1.8 million of U.S. taxpayer dollars went for a "museum of neon signs" in Las Vegas, Nevada.

#10 $35 million  was reportedly paid out by Medicare to 118 "phantom" medical clinics  that never even existed.  Apparently these "phantom" medical clinics  were established by a network of criminal gangs as a way to defraud the  U.S. government.

#11 The Conservation Commission of Monkton, Vermont got $150,000  from the federal government to construct a "critter crossing".  Thanks  to U.S. government money, the lives of "thousands" of migrating  salamanders are now being saved.

#12 In California, one park received $440,000 in federal funds to perform "green energy upgrades" on a building that has not been used for a decade.

#13 $440,955 was spent this past year on an office for former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert that he rarely even visits.

#14 One Tennessee library was given $5,000 in federal funds to host a series of video game parties.

#15 The U.S. Census Bureau spent $2.5 million  on a television commercial during the Super Bowl that was so poorly  produced that virtually nobody understood what is was trying to say.

#16 A professor at Dartmouth University received $137,530 to create a "recession-themed" video game entitled "Layoff".

#17 The National Science Foundation gave the Minnesota Zoo over $600,000 so that they could develop an online video game called "Wolfquest".

#18 A pizzeria in Iowa was given $60,000 to renovate the pizzeria's facade and give it a more "inviting feel".

#19 The U.S. Department of Agriculture gave one enterprising group of farmers $30,000  to develop a tourist-friendly database of farms that host guests for  overnight "haycations".  This one sounds like something that Dwight  Schrute would have dreamed up.

#20 Almost unbelievably, the National Institutes of Health was given $800,000 in "stimulus funds" to study the impact of a "genital-washing program" on men in South Africa.
 
The money for Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare IS ALREADY THERE! Our corrupt politicians are just sending it to other countries and for idiotic research !
 
It's all about getting our Fiscal House in order. Then Implement the "FAIR TAX" where everybody who spends money in the United States is not only paying taxes but paying to support our government. Right now criminals like drug dealers and prostitutes pay NO TAXES, Illegal immigrants pay NO TAXES, Tourists pay NO TAXES. Under the fair tax system all of the above would pay taxes. The fair tax system also provides for refunds for the elderly and disabled, but for those on welfare um well they have to pass a drug test monthly to receive both welfare and fair tax refunds to assure that abuse doesn't take place the way it does under the current system.
 
I have much, much more Ron, I could give a 3 day speech on it.
but my fingers are getting tired so I'll stop,  HA.

Steve Hopkins

So, Steve has created the beginning of our bucket list of changes for the new congress and the administration. These are the first 20 let us grow this list. They can put all of these simple changes in one bill, have no debate and BAM this craziness starts to fall away. In this list hopefully our leaders will begin to learn what kind of things are no longer acceptable to us.

The more ideas we send the more can get done.

Mr. President did you hear the Dems lost two more congressional seats yesterday?

Ron
 
docnick37@gmail.com
 
http://theoxfordteaparty.blogspot.com/