The Enemy Within!

 "America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves". Abraham Lincoln

Voter's we have choices to make. Do we stay on our current course and keep sending Democrats and Republicans to Congress and state legislatures, or do we have the courage to veer off the beaten path. Now is the perfect time to look to the independent, the Libertarian or the non-party candidates. We need to send strong candidates to Washington, not to caucus with the Democrats or the Republicans, but to listen and govern according to the will of the People. 

If you don't think you are over taxed and under represented; try getting Ohio to lower your sales tax!

"Something Wicked This Way Cometh?"

The three Lorain County Commissioners are responsible for all the county expenditures and, "Given their budget-making authority, they must have a good business sense – matching available revenue streams to service needs." , they should be looking to the community for ideas on how best to do that. Instead, they seem to have an idea and immediately take from the community or plunge us deeper into debt to bring their idea to reality which mean higher taxes later!

The land bank is supported by fund strapped municipalities and cities wanting to clean up properties that devalue adjoining lots. These acquisitioned properties will sit, tax free, in the possession of the land bank. If sold, the money will stay in the land bank. As long as no tax abatement is given to the purchaser, the county will, again, receive the real estate taxes.

The recent formation of the Lorain Land Reutilization Corporation could be a good thing for the taxpayers of Lorain County. Then again, it could be the vehicle by which the People of Lorain County lose their most valuable asset;  land. I could be wrong, but I don't think God is making any more land. The land bank has been  designated as the agency for the reclamation, rehabilitation and reutilization of vacant, abandoned, tax foreclosed and other real property in the County.... The catch?; and OTHER real property. Heads up property owners!

The first thing the (2) Dem commissioner did was divert the DRETAC (Delinquent tax and assessment collection) funds from the county school districts to the land bank, approximately $450,000, for seed money. Tom Williams was the lone no vote. The state will give them another $500,000 to start. Then, they will borrow 1.6 million dollars. If /When the planned project is completed, the state will give them the 1.5 million dollar balance of the two million dollars awarded to Lorain County from fraudulent foreclosures. In other words, the county must spend money we don't have in order to get the money we are eligible for.

People are asking questions, and rightly so, in light of the recent concerns over the Commissioner's possible violations of the Ohio Revised Code section 307.86, which governs competitive bidding requirements for boards of county commissioners. Awarding contracts in excess of $25,000 with no bid process is a no no! Candidate for Commissioner, Phil VanTreuren wrote an informative article on his website at http://www.philvantreuren.com/van-treuren-lorain-county-commissioners-are-violating-ohio-revised-code-with-no-bid-projects/  " Van Treuren said that the law is clear, and that this oversight adds to a narrative that taxpayer money isn’t being spent responsibly by the Lorain County Commissioners."

Couple that with the land bank and the St Joe's Community Center investments and you begin to see a pattern. If these investments are so good for the People of Lorain County, where are the private investors? The ones that create jobs, purchase properties, clean them up, build hospitals, casinos, office buildings, individual homes and apartment buildings. Call me nuts, but I am thinking that someone somewhere wants a specific piece of Lorain County for a specific use. That someone now has the perfect means to use taxpayer dollars to accomplish the acquisition and clean up, to lower the purchase price and to obtain the tax abatement agreements they want. We'll just have to watch and see.

If you don't think you are over taxed and under represented; you need to get more involved!!

Memorial Day

Thank you to all who served, are serving, waited or are still waiting for the return of loved ones. You will probably never truly recognize how much you are appreciated! Just know that you are!!

Have a wonderful weekend.

Money Talks; Even to the Tea Party!

The Republican National Committee, the Conservative Senate Political Action Fund, http://senateconservatives.com/site/about, and Freedom Works' own Free PAC, http://connect.freedomworks.org/portals/freepac, are backing Josh Mandel, the Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate. The Democratic National Committee and all the Dem PACs are supporting Sherrod Brown. Literally millions of dollars are flowing into Ohio from all over the country for these (2) two candidates. Sherrod Brown has been in Washington D.C. for over 20 years. Josh Mandel was in his current position as Ohio's Treasurer less that 90 days before the Republican leadership scooped him up to run against Sherrod Brown. Both want to represent the People of Ohio.

Has the conservative wing of the Republican party taken over the Tea Party Movement? Perhaps so. It seems that money talks and little else matters in this world. A very sad commentary on the state of the state of Ohio. The media will be flooded, as November approaches, with ads for this or that candidate and we will complain about all the hype, dirty politics, that the money could be better spent and how nothing ever changes, but will we, the People, be willing to "think outside the box? Will we be looking at principle over party in a candidate? I have my doubts. We have been locked into the "he can't win" unless he is a Republican or Democrat bubble for so long that the majority of us actually believe that! Take that majority and throw it to the other guy and he CAN win!!

Are the conservative Republicans really conservative or are they saying what we want to hear and will, like so many others before them, do as they please once elected? I would rather hear from a Constitution believer and supporter. We need to send more non-party candidates to Washington and rid it of the career politicians from both parties before we can ever hope to return Congress to the People. We have to clear the creek so to speak.

We didn't get to this point over night or alone; we had help. Take a minute or two and look at the make up of the Senate; 53 Democrats and 47 Republicans. Nearly half have been there 15 years or more and many of those, like Sherrod Brown, served in the House before running for the Senate. Isn't it time for new leadership in the Senate? Isn't it time for the People to be truly represented?

Think outside the box; check out the other guy! Read about Scott Rupert at http://scottrupert.com/ .

The U.S Debt is almost 16 Trillion dollars! "To contract new debts is not the way to pay old ones." George Washington


If you don't think you are over taxed and under represented; you must have more money than you know what to do with!

The Right Choice for U.S. Senate!!

If Josh Mandel is not YOUR choice and you agree that Sherrod Brown has been in Washington for far too long; why not cast your vote for a candidate who believes in the People, the Constitution and freedom. A true independent candidate, Scott insists "a Senator's job is to 1) preserve the interests of his sovereign State, 2) guard it against an overreaching federal government, and 3) protect it from special interest groups".

If you are among those of us who want to retire Sherrod Brown, the Democratic establishment man; WHY would you want to replace him with another politician hand picked by the Republican establishment??? This is the year for the People to continue the drive to take back our government. 2008 was just the beginning!

Scott has shared a lot on his web site;

"I have been a resident of Ohio most of my 47 years. My parents grew up here: my mother in Lorain and my father in Avon Lake. They raised me in Sheffield Lake.

Small business has been the engine of American economy since our founding. The fuel for that engine is the individual’s unfettered pursuit of self-interest. The cost of compliance with overboard federal regulations is driving small business out of business, and making new start-ups almost impossible to create. 

Government can’t create jobs, but it can eliminate them. By throttling production of natural gas, oil, and shale oil within our borders, the federal government has ignored the employment opportunities within the petroleum industry. These jobs are readily available and would support our national economy. 

The healthcare mandate is one of the federal government’s “infractions of the Constitution affecting the sovereignty of a State and the liberties of the people.” The U.S. government has no constitutional authority to legislate the behavior of the people, or direct the laws of a State by compelling the purchase of federally approved levels of health insurance. 

The Fourteenth Amendment forbids funding organizations hostile to the United States through the national treasury. As a world-governing body, the United Nations encroaches on U.S. sovereignty and monies from our treasury cannot be used to support it. Debt restricts sovereignty. Congress must pay down the national debt by refusing deficit spending and by creating an environment conducive to economic growth, instead of relying on tax hikes and token spending cuts."

Read more at http://www.scottrupert.com/

If you don't think you are over taxed and under represented; think again!!