Herman Cain and a Gingrich coming to Bradley County!

A public service announcement! Just to advise you of happenings in and around town! Herman Cain and a Gingrich coming to Bradley County! This Saturday at 1 pm at Lee University!

http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2012/feb/29/herman-cain-jackie-gingrich-cushman-speak-lee-univ/

“Slippery slope” of taxing the poor and shifting costs to the middle is Bradley County wheel tax dilemma

Have you ever walked on ice? Have you ever walked on ice in dress shoes? You know the kind with no grip! Just pure leather and once it gets cold and hard it is almost impossible to stand! Now add a grade to that, attempt to stand at the top of the hill and maintain ground! Next to impossible! Right?

Well the Bradley County Commission has once again chosen to walk the slippery path instead of just simply putting their house in order! The slippery slope (Wheel tax exemptions) has been identified and it is going to be pretty much everyone that doesn’t have a job or is making under the poverty line for income, which leaves the
middle hardworking class to foot the bill!

What do I mean? Let me attempt to tell you! We are talking about the “wheel tax”, yes the same ole tax that failed a few years ago by referendum because the commission has once again chosen to put the debt on you the citizen they are supposed to protect and represent.

We are talking of tax exemptions to be exact, who is exempt from paying the wheel tax, that slippery slope, so to speak! The term used by no less than 3 commissioners and others on a few occasions. The decision to tax the poor and impoverished or tax the working class! It seems it always one or the other, not both! Pretty much the way Washington is sticking it to the working class! Either way, a new wheel tax leaves many unhappy!

Yes folks, the first vote of the commission was to tax the poor as well as the middle and the upper incomes! ” It’s a fair tax for everyone, it’s a bold move by the education committee” as Martin Ringstaff, Director of Cleveland City Schools, has been recorded as saying in past meetings.

“We have got to show the people why we need it!” , Chairman of the School Board Charlie Rose was overheard saying also.

The people, everyone, fair tax for all! That is the problem! It shows a disconnect from the people who represent us and the people who are doing the representing! With obviously no accounting for the impact a new tax has on the repressed and unfortunate in this City and County!

While researching the raw data, in this case, the US Census data, it is easy to distinguish who the poor are in Bradley County and who by County Commission vote who will end of footing the bulk of the new wheel tax! The middle class!

Here is my version of the “slippery slope !”

The data displayed below is easily confirmed by US Census data and can easily be googled for easy verification and I will even conveniently provide a few links below at the bottom of this blog.

In Bradley county we have a few more than 98,000 people in our community. The following is a breakdown of the demographic of that population according to the latest US Census data that will either be exempt or taxed heavily with a new wheel tax.

There are 23 percent that are under the age of 18 years old, of those 16 to 18 year olds probably make less than poverty level income. So, the first people attacked are the kids! Those in high school, struggling to get gas much less another 32 dollars for a wheel tax, granted a parent may go ahead and pay but the burden is still there.

14.1 percent are over the age of 65, again on fixed incomes and hating another tax bill.

16 percent in Bradley County live below the poverty level, many of which will be those with very little expendable income. 7,740 Veterans in this county! Many of which are disabled and below the poverty line or homeless.

8 percent of the county workforce are self employed, entrepreneurs or just laborers just getting by with occasional day to day work.

3.6 percent are illegal immigrants with no defineable income and no tax status whatsoever except when they consume. 1,407 live in college dorms and are probably struggling to make ends meet and have probably registered dads or moms car in another state anyway.

2 percent are either in nursing homes, in a local jail, or are in a group home or have been deemed mentally impaired.

If my math is correct this accumulates to about 60 percent of the population of Bradley County that are poor, repressed, at poverty level income, homeless or mentally incapable of making their own decisions! Roughly 60,000 people are affected and poor!

Initially, they are the ones being targeted for yet another tax. After much talk about who is exempt or not, some talk about who in the heck are we going to tax, it now appears the bullseye is hovering over the working class, the middle income earners who are trying to make their way and rely on hard work to support our families with minimal to no assistance from the government!

You may be saying not all of them drive! This tax doesnt affect them! At one point in the year all these mentioned will need a vehicle to either go to church, the grocery store, a group outing, leisure, vacation, a doctors appointment or simply a trip to the hospital and etc! They all rely on someone else for that transportation, in most cases close family or just do gooders wanting to contribute. Many of which are in the same boat as them. So fairly, it is safe to say they are all represented by a vehicle that is getting taxed!

There are 86,000 vehicle registered in Bradley County along with 3,000 motorcycles! With those numbers, you can say that roughly 70 to 80 percent of the people in Bradley County will be affected by this tax! Although many poor will be affected, in reality, most of the working class have two or more vehicles and will receive the yearly 64 to 160 dollar wheel tax bill! Most of the tax burden!

With the median home income rate of around 39,000 dollars you can see easily how another tax lifted and placed on you will further burden a “middle incomer” causing greater harm to you, while your government reaps the benefit of you punching the clock!

The Chattanoogan reported this morning and quoting Mayor Gary Davis, “the county wide wheel tax cannot happen the way it is currently written!” Mayor Davis went on to say “you want to give tax exemptions to low income elderly using the list from the trustees office, which doesn’t include them all! There are a lot of low income elderly that live in apartments, they are not property owners. I assume you want to give all low income elderly the same exemption, but it is not addressed that way in your resolution!”

Jeff Yarber referred again to that “slippery slope” again. He said, “This is that slippery slope that I was talking about. My thought processes on that was to not use the trustees list, but to use the process that the trustee has. The burden of proof falls on the individual!” Really? The burden must fall on the citizen to prove they are poor, in-firmed, repressed or homeless to be exempt from a wheel tax!

It was even suggested at one point to go ahead and tax the poor then on the backside the poor taxpayer will have to prove to the government that they are indeed poor and then they can get reimbursed! Really? This is taxation without representation! Have you ever tried to come up with 32 dollars when you don’t have it? Come on guys! Let’s get real!

Amy Moore, said “to gather names of low income elderly would require additional county staffing!” Here the door is being opened for yet another tax!

County Chairman Louie Alford added “Once you start down that slippery slope, it’s hard to get stopped!” The slippery slope started when you decided to tax the poor, the middle class in a very down economy! The slippery slope gets slicker when bureaucrats would rather tax the peasants than make the hard decisions needed to right our problem!

After last nights meeting this resolution was suggested it get referred back to the education committee then I am assuming will come back to the commission for a revised vote!

A side note! While back in the education committee I encourage you to look at why this problem of “no money” really exists in our school system! I believe if you look methodically at the problem you will find it!
Here indeed comes that slippery slope of taxing your poor in Bradley County! These folks are struggling to stay alive! To feed their 2.8 children or more is becoming a bigger and bigger chore!

My heart reaches out to these folks! They are truly in need! They need more in one day than I may need in one year! With that said, if we further exempt certain veterans, homeless, mentally challenged, poor, poverty level, illegals immigrants the burden shifts to the middle income! Me and most of you!

While compiling this data and defending the elderly and the poor I soon realized that the majority of this wheel tax will fall on the people who are broke on a different level after the numerous exemptions are made. A lose lose for all!

Many of whom after paying bills and taxes have very little in the form of spendable income! This my friends is a shift called social engineering, a tax shift to distribute income equally among the poor! Socialist call this redistribution of wealth or social justice! Many on the commission will fade away from this acknowledgement but this exactly what it is! Taking from those that have and distributing to those who have not!

Roughly 39 percent of the population in Bradley County make 100,000 down to poverty level! About 5 percent make 150,000 or more! The shift of all the taxes to this group greatly makes the burden heavier for the middle incomers and a little harder for them to provide for their own!

Don’t fool yourself to think a family income of 100,000 is alot! With college tuition rising, groceries and mortgages to include property taxes and other taxes, very little is left over once the bills have been paid!

Wealth distribution, socialism, takes from the “rich” and gives to the poor! This seems to be the expressed mantra of our elected leaders!

A tax is a tax! A slippery slope is a slippery slope no matter how you slice it! We are facing billions more in debt because of recent “growth plans” being proposed! This will not be the only tax in our near future!

This is merely a gateway tax, a tax that only opens the door for more taxes! This in my opinion is where the slope gets really slippery! Many hard working taxpayers and citizens start slipping down that “slippery slope” of poverty because of the government placing tax after tax on it’s wage earners! One tax may not tip the scale of a middle incomer into the poverty ranks, but one thing for sure is eventually the steady stream of new taxes will eventually tilt the scale and begin the fall of a hardworking citizen. Soon, that taxpayer is punch drunk and lying on their backs looking up to the government for a handout! This is true socialism Bradley Countians! Burden the free citizen till they slip and fall, while being forced to cry out to the ones who just cut both hands off, you have socialism perfected!

The schools are asking for a few new classrooms, a new school or two and past debt in the amount of around 30 million, the city will get their share of about 12 million to help build another school, my goodness will it ever stop!

We have a school board that allows students from surrounding counties and a few states to go to school here in Bradley County, why don’t we restrict the students to the schools they are zoned for and I bet we won’t have such a big problem! I would safely say hundreds of kids are in our system that don’t belong there!

My issue is this, it seems ok to absorb all these out of state and county students till you start asking the citizens to pay for another counties financial burden with more taxes!

City Councilman Bill Estes summed this whole situation up pretty well, he said ” A wheel tax is unbelieveably regressive and hurts the poor!” But he went on to advocate for a property tax.

County Commissioner Ed Elkins has said “people are saying they would rather have a property tax than a wheel tax!”

To all listening, the majority of Bradley Countians and Clevelanders are tired of paying more and more taxes! We are tax heavy! Great percentages of our income is taxed and Bradley County is not making it any easier on us to live here!

I challenge each and everyone of you to rethink any new taxes! We are in a down economy and most everyone is struggling! The debt that education is placing on it’s citizens cannot be carried much longer. A 60 plus million dollar education debt is enough! The debt burden on the horizon in the billions will only get larger as we shift costs to the massive growth plan already in the works!

Let’s simply ask the schools to look into why they are in such debt and spending unwisely! Let’s ask them why is it that no matter what amount of money we spend on our schools we get the same mediocre results? I believe the answer is easily out in the open if someone dare look!

Let’s get all our houses in order! We are out of control! It is time we get people in office to do the work that will not be done by the ones we have chosen to represent us! The time is right!

We must take steps to save our county, put our children’s future in sight and say any decisions must be well thought out and the first response should not be to raise taxes on the poor and not shift that cost to the middle class!

NO NEW TAXES, LESS GOVERNMENT, MORE FREEDOM!

21 sure signs your community is deeply rooted within Agenda 21

In Bradley County Tennessee, to the best of my knowledge started about 2 and one half years ago! The public and the citizens got involved much later in the process and that was by design! The complete process was sold and bought by our Mayors and local PPPs,NGOs and appointed boards long before!

The infiltration of the United Nations Agenda 21 plan into our and your community happened before it was even recognized that Agenda 21 was the status quo!

For many months in Bradley County and Cleveland, Tennessee a systematic “conspiracy theory” punch was delivered by many leaders in this town to any concerned citizen that may dare raise his or her head on this subject! This was also by design and begs to draw attention to those leaders as the useful idiots of this process in our community!

As you mentally make a check off of the 21 items below, make a mental note of some program that have been introduced alongside these objectives! Our community, I dare say to some degree has all of them checked off!

Now it is time to absorb the punch and now say we must get leaders on our councils/commissions/Mayors offices/State Rep/Congressmen/State and federal Senators and Governors that have Americas priorities in place and not their own!

Once replaced we must tear down all those committees, boards and defund these programs and stop the endless taxpayer dollars from flowing like water in the form of grants and loans!

Have fun with this list as it can apply to every county in the US, pass it around! Every county in the US people, doesn’t that ring a big alarm bell that something beyond our imagination is going on in America!

Once you start the checkoff and start to realize you are in the throngs of Agenda 21 then get busy drawing attention to this diabolical, expensive and expansive program!

the 21 Signs Agenda 21 Is in Your Community
By: Darin Moser   September 21st, 2011

Has your town or city been infiltrated by United Nations policies of Agenda 21 and Sustainable Development? Below is listed a collection of 21 signs that point to the likely involvement of this radical new philosophy in your community.

1. Your community is a member of organizations such as ICLEI (International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives), or ICMA (International City/County Management Association) – these organizations promote the creation of sustainable communities in line with United Nations Agenda 21.

2.) Your community has a Sustainability Director or Department of Sustainable Development that is in charge of coordinating the planning and implementation of sustainable development policies in your area.

3.) Your community has a Vision, Master, or Comprehensive Plan typically created within the past 5-10 years that promotes the three E’s of Sustainable Development (Environment, Economy, and Social Equity) also known as the “Triple Bottom Line”.

4.) Your community supports compact, high density, mixed use, pedestrian and bicycle oriented development patterns, constructed primarily along public transit and rail corridors. This is also known as Smart Growth, New Urbanism, or Resilient Communities. These communities also promote alternative modes of transportation away from the traditional automobile toward policies which endorse and encourage public transit whenever possible to curb fossil fuel usage and lower carbon emissions. This may include the implementation of community wide Biking and Pedestrian plans.

5.) Your community is actively promoting healthy communities through sustainable agriculture and community gardens; encouraging a shift away from the current free market driven food system to a new locally-focused, publicly incentivised sustainable food system.

6.) Your city or town has established an Urban Growth Boundary beyond which all development including the suburbs is considered SPRAWL and blight and is discouraged through various incentives and regulations.

7.) Your town has joined with local regional councils or with the state or federal government to promote Sustainable Communities Planning or to launch new sustainable initiatives.

8.) Your community has embraced and is building the infrastructure of the new “green” energy alternatives including solar and wind farms while discouraging the continued use of other forms of energy such as fossil fuel and coal.

9.)Your community is placing restrictions on private landowners in the form of increased regulation and changed land use rules in order to promote farmland preservation, environmental protection and conservation of natural resources.

10.) Your community is working through state and local mechanisms including NGO’s (Non-Governmental Organizations) to gain more and more control over privately owned land in order to secure it in perpetuity as shared, common “green space”.

11.) You find this or any similar symbol in your community’s official government documents: (example: The three “Olympic type” rings that are in our 2035 BCC Strategic Growth Plan)

12.) Your community belongs to the Earth Charter, the Sierra Club’s Cool Cities Initiative or the Audobon Society’s Sustainable Community Initiative or your mayor has signed the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ Climate Protection Agreement.

13.) Your community leaders accept manmade global warming as fact and begin to endorse policies to mitigate any actions or development that may promote global warming.

14.) Your community enacts an energy plan requiring governmentally predetermined efficiency standards in order to lower your community’s carbon footprint. This may include utilizing new “green” LEED building and energy code standards for construction and development that include incentives, benchmarks, and retrofitting.

15.) Your local leaders begin to refer to your community as a “transition town”, a resilient city, or as a “livable community” and begin teaching through local government and institutions a community focus on interdependence with nature, interconnectedness and globalism.

16.) Your local government uses the language of Social Equity; such as food justice, economic and environmental justice, fairness, direct democracy, diversity, food deserts, social justice, and wealth redistribution.

17.) There is involvement from multiple Non-Governmental Organizations in your city’s planning and development initiatives. Any new planning involves these NGO’s and many other “stakeholders” in the collaborative, consensus-building, “visioning” process that details the plans for your community’s future.

18.) Your local school systems begin promoting environmental awareness and sustainable development; with a focus on becoming environmentally literate, good global citizens. Your school may be involved with International Baccalaureate or other UN sponsored education agendas.

19.) Your local government authorities begin using and exceeding their constitutionally granted powers alongside private organizations to assist in the promotion of sustainable initiatives through Public-Private Partnerships.

20.) You see a focused and significant push toward “social equity” interfaith initiatives that promote a “one world” mentality along with community diversity, multiculturalism, sameness of faiths, social inclusion and environmental stewardship.

21.) Your community uses language that calls for “redefining” how we determine progress and prosperity away from traditional wealth and growth measurements like GDP (Gross Domestic Product) toward more philosophical non-specific ideas such as well being and happiness.

The above signs are but a few that illustrate the implementation of Sustainable Development ideology in your community. If you see these signs unfolding around you in your various local institutions you may want to deepen your level of research into Agenda 21 and Sustainable Development and begin working to shine the light of truth in order to expose these globalists anti-American policies for the one world reality that they serve.

Candidate Training: How to run for a political office!

Ever thought about running for a political office and didn’t really know how to get started or were afraid to ask how! Tired of saying “why dont those guys and gals in office ever listen to me?” Toss them out with your own campaign! Learn how! Your ship has come in!

Candidate Training, how to run for office! This Saturday! Hurry before the class fills! Register today at americanmajority.org ! Dont delay!

Event Date: 25th February, 2012

Please note that this event has been rescheduled from January 14 to February 25.

Going into 2012, cities, counties and school districts across our nation are seeing the effects of the visible lack of principled, conservative leadership, as they face unbalanced budgets, uncontrolled debt and residents who are fed-up with government intrusion into their lives and wallets. The need for new leaders to come forward, to take a stand for free-market and limited government principles and to commit to defending Constitutional principles is as strong as ever. American Majority’s goal is to help those leaders be successful by providing the tools and resources they will need in order to run a victorious campaign.

American Majority will be conducting a candidate training session in Cleveland, TN on Saturday, February 25 at the Bradley County Library (795 Church Street) from 10:00am-4:00pm. The event will be geared toward giving candidates and campaign mangers the resources and information that will help them effectively organize in their communities to defend limited government and free market principles. Registration is $50.00 per person, and includes training materials and lunch.

Some of the topics that will be addressed include:

The Campaign Plan
Fundraising
A Campaign Online
and more!
For more information about this, or other training events, please call 540-338-1251.
*American Majority is a non-profit and non-partisan political training organization whose mission is to train and equip a national network of leaders committed to individual freedom through limited government and the free market.

HB 2610- Bill to limit Federal raids in TN, State Rep Watson waffles on support of bill empowering Sherriffs

Why in the world would a State Representative by the name of Eric Watson be against limiting federal agents from raiding sovereign citizens inside the state of Tennessee that he is sworn to protect? Why would he propose and state his objection to the bill as “corrupt cops could tip off the target of federal agents!” Ok, let’s revert back a bit to the wild wild west!. In a rogue, cowboyish way, lets put aside the comment of “corrupt cops” tipping off a target comment for just a minute! For one, corrupt anything should not be receiving a paycheck! Lets just assume like back in the day when a sherriff was a sherriff! He made all the calls, and called all the shots! When the Feds rode into town, first stop was the Sherriffs office! Nothing went down in his town without him giving the nod! Now back to the corrupt cops! Isn’t that what they are supposed to do? Protect the citizen from the Feds? Constitutionally? Right? So the comment of a corrupt cop intervening, isnt that constitutional Eric? Yeah, in today’s terms maybe he is not towing the line and following protocol, but isn’t that bad cop just doing what he is supposed to do, serving and protecting?

This bill, HB 2619, which State Representative Eric Watson is opposing could limit and possibly halt the Federal Government from blazing into your company or private home like they did at the Gibson Guitar plant in Nashville and ultimately closing it’s production down and possibly resulting in another Gibson Guitar from being made! All over a piece of wood the Feds thought was used illegally!

Why would State Representative Eric Watson be against such raids and not feel overwhelmed to protect the citizens of Tennessee with undying fervor! Where is his allegiance? Where does he stand? I don’t have the answer! Call him and ask him! That’s the best way to get an answer! You can do that! This is your constitutional, inalienable, God given right to question your elected officials and representatives of government! They don’t like it, but for the moment we still have a viable constitution and your rights are still intact! Call him and ask him why he has chosen not to protect the citizens of the state of Tennessee in this case! That’s the easy way!

KNOXVILLE LAWMAKER’S BILL SEEN AS MEANS TO NULLIFY BAD FEDERAL LAWS

By Tom Humphrey
Published Tuesday, February 14, 2012
NASHVILLE — State Rep. Bill Dunn says his bill requiring federal agencies to notify local law enforcement officers before making arrests in Tennessee is a means of “standing up for the people” against an overreaching federal government.

“There comes a point where we’ve got to put a little bit of pressure on the feds and stand up for our citizens,” the Knoxville Republican told members of the House Judiciary Subcommittee last week.

But Dunn’s HB2610 faced almost an hour of critical questioning from members of the panel who wondered if it amounted to unnecessary overreaching by the Legislature as a “nullification” effort that could jeopardize investigations into local corruption and lead to deputy sheriffs arresting federal agents.

Van Irion, an attorney for the Liberty Legal Foundation who finished third in the 10-candidate Republican primary for the 3rd Congressional District nomination in 2010, fielded most of the questions on the legislation that he helped draft. It is a revised version of a bill that was introduced last year which failed to pass.

Irion said that in “90 percent” of cases involving federal agents acting in Tennessee, the officers already check in advance with city police chiefs or county sheriffs before executing warrants.

But he said there are occasional situations where local officers are not notified and should be informed.

Both Irion and Dunn cited as an example the raid last August by the U.S. Department of Justice on Gibson Guitar Corp. operations in Nashville, where the officers said ebony wood illegally imported from India was being used in guitar making.

After being notified of a planned federal raid, the local law enforcement officer could check with the state attorney general to determine whether the federal action violates state law, the bill says.

The state Legislature, meanwhile, could declare some federal laws to be unconstitutional and unenforceable within the state, Irion noted

When Rep. Barrett Rich, R-Somerville, said there is no mechanism for the Legislature to decide on the constitutionality of a federal law, Irion said Tennessee’s Legislature has already done so with two laws enacted in the last legislative session.

One was the Health Care Freedom Act, which declares Tennesseans can ignore the federal health care law. The other is the Tennessee Firearms Freedom Act, which says federal gun laws cannot be enforced if the weapon in question was made within Tennessee and never taken outside the state.

If the agents violated the proposed state law, they could be prosecuted for committing a Class E felony, punishable by one to six years in prison. If someone was illegally arrested, the agents could be prosecuted for more serious crimes, including kidnapping, under the bill.

Irion said he envisions agents rarely, if ever, being prosecuted. The penalty provision is necessary, however, to assure that the state has legal standing to mount a court challenge to inappropriate federal laws.

“Would this be considered nullification?” asked Rep. Jim Coley, R-Bartlett.

“Not necessarily,” replied Irion

“Not necessarily, but possibly,” said Coley, who went on to say the bill would “create an enormous bureaucracy” for federal agents to deal with in carrying out their duties. It also raises “serious constitutional issues,” he said.

Nullification has been a major issue in American history, dating to Andrew Jackson’s presidency when some states sought to nullify federal tariffs. Southern states also asserted the right to nullify federal laws in seceding from the Union prior to the Civil War.

Judiciary Chairman Eric Watson, R-Cleveland, raised the issue of corrupt local law enforcement officers tipping off the target of a federal raid if notified in advance. Irion said there would be an exception to notification in such cases. Watson questioned whether that was practical as an attempt at “nullification” of federal authority,

“This gives grounds to litigate,” said Irion. “This state has the absolute authority to determine what is constitutional and what is not Whether we’re right or not is up to the Supreme Court.”

As they critiqued the bill, some legislators also expressed sympathy with the goal of asserting state rights. That prompted Dunn to postpone further consideration of the measure until Wednesday, when he said some changes may be drafted to ease concerns.

“What I’m hearing you say is you’re really for the philosophy of standing up for the people of the state,” Dunn said. “I think everybody’s heart’s in the right place. We’ve got to get the legalese in the right place.”

The Senate companion bill, sponsored by Sen. Stacey Campfield, R-Knoxville, has not yet been scheduled for Senate committee action.

Preschooler’s homemade lunch replaced with chicken nuggets, not healthy enough

Very few things chap my butt as much as this issue! A school district that receives most of my property tax, in Bradley County, 60 percent of our property taxes go to the Department of Education and they have the audacity to tell my kid what he or she can or cannot eat at a public school! The meals we pay for, the children we would sacrifice everything for and they want to tell this poor kid in NORTH CAROLINA that he can’t eat his turkey sandwich, banana, apple juice and a small bag of chips that some loving parent has packed for him!

My lord in heaven there has to be a stopping point to this madness! This is not in Iran folks, this is not in California, the land of decadent libtards, this is in neighboring North Carolina, just a few miles from us!

A state official took this kids meal away from him, told him it was not nutritious enough and hands him a bucket of chicken parts rolled in flour, deep fried in lard and tells him this is the best meal for him! B-U-L-L-S-P-I-T!!!!!

Where in the hades is the outrage! A nation of sheep we have become! Can you imagine what would have been said about this 50 years or so ago? There would have been someone hung on the courthouse lawn at dawn!

This is your children they are picking on now! The Department of Agriculture in cahoots with the Dept of Human Services joining Michelle Obamas Healthy Kid Initiative and you get the Federal government telling you what you can pack in a lunch bag and then taking that away and giving your child a cup of chicken nuggets! Only the government could mess this up this bad!

Here is the rest of the story! I can’t keep getting mad while people act like sheep and allow this to happen on our beloved country! It’s gotta stop, but it want stop till the people speak up loudly and frequently! Oh well, tell your kids to enjoy the nuggets!

Preschooler’s homemade lunch replaced with nuggets
Published February 14, 2012 | FoxNews.com

AP

A Hoke County preschooler was fed chicken nuggets for lunch because a state worker felt that her homemade lunch did not have enough nutritional value, according to a report by the Carolina Journal.

The West Hoke Elementary School student was in her More at Four classroom when a state agent who was inspecting lunch boxes decided that her packed lunch — which consisted of a turkey and cheese sandwich, a banana, apple juice and potato chips — “did not meet U.S. Department of Agriculture guidelines,” the Journal reports.

The decision was made under consideration of a regulation put in place by the the Division of Child Development and Early Education at the Department of Health and Human Services, which requires all lunches served in pre-kindergarten programs to meet USDA guidelines.

“When home-packed lunches do not include all of the required items, child care providers must supplement them with the missing ones,” the Journal reports.

The student’s mother told the Journal she received a note from the school about the incident and was charged $1.25 for the cafeteria tray, from which her daughter only ate three chicken nuggets.

The note explained how students who did not bring “healthy lunches” would be offered the missing portions and that parents could be charged for the cost of the cafeteria food, the Journal reports.

The mother, who was not identified in the report, expressed concern about school officials telling her daughter that she wasn’t “packing her lunch properly!”

Bradley County land grab under way by forced annexation! Feeling a little like Clint Eastwood!

Land grab? Yes! The city is launching an all out assault on your property! The city has decided to annex a large portion of Bradley County! See details in article below!

Where are our locally elected officials? Let me tell you where they are! They are mum, silent and 100 percent complicit with this forced annexation! Why? Let me tell you! They will be getting more of your money! It’s that simple!

This is essentially a new tax that you will not get to vote on! Do I have the hair on the back of your neck standing erect yet?

My understanding is now you get to pay city and county taxes if you live within the Mouse Creek Corridor around all the new large corporations, truckstops to exit 33. There was even discussion about annexing Walker Valley into the city but it was determined that the extra tax burden wouldnt help the school at all. But tax you more? Oh yeah baby, no problem there! Pile it on! Anyone concerned? Anyone awake yet?

Why are our county elected officials not concerned that the city is eating up your property…..exactly, MORE MONEY, MORE REVENUE! That one factor that will close the lips of a politician faster than a serving of the ex in laws mince meat pie!

Think it will stop at the Mouse Creek Corridor, exit 33, Wacker and Amazon, nope! The Dream of our City mayor is to have a Metropolitan government! All inclusive, one big tax generating machine to the Chattanooga border! “Only 5 more miles” from Cleveland to Chattanooga! Ooltewah is the only thing stopping them and I’m sure they are contemplating how to break that up to benefit both Mayor Littlefield and our mayors! Think I’m kidding? Call and ask about this annexation that is being forced on you, I dare you!

Now be prepared for a smoke chimney to be neatly placed behind you and copious amounts of smoke generated and blown up your backside, but call and ask! Call and ask your City or County Commisioners? Heck even call your State Representatives Kevin Brooks or Eric Watson! I personally doubt they will tell you much about it, but I promise you they “may have heard about it!”

Get informed Bradley County, the current elected leaders are complacent, been there too long! Are all about the money and are blind to your needs! Step up and get involved! Wake up from your slumber!

This is where Clint works his magic! Read with caution! I warn you it gets a little…..steamy! Hopefully by now you are coming along with me as I reveal the Eastwood mystique! You are perhaps now awakening, just read the paper, hair tassled and still in your PJs, preparing to embark on your day and are still wiping the sleep from the corners of your eyes! While sipping that first cup of java, peering like steel over the brim through the steam, ask your bride with a Clint Eastwood scowl, “what the heck are the people that were elected by us doing to my community and why!” Resist the urge to look away! Then take a bite of your biscuit and gravy, while clearing the residue from the corner of your mouth, one eye closed, look up at your bride with a mocking growl in the back of your throat and repeat after me…this may make your throat…. But say to her….. “Baby, I think something is awry and sideways in our town!” “It’s high time we speak up and stop this madness!” Just over the rim of your coffee cup, steam now collecting on your forehead, manage to open one eye and allow it to twinkle a little bit, she now begins to squirm a bit in her chair as memories of you 25 years younger, edgier and more robust than ever jump through her head and she winks a flirtatious approval of her reformed man now standing up for what he believes in!

As the heat in the room continues to rise, resist the urge to pull your nose off the brim of your coffee cup, because its working for you! From the steam you continue to stare through while now connecting with her soul, she’s putty in your hands! Relate to her ever so gingerly the scope of this forced annexation on your budget and your lifestyle together! The weekend shopping trips, the occasional jaunt to the Smokies, that little extra socked away for a rainy day, college fund ?……done, no more! Those pipe dreams just went down the drain with the bath water! That extra money is now being turned over to the government! The smile may go away but she will be proud of her man for at least sounding good over breakfast, but the stark obvious reality remains the same!

These characters are going to do whatever they want regardless of the encroachment on your life! The mighty dollar speaks louder than the call of humanity! This scenario though lighthearted should scare you, it did me but it provided for one interesting morning!

Its not what you think! Get your minds out of the gutter! My wife fell off her chair, flipped the table and I ended up with a tender nose and a lap of hot greasy gravy! Ouch! At least for a moment I thought I was Clint and she was starting to respond……a little!

The first paragraph should really concern anyone in Bradley County! Impromptu meeting to discuss annexation and oh yeah a flood plain study, spending another 300,000.00 dollars of your hard earned cash to define open space of course!

City to launch Mouse Creek corridor annexation
by DAVID DAVIS, Managing Editor

The Cleveland City Council passed two impromptu resolutions Monday that directed staff to begin the process of annexation and invite Bradley County to participate in a countywide floodplain study.

The Council voted unanimously to direct staff to begin the process of annexing the Mouse Creek corridor all the way to Cleveland Utilities Waste Water Treatment Plant on the Hiwassee River.

The corridor includes Wacker Polysilicon North America, Amazon.com, East Coast Lighting Distribution Center and two truck stops at Exit 33 of Interstate 75.

The Mouse Creek corridor would have to be brought into the urban growth boundary in two pieces. The first annexation could not take place before 2013.

The process of annexation begins by expanding the city’s urban growth boundary which is about a six-month process. The area is attractive to the city because municipalities are required to provide services to incorporated areas and sewer service is the most expensive cost up front. However, that service is available to residents along the existing sewer main between the city and the treatment plant.

“Any area already served by sewer is obviously not going to impact like it would if we took a subdivision they couldn’t get sewer to,” said Development and Engineering Services Director Jonathan Jobe. “When we did our study on Mouse Creek Road, there was talk about another interstate exit where you could alleviate a lot of traffic off Mouse Creek Road and that would be something you’d want to initiate.”

The city includes an area of 28.77 square miles. By law, the Council can annex 25 percent of the city’s area every two years, which amounts to about seven square miles.

The last major expansion of the urban growth boundary and annexation occurred in October 2010 when the city extended its boundary southward to bring in the proposed 343-acre Spring Branch Industrial Park. Also included in the expanded growth boundary was the 357-acre Cleveland Municipal Airport alongside Michigan Avenue Road and Dry Valley Road. The Council only recently completed annexation of the 357-acre municipal airport.

Hardwick Farm, which includes about 678 acres between Stuart Road and Tasso Lane, and from North Lee Highway up to Urbane Road is scheduled to be incorporated into the city in February 2012. The plan does not include existing subdivisions between the farm and Urbane Road.

The other impromptu resolution simply directs City Manager Janice Casteel to invite Bradley County to participate in a countywide floodplain study. The city has allocated $300,000 to fund the local share of a floodplain study in the city.

On other regular agenda items, the Council passed the following by a 7-0 vote:

– Resolution 2011-107 approved an additional and amended contract with Warren Moberg and David Watts, for providing services to meet the requirements of the Targeted Crime Reduction Grant.

n Ordinance 2011-26 to rezone 357 acres of the new airport property at 4505 Michigan Avenue Road N.E. and 261 Dry Valley Road N.E. from Rural Agriculture (RA) to Light Industrial (IL).

– Ordinance 2011-27 for rezoning a property yet to be addressed on Michigan Avenue Road Industrial Highway (IH) to High Density Single and Multi-family Dwelling District (R3).

– Ordinance 2011-28 for rezoning a property yet to be addressed on Peach Orchard Hill Drive from Single Residential (RI) to Low Density Residential (R2).

– Ordinance 2011-29 to amend the Zoning Code’s downtown parking requirements.

– Ordinance 2011-30 to amend PUD8 on 25thStreet/APD40 to change the number of units in Phase II from 144 to 112. (p. 24-38).

Hr 658: FAA Reauthorization and Reform Act of 2011, Use of drones on US Citizens

Voting for HR 658 in Tennessee

Aye TN-1 Roe, Phil [R]
Aye TN-2 Duncan, John [R]
Aye TN-3 Fleischmann, Chuck [R]
Aye TN-4 DesJarlais, Scott [R]
No TN-5 Cooper, Jim [D]
Aye TN-6 Black, Diane [R]
Aye TN-7 Blackburn, Marsha [R]
Aye TN-8 Fincher, Stephen [R]
No TN-9 Cohen, Steve [D]

Every single Republican in congress in our state has voted “yes” to this horrendous bill! HR 658! Giving the US the authority to fly 30,000 drones around the US!

They will be able to monitor every level of activity you will ever perform! 50 states and 30,000 drones that is 600 per state! Big states not as much coverage, small states that’s a drone just about for every 1 to 2 counties! Are you kidding me? 2 drones per county in states like Tennessee?

Think of the surveillance one of those suckers could reign down on the average citizen! The average flight time of one of them is around 50 hours! 2 days straight! 600 hundred drones per state, 50 hours per flight! That’s 30,000 hours of surveillance every two days, almost 600 surveillance hours per hour!

Why? Why must Our government be able to survey your private property 600 hours every hour that you exist? What information is so valuable that we must be watched this much! That little outhouse or storage building that you didn’t get that permit for? That garden that didn’t get the ok to sell those veggies at the end of your drive? For Gods sake this is what we used to kill Osama Bin Laden! Are we going to have them used against us when the stuff hits the fan?

Why did Comgressman Fleischmann and Dejarlais vote for this bill that will complement NDAA? What? Huh? NDAA? Yes! Perhaps this bill just passed while you were sleeping has a higher motive? Do we quietly stand by as our Congressmen lie to us once again and tell you this is a good thing? Do we turn our heads as we are once again held to someone else’s standard of what it means to be American? Do I wait for the rest of the world to say that we voted partisan to better protect you?

In Europe, the drones flying just got the ok to asssist the regulatory agencies to monitor farmers and their crops from abuses such as having hay stored openly on their property to feed the cattle and to keep track of the cattle! You know the US says now you must have your hay stored in bins to cut down on methane exposure!

Why must we watch as our government plots out your property with multiple thousands of hours of surveillance a day? What is it that is so interesting that must be recorded!! What is so divisive that HR 658 split right down party lines? I know some people will say, why are you getting so worked up over a little drone flying around your house? It is only the beginning folks, it’s one more freedom, one more liberty given away! It’s one more thing the government must do to a free society that takes it one step closer to not being a free society! I’m looking down the road a bit! That’s why it bugs me and if America continues to sleep and remain passive on these things, the America we know now in a few years we will not be able to recognize her! That’s why!

The deeper reason is the further eroding of your property rights! The continuous watching of big brother over your property to make sure you comply! A sad day indeed!

God forbid we continue to accept this behavior from our elected officials!

http://www.cleveland.com/newsflash/i…ea70c009bf9bb7

The FAA is also required under the bill to provide military, commercial and privately-owned drones with expanded access to U.S. airspace currently reserved for manned aircraft by Sept. 30, 2015. That means permitting unmanned drones controlled by remote operators on the ground to fly in the same airspace as airliners, cargo planes, business jets and private aircraft.

Currently, the FAA restricts drone use primarily to segregated blocks of military airspace, border patrols and about 300 public agencies and their private partners. Those public agencies are mainly restricted to flying small unmanned aircraft at low altitudes away from airports and urban centers.

Within nine months of the bill’s passage, the FAA is required to submit a plan on how to safely provide drones with expanded access.

If you decide to get a little sideways give your elected officials a respectful call and say very calmly! STOP THE MADNESS!!!

WILL THE EU USE DRONES TO SPY AND ENFORCE REGULATIONS ON FARMS?

In what started as a tool of war, drones are now being authorized to be used on US Citizens and monitor your daily activity!

Congress just approved the use of drones to fly high above the clouds, unmanned, undetected and simply taking pictures and video of you and your activity!

Where is the outrage? This is happening so rapidly that now we are becoming accepting of this type activity because I feel we are resigned to the fact that it will happen regardless!

This is a very dangerous way to deal with this behavior. Being passive in light of our liberties being stripped away will definitely assure our liberties will be taken from us without a fight!

WILL THE EU USE DRONES TO SPY AND ENFORCE REGULATIONS ON FARMS? SURE LOOKS LIKE IT!
Source: The Blaze

While the U.S. Congress approved a bill this week that would open airspace to drones, the European Union is already a few steps ahead and considering the use of these unmanned aerial vehicles to enforce its own regulations.

(Related: Report: Predator drones being used on U.S. citizens in America)

Popular Science reports that officials in the EU are looking to drones to police the skies over agricultural land to ensure farms aren’t cheating subsidies or violating rules within the Common Agriculture Policy:

Farm subsidies in the EU cost taxpayers billions of euros each year, and so it’s naturally in the best interests of regulators to maintain tight oversight over who gets how much. For years now, regulators have relied on satellite imagery to help them keep an eye on those claiming subsidies, photographing farmland from above and looking for the telltale signs of subsidy cheats or breaches of environmental rules. But satellite images are unreliable. In some places, mountainous terrain makes for long shadows that obscure features on the ground. In places like Scotland, it’s overcast all the time.
BBC has more details on the issue with satellites that make drones an attractive option:

Many things in the countryside are constantly changing and when the satellite passes over, “the animals may be in a field or in a barn — you can’t count the numbers very well”, says Roland Randall, an English farmer and environmental researcher in Cambridgeshire.
“When planners looked at the aerial photo records of our farm they thought we had an additional building without permission, but it was actually a haystack,” he told the BBC.

There have been few prosecutions in the UK based on satellite evidence, says Ray Purdy, a senior law researcher at University College London (UCL) specialising in satellite monitoring.
One case in the UK was dropped in 2001 because a farmer proved that he had planted a linseed crop, even though the satellite image appeared to show bare earth. The sparse young plants had failed to show up against the bright reflection off chalk downland.

With drones, many of these issues would be cast aside. Drones can fly below cloud level and can capture more detailed pictures to be coupled with satellite images. BBC reports that use of the drones for this purpose is currently in its trial stage in France and Italy.

The EU isn’t just considering drones for farmland monitoring though. Other proposed uses, according to BBC, include map making, transportation of goods, border monitoring and more.

As Popular Science notes, it is becoming continually apparent that UAVs aren’t just for warfare anymore. The U.S. is already using or considering to use drones for things like border patrol and surveillance in New York City. In one case, a civilian powered drone recently spotted a violation from a meat packing plant dumping animal products into a Texas river.

Just this week Congress approved a bill that would not only speed up the adoption of GPS technology over radar systems in U.S. aircraft, but also will require the Federal Aviation Administration to open up the sky to military, commercial and privately-owned drones within the next four years. U.S. airspace is currently reserved for manned aircraft. There is an exception for drone use in segregated blocks of military airspace, border patrols and for about 300 public agencies and their private partners. Those public agencies are mainly restricted to flying small unmanned aircraft at low altitudes away from airports and urban centers.

Within nine months of the bill’s passage, the FAA is required to submit a plan on how to safely provide drones with expanded access.

Privacy advocacy groups in the U.S. and Europe have concerns over the use of drones as a policing method, when they were once only used in war zones. BBC reports that some are calling for more discussion on the privacy implications whereas others are rather accepting of the technology:

Ben Hayes of the campaign group Statewatch worries that Europe is rushing into the use of drones without sufficient public discussion.
“We would accept the argument that there are lots of things they can be useful for, but … the questions about what is acceptable and how people feel about drones hovering over their farmland or their demonstration — these debates are not taking place,” he says.

Rob Allan, a farmer in Warwickshire, said “it’s modern life really — I don‘t think there’s anything you can do about it”.
In the U.S., groups like the American Civil Liberties Union have voiced concerns over the Congress-approved bill for drone use, asking the government to consider the privacy issues more closely. The ACLU wrote in a statement: “We don’t want to wonder, every time we step out our front door, whether some eye in the sky is watching our every move.”

Malihi, Kemp issue final decision on Obama eligibility case, to appeal

ATLANTA – On Tuesday morning, Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp (r) issued a final decision, adopting Administrative Law Judge Michael Malihi’s initial decision contending President Barack Obama meets the eligibility requirements to appear on Presidential Preference Primary ballot.

On Friday, Feb. 3, Malihi issued his decision in three challenges to Barack Obama’s eligibility.

During the Jan. 26 hearing Malihi noted neither Obama nor his Attorney Michael Jablonski appeared or answered and said ordinarily the court would enter a default judgment against a party that fails to participate in any stage of the proceeding.

“Nonetheless, despite defendant’s failure to appear, plaintiffs asked this court to decide the case on the merits of their arguments and evidence,” wrote Malihi, adding, “The court granted plaintiffs’ request.”

Malihi (l) also said, “By deciding this matter on the merits, the court in no way condones the conduct or legal scholarship of defendant’s attorney, Mr. Jablonski,” and stated his decision was based entirely on the law as well as the evidence and legal arguments presented.

His order was in two parts.

The first part addressed plaintiffs David Farrar, Leah Lax, Cody Judy, Thomas Malaren and Laurie Roth, represented by Attorney Orly Taitz.

The second part addressed all the plaintiffs, including those represented by Taitz as well as plaintiff David Welden, represented by Attorney Van Irion, and plaintiffs Carl Swensen and Kevin Powell, represented by Attorney Mark Hatfield.

In Part I, Malihi basically discredited the eight witnesses and said he found their testimony, as well as the exhibits tendered, “to be of little, if any, probative value, and thus wholly insufficient to support plaintiffs’ allegations.”

He stated, “None of the testifying witnesses provided persuasive testimony,” and said none of the written submissions had any probative value.

In conclusion, Malihi stated, “Given the unsatisfactory evidence presented by the plaintiffs, the court concludes that plaintiffs’ claims are not persuasive.”

In Part II, Malihi addressed the claim that Obama is not a natural born citizen of the United States and is, therefore, ineligible to run in Georgia’s presidential primary election.

Malihi said he considered, for the purpose of analysis, the following facts: 1) Obama was born in the United States; 2) Obama’s mother was a citizen of the United States at the time of birth; and 3) Obama’s father was never a U.S. citizen.

It was the plaintiff’s contention, because Obama’s father was not a U.S. citizen at the time of his birth, Obama is constitutionally ineligible for the office of President of the United States.
Malihi said, “The court does not agree.”

Citing a 2009 Indiana Court of Appeals case, Arkeny (sic) [Ankeny] v. Governor of Indiana, in which plaintiffs argued “there’s a very clear distinction between ‘citizen of the United States’ and ‘natural born citizen’ and the difference involves having [two] parents of U.S. citizenship, owing no foreign allegiance.”

Pointing out the Indiana court rejected the argument that Obama was ineligible, Malihi stated, “[C]hildren born within the United States are natural born citizens, regardless of the citizenship of their parents,” and said, “This court finds the decision and analysis of Arkeny (sic) [Ankeny] persuasive.”

While plaintiffs argued the term natural born citizen was defined in 1875 in Minor v. Happersett, Malihi said the Indiana court explained that Minor did not define natural born citizen.

He went on to say, “In deciding whether a woman was eligible to vote, the Minor court merely concluded that children born in a country of parents who were its citizens would qualify as natural born, and this court agrees. The Minor court left open the issue of whether a child born within the United States of alien parent(s) is a natural born citizen.”

Citing United States v. Wong Kim Ark, with which the Indiana court agreed, Malihi said the court extensively examined the common law of England in its decision and concluded Wong Kim Ark, who was born in the United States to alien parents, became a citizen of the United States at the time of his birth.

Malihi stated, “The Indiana court determined that a person qualifies as a natural born citizen if he was born in the United States because he became a United States citizen at birth.”

He wrote, “For the purposes of this analysis, this court considered that President Barack Obama was born in the United States. Therefore, as discussed in Arkeny (sic) [Ankeny], he became a citizen at birth and is a natural born citizen,” and concluded, “President Barack Obama is eligible for the presidential primary election under O.C.G.A. § 21-2-5(b).

Using Malihi’s analysis, anyone born in the United States is a natural born citizen.

In other words, according to Malihi, children born within the United States to illegal aliens, tourists and/or terrorists are natural born citizens and are, therefore, eligible to become President of the United States.

Malihi’s conclusion is more analogous to saying: All dogs are mammals and all cats are mammals and therefore, all cats are dogs.

Over the weekend, Taitz filed a petition with Kemp to set aside the recommendation issued by Malihi and find Obama ineligible to appear as a candidate for President of the United States on the Georgia ballot.

Taitz cited a 2000 Georgia case, Haynes v. Wells, which she said establishes the precedent “that a candidate seeking to hold office through an election in the state has the affirmative duty to prove their eligibility.”

Taitz said a 2008 Malihi decision in O’Brien V. Gross, from which she quoted, “The burden of proof is entirely upon respondent to establish affirmatively his eligibility for office,” relied on Haynes.

Since neither Obama nor Jablonski appeared, Taitz asked, “On what basis did Judge Malihi consider Obama to be born in this country? Did he consider him born in this country based on his wild imagination? The only thing Obama provided was an empty chair. Did the empty chair testify under penalty of perjury in front of Judge Malihi … that Obama was born in this country? Did the empty chair provide Malihi with any evidence, with the original birth certificate or a certified copy?”

Taitz went on to state Malihi’s reliance on Ankeny “is a  travesty of justice and an embarrassment to the state of Georgia.”

Taitz stated Malihi was required to base his decision on what was in the record and his introduction of an obscure Indiana case was used to advocate for Obama rather than judge the case on the record at hand.

Hatfield sent a letter to Kemp via e-mail prior to Kemp issuing his final decision to point out “several significant flaws in Judge Malihi’s findings and conclusions.”

On behalf of his clients, Hatfield requested that Kemp render a decision that treats Obama no different than any other candidate seeking access to the Georgia ballot that fails and refuses to present evidence of his or her qualifications for holding office and disregards the authority of our judiciary.

Now that Kemp has issued a final decision in the matter, Hatfield stated, “[W]e are going full bore and taking it up on appeal.”

Irion has also indicated his client will be filing an appeal.