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P.O. Box 116, Tawas City, MI 48764 www.ioscorepublicans.org e-mail: mail@ioscorepublicans.org
WHAT'S NEW?
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PLEASE CHECK TO SEE IF YOUR DUES ARE CURRENT. IF YOU NEED INFORMATION ON YOUR STATUS, CHECK WITH MAUREEN RUDEL, 362-4747 OR maureen@tawasbay.net
TODAY'S PROOF OF
GLOBAL WARMING
December 16, 2011 by Don Surber , See
http://blogs.dailymail.com/donsurber/
Beluga whales are up to 20 feet
long and can weigh 2 tons. Polar bears love them because not only are they
tasty, but each one has a million calories. Eat one and you don’t have to hunt
for a month.
Well, polar bears, soup’s on because more than 100 of these million-calorie meals are stuck in the frozen food section of Chukotka, Russia. Vlad Putin may have to send in icebreakers because the White Sea and Barents Sea in the northwest of Russia are freezing fast.
From Agence France Presse:
“A group of over 100 Beluga whales are cut off from the sea and are prisoners of ice floes in the Bering Sea,” the Chukotka region said in a statement on its website, saying the local governor Roman Kopin had requested an ice-breaker.
It said that the whales were trapped just 15 kilometres (10 miles) south of the village of Yanrakynot on the Bering Sea.
The statement said the Kopin had written a letter to Transport Minister Igor Levitin and Emergencies Minister Sergei Shoigu “to study the possibility of sending an ice-breaker to save the whales.”
It said that the whales risked becoming starved and the advance of the ice floes was reducing the space that they had to swim in.
“Given the lack of food and the speed at which the water is freezing, all the animals are threatened with exhaustion and death,” it added.
The AFP story went on to note: “The Beluga whale is a protected species in Russia and it is one of a handful of wild animals whose cause has been championed by Russian Prime Minister and nature lover Vladimir Putin.”
Now we know that because this event does not fit the global warming narrative, this is just weather. Or maybe global warming now causes ice.
The Associated Press report:
Russia scrambles to save some 100 trapped whales
MOSCOW (AP) — Russian agencies are scrambling to some 100 beluga whales — an endangered species — that are trapped among large chunks of polar ice floating in the frigid Bering Sea.
Russia’s nature protection watchdog says there is a chance that the whales might perish. Authorities say the ice is 10-15 centimeters (4-6 inches) thick and is preventing the whales from reaching the open sea where they can swim freely.
Russia’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology said Thursday that it has asked the Transportation Ministry for help and that an inter-departmental group is working on how to save the whales.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature listed the beluga whale as an endangered species in 2008.
UPSET ABOUT
BIG BROTHER'S BAN ON INCANDESCENT BULBS? BUY A HEATBALL!
Selwyn Duke, December 30, 2011
This is just too good.
Many of you know that in a few days the federal ban on conventional incandescent light bulbs will go into effect. And while House Republicans included a provision in a recent spending bill that will block funding for the ban's enforcement, it's said that it will have little effect; manufacturers have prepared for the new standards and will no doubt abide by the law. So does this mean we'll be forced to buy more expensive LED (light emitting diode) or CFL (compact fluorescent light) bulbs, the latter being those squiggly things said to be loaded with mercury? Not if we follow the lead of German businessman Siegfried Rotthaeuser.
After the European Union banned conventional incandescent bulbs, Rotthaeuser's entrepreneurial spirit was sparked. He started selling another product: heatballs.
What's a heatball? According to this Teutonic Knight of Freedom and Light, it is a "small heating device" that compensates for the loss of heat a home experiences when conventional light bulbs are swapped for more energy efficient ones.
At his English-version website, Rotthaeuser points out the convenience of his invention, writing, "A HEATBALL® is not a light bulb, but fits into the same socket!"
He then touts the new product as "The most original invention since the electric light bulb!" and explains, "Although a heatball is technically very similar to a light bulb, it is a heater rather than a source of light." Elaborating, he also states, "By using heatballs, the heating effort of a normal house is effectively assisted. A heatball is a source of heat. Or do you use your toaster as a desk lamp?"
A businessman with a conscience, however, Rotthaeuser also believes in truth in advertising. He thus is forthcoming about a certain unintended byproduct of his heating element, writing, "During its use as a heater, HEATBALLS have an unavoidable emission of light in the visible spectrum." Pity that. But if heatballs are anything at all like incandescent light bulbs, they should be very efficient little space heaters, indeed.
So maybe you believe that the ban on conventional incandescent bulbs is far afield from the government's rightful scope; perhaps you fret about how such a regulation is blatantly unconstitutional when instituted by the feds. If so, I can't help you. But if you have a tropical plant or pet hamster that needs a space heater - or if you simply want to save on oil or gas used for heating during the winter - buy some HEATBALLS®.
And, hey, something just occurred to me. With heatballs' unintended byproduct of light, you just might be able to forego buying those LED and CFL bulbs.
Contact Selwyn Duke
Page Printed from: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2011/12/upset_about_big_brothers_ban_on_incandescent_bulbs_buy_a_heatball.html
THROW 'EM ALL OUT .
. . AND GOOD RIDDANCE!
By J.R. Dunn, December 28, 2011
Crony capitalism is the
most serious current danger to the American community, a threat not simply to
government or the economy, but to our very way of life. It is the worst such
threat since the trusts and monopolies of the early 20th century, and in much
the same way. Cronyism is one of the major forces behind the establishment of
the corrupt pseudo-aristocracy that has been taking shape in this country over
the past two decades, a synthetic privileged class made up in large part of
politicians, hustlers, and hangers-on who have become expert in exploiting the
rest of us.
The legacy media, for some obscure reason, tends to bury discussions about this group. While the reportage on discrete incidents is there -- see the parade of stories on Solyndra, Goldman Sachs, and MF Global for examples -- we find little effort to pull it all together. Academics, with the single exception of Angelo Codevilla, who sounded the alarm two years ago in The Ruling Class, appear oblivious, as if they had no idea what's going on, which may well be the case.
The customary watchdogs having remained asleep, we need to rely on independents. Chief among these in Peter Schweizer, whose latest book Throw Them All Out (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011) gives us the clearest picture we've yet had of the activities of the new crony class.
Schweizer examines the new cronyism through the lens of the old -- specifically, the political philosophy of George Washington Plunkett, 19th-century Tammany stalwart who seen his opportunities and took 'em. Plunkett's modus operandi was based on "honest graft" -- rather than fish for bribes or payoffs, Plunkett would discover what contractor was putting up the new schoolhouse and then mosey over to drop a few hints about his cousin's brick company. It worked every time, and was completely legal. Plunkett was never brought to book on it. The basic axiom of cronyism reads: why break the law when there are plenty of loopholes to use?
Though Schweizer makes an honest attempt to remain bipartisan, the book is dominated by members of a certain political party the name of which I will not mention but which is run by politicians named Kerry, Durbin, and Pelosi among others.
John Kerry specializes in using advance information on upcoming bills to make investments, which Schweizer correctly characterizes as a form of insider trading. During the ObamaCare debate of 2009 Kerry invested $200,000 in the healthcare company ResMed, the value of which shot up over 70%, a tidy little windfall even to a man married into one of the richest families in the United States. At the same time, ObamaCare cut Medicare reimbursements, so Kerry dumped all his shares in United Health, a medical insurance company deeply dependent on Medicare. Kerry, it seems, didn't have to pass the bill to know what was in it.
(John Boehner also played this little game, though not a shiftily as Kerry, actually waiting until the debate was over to purchase, in December 2009, stock in several large health-related companies.)
Dick Durbin attended the now-famous September 2008 meetings in which Henry Paulson and Ben Bernanke warned members of Congress of imminent and universal financial collapse. He immediately unloaded large chunks of his stock holdings. A natural reaction; he was a little panicky at the time. You'd do it too.
"We despise professional athletes who bet on their own games." Schweizer tells us. "Why don't we feel the same way about politicians who bet on the outcome of legislation?"
Another tool of corruption is the IPO (which, according to Schweizer, means "Invest in Politicians Often"). Companies about to go public invite certain strategically-placed politicians to make the first purchases in the offering, before the stockbrokers or anyone else. You can't really call it a payoff.
Nancy Pelosi is a particularly avid IPO fan. She and her husband made an incredibly large purchase of the Visa IPO amounting to 10% of their stock portfolio, raking off nearly a 50% profit on the original purchase in only two days. (Nancy Pelosi also had a station built on a light rail line in San Francisco near one of her office buildings. Real estate manipulation is yet another tool of the privileged class.)
Schweizer also offers a complete rundown -- the first one I've seen -- of the actual extent of Barack Obama's "stimulus" program, which he characterizes as the biggest political payoff since the heyday of Boss Tweed. Reading this will make your blood boil. It should be a major topic of discussion in next year's campaign.
The level of corruption revealed here is breathtaking, even to me, and I take a back seat to no one in political realism. This is worse than Plunkett's day. In his time, there were limits on behavior put in place by accepted custom and traditional morality. Both of those factors have been relentlessly undermined in the past century. What is left is only a kind of kindergarten positivism -- if it's not explicitly forbidden, then it's allowed. So Congress, both houses, along with the bureaucracies, and the little layers of government all the way down to Yourtown, are populated by relentless loophole miners. We have not merely returned to the epoch of Tammany and Boss Tweed, we have surpassed it.
(Is there anybody left with clean hands? Well yes -- Schweizer identifies James Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin, who, though he owned large amounts of health care-related stocks, made not one sale before or after the health-care debate. It's a sad thing to have to praise a man for doing what anybody ought to have done, but that's our situation.)
How do we overcome this? Peter Schweizer's suggestions include an immediate ban on insider trading, defined as any form of trading involving bills that are or may come before Congress. A prohibition on any business deals involving conflict of interest. A ban on land deals involving political contributors. Full and honest transparency in any financial dealings involving a politician. (Schweizer reveals that those so-called "blind trusts" are actually no such thing.) All this is well and good, and some of it is actually in the works. But as long as we have laws, we will have loopholes, and as long as there are loopholes, they will be mined. What we truly require is a return to ethics on the mass scale. How this is to be done I have no more idea than anyone else.
But the first step is knowledge -- read this book and pass it on.
J.R. Dunn is consulting editor of American Thinker.
Page reprinted by permission from the American Thinker: http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/../2011/12/throw_em_all_outand_good_riddance.html
EDITORIAL
Beware of Giving
Your E-Mail Address
By Maureen Rudel
I have noticed that I have begun
receiving all sorts of e-mail solicitations for products and services that I did
not request. By noticing the address which is used, it is clear to me that
the Michigan Republican State Party is selling my e-mail address, and presumably
that of others who have given their address to the Party.
I checked their website and see that they have no stated Privacy Policy. You will notice that when I send out e-mails, I send them out as blind copies. That allows you to control the people to whom you give your address. I do not give out the e-mail list to anyone, any candidate, or any other site. When I receive a request to distribute information, I send out one e-mail to everyone and allow you to sign up if you choose to receive additional information from the candidate, politician or committee. I strongly suggest that before you sign up for information, you check to see what their Privacy Policy is. If there is none, assume that your address will be sold to raise money.
Candidates who are supported by our party for general election or who wish to run in a primary for an office are welcome (assuming they are active dues-paying members) to submit their information to me to distribute to our e-mail list. If you have any further questions on this subject, don't hesitate to contact me at 362-4747 or maureen@tawasbay.net.
The Sunrise Side Republican
Women's
Club holds monthly meetings on the 4th Monday of the
month. The location and speaker will be announced for each meeting.
Unless otherwise stated, the lunch will be at 11:30 a.m.
The officers are: Mimi McDonald, President, 739-9394, Janet Ernst, Vice President, 362-9686, Margery Geeraert, Secretary, 739-2656 and Debbie Adams, Treasurer-Membership Chair, 739-1385.
Don't forget, dues are due in January. You can send $20 to Debbie Adams, 7720 Cedar Lake Dr., Greenbush 48738.
The Sunrise Side Republican Women's Club is offering a $1000.00 scholarship for a qualifying female High School senior or College freshman from Alcona or Iosco who shows interest in the Republican party. Jan Ernst has sent information and applications to the 5 high schools involved. Spread the word that this is available to families of our area. Applications must be returned by the end of March. Please send them to Jan Ernst at 1963 Douglas Drive, Tawas City, MI 48763.
The next luncheon meeting will be in April 23, 2012.
The public is welcome and invited.
MEETING -- Friday, February 10, 2012, 7:30 a.m.
Big Boy -- East Tawas
Call to Order
Pledge of Allegiance
Roll Call
Approval of Agenda
Approval of Minutes
Treasurer's Report
Chairman's Report
Vice-Chair's Report
Committee Reports
A. Membership Committee Report
B. County Commissioners ReportOld Business
A. Sunrise Side Republican Women's Club
B.New Business
A. State Party Update
B. E-mail and Correspondence
C. Lincoln/Reagan Dinner
D.Adjournment
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Check the Meeting Page for more information on upcoming activities.
LARRY ZUCAL HAS OBTAINED ANSWERS FROM 6 OF THE US SENATE CANDIDATES TO A TEA PARTY QUESTIONNAIRE. IF YOU WANT MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT HIM AT 747-0363 OR lzucal@charter.net.
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