Frankly I'm shocked I picked up on this case of liberal elitism before Ed Naile was able to beat me to the punch.  This week in the Telegraph, a Nashua teacher, Nancy Mitchell, wrote a letter reflecting on her thoughts about the teacher contract stand off.  Of course the thought of school competition which would benefit teachers as well as students never crosses her mind, instead the argument is made that something must be wrong with the public for not wanting higher taxes.

Below is an excerpt of the letter, you can find it in its entirety here. 

It remains a mystery to me how there can be so many McMansions popping up, booming sales of flat-screen TVs abound on the Daniel Webster Highway, and one is hard-pressed to find a parking space at the mall or at any restaurant in the city.

Where is all of that discretionary spending money coming from? And why are those who serve the city begrudged the request for just compensation?

The bigger issue seems to be with adequate funding of the many factions involved. What would we do without those lost souls who still drink alcohol, smoke cigarettes and hope for that Powerball win?

Without them, perhaps none of us could afford adequate education funding for our children. Our property taxes would be astronomical!

 In other words how dare people prioritize themselves with their money FIRST before the government and it's employees.

Now let's move past the part about McMansions because apparently Nancy isn't aware that along with big houses come big property tax bills which would equate to more tax money for her and others looking to squeeze every last dime from our wallets to get their hand on.  Many of these large McMansions already pay far more in taxes then they use in town services, but the discussion of property taxes on McMansions vs. condos or compact homes is another subject entirely.

Nowhere does it occur to Nancy that the reason property taxes would be astronomical is because of all the things we spend away on.  Many of the school budgets in this state divide out to well over $10,000 in many cases closer to $15,000 per student (note: this is before removing half the budget as the state does to determine it's per student cost).  With roughly one school aged kid in every other house how much spending must occur before we look and say on top of federal, local and state taxes and say we just can't get any more blood from this taxpayer stone?  Apparently in the minds of some, as long as you have money for a TV, a nice house or even just to take yourselves out to dinner taxes aren't high enough.

The Union Leader ran story this week discussion the raising inflation in NH making it harder and harder for many families already struggling to survive.

The article focuses on NH pizza parlors but if you look at the true underlying costs you'll see why even the pizza specific costs continue to go up as well and they all tie back to one thing... government causing it.

The two key areas the article touched on is 1) the cost of corn continues to rise causing many wheat farmers to switch their crops, this in turn causes the cost of wheat and other crops to rise.  And 2) the cost of minimum wage is climbing to $7.25 an hour.

A couple additional costs they leave off which I think play just as much into the inflation are 3) taxes continue to climb and with record increases in our state budget I see this as only getting worse and 4) oil costs continue to rise.

Points 1 and 4 really do go hand in hand.  After all why do corn costs continue to rise?  With rising oils costs people look to alternatives for fuel.  One option more and more people continue to turn to is corn.  Shelled corn can be burned to help heat homes andEthanol markets continue to help drive up corn costs.  High wheat costs caused by the farmers switching from wheat to corn to cash in on the hot market not only impact the products that use the wheat directly such as bread or pizza dough but it also effects other products like milk and cheese since wheat is used to feed the cows.  All our energy efficiency programs pushing farmers to grow corn subsidized with our tax dollars don't take things like this into account.

Rising oil costs should be examined closer as well.  What I find very interesting here is that in 2006 Democrats ran saying they would put an end to rising oil costs and stop the government's partnership with big oil.  They claimed then, and we continue to hear Hillary and Obama claim now that their energy plans would be the solutions to all our problems, so let's look at a history of oil costs and see what is really happening here.  They've had

Until 2003, oil prices stayed in the $20 per barrel range.  It did jump in the late 1970s to nearly $40 due to the Iran/Iraq war but for the most part oil prices were stable in the low $20 range.  In 2003 we saw prices jump to an average of $27.69 a barrel.  2004 they jumped again to $37.41 and by 2005 we saw prices average just around $50 a barrel.  By 2006 though prices had stabilized again in the $50 range and by the end of 2005 we actually saw prices starting to fall.

July 2006 they hit their peek at $66.28
August 2006 - $64.93
September 2006 - $55.73
October 2006 - $50.98
November 2006 - $50.98
December 2006 - $54.30
January 2007 - $46.53
Around Feb 2007 Democrats took over both the house and senate so their energy policies began being put in place.
Feb 2007 - $51.36
Until June 2007 prices stayed around low to mid $50 range. Then hit $59.25
July 2007 - $65.96
Aug 2007 - $64.23
Sept 2007 - $70.94
Oct 2007 - $77.56
Nov 2007 - $86.92
Dec 2007 - $83.46
Jan 2008 - $84.70

2007 marked the single highest increase we've seen in oil prices in a single year with a near $20 per barrel jump.

Add to that higher costs due to increase minimum wage and higher costs due to taxes caused by uncontrolled spending as we are currently seeing here in NH, is anyone really surprised by the inflation we're seeing here?

Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) released their 2008 "Pig Book" detailing where the waste is.  My hats off to the Democratic Congress.  With their help this year marked the second highest total EVER worth a grand total of $17.2 billion.  To quote the immortal words of Charlotte, that's some pig! (or should that be sum pig)

Now as much as I like I can't blame Democrats alone.  The top 3 porkers were in fact Republicans.

What's interesting is looking how our 2008 presidential choices faired.  McCain has $0 in pork spending.  Obama lists out at $97.4 million.  Then comes Hillary with a grant total of $296.2 million.  Clearly with that much pork spending she's not representing her Jewish voters.

What better way to celebrate the release of this report then with a top 10 little piggies going to market list, take from their "Oinkers" awards

1)  The Pantheon of Pork Award
to Senator Robert Byrd (D-W.VA) for $386 million in pork.

2) The Narcissist Award
to Representative Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) for $1,950,000 for the Charles B. Rangel Center for
Public Service.

3) This Pork Was Made for Walking Award
to Representative Virgil Goode (R-Va.) for $98,000 to develop a walking tour of Boydton, Virginia.

4) The Taxpayers Get Steamed Award
to Maine Senators Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe (R), and Rep. Thomas Allen (D-Maine) for $188,000 for the Lobster Institute.

5) The Return to Sender Award
to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) for $196,000 for the renovation and transformation of the historic downtown Post Office in Las Vegas.

6) The Tax Dollars on Drugs Award
to Representative John Murtha (D-Pa.) for $23 million for the National Drug Intelligence Center.

7) The French Kiss Off Award
to Representative Mike Thompson (D-Calif.) for $211,509 in olive fruit fly research in Paris, France.

8) The Pig in Sheep's Clothing Award
to Montana Senators Max Baucaus (D) and Jon Tester (D) for $148,950 for the
Montana Sheep Institute.

9) The Unidentified Fiscal Object  Award
to Representative Ann Esshoo (D-Calif.) for $1.6 million for the Allen Telescope Array.

10) The Money Doesn't Grow on Trees Award
to Senator Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) for $344,540 for the city of Chicago
GreenStreets Tree Planting Program.

Prior to this weeks speech, Obama was poised at a make or break moment.  He had to either put to bed any connections between himself and the Reverend Wright or he would be forever linked to the racist comments the reverend was making.  You can read the speech in it's entirety HERE.

Over all I think he accomplished what he sought to do and said what he had to say but the key question here is did it buy him anything?  I don't think it did.

Those listening to him and heard what they wanted to hear were already supporting him.  Those who didn't were more then likely against him already.  I'd be very shocked if his speech today actually changed anyone's minds.  Some pundits even have gone so far as to argue that Obama's speech may become a turning point in our nations political history.  I have to disagree.  People who are simply swept up in Obama mania and look more to the Obama girl then things like voting records and factual history I'm sure would support the idea that his speech is a turning point.  But they base their views off feelings rather then facts.  People who looked at Obama's history already have enough data to determine if he truly supported the views of Reverend Wright or if he saw the man as a relative he can't disown. 

When you look close you see gaping contrast between what Obama had said this week and his views from the past.  He did identify true problems but his record shows his actions are doing exactly what he just finished saying causes those problems.  This is why I don't think his speech will amount to much more then a feel good moment for those who want to bridge the relationship between blacks and whites.

Here's one such example:

"In fact, a similar anger exists within segments of the white community. Most working- and middle-class white Americans don’t feel that they have been particularly privileged by their race. Their experience is the immigrant experience – as far as they’re concerned, no one’s handed them anything, they’ve built it from scratch. They’ve worked hard all their lives, many times only to see their jobs shipped overseas or their pension dumped after a lifetime of labor. They are anxious about their futures, and feel their dreams slipping away; in an era of stagnant wages and global competition, opportunity comes to be seen as a zero sum game, in which your dreams come at my expense. So when they are told to bus their children to a school across town; when they hear that an African American is getting an advantage in landing a good job or a spot in a good college because of an injustice that they themselves never committed; when they’re told that their fears about crime in urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudiced, resentment builds over time."

Pay close attention to the part in bold.  He admits that "affirmative action" as it stands today, giving a person of color acceptance into a college over a white student or giving them a job over a white leads to create resentment and helps feed the racial problems he admits exist today.

But yet Obama has himself admitted he supports policy based on race, I.E. racism. 

* Indicate the principles you support concerning affirmative action. Should state government agencies take race and sex into account in the following sectors? Q: College and university admissions? A: Yes
* Q: Public employment A: Yes
* Q: State contracting? A: Yes.
Source: 1998 IL State Legislative National Political Awareness Test Jul 2, 1998 

He further contradicts himself by having even gone so far as to express that class should be a factor on top of race.

Obama declared his daughters "should probably be treated by any admissions officer as folks who are pretty advantaged. I think that we should take into account white kids who have been disadvantaged and have grown up in poverty and shown themselves to have what it takes to succeed."

Continuing to look at race and class only help to spread the problem, not fix it.  He admitted it this week yet his record shows he supports it.  Look back to the words of Dr. Martin Luther King...

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

As long as we continue supporting policies that treat one group different then another group based on class, race, sex, religion etc we continue to feed the problem.  Obama said it but when will he and others actually start acting on what they already know?

 

For the life of me I will never understand Democrat logic.  We keep hearing more and more stories on the news about oil prices going up and how it effects the economy and what do Democrats propose as the solution to fix the high costs of oil and raising cost of goods?  Increase taxes on the oil companies (18 BILLION in new taxes to be exact!).

How can anyone think that when something costs too much already that INCREASING the cost by raising taxes on it would help make it more affordable for average Americans?  Of course it's all Bush's fault and even though since 2006 Democrats have controlled both the House and Senate and for that matter control all three branches here in NH, Republicans and Bush are still somehow to blame for the problems that have been growing further and further out of control.

Have Democrats even stopped to think that maybe we need MORE refineries to help drive down the costs instead of MORE taxes?  As demand grows faster then refinery production it doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that the cost will rise.  And what makes it worse is that we close refineries such as the ones listed in this report without opening any new ones in their places.  Here is a key quote from the report:

"It is unlikely that new refineries will be built in California. In fact, from 1985 to 1995, 10 California refineries closed, resulting in a 20 percent reduction in refining capacity. Further refinery closures are expected for small refineries with capacities of less than 50,000 barrels per day. The cost of complying with environmental regulations and low product prices will continue to make it difficult to continue operating older, less efficient refineries."

So lets see, higher taxes and fewer refineries and yet it's Bush's fault oil prices keep going up?

But Democrats argue they will use the money from taxes to invest in new renewable energy sources... Unless of course that renewable energy comes in the form of a wind farm in their back yard.

Sorry but I just don't understand how Democrats can believe their own party here.  And even when we do discover all these new more efficient energy sources how many people stuck paying the higher oil costs can also afford to get a new car, a new furnace, a new tankless water heater etc etc etc.  Heck, I was barely able to afford a new programmable thermostat (great investment by the way... turning down the heat just a few degrees at night while we sleep can save you hundreds of dollars) after all the taxes I've had to pay out (of course NH Democrats don't feel I pay my fair share and want to take even MORE from me).

And for anyone thinking oil companies don't currently pay enough in taxes, think about this... in the past 25 years oil companies have paid out more then 3 times their actual profits in taxes.  That's $2.2 TRILLION in taxes and that's not even including local and state taxes.  What other industry can you think of that pays out over 25 years 3 times its actual earnings in taxes?  Here's another interesting quote to mull over from that report:

"The answer to the second question, according to the Congressional Research Service (CRS), is that the 1980s windfall profits tax depressed the domestic production and extraction industry and furthered our dependence on foreign sources of oil."

Isn't dependency on foreign oil a big buzz with Democrats?  We keep hearing how they want to lessen our dependency on it yet here in black and white we see their actions are actually contributing more to it.

And what do their future leadership choices think? 

Hillary openly admits she wants even HIGHER taxes on oil companies. 

And Obama supports the Al Gore Carbon buy back scam.  You can read up a little on the carbon buy back scam here and here.

So I'm sorry but I just can't understand Democrats, they continue raising taxes and increasing the costs of oil and yet they still turn around and try to blame Bush for everything their actions cause to go wrong.  Go figure!