Dec 10 2009

s. 968: raise your own taxes if they’re too low

For all the socialists who demand higher taxes, here’s your change to pony up. S. 968 will give you the opportunity to raise taxes yourself.

TO AMEND CHAPTER 6, TITLE 12 OF THE 1976 CODE, RELATING TO THE SOUTH CAROLINA INCOME TAX, BY ADDING SECTION 12-6-5062, TO PROVIDE THAT TAXPAYERS MAY MAKE VOLUNTARY CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE GENERAL FUND OF THE STATE, TO PROVIDE THAT INCOME TAX FORMS MUST CONTAIN A DESIGNATION FOR THE CONTRIBUTION, TO PROVIDE THAT THE INSTRUCTIONS ACCOMPANYING THE INCOME TAX FORM MUST CONTAIN AN EXPLANATION OF HOW THE ADDITIONAL PAYMENT WILL BE USED, AND TO REQUIRE THE DEPARTMENT TO REPORT THE AMOUNT COLLECTED PURSUANT TO THIS SECTION.

I can here it already, sh Senator, we wanted you to raise somebody else’s taxes, not ours!

By Kevin Bryant • Uncategorized •

Dec 10 2009

Townville Christmas Parade

By Kevin Bryant • Uncategorized •

Dec 8 2009

New poll shows ‘Tea Party’ more popular than Republican Party

A new Rasmussen poll finds that the tea party movement‘s popularity is growing, so much so that it garners more support than the Republican party on a generic Congressional ballot. The poll hints that the burgeoning discontent among conservatives within the GOPthreatens to splinter the party at a time when the popularity ofPresident Obama and the Democratic-controlled Congress are waning as we head into an election year.

The tea party movement was conceived out of antipathy for President Obama’s economic stimulus plan and cultivated by groups like Freedom Works and conservative commentators such as Glenn Beck. Its guiding principals are centered around opposition to tax increases and the expansion of federal government spending. The movement rose to prominence when it organized highly-publicized protest gatherings across the country on April 15th of this year.

As reported by Talking Points Memo, the respondents to theRasmussen poll were asked the following question:

“Okay, suppose the Tea Party Movement organized itself as a political party. When thinking about the next election for Congress, would you vote for the Republican candidate from your district, the Democratic candidate from your district, or the Tea Party candidate from your district?”

The response of all those who were polled was Democratic 36%, Tea Party 23% and Republican 18%. Further, the poll found thatindependents are more inclined to vote for a tea party candidate over Democratic or Republican candidates.

While some Republicans have expressed dismay over the emergence of the tea party movement, others have suggested that the GOP should embrace the group and its issues.

Tea party sympathizers recently proposed a resolution to make theRNC withhold its endorsement and funding unless candidates pass an “ideological purity test.” The movement will hold its first national convention this January in Nashville, and Glenn Beck has indicatedthat he intends to stake out a more activist role in politics going forward by holding seminars across the country to educate conservatives on how to run for office without the support of a major political party.
But the Republican party has yet to determine whether or not they can harness the energy emanating from the right wing without being pulled out of the mainstream. This dilemma was highlighted by the GOP’s November loss of a congressional seat it had held since the 1800s, after a tea party-supported candidate pressured the establishment Republican out of the race.  That race suggested something rather striking: while the GOP may not be able to win without the support of the tea party movement, they might not be able to win with it running the show either.

– Brett Michael Dykes is a contributor to the Yahoo! News Blog

By Kevin Bryant • Uncategorized •

Dec 7 2009

Education dollars spent on pricey seminars instead of kids

From Examiner.com Columbia by Robin Hansen

The California Department of Education (CDE) held a large conference at taxpayer expense.  The real agenda: How to keep special needs children from getting the instruction and services that they need while giving the impression their needs are being met. The CDE was very careful to keep this conference away from the public eye and to only invite school district personnel from around the state.  The formal title of the conference was called “A National Update of Case law 2008 to the present under the IDEA and Section 504/ADA”.  The keynote speaker was Perry Zirkel, a university professor of education and law at Lehigh University in Bethlehem Pennsylvania.  Mr Zirkel is a notoriously well known pro-district/anti-parent speaker. He charges $3000 per lecture plus expenses.  Of course his fees paled in comparison with all the money being spent on all the school personnel who came from all over the state to hear him speak.  At one point during the presentation, one administrator asked what he should do about a parent who was requesting a service that the district did not offer, Mr Zirkel, told the inquirer, “Just sue the parents”.   Fortunately, one parent did manage to slip through the cracks.  This parent was horrified to see the collusion between the state and districts joining together against the very citizens who pay for theses services?  In fact, when another conference goer found out this parent was present, the response was “What are YOU doing here?!  Who let you in? ” Read the full article

By Kevin Bryant • Uncategorized •

Dec 4 2009

steamroller: trade deficit

The announcement of a surprisingly large US trade deficit for September, 2009 had some assuming the US consumer is back in a buying mood. Alas, the much watched Michigan consumer confidence index for November quickly followed, and it is off a large 4.6 points, from 70.6 in October to 66.0 now. The only import gains were largely for crude oil, and there was some ‘technical’ gain from the “declunkering” auto sector, which analysts say is really but a “gain” at the expense of an even greater loss later. Canadian trade data for September came out the same day as the US figures, and it surprised many with only half the $1.8 billion deficit that had been expected. There were somewhat higher exports to the US, but the real surprise was a very large percentage gain to Europe.

Those looking for a stronger greenback near term mostly assume that would be in conjunction with a weaker Euro. That makes sense given both economies can’t see the end of the debt tunnel yet, but the players are realigning in ways that continue to bode uncertainty and the old “rules” of the currency game have not been working so well of late. Most experts believe that the effects of currency printing have only begun to erode the confidence of the people in trusting in paper to hold value. The real evidence of trust would be seen in ways which the desireability to hold currency would balance out the desire to get rid of it for anything else other than saving. Flight toward commodities and consumables stockpiling can only bode ill for such confidence.

The original prediction of the price of gold at the end of this second upswing in the commodity pendulum is $3500/oz. The argument here is that the high for gold on the first upswing of the commodity pendulum (1971-1980) was $875. Since that time, general prices in the U.S. have multiplied by 2.5. And 2.5 x 875 = 2187. Throwing in another factor of 1.6 to account for further price increases over the next decade we get a price objective for gold of $3500. This, by itself, would be a fabulous move. But there is more to come.

As you know, Obama has projected trillion dollar deficits for the remainder of his first term of office. He will not raise taxes openly to pay the deficits. Rather, he will simply print money. This 4 trillion dollar increase in the U.S. money supply plus Bush’s trillion, totaling a 5 trillion increase, amounts to a 7-fold increase in the money supply (from the $900 million of mid 2008). If we figure a 7-fold increase in prices over the next 5-10 years, then we need to multiply our original $3500 target by 7, which gives us $24,500. If Obama does what he says he is going to do, then the $24,500 figure will be closer to the truth. If not, then the $3500 figure will be closer to the truth.

If you want an overview of what is happening here, then study the collapse of the British pound in 1947-48. In the 19th century, the sun never set on the British Empire, and the pound was the world reserve currency. Then the Labor Party (dominated by socialists and Keynesians) came to power in 1945. They brought in Keynesian advisors who depreciated the currency to pay for a host of social programs. The British pound collapsed. The British Empire collapsed, and the heroic nation which had defeated both Napoleon and Hitler shrank into a caricature of its former self. This is an exact replica of Obama’s program. Change? Not a chance.

We know what the effects of Obama’s program have been in every country in which it has been tried. They are always the same. The people of the country become poor

. It is too early to say whether Obama will succeed in implementing his welfare state. If he is defeated, say by a Democratic loss in the 2010 election, then effectively America may continue to be America, and the parallel with 1940s Britain will cease to be valid. But if the social engineering continues, those who pay for it will capitulate to the tsunami of political correctness and drop out of the dwindling “middle class” only to join those for whom incentive is but a word that means ‘Federal Funds for me.’ Entrepreneurs will be discouraged to risk any ventures for fear they will be penalized for their efforts, and villified as “profit hungry” by those who consume but feel no necessity to produce.But whatever happens, America will need a class of new rich who will be willing to risk their assets to rebuild the country from the disastrous policies now being followed. That will only happen is there is a reward for their risk. When incentive is lost, failure is guaranteed.   steamroller

By Kevin Bryant • Uncategorized •

Dec 3 2009

Reagan’s love of freedom a lesson for today

by Danny Varat, Phd from the Greenville news

We remembered earlier this month the fall of the Berlin Wall and the resulting wave of freedom that washed across eastern Europe. The wall officially came down in 1989, but the seeds of its destruction were sown and nurtured by the greatest American of the 20th century, Ronald Reagan.

And, even while most Americans know that without Ronald Reagan the Cold War would still be “cold,” they may not remember just how much work Reagan had to do. Thankfully, Reagan believed in freedom — for us and everyone else.

Perhaps few recall that Jimmy Carter pledged not to be driven solely by opposition to communism. The United States under Carter therefore disarmed while the Soviets staged a massive military buildup and simultaneously funded Marxist political insurgencies around the world.

American readiness was an oxymoron in 1981 when Reagan entered the White House. America had not built a new long range bomber (the B-52) since 1954. The United States Navy stored less than a one-week supply of most major defensive missiles and torpedoes. The fleet had been cut in half since 1969, and we could not fill out the ships’ magazines even once, let alone refill them.

Reagan fixed the problem. The Reagan buildup produced “smart” bombs and stealth technology, Tomahawk cruise missiles and Patriot defenses, Aegis cruisers, Abrams tanks, Apache helicopters, night-fighting capabilities, and other systems focused on the Soviets.

The most potent arrow in Reagan’s military quiver was the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI). Some mocked it as “Star Wars,” but one Gorbachev aide noted that, “we understood that it was a new stage, a new turn in the armaments race,” and that if SDI continued, “we would have to start our own program … and this (would bring) further exhaustion of the country.”

The enduring legacy of Ronald Reagan however remains the fact that as Margaret Thatcher said in 1991, “he won the Cold War without firing a single shot.”

Reagan never hid his anti-communism. Reagan always proclaimed that freedom is morally and materially superior to communism, and constantly linked the two in his speeches. Reagan declared that in denying freedom via tyranny, the Soviet Union crippled the human spirit. Reagan noted in a 1982 speech to the British Parliament that, “one of the simple but overwhelming facts of our times is this: Of all the millions of refugees we’ve seen in the modern world, their flight is always away from, not toward, the communist world.”

Reagan labeled communism “the focus of evil in the modern world” and the Soviet Union an “evil empire.” Reagan said both privately and publicly that the inherent weaknesses of communism, its denial of personal and economic freedom, would kill it. Reagan designed his foreign policy to that end, and it worked.

His effectiveness was marked at the 27th Party Congress of the Soviet Communist Party in March 1986 which declared that, “without an acceleration of the country’s economic and social development, it will be impossible to maintain our position on the international scene.”

Then Ronald Reagan went to the Brandenburg Gate on June 1987. There he proclaimed that, “we believe that freedom and security go together, that the advance of human liberty can only strengthen the cause of world peace. General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization, come here to this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”

Gorbachev in 1988 announced a unilateral cutback of 500,000 men from the Soviet forces in eastern Europe. Even Newsweek reported that this “was surely a move forced by economic woes.” Gorbachev himself told Reagan “I’m not doing this for show… I’m doing this because I need to. I’m doing this because there’s a revolution taking place in my country.” The rest is history.

Soviet troops began to withdraw from eastern Europe, and the populations there threw off their dictators. The Berlin Wall fell in November 1989. Communism died in the Soviet Union in 1991. Its precipitous fall occurred when its engine lost the remaining fuel of captive populations and finally blew. Reagan was right. Communism was inherently flawed, and he applied just enough pressure to topple it.

The lesson of 1989, that Ronald Reagan taught us and the world, remains true today. Freedom conquers, if we give it half a chance. The leaders of today should stand up for freedom with the zeal of Ronald Reagan. They will find not only that is it more satisfying than apologizing, but also that it actually works.

Additional Facts

By Kevin Bryant • Uncategorized •

Nov 27 2009

jMint: term limits!

Tuesday November 24, 2009 Guantanamo Bay. Automotive Takeovers.  ObamaCare. Extreme Spending. It’s all happening because career politicians control a broken Washington. As long as members have the chance to spend their lives in Washington, their interests will always skew toward spending taxpayer dollars to buyoff special interests, covering over corruption in the bureaucracy, relationship building among lobbyists, and trading favors for pork – in short, amassing their own power. It has to stop or we will never rebuild our economy and put America back on top. That’s why I’m pushing my term limits bill in the Senate and why I’m calling on you to help now.  We are recruiting a team of conservatives to stand with us. I need your help finding them today. We have launched a new volunteer activation center at www.voterfetch.com. With Voter Fetch, you can call your neighbors and ask them to sign our Term Limits Petition atwww.jimdemint.com. It’s incredibly easy. Just visit click here and you’ll be taken to our Voter Fetch page. Register as a new user and you will be emailed access very quickly. Once registered, just pick where you want to call and you’ll be given a script and a list of voters to call from home. You can sit right in front of your computer and make the calls today. If you’d like more information on how our new volunteer system works, just watch the video at www.voterfetch.com. We really need your help to fix Washington. Please help us build our team of loyal conservatives today. Sincerely, Senator Jim DeMint PS – If you’d like to help our cause, but don’t have the time to volunteer this week, we’d very much appreciate any financial contribution you can afford today. My vocal opposition to the liberal Washington special interest groups has really stirred up a hornet’s nest and they’ll be coming after me in next year’s election. Your financial help would mean the world to me.

By Kevin Bryant • Uncategorized •

Nov 26 2009

Give Thanks

the meaning behind the celebration on Thanksgiving Day.

Sometimes it’s a challenge to convince children that Thanksgiving Day is really not all about the food. Sure there’s turkey, stuffing, gravy, cranberries, and pie. Oh yeah, don’t forget the pie! But hidden inside this palate-driven holiday is an opportunity to teach the meaning behind the celebration. It is, after all, a day to remember God and give thanks.

The scriptures are filled with passages calling us to maintain a thankful heart. From Psalm 106:1, “Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good,” to Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians urging them to “give thanks in all circumstances” (5:18). It was this latter verse that sustained the Pilgrims, venturing to the New World, who ushered in the Thanksgiving Day celebration.

In the winter of 1620, Pilgrims, traveling by sea, settled at Plymouth, Massachusetts. They came for religious freedom — a desire to worship God and live according to Holy Scripture. But the country they found was bleak and uninviting, with several inches of snow already on the ground. Of the 102 passengers aboard the ship, the Mayflower, nearly half died during the first winter of the “great sickness.” Yet, according to settler Edward Winslow, they were grateful to God for his provision in their lives. A year later, the group celebrated with a feast of thanksgiving.

By Kevin Bryant • Uncategorized •

Nov 25 2009

p’ville post: Investigation reminds us that waste exists everywhere

By Kevin Bryant • Uncategorized •

Nov 24 2009

steamroller: Obama, what is his position?

President Obama simultaneously speaks about the need for more federal spending and warns of the dangers of increased debt. What is his position?

The country appears to be going through a period of buyer’s remorse over the election of Barack Obama. The majority cobbled together by the President one year ago included the Democratic base, independents hoping for “change,” and many disaffected Republicans betrayed by the Bush Administration’s big-government neo-conservatism. It is unlikely that most of these voters favored an overt push toward socialism; however, this is what they have received. As the ‘tea parties’ illustrate, voters are not only confused – they are seriously concerned.

These concerns are justified. The Administration’s hard-left turn was evident from the outset. Ignoring expert advice to spend on job-creating infrastructure, Obama spent wildly on entitlements. Now, with rising grassroots discontent, a falling currency, and threats to America’s AAA credit rating, there is some evidence that the Administration is trying to hedge its bets through tough talk. Yet, they still have not taken any tough action. It is important in these times to have leaders we can trust to make the right decisions, even if they are unpopular. Obama, Bernanke, Reid, Dodd, Pelosi, Frank… These are not names that are trusted to make wise choices over expedient ones. The markets know it; the voters know it; and, judging by the price of gold, the rest of the world knows it too.

If the government continues to run the printing presses, as seems far more likely, hyperinflation will become a catastrophic event when the federal government faces outright default. The whole world awaits the decision of the direction of U.S. economic policy – toward default and probable world war, or isolationism and its complete social and economic control like Iran and North Korea. We all know what life would be like in either scenario – far worse than we ever thought.

By Kevin Bryant • Uncategorized •