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RE Scott Lansley's article in the Sun Journal- Dig A Little Deeper!

The latest in my letter writing binge !  Dear Mr. Lansley, I read your article in the Sun Journal , It may hurt, but it's time to suck it up and deal. As suggested, I am sending you my own thoughts on the matter, and I am not going to mince my words. Since you are a former member of the legislature, you may have helped to create what I see as the source of Maine's economic problems, which is it's government manipulated economy, which has grown to the scale of a full fledged corporate state without anybody saying BOO about it, despite the blatant unconstitutionality of the current entrenched economic system. This system has been constructed by the legislature over the course of at least thirty years. It is designed to "benefit " the "targeted sector"- those businesses that will fulfill the ideological vision of a small elite sector of Maine, which is marketed as "socially beneficial" as a form of self-justification. The legislature seeks ...

Transparency and the Quasi-Public Corporation.

TWEET THIS ! http://goo.gl/YgfpJ1 I have been again looking  for information on the amount of taxpayer money invested in government chartered private non-profit organizations, such as the SEGF (since 2014 known as The Maine Venture Fund), and once again I have come up with nothing. These organizations are so dispersed and intertwined with one another that even if one can find mention of an occasional sum of money invested it is as if finding one little piece of a jig saw puzzle. A few years ago I read The Non-Profit Economy by Burton Weisbrod . Weisbrod discussed three distinct economic sectors- government, private and non-profit. but I do not recall a mention of non-profit corporations which are charted by government legislatures. However there was a lengthy discussion about  entities that have a for-profit part and a non-profit part, with instances found where all expenses would be allocated to the for-profit part of the entity, thereby reducing the tax burden ...

Can De-constructing Maine's Corporate Welfare System Cover Maine's DHHS Budget Deficit ?

I have my head in the sand working our redesigning our website- which now comes up three times on the first page of a google search of "ceramic birds" with similar results for other related terms (thanks to my own SEO efforts) . We are getting a lot of phone calls as a result and so the need to get this job completed is all the more important. As long as my energy is focused there, I am not wanting to change that. I feel a bit remis about not attending to this blog but the vise versa is true when my attention is focused here. However- when I recieved an email with this report   from Sam Adolpsen of The Maine Heritage Society about the DHHS deficit in which he advocates cutting welfare and "progressive special interests" . I responded with the following: Dear Mr Adolphsen, Is "Progressive Special Interests" equitable with corporate welfare? How about eliminating the 10% annual investment in the government chartered Small Enterprise Growth Fund, which m...

Constitutional Questions in theNews

I've been busy redesigning the website for andersenstudio.com , our family business and so I have long been putting off writing a post that compares the original version of Maine's Pine Tree Zone, passed in 2004, amid protests that it would be expanded statewide, to the transformed version , expanded statewide with "little fanfare" in 2009, while the public was focused on the last election season.  This projectedpost will also provide a comparison to Cain's "empowerment zones" which has already been  repackaged as "opportunity zones" and which sounds like the original version of the Pine Tree Zone, except that the the Pine tree Zone was then targeted at areas of "low income and high unemployment", while Cain talks in terms of "inner cities". Being that I still need to keep my focus where it is, that is left brewing on the back burner and in the meantime I am posting some issues that impact preserving the American political...

Hermain Cain, The United States Constitution, and The Elephant's New Clothes.

It seems that racial politics has descended like a fog over the national mind set with few willing to take to task the policies of the Republicans black candidate, Herman Cain. Meanwhile the left up the ante with pretenses that portray the right but are even more blatantly ugly expression of racism than giving a pass to Cain on his policies and his response to a character challenge which would never be granted by the right to a white candidate. I thank John K W for being the lone voice in the over crowed scene willing to say that the emperor has no clothes. John's view is well researched and based in true constitutional conservatism and so with John's permission, I am re-posting this comment found on As Maine Goes, with a few minor edits of parts that do not pertain to a more general audience. These are questions and arguments that should be part of our national debate: Does Herman Cain propose to have the federal government enter a State, declare a geographical area ...

Herman Cain's Empowerment Zones and the United States Constitution

Quote of The Day: Herman Cain’s “opportunity zones” would have the federal government granting preferential regulations of commerce among the States which would violate our founding father’s very intentions expressed in Article 1, Section 9, Clause 6 of our Constitution which states: No Preference shall be given by any Regulation of Commerce or Revenue to the Ports of one State over those of another: nor shall Vessels bound to, or from, one State, be obliged to enter, clear or pay Duties in another. John W K

Tech Maine Closes as The Maine Institute of Technology Thrives

Recently in the news is the closure of TechMaine Tech Maine lobbied back in 1998 to bring about the legislative charter of the Maine Technology Institute , a non-profit corporation,which channels funds from the taxpayers and other funds available to non-profits to private sector technology companies. I am not sure why the legislature had to create the L3C to enable small businesses like MOO Milk to get in on foundation money while the same legislature created a non profit corporation to channel tax payer and non-profit funding to private high-tech companies. MTI's recent annual repor t shows that it is abundantly financed, and while participating in and lending "support" to the legislaures "targeted sector" and supported network, TechMaine,is not included among those receiving benefits from MTI. One wonders why MTI  does not  give needed support to the lobbying group that contributed so much to it's birth. Speculations arise of political in fighting am...

A Question For Herman Cain- Would the 999 plan work better as a 99 Plan ?

I like Herman Cain but I have some questions that I would like to see him answer. The 999 plan is not about numbers- it is about percentages- which result in numbers and so if you take one of the percentages out of the equation,it does not necessarily result in a lower federal revenue number- and so I raise the question- why do we need three elements to this equation? Is there a point to the national federal sales tax other than to tax those who are not making an income- the unemployed, the disabled, and those living on a fixed retirement amount - and to "tax the rich" more than others. Other than that, the sales tax is levied on the same sectors as those taxed by the other 2 nines. The sales tax lowers the value of the dollar as the cost of consumer goods is increased by 9%. The sales tax 9% will potentially lower business profits by raising costs of wholesale purchases resulting from an increase in the cost of freight- and by decreasing consumer spending power. Busi...

The Advent of The Occupiers.

The occupiers have arrived in Maine, complete with their tent city which has all the markings of having been manufactured by corporations with productions abroad and distributors that sell to other corporations located in this country. The Occupiers have their own legal adviser, John H. Branson, who has negotiated a one week permit to occupy a space in the city of Portland for a week. This makes the Occupiers markedly more professional than the Tea Party who would most likely use a Tea Party volunteer to obtain any necessary permits. Does the Occupier’s legal adviser work on a volunteer basis? If not who pays for John H. Branson's services? The occupiers identify their actions as inspired by the protestors in the "Arab Spring" with "Arab Spring" being yet another media concoction that suggests the motivations and outcome of events in the Middle East are the subject of media fairy tales. The one thing that we do know about the events in the Middle East is tha...

The Math of "Fair Share" as defined in The United States Constitution

There is another excellent discussion started by John w k on As Maine Goes. This one is about what the United States constitution says about "fair share" and points out that the math is provided for with in the constitution. Here is a quote from the first post by John w k But let our founding fathers speak for themselves with regard to the importance of applying the rule of apportionment: Pinckney addressing the S.C. ratification convention with regard to the rule of apportionment : “With regard to the general government imposing internal taxes upon us, he contended that it was absolutely necessary they should have such a power: requisitions had been in vain tried every year since the ratification of the old Confederation, and not a single state had paid the quota required of her. The general government could not abuse this power, and favor one state and oppress another, as each state was to be taxed only in proportion to its representation.” 4 Elliot‘s, S.C., 305-6 ...

Obama's "Jobs" Bill ends state sovereignity

If you love America- DEFEAT THIS BILL! (A) WAIVER- A State’s receipt or use of Federal financial assistance for any program or activity of a State shall constitute a waiver of sovereign immunity, under the 11th Amendment to the Constitution or otherwise, to a suit brought by an employee or applicant for employment of that program or activity under this Act for a remedy authorized under Section 375(c) of this Act. (B) DEFINITION- In this paragraph, the term `program or activity’ has the meaning given the term in section 606 of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C. 2000d-4a).” Complete story over at Noisy Room

The Maine Economic Development Foundation

As I started out to tell the story of how I became involved in researching Maine's economic development legislation,on the Page titled , The Turning Point , I was stalled by trying to locate the legislation that created The Maine Economic Development Foundation , which is to be found all over the "innovative economy", often stating that it was created by the legislature but falling short of providing a link to that legislation. I contacted Elaine Apostola, Reference Librarian, at the Maine State Law and Legislative Reference Library. Elaine provided a PDF file of the original text. I then searched for the statute online, was unable to find it with the information that I had and so wrote to Elaine again and she provided. This a link to the statute as it is written today The first thing that attracts attention is that the original purpose Title 10, Chapter 107: §917 is REPEALED , with no further information about what the original purpose stated, and replaced with Titl...

The Curious Repeal of TITLE 13-A: MAINE BUSINESS CORPORATION ACT

I was recently browsing the internet when I came upon a list of Maine statutes, which included TITLE 13-A: MAINE BUSINESS CORPORATION ACT I was most surprised when I clicked on the link to find that the act has been repealed in its entirety with no further information - such as a replacement for the act and the date that it was repealed. Most links to the Act found on the Internet report only this meager information. This appears to leave Maine incorporated business without a rule of law to govern them and yet I cannot find any news written about this mysterious occurrence. A search on Maine Biz comes up with nothing. Is not this business news? Does it not create major business uncertainty in Maine when the entire act that governs Maine business incorporation repealed? The only timeline I have been able to locate is this cache page on Google which says all data was extracted in February of this year. Was it extracted by Google? -or another party? What is going on and why am ...

Governor Rick Perry's Most Significant Phrase was "Unconstitutional"

I was amazed during the debate that Governor Rick Perry exhibited the emotional courage to state that the social security system is unconstitutional. Governor Perry then went on to say that social security is a "ponzi cheme", which is a point that goes to statutorily law, which is governed by the constitution. Thus far, from my limited viewing of the media, the focus has been on the "political" advisability of using the phrase "ponzi scheme" while the words "unconstitutional" are largely ignored. However there is a discussion taking place on As Maine Goe s which takes a well examined look at the constitutional issue. I recommend reading at least the first post, if not further for an excellent examination of what the Supreme Court did wrong when it ruled social security was "constitutional" and what our framers actually said about the powers of the Federal Government in the Federalist Papers and beyond. John w k, the author of this ...

Foukara's Hope and Change Speech at the General Knox Museum

TWEET THIS: http://goo.gl/IhBDL7 I recently listened to the Maine Public Radio’s broadcast of Foukara , the Washington Bureau Chief of Al Jazeera’s speech at The General Henry Knox Museum. During the introduction moderator Matt Dafour thanked Act For America for transforming the anticipated low attendance for the Foukara speech to a sold out event. Dafour then goes for a cheap laugh by recommending that The General Henry Knox Museum seek another speaker that Act For America will disapprove next year- begging the question as to why The General Henry Knox Museum does not simply invite someone from Act For America to speak next year? To answer this question one needs only examine the list of previous honorees who all share a common identification with the left wing of the American political media. The “open minded” board of the museum is not so open minded as to give a pulpit or an honor to American conservatism, although conservatives are grounded in the intent to preserve ...

As in Qatar - So in Maine, Free Speech - As long as you support "The Party".

The Bangor Daily News continues to report on the General Henry Knox Museum honoring the Washington Bureau Chief of Al Jazeera exclusively as a "free speech issue"- not really surprising since  "free speech" in the Maine media has so much in common with "free speech' in Qatar, where journalists who question the administration are hauled away without explanation. In Maine free speech is for those that support the far left power elite that has been over running this state for far too long. Just as the Maine main stream media functions as the PR firm for the state legislature reporting the pretty word packages that wrap up the legislation that can not stand the light of day, they like wise will do the same for the far left agenda that hides behind the established reputation of the General Henry Knox Museum. The Bangor Daily News grants a public forum to Foukara's spin about how much better and freer Al Jazeera is than our news media- No mention of the fact ...

Ld 204 Dies - General Henry Knox Museum Honors Wahington Bureau Cheif of Al Jazeera

Tweet This ! http://goo.gl/CTHLzU Up date on LD204 for which the full correspondence it found HERE Around April 5 I heard that there was to be a vote on LD 204 and that it was expected to pass Subsequebtly I sent the following letter reminding Honorable Robert Nutting of his former promise: Dear Senator David Trahan. Representative Bruce McDonald Honorable Kevin L. Raye, Majority Floor Leader: Senator Jon Courtney, Assistant Majority Floor Leader: Senator Debra D. Plowman, Honorable Robert W. Nutting ,Speaker of the House Majority Floor Leader: Philip A. Curtis Assistant Majority Floor Leader: Andre E. Cushing III I have heard through the grapevine that LD 204 is expected to pass. I am writing to remind you the the challenge to its constitutionality remains unrefuted. I am also reminding the Honorable Robert W. Nutting ,Speaker of the House, that he has promised to take this challenge into consideration if and when the bill comes to a vote. This is a challeng...