Preserving The American Political Philosophy

This is a video of a woman valiantly fighting for her freedom of speech at a Hampden, Maine Town Council meeting. Despite threats to call the police if she didn't stop expressing her views, she prevailed as a public citizen protesting the town council's expenditure's of the taxpayers money, reminding them that it comes out of the pockets of the people. As a function of posting this video on As Maine Goes, which is still active at this time, The names of the two people in this encounter have been identified: Quoting from the As Maine Goes discussion: Vic Berardelli : "The name of the woman speaking in the video is Kristin Hornbeck , who once sat on the Hampden Town Council." This has been corrected- The woman's name is Kirsten Hornbrook. Three Pipe Problem ; " I believe Thomas B. Brann is the Chair , demonstrating either an infantile grasp of Robert's Rules or a deliberate abuse of them. How can this guy sleep at night? I hope he does the rig...

I have been busy lately with our ceramics business and with some new ideas for expanding the mission of this blog, however a very important change in our legislature's tax policies is now under consideration making this a moment when it is exceptionally important to  keep the conversation going ! I have not located the actual proposals yet, mysteriously, all the links in this Portland PressHerald article are non-functioning but here is the story from the Herald by Steve Mistler, of all people! Maine tax panel will release suggestions for savings Monday  The Legislature has attempted similar reviews in the past with little success. However, this time some believed that the self-inflicted budget gap would provide an incentive for lawmakers to push through recommendations that have been traditionally politically unpopular. Additionally, the budget provision is written in a way that would take the $40 million out of the state fund that provides municipal aid if th...

Just in time for the upcoming election season, Scott Fish, owner of As Maine Goes announced that As Maine Goes is coming to an end. Word has it Mr Fish took began working  a state job in 2010. As part of  the job terms Mr Fish agreed to refrain from posting on As Maine Goes. (Now confirmed HERE that Mr Fish is compelled by his job to let go of AMG .) The timing of the closing of AS Maine Goes, in advance of the upcoming election season, invites speculation about what goes on behind the scenes. Mr Fish is willing to sell As Maine Goes and so we hope that this will come about through another party dedicated to the tradition of a people's voice, rather than falling into the hands of the Maine main stream media with its selectively narrow agenda dictating and manipulating the public narrative in these political times- such as the recent shallow and politically partisan coverage of  the Expanded and Improved Seed Capital Tax Credit. Maine needs much better, in fact...

We did It ! Boothbay is NO Brunswick! TIFs transform the purpose of property taxes from covering expenditures of municipal services into risky capital investment funds designed to eventually replace many of the current property owners with a wealthier class of citizens. Beware our nearby neighboring town which has the audacity to call itself The Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority. Who gave this town such authority? Certainly not the Maine State Constituion ! The little town of the MRRA is funded by state and federal taxpayer dollars but cannot even provide for its own municipal services! It uses the political clout of concentrated wealth for its own economic development all designed to benefit the legislature "targeted sector" ie- the "above average" economic sector" . The MRRA is not governed by the Maine State Constitution but by the Rule of Law of Global Capitalism. Don't let the MRRA and/or their ilk turn the Boothbay Peninsula into the ex...

TWEET THIS  WpjYDqLKFs#(8!jdk5 A reminder of Stalin: After defeating Trotsky and ridding the party of all his rivals, Stalin began to build up Russia. As he said, "Other countries are 50 years ahead of Russia. We must make this up in 10 years." As such, he had two main aims: (i)a centrally-planned economy called a command economy; (ii)a totalitarian system of government  ....... During this period, Russia's economy was completely transformed. The state planned the entire economy through the State Planning Commission, or Gosplan. They issued instructions and orders, commands that were then passed down to factories, businesses or farms. .........The government controlled the resources it needed to achieve the economic targets . Factories, mines, transport and farms were owned by the state. .......... Many workers had to slog for 11 hours! However, none of them revolted, as they knew their wages were paid in food rations, which meant they would DEFINITELY ...

This is rhetoric from the  2006 Opega Report on Maine;s Economic Development Program s as  first introduced to this blog in my previous post : Maine citizens make substantial investment s in economic development programs each year. These programs, taken together, constitute an investment portfolio that ideally should be designed and managed to assure that the State is getting the best return on its investment. There are, however, significant technical and political challenges in adopting a portfolio approach. The words " Maine Citizens "  refers to the people of Maine. Through a rhetorical sleight of hand, the authors of the OPEGA report switch the meaning of " Maine Citizens " with  that of " the State " , The latter term refers to the government sector, which in theory, if not in practice, serves the citizens of the state. The two terms are not interchangeable, with a possible exception within the context of  the political ideology of Karl Marx wh...

  This is a very Informative article about what I call Maine State Inc published by Pine Tree Watchdog in February of 2012: Tax break deals studied … and studied, but questions remain unresolved Quote: What does that cost? How about $602,181,397 from 2003 to 2005 . On an annual basis, that’s about the size of the hole in the state budget that Gov. Paul LePage and the legislature have spent the last few months trying to fill. And those numbers, which come from a 2006 study by the stateOffice of Program Evaluation & Government Accountability (OPEGA) , don’t include the administrative costs. That adds another $22 million , according to OPEGA. While this article openly states that the programs allows fraud to go undetected and admits that its losers are the taxpayers, its also reports the justifications that are used to perpetuate these programs without presenting an alternative view.   For instance there is this: Another skeptic has been Peter...

TWEET THIS  http://goo.gl/PDdtbX When the Maine city state of the Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority came into being as a municipal corporation serving as an instrumentality of the state, it was a instance where in the power of the state usurped the authority of the local government by using the state and federal government's ability to collect and then redistribute wealth, to buy Brunswick, Maine. Brunswick obliged the higher powers by foregoing its own constitutional authority to act as the agent of  economic development in the territory which was once its own: Maine State Constitution: Article VIII. Part Second. Municipal Home Rule. 1969 Section 1.  Power of municipalities to amend their charters.  The inhabitants of any municipality shall have the power to alter and amend their charters on all matters, not prohibited by Constitution or general law, which are local and municipal in character.  The Legislature shall prescribe the procedure by...