Preserving The American Political Philosophy

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...

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 ...

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

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...

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 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...

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 ...