The Sunday 'Report;' 05/22/2011

What The National Pamphleteers Don't Report:

Making Government Accountable: The Innovators

By Brad Hall 05/11/11
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Sending my annual April 15 check to the federal government is painful.  There are so many ways to use my money that deliver value to me, my family and society. But I am not sure that a check to the IRS is one of them.  I often wonder whether the federal government is truly doing its best to maximize the return on those hard-earned dollars. The question is simple, "Is the government continually producing more value with less cost?"  Producing better results at a lower cost is at the top of every CEO's mind. This is the basic law of business survival. In practice, this means that even though companies increase in size and experience inflation, budgets [....]
http://www.thestreet.com/story/11113487/1/making-government-accountable-the-innovators.html?cm_ven=RSSFeed

Willie Nelson retracts Gary Johnson endorsement

By Matthew Reichbach
05.19.11
    After news of the endorsement exploded across the internet, Nelson told the Teapot Party blogger, “My position is it too early for me to endorse anyone. And I think every one should vote their own conscience.”  The move came, in part, because of Nelson’s 2008 endorsement of U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich. Nelson said that his endorsement is still Kucinich’s if the Ohio Democrat chooses to once again run for president.
Both candidates support the legalization of marijuana.  This came after Nelson had  [....]
http://newmexicoindependent.com/70171/willie-nelson-retracts-gary-johnson-endorsement

Nixa, Mo, Family Could Face Millions in Fines from USDA for selling Rabbits without a license

[Ok, Got this on a Tip From BBCW and this needs to go viral. You can read the full sordid tale any of several places Big Government, BBCW, & Left Coast Rebel, to name a few. ]
    Here are the salient facts of this total over reaction by the Federal Government, specifically the USDA APHIS unit.  This is mostly taken from Bob McCarty’s excellent story which originally ran on the 19th.
    John Dollarhite and his wife Judy of Nixa, Mo( Pop 12,124) , have been told by the USDA that, by Monday, they must pay a fine exceeding $90,000. If they don’t pay that fine, they could face additional fines of almost $4 million. Why? Because they sold more than $500 worth of bunnies — $4,600 worth to be exact — in a single calendar year.
The backstory:
    “About six years ago, the Dollarhites wanted to teach their young teenage son responsibility and the value of the dollar. So they rescued a pair of rabbits — one male and one female — and those rabbits did what rabbits do; they reproduced. Before long, things were literally hopping on the three-acre homestead 30 miles south of Springfield, and Dollarvalue Rabbitry was launched as more of a hobby than a business.   “We’d sell ‘em for 10 or 15 dollars a piece,” John said during a phone interview Tuesday afternoon, comparing the venture to a kid running a lemonade stand. In addition, they set up a web site and posted a “Rabbits for Sale” sign in their front yard. Most customers, however, came via word of mouth.
    In the early stages, some of the bunnies were raised and sold for their meat. Much further down the road, John said, they determined it more profitable to sell live bunnies at four weeks old than to feed bunnies for 12 weeks and then sell them as meat.  “We started becoming the go-to people” for rabbits in the Springfield area, John said. “If you wanted a rabbit, you’d go to Dollarvalue Rabbitry.” He added that the family even made the local television news just before Easter in 2008 for a report about the care and feeding of “Easter bunnies.”
    …During the summer of 2009, the Dollarhites bought the rabbitry from their son who had grown tired of managing it. They paid him what he asked for it, $200. Things kept growing, however, and the Dollarhite’s landed a pair of big accounts in 2009.  A well-known Branson theme park, Silver Dollar City, asked the Dollarhites to have them provide four-week-old bunnies per week to their petting zoo May through September. When the bunnies turned six weeks old, they were sold to park visitors. The Springfield location of a national pet store chain, Petland, purchased rabbits from the Dollarhites as well.
    …By the year’s end, the Dollarhites had moved approximately 440 rabbits and grossed about $4,600 for a profit of approximately $200 — enough, John said, to provide the family “pocket money” to do things such as eat out at Red Lobster once in a while. That was better than the loss they experienced in 2008.  Then some unexpected matters began demanding their attention.  It’s an understatement to describe the Dollarhites as being “beyond surprised” when, in the fall of 2009, a female inspector from the U.S. Department of Agriculture showed up at the front door of the family home, wanting to do a “spot inspection” of their rabbitry. She said she had [....]
http://keeperofoddknowledge.blogspot.com/2011/05/nixa-mo-family-could-face-millions-in.html

We Need To Go Back
May 16, 2011
Last Tuesday (May 10), President Obama signed a declaration of emergency, which authorized federal funds to be used in aid to victims of the storms and flooding which have crossed the state this spring. The Office of the Press Secretary sent the following release through the White House website:

The President today declared a major disaster exists in the State of Missouri and ordered Federal aid to supplement State and local recovery efforts in the area struck by severe storms, tornadoes, and flooding beginning on April 19, 2011, and continuing.

The President's action makes Federal funding available to affected individuals in the counties of Butler, Mississippi, New Madrid, St. Louis, and Taney.  Assistance can include grants for temporary housing and home repairs, low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses, and other programs to help individuals and business owners recover from the effects of the disaster...
    Both U.S. Senators, as well as the Governor from Missouri, requested the funds in a letter [....]
http://jacobdlawrence.blogspot.com/2011/05/we-need-to-go-back.html
 
A Tale of two Stories: SEIU Harassment, and Sued under RICO Statute

By Matt
March 22, 2011
    The SEIU is one of the unions most discussed by the right. From what we have seen, they seem to be a beat down prone group of thugs, and are very open in their intimidation tactics. Here is a rather interesting video… ['youtube' link below]
    So the goons show up and disrupt a business that has nothing to do with the hospital that the SEIU is striking against. The bank CEO is apparently on the hospital’s board, but there are negotiators that handle the union situation. So, it is clear that this is nothing more than an intimidation tactic. Look for them to show up at the man’s home.  Did you notice how they reacted when they were told that the police were called? They sounded like a bunch of petulant teens, if you ask me.  Now, that story is just a tiny slice of the next one. It seems that the SEIU has had a RICO suit filed against them by [....]
http://conservativehideout.com/wordpress/2011/03/22/a-tale-of-two-stories-seiu-harassment-and-sued-under-rico-statute/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mK721SMGB_E&feature=player_embedded
 
The Mead List: World’s Top Ten Gaddafi Toads

Walter Russell Mead
March 3, 2011
    When Muammar Gaddafi, the ‘Commander of Islam‘, Africa’s King of Kings and the Great Loon of Libya addressed the United Nations General Assembly at unusual length in 2009, he asked about the hanging of Saddam Hussein. “How is the member of a government and president of a country sentenced to hang? Who were these people in masks that did this? Did they have the right to do it?” If things go on as they are in Libya, he may find out. In the meantime as the King of Kings and Loon of Loons does his hideous best to engulf his country in terror and blood for the sake of extending his despicable and destructive rule, it is worth reflecting on the degree to which the “international community” (to use the oxymoronic phrase with which vapid politicians and bureaucrats seek to disguise the carnivorous nature of international life) flattered, cajoled and enabled this psychopath.
    I do not blame the United States and Britain for making a deal to stop his nuclear program. I thank God we did that, and I thank God it worked. I do not blame either country for offering the delusional windbag a path back to normal relations; there is more rejoicing in Heaven over the sinner who repents than over the ninety-nine who never left the fold and it is not as if there were many other viable options to try.
    It pains me, but I am also willing to overlook the military sales various western powers (including the United States) made to the regime in order to get its help against terror. In the world in which we actually live, as opposed to the beautiful utopia which so many clueless idealists imagine we inhabit, you sometimes have to deal with Beelzebub to keep Satan in check. FDR and Winston Churchill helped Stalin [....]
http://blogs.the-american-interest.com/wrm/2011/03/03/the-mead-list-worlds-top-ten-gaddafi-toads/

10 Things the TSA Won't Tell You

We give the gatekeepers a thorough pat down..
By MARISA TAYLOR
May 9, 2011
1. "We still have some room to grow."
    Since Sept. 11, 2001, the Transportation Security Administration has installed 48,000 federal security officers, primarily in airports. Their mission: To vet the nation's approximately 625 million air passengers and more than 9 billion trips on U.S. mass transit per year. Thwarted attacks since then have ushered in further measures that air passengers have tolerated for the sake of security, until last year's major rollout of full-body scans and enhanced pat downs. Critics say they're too invasive and wonder if they'll be used elsewhere. Indeed, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has said it might soon be time to expand the focus on aviation security to other forms of mass transit. In March the Electronic Privacy Information Center released documents describing a Department of Homeland Security pilot program for mobile full-body screening at [....]
http://www.smartmoney.com/spend/travel/10-things-the-tsa-wont-tell-you-1303941489416/?link=SM_mag_inside
Until Next Sunday....