The Way I See ItBy cj pollickPunish The Taxpayer – Part of the “in your face” philosophy local governments have adopted since the passage of Amendment I is to punish the taxpayer! Library and recreation center hours have been cut in accordance with this plan. In fact, taxpayers in Treasure Island who wish to use the library will be charged $100. Maybe we should start charging a fee for children to attend public schools! After all, we currently subsidize free breakfast, free lunch, free before school care, free after school care, free clinics. Where do you think all these freebies come from? Parking Garage On Clearwater Beach – The Clearwater City Council decided to allow more time for other Clearwater Beach parking garage options to be explored by city officials. Big deal! Not really, Clearwater citizens have already waited many years for “new” beach parking garage ideas. Clearwater Men’s Baseball League – According to e-mails from the head of Clearwater’s Men’s Baseball League, “I dare those guys who talk this big talk behind the scenes to carry out one of these threats …” What threats? How to break a leg or bean a batter. Yes, it appears that some men are acting like boys and need to be benched.“ Is Sen. Joe Biden Kidding? - Even though career politician Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware earns well over $300,000 a year, he recently stated that it is patriotic for us workers to pay more in taxes. Yes, according to the Obama and Biden campaign, it is our patriotic duty to pay more in taxes -- call it compassionate giving. Strangely enough, Joe Biden had only given about $3,000 to charities over the past nine (9) years. Not a very charitable man, if you look at what he really does versus what he asks for others to pay. If a reflection of a great leader is his example, then Biden has sent a clear picture to voters what he would do if elected vice president ... ask hard-working citizens to do more than he would ask of himself. You might say they are addicted to OPM (Other People’s Money.) Vote for Biden and Obama if they seek to increase taxes and ask more of others than themselves? You tell me. The Global Economy Is In A Mess - Who should we blame for the downfall of the global economy? Stock investors? Greedy corporations? Weak management? Poor government regulations? All of the above? On the other hand, is this the time to point fingers or is it the time to help solve our world's financial mess? Great nations of the world are working on plans to use government funds to help alleviate cash-flow problems of important financial institutions, such as AIG and other such important corporations in Russia, Asia and Europe. Ever since some financial guru's opined that a "global economy" would be better than a local, national economy, businesses have supported a more "global" view on economics than domestic. And, here we are with financial problems that circle the globe and have resulted in investors from Singapore, Hong Kong and the Persian Gulf helping to help bail-out large U.S. corporations. Investment companies in Korea. Japan and China have been approached to invest in companies like Morgan Stanley. Then again, can you blame foreign investors for not getting excited to bail-out a U.S. financial company that paid CEO's enormous termination benefits (even after the company lost billions of shareholder dollars?) The U.S. government has stepped-in to help support the financial infrastructure of several large U.S. financial corporations, such as AIG, Freddie Mac and Fanny Mae, and we can only hope that federal assistance remedies the immediate economic problems in America. But, the problems we face in America can only be fully resolved by electing people in office who have a heart for the common working person and a heart for small businesses that never get a bail-out. We need people in elected office that will cut taxes and make sure the major corporations who received government loans will repay all those loans plus interest and we can hope, our legislators write federal laws to stop public company CEO golden parachutes. Lastly, it is time for federal regulation of the insurance and banking business. The mess at AIG and Merrill Lynch proves that states can't run how big insurers and banks do business. The Way I See It, we need Sarah Palin to head a Congressional committee to develop a plan of action (that will be acted on ASAP.) Who would stop such a plan? Democrats in Congress wish to increase taxes and bail-out all mortgage holders who obtained a loan they could never repay. That novel idea rewards people who knowingly borrowed money they knew could never be repaid! Interestingly, Sen. Obama will be glad-handing in Dunedin, but will avoid talking about his solutions to these financial problems. Will our local media types ask him tough questions about our nation’s financial problems? No, they support Obama. By The Numbers – Here is a breakdown of some of the numbers involved in our government’s bail-out of several financial institutions: > AIG - $85 billion. > Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac - $200 billion > Bears Stearns - $30 billion > Congressional bailout of money market funds, etc - $700 billion. > Total bail-out? $1 TRILLION. Our children and grandchildren will pay this debt. USF Bulls Are 3-0 – Tampa Bay’s USF Bulls are 3-0 and headed to North Carolina top play a formidable N.C. team. If the Bulls win, they will play Pitt next Thursday at Raymond James Stadium – GO BULLS. Gators are rolling, FSU is in trouble and Miami looks like the good old days are returning. The BUCS? Thanks to Brian Griese, the BUCS are 2-1 and are beginning to look like a contender. 40 Days Until Election Day! “Socialism in general has a record of failure so blatant that only an intellectual could ignore or evade it.” - Thomas Sowell |