Dakota Beacon

I was not sure that there was a point in the lunacy of Federal Government spending the was just too much for Byron Dorgan. But, I am proud to point out that there was according to The Hill:

The chairman of the Senate Democratic Policy Committee quashed an effort by the Treasury Department to hire a cartoonist after the link to the job ad was posted on the Drudge Report.

Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) contacted the Treasury Department to complain after Matt Drudge’s website linked to a want ad for contractors with the “ability to create cartoons on the spot about [Bureau of the Public Debt] jobs.”

The cartoonist was sought to provide presentations for the bureau’s management meetings, according to the ad.

“The contractor shall conduct two, 3-hour Humor in the Workplace programs that will discuss the power of humor in the workplace [and] the close relationship between humor and stress,” the ad stated.

It is great that there are some spending that Senator Dorgan cannot abide:

“Of all the agencies, the Bureau of Public Debt should know that there is very little that is funny about today’s economic conditions,” Dorgan said in a statement. “I understand the need for motivation in the workplace, but I think we have a greater motivation to save the taxpayers some money.”

There is HOPE that he will carefully consider the government takeover of health care AND try to CHANGE America away from that terrible idea.

Anyway it feels kind of weird but when it is due, BRAVO BYRON!

25 Point Bonus Quiz - Before I watched the video, the percentage Barack Hussein Obama’s statements that I believe was/is:

a) 50-100%

b) 0-50%

c) 0%

d) less than 0%

The media keep telling how smart they are but somehow they do not know of this phenomenon! Now that, my friends, is a true modern day miracle.

Will the Obamcare be the future of the greatest medical system in the world? Will you let Obama and the Democrats do to your health care so that you must deal with life and death by taking a number and getting in line? While nothing is perfect will this health care system envisioned by the leftist reformers “save” money as they claim or turn out like Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, and ALL other government run boondogles? YES! If put in place elections will be about bidding up the level of care. Politicians will curry favor by claiming to provide voters an ever expanding list of medical coverage. It has already happened in every state in America where the Democrats run the legislature and make laws governing the insurance industry in their respective states. The huge numbers being claimed as unsustainable for the proposed health care reform is a fraction of what it will really, ultimately cost. It has never been different when votes can be bought with your tax dollars.

Desperately waiting to die in Canada because that medical system there is so terrible when you have a real big problem, Shona was save at the Mayo Clinic:

Shona Holmes was in trouble: The list of her symptoms included headaches, sleeplessness, dizziness, low libido and, worst of all, rapidly deteriorating vision. Her family doctor in Canada ordered an MRI, and a brain tumor was detected. But it would take months for her to get on the appointment calendar of a neurologist or endocrinologist in Canada.After you have watched this short “commercial” video, make sure that you send it to everyone you know that might someday need medical care.

“I knew in my gut that I had to see someone and could not wait five to six months,” she says. So she called Mayo Clinic and got an appointment the same day.

WITHOUT DELAY!

Within 10 days, Holmes returned to Canada with a confirmed diagnosis — and a growing sense of dread. She needed brain surgery immediately, and the thought of leaving home again was daunting: “Traveling so far from home and being far away from my family was a big deal for me, and then having them go into my brain — this was huge!”

Holmes returned to Mayo Clinic for several weeks of tests, and then got ready for the surgery. This time, her husband, David, was by her side.

By accessing Holmes’ brain through her nose and sinuses, surgeons were able to remove the cyst without a single incision on her face. Holmes was discharged from the hospital four days later, cured of her disease.

Now watch this more extended interview for more of the facts about the real life problems encountered when the government control you and your medical access.

Now, do not mess around. This is important. Do something to stop this insanity the the Democrats are pushing on America.

First priority…..make enough noise to your elected representatives so that the U.S. House legislation is stalled until the late summer break. An additional month for the American people to take a close look at the legislation that the Democrats are trying to ram through before we can examine it will doom this terrible remaking of American society into the socialist prison those people envision.

From the sight “Where Business Begins”, home of the National Black Chamber of Commerce

Harry C. Alford, President & CEO

Areas of Expertise: Minority Business and Small Business development, Business Models development,  e-commerce, Entrepreneurship, Corporate Responsibility, Health care                                                                            
In less than a decade, NBCC President, CEO and co-founder Harry Alford has established himself as perhaps the nation’s preeminent champion of African-American business empowerment. From a visionary concept of what Blacks need to do to fully seize their place in the economic mainstream, Mr. Alford has built a global organization that has earned a place at the table in the White House and at the top levels of Corporate America. As the intellectual and spiritual linchpin of the NBCC, Mr. Alford has been responsible for opening doors that have led to billions of dollars in new business for Black-owned businesses throughout the nation. His courage and leadership has been noted by all in the rebuilding of the Gulf Coast in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina. His relentless energy and advocacy is helping forge international business opportunities for African-Americans and emerging entrepreneurs in Africa, the Caribbean, South America and the rest of the Black Diaspora.  For this work he was recently named a Cultural Ambassador by the US State Department. A native of California, Mr. Alford has made his mark at the highest levels of both the private and public sectors. After earning top honors as Company Commander in the Army’s Officer Candidate School class, Mr. Alford put his leadership skills to work in a series of key sales and executive positions at Fortune 100 companies such as Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson and the Sara Lee Corporation. Mr. Alford has led large trade missions to Brazil, Ghana, Kenya and various nations in the Caribbean.  Recently, he helped establish the French African Diaspora Chamber of Commerce in Paris, France.

People are wondering why so many prognosticators are predicting that the economy of the United States will not come back to its robust nature for well over ten years.  I watched “Queen Pelosi” smugly talk yesterday on TV and felt Dennis Gartman of the Gartman Report explained well what took place:

We listened yesterday as she came to the platform to make the announcement and we were stunned by what she had to say, and more importantly, we were stunned by how she said it. We are of course talking about Speaker of the House Pelosi who strode to the platform, surrounded by her friends on the Left and surrounded by a phalanx of microphones to announced the new legislation that the House had passed on health care reform, which was also the largest single tax increase we can recall in the past many years… a virtual assault upon the highest income levels and an attempt by the Left to wreak havoc upon those in the US who are the nation’s most productive citizens.

When Ms. Pelosi came to the platform she began by saying “This is truly a great day” for America. She noted that she and the other members of the Democratic Party’s leadership had created legislation that would exempt everyone from taxes to pay for universal health care whose income, as a two person family, below $350,000, but above that level new taxes will go into effect, graduated up to a 5% surtax on those making more than $1 million/annually.

The lower income levels will love this plan of course, for someone else shall be paying for their health care. The upper income levels, however, should view this is as simply another left-of-centre assault upon them when it is they who already pay for government and it is they who will pay more.

Remember, in 2006, the latest available year from CBO, the top 20 percent of income earners paid 86.3% of all federal income taxes, an all time high. During the same period, the bottom four quintiles all saw their share of the federal income tax burden fall sharply. The latest data shows that the top 1% of the nation’s wage earners paid 33% of the total taxes and that the top 5% paid 52% of the taxes. That is going to go up… materially. When it does, the sad truth is that those same taxpayers will quietly begin to make their way away from the US; will quietly, but resolutely move their incomes, where they can, out of the US and to other jurisdictions; will defer income and will take whatever legal actions can be taken to limit their incomes and limit their tax liabilities. Atlas is indeed getting ready to shrug. and Ms. Pelosi is smiling!

What people need to understand is that without incentive and the ability to enjoy the fruits of their labor and hardships, similar to athletes striving to win the gold, why would anyone in this country want to work hard and make a lot of money if it is going to get confiscated by the government?  That is why our economy will continue to flounder if we propagate the idea that it is ok to penalize the innovative and energetic of our society for the good of all. 

AP writer Ken Thomas put together a short article that appears on both the Bismarck Tribune and the Fargo Forum websites on July 15, 2009. Apparently Senator Dorgan has raised nearly $1 million:

WASHINGTON (AP)—North Dakota Sen. Byron Dorgan raised nearly $1 million during the past three months and now has $3.5 million in his campaign account for his 2010 re-election campaign.

Dorgan released his quarterly campaign finance report on Wednesday. The Democrat could face Republican Gov. John Hoeven next year. Hoeven has said he expects to make a decision on the Senate race by early September. Dorgan raised $940,000 during the months of April, May and June. Through the end of March, he had $2.7 million in his account.

As has been almost entirely ignored year in and year out by North Dakota’s print and broadcast media, the North Dakota Democrat Party is funded primarily by out-of-state money (82% for 2008). Reading Mr. Thomas’s article brings to mind, therefore, the question, how much of Senator Dorgan’s campaign money comes from out of state? It is kind of hard to compile a complete record because there are contributions to his PAC, the Great Plains Leadership Fund, as well has the campaign in his name (Friends of Byron Dorgan), not to mention unreported contributions of less than $200 per year for an individual. Trying to fight your way through the Federal Election Commission website to obtain 2009 contributions is a difficult task. But personal contributions over $200 by individuals for the first quarter of 2009 to the Senator’s campaign can be examined at http://www.opensecrets.com.

25 Point Bonus Quiz 1 – What was the percentage of contributions to Senator Dorgan’s campaign during the first quarter of 2009 over $200 was contributed by North Dakota citizens? Answer at bottom of this page.

a) 90%

b) 75%

c) 50%

d) 30%

e) 10%

f) 1.237%

As to the AP story, what percentage of the over $940,000 contributions of greater than $200 was given to the Senator Dorgan by N.D. citizens during April, May, and June?

25 Point Bonus Quiz 2 – Will AP writer Ken Thomas obtain that percentage and educate the citizens of the state regarding who is supporting our candidates? Answer at bottom of this page.

a) Yes

b) No

c) Highly unlikely

Because it is so difficult to navigate the FEC website and obtain tabular results, time limitations allowed only a review of contributions of over $200 during the first quarter of 2009 from individuals to the Great Plains Leadership Fund with names beginning with the letter A.

25 Point Bonus Quiz 3– What was the percentage of contributions of over $200 during the first quarter of 2009 from N.D. citizens to the Great Plains Leadership Fund with names beginning with the letter A? Answer at bottom of this page.

a) 90%

b) 75%

c) 50%

d) 30%

e) 10%

f) 1.39%

Will any member of the North Dakota print or broadcast media ask Senator Dorgan (as it is all likely in easily transferred databases used for bulk mailing of contribution solicitations), then examine, and subsequently present to the state’s citizens the facts of who pays for our national representatives? NO.

This of begs the question: Although only N.D. citizens can vote for Senator Dorgan, who gets him elected?

25 Point Bonus Quiz 4- If Senator Dorgan’s challenger asks the Senator to forswear all out of state campaign money for the 2010 election, Senator Dorgan will:

a) Have his campaign funded by his constituents only.

b) Have almost exclusively by non-citizens of N.D. make sure he gets elected.

c) Laugh

d) a & b

e) b & c

f) none of the above

Quiz answers:

Quiz 1: f (1.237 %)

Quiz 2: c (Highly unlikely)

Quiz 3: f (1.39%)

Quiz 4: e (b & c) subjective call but most likely answer based on all historical evidence

With our economy in the midst of it’s worst recession in many years, our newly elected president needs all the help he can get. Unfortunately, on the issue of Global Warming he’s getting it from the wrong people. It’s bad enough that so many of our political, corporate world and financial leaders have been busted for corrupt and immoral activities. It’s even worse that one of the biggest scams of our time is being perpetrated as a cry to save the world.
Al Gore’s movie, “An inconvenient truth” for example, is loaded with misleading statements and data. What this agenda and biased piece of work lacks most is ironically, the truth. It makes no sense to spend billions of dollars to lessen CO2, (the main greenhouse gas) and methane released into the atmosphere. One can make a good case for these greenhouse gases to be mostly responsible for Global Warming based on some data but only time will tell for sure.

What’s the real risk/worst case scenario of not acting now to lessen those greenhouse gases?

1. Stronger hurricanes

2. Melting ice/rising oceans

What you don’t hear about is that Global Warming means less need for fuel to heat in the Winter. Why would we have a policy that’s against less energy use?

We should all be very aggressive when it comes to reducing pollution and conserving/recycling natural resources. CO2 is not pollution though. CO2 is plant food. Crops grow bigger and better when the concentration of CO2 goes up. Agriculture expands farther north, growing seasons are longer when the earth is warmer.. Think about the term “greenhouse gas”.

That name comes from the fact that it traps heat in a fashion similar to how the glass in a greenhouse does. What do we use greenhouses for? To grow vegetables and flowers because they grow better in that environment. If we increase greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, the effect is to make our planet more like a greenhouse. The most important thing this planet provides for us and all the animals is food. All food starts from plants. We could not survive very long without abundant plants. Where do plants grow best…..a greenhouse.

Why are we planning to waste billions of dollars, time and energy to possibly keep our planet from being more like a greenhouse?

If we ever have Global Cooling, everyone will know the real threat. This planet has had several Ice Ages not that long ago (on a geological time scale). Another one would wipe out the majority of animals. Just moderate cooling would cause famine and widespread starvation. Looking at crop/food production over the last decade, one can see explosive growth, at a time when our planet has been getting warmer. Clearly, technology is responsible for most of the gains but Global Warming is helping us to feed more people on a planet whose population is growing. Archaeologists and geologists can look at what is left behind from the distant past which speaks loudly to them. Here’s what the evidence clearly shows. The warmer the planet, the more life it supported. The colder the planet, the less life it supported.

Our climate is controlled by the relationship between the atmosphere, oceans, land and often underrated sun. Though we know a great deal about how they work in tandem and are using it with increasing efficiency to forecast weather and climate, there is still uncertainty. Looking back millions of years at the earth’s climate shows a great deal of fluctuation between cold and warm, without humans around. This is evidence of powerful forces outside our control capable of changing the climate. There seems to be a strong correlation between sunspots and climate. Periods with unusually low numbers of sunspots have been unusually cool.

We could have an enormous effort to slow Global Warming. The results might be effective and accomplish the goal at great cost. They could also be wasted or even harmful as a natural force enters the picture like it has in the past. For instance, if that natural force favors cooler temps, we just shot ourselves in the foot by making our planet even easier to cool.

It’s interesting to note that the number of sunspots in the current 11 year sunspot cycle has been unusually low. The increase in sunspots predicted to begin earlier this year may just be a bit late getting started. However, if solar activity continues quiet for some time, there’s a good chance it will result in a cooler earth which will also quiet the Global Warming alarmists.

It makes no sense to be against a warmer planet if you view the realities and science in an unbiased manner.

Look at it this way. Under the Global Warming scenario at it’s greatest effect, will take over one hundred years to cause the loss of lives that will be saved in 1 year from the increased food we produce with the warmer earth.

I’m certain that at some point in the future, we’ll look back at Al Gore’s Nobel Prize based on his junk science, as a big farce. Many of us already do.

Mike Maguire
Meteorologist
Evansville

Imagine January in North Dakota after 3 days of snow. Now imagine you cannot own a Suburban because Barney Frank, or Representative Markey, or Henry Waxman has decided that Government Motors will not be making anymore of those beastly SUVs. So you are skating along, keeping her between the ditches and you meet a school bus trying to keep it between the ditches, think physics, think conservation of energy. Who has more energy the bus or your government issue Smart Car?

25 Point Bonus Question: True or False…..If I am driving in N.D. in January and I hit a horse in one of the above CAFE approved cars I will be OK.

From over the internet transom….Thanks to Eileen G. in MA

From The Wall Street Journal article, Minority Broadcasters Seek Federal Aid:

WASHINGTON—A group of minority broadcasters asked Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner Monday for financial assistance akin to the aid that has been extended to the financial and auto industries.

and….

The broadcasters appeal follows a proposal sent in May to Mr. Geithner by a group of influential House members asking for a minority broadcaster support program, bridge funding, or government-backed loans.

Strangely the outfit advocating this madness is named “Free Press”.

But….instead if a Free Press they actually are quietly setting the stage for a very expensive subsidized press.

It seems that under the guise of community standards and racial balance the Democrats will pursue officially sanctioned racism, using the power of government to force a division of public assets (broadcast frequency allocation and licensing) based on pigmentation. Martin Luther King must be spinning in his grave as we are asked to support racial balkanization rather than a color blind society.

This is wrong in so many ways.

You can count on the silence of the North Dakota congressional (Conrad, Dorgan, and Pomeroy) delegation on this one. Count on it.

The White House spells his name wrong. And now this.

Hope springs eternal. Keep your chin up. It is not over until it’s over. There is a reason this guy has no real record of accomplishment.

From over the internet transom….Thanks EG

In his opening statement at the Senate confirmation hearing for Supreme Court, Senator Al (Porn-A-Rama) Franken stated that Judge Sonya Sotomayor was “the most experienced Supreme Court nominee in 100 years.” But…………..he also wrote some real nasty stuff for Playboy magazine back in 2000. Is this guy for real? It all Depends I guess.

From telling jokes to being one. That did not take long.

Few Americans realize the reality of the saving the auto manufacturers so that they could be given to the unions. From the American Spectator website Eric Peters explains about Food Stamps for Chrysler:

Chrysler is building cars again. The problem is, they’re the same cars Chrysler was building before it collapsed.

Many of these—like the Sebring and Avenger—have been obviously uncompetitive for years. Others—like the PT Cruiser—are completely out of date. (The PT’s basic chassis dates back to the 1990s-era Dodge Neon.)

Thousands of them, built pre-bankruptcy, remain sitting on storage lots all around the country. Yet Chrysler is cranking up to build more of them.

And the government is paying Chrysler to do this.

More accurately, the American taxpayer is providing the financing to Fiat—the foreign car company that now owns a majority of Chrysler—in order to make it possible for Chrysler to keep on building lemons.

And why is the future bleak? The article continues:

But the money to rehab its product line was gone with the wind. The Germans, wisely, pulled out in the nick of time—leaving a now cash-poor Chrysler to face an unprecedented downturn with no reserves to design and tool up new models to meet the changing times.
Which brings us back, full circle, to the bailout and the massive, taxpayer-funded make-work project.

How is this all possible? Or more exactly why? Payback. Oama must repay the unions who along with trail lawyers keep the Democrat Party alive according to the American Institute for Economic Research:

Since 1990, labor unions have contributed over $667 million in election campaigns in the United States, of which $614 million or 92 percent went to support Democratic candidates. In 2008, unions spent $74.5 million in campaign contributions, with $68.3 million going to the Democratic Party. Already, unions have contributed $6.5 million to the 2010 elections, and $6 million has gone to Democrats, according to the Center for Responsive Politics in Washington, D.C

.

Comments from the N.D. congressional delegation regarding this insanity has been………?