This morning on Fox’s America’s Newsroom in an interview conducted by Bill Hemmer, Carol Bowshier, the chief of staff for the Ohio Civil Service Employees Association says:
Well the fact is, we could lay off every state worker in Ohio. Every police officer, every firefighter, every corrections officer and we would only close 1/4 of the $8Billion gap.
I call Bulls#!/ on Ms. Bowshier, because her assumption means the average salary of each public service employee is under $13,000 a year which we all know is simply not the case.
As Bill stated at the beginning of the interview, this would affect all 330,000 state employees.
So do the math. If the WHOLE $8Billion was being laid on the union workers (which it is not) then all we have to do is take the $8 Billion divided by 330,000 and we get a measly $24242 per employee (over 2 years meaning the actual per employee cost to eliminate the $8Billion is only $12,121 per year).
And add in the fact that the $8Billion is NOT being solely burdened by the public union workers, these austerity moves by Ohio will likely be able to put the state into a surplus situation.
On Friday, Dalton McGuinty’s Liberals decided to put a moratorium on offshore wind projects. I thought a lot about this over the weekend and commented to friends that it is possibly the beginning of the coming landslide in the green energy kybosh which may be the only thing that saves the provincial liberals from a rout in the October 2011 elections.
Offshore applications to date make up only a handful of the many hundreds received so far, and the government’s terse news release pointed out that none have been built. Queen’s Park is pulling the plug until “further scientific research is conducted.”
But the reality is that public opinion research, rather than scientific research, is driving the government’s agenda these days. A number of Liberal ridings are being buffeted by wind turbine troubles, notably the Scarborough seat held by Energy Minister Brad Duguid.
The premier likes to boast in his speeches about Ontario’s groundbreaking renewable energy policies and his focus on good government. He has long resisted NIMBYism, and his ministers are known to mock them as BANANAs — Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything. But with an election coming, his new priority is putting out political fires — most recently by nixing the gas-fired power plant in Oakville that threatened another Liberal seat.
The opposition is profiting from the anti-wind movement, with many MPPs stirring it up in their ridings at every opportunity. Most of the huffing and puffing is directed against onshore wind farms, which face a 550-metre setback. Offshore turbines, by contrast, faced a five-kilometre setback — virtually out of sight, but by no means out of mind.
So what does this mean?
Well it means that they cancelled a tiny portion of wind, primarily on Lake Ontario, to save Brad Duguid’s Scarborough seat by cancelling wind turbine projects that have to be 5km from shore but it leaves the countless wind farms that only have to be 550 meters from a neighbour’s property. If health was truly the cause of the cancellation, then they would have cancelled the ones that are potentially closer to people. But a) this would affect the bulk of the programs and b) it would not help save Brad Duguid’s job. And since Duguid is now the face of Green Energy in Ontario, it would be a devastating loss and hit to the Green Energy Act if he was unseated.
So rural farmers who make up the bulk of the current wind farms (and their neighbours who make up the bulk of the neighbours of wind farms) get the shaft.
Sound familiar? Well it should. You see back on July 2nd, McGuinty also cut the rates for lucrative 10kW MicroFIT solar projects that were ground based from 80.2 cents per kWh to 64.2 pretty much making them unviable. Yet he left the rooftop installations at 80.2 cents per kWh. The reason they sited was that the ground based installations were cheaper. But they were wrong. The ground based systems need heavy ballasting, far longer trenches, potentially new hydro poles, transformers etc depending on the location. Whereas rooftop systems have all that readily available. and simply connect up to the power near your home meter.
So he slaps the rural community on July 2nd and tells them they can’t really take part in solar and now he slaps them again by telling them Scarborough resident’s health is in jeopardy when they are 5km from an installation but farmers that are potentially 550 meters from a windfarm are not at the same risk. Can we say OfficiallyScrewed?
The ONLY thing that would make this windfarm situation right is if he puts a hold on all ONSHORE windfarm projects as well.
For those who think fearmongering is at an all time high. I have news for you courtesy of the Boy Scouts. Be prepared.
Corn prices below show the rise only seen in 2008 but we are only at the beginning. If oil goes up due to instability in the middle east, the price of all good will go up even more. But it’s about to crash through the 2008 all time high. Keep an eye on it. click to enlarge
Additionally, the price of cotton which we knew was rising, is also spiking dramatically and is at all time highs now in January. I guess Glenn Beck’s warning of Cotton going up 30% and to stock up a couple of months ago wasn’t such a bad idea. I wish I had taken his advice. We’ll keep an eye on this one too.
click to enlarge
In any case, both the drop in the US dollar and the fact that all our goods get transported via oil burning vehicles is going to drive up commodities. That makes you and I, as consumers, OfficiallyScrewed.
Stuart Varney used this graphic today. (I cellphone snapped a photo of the screen to produce the image below). It compares two presidents, Reagan and Obama, both of whom inherited recessions and high unemployment. The blue line indicates unemployment rates under Reagan’s presidency and the red line under Obama’s.
Varney was clear that the difference between the two is that Reagan focussed on private sector revitalization and Obama has been focussed on public sector stimulus.
Very interesting. (click image to view larger version)
Originally Posted 9/10/2010 but being bumped due to importance
Kanata South Candidate and NDP Supporter Appears To Be Attempting To Deceive Voters
The best way to predict future behaviour is to look at past behaviour.
On Thursday September 9th during the CFRA Municipal Panel, Rob Snow had guest Aaron Helleman on the air. Aaron is running in Ward 23 – Kanata South in the upcoming Ottawa Municipal Election. During the interview Rob Snow mentioned that Aaron Helleman was described as a lefty. Let’s pick up the conversation at that point.
Aaron Helleman: That’s interesting. The entrepreneur. The fella who’s a market believer. The fella who’s running his own business and is a professional engineer.
Rob Snow: So How did you get that tag then?
Aaron Helleman: I have no idea.
Well OfficiallyScrewed.com has the scoop on this one. And considering how much we have found out about Mr. Helleman, I can assure you his response is not a simple admission of not knowing, but it is quite clearly an effort to hide his true orange NDP roots.
1) Let’s look at his own words. He says he is a market believer. Yet when he was VP and blogger for the Federal NDP party back in 2005, he posted a “Quote of the Day” by Wendell Berry which stated:
Rats and roaches live by competition under the laws of supply and demand; it is the privilege of human beings to live under the laws of justice and mercy.
Wendell Berry
# posted by Aaron Helleman @ 9:19 AM 0 comments
How can someone be a market believer yet also believe that “Rats and roaches live by competition under the laws of supply and demand.”? I can just see Milton Friedman shaking his head at this one.
2) Aaron Helleman was a Vice President and Membership Director of the Federal NDP riding association in Carleton Mississippi Mills and he was also very involved in the campaign of the Carleton-Mississippi Mills NDP Candidate, Tasha Bridgen, during the January 2006 Federal Election. You can find his words on the blog of Rob Cottingham from a post back in December 2005 when Cottingham was gathering information on NDP campaigns. Helleman was not only glad to provide his status as a blogger and VP of the CMM NDP but he was pleased to announce that Tasha Bridgen’s site had video. You can see this in the comments of the blog post located here.
December 7th, 2005 at 20:40
Aaron Helleman says:
Hi guys,
Just wanted you to know that Carleton Mississippi Mills has a candidate – Tasha Bridgen. Check out the blog – http://www.cmmndp.ca
Later,
Aaron – CMMNDP Blogger/VP
December 7th, 2005 at 20:44
Aaron Helleman says:
Oh – and we do video too.
Cheers!
Aaron
3) Additionally, via archive.org, the CMM NDP website had a very prominent blogger who attacked both Conservatives and Liberals, clearly staking his position to the left in the political spectrum. This blogger was Aaron Helleman.
4) In 2005, he also posted a piece entitled “Proud to be an NDP Supporter”. Yet he has no idea how he can be tagged a lefty. Where did his pride go?
5) Back in May of 2005, the Carleton-Mississippi Mills NDP Riding Association had a fundraiser at O’Connor’s pub featuring party leader Jack Layton and well known NDP MP Charlie Angus. And who could you contact for tickets? The screenshot of an email below gives you the clear answer. Aaron Helleman.
Click to enlarge
(note the phone number has been hidden by us)
6) In January 2007, Mr. Helleman reached out to the United Church (bells ringing yet?) for help on how to reach their community with voter kits. This is demonstrated at the “Faith Justice” wikipage we found. In this page, Helleman states clearly:
How do we plan on offering this potential voters kit to Christians in our ridings? Would it be published by ‘us’ as individuals or by our riding association, or some other way?
Some great links: (I’m a member of CPJ and would invite you to join them as well… check them out http://www.cpj.ca )
Which “riding association” did Helleman mean? And stating that he is a member of the CPJ does him little good in an attempt to paint himself as a conservative. The link he himself provides on that page takes you to a page where the CPJ clearly states it’s opposition to the Conservative attempt to remove party funding by the public purse back in 2008.
7) The CBC website carries a great section during Federal Elections called Canada Votes/Riding Talk. And in the commentary for Carleton-Mississippi Mills, Helleman clearly promotes and even provides a direct link to the CMM NDP website.
Health Care
Child Care
High-Tech unemployement and outsourcing
Seniors Charter
Youth
are just a few of the issues for this riding.
These issues need new thinking and positive vision. check out SITE
Posted by: Aaron Helleman | Dec 13, 2005 7:55:55 AM
8 ) There is a nice little site called Meetup, where people can create and join “meetup” groups. There is one set up for NDP supporters in the Ottawa area. Guess who shows up as one of the members? Mr. Aaron Helleman.
9) The Coup de Grace. From 2004 to 2009, Mr. Helleman donated $765 to the Federal NDP. This information is public domain at the Elections Canada website but I have provided two screenshots below. The kicker here is that not only were larger donations made of $250, $150, $120, $100 and $50. But there were several $5.00 donations which were logged monthly indicating a pre-authorized donation plan.
Click to enlargeClick to enlarge
In 2004, Helleman donated $400 to the Carleton-Mississippi Mills NDP riding association. This information is public knowledge at the Elections Canada website.
Click to enlarge
In addition, Helleman donated $400 to the campaign of Tasha Bridgen, NDP candidate in CMM for the 2006 election during the campaign and an additional $200 to the campaign after the election was over. Also public domain at the Elections Canada website.
Click to enlarge
But Helleman’s NDP roots are not only tied to the Federal NDP Party and Federal NDP Riding Association. He is also a big supporter of their provincial NDP cousins. In the 2007 Ontario Provincial Election, Helleman donated a whopping $600 to NDP candidate Michael Hadskis.
Furthermore, as recently as 2009, Helleman donated $110 to the Provincial NDP Party. This information is also public domain at the Elections Ontario website but we have provided a screenshot for you below.
Click to enlarge
So all told, he has donated at least $2475 to various NDP parties, candidates and riding associations and countless hours in volunteer time.
I think by now I have demonstrated that this municipal candidate is clearly a major supporter of the NDP Party of Canada and many of the policies of the left wing. So how could he “have no idea” on why he was tagged a lefty?
The answer to this is simple. Mr. Helleman is trying to hide his left leaning tendencies. In addition to the above information, we have backup data from sites like the Carleton-Mississippi Mills NDP website (currently down), rabble.ca (removed pages found via cache searches), and other sites that indicate someone is trying to remove posts and commentary that Mr. Helleman has made. This goes even so far as to have google cached pages no longer visible. Someone is going to painstakingly great efforts to remove these left leaning comments made by Mr. Helleman. Does he really think that removing a few webpages, printing blue campaign signs and misrepresenting himself on CFRA is enough to cover his orange roots?
But all this raises one further question. Why is he hiding his orange roots? The answer to that is simple. Kanata South is in Carleton-Mississippi Mills. This is the federal/provincial riding that has had a Conservative MP since 2000 and one who has won by a staggering vote count repeatedly. In fact, the last two federal elections had the Conservative MP win EVERY poll in the riding. It is also the riding that has had a Progressive Conservative MPP since 1977. i.e. over 30 years straight.
So the logic is there. Paint yourself as a conservative and hope no one is paying attention. But some of us who have been conservatives in this ward and riding for a long time ARE paying attention. And you, Mr. Helleman…are NOT a conservative and you ARE a lefty.
UPDATE
This week a group called OurOttawa sent out an email asking for support for their slate of 6 “progressive” candidates. (Note: progressive is secret code for socialists and small “L” liberals). The email included a flyer announcing a fundraiser for these 6 candidates, as well as a Powerpoint (which we converted to pdf for easier download) explaining the voting records of current council and why they are supporting these 6 new candidates. In this PowerPoint, (screenshot below) this group clearly states “We leave alone the progressives” and it displays the 6 existing councillors that are proven by the group themselves to support a leftist agenda. (Alex Cullen being on this list should set further bells ringing.)
Click to enlarge
Additionally to support item number 1) above, this group is promoting people who support a “living wage”. This means support of a price floor which is diametrically opposed to being a “market believer” which Helleman claims he is.
Now the next time you see a famous star slamming the politics of the right and promoting the politics of the left, pay attention. They make a sick amount of dough compared to you and they know better than you.
<facetiousness off>
Could they not have just paid each of these 55 bozos $100,000 each and saved $105.5 Million?
Media double standard comes to forefront as all three major networks, ABC, CBS and NBC ignore left leaning Oliver Stone’s anti-Semitic rant. The full credit for all these stats should be given to Jeff Jacoby of the Boston Globe.
When Mel Gibson teed off (drunk) on a Malibu police officer the following happened:
1,077 articles appeared on Nexis about his rant
New York Times made it a page 1 story, and followed up with two more days of much longer stories
LA Times made it on page 1 for three days with several stories inside the covers
Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson said cut him no slack
Baba Wawa (Barbara Walters) on The View said she would not go see another Mel Gibson movie ever again
Slate ostracized Gibson
But when Oliver Stone tees off (sober) about how Jewish dominated media prevents Hitler from being seen in the right context……well you be the judge.
Nexis has fewer than 150 stories on Stone’s statements
ABC, CBS and NBC news programs have ZERO coverage of Stone’s rant
The New York Times covers it briefly in two small clips in their “Arts, Briefly” section
Slate was silent
An LA Times blogger practically defended Stone
Now don’t mistake the point of my article. Both men said some pretty bad things about Jews. In no way do we condone any of them. The whole reason this post exists is to point out that the Main Stream Media can easily be dubbed the Drive By Smeardia and the slant is determined by how left or right leaning someone is.
In my opinion, Gibson got OfficiallyScrewed (and deserved it). But Stone got a slap on the wrist (and deserved to get OfficiallyScrewed too).
Charles Krauthammer, one of the smartest (and best dressed) men in America chimes in on the Chevy Volt.
“The only people who are going to buy it are going to be very rich people who are going to park it outside their townhouse for ostentatious show of how virtuous they are while they drive around in their Cadillac Escalade”
Let’s compare:
Chevy Volt – 64km on a single charge from a government owned big three car maker in business since 1908 which is comparable to the….
Zenn Motor Company LSV – which also gets 64km on a single charge from a small independent Canadian company that just went public in 2006.
Stepping up we have the Nissan Leaf which can go 160km on a charge.
But the big boy on the block is still high tech startup Tesla Motors. The Tesla Roadster is a Lotus-like all electric sports car with high speed , hot acceleration and about 400km per charge but it costs quite a bit. So Tesla is releasing their Model S (sedan) in 2012 with similar performance at a price point around $50,000.
