Care Packages For Our Servicemen and Women

Quick plug here. There is another resource for sending care packages to our military. There will also be a June 26th ‘web-a-thon’ (I guess that’s the modern equivalent of a telethon) to get as many of these packages out to our troops as possible.

Jelly Belly has also donated a bunch of candy packs four our troops to hand out to the children (aka candy diplomacy) in Iraq and Afghanistan.

For more details on this effort (including information on the web-a-thon) see: Mark your calendars: June 26 From the Front Lines web-a-thon.

Additionally, you need not wait for June 26th - you can buy the care packages now by clicking here.

Alternatively, if the above isn’t something you are interested in but do want to show your support in some other way, check out: America Supports You - Show Your Support page (plenty of categories to choose from). There is also the USO.

Bountiful Power Taxes and Recycling (Warning to West Bountiful)

In the latest city newsletter, Bountiful continues to claim that it has the lowest tax of a ‘major city’ in the State. The figure Bountiful uses, however, is misleading. It does not include the hidden tax the city sticks into residents’ power rates.

Each year, the city uses its power company to transfer about $2 million into city coffers. To my knowledge, most major cities, with a power company, (unless Lehi is a major city) do not use their own power company to as a method of covert taxation and many cities don’t have their own power company. Bountiful is trying to use an apples and oranges comparison of property taxes.

Bountiful’s newsletter also notes that it collected $1.96 million in property taxes. That means the power tax revenue ($2 million) is about equal to that collected in property taxes which significantly increases the actual tax rate on residents. I feel confident in saying that this would rapidly drop Bountiful’s rank in comparison to other major cities.

Interestingly, Bountiful has again increased power rates (up another 10% or about $84/year, on average). Which pushes the rate to about 8.896 cents/kWh. That is actually quite a bit higher than Rocky Mountain Power’s (RMP) residential rates (pdf) of 7.539 cents/kWh (Oct-April) and an average of about 8.149 cents/kWh (May-Sep - unless you use a lot of power). Additionally, RMP includes State and Federal taxes within those rates (as well as profits for shareholder and costs related to regulatory oversight) - I did not include the city customer tax in Bountiful’s rate (municipal power companies don’t pay State/Fed taxes). Municipal power companies are also not subject to oversight by the Public Service Commission. Accounting for the above would further widen the gap between the rates.

Of course, Bountiful can continue to crow about how it can use power rates to sock it to the evil churches, food banks, charities, and the like who don’t pay property taxes. The City also stated that the power rates allow them to charge renters who don’t have to pay property taxes. If you don’t think renters pay property taxes, I have a bridge for sale.

For what it’s worth, utility rates (including power) will increase, on average, about $132/year but I don’t think the city uses any other utilities to funnel money into its general fund.

Ending on the semi-positive: the Bountiful City Council did not force everyone to pay for recyclers’ (self-included) convenience. They approved a voluntary opt-in program. This, however, comes with a warning: the City may be involved with the program. If so, it can easily be mandated for all to pay. Vigilance will, yet again, be necessary.

WARNING: West Bountiful residents beware: W.B. mayor pushes for more recycling - he is considering a mandated recycling fee.  This is the same Mayor that wants a redo on the RAP Tax.  Both measures benefit special interests by having everyone else pay.

I would also encourage those who recycle paper to take it to some of the charity (such as the food bank) or school etc. recycling bins as it provides a bit of extra funding for them.

Related: Spinning City Power Rates

Farm Bill (HR 2419) Fiasco - Take Action Now

Rarely do you get much of a second chance when Congress has already passed a bipartisan pork-laden bill. Thanks to the Democrats screwing up (see the link) we have a second chance. The Farm Bill is going to have to be voted on again. In the last round, Republicans rejected conservative values and voted for the bill. Now would be a good time to remind them of the principles they, supposedly, believe in. HotAir has good background (use the links) on this one (A second chance for Republicans to act rather than talk):

…The GOP wants to carry the mantle of clean government and small government, but majorities of Republicans in both chambers voted for a farm bill laden with pork projects, corporate welfare, and farm subsidies that make no sense in a market where food prices have risen significantly.

Memo to the GOP: we don’t believe your rhetoric any longer. Oh, conservatives still want an end to corruption, a reduction in the size and scope of the federal government, and spending discipline to go with lower taxes. We just don’t believe that many elected Republicans want those goals, nor do we think that current Republican leadership has any real commitment to them, either.

Want to dazzle us? Want to start rebuilding your credibility? Then stop talking and start taking action…

For the record, Utah Representatives Cannon (R) and Matheson (D) opposed the bill and upheld the veto. Call both, thank them and encourage them to continue to oppose the bill, in the current form.

Surprisingly, Representative Bishop (R) voted for the bill and did not vote when the veto override vote came up. Bishop has, typically, been a good conservative and I’m not sure what his thinking was on this. The non-vote on the veto may mean he’s changing his mind. Politely contact his office and ask that he oppose the bill.

For those outside of Utah, here are the voting records on the bill: Initial passage vote and veto override vote.

General contact list or, if you are unsure who your Representative is, use the form at the top left of the House site.

Utah Representatives
Rep. Rob Bishop (R-UT 1st)
Rep. Jim Matheson (D-UT 2nd) - phone contact information is at the bottom of the page.
Rep. Chris Cannon (R- UT 3rd)

Stealth Amnesty Provision in War Funding Bill (Action Alert)(Sen. Bennett Upate)

Senators Diane Feinsteing (D-CA) and Larry “Wide Stance” Craig (R-ID) have shoved in an amendment to the Iraq War Supplemental Funding Bill while it was going through the Senate Appropriations Committee (and largely out of public view).

The amendment is set go provide amnesty to illegal immigrant farm workers. Here are some of the detailes provided by John Wallace (emphasis added):

Knowing that the war funding bill is desperately needed to support our troops in battle overseas, the outrageous amnesty plan was covertly attached by Senator Feinstein hoping that no one would notice. If it passes the full Senate next week, this would open the door for even larger waves of illegal immigration in the future! Here’s what the rider calls for:

1. Granting a 3-year work visa to illegal aliens followed by a permanent green card for those who have been working as shepherds, goat and dairy herders.
2. Grant a 5-year work visa to the estimated 1.3 million illegal aliens working in other agricultural jobs – plus all of their family members [this would add up to millions more]. The legislation doesn’t state what happens after 5 years.
3. Grant a tripling of the maximum number of H-2B Visas for lower skilled, non-agricultural seasonal workers.
4. Grant industries an extra 218,000 additional green cards for skilled foreign workers.

As you can tell, the provisions are directly related to war funding…or not. This is yet another example of the amnesty politicians trying to get it slid passed while no one is watching. Additionally, I understand that all you need to qualify is to work only 22 weeks (5 months) out of four years! This will also grant them amnesty from any identity theft they have engaged in.

While Mr. Wallace missed Craig’s involvement it came out later that he was the amendment’s co-sponsor. Michelle Malkin also picked up on the amnesty sneak and her latest post (with background links) on the issue can be found here: Amnesty alert:Tracking the Feinstein/Craig illegal alien farmworker amendment.

ACTION Alert

Call your Senators now! Click here for a contact list (Capitol switchboard: 202-224-3121). For those of us in Utah here are our Senators:

Senator Bennett (202-224-5444 or Utah Offices )

Senator Hatch (202-224-5251 or Utah offices)

Politely, but firmly, ask them to OPPOSE any back door amnesty in the war funding bill AND any other amendments unrelated to the bill.

You may also wish to ask their staffer if the Senator has taken a position on the amendment.

UPDATE: Senator Bennett needs lots of calls. He sits on the Senate Appropriations Committee and voted FOR the amendment in committee. Flood him with calls (polite but firm) to drop the amendment. Don’t forget, Bennett also effectively voted for last year’s amnesty debacle.

I also have a sneaking suspicion that Hatch (he hasn’t taken a position on the amendment, yet) has only taken a tougher stand on these issues because of the election year (he’s been weak on this in the past).

Rap Tax Down Your Throat (West Bountiful)

Bountiful and Centerville special interest groups got your money, now West Bountiful hobbyists and politicians want another shot at forcing your costs to go up.

As always, voters were wrong in rejecting the tax during the last election, because they “didn’t understand the issue“:

“I don’t think the people were properly educated on the RAP tax when it was last placed on the ballot,” said [Mayor] Behunin. “If the public knows exactly what the RAP tax does and where the money is going, then I suspect it won’t be voted down next time.”

It would, at least, be expected that the interest groups convince citizens to place the issue on the ballot, but no. Mayor Behunin is employing executive fiat to save them the work and just stick the issue right on November’s ballot.

I also find it unfortunate that it really wasn’t that long ago, that we allowed service groups, such as the Lion’s Club, and the community to voluntarily complete such community projects. Now, we just ask government to dictate that all will pay for our personal pleasure. I’ve talked about this in the past.

So why would the Mayor be motivated to place another burden on families?

To the best of my knowledge, Behunin isn’t involved with a particular project like some other RAP tax-pushing Mayors who may personally benefit from the tax money. It looks like he is just for it for the sake of inflating city budgets (emphasis added):

…when someone comes to West Bountiful and spends their money somewhere in the West Bountiful Commons area, the city simply collects the sales tax, which also means nothing goes towards their recreational facilities. With future plans to upgrade the park as well as other recreational areas, Behunin stated that the RAP tax will benefit their needs should it pass…

Behunin stated that if the RAP tax passed in the city, they would have seen roughly $275,000 in funding up to now…

To begin with, the first statement is incredibly disingenuous – if no money is going to facilities, it is because the Mayor and council have failed to provide funding in the budget they approve, that is a choice. Rather than plan, save, and budget like the rest of us, he and special interests want the extra money now.

Worse, they are happy to increase taxes and the costs of goods on residents, take $275,000 of stimulus out of the local economy when there are signs that the economy is slowing, and shove that money into government programs/facilities which need to be maintained for the long term.

Yon’s Book, Iraq, and Afghanistan

I was able to get a copy of Michael Yon’s book “Moment of Truth In Iraq” (available at Amazon, see also Yon’s reader comments). I highly recommend the book for anyone looking for an easy to read summary of the war (post invasion) from the perspective of the front lines. Yon notes our failures to conduct effective operations and strategies to avoid destabilizing effects throwing the overall action into danger as well as critical failures of al Qaeda which gave us the second chance we are capitalizing on now. Yon details how we, through counter-insurgency and General Petraeus, are taking advantage of this chance. We are seeing some of the fruits of this change in strategy.

Yon gives a warning that this isn’t over yet, based on how we act as a nation, we can stifle the progress and be witnesses to a bloodbath. Most notably, Yon believes (at the time of writing) that we should increase troop numbers to effectively conduct counter-insurgency in the remaining areas.

Finally, Yon also gives a strong warning that Afghanistan needs to be addressed ASAP as he feels we are loosing. Unfortunately, Michael Yon doesn’t go into any detail regarding how or why he believes we are loosing in Afghanistan. That is the only criticism I have of the book - if you bring up the issue, make the argument, Michael doesn’t. The reader is left guessing (likely, Yon is also referring to counter-insurgency operations here too). With General Petraeus’ promotion to also overseeing Afghanistan operations, counter-insurgency may well be what Yon is referring to but without any specifics, that is the only guess I have for his opinion.

On a personal side, Michael Yon mentions how well the 101st Airborne (under General Petraeus’ leadership) performed in Mosul after the invasion,specifically relating to strategies aimed at preventing insurgency. I remember sending some requested supplies to the 101st for them to use in a joint humanitarian project at that time, it was nice to know that I was a part (albeit tiny) of making a difference.

Anyway, I mentioned that there has been a bunch of progress. To date, we’ve seen the Anbar Awakening and the Diyala Awakening where former insurgents came to us and we jointly hammered al Qaeda. We have also seen the Iraqi forces become stronger and more competent and seen Basra and Sadr City battles handled with Iraqi forces in the lead (and Maliki taking a much stronger leadership role) and Moqtada al Sadr effectively give up in both places (not to mention Maliki telling Iran to quit meddling). One of the best signs is also the return of the Sunnis to the government and the greater political competency by local leaders (also discussed in Yon’s book) after some mentoring.

With all this positive progress, we must remember that Mosul (al Qaeda is running to it) must still be settled and now is not the time to say ‘good enough’ and leave. In any battle or war there are many (probably countless) critical junctures. This is another one. Let us not fail the Iraqis and keep our thoughts, as well, to Afghanistan.

Side note: In terms of Afghanistan (and the region, in general), I’ve found The Long War Journal to provide a pretty good wrap up of the region (click here for Afghanistan-specific entries).

Note on Afghanistan: In responding to a comment, I remembered Yon had highlighted an article written by a British MP named Adam Holloway. The article may well be what Yon has in mind when he discusses Afghanistan: To bring peace to the Afghans, talk to the Taleban

UPDATE: Speaking of Mosul…

Sentiments On The FLDS YFZ Ranch Raid (update)

I’ve wanted to put up a quick opinion on the Texas FLDS issue and have finally found the time to do so. Here’s my opinion.

I think the whole thing stinks.

It is becoming increasingly evident that the huge raid and subsequent mass removal of children (including infants) from their mothers and fathers has all been based on a false report (aka: a prank call).

To me, that means due process was entirely violated. If abuse occurred and there was actual evidence of it, then get the proper warrant for that case and prosecute it. However, latching on to one (false) report to indict every person in that community and launch a massive fishing expedition is absurd and an anthema to the rule of law.

While Texas has split up families, at this time, the case for abuse seems to be bogged down and lacking hard evidence, with one exception: A statement in a Fox News report notes:

Of the 53 girls between the ages of 14 and 17 who are in state custody, 31 either have given birth or are expecting, Azar [Child Protective Services] said.

That one statement is all the evidence and it, too, may be partially invalid based on Texas law (from the Fox News story): “Under Texas law, children under the age of 17 generally cannot consent to sex with an adult.” [emphasis added]

Yesterday, Texas officials stated they found some evidence of abuse but the allegations lacked details (see here and here) and seemed to be a stretch in an effort to justify their actions (the so called ‘broken bone’ evidence is already being questioned). Texas officials also came out with a statement about a pregnant teenager recently giving birth in their custody. The problem is that she may be 18 and even if 17, there may be no crime under Texas laws (depending on when conception occurred). She, too, may face having her newborn taken away from her.

In my opion, all the allegation based on their fishing expedition likely have little legal weight as they have all been ‘found’ based on a highly questionable warrant - there seems to be no legal basis for the original warrant, which throws all evidence found based upon this warrant in question. The allegations Texas CPS is coming out with (especially the broken bone stuff) smack of some serious ex post facto CYA.

From what I have seen, the original warrant seems more based on rumor and hearsay than any concrete evidence. That, in my opinion, compromises the findings resulting from a seemingly baseless raid. The way this has been handled appears to entirely disregard the Constituion and the rule of law.

To this end, I would ask you to join with Connor Boyack (he also authored the petition on the issue) and ask your Representatives and Texas Authorities to intervene in this case and ensure legal and Constitutional rights are honored.

UPDATE: This is in reference to the mother who gave birth while in custody I mentioned above: Sect mother of newborn not a minor, Texas concedes. As I said, she will have her newborn taken away:

The San Angelo Standard Times says Texas will continue to seek custody of the newborn.

Let’s see what other CYA measures Texas CPS will come up with.