Kevin Colby: News, culture, political blog

A Constitutional amendment limiting congressional terms is vital to our nation’s future.

We face the third millennium with a bankrupt country and an evaporating dollar. This is the result of years of irresponsible congressional spending—the buying of our votes with our children’s money. We cannot survive with the gang of self-seeking big spenders we have in office now. The Congress we have is dysfunctional.

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Here is what Claude Castonguay has to say about that wonderful socialized healthcare that we have so envied:

“We thought we could resolve the system’s problems by rationing services or injecting massive amounts of new money into it,” says Castonguay. But now he prescribes a radical overhaul: “We are proposing to give a greater role to the private sector so that people can exercise freedom of choice.”

Click here to read the full story.

57% of Canadians reported waiting 4 weeks or more to see a specialist; 24% of Canadians waited 4 hours or more in the emergency room.

A March 2, 2004 article in the Canadian Medical Association Journal stated, “Saskatchewan is under fire for having the longest waiting time in the country for a diagnostic MRI — a whopping 22 months.”

A February 28, 2006 article in The New York Times quoted Dr. Brian Day as saying, “This is a country in which dogs can get a hip replacement in under a week and in which humans can wait two to three years.”

Canada’s shortage of medical practitioners causes problems. With 2.2 doctors per thousand population, Canada is well below the OECD average of 3.0, although its 10 nurses per thousand was slightly above the OECD average of 8.6. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is an international organisation of thirty countries that accept the principles of representative democracy and free market economy.

Doctors in Canada make an average of $202,000 a year (2006, before expenses). Alberta has the highest average salary of around $230,000, while Quebec has the lowest average annual salary at $165,000, creating interprovincial competition for doctors and contributing to local shortages.

In 1991, the Ontario Medical Association agreed to become a province-wide closed shop, making the OMA union a monopoly. Critics argue that this measure has restricted the supply of doctors to guarantee its members’ incomes.

According to a 2007 article, the Canadian medical profession is suffering from a brain drain. The article states, “One in nine trained-in-Canada doctors is practicing medicine in the United States. If Canadian-educated doctors who were born in the U.S. are excluded, the number is one in 12.”

A February 28, 2006 article in The New York Times stated, “Accepting money from patients for operations they would otherwise receive free of charge in a public hospital is technically prohibited in this country, even in cases where patients would wait months or even years before receiving treatment…Canada remains the only industrialized country that outlaws privately financed purchases of core medical services.”

In 2006, a Canadian court threatened to shut down one private clinic because it was planning to start accepting private payments from patients. According to The New York Times, although privately funded clinics are illegal in Canada, many clinics are opening anyway, because patients don’t like the long waiting lists in the government system.

In a 2007 interview on ABC News, Professor Regina Herzlinger of Harvard Business School said, “Many clinics all across Canada are illegal for-profit… They know they can’t get the health care they need from the legal system, so they’re complicit in creating an illegal system that’ll give them what they need.”

There has been an overwhelming response to my blog: America needs a “New Revolution” to minimize government intrusion. It was on the topic of Congressional term limits and The Fair Tax Act. If you haven’t read it yet, feel free too. But, I do appreciate everyone who has read and commented on it.

Here was an interesting comment that I had received:

Our goal of NO TAXES will not and cannot be reached without being done in incremental stages. Passage of the FairTax could be the first step towards that goal. Kevin is absolutely right about what needs to be done. With 72 current sponsors in congress, the FairTax already has great national awareness and acceptance. Although the main thoughts of the Libertarian party are just and admirable they are, for the most part, beyond the comprehension of the average citizen.

There are many different groups trying to get congress to listen to them. None to date have been as successful as the FairTax supporters. If all these groups including the Libertarian Party would unite to get the FairTax passed, this would be the first step in returning power to the people. Once the people get the FairTax passed, that same unified front could work on other things, such as term limits. The” It will never happen” mindset must be changed to “let’s get it done”. Any viable member of the Libertarian Party should know that it was a relatively small percentage of Americans that actually wanted to revolt against England. When members of congress feel their jobs are in jeopardy, then they listen to the people. If they think their jobs are safe they could care less. The Democrats and the Republicans unite against us, We The People. We must unite against them !

Our stance, meaning the Libertarian Party, sometimes reminds me of a little child trying to hold it’s breath till it gets what it wants. Let’s not hold our breath. Let’s scream until the FairTax is law. Then we’ll scream again and again till our Founding Fathers hear us.

This person is exactly right. Just think about what is going on in the message board. We are coming up with ideas and talking about it. We will have an easier time with the passage of both The Fair Tax Act and Term Limits because of the availability of resources to us. They didn’t have the internet then. We can spread the word so easily now. And we don’t have to worry about going to war with our own government like they did back then either. But like this person said in the comment, The “It will never happen” mindset must be changed to “let’s get it done”.

We are in a political “Civil War” which has divided this nation. And the Democratic and Republican parties are both to blame. But the question is this: Are we willing to keep falling under socialism, into the hands of communism and let government tell us what to do? Or are we willing to stand up for ourselves and say “NO! I WANT THE FREEDOM OF CHOICE!”?

I would also like to create a petition on the FairTax Act, Congressional term limits and voting power to vote elected officials out of office.

One other thing. I would really suggest reading another blog that I had wrote about. It’s about a country in Europe, Estonia, and it is an amazing story of a country that was under Russian Communist control and then turned itself into one of the greatest free market countries to have ever existed. The blog is called: This should be America’s future.

I was listening to the radio over the weekend and couldn’t help noticing that a large amount of the ads I was hearing were automobile ads. All of these auto ads also had a common theme: you’ll save money because their cars are fuel efficient.

With gas prices hovering around $4.00 a gallon I can’t blame the marketing geniuses at these companies for going for the fuel efficiency angle. But what really irritates me is that these “fuel efficient” cars get a whopping 30 mpg.

To anyone who reads this, I beg you, don’t believe the hype. Under no circumstance is 30mpg acceptable as fuel efficient. The problem is that when gas prices were lower we were willing to look the other way. Now it’s time to open our eyes and minds and realize that auto manufacturers have become complacent with old technology and don’t want to spend money on research and development of new ways of fueling a car.

Somehow we can send the Phoenix probe to Mars but guess what? Making a car get 100mpg or run on anything other than gasoline is impossible.It just can’t be done, sorry we are just going to have to be slaves to the current technology forever.

This makes me sick. We need congressional term limits, we need the power to vote politicians out of power who care more about special interests and their own careers than the people they claim to serve. Industries need to know that they need to change with the times or they will be replaced by someone who will.

Until we are willing to stand up for ourselves we will continue to be brainwashed.

America, we need to start a “New Revolution”, a revolution to minimize the intrusion of government into our everyday lives. It is vital for the citizens of The United States of America to recognize two factors that will accomplish this:

1) We need to pass the Fair Tax Act. What is the Fair Tax? The FairTax plan is a comprehensive proposal that replaces all federal income and payroll based taxes with an integrated approach including a progressive national retail sales tax, a prebate to ensure no American pays federal taxes on spending up to the poverty level, dollar-for-dollar federal revenue neutrality, and, through companion legislation, the repeal of the 16th Amendment.

* Enables workers to keep their entire paychecks
* Enables retirees to keep their entire pensions
* Refunds in advance the tax on purchases of basic necessities
* Allows American products to compete fairly
* Brings transparency and accountability to tax policy
* Ensures Social Security and Medicare funding
* Closes all loopholes and brings fairness to taxation
* Abolishes the IRS

Bill Archer, former head of House Ways and Means Committee did a survey on the fair tax. The survey was conducted among 500 European companies. One simple question was asked, ” What would you do if the U.S. installed the FairTax.” The responses where astounding. Four hundred said they would build their next plant here. The remaining one hundred said they would move their corporate headquarters here. My guess is that this would be just the tip of the iceberg as to what would follow. Our current tax code does the exact opposite. Product labels would contain the same foreign corporate names but the labels would also contain ” MADE IN THE U.S.A.”

For more info on the Fair Tax. Link.

2) We need to set Congressional term limits. Why term limits? This is the issue that separates American citizens, who want to recapture their government, from a careerist-dominated Congress and its illegitimate bureaucratic offspring, who want to run our lives. No more pork barreling!

For more info on term limits. Link.

To contact your congressman click here.

To enact the Fair Tax and unleash the full economic potential of the U.S., we must apply Vocal and Persistent pressure on Congress each week or every day. Email them this simple message: “Please support replacing the federal income tax code and become a co-sponsor of HR 25 or S 1025, the Fair Tax.”

To enact Congressional term limits email this simple message each week or everyday: “As an American citizen, I feel that Congress, whose arrogant spending has bankrupted our nation and destroyed our currency, who sets its own self-authored six-figure pay plus perquisites and pensions as if compensation were to be calculated based on its irresponsible spending rather than on prudent governance and has created a counter-productive envy-based tax system which penalizes extra effort and success, can no longer be tolerated. We need to pass a Constitutional Amendment for Congressional term limits.”

I recently did a blog on a small country in Europe, Estonia, and America can certainly learn a lesson from this little, but prosperous country. Link.

I would also like to create a petition to give to Congress on the FairTax Act, Congressional term limits and voting power to vote elected officials out of office.

Now here is a war that we need to stop. We have been fighting the “drug war” for 30 years and we will never stop drugs from entering this country. Hell, what are they going to do about prescription drug abuse? Have the military storm pharmacies and doctor offices?

Did you know that the Senate last week approved a $1.6 billion, three-year package of anti-drug assistance to Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean? It includes $400 million for military equipment and technical assistance for Mexico’s anti-drug fight. The bill was passed earlier by the House, and President Bush is expected to sign it.

I’m a proponent of decriminalizing drugs and offering non-violent drug offenders rehabilitation. Hell, I’m all for legalizing and regulating drugs. The U.S. actually condones idiocy and I’m all for it. Go ahead and do your coke, heroin, meth and etc. Just don’t be bringing that shit out of your home or in front of kids. It’s just like don’t drink and drive. Kill yourself with it for all I care, we need population reduction anyways. Marijuana definitely needs to get legalized. More and more states are starting to decriminalize it. I feel that alcohol abuse is more devastating than being a pot smoker. I was never big on the old pot, but I drank, believe me I drank myself close to death.

They say that we could save over $46 billion a year if we rehabilitate non-violent drug offenders through drug courts. Housing an inmate in prison can cost up to $40,000 a year while drug court treatment costs up to $3,500 per offender a year.

The U.S. government’s total cost of controlling drugs in 2005 was almost $46 Billion in tax payer money. That includes law enforcement, incarceration, state and federal corrections and legal proceedings. The socioeconomic cost is not included in this total, but a study in 1998 said that the total cost of drug abuse was an estimated $143 Billion.

I have 3 reading assignments for you:

Read the story on the Mexico drug war. Story.

Read the story about drug courts and how it could save the taxpayers billions. Story.

For more information on how drug courts work. Link.

Have you ever heard of the country of Estonia? Well, you’re going to get a real education on this country. This is what America needs to look up to for the future of this country to be successful.

Estonia has styled itself as the gateway between East and West and aggressively pursued economic reform and integration with the West. Estonia’s market reforms put it among the economic leaders in the former Communist state areas of Europe. A balanced budget, almost non-existent public debt, flat-rate income tax, free trade regime, fully convertible currency backed by currency board and a strong peg to the euro, competitive commercial banking sector, hospitable environment for foreign investment, innovative e-Services and even mobile-based services are all hallmarks of Estonia’s free-market-based economy.

In 1994, Estonia became one of the first countries in the world to adopt a flat tax, with a uniform rate of 26% regardless of personal income. In January 2005 the personal income tax rate was reduced to 24%. A subsequent reduction to 23% followed in January 2006. The income tax rate will be decreased by 1% annually to reach 18% by January 2010. Estonia completed most of its preparations for European Union membership by the end of 2002 and now has one of the strongest economies of the new member states of the European Union.

They even have a flat tax rate! I’m telling you people, The Fair Tax Act(flat tax on goods and services, not income) will do wonders for this country. Go to www.fairtax.org and read about it.

Read the article from Heritage.org about Estonia. It is an incredible story of a country full of poverty turned to prosperity.Full story.

More information on Estonia. Link.

To enact the FairTax and unleash the full economic potential of the U.S., we must apply Vocal and Persistent pressure on Congress each week or everyday. You can contact your congressman through my Useful Links section. There you you will see a link for contacting your congressman.

Email, call or fax your members of Congress today. Send them this simple message: “Please support replacing the federal income tax code and become a co-sponsor of HR 25 or S 1025, the FairTax.”

Well, the city government of Santa Fe has proposed a legislation that home buyers who purchase a home of $750,000 or over must pay an extra 1% tax.

And guess what that tax is for? It is going to be used to help home buyers purchase homes in Santa Fe. They say it would help the teachers, police officers, nurses and others to put a down payment on homes. But here is my question. What are they going to do when the person can’t afford the mortgage anymore? Would they put an extra 33% tax on the purchase of a new home? I could imagine the realtor saying this “We have this couple and they are in trouble with their mortgage so instead of the house costing $750,000, it will cost you $1 million, we need that $250,000 to pay off their mortgage.”

Read the full story.

Well, do to the NATURAL causes by Earth and nature, the North Pole may disappear for awhile this summer. They say that we may have some changes in precipitation around the world this year because of this. Oh, I thought the sea levels were going to rise and massive flooding would take place? I don’t see anyone storming out to Home Depot to buy some 2 x 4’s to start building an ark.

Did you know that researchers in Greenland found some very interesting information recently:

According to the researchers, the first abrupt warming period beginning at 14,700 years ago lasted until about 12,900 years ago, when deep-freeze conditions returned for about 1,200 years before the onset of the second sharp warming event. The two events indicate a speed in the natural climate change process never before seen in ice cores, said White, director of CU-Boulder’s Institute for Arctic and Alpine Research. The ice core showed the Northern Hemisphere briefly emerged from the last ice age some 14,700 years ago with a 22-degree-Fahrenheit spike in just 50 years, then plunged back into icy conditions before abruptly warming again about 11,700 years ago.

Hmmm…what the hell caused the spike in temperature? Did Fred Flintstone have an actual gas powered automobile? No, it was “natural climate change”. I’m tired of hearing about CO2 and global warming, what a crock of shit. I’ll tell you what if humans really caused global warming, then we paid the price to exist and I’m fine with that too. Remember, Earth is 4.5 billion years old, and it’s going to be around much much longer after our asses are gone. The Sun will eventually decide the fate of Earth.

Read the full story.

You know with how things are today, we have it alot easier than say almost 80 years ago when the stock market crashed on October 29, 1929. Look at these facts of that time:

The depression had devastating effects in both the industrialized countries and those which exported raw materials. International trade declined sharply, as did personal incomes, tax revenues, prices, and profits. Cities all around the world were hit hard, especially those dependent on heavy industry. Construction was virtually halted in many countries. Farming and rural areas suffered as crop prices fell by 40 to 60 percent. Facing plummeting demand with few alternate sources of jobs, areas dependent on primary sector industries such as farming, mining and logging suffered the most. At the time, Herbert Hoover was President of the United States. Even shortly after the Wall Street Crash of 1929, optimism persisted. John D. Rockefeller said that “These are days when many are discouraged. In the 93 years of my life, depressions have come and gone. Prosperity has always returned and will again.”

“Prosperity will return again”. I love that quote by J. D. Rockefeller. It reminds me of an article I just recently read by Clark Howard which is linked at the end of the article.

The depression era in America lasted almost a decade! One of the causes of the depression era was debt. And we as Americans well know that debt is a killer. Just remember that when you went to purchase that HDTV, ipod or blue ray dvd player, it wasn’t George Bush who stuck his hand in your wallet and swiped that credit card, it was YOU! You have a decision on whats more important, gas and food or party time and entertainment. It’s a choice and that’s what is a great thing about America. It is our FREEDOM OF CHOICE. It’s just a matter of making the logical choice. And I never want to lose this FREEDOM OF CHOICE! You dig what I’m sayin’?

For more on The Depression. Click Here.

Clark Howard on how Americans feel about the economy and I suggest everyone read it. Read the full story.