Carefree COINS is too biased for me!
During the August 5 Council meeting both Greg Gardner and I spoke. The subject of both of our remarks was the issue of the Town building a huge new building, instead of extending the lease on the present Council Chambers. Linda Bentley did a good job of covering our remarks for Sonoran News. But the town’s own communication arm did a LOUSY job. I frequently note the highly edited and biased tone of "news" coming from Town Hall. Our citizens deserve better.
Here is what they printed as my 3 minute speech:
"Jim Van Allen discussed Economic Development"
Here is what they printed Greg said:
"Greg Gardner discussed his thoughts on a Town Center Cultural Facility"
Greg actually said to the Council, "Do your own serious due diligence before you build something like this." Greg had done a study of this very issue some years ago. Bottom line...Not needed. Not wanted..!!!
I spent almost all of my 3 minutes encouraging the Council to extend the lease on the present facilities, and "put to bed the idea of plunging us into debt to build a huge building which creates another vacancy the town does not need." I gave examples of the costs Fountain Hills has to support their Public Arts program ($70,000 per year PLUS). Also, I found out Scottsdale funds their programs with a share of a $2 million budget. Just this past week I read Surprise, Arizona is going to spend $70,000 to fund theirs. We DON'T NEED a huge new building at a cost between $1.5 – $4 dollars of borrowed funds and reserves. We don't want to be Scottsdale. Let Carefree just be Carefree.
Never said by Town Hall is the fact tickets to plays do not include any sales tax. HOW THEN IS THIS ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT?? The plays are at 7 p.m on Friday and Saturday, and 2 p.m on Sunday. Look around at all the Carefree business units open at that time. The past three Sunday's ONLY ONE retail business was open for business at 2 p.m. on Easy Street. At 7 p.m. NONE ARE OPEN, EVER.
I ended my remarks by actually "begging the council to stop searching for ways to justify this building and instead to spend their time and our money to enhance Easy Street with misters and shade." We have the right to sublease the empty court offices next to the chamber. Let us wait until 2021 to visit this idea, and save MILLIONS OF DOLLARS.
It is a shame that "COINS" is used as it is. But now you know the rest of the story. Contact Greg or myself if you wish to discuss this matter.
Jim Van Allen
Carefree resident
On the brink?
This month is the 100th anniversary of the beginning of WWI bringing the slaughter of millions of military and civilian souls. Much of this carnage was avoidable and a wholesale waste of human life. History repeated itself just two decades later adding to the combined total destroying more than 100 million lives between WWI & WWII. Though perhaps these wars might not have been prevented, they could have been "nipped in the bud" had it not been for the appeasers.
Today we have ISIS running rough-shod in the Middle East, Russia land grabbing in Ukraine, China contemplating a boundary jump in Asia, Hamas attacking Israel above and below ground and Iran rushing to reach nuclear capability. A strong U.S. President could and would take decisive action to aid Israel and protect American interests on the world stage, not retire to the tee box.
With a death toll exceeding 100 million, using conventional weapons, it is unimaginable the body count if the Iranians were successful in developing the "Bomb", their hatred of Israel precipitating the threat, if not the use, and Israel would be required to respond. Result nuclear war.
World Wars have started with less provocation than exists today. U.S. soil, this time, would not be immune. Are we on the brink? Let's pray not, but there needs to be decisive action from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue to curb the threat.
Randy Edwards
Cave Creek
Foley's horrifying death; ISIS is a cancer that must be eliminated
The beheading of American journalist James Foley was horrifying. My prayers are with his family. May God comfort Foley's soul in eternity.
Foley was one of our sons, brothers and friends. He was an American. I don't see how we can sleep in this country until we destroy ISIS.
ISIS is a world cancer and must be eliminated. I realize they are a long way from America, but cancer spreads fast.
Cancer is never welcome in any part of the human body. Cancer grows and kills. It has to be totally removed.
ISIS is the worst malignancy that has occurred on our planet since the Nazis.
I am opposed to putting American soldiers back on the ground in Iraq. However, we have drones, missiles and jets. We must unleash these at full throttle on ISIS. We must also provide the Iraqi people strategic military leadership and help neighboring countries defeat ISIS.
I have never been for America going to Iraq or any other Middle East country. I detest war. With ISIS we cannot sit idly by.
We are not on a separate planet removed too far for ISIS to bother us. They have their sights on America. Their goal is to strike fear and terror into all the Middle East and America. ISIS must be eliminated.
Glenn Mollette
American columnist and author
My endorsement: Faith. Family. Freedom.
These are things worth fighting for. And nobody is fighting harder for them on your behalf in Washington than my friend, Congressman Trent Franks.
In fact, Congressman Franks, who National Journal has voted "Most Conservative Member of the House of Representatives" for many years in a row, was just named the number one spending cutter in the entire House of Representatives by the National Taxpayer's Union. And the Madison Project called him "a true full-spectrum conservative" whose "10+ year career is one of the most stellar examples of consistent conservatism of this generation." No wonder his opponents would love so desperately to see Congressman Franks lose his seat.
Congressman Franks is a conservative champion. Congressman Franks was Tea Party before Tea Party was cool. Take a quick look at his record:
• As a ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee, he's using his influential seat in Washington to stand up for strong national security and sovereignty in the face of Obama's countless foreign policy disasters. And as author of the National Border and Homeland Security Act, he is working overtime to hold the line against the illegal invasion in border states, like his home state of Arizona.
• As chairman of the Constitution Subcommittee in Congress, Trent has a unique and influential position to champion pro-life legislation through Congress. He's 100 percent pro-life – a champion for our shared values – and a true hero for the unborn. And he is a steadfast defender of your 2nd Amendment rights to keep and bear arms.
• As a commonsense, conservative businessman, he's adamant that Obamacare be repealed and replaced right now. And he's working to do exactly that, leading the charge both in Congress and in the courts, where he has spearheaded a challenge to Obamacare on Constitutional grounds that is only one step away from the U.S. Supreme Court.
We must get behind Trent's re-election campaign. The conservative movement cannot fail to defend his seat from wealthy liberals like Planned Parenthood, NARAL, and the open borders lobby who are eager to see him defeated in November.
This campaign may well be Trent's toughest election yet as wealthy liberals, the national Democrat machine, abortion zealots, and big media forces would love to see this conservative stalwart fall. And why? Because he's pro-life, pro-family, and pro-American sovereignty.
So please contribute to stand with one of my closest friends in the Congress, Congressman Trent Franks.
The conservative movement simply can't afford to lose Trent's leadership in Washington.
Thank you for supporting my good friend, Trent Franks.
God Bless,
Mike Huckabee
Conservative Governor
Why government openness matters
One of the fundamental lessons of the 9/11 tragedy was that our government carried a share of blame for the failure to stop the attacks. Not because it was asleep at the switch or ignorant of the dangers that Al Qaeda posed, but because the agencies charged with our safety did not share what they knew, either up and down the chain of command or with each other. The attacks were preventable with shared information.
This insight was highlighted in the report of the 9/11 Commission — on which I served — and became a key driver of the reforms instituted by the U.S. intelligence community over the last dozen years. Within the government, there are plenty of people who now understand that sharing information and using it to inform planning and debate produces better policy: rooted in facts, well-vetted, and more robust.
So it’s worrisome that today it seems harder than ever to know what our government is doing, and not just when it comes to national security. Secrecy and a widespread failure to share information both within government and with the American people remain major barriers to the effective operation of representative democracy.
Failing to share information makes us weaker. It enfeebles congressional oversight, which is one of the cornerstones of representative democracy and which, when aggressively carried out by fully informed legislators, can strengthen policy-making. It makes it far more difficult to maintain our system of checks and balances. It exacerbates mistrust between branches of government and between the government and the American people. And it chips away at the foundation of our system, which rests on a public that is well-informed about what government is doing and why.
Without that information, we are poorer in our ability to exercise discriminating judgment on the conduct of policy and of politicians, and we lose our advantage over authoritarian societies: the spread of knowledge to people searching for a solution to our society’s challenges and problems.
Full disclosure doesn’t produce good government by itself, but it makes it more likely. Secrecy is legitimate and necessary on occasion, but representative government — with its systems of checks and balances — cannot function properly without openness and the presumption should always be in its favor.
If officials want to keep information secret, they should bear the burden of explaining why. I hope you’ll join me in pushing for an era of openness in government.
Lee Hamilton
Director of the Center on Congress at Indiana University
Hello!
WalkMS is just around the corner (November 1st) and I'm looking to raise as much money as possible to help ERADICATE this terrible disease.
My mom was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in 1997. MS has caused my family, as well as the families of millions of others, heartache as the disease slowly debilitates those with the horrid disease. For those of you who do not fully know what Multiple Sclerosis is/does, here is a quick summary: MS is an autoimmune disease that affects the brain and spinal cord, resulting in a loss of muscle control, vision, balance and sensation (numbness). The immune system destroys the spinal cords’ myelin (the protective and insulating cover) creating a breakdown in communication, which causes the symptoms of MS. This results in abnormal sensations in entire arms/legs (like the "pins and needles" feeling), difficulty walking and balancing, dizziness, fatigue and muscle spasms… just to name a few.
So far, there is no cure; there are only treatments to help decrease the effects of MS. However, MS researchers have made extraordinary progress in the last few years searching for a cure, and your contribution will help support these vital efforts.
Donating is easy! Plus, all donations are tax deductible! Simply go to my personal page and click on “Donate to Katie” (or go to walkaza.nationalmssociety.org and donate by searching for my name). Every dollar counts!
Thank you for helping me in my quest to find a cure for MS and stop it in its tracks!!!
Warmest regards,
Katie Snead
Personal Page
Article V, Convention of States
As a citizen of Texas, I believe it is my duty to tell you about the best chance to save our Republic from the overreaching federal government. George Mason and James Madison gave us a tool in the Constitution to reign in the federal government, Article V.
Article V authorizes "We the People", with their state legislatures, to call a convention to propose Amendments to the Constitution, like term limits for congress, Fair Tax, Balanced Budget or voter ID amendments.
Citizens for Self Governance has launched a project, Convention of States Project, to limit the power and jurisdiction of Federal Government. The great state of Texas has a leadership team in place to spearhead this movement. To get involved visit www.conventionofstates.com or contact our state leadership at [email protected]. Or join us on Facebook Texas Convention of States.
Our COS Project gives us, American citizens and State Legislators, a way out of the abusive Federal government policies and together we can preserve liberty for our children and grandchildren. Let your voice be heard and let freedom ring.
For Liberty,
George Anagnostis, MD
Arlington, Texas
Call the Senate: No Executive Amnesty
Thanks to Sen. Jeff Sessions' (R-Ala.) efforts in Congress and your strong grassroots support, a bad immigration bill failed to pass the House but we still need your voice in the fight! H.R.5272, Rep. Marsha Blackburn's (R-Tenn.) bill that would defund Pres. Obama's DACA amnesty and an expanded amnesty for illegal aliens has already passed the House and needs your support to move through the Senate.
Call 855-871-8782 to reach the Capitol switch board, ask to talk to your Senators and let them know what you think!
Please make sure that your Senators know that they need to take a public stand against Obama’s executive amnesty and publicly encourage Majority Leader Reid to allow Rep. Blackburn’s DACA bill to the floor for a vote!
As Sen. Sessions said, "it is true that Majority Leader Reid is blocking it from a vote. But Reid acts only with the blessing of his members in the Democrat conference so the American people have the power to force it to a vote through their elected senators."
In Liberty,
Tea Party Patriots National Support Team
