Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Illegal Alien HealthCare - on your dollars!

This email was received from Upholdourlaws.com
---------------------

On June 28th, 2007, the Senate immigration bill was defeated on a cloture vote of 46-53. This win for our country was remarkable because it showed that the American people are watching Congress and they care about the future of their country.

Patriots like you flooded the Capitol switchboard, filled Congressional mailboxes, sent millions of emails to Congress. You cared enough about your country to fight for it—and you convinced the Senate to stop the amnesty bill.

We need your help again.

This week, possibly as early as tomorrow, House Democrats are trying to ram through legislation that will eliminate the existing requirement for proof of citizenship before someone can receive government healthcare services. Removing the proof of citizenship will provide healthcare coverage for illegal immigrants. This isn't emergency room services—but healthcare coverage for illegal immigrants on the taxpayer's dime.

How are House Democrats going to pay for all this? Massive tax increases on everyday Americans like you and me. Even with these tax increases, nonpartisan policy analysts expect this legislation to add $90 billion to the national debt.

Right now, take a moment to continue to fight for America's future – sign the petition at UpholdtheLaw.com – then, get your friends and family to do the same. Our representatives in Washington need to hear that this legislation is unacceptable to the American People.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi plans on bringing this legislation to the floor later this week, but the vote will be close – if we act quickly, together we can stop this bill from moving. Sign the petition, call your Congressman – help us spread the word about this terrible legislation.

Regards,
UpholdOurLaws.com

P.S. House Democrats are planning on raising your taxes to expand healthcare coverage for illegal immigrants. Help stop them, by signing the petition and telling your friends to do the same.

Answers to Comments

I am not sure how but every day or so I am ending up with some foreign language on my blog. I think I have it stopped.

Second - Ignore the dates on the pictures. They were taken in the same week. The problem is that I had not used the camera for a while and did not realize that the date had gone back to default.

I wish I had taken a five year vacation, but no such thing.

10-4 Willy

House Moves Farm Bill in Right Direction, Subsidy Reform in the Senate and more

American Farmland Trust
ForwardSupport AFTSubscribewww.farmland.org
Farm Policy Update July 31, 2007

House Moves Farm and Food Bill in the Right Direction

A better farm and food bill emerged from the U.S. House of Representatives last week after input from thousands of people around the country, including AFT's Action Network. The final bill increases funding for national priorities, including conservation, healthy diets, local foods, specialty crops and nutrition. Conservation ended up with a 35 percent increase overall in spending—despite two late amendments that threatened the Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program but were ultimately withdrawn. The Fruit and Vegetable Snack Program, Farmers’ Market Promotion Program, specialty crop funding and local food preference in federal food programs also gained significant boosts. A broad spectrum of organizations weighed in with letters of support to help shepherd through a bill that better addresses the needs of agriculture and the public.

“Changes should have gone further to reform safety net programs, update direct payments to exclude non-farmers from receiving payments, and reward farmers and ranchers for their environmental stewardship,” explained AFT's Ralph Grossi. “However, the House bill that passed represented the best chance for agriculture and consumers to continue our work in the Senate and the Conference Committee to further transform U.S. farm policy.” With legislators on recess and in their home districts during August, consumers and others will have an opportunity to make their voices heard on the local  level.

Farming Decisions

Tell your Senators to support farm subsidy reform by signing on to S. 1872This bill provides better protection at no addtional cost to taxpayers and is less trade distorting.  

Take Action Now

On to Reform in the Senate

Last week Senators Durbin (D-IL) and Brown (D-OH) introduced the Farm Safety Net Improvement Act of 2007, which transforms commodity subsidies and represents real reform in Title I programs. AFT worked closely with the National Corn Growers Association and Senators Durbin and Brown on the bill, which provides better protection with fewer market distortions and greater equity across crops, at no additional cost to taxpayers. “If market price isn’t the only factor that affects what a farmer makes, it shouldn’t be the only factor on which we base commodity calculations,” said Durbin. “This bill recalculates the way we allocate funding to correct program inefficiencies and target farmers in need.” The Senators said the Senate Agriculture Committee will give serious consideration to this proposal, in part because of the difficult federal budget constraints under which they are working on the 2007 Farm Bill.

Government Commodity Subsidy Payments 1960 -2006 

AFT's Jimmy Daukas and EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson
EPA Administer Meets with Ag Leaders for First Time

For the first time ever, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator met with agricultural leaders from AFT, American Farm Bureau Federation, National Corn Growers Association, National Cattlemen's Beef Association and others to discuss the environmental issues facing agriculture. The EPA wanted to learn more about how changes in agriculture will impact the environment, and how the EPA can improve its relationship with agricultural producers while involving them further in environmental protection. “This meeting was a great opportunity for us to review environmental issues facing agriculture, loss of working farms and ranches to development, and also to discuss the environmental opportunities for agriculture,” says AFT’s Jimmy Daukas, Director of Farm Policy. “On top of protecting America's farm and ranch land, the more we understand how agriculture can promote and provide environmental services that the public values—clean water, carbon sequestration, wildlife habitat— the faster we can move toward increasing diversified markets and creating an added revenue stream for farmers and ranchers, in addition to providing food, fiber and fuel."

A Remedy for WTO Headaches?

The recent case from Canadian corn growers, and a judgment against the United States by the World Trade Organization in the Brazil cotton case, underscores how subsidy payments under existing farm policy leave the United States vulnerable to challenges in the world court. According to the Congressional Research Service, exposure to challenge can be minimized by reforming farm policy to make it "greener." The key elements of this needed reform include increased conservation, elimination of the link between subsidies and production, and the creation of a whole-farm revenue insurance program. The Farm Safety Net Improvement Act of 2007 overhauls the subsidy payment program and creates a revenue-based program. AFT's Ralph Grossi and Ken McCauley of the National Corn Growers Association discuss the Durbin-Brown bill, which moves toward that goal and will better serve agriculture and taxpayers.  

Media Update

Local Agriculture an Important Addition to Cuisine and Economy

“It’s time to vote with your fork,” participants learned at an event this week in Westport, Connecticut, that was co-sponsored by AFT. At the forum, “Putting the Food Back in the farm bill," farmers Jean and Terry Jones said the Farm Bill is “now in the hands of the citizens to speak up,” while the Winston-Salem Journal reports on why readers opt to buy locally grown products.

The Dirt on Farm Subsidies

Los Angeles Times op-ed writer Brian Riedl writes, “Lawmakers would be hard-pressed to enact a set of policies more destructive to farmers, taxpayers, consumers, the environment, trade, global anti-poverty efforts and even our health than the current farm policies."

Rarely Do Washington News Giants Agree…

“This is not reform” says the Washington Post in an editorial on the House Agriculture Committee’s proposed farm bill, adding credence to the public outcry over subsidy payments by revealing that deceased farmers received USDA payments. Although rarely in sync, the Washington Times agrees with the Post that current farm policy is a wasteful use of public tax dollars.

FRPP Works All Around the Country

AFT knows how effective the Farm and Ranch Lands Protection (FRPP) program can be, so we galvanized our Take Action Network members to help push back dangerous changes to the program in the House Agriculture Committee. Foster’s Daily Democrat announced that through a combination of local and federal funds, working farms will be “preserved for future generations."

ForwardSupport AFTSubscribeUnsubscribeManage Your Account

Sunday, July 29, 2007

Vacation Was Great - Back to Work!


Ok- Vacation was a great time but it is back to
the real world. Tomorrow is back to work and
soon back to blogging.

Friday, July 20, 2007

VACATIONS ARE GREAT


EVERYONE SHOULD HAVE ONE!

Saturday, July 14, 2007

Score Learning Centers

Find an innovative tutor at score. This is one of the most dynamic and meaningful ways that a parent can help a child to learn. Visit Score and find out how your child can be helped. After studying this I believe it would have been a great help in my daughters learning career. She is grown now but this would have been a way to make learning easier and more efficient.

Find out how Score Learning centers help children ages 4 to 14 make significant academic progress in an innovative tutoring environment.


Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Slow Blogging

















Summer time seems to be too hectic. On one hand here in Arkansas it is too hot and muggy to be outside doing anything. However, on the other hand, we have so far had one of the wettest July's in a while. The grass, which is usually brown and crisp by now if you dont water, is thriving and growing out of hand. The mowing that once would have slowed down by now is about three times a week and then it is almost too long to get through.

Well, this outside activity, as terrible as it is, has to be done. When I come in from work about 5-5:30, prepare ant eat a little supper and get to the lawn or outside chores it is about 6:30. Well, to finish the job right it takes about 1-2 hours. By this time it is 8 - 9 oclock. You come in hot, sweaty, and nasty. You cool down a few minutes. You take a shower and set down at the computer.

"What did you say dear?" "Am I coming to bed tonight!"

Well thats the way it goes. Most nights nothing written. Sometimes it is no time and other times it is that I am too tired to think.

Life goes on.

My thoughts for now!

Coupons Website - Easy as Pie!

Well, here it is Sunday again and as I go through the Sunday paper looking for the coupons that can save the family money. Well about half way through the paper reading the news and searching for the coupons my wife decides that it is time for her to take over the process.



Well, I give up and give her the paper and decide that I will look for a coupon website that I had heard of on the internet.



When I find the site that I am looking for I yell to the wife - "Let me show you about a coupon website at http://www.couponchief.com " Well the wife's ears perk up and she drops what she is doing to come look at what I found..

Well, I show her how I cranked up the old internet on that wonderful computer and immediately types in the info for this coupon website which is http://www.couponchief.com . You see she thinks I am real smart on that internet thing and I know how to get to places like a good coupon website real quick.

Well as expected, my wife decided this looked like a good thing and she pushed me aside and began searching for herself on this great saving coupon website. Well, in her excitement about what she had found the wife began to read about how this great coupon website was created to help online shoppers to save lots of dollars using coupon codes. Well, the wife gets even more excited to here how a coupon website provides coupons for lots of stores and services that she uses.

The wife discovered how the coupon website had coupons for things like clothing, sporting goods, vitamins, pet supplies, toys, jewelry, gardening, flowers and more. She immediately saw how this coupon website would have typical coupons like 10% off, 20% off etc.

She even found how she could go to this coupon website and get a coupon to save big money at Kmart to get a variety of items. However, I suggested she might liked the idea better to go Sears and get some tools for me. She liked her idea better.


The wife even discovered how a coupon website can get you the info or the coupon codes to use while online shopping to get the great discounts that she deserves.



That is where http://www.couponchief.com/ comes in handy. This is why I like to go to a good coupon website . This saves me and the wife lots of money.

And I always want you to know that even though this is a sponsored ad, I thinks that it is a good idea for everyone to know about a good coupon website

Again what a great thing it is to use online shopping coupons

Thanks

.

Sunday, July 8, 2007

War on Terror - I don't Understand

The ongoing War on Terror is a depressing thought on my mind today. I am very much a pro Bush fan, but I am beginning to waver on my support of the war and the many young lives that it is bringing to an end. It is still hard for me to believe, however, that if we were not keeping them busy over there and fighting on their turf that there would be more terrorist threats in our country.

I truly believe that there are threats everyday that we do not hear about, nor can they be revealed to the public in general without further threatening our security.

Where does it all end. I dont understand.

Maybe some of the astute followers of our politics such as Blue Star Chronicles, Right Pundits, Woman Honor Thyself, Right Truth, Big Dog's Weblog, Conservative Cat, and Right Voices, can help me understand.

thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

My thoughts for now.