"Where Olmsted County News Comes First"

9

With the recent USPS decision to close 223 mail processing facilities, do you think they are moving in the right direction?

 Yes, and they need to consider eliminating Saturday delivery.

 No, delaying First Class Mail is only going to diminish their service.

 Who cares? I do everything online. I don't use the USPS that much.


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13

Should government eliminate subsidies for ethanol and oil industries?

 No, the consumer will feel it at the pump

 Yes, let's see how they financially perform without help

 Remove subsidies from oil industry only

 Remove subsidies from ethanol industry only


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Comments(2)

Referring to tax cuts and reduced regulation, Obama in a December 6 speech in Osawatomie, KS said the following: “The market will take care of everything...It’s a simple theory...(that) fits well on a bumper sticker. But here’s the problem: It doesn’t work. It has never worked. It didn’t work when it was tried in the decade before the Great Depresssion...And it didn’t work when we tried it during the last decade. It’s not as if we haven’t tried this theory...We simply cannot return to this brand of ‘you’re on your own’ economics...”

Andy Stern, former head of the SEIU and ardent Obama supporter asserts that, “The conservative-preferred, free market fundamentalist, shareholder-only model - so successful in the 20th century - is being thrown onto the trash heap of history in the 21st century.”

Logically, one of the next things either of these “economic wizards” would have to do is to point to an example of a non-capitalist country not on the cusp of an unsustainable socialist-induced economic disaster that is booming economically and where freedom abounds. If they don’t do that, and they haven’t, that simply means they believe that the only reason liberalism, progressivism, socialism, communism, or the current utopian vision du jour hasn’t worked ever before is that it wasn’t implemented properly. That also means countries who tried these things before failed because their vision was inadequate and/or because, more importantly, they were led by incompetents. Further, it also suggests that Obama and his followers believe he is a genius who really can create the utopian vision the left believes in.

All right, all you lefty socialist, liberal, progressive capitalist haters or whoever you are, here is another opportunity for you to give us at least one great example of a socialist country who has a manifestly sustainable social-welfare system and who is not ultimately walzing down the bunny trail of economic disaster. The last time I challenged you to come up with one I said you could go back as far the Roman Empire if you needed to. Since there was no response, how about if we expand the envelope a little and you go all the way back to the Hittites. Okay, we are waiting for an example. Pause a minute here. We are still waiting...still waiting...and still waiting. Since there are no sound examples and since the silence is deafening, one has to conclude that what Obama believes in is either absolute rubbish or he thinks he and his administration are smarter than any human beings who have ever lived.

Victor Davis-Hansen says that, “What makes Barack Obama a different president is...the banal idea that the United States is fundamentally in need of...radical change, and that only a select few like himself have the insight and skills necessary to both implement and preside over it.” Obama “is not content with just picking and choosing which laws he will follow in advancing his social agenda...(it) extends also to free-market economics, as we seen with the monotonous demonization of the so-called one percent and those who make over $200,000 per year.” By the way, how do you accomplish “radical change” without destroying what exists? You can’t.

That is bad enough but Obama is blatantly disregarding the constitution. Our forefathers, in their efforts to put together an effective government by means of the constitution, worried about just such a problem. James Madison in No. 48 of the Federalist Papers wrote, “It will not be denied that power is of an encroaching nature and that it ought to be effectually restrained from passing the limits assigned it (and) the most difficult task is to provide some practical security for each (branch, ie, executive, judicial, and legislative) against the invasion of others.” And he asks, “Will it be sufficient to trust to these parchment barriers (the constitution) against the encroaching spirit of power?” The Founders dilgently tried to prevent and eliminate the dangers of the “encroaching nature” of power. Their efforts have not been successful.

John Podesta is head of a Soros funded organization called the Center for American Progress (CAP) and he was also cochair of Obama’s transition team. In a 54-page report released in November 2010, CAP outlined a variety of methods the Obama administration could use to take advantage of “loopholes and workarounds...to accomplish progressive goals while bypassing the democratic process and Congress.”

In the CAP report introduction Podesta said, “the US Constitution and the laws of our nation grant the president significant authority to make and implement policy...The ability...to accomplish important change...should not be underestimated.” I believe the Catholic Church can provide you with some perspective on this “significant authority.” And now we get word that Obama’s administration is, along with Democrat governors, examining ways to bypass Congress to govern “more effectively.”

We are supposedly an “advanced” civilization based on the important lessons of history. How is it therefore that this president and its administration just ignores the constitution and the rule of law? The importance of following rules is not a recent discovery or just an archaic sentiment prevalent on the political spectrum’s right. A little while back, Aristotle pointed out, “The rule of law is preferable to that of any individual.”

There is really nothing to stop Obama from shabbily ignoring the constitution as he is doing unless Congress stops him or the voters get rid of him. In this regard, Congress is useless, so we have to send Obama and everyone associated with him packing. You too Timmy Walz. Having said all of that however, the greatest danger to us as citizens and to our country is not Obama and mythical leftist utopian notions. It is the idea that liberty can take a back seat to other considerations. That is the slippery slope to the destruction of our society and nation. If we have lost that understanding of liberty’s importance, in the long run, it doesn’t matter what Obama or his successors in either party do. Our decline is foreordained. Given the lessons of history, Franklin thought it was inevitable.