During the State of the Union address last night, President Obama mentioned a couple of Brothers from Oakland County:

Already, we’re seeing the promise of renewable energy. Robert and Gary Allen are brothers who run a small Michigan roofing company…  Today, with the help of a government loan, that empty space is being used to manufacture solar shingles that are being sold all across the country. In Robert’s words, “We reinvented ourselves.”

This statement isn’t totally truthful. It wasn’t a ‘loan’, it was $500,000 in Stimulus Funds. As Reported here:

With the aid of $500,000 from federal stimulus dollars, they recollected their abilities in regards to the Luma Resources and are now successfully making solar shingles.

Another article cites this:

As a member of the Senate Energy Committee, Senator Stabenow championed the State Energy Program, which helped them retool their plant and launch an entirely new business, Luma Resources of Rochester Hills, to manufacture solar shingles.

Sadly, the Allen Brothers did not ‘reinvent’ themselves, the American Taxpayer did.  American innovation stems from an idea and those that pursue others to invest in their dream.  The Wrights Brothers, Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, all had an idea and set out to ‘reinvent’ themselves.  Each did this on their own without the assistance of ‘Stimulus Funds’ from a broken government.  Their idea’s are what we call “Innovation” and their “Innovations” are what made the United States prosperous in the last century.

We who live in free market societies believe that growth, prosperity and ultimately human fulfillment, are created from the bottom up, not the government down. Only when the human spirit is allowed to invent and create, only when individuals are given a personal stake in deciding economic policies and benefiting from their success — only then can societies remain economically alive, dynamic, progressive, and free. Trust the people. This is the one irrefutable lesson of the entire postwar period contradicting the notion that rigid government controls are essential to economic development.

Ronald Reagan -September 29, 1981

cross-posted from: Conservative Summer

“Resistance if futile” the Borg agent told John “Don’t touch my Junk” Tyner of San Diego. “Upon buying your airline ticket, you gave up your rights and you will be assimilated.” American’s every where across this country are being assimilated by the Borg, we call the TSA, in order for them to fly off to visit loved ones across the land.

• We’ve all seen little Mandy Simon, a cute little three year old, sobbing and screaming as the Borg operative patted her down for explosives.
• We’ve heard the horrendous story of the retired Special Education Teacher humiliated when the Borg Agent broke the seal of his urinary bag and left him to soak in his urine.
• A woman surviving Breast Cancer has the Borg searching her prosthetic breasts.
• A young girl traveling without her parents is subject to the Borg’s nude screening device and a young boy is strip searched by the Borg as he goes through the security check.

Was it not just four years ago that our progressive friends were up in arms over the possibility that our Government was listening in on our phone calls and reading our emails?  We had Senator Jay Rockefeller ‘urge’ the intelligence panel to ‘immediately start an investigation of the wiretapping”.  They are violating the Law!  Dana Milbank in an article back in 2006 wrote “Has President Bush, invoking his “inherent powers” under the Constitution, also authorized warrantless eavesdropping on domestic calls, opening of Americans’ mail and e-mail, and searches of their homes and offices?”  Even President Obama campaigned on the promise that “Americans will be able to leave behind the era of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and “wiretaps without warrants.”

So, as far as the left is concerned listening is bad, groping is good.  Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) calls them ‘Love Pats’. Senator Jay Rockefeller praised the TSA official “I Think You’re Doing A Terrific Job!” President Obama just simply thinks its an “inconvenience”, and what about Dana Milbank of the Washington Post?  He was so adamant that our rights need to be protected from the overreaching of Government when it came to wiretapping. Surely he must be livid with these new security measures.  Right?  Wrong. “This may be the post-post-9/11 era, but Pistole, a career FBI guy, is still interested in the security of the American people. Are Republicans?”

Lest we forget that this latest Borg treatment did not start with the latest terrorist plot with the undie bomber.  First it was sharp objects, then shoes and then liquids.  In each case the terrorist adapted to the Borg measures of Homeland Security.  What is next?  Will a Proctologist be assigned to each airport for additional ‘security’ measures?

Answers the outrageous charges and mud-slinging from Gary Peters (Liberal) MI-9 against Rocky Raczkowski regarding the frivolous lawsuit against Rocky.

Gary Peters is desperate.  He voted for every liberal legislation during his two years in office and now that he must face the voters, instead of fighting for his position he resorts to lies and misleading ads.

Liberals have been touting for years of a plan to bring “Diversity” to the media by a means of another “Fairness Doctrine.”  Except, their plan is to allow only those opinions in which they happen to agree with.  We found this to be true when Stanely Kurtz of National Review Online appeared in the WGN Studios, Chicago in August of 2008.

Here in Oakland County we have a race between a Conservative Candidate, Rocky Raczkowski and a Pelosi Rubber Stamp, Gary Peters.  During his freshman years of Congress, Congressman Gary Peters held only one Townhall (in which he bussed in his supporters) and ignored the plea’s of his constituents to vote against the Health Bill & Cap and Trade. During the 2008 campaign Gary Peters had ran as a fiscal conservative and won the election by a large margin. Since he had been in office, every vote leaned to higher spending, resulting a huge deficit and impositions on small businesses with additional regulations.

In this new age of online networking abilities during campaigns, the campaigns are now utilizing the new medium of Facebook in order to communicate openly with their constituents.  Except, this only works when a candidate wants to hear what it is that you have to say.  Several of my ‘friends’ have been blocked or their postings deleted by the Peters Campaign in order to shut down their voices.   There was never any proof of this censorship happening until now.

I had a valid question.  A poster had asked a question and the Peters campaign completely deleted her posting.  Was it something that Peters censored because it didn’t meet with his expressed opinion?   Well, it didn’t get any better after that. The Peters campaign not only deleted a posting, they deleted the whole darn thread.  Wow!

Needless to say, the Peters camp saw the error of their ways and reinstated the complete thread after I had screenshot the page three times and called foul on their censorship of posts.

The elections on November 2nd are far more crucial now than they have ever been. When you are voted into Congress you must listen and respect the opinions of all your constituents and not just those that fit into your narrow beliefs.  For this election I urge all Michigan 9th Congressional district to vote for Rocky Raczkowski for Congress. Vote for a person that will listen to you and discuss your concerns and not brush off your opinions as ‘extremist views.’

Congressman Peters is far from being ‘too valuable to lose”.  A person of value offers solutions to a problem and control is not considered a solution, at least not in a free nation.

Healthcare:
Controlling 1/6 of this nation’s economy is not a solution but a problem.  Instead of working across the aisle to determine the root cause of healthcare cost, a bill was rammed through forcing citizens to purchase a service whether they wanted it or not.  The “solution” didn’t reduce cost, but instead will cost the taxpayers more than $1.2 trillion in the 1st 10 years.  $500 billion will be cut from Medicare and the Administration appointed, without congressional oversight, an extremist that is an avowed fan of rationing.
Root Causes: Malpractice suits & Insurance, the inability to purchase across state lines, fraud, illigals over crowding emergency rooms.

Bailouts (Autos, Banks):
Loan guarantees worked when Chrysler was facing bankruptcy in the late 70′s and early 80′s why wasn’t it taken into consideration instead of throwing taxpayer dollars into these firms without determining yet again what the root cause of the failure was.

Cap & Trade:
During economic troubling times, why would Congressman Peters vote along his party lines for a Bill that would:

• Destroy between 1.8 and 2.4 million jobs
• Drive energy prices up to 50 percent
• Hike gasoline prices up to 26 percent

(From a study by the National Association of Manufactures and the American Council of Capital Formation)

The Stimulus Bill:
Also known as the American Unrecoverey Act:  The only Shovels that were ready was for all of the BS coming out of Washington.  Nearly a trillion dollars didn’t keep the unemployment numbers from rising and “Recovery” is no where in sight.  Businesses are clamping down on overhead cost due to the uncertainty of this failed experiment and other restrictions and mandates passed down from Congress.

This was NOT the change that Americans were hoping for.  Earmarks, Expanding Government, Denial of personal liberties, Congressman Gary Peters had an opportunity to stand on the principles in which he ran in 2008.  He was elected to Congress with the Hope of fiscal sanity.  What the voters got instead was a spendaolic on steroids and voters are saying enough.  A real change will come in November when the voters go to the polls to give Congressman Peters his report card.  He will receive a failing grade and Rocky Raczkowski will be our best hope for real change.

The following article was originally written on August 20th and is being updated today with the revelation of what was in the Small Business Lending Fund Act of 2010.

“I now believe that Members of Congress should not be allowed to request funding for local projects without also having a long-term deficit reduction plan in place,” Rep. Peters added. “I am hopeful that if we stop Members of Congress from being able to request funding for their own projects that may provide greater incentive for creating a long-term deficit reduction plan.” The Hill

Rep. Gary Peters ranks 277 out of 435 lawmakers in earmarks, even Barney Frank and Maxine Waters were ranked higher with fewer earmarks. Considering that data from Open Secrets consist of earmarks from lawmakers from fiscal years 2008 – 2010, Gary Peters sponsored or co-sponsored 15 earmarks totaling $12,319,800 in fiscal year 2010 alone. But, there is one earmark that I would like to discuss and that is $1.2 million for a company called United Solar Ovonics or Energy Conversion Devices out of Auburn Hills, MI.

From Rep. Peters Congressional page he has the following:

I am requesting $1,500,000 in funding for Photovoltaic Rooftop Systems for Military Housing in fiscal year 2010. The entity to receive funding for this project is:

United Solar Ovonic3800 Lapeer Road, Auburn Hills, MI 48326

The funding would be used for the development of rugged non glass photovoltaic (PV) rooftop systems designed specifically for military housing. The learning curve from the project will help reduce deployment cost ensuring large-scale application of PV for DOD and other federal buildings. This will lower energy costs, reduce pollution and create green collar jobs in Oakland County, both in the manufacturing as well as in the building sectors.

Since the year 2000, United Solar Ovonics has received $39 million in Defense Contracts and more recently $13.3 in Stimulus funds to be used to invest $42 million in Auburn Hills.  However, effective this fall, the Company said it will shift certain final assembly operations from its Auburn Hills, Mich. campus to its Tijuana, Mexico facility which will result in the loss of 140 jobs in the area. This layoff is over and above the December announcement from ECD in December 2009 that it would be laying off 20% of their workforce or 400 employees after losing nearly $12 million in the final quarter of 09.

According to Daily Finance, an AOL finance group, ECD’s solar films are less efficient at converting sunlight into power than conventional solar panels. … As a result, project developers tend to favor more efficient solar panels.

ECD’s 3rd quarter statement per Business Week reported loses even with a $385 million write-down.
Update:
From the legislation is this passage:
* Other Innovative Loan Programs: States may develop new programs to bolster
small business lending. A state must establish that, in total, their programs
will support at least ten dollars in private lending for every dollar in federal
support. Participating lenders must share in the risk of default with the
government.

This legislation that has passed is no different from TARP as those businesses that default on their loans will be protected with tax payer funds.  As an acquaintance of mine recently stated:  they are rewarding failure – while penalizing the successful and responsible businesses.
On November 2, 2010, voters of MI-9 have an opportunity to show Rep. Gary Peters the door and vote in Rocky Raczkowski in order to restore fiscal conservatism in our Congress and accountability with our hard earn tax paying funds.  The 9th District can no longer afford this mindless irresponsibility that has been displayed since January 2009.

Kevin Krolicki (Reuters) reported that on September 16th that GM’s recently named CEO Dan Akerson had stated that ‘paying the government all at once would be unrealistic and could take several years.’

Skreech………….

Wait, wasn’t that Ed Whitacre, ex GM Chairman & CEO, on TV back in April with a new Ad called “Trust” telling us all that the TARP loans were paid “in full, with interest, years ahead of schedule”? Even my own Congressman Gary Peters (D)MI-9 was heard on Detroit TV boasting of the “Big News”.  But, this wasn’t how others were seeing it.

On April 22nd, Senator Grassley (R) IA, in response to Neil Baroksky’s (TARP IG) letter to the Finance Committee stated in regards to this ‘repayment’, “I am concerned … that this announcement is not what it seems. In fact, it appears to be nothing more than an elaborate TARP money shuffle”. The Congressman, not to be upstaged by a Senator or the Inspector General of TARP, then had the audacity to state on the Fox Business Network on the 23rd of April that Senator Grassley was “wrong” and “off base”.  But was Senator Grassley ‘off base’ as Congressman Peters stated?

Not according to the New York Times article on April 30th written by Gretchen Morgenson headlined “Repaying Taxpayers With Their Own Cash”.  She wrote,   “Taxpayers are naturally eager for news about bailout repayments. But what neither G.M. nor the Treasury (Timothy Geithner) disclosed was that the company simply used other funds held by the Treasury to pay off its original loan.” She continues, “Still, employing spin and selective disclosure is no way to raise taxpayers’ trust in our nation’s leadership.” I couldn’t agree more.

But, this isn’t a story of just the lies and deceit that our government and my congressman committed against this nation and the constituents of Oakland County.  Over 20,000 non-union white collar workers lost their pensions, their jobs and their livelihood because of a federally forced bankruptcy preceding that literally threw out 100 years of bankruptcy laws in order to protect the Democrats biggest contributors, the UAW.

What Congressman Peters did was dishonest and disgraceful and his constituency should remember his actions come November.  We need honesty from our leaders, leaders that will protect all workers and a leader that will work for all of his constituents and not those of special interests.  MI-9 needs Rocky Raczkowski. Remember November.

In August I had sent Congressman Peters(D) MI-9 a letter requesting his position on the Cordoba Center in NYC. This was done shortly after President Obama proclaimed on National Television that “Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as anyone else in this country.”  It was never a matter of a Constitutional  Right, it was a matter of “is it right” to build a ‘Conquest Temple’ at the very heart of the worst attack on this nation in over 60 years.

Just recently I received a response over my concerns from Congressman Peters and within his response he stated this:

“The group backing the proposal is known as the Cordoba Initiative, an organization which promotes religious and cultural understanding between Muslims and the West.  One of the project’s leaders, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, is a New Yorker who for years has led a mosque located twelve blocks from the former World Trade Center site, and is regarded as a moderate Islamic voice …. Ultimately, my hope is that the people of New York City find a way to work together to honor the memory of those who lost their lives on September 11th, while preserving the ideal of religious freedom that enshrined in our Constitution.”

Pam Geller has been working tirelessly researching the cleric Feisal Abdel Rauf and uncovered an ‘off-mic’ interview with the cleric speaking of his ‘game plan’.  Front Page Magazine broke the story giving Ms. Geller a wider audience for her revelations of this ‘moderate voice’ as claimed by Rep. Gary Peters.

• Revelation 1:  “9/11 was a watershed, was a major catalytic force in, in catalyzing the attention towards the issue of Islam, it’s presence in the West.”
• Revelation 2:  “If the entertainment media, the news media, was broadcasted in print, describe and speak about the issues in a different way it can help change perceptions profoundly, because it’s the media, which helps shape perceptions to a great degree. So if we have strategic action plays, designed plays, in the area of foreign policy, in the area of healing the divide, and then you unpack and give up Israel. You then have to have your offensive coaching stuff, your offensive coach and defensive coach and your head coach, we have to have our Palestinian coach, etc.”
• Revelation 3:  “I am the head coach of this strategic initiative and the President of the United States, or the President of Malaysia, or the President of England, is like a player you want to bring in for particular plays. We look at it as American football, you want to gain yardage.”

This is breath taking ignorance for my Congressman to state this and gives me pause as to why Congress isn’t investigating this Imam rather than supporting him.  It was recently revealed in Bob Woodwards book “Obama Wars” that the President had stated this nation could ‘absorb’ another terrorist attack.  With the approval of building this ‘Center’ from our President and our Legislators, they are approving a “creation of an Islamic State, “The Ummah,” right here in America”

One can only wonder if the Democrats are proud of the legislative accomplishment of the 111th Congress or if they are simply running away from their records.  They have passed a nearly 1 trillion dollar Stimulus package which accomplished nothing but additional debt and an overwhelming intrusion of personal rights by passing Obamacare.  What I find remarkable is that these same Congressman that celebrated and patted each other on the back when these ‘accomplishments’ were passed, not only avoid them in their campaign ads, they don’t even bother to tell the voters which party they belong to.
Instead, what I’ve seen is they are attacking their opponents on social networks and voter forums using the same talking points as others in their party when speaking on their opponent’s positions.

Since Congressman Gary Peters represents my district, I’m going to use him as a case study for my theory stated above and compare his tactics with that of Congressman John Dingell of Ann Arbor.  I have taken two positions in which both Peters and Dingell have ‘attacked’ their opponents in this race.  Their opponents are Rocky Raczkowski against Peters and Dr. Rob Steele against Dingell.

Jobs:
Peters on Rocky:  he also signed a pledge to continue to give tax breaks that reward companies that ship American job…s overseas.

Dingell on Steele: he actually signed a pledge promising to protect tax breaks for companies that outsource American jobs!

Social Security:
Peters on Rocky:  backs a plan to privatize Social Security. One can only imagine the devastation if our seniors’ Social Security had been… tied up by the collapse on Wall Street.

Dingell on Steele: He’s on record for supporting an agenda to turn Social Security retirement funds to Wall Street bankers.

Dingell is up there in age and anyone that has been quoted as saying that the Health Care Law will cover 300 people instead of 300 million and people need to be “Controlled”, would need a little assistance with quick bullet point talking points in order to make it through this election cycle. So, what’s Peters excuse?  We’ll let the people decide for themselves but, if you are looking for someone to represent you in Congress let’s hope it someone who can think for himself.  It’s quite apparent from Peters record, he can’t.