Augusta Supervisor Race: "The Pot calling the Kettle Black"?....

The local Staunton newspaper (NewsLeader) recently did a piece on the Augusta County Board of Supervisor race where the challenger, David Karaffa (I), brought to light that the current Beverly Manor Supervisor, Jeremy Shifflett (R) has missed other than BOS meetings in the past. All of the seven Augusta County Supervisors are on special community committees and many times are welcome to attend but are not allowed to actually vote during the process...

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Unfortunately the NewsLeader did not investigate or explore the meeting attendance record of any of the other Supervisors thus making this basically a "Political Hit Piece" by Karaffa against the sitting Beverley Manor District Supervisor...

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Interestingly the NewsLeader article has gotten numerous comments from local citizens who have seen this piece for what it is. In addition to this one commentor has provided an interesting link to the minutes of a BOS meeting where one Supervisor (Beyler) questions another Supervisor (Pyles) regarding his attendance to a committee that dealt directly with the recent Augusta County re-assessment process that he (Pyles) has actively criticized and has been very critical about. The BOS transcript shows Beyler asking Pyles if he had attended these meetings and especially the meeting that dealt with the methodology used to perform the re-assessment process. Supervisor Pyles never really answers the attendance question or provides an actual number, if any, of meetings that he attended...

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The re-assessment issue has become a obvious political tool used by members of the "Gang of Four" (Tracy Pyles, David Karaffa, Kurt Michael, Michael Pattie) who are all running for the Supervisor seats in their own districts. Instead of allowing the re-assessment process to evolve and allow the homeowner to challenge their individual assessment by the procedure provided, members Pyles & Kurt Michael organized a protest by county citizens before the actual individual challenge process was allowed to happen or complete. The vast majority of those protesting no longer see it as an issue now that the process was allowed to be completed as required by law, they had the opportunity to challenge any questionable assessment, and the BOS set an appropriate tax rate with the current economic situation...

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With the above transcript of the Augusta BOS meeting it is obvious that Shifflett is not the only one that has missed committee meetings in the past and thus the "Pot calling the Kettle black" reference above...

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The hope here is that the local newspapers will further investigate issues like this and others sure to come in the future so the voters will have all information to make their decision with....

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Obama's Class-Warfare....

Two very good examples to describe how things actually work as compared to the "Class-Warefare" that Obama is throwing around....

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for dinner and the bill for all comes to $100.If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:

The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing like they do now with the present income tax structure.

The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59 of the bill.
So that is what the ten men decide to do.

The ten men ate dinner in the restaurant every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve. “Since you all are such good customers I am going to reduce the cost of your daily meal by $20”. Dinner for the 10 men now costs just $80...

The group still wanted to pay the bill the same way that they paid their taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still eat for free. But what about the other six men -- the Paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everybody would get his “Fair Share”?

They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But they subtracted that from everybody’s share, then the fifth and sixth man would each end up being paid to eat their meal…So, the restaurant owner suggested it would be fair to reduce each mans bill roughly the same amount; and proceeded to work out the amounts each man would pay.

The fifth, like the first four now paid nothing (100% savings).
The sixth man now paid $2 instead of $3 (33% savings)
The seventh man now paid $5 instead of $7 (28% savings)
The eight man now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings)
The ninth man now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings)
The tenth man now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings)

Each of the six was better off then before. And the first four continued to eat for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings…

“I only got a dollar out of the $20,” declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man “but he got $10”…“Yeah, that’s right,” exclaimed the fifth man. “I only saved a dollar, too. Its unfair that he got ten times more than me!?”“That’s true”, shouted the seventh man. “Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!”“Wait a minute,” yelled the first four men in unison. “We didn’t get anything at all. The system exploit’s the poor!”The nine men surrounded the tenth man and beat him up…

The next night the Tenth man did not show up for dinner, so the Nine sat down and ate without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn’t have enough money between all of them for even half the bill!

And that Boys & Girls, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just might not show up anymore. In fact, they might start eating overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier…David R. Kamerschen, PH.DProfessor of EconomicsUniversity of Georgia
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And then there is this cute little cartoon (makes it easier for some of my Democrat friends to follow) which also shows what happens when you take away the incentive to better and improve your self.....

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Hokie Ice Hockey 2011...

First VA Tech Hokies Ice Hockey game of the season for me last at the Roanoke Civic Center and the guys looked good and skating well together as a team. Better passing this year and the team looks more aggressive all together as evident in taking a 3 to 0 lead after the first period...

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Hat Trick for Hokie player wearing #23 but not the player listed in the program that I got. I believe the name was Alex Smith when announced but can't be sure. #23 was hot and was very good at breaking for the goal when the opportunity was there but the trailing player was not always there but much better then last year...

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Senior Joel Samuels (Def) looked strong and more aggressive then last season and was quick to get back into the defensive zone when needed but still had several good shots on goals when the opportunity was there....

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Looked for Senior Andres Morales (forward) who was a hot scorer last year but was somewhat limited this game. He contributed to the team but was not the stand-out I saw last year... Still early and just the beginning of the season.....

Also noticed that Josh Bennett had himself a tough game being on of the smallest players on the team at 5'-7" but he mixed it up with any available player from the Villanova Wildcats and many times he was the guy taking the beating but that did not stop him. Towards the end of the 3rd he was near the glass where I was and mixed it up with a Wildcat going after the same puck. The Wildcat got away with cracking Bennett over the head with his stick and I thought the lady sitting in front of me was going over the glass for the ref missed the call all together. Bennett kept up with it and will be one to look for in future games.....

Hokies took the first of two home games with the Wildcats with a score of 7 to 4...

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Economics 101...

The 2011 Local Political Season....

It is after Labor Day and with that campaign signs appear, candidate forums are reported in local media sources, and the "Marketing Plans" go into full effect and top gear. The major difference between the candidates is that we have those who have already served in the position and have a track record of their decisions and actions, and those who are campaigning with little or no history of their actions or decisions and are working off their marketing plan and promises...

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All candidates who have held or presently hold office now, once had to also run a campaign and "marketing plan" as many of the new candidates vying for office are now doing this election. Some with little or no experience stepped up to the plate when needed for their district and fellow citizens and have proved to be wise beyond their years, grown into the position, and have become a valuable part of a balanced team...

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Those who have been in office for multiple terms, or even just one term, have documented history of their performance and actions during their terms and decisions made. With that they have had to take criticism from the public, the somewhat "Left leaning" local media, stonewalling from within, and political attacks from those with agendas. Obviously you are not going to please everybody all of the time but experienced and well qualified people in the right positions have the ability to deal with tough, and at times un-popular, decisions that the offices bring to do what is right for the county and its citizens.. With that the public has a track record to go with when considering re-election of the people in office as compared to those with only promises and a "Slick" marketing plan....

This election cycle once again brings out those who have had the mentioned "marketing plans" and "agendas" in the works for sometime now and look to capitalize on economic unrest and manufactured issues to stir the voters against those already in office. There are also some good members of the citizenry who are stepping up to the plate in hopes of being elected and being able to serve their community and doing it for the right reasons.

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But with that unfortunately we have those who are now running for office who have been divisive along the way as well as active in efforts to "Spin" and misinform others regarding the abilities and operational procedures of the Board of Supervisors. Fortunately many informed citizens have been able to keep abreast of the facts by following the true local media and talking with their representatives and constitutional officers.

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Slick marketing plans and promises of "Hope & Change" are nothing new to the world of political campaigning and in fact I believe many have learned their lesson after the recent promise of "Hope & Change" which now resides in the nice white house on Pennsylvania avenue. The best thing the citizens can do is pay attention and seek numerous sources of information to verify or correct campaign promises or claims against their opponents...

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9/11 anger?...

This past weekend I was up in New Jersey to visit with friends who I was with during the terrorist attack on 9/11 ten years ago as well as to meet with members of the Dive \ Rescue who recovered the two men who drowned at the Manasquan Inlet during hurricane Irene...

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During that time I stopped by the beach in BayHead and was surprised to see so many people on the beach after Labor Day weekend. While standing on the small boardwalk area looking out on the Atlantic, I heard a older lady say "Can you believe that they continue to press this fear ten years after 9/11"?... She also said we will be seeing this fearmongering for the next 25 years.

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As I looked over I saw that she was reading the Daily News (above) with the front page photo of a NYC Police officer with a search dog leading up to the 10th year date after the terrorist attacks on NYC, Pentagon, and another airplane in Pennsylvania...

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She went on to rant how the terrorist attacks has become nothing but a reason for the media to keep the citizens in fear and it is a big business to many who write books, promote shows, and go on the talkinghead shows perpetuating the fear so as to make money. I attempted to converse with her on the topic but it was obvious that she did not want to hear what I was saying if it did not follow the direction of her rant. No matter what it kept coming back to how the "War on terrorism" and cautionary actions like the ones on the front page of the Daily News, were nothing but a major inconvenience to the citizens and not necessary since there have been no further terrorist attacks....

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Knowing better than to continue this conversation for there was no way to convince her, or even bring up other valid points or questions, I bid her farewell and moved down the beach to check out the surf conditions. It would have been interesting to have had the opportunity to point out to her that just 60 miles East of where she was sitting on the beach, there is a German U-boat (U-869) that sunk while patrolling up and down the east coast during World War II sinking many merchant ships....

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The U-869 sunk towards the end of the 2nd World War but there was an even more coastal intrusive action along the east coast and Gulf of Mexico called "Operation Drumbeat" were numerous German U-boats hunted and destroyed many merchant ships since they were running with Nav lights on, no blackouts along the coast which backlit their targets, and no concern for precautionary actions along the coast during the early years of the war... People, like the one described above, did not want to be in-convenience by the fear mongers out there.....

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9/11...

Do not forget what happened here...

Do not let them "Spin" this or let them even call if a "Man made disaster" as they have already...

It was a "Terrorist Attack" on the United States, it was intentional, it was planned, it was sanctioned, and it was even celebrated by some...

Learn from history...

Do NOT forget...

Contamination by use of "Fracking"?....

Manasquan Inlet body recovery after Hurricane Irene..

The dive team was busy this past weekend after it was reported that there was a body sighted in the Manasquan Inlet during the effects of Hurricane Irene. Eventually two bodies were recovered the next day and additional info can be found here...

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Fracking and how it is done....