MCCAIN AGAIN COMMITS TO BIG GOVERNMENT, ELIMINATING CONSUMER CHOICE

PHOENIX, ARIZONA. FEBRUARY 12, 2010. Renewing his commitment to big government in the face of growing skepticism about Washington’s expanding powers, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) introduced legislation last week to further regulate vitamins and supplements. His partnership with U.S. Senator Byron Dorgan (D-North Dakota) follows other liberal efforts with Joseph Lieberman on global warming, Ted Kennedy on amnesty and Russ Feingold on First Amendment regulations, recently overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Dietary Supplement Safety Act (DSSA) of 2010 (S.3002), introduced by Sen. McCain and co-sponsored by Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND), seeks to regulate all dietary supplements.

The introduction of this legislation does not come in the face of health and safety concerns, but rather is an apparent response to athletes’ use of over-the-counter supplements as performance enhancers.

“Use of vitamins and supplements should not be regulated simply because a few athletes want to redirect attention from their doping,” said U.S. Senate candidate J.D. Hayworth.

Americans across the country would likely see a rise in prices and a decrease in availability of vitamins and supplements with the passage of this bill, as supplement manufacturers would be subject to excessive reporting requirements and broad recall authority by the FDA.

This bill is yet more “bipartisan” legislation by the 24-year incumbent that panders to those interested in increasing the size and scope of the federal government. Senator McCain voted for the massive bank bailout bill in 2008, which included $150billion in earmarks. During his presidential run he proposed spending $300 billion to buy up every bad mortgage in America, again bailing out banks and borrowers. And according to the Heritage Foundation his support for amnesty legislation would have cost taxpayers $2.6trillion.

By Jon C. Altmann

Are you a Phoenix voter? Think you are you paying too many city taxes? Get ready to pay more.

Six of nine Phoenix Council members voted February 2nd to tax food and groceries for the first time in more than 25 years – for only an extra 2%! And no April Fools, it takes effect on April 1st.

This comes on the heals of a rate hike of 12% for city water and 7% for city sewers that take effect on March 3rd. By the way, in public testimony, the water services director admitted the rate hike would preserve about 120 open jobs that other city employees could transfer to “in case of layoffs.”

Let’s not even talk about that Mesa wants to increase the rental car tax across the Valley to build major league baseball another stadium or that we will have a vote on a statewide sales tax this spring. That is pending State Legislative authorization.

The Phoenix Council food sales tax vote came with only 24 hours notice, having been added to the agenda at the last minute by Mayor Phil Gordon. Phoenix Councilman Bill Gates questioned the tactic, saying it ran against the “Phoenix process” that had allowed voters a series of budget hearings before any budget or tax votes in the past.

Phoenix Libertarians have filed a referendum campaign with Phoenix and have until March 1 to get about 9,600 signatures to force the food tax to public vote.

Want to help? Several Republican activists and others do and have already joined to get signatures. Petition circulators must be Phoenix voters and can call 602-595-5451 or email: info@phoenixlibertarians.org.

Jim Ianuzzo, Maricopa County Libertarian Party Chair is one of the key people in the effort. Ianuzzo, famous for being part of the Goldwater Institute’s lawsuit against the Phoenix CityNorth zoning tax rebate deal, has found another cause to hold the City Council’s feet to the fire. Ianuzzo said they are aiming for 15,000 signatures to get the referendum on the ballot, despite the city charter requirement of less than 30 days to gather the signatures.

A succesful filing puts a red light on the tax and a failure at the polls kills off the city from using that tactic. How’s that for a political photo radar catch?

The day after the vote, Phoenix City Councilman Bill Gates did a robodial call telling his constituents he did not support the sales tax vote and encouraging everyone to show up at the city council budget hearings (see the hearing schedule: http://phoenix.gov/budget/hearings.html )

Gates, who paid for the robodial out of his own campaign funds, said in the 90 second spot “On Tuesday, a majority of my colleagues on the city council and the mayor voted to impose a food tax. I am disappointed this tax was passed before you got to weigh in on the food tax.”

This is probably the first time a Phoenix councilmember waging a robodial on a council vote in a non-city election period.

Never one to miss articulating a tax issue, State Treasurer Dean Martin told me at Tuesday nights LD11 Republican meeting “I think the citizens of Phoenix will find it hard to stomach a food sales tax.”

Ianuzzo said he got a call from a reporter telling him that Summit Consulting was already doing a poll on the food sales tax and the count was running heavily against the tax. Summit did not return my call by press time to comment. If true, the tummy upset Treasurer Martin punted may now be major voter acid reflux.

Could the timing for another tax increase together with others may create a perfect storm that brings together Republicans, Independents, Libertarians and Tea Party supporters? If the Phoenix referendum is successful, it will go the ballot at the same time as the state sales tax public vote.

Gates represents the city’s northeast/north central area in council district 3 and was joined by Sal DiCiccio (Dist. 6 Awhatukee/Arcadia/East Phoenix) and Peggy Neely (Dist. 2 far northeast) in voting no. In about two years, Phil Gordon is termed out as Mayor and any or all of these council members may be contenders for the city’s top spot.

One Phoenix TV station reported that Councilman DiCiccio has again thrown down the gauntlet, saying he would take a 5% pay cut to his check if city employee unions would take the same cut and that he would continue to match the cuts out of his check. No word yet if other councilmembers will see DiCiccio’s bet, or raise him one (council members are paid $61,600 yearly).

DiCiccio had previously revealed that the average cost for a Phoenix City employee is $97,000 per employee, by far some of the most expensive help around. In rough calculations, that would mean the employee benefit package exceeds 33% of pay, far above private sector averages and possibly even exceeding the cost of benefits given to military personnel.

DiCiccio has posted his findings on his own city council webpage: http://phoenix.gov/district6/budgetinfo.html

Phoenix is not a happy family inside. City Hall insiders say other city unions are tired of taking all the cuts while police and firefighters have been held free of any cuts in pay, benefits or positions. The largest group of people showing up at the Feb. 2nd last minute council vote were union members and their families, including AFSCME, PLEA and IAFF-Phoenix Firefighters unions. An afternoon council meeting limits the Joe average voters from getting off work to come – apparently a lot of city workers must have had the afternoon off.

Adding to the mix, one long time city neighborhood activist, Paul Barnes, showed up to ask for a 4% food sales tax hike, trying to swap the tax for an indepth study that would lead to future budget reductions. The council did not bite on that one.

It has been rumored that one major department already figured that if employees in the city division could take about 5 furlough days and about another 90 could take demotions to the next step below, that department could avoid layoffs of about 200 employees.

“I think it was a dispictable to scare the public with cuts to police and fire to get a food sales tax,” Dean Martin added in his LD11 interview.

City officials have said they would have to lay off hundreds of police and fire fighters, but not put any furloughs on the table as an alternative to layoffs. Within a day after the food tax vote, City Cable 11 had a team of city budget experts doing a roundtable explaining where the food sales money would be spent. There may have not been much homework on alternative budget reductions, but city staff gets high marks for quickly knowing where to spend the dollars.

Gilbert Tuesday just announced it is looking at laying off 65 police officers and 29 firefighters. In contrast, Tulsa, OK, facing a budget crisis, may have to lay off 135 police and 130 firefighters. News reports state Tulsa police are facing either layoffs or taking a 7.5 percent pay cut plus benefit concessions, as suggested by their mayor. Firefighters were given an option to take 8.6 percent pay cuts and make some benefit concessions or see firefighters laid off.

Closer to home, Mesa recently slashed city salaries across the board and took away all overtime from police and fire. Last time anyone checked, Mesa is still there – didn’t burn down, no crime take-over and no-shut down of government.

Mesa may want another ballpark, but no police or firefighters went home in their cutbacks. Maybe there is a lesson for Phoenix there (good news – Phoenix already has a ballpark). Now, Team Phoenix Council is up to bat and the tax busters are pitching with clipboards, referendums and pens. Bets anyone? In the meantime, plenty of rental cars available for politicians and bureaucrats needing a fast lane exit, providing you pay the rental tax, of course.

What do you think?  Lets have some fun and discuss …

The Weekly Standard noted that the new Sun-Maid girl looks “as if Julia Roberts decided to don a red bonnet and start picking grapes,” while the feminist website Jezebel.com remarked that it looks as if she’s had “some implants.”

This is light and fun… here’s the story:

http://finance.yahoo.com/family-home/article/108296/sun-maid-girl-makeover-sparks-controversy.html?mod=family-love_money

This is awesome.

My congressman, Jeff Flake, was recently interviewed by Chandler Councilman, Jeff Weninger on the Chandler’s cable show Chandler in Focus. The interview was the regular superfluous listing of accomplishments and updates but then it gets very interesting.

During the last three minutes of the interview, Congressman Flake reveals that he recently spent seven days on a 50-acre deserted island in the south central Pacific. During his island getaway, he took a pole spear, a water desalinization pump, and some salt and pepper and his snorkling gear. For seven days he remained completely alone on an island in the middle of the Pacific. He ate lots of fish and even swam with the sharks.

Flake made no mention of bringing a volleyball along on his getaway.

 “It is a way to coerce people out of their cars, yeah,” LaHood admitted. …  And all of you who live around here know exactly what I’m talking about…. About everything we do around here is government intrusion in people’s lives.”

They’re planning to use $8 billion dollars of debt your children will have to pay off to force social change in American’s transportation habits.  Is that the role of a government by the people and for the people?

“You’re going to see new buses; you’re going to see ability of transit districts to really have the equipment…. And we’ll begin at DOT to set a standard for our ability to get out of the recession, get people back to work in good-paying jobs.”

This moron is ignoring totally the fact that public transit hasn’t paid for itself since before WWII and that without another Law Enforcer authority (the Transit Police), public transit in many urban areas is quite crime ridden.

Moving along to more of the CHANGE you can expect from the Morons-in-Charge…

… yes, you guessed it; Your Diet is Causing Climate Change!

Here it is directly as reported in the Wall Street Journal.

“Changing our lifestyles, including our diets, is going to be one of the crucial elements in cutting carbon emissions,” said David Kennedy, chief executive of the Committee on Climate Change.

Alcoholic drinks are another significant contributory factor, with the growing and processing of crops such as hops and malt into beer and whiskey helping to generate 1.5% of the nation’s greenhouse gases.

The Carbon Trust, a government-funded firm, is working with food and drink companies to calculate the “carbon footprints” of products – sometimes with surprising results.

Another day in the life of President Obama and Vice-President Biden…

I’m sure there are lots of questions to ask here but the one that is plaguing me is, “Who puts ketchup on a swiss cheese and jalapeno burger?” What is the VP thinking???

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 5, 2009

Arizona’s Felix and Oscar – Local Televangelist and Major Food Bank Operator Hires Former County Attorney Rick Romley

PARADISE VALLEY, ARIZONA. – March 5, 2009 – It’s an odd pairing, like Felix and Oscar. Or Lyle Lovett and Julia Roberts. Don Stewart and Rick Romley are now working side-by-side.

Stewart is a 69-year old televangelist, born in Jerome, AZ, who now lives in Paradise Valley. Romley is a Vietnam War hero who served for sixteen years as the Maricopa County Attorney.

The charitable arm of Stewart’s ministry, Feed My People Children’s Charities, owns two of the largest food banks in Arizona: Northern Arizona Food Bank in Flagstaff and Borderland Food Bank in Nogales. Stewart founded Northern Arizona Food Bank in 1987 to help better serve Native American communities. Borderland was acquired just two years ago after it nearly went out of business.

Locally in the Arizona Republic and nationally in the New York Times the extreme importance of food banks in the current economic climate have recently been highlighted.

“Televangelists may be right behind lawyers and Wall Street CEOs when it comes to public regard. People always seem to want to investigate, question or follow what we do. The recent news around Ted Haggard certainly didn’t help matters. For all these reasons we have taken the unusual step of recently hiring a man of impeccable integrity and law enforcement credentials to serve as an independent consultant to our operations,” Stewart said.

“I am grateful to Mr. Romley for taking on the assignment because I think it is a continuation of his public service which I have long admired as an Arizona resident. We feel very privileged to have his independent counsel and thought it was important for this ministry to communicate it because of the important message it sends to the public and religious community,” Stewart said.
Romley said he has been asked by the ministry, its food bank operations and other charitable endeavors to review policies and procedures.

“Any business or charitable endeavor can improve its operations. In this case where I can help improve
or ratify various activities I think it will ultimately provide an important public service that this televangelist is taking extraordinary steps to do the right thing. On a national level it would be like Joel Osteen hiring Rudy Giuliani,” Romley said.

Raised in Jerome, Arizona Stewart’s Christian Bible teachings have taken him across the world with revivals in 89 different countries.

The group’s food bank efforts have been applauded by local sheriffs, supervisors and community leaders in both southern and northern Arizona.

Besides the food banks in Arizona, Feed My People Children’s Charities conducts many national and international operations, including rescuing produce at the Mexican border for distribution around the U.S. and operating more than two dozen feeding centers and child care facilities in the Philippines.

To schedule interviews or for more information please contact Jason Rose or Jim Sharpe.

     Marana residents are quickly running out of reasons to visit Tucson or Phoenix with their own soon to open In-N-Out. (The first In-N-Out in Pima County opened in May of this year.)

     Along with the In-N-Out Marana is also home to one of Arizona’s finest settings for golf and will soon have a brand new Ritz-Carlton.

     Now to some really important news – The new Tucson In-N-Out store was their biggest opening ever.

Thanks to Greg at EP for taking note of an Opinion Journal article by Michael Barone. In the piece Barone tracks the demographic shift of domestic population to the interior of the country. Greg linked to the article because it mentions Phoenix in a positive light more than once.

In the forth from last paragraph is the line that Tucson also ranks as an Interior Boomtown. The vaunted Portland is listed as a Static City.

The article is very interesting for both its demographic and political analysis.

p.s. No doubt our new In-N-Out Burger had a lot to do with the ranking as a Boomtown. Our source in Central Tucson reported eating at the new location for the first time this morning. The line was only 20 minutes for a mid-morning visit. Food quality and service were reported as very high.

Beginning with this story a new category has been added – Food. Please feel free to send us your suggestions for new and interesting places to eat and our other writers are invited to cover this topic as well.