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Invasive mussel confirmed in Utahs Electric Lake
Southern Ledger - November 21, 2008
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Microsoft lets Zune music subscribers keep tunes
Southern Ledger - November 21, 2008
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Astronauts end spacewalk to repair gummed-up joint
Southern Ledger - November 21, 2008
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Dubai parties at hotel gala despite economic gloom
Southern Ledger - November 21, 2008
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Warsaw marks borders of former ghetto
Southern Ledger - November 21, 2008
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Pakistan protests to US over deep missile strike
Southern Ledger - November 21, 2008
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Afghanistan markets its brand of pomegranates
Southern Ledger - November 21, 2008
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China says 19,000 students died in May earthquake
Southern Ledger - November 21, 2008
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Dems delay auto bailout vote, seek plan from Big 3
Southern Ledger - November 21, 2008
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WHAT TENNESSEE BUDGET CRISIS?
May 21, 2008 -
May 28, 2008
When Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen first took office in 2003 he
inherited outgoing Governor Don Sundquist’s final budget. That year the
State of Tennessee spent a total of $20.7 billion dollars. In the past
several weeks the Governor and the Legislature have been grappling with a
so-called budget crisis that forced consideration of lay offs for 2,000
state employees, elimination of the planned expansion of the Governor’s
pet Pre-K program, and other “dire” cuts in services and spending.
After all the hand-wringing and finger pointing the Legislature passed a
budget for 2008-09 that will spend at least $27.7 billion. In other
words, spending will have increased by at least $7 billion dollars – over
34% -- in just the past six years. That is more than a billion dollar
increase each and every year the Bredesen Administration has been in
charge. This constitutes a “crisis”? How many Tennesseans have seen their
income increase 34% over the past six years? The answer is very few,
unless you have been employed as a senior official in the Bredesen
Administration – like Economic and Community Development Commissioner Matt
Kisber who got a 63% pay raise last year.
The new budget includes approximately $468 million in cuts, including a
buy-out plan to remove 2,000 “non-essential” state employees from the
state payroll. The buy-out play will supposedly cost $50 million and will
save taxpayers $64 million. The Administration could never provide a
straight answer as to how many of the positions involved in the “layoffs”
are currently unfilled. In other words, are we really eliminating people
or simply positions that have been budgeted, and left unfilled as a “slush
fund” for various state agencies?
Nor did the Administration really explain the logic of paying people to
NOT do their jobs when we supposedly cannot afford to pay them to do their
jobs. And the so-called “crisis” is not so bad as to require us to
implement the layoffs right now – instead we will wait until after the
first of the year.
Last year the Legislature approved a $27.8 billion budget. The newly
approved budget is $27.7 billion. That would seem to be a $100 million
reduction, not a $468 million reduction. And if the slowing revenue during
the current budget year has caused any reductions in state spending, it is
likely that spending in the next fiscal year will actually INCREASE. Only
in “legis-speak” does increasing spending by over a billion dollars a year
constitute “conservative fiscal management.” Only among the power elites
on Capitol Hill can spending more money than the year before get termed a
“cut.”
Unfortunately, areas that could, and should, have been cut remained
unscathed as the Legislators rushed to finish their business and get to
their real business of campaigning for reelection. The “watershed” signs
that dot the interstate, which cost taxpayers about half a million
dollars, will remain in place as a visible reminder that “fiscal
restraint” and the Bredesen Administration are mutually exclusive terms.
The $14,436 in dimmer switches installed in the Governor’s Mansion in the
midst of this fiscal crisis will continue to light the way for the
Governor and his cronies. And the half million dollars a year that
Tennessee taxpayers spend on a ferry that transports just 23 people a day
will continue to drain our resources.
There are plenty of silly expenditures tucked away in the budget for
2008-09. They are not yet quite so visible as these examples, but we know
that they are there even thought the ink on the budget is not yet dry. In
a real crisis, they might have been eliminated. |
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ARE TERRORISTS RUNNING PHONE BANKS FOR OBAMA? -
May 14, 2008 -
May 21, 2008
The 2008 Presidential campaign has already seen a number of outlandish, and patently false, attacks. The idea that Islamic terrorists are picking a side in selection of an American President might seem to be yet another for the list…if it wasn’t true.
Ahmed Yousef, a top political adviser for terrorist group Hamas, said in an interview on WABC radio in New York a few weeks ago that the group supports Obama. “We like Mr. Obama. We hope he will (win) the election and I do believe he is li... |
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GAS TAX HOLIDAY BECOMES PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN ISSUE. -
May 7, 2008 -
May 14, 2008
Skyrocketing gasoline prices have finally attracted the attention of presidential candidates Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John McCain. While their proposed solutions to prices surging past $3.60 a gallon at the pump range from the muddled to the misleading, a key point of friction between the candidates has been their support or opposition to a Federal gasoline tax “holiday.”
The federal gasoline tax collected at the pump is currently 18.4 cents a gallon. John McCain and Hillary C... |
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BARACK GETS A "DO-OVER" ON WRIGHT. -
April 28, 2008 -
May 4, 2008
Two wrongs don’t make a right, but for Barack Obama a second chance to deal with the radical rantings of his preacher may put his suddenly faltering campaign back on track.
When Reverend Jeremiah Wright’s vitriolic sermons gained national attention a month ago, Obama was reluctant to disavow him. He danced around what he knew, what he had heard and not heard from the pulpit ever the past twenty years at Trinity United Church of Christ, and whether he ever confronted Wright about his s... |
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DEMOCRATS ARE THE SOURCE OF OUR PAIN AT THE PUMP. -
April 14, 2008 -
April 21, 2008
“Democrats have a plan to lower gas prices…join Democrats who are working to lower gas prices now.” – Then-Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), April 19, 2006.
The average price of gasoline hit $3.33 a gallon last week, a stunning $1.14 higher than it was when the Democrats took control of the U.S. House and Senate following a campaign built in large part on campaign promises to dramatically LOWER gasoline prices. The price of a barrel of oil was $56 the day Nancy Pelosi took over the S... |
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LIBERAL TALK RADIO HAS A REALLY BAD WEEK. -
April 9, 2008 -
April 16, 2008
The important Spring ratings period for radio is not starting out with a bang for the already beleaguered liberal talk radio format. Millions of dollars have been poured into liberal talk networks by Democrat Party activists determined to create a supposed counter-balance to conservative talkers. But despite these efforts to create a powerful new weapon in the Liberal arsenal, both listeners and advertisers have turned away. The turmoil, financial and otherwise, that has plagued liberal talk rad... |
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