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IS IT TRUE August 29, 2012

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The Mole #??

IS IT TRUE August 29, 2012

IS IT TRUE some of the details about the City of Evansville’s proposal to the EPA to eliminate the combined sewer overflows into the Ohio River are trickling out and that the original talking point of only having to spend $227 Million to achieve compliance turns out to have been a political sound bite and tells less than half of the truth?…today the City of Evansville is only able to treat 25% of the sewage dumping about 3.4 Billion gallons of sewage directly into the Ohio River?…the highly publicized number of $227 Million over the next 20 years only solves 40% of the problem leaving 2.5 Billion gallons of raw sewage to be discharged into the Ohio River even after spending $227 Million?…that assumes the use of the sewers stays the same as today meaning the population and business base can’t grow for this to make a small dent in the problem?…the first numbers released of $227 Million at this point seem to have been intentionally misleading (that is fancy talk for a pack of lies) to ease the fears of the ratepayers?…that telling lies is never a good policy and that a hard truth is always preferable to a lie?

IS IT TRUE the second phase of the project as it is now being called will bring the cost up to over $500 Million which is what the City County Observer and other interested parties have been saying for years?…we actually praised the Evansville Water and Sewer Department and the Winnecke Administration for innovations in design that clearly were VAPORWARE as opposed to a real solution to the problem?…the dollars reported are of course 2012 dollars and that the price will most likely exceed A BILLION DOLLARS after 30 years of inflation are factored in?…there is no place for this sort of sleight of hand in reporting and that the EPA has not and may very well never approve taking 30 years to fix a problem that is already under consent decree to be planned for a 20 year repair cycle?…that the authors of this plan are going to the EPA with a plan that they know full well does not meet the requirements of the consent decree?

IS IT TRUE the rotten smell of derrière in the south side and the discharges into the Ohio River are repellent to the kinds of people and businesses that the City of Evansville is dependent upon for economic survival?…this problem will cost between $10,000 and $20,000 for every household in Evansville?…implementation of this fix will be adding roughly a small car payment to the water and sewer bills of every home or business in the City or County if reconciliation passes?…this is a price worth paying and a cost that is necessary to bring the infrastructure of Evansville above 3rd World status?…wallowing in our own crap is no way to live and that the Winnecke Administration has an opportunity to set this course correctly as opposed to trying to plead with the EPA to allow poor old Evansville to continue its Calcutta imitation for another 30 years?…kicking the can down the road for 50 years by mayor after mayor does not make it right?

IS IT TRUE that our exposure of the FREE SPEECH ZONE at USI has stirred up a hornet’s nest of responses from both concerned citizens and USI officials?…we understand that many colleges took this step to keep outside influence off of campuses during the 60’s and 70’s when civil unrest over the Vietnam War turned violent?…USI is not alone in designating a small and nearly invisible area as a FREE SPEECH ZONE?…USI needs to take notice of what has happened to other universities that have established FREE SPEECH ZONES and made using them difficult with administrative restrictions?…that last week the latest in a series of lawsuits resulted in the University of Cincinnati’s FREE SPEECH ZONE being struck down as UNCONSTITUTIONAL in a Federal Court?…a simple Google search reveals hundreds of such lawsuits with similar results?…the CCO encourages USI to preemptively take this bull by the horns and make the entire campus outside of the buildings of higher learning into a FREE SPEECH ZONE?…bringing Evansville’s state university into compliance with the United States Constitution should be an expectation of the people of this town?…there is nothing to fear by taking this step?

Mayor Praises Emergency Response at Grandview Towers Fire

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EVANSVILLE, IN – Mayor Lloyd Winnecke commended city and county emergency personnel for their swift response to a three-alarm fire Sunday afternoon at Grandview Towers that resulted in one death and the evacuation of all 170 apartments in the building.

Central Dispatch received the first report of a fire at Grandview Towers at 5:42 p.m. Sunday and immediately alerted emergency personnel. The first fire units arrived at 1000 Fulton Parkway at
5:46 p.m. and were quickly joined by units from the Evansville Police Department and a car from the Vanderburgh County Sheriff’s Office.

Within 30 minutes, buses from the Metropolitan Evansville Transit System (METS) and representatives from the American Red Cross were on the scene providing assistance and transporting residents to restrooms at the METS bus terminal and later to an emergency shelter at Red Cross headquarters.

“First, I would like to offer my condolences to the family of Gwendolyn Hunt who did not survive the accidental fire,” Mayor Winnecke said. “I would also like to take this opportunity to thank our first responders and the American Red Cross for their quick response to blaze. Firefighters arrived on the scene within minutes, preventing the fire from causing greater damage, and the professionalism of all involved helped to bring calm to a chaotic situation.”

Bonnie Poag had just left her mother’s apartment on the 10th floor at Grandview Towers when she received a call about the fire. Poag returned to the apartments to find her mother outside. Poag called the Mayor’s Office Monday morning to thank firefighters and Evansville police for getting her mother out of the building safely and going back inside to retrieve her medications.

IMPT: September GOP Breakfast

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GOP Breakfast Announcement:

Starting this September, we will be implementing some changes to our monthly breakfast meetings:

LOCATION – we will be meeting at the Sirloin Stockade, 4610 Bellemeade Ave, Evansville, just west of Green River Road. Enter through the front (south) entrance. Parking is available on both sides of and in front of the building.

COST – in order to defray the cost of the space and the food, we will be charging a $10/person breakfast fee. You will pay at the door (cash or check) and will be given a food ticket. When the breakfast line opens, you will hand your ticket to the attendant at the line, and you will be free to go through the buffet. Drinks (coffee, juice, etc.) are free and unlimited.

RESERVATIONS – because we will be the only group in the restaurant, the cooks need to know how many people are attending as far in advance as possible. Therefore, we are asking that if you are planning to attend, you RSVP at least 3 days prior to the breakfast. For instance, if the breakfast is on the 15th, you would RSVP by the 12th. You can RSVP by calling party HQ at 812-425-8207, or by emailing Ian (ianhauer@gmail.com), Mary Jo (beamerjo59@gmail.com), or the party (vandygop@gmail.com).

We will continue to hold our breakfasts on the 3rd Saturday of each month. Our next breakfast is Saturday, September 15th at 8:00am. Doors will open at 7:30am. Our speakers will be Congressman Larry Bucshon and coroner candidate Gary Gulledge.

Rare Animal Baby Delights Mesker Park Zoo & Botanic Garden Visitors

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On May 20, 2012, a new Hyacinth macaw chick hatched at Mesker Park Zoo & Botanic Garden. Both protective parents watched as their chick emerged from the nest box for the public to see in early August. This new addition to the Zoo’s collection is the second chick hatched by this pair of parents at Mesker Park Zoo & Botanic Garden. In the wild, Hyacinth macaws can be found in the forests of Central South America. Visitors are able to view the Hyacinth macaw chick in the Zoo’s Discovery Center. This largest member of the macaw family is considered an endangered species, largely due to their popularity as pets. This species of macaw is protected by the Brazilian government, where the macaw is found in the wild, and is listed as Appendix 1 of the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). A CITES listing restricts the ability for individuals to sell this species internationally thus protecting the species in its home of Brazil. In 2011, only two Hyacinth macaw chick hatchings were reported in zoos; one in France and one in Indianapolis.

Joe Walsh’s Sequel to “Life’s Been Good to me So Far”

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US District Court Forbids use of Free Speech Zone on Cincinnati Campus

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On Thursday August 23rd, 2012, the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio delivered a message in support of freedom of speech, issuing a permanent injunction against the University of Cincinnati’s unconstitutional policy. Interestingly, this ruling came a single day after UC President Gregory H. Williams suddenly resigned, giving no explanation other than a reference to “personal reasons” for his abrupt departure.

UC was given notice that their policies had jumped the constitutional shark on many occasions. After all, The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) first warned UC about its policy being unconstitutional back in 2007. The now struck down policy had been in place for many years before that? Thursday’s injunction prevents UC from limiting student speech in outdoor areas unless the restriction is “narrowly tailored to serve a compelling University interest.”

Link to Federal Court Injunction:

Final Judgment of Permanent Injunction U of Cincinnati

Gallup Rasmussen Poll for August 28, 2012

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The Rasmussen Tracking poll today shows President Obama with a 47% – 45% lead over Mitt Romney while Gallup’s Tracking poll continues to show Romney leading at 47% -46% each.

The average of these two polls is now showing the Romney/Ryan campaign with 46% and the Obama/Biden at 46.5%.

The average approval rate for President Obama despite leading is at negative 2.0% meaning that 2% more of those polled disapprove than approve of the Presidents job performance. The average approval rating for the President was 46.5% and the average disapproval was 48.5%.

Real Clear Politics that today has an average of 10 polls has the Obama/Biden ticket leading by 1% at 46.7% to 45.7% with a job approval of negative 0.8%.

All polls continue to indicate that between 6% and 10% of those polled have not yet expressed an opinion putting the undecideds in a position to choose the next President.

A Rational Discussion of the Federal Budget: Thomas Sowell

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Excerpts:

For those of us who like to believe that human beings are rational, trying to explain what happens in politics can be a real challenge.

For example, that segment of the population that has the least to fear from a reform of Medicare or Social Security is the most fearful — namely, those already receiving Medicare or Social Security benefits.

It is understandable that people heavily dependent on these programs would fear losing their benefits, especially after a lifetime of paying into these programs. But nobody in his right mind has even proposed taking away the benefits of those who are already receiving them.

Yet opponents of reforming these programs have managed repeatedly to scare the daylights out of seniors with wild claims and television ads such as one showing someone — who looks somewhat like Paul Ryan — pushing an elderly lady in a wheelchair toward a cliff and then dumping her over.

There are people who take seriously such statements as those by President Barack Obama that Republicans want to “end Medicare as we know it.”

Let’s stop and think, if only for the novelty of it. If you make any change in anything, you are ending it “as we know it.” Does that mean that everything in the status quo should be considered to be set in concrete forever?

If there were not a single Republican, or none who got elected to any office, arithmetic would still end “Medicare as we know it,” for the simple reason that the money in the till is not enough to keep paying for it. The same is true of Social Security.

The same has been true of welfare state programs in European countries that are currently struggling with both financial crises and riots in the streets from people who feel betrayed by their governments. They have in fact been betrayed by their politicians, who have promised them things that there was not enough money to pay for. That is the basic problem in the United States as well.

We are not yet Greece, but we are not exempt from the same rules of arithmetic that eventually caught up with Greece. We just have a little more time. The only question is whether we will use that time to make politically difficult changes or whether we will just kick the can down the road, and keep pretending that “Medicare as we know it” would continue on indefinitely, if it were not for people who just want to be mean to the elderly.

In both Europe and America, there are many people who get angry at those who tell them the truth that the money is just not there to sustain huge welfare state programs indefinitely. But that anger might be better directed at those who lied to them by promising them benefits that were inherently unsustainable.

Neither Social Security nor Medicare has ever had enough assets to cover its liabilities. Very simply, there has never been enough money put aside to do what the government promised to do.

These systems operate on what their advocates like to call a “pay as you go” basis. That is, the younger generation pays in money that is used to cover the cost of benefits for the older generation. This is the kind of financial pyramid scheme that got Charles Ponzi put in prison in the 1920s and got Bernie Madoff put in prison in our times.

A private annuity cannot play these financial games without its executives risking the fate of Ponzi and Madoff. That is why proposed Social Security and Medicare reforms would allow young people to put their money somewhere where the money they pay in would be put aside specifically for them, not used as at present to pay older people’s pensions, with anything left over being used for whatever else politicians feel like spending the money on.

It is today’s young people who are going to be left holding the bag when they reach retirement age and discover that all the money they paid in is long gone. It is today’s young people who are going to be dumped over a cliff when they reach retirement age, if nothing is done to reform entitlements.

Yet the young seem not to be nearly as alarmed as the elderly, who have no real reason to fear. Try reconciling that with the belief that human beings are rational.

Link to Article by Thomas Sowell

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2012/08/28/entitlement_reforms_115224.html

Reader’s Comment on Campus Free Speech Zones

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From Pressanykey from the US Constitution:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Just what has prompted the University of Southern Indiana to think it can make exception to the above amendment to the US Constitution? Being a university gives it no special status or exemption.

IS IT TRUE August 28, 2012

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The Mole #??

IS IT TRUE August 28, 2012

IS IT TRUE that some of us who filled the tank up during the last couple of days are looking smart right now as gasoline increased by 5% overnight in Evansville and most of the Eastern United States in response to speculation that Hurricane Issac will disrupt production in the Gulf of Mexico, temporarily freeze distribution, and cause safety related shutdowns at some refineries?…that this time we may be in for a triple whammy on gas prices as there is a refinery in jeopardy of being shut down in Philadelphia and it is of course coming up on Labor Day weekend when somehow gas prices always seem to rise some?…if this triple whammy does the kind of damage that it can Evansville could easily be looking at regular unleaded gas in the $4.25 range by mid-September?…that should add a little spice to the presidential campaigns?

IS IT TRUE that as powerful as the office of the president is, these guys can’t control the weather, have never had any success from pleading with oil companies for relief, but can pass exploration friendly legislation and issue distribution enhancing permits?…that the USA does not has about as much of an energy policy as the City of Evansville has a master plan of relevance?…just as Evansville has had a long term problem with planning the United States has stubbornly resisted establishing a long term energy policy?…what we have now is a mishmash of crony deals some of which are favorable and some of which are oppressive to good energy decisions?…it has been 40 years since the first Arab oil embargo that caused gas to jump from 25 cents to 40 cents 3 months after this writer got a drivers license?…that of all the things that the candidates for president need to release some specific policies on energy is perhaps the most important one to the economy?…many balls have been dropped with respect to energy policy during the last 40 years but the last four under President Obama have seen the American public’s retail spending on gasoline more than double?…that tank of gas that was $35 in 2008 is now over $70 and that for a household with two average use vehicles is spending nearly $300 per month more on gas than they were 4 years ago?

IS IT TRUE that the City County Observer encourages all of our readers to think good thoughts for the people of the Gulf Coast and especially the City of New Orleans as Hurricane Issac approaches?…those of our readers who pray are encouraged to do so for the safely of the people of the Gulf and the infrastructure that they can come home to?…the last thing that is needed at this time is for another Katrina style disaster like what started 7 years ago yesterday?

IS IT TRUE that the City of Evansville is holding a meeting at Bosse High School tonight at 5 o’clock to discuss the plan to eliminate combined sewer overflows in the City of Evansville?…this is a welcome step as this has plagued the south and southeast sides for half a century?…it took a gun to the head of the City by the EPA to get local leaders off their backsides to get this much needed repair in the queue?…one can pontificate until they are blue in the face about how arenas and unification will help economic development but any good that may happen is nullified when a site selector takes a deep breath of Bee Slough air?…this should have been done 30 years ago, it will be expensive, but eliminating the combined sewer overflows will go further to making Evansville a desirable place to live and work than everything else combined?…the water and sewer bills will be among the highest in the nation to go along with the electricity when this is done BUT Evansville will finally be a place that is free of the smell of derrière’?

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