EPA cranks up attacks on Small Business & Manufacturers

While we wait for Harry Reid to try and ram through a watered down version of a Cap & Trade bill through the Senate, the EPA is bypassing legislation & quitely imposing their will through regulation of the Clean Air Act.

With the failure to pass the Murkowski Resolution, the EPA, using the Clean Air Act & the Integrated Urban Air Toxic Strategy as their hammer, a stealth form of Cap & Trade is currently being imposed & expanded from attacks on the coal industry to the manufacturing sector and small businesses.

From National Assoc. of Manufacturers --

The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) Vice President of Energy and Resources Policy Keith McCoy issued the following statement today regarding the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) continued push to impose costly and unattainable regulations on industry:

“EPA’s drive to put costly new burdens on manufacturers continues to create uncertainty and harm manufacturers’ ability to compete in a global economy. Two of the EPA’s more recent regulatory actions include proposing lowering ozone limits and putting stricter emission standards on industrial boilers. According to two new studies, the EPA’s current path and proposals will add costly new burdens to manufacturers and destroy millions of jobs.

Today the Manufacturers Alliance/MAPI released a study showing the EPA’s proposed ozone standards would cost 7.3 million jobs by 2020 and add $1 trillion in new regulatory costs per year between 2020 and 2030. And, while the EPA has publicly acknowledged that its own research shows there is no basis for proposing changing the ozone standards, the Agency continues to move ahead.

In addition, the Council of Industrial Boiler Owners (CIBO) today released a study that shows the EPA’s proposed rules to restrict emission limits on industrial and commercial boilers and process heaters could put 300,000 jobs at risk. The CIBO study also concludes that every $1 billion spent on compliance would jeopardize 16,000 jobs.

Our nation’s unemployment rate is 9.6 percent. We need more jobs, but the EPA is moving forward with regulations that will crush economic growth and manufacturers’ ability to hire. The NAM and the 18 million people who make up the manufacturing economy will continue to urge the EPA not to move forward with these job-killing proposals.”

Federal Judge allows Andover Tea Party Constitution Day Event to proceed

After realizing the Andover (OH) Tea Party's Constitution Day event was not about serving "tea & cookies," the Andover Township Trustees tried goose-stepping on the 1st Amendment -- Judge Donald C. Nugent, a former Cuyahoga County Common Plea judge & a Democrat, would allow no such infringement.

From Fox News --

A federal judge on Wednesday overruled a small Ohio town that had blocked a local Tea Party group from holding a Constitution Day rally in the town's public square because it was deemed too political.

Judge Donald C. Nugent issued a temporary injunction against Andover Township until the merits of the case can be decided. That clears the way for the Andover Tea Party to commemorate Constitution Day in the town square on Friday.

The town trustees who tried to block the rally "need to learn the Constitution," Peg Slingluff, a local Tea Party organizer, told FoxNews.com.

"It's very ironic that an effort to celebrate the Constitution results in a violation of the Constitution," attorney Curt Hartman, part of the legal team representing the
group, added.

The three trustees initially agreed in May to allow the activists to hold their rally when they thought the fledging group was going to have a picnic, serving tea and cookies, Slingluff said. Then they rescinded the offer in July when they learned that the group was affiliated with the conservative grassroots movement that has taken the nation by storm in the last year and a half.

"Who's been living under a rock for the last 18 months that they don't know what the Tea Party is," said attorney Christopher Finney, another member of the group's legal team.

The trustees denied the group access to the park based on a township resolution that allows officials to determine public space usage "on a case by case basis" and to ban speech that they deem too "political."

The 1851 Center for Constitutional Law, a nonpartisan law center in the state, filed a lawsuit in federal court, arguing the group's First Amendment rights were violated. More...

Judge Nugents respect for law is beyond reproach. In a 2007 ruling, regarding protesters at a military funeral of a fallen soldier, Judge Nugent upheld the law limiting protests at funerals.

For those interested in going to the event;

Celebrate the signing of the Constitution on Constitution Day. An evening of music and calebration with like minded people.

Date: 9/17/2010
Time: 6:00pm

Andover Public Square (Click here for map)
Intersection of Rt. 6 & Rt. 7
Andover, OH 44003

10th Congressional Candidate Peter J. Corrigan is Endorsed by Cleveland Fire Chief's Association

Peter Corrigan, who is running against Denns Kucinich in the 10th Congressional District is endorsed by the Cleveland Fire Chief's Association.

British Teen gets Banned from U.S. for Calling President Obama a Name

We welcome & protect criminals illegally entering our country with open arms, people calling for the destruction of our country & the killing of Americans get carte blanche treatment, the President of Mexico can slam our country and he gets a free dinner at the White House... call President Obama a name -- you get banned from the country!

From FOX DC --

A British teenager who sent an email to the White House calling President Obama an obscenity was banned from America for life, The Sun reported Monday.

The FBI asked local cops to tell college student Luke Angel, 17, his drunken insult was "unacceptable."

Angel said he fired off a single email criticizing the U.S. government after seeing a TV program about the 9/11 attacks.

He said, "I don't remember exactly what I wrote as I was drunk. But I think I called Barack Obama a p***k. It was silly -- the sort of thing you do when you're a teenager and have had a few."

Angel, of Bedford, in central England, said it was "a bit extreme" for the FBI to act. "The police came and took my picture and told me I was banned from America forever. I don't really care but my parents aren't very happy."

A Bedford Police spokesman confirmed they had spoken to Angel about the email. Officers will take no criminal action.

Joanne Ferreira, of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, said there are about 60 reasons a person can be barred from visiting America.

She said, "We are prohibited from discussing specific cases."

Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3135327/Obama-rant-Brit-banned-from-US-for-life.html

Small Business to Shoulder over a Third of Tax Increase on Top Earners

And here is more proof that President Obama's so called "tax cuts" for the middle class will hurt small business. This would be the small Mom & Pop type business that built this country. These so called cuts will kill the small to medium size companies that in the aggregate employ millions of Americans across the country.

From Tax Foundation --

Advocates of allowing the top two federal income tax rates to expire claim that only 2 or 3 percent of businesses would be affected, but a new Tax Foundation report shows that more than one-third of the revenue from an increase in the top two rates would come from business income.

About 39 percent of the $630 billion tax increase on high-income taxpayers (defined by President Obama as individuals earning more than $200,000 and married couples earning more than $250,000) in 2011 would come from business income. This amounts to an extra $246 billion in taxes on business income over 10 years.

"The fact that 'only' 2 or 3 percent of taxpayers with business income would face higher taxes is meaningless to the debate," said Tax Foundation President Scott Hodge, who authored the paper. "What matters most is not the number of taxpayers impacted, but the amount of business income - and, therefore, business activity - impacted."

Tax Foundation Special Report, No. 185, "Over One-Third of New Tax Increases to Come from Business Income," is available online at http://www.taxfoundation.org/publications/show/26696.html.

More than 74 percent of tax filers in the highest tax bracket report some business income, compared to 20 percent of those at the lowest bracket.

Of the roughly $864 billion in taxable business income reported on individual income tax returns in 2008, nearly 68 percent was claimed by taxpayers earning more than $200,000, and 35 percent was claimed by taxpayers earning over $ 1 million.

"This means that the combined business income of every taxpayer earning up to $200,000 was still less than the total business income of taxpayers earning more than $1 million," Hodge said.

More business income is taxed under the individual income tax code as "pass-through" businesses (non-corporate firms such as sole proprietors, S-corporations, Limited Liability Corporations and partnerships) than is taxed under the traditional corporate income tax code. The number of pass-through businesses nearly tripled between 1980 and 2007, from roughly 10.9 million to more than 30 million. The number of traditional C-corporations declined steadily from 2.2 million in 1980 to 1.9 million in 2007.

In the same time period, net receipts for C-corps roughly doubled, from $752 billion to $1.4 trillion, and net receipts from pass-through entities saw a six-fold increase, from $315 billion to more than $1.8 trillion.

The Tax Foundation is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that has monitored fiscal policy at the federal, state and local levels since 1937.

Dick Morris; 2010 St. Louis 9/12 Tea Party (Video)

Part 1

Part 2

Image Impact

Houston, Texas Tea Party
Felicia Winfree Cravens

There's a lot of press chasing the latest doings of the administration, and the vocal opposition to its agenda. You can't turn on the news without seeing a story about the health care debate, or the economy, or Cap and Trade. The debate is a good thing, and people who never cared about such issues before have suddenly found themselves chest-deep in the intricacies of legislation, discussing the Constitution. That renewed interest can never be bad for our republic.

What concerns me is the image portrayed by our opposition.

First, let's think about the goal here. Is the highest goal to keep a given piece of legislation from being passed? If so, then how do we make that happen? The obvious answer is to amass enough public opposition to render it politically impossible for Congress to pass it. This is why the town hall meetings have been so compelling; people are attending these events in unprecedented numbers to make their opinion known, especially on the health care legislation.

Is it having an effect? A little bit. It might result in a watered-down version of what's currently on offer being passed. But make no mistake, unless there's a radical change in the typical congressvarmint's point of view, this bill, in some form, WILL PASS.

So how do you change the view of Congress? My opinion is that you do it by reaching some of their base who do not currently agree with you. That takes many forms, but a good example is Tracy Miller's attempt to explain the health care legislation at an aborted Sheila Jackson Lee town hall. Sheila moved her town hall, and Tracy ended up at the original location. There she met several people who were supporters of the congresswoman, but who didn't know much about what was in the bill. She spent time that evening talking to those people and giving them facts and excerpts from the bill, and found common ground with them. She gave them something that was in short supply from Sheila Jackson Lee - information. That's a valuable outreach effort.

Would Tracy have had that opportunity to reach these SJL supporters had she charged in with her Obama Joker poster held high? I really don't think so. Would they have been receptive to anything she had to say? Probably not. Tracy knows this, and acted accordingly.

We should all take a page from her book, and learn something about image.

When Houston Tea Party Society hosted tea parties, we did our best to encourage people to focus on Congress as their targets. Putting the focus on the newly-elected, highly popular, still-honeymooning president would only serve to make those supporters dig in their heels and root their support even deeper. Congress was (and is) a much smarter target choice, and as Tracy found in an early SJL town hall, rich with material - as when SJL pretended to listen to Tracy's question and talked on her cell phone at the same time. That video landed the congresswoman, and Tracy, on the Fox News Channel.

The point here is that without the distraction of an altered Obama photo, without the distraction of a Sheila Jackson Lee voodoo doll, the story became Sheila Jackson Lee's behavior. Add those distracting elements into the picture, and the media would be reporting on the poster, on the doll. Is that the story we want to tell? Is that the goal; to get a chuckle out of people who agree with us? Or is the larger goal to prevail, to sway more people on the fence to agree with us, to amass the numbers we need to force Congress to abandon their socialist plans?

You can go for the cheap laugh, or you can go for the win. It's up to you. But if you go for the laugh, don't be surprised if we aren't all laughing along. Some of us would like to keep the focus on the issues.