The official squirrel round up was a great success for the Surprise Valley Chamber of Commerce, http://www.surprisevalleychamber.com, and will help us to keep giving away scholarships as well as promote our local businesses. The weather threatened but only occured at night and wasn't bad anyway so all had a great hunt.

There was an acticle posted on myoutdoorbuddy.com http://www.myoutdoorbuddy.com/hunting_report.php?Hunting=5121 and includes some great photos. Check it out.

The weather here is still unsettled. We had a bit of rain yesterday and last night but the sun has returned to give us another great hunt day.

On our web site, http://www.jnrhotel.com, under calendar are the upcoming events including a change in the Fair date. Also under Weather you can check out what is in store. Just remember to check out the NE corner of the state as the weather here is often different than elsewhere. With the valley sitting between 2 mountain ranges we don't seem to get as much rain & snow as anyone else does.

If you are a Rotarian or interested in being one, come to one of our dinner meetings on Wednesday nights at 7pm. We are raffeling off 7 pistols this year at our fly-in and 2 rifles at the fair, a .22 Golden Boy and a .17 Savage HMR with scope. The barrel is really different with its scrolling design and a pretty rifle. You don't have to be there to win.

Burning Man 2011

It seems that this years Burners are younger and less mature as they are not able to curb their enthusiasm in the evening hours or have empathy for those fellow burners that are sleeping. Maybe it was the weather since their wasn't any devastating dust storms cutting visability to 0. Maybe it was the young age of the noisy ones. Maybe they weren't dirty enough or tired enough from the desert. Maybe they didn't have fun enough or it was too much to turn off. Those that I talked with said the commute off the plaza was reasonably short compared to other years even though the event was at the limit + of attendence and the weather although hot was great. Maybe next year more will follow the burner way.

We need to get the Fair Tax Bills (HR25 & S13) passed. The tax code is too complex for any resonable understanding and therefore easily modofied to give big tax breaks to those individuals and corportations that send in their campaign donations. The Fax Tax Bill is very small and very tight. If you purchase something new you pay the tax that is included in the price. The merchant sends it in for you just like the sales tax colected for the state.

After computing the poverty level of tax it is sent to everyone as a prebate. So you have the dollars to pay the tax on stuff you are going to spend your money on.

The secret to the sucess of this tax is EVERYONE pays it on EVERY new item-no exceptions - the rich, the poor, the old the young, the legal tourist, the legal alien, the illegial alien, congress men and senators, everyone! That is good.

Better yet all other federal taxes are cancelled! Business tax, payroll tax, income tax, corporate tax. The IRS too because their is no tax for them to collect!

Since everyone will have more money without having to pay these taxes they can spend more. Corporations will feel secure hiring again as demand will be up. The Government income will be up since the Fair Tax is spread throughout the economy including the foreigners. Read about it. It is a very novel plan with far reaching benefits.

There were no new jobs in August per the fed. Ashville, TN - Henderson County cannot find anyone to pick their apples. The need 500-1000 folks. The pay is $15/bin which translates to $15 to $20/hour. They blame their problem on the 1300 + illegal immigrants arrested there.
The fed has to get off its duff and do something. The Fair Tax Bill would increase employment for many. The Fair Tax Bill would increase everyone's pocketbook. The Fair Tax Bill would go a long way toward pulling us out of this recession. Immigration has to be fixed as #2. We either have to deport all the illegals or legalize them and stop the further influx of illegals over our boarders. Our borders are like sieves. No other country has such open boarders. The Mexican boarder fence was stupid and a waste. There are tunnels under the fence. The electronic fence doesn't work as well as it was suppossed to and we just keep giving the contractor more money. The funniest part is the fence isn't even on the boarder.

Fire FEE

Prop 13 said no new tax without a 2/3 vote so every new tax became a fee. The latest to pass the state fire board was a $90 fee for fire (it started higher). I guess we need another proposition stating that fees are taxes and any other word you can come up with that increases government income.

The legislature would rather give the power to do things like this to the agencies so the voters won't get mad at them. They can claim to be tring to stop or change the fee.

Behaving Badly?

Our elected officials are behaving badly to say the least. Obama is toying with the idea of cutting Social Security cost of living increases by .3%. Not very noticable as it will take 10 years to get a 3% cut. But why is Social Security a target at all. It is fully funded until 2038 and could be easity extended by raising the Social Security tax limit from 107 thousand to 135 thousand ( a 5% increase). Remeber the plan to put your money in the stock market? Look what happened to everyones 401K with recesions etc. Social Security is the old folks safety net. It keeps them out of the street and homeless shelters. Maybe you have saved forever contributing to your retirement accounts and then at retirement your corporation tanks because the stock market crashed again. Where would you be?

Congrssman Paul Ryan says he wants to cut out tax loopholes to pay for proposed tax cuts. Then on the other hand he keeps proposing tax cuts for his campaign contributors.

So why this bad behavior from our elected officials? They all were or have become the rich from the perks and contacts in congress. Tax cuts start at the top of the food chain and spending cuts at the bottom. Does anyone know what is in the black ops budget? It is spread throughout all the departments of your government. Some of it may go for some very good things and other parts very nasty things, but no one seems to know. Maybe this is the best place to do a 100% cut, until the someone knows where it goes.

It seems that it is good to be a big corportation and pay little taxes, be rich and pay a low tax rate, have an airplane and pay little and yet it is bad to be poor, on medicare, on social security or be on welfare as that is what congress wants to cut bebefits for as well as cut more taxes for the higher income.

If we could only get the fair tax bill passed (HR25/S13) the tax paid would be the same for everyone that bought anything new and all the other taxes would be eleminated as well as the IRS. Of course you say what about the poor? Well everyone will get a refund called a prebate to be able to afford the basic necesities like food. Congress won't budge because they are the rich and like their tax breaks the poor and middle class can't take advantage of. They like their perks like a per diem expense account that is tax free and not deserved for many (pay a housing and food allowance while they are home - why, pay them per diem when they are not really in session - why). They like their retirement program and medical program not ours.

We need to really get mad as hell and really not take it anymore. We need to ask serious questions of the up and comming candidates. We need to withhold our vote for the wrong answers or wrong behaviors. We need to vote. It seems the silent majority is allowing themselves to be hoodwinked into staying silent. The public is being dumbed down.