Keyser Flag Day Tea Party - Sunday June 14th

Date: Sunday, June 14, 2009
Time: 2:00 to 3:00 PM
Location: Grand Centeral Business Center, 1 East Piedmont St.
City: Keyser, WV 26726

Planned Events: Planting of a Liberty Tree

The first Liberty Tree was near Boston Common and was a meeting place for the first patriots. As time went on many towns and cities had their own Liberty Trees for meeting places prior to the Revolution. The new Liberty Tree will be our meeting place and symbol that we wish to return to following the Founding Fathers vision of Liberty.

Featured Speakers:

Dr. Matt E. Ryan, Ph. D.
Charles G. Koch Doctoral Fellow
College of Business & Economics
West Virginia University
Associate editor on "Unleashing Capitalism"

Bob Adams of Charlestown
Business Owner and Patriot

Greg Brown, US Army, Veteran OEF - 2002, OIF - 2003-2004

Parastatals Are Always Problematic

Parastatals are corporate entities either partly controlled by both the public and private sector, or wholly owned by the government. We see them most often in Third World countries, but the United States has seen these combination from time to time in its own history.

In the 1790s the Washington Administration established the Bank of the United States. It served as one of the rare examples of an effectively run parastatal because the government allowed its private partners substantial latitude in its operations (when antagonistic presidents were not trying to eliminate it, that is.) This occurred due to the fact that even Federalists, who supported an assertive federal government, believed in limited government relative to modern liberals.

Modern parastatals include Amtrak and the old West Virginia State ABC stores (in other words, the liquor store.) Neither one turned a profit. How can you not profit from a liquor store chain?!?! Government can find a way, obviously. Like parastatals in the Third World, corruption reared its ugly head with the state liquor store system. Government owned businesses are especially vulnerable to the job ambitions of younger relatives of powerful people. In Africa parastatals employ many hundreds or even thousands more than necessary because people get hired for the wrong reason and cannot be let go.

Britain nationalized many key industries after World War II, only to find that increased costs made it uncompetitive. When government runs business, business decisions become political. It is hard to cut costs in such an environment. As a result, the government run industries hemorrhaged money for decades while producing lower quality products.

Government, excuse me, General Motors now finds itself surviving via a deal with the devil. The White House now controls their operations and if history is any guide, the government will run the company into the ground while subsidizing it with cash from time to time. GM should have split itself into two or three companies with familiar brands that could better maneuver and compete in a fast changing market.

Meanwhile Ford sales are still rising and it has become the belle of the ball of the auto industry. It also has a stronger claim on GM's traditional markets due to its remaining a fully capitalist enterprise.

As soon as the GOP returns to the White House it must undo this Faustian bargain and liberate General Motors.

Time for 3-lane between Saint Cloud and Lincoln Streets?

The center turn lane on most of Mineral Street and US 220 has really helped with traffic flow. It allows for turning traffic to get out of the way, but there is a 3 block section between Saint Cloud and Lincoln Streets that doesn't have a turn lane.

If your traveling north on 220, you find you get stopped a lot for traffic turning onto State Street or Fort Ave, especially when college is in session. The primary reason for not putting the center turn lane in this area was the needed parking for Potomac Valley Hospital. Now that the hospital has moved the parking is no longer needed. With a new paving project is ready to start, maybe it is time complete that final section of 3 lane between Saint Cloud and Lincoln Streets an improve traffic flow through Keyser?

Abortion Doctor Killed

Last weekend Dr. George Tiller was shot and killed in his church while serving as an usher.

To begin with no one should be shot and killed while serving as an usher in church. Regardless of how heinous the target, respect ought to be shown to the house of God. Not even Dr. Joseph Mengele (the Auschwitz in-house doctor that performed experiments on Jewish prisoners) should be cut down in the aisles of a church.

And let's be honest, this guy was heinous. He was one of the few in the United States performing late term abortions, killing the baby after the 21st week of pregnancy. Left wingers will make political hay out of this to try and head off gun rights and anti abortion activists. However the vast majority of anti abortionists decry any violent act against abortion doctors because it only harms the pro life cause.

Pro abortion activists and Tiller's family claimed that a good man was taken down, one that "dedicated his life to providing women with high quality health care." Abortionists prey on unsure and insecure young women, offering them what seems like an easy way out of a tough situation but neglecting to tell them about the years of emotional scarring and suffering.

A child is a gift from God and a test of the body, mind, and spirit. Be a good parent and you cannot fail to emerge a better person in the process. However few would be parents know whether or not they are up to the task until it is sitting in their arms. Then something biological kicks in and you just know you were born to do this most sacred of jobs, regardless of your personal, financial, or any other situation. A human being has the natural right to live. If you don't believe me, check out the Bible and the Declaration of Independence. None of the authors associated with these works would think highly of "Doctor" Tiller and his work.

Count me as one who is shocked and appalled at a shooting inside the bounds of a church, but I have little sympathy for the target. As far as I am concerned he was little better than the aforementioned Dr. Mengele. Both took an oath to "do no harm" and both performed shocking and very painful procedures on human beings that they knew would result in torturous death.

Keyser past appears briefly

Keyser past came back to light for about a day this week. While grinding Armstrong Street for paving, the work crews exposed the original brick street that lies beneath.

NBC does not want to hear any critisism of their bias coverage

He Needs to "Reid" Up on the Meaning of Class

Harry Reid can't stop taking pot shots at former President George W. Bush and his family.

Talk about obsession. George W. Bush has ridden off into the sunset, refrained from offering criticism, despite the floundering nature of his successor and the Democratic Congress, and they still can't lay off of him.

Reid in a recent book recounts a converstion with former Senator Lloyd Bentsen in which the failed candidate for vice president referred to Barbara Bush as a b****. Reid commented that the 43rd president must take after his mother.

W may have exited office with low ratings, but the public always held Barbara Bush in high esteem. Perhaps Reid and others fear the bouce that most ex presidents (except Jimmy Carter) receive when they leave office and people gain historical perspective. As democracy continues to survive in Iraq and people figure out that Congress had more to do with the downturn than the president, Bush will be more appreciated. Attacking "Bar" (as her husband affectionately referred to her, is a cheap shot probably designed to bring her son out of his post presidential silence.

Regardless, combine this sort of statement with those of Ms. "white men cannot make good decisions" Sotomayor, Mr. "clinging to guns and religion" Obama, and the general goofiness that drops from the mouth of the vice president and you get a pattern of liberal lack of respect. Democrats may jump on the inflammatory rhetoric of Ann Coulter and Bill O'Reily, but those are not government officials.

Harry Reid is classless and polls seem to indicate that his constituents are starting to agree.

A Bridge for Evacuation

Prior to the 1950's if there was a train derailment on the tracks through Keyser there was a way for those on the north side of the tracks to escape. The could simply drive across the bridge into Maryland. For the past 50 years that has not been an option. When Memorial Bridge was completed at set of stairs were added for evacuation in an emergency. That is fine if you are able bodied, but not if you have health issues. A question ask is will the new bridge even have a set of stairs for evacuation of the north end? There is another escape route, the Porter St tunnel, but if the water is high it will be blocked as well.

While nothing has happened for the past 50 years it does not mean that nothing can happen. Consider trains hall many types of hazardous materials; Explosives, Chlorine Gas, Fuel and things we many not even want to think about, then it would be very easy for a train to derail and block both crossings which are only about 350 feet apart. What if the derailment causes a fire on the north end? Most modern fire and rescue equipment can't fit through the Porter Street tunnel. Many homes could be lost while trying to build an emergency rail crossing in a different location.

The intent of this story is not to be alarmist or predict catastrophe, but to make a simple suggestion. The city could take an opportunity to look in to building a small bridge to McCoole at the end of Main Street where the original US 220 bridge once stood. It may not be something that is economically feasible, but if we don't check we will never know. Perhaps there is money available from Homeland Security to provide and escape route. Perhaps not, but if we never ask the question, then we will never know. Maybe we should just ask to see if it is something that is feasible to add to our community.

Jon Voight: Obama False Prophet

R. Scott Smith Leads in WV GOP Congressional Primary Poll

In an early non-scientific poll R. Scott Smith has a strong showing among voters. 73% of those polls said they were likely to vote for R. Scott Smith of Terra Alta in next years Republican Congressional Primary. Cindy Hall, a California transplant currently living in Wheeling, garnered 23% in the poll with former Parksersburg area resident Daniel Scott Swisher polling just 3%. We are still 12 months away from the 2010 primary, but the battle is heating up to unseat Alan Mollohan.

Dead White Men

For the past couple of decades now, many in the world of academic history have shunned the study of what left wing professors call "dead white men." Instead they try to seek historical truths by looking at the lives of the masses. Peasants count more than kings, servants more than presidents.

In some fields, they are called "structuralists." They study patterns of large segments of people. "Intentionalists" adhere to the more traditional studies of history, emphasizing the effects of leaders and innovators. They believe that the actions of some men and women resonate more than others. George Washington had more impact than a Continental Army private in their eyes.

Predictably, left wingers embrace structuralism and blast the idea that "dead white men" had any importance at all (of course Elizabeth I of Britain and Catherine the Great of Russia are among these figures.)

My question to left wingers is this: if leaders had no effect on the past, if history was shaped entirely by commoners, then why get so bent out of shape over George W. Bush or treat Obama like some kind of messiah? After all if George Washington or Winston Churchill were not worthy of study because masses make history, why was Bush such a demon?

And just think of how much better off we'd have been if the country were founded by "wise Latina women" who according to Obama's choice for Supreme Court, have naturally better decision making skills than any white men.

Supreme Court’s Massey-Caperton ruling muddies the waters, rather than bringing clarity

Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Gary Abernathy

Monday, June 08, 2009 304-768-0493

Supreme Court’s Massey-Caperton ruling muddies the waters, rather than bringing clarity

CHARLESTON, W. Va. – The United States Supreme Court’s decision today on the Massey-Caperton case has far-reaching implications regarding independent expenditures on state Supreme Court races that will ultimately affect all sides of past and future elections, state GOP Chairman Doug McKinney said today.

McKinney said that one of the most important distinctions to be made in today’s decision is that Chief Justice Brent Benjamin’s ability to remain impartial was not questioned by the justices. Instead, justices focused on the “perception” of bias, which is a standard that will be difficult to determine and likely lead to a flood of recusal requests.

“The Supreme Court has today established a new recusal standard based on perception rather than on actual bias,” said McKinney. “The result will likely be a flood of recusal requests that will further create a bottleneck of backed up cases in our judicial system.”

The narrow 5-4 decision seems to create another “I know it when I see it” standard much like a previous landmark decision on pornography cases, McKinney said.

“By failing to define exact standards for recusal, the court has unfortunately opened a can of worms that will simply lead to more confusion and debate,” said McKinney.

As Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the dissent, “This will inevitably lead to an increase in allegations that judges are biased, however groundless those charges may be. The end result will do far more to erode public confidence in judicial impartiality than an isolated failure to recuse in a particular case.”

McKinney noted that even Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for the majority, made it clear that the court was not impugning Justice Benjamin’s integrity or impartiality.

As Kennedy wrote of Benjamin, “We do not question his subjective findings of impartiality and propriety. Nor do we determine whether there was actual bias.”

Said McKinney, “By admitting that it is not questioning Justice Benjamin’s impartiality and propriety, or whether there they are was actual bias, the court is unfortunately muddying the waters even further, rather than bringing clarity to the issue.”

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Paid for by the West Virginia Republican Party

WVGOP Leadership in the right hands under McKinney

How would you like to be handed a bankrupt demoralized organization and asked to fix it? Well that is exactly what Doug McKinney was handed when he became the Chairman of the WVGOP. Republicans across the nation were handed defeat after defeat in elections and in West Virginia the WV GOP was out of money when he took over.

True leaders emerge in hard times not in good times. Leadership doesn’t come from making popular decisions; it comes from making necessary decisions. Abraham Lincoln led a divided nation back to unity. Lee Iacocca took over a dying car company returned it to profitability (they could use him back now) and fortunately the WVGOP; Doug McKinney was cut from the same cloth.

A first ever Presidential Convention for the state of West Virginia was handed to the party when it had no money. A team of some of the best and brightest in the state was assembled and it became a great success. With a lot of help, Doug took the party from six digits in the red to back in the black giving the party a strong financial position in the upcoming 2010 election cycle. This was all done in political atmosphere where Republicans across the nation were at a disadvantage and under the leadership of Doug McKinney it became a success.

A minority few that hide in the shadows have grumbled about the leadership of McKinney all the while ignoring the facts in evidence of what his leadership has accomplished. They bemoan the fact that he has put much of his personal life on hold to attend Republican events across the state and personally contributing to many Republican Candidates. The shadow lurkers make noise, but when given the opportunity to step up to the plate, they just move silently back into the shadows. The shadows crave power, but fail to understand real power comes from leadership.

Leadership by example is one of the reasons Doug McKinney has been a great success for the WVGOP. He has not stood silently, he spoken boldly about the ideals of the party. Doug McKinney’s leadership has taken the party from melancholy shades of grey to bright RED!

Blast from the Past: I'm Just a Bill