I wonder if Ray LaHood read George Will’s column on earmarks today? Will puts the blame for Republicans’ minority status right in the lap of their abuse and defense of federal earmarks.
Monthly Archives: February 2008
Anti-smoking movement goes too far for one physician
Dr. Michael Siegel is worried. He’s concerned that “the anti-smoking movement is increasingly becoming more extreme” and “getting out of control.” And he’s started an organization to counteract it.
Due to the new law of anti-smoking many people have been switching to the products that are being sell at
Don’t think that Siegel is pro-smoking. He’s not. According to his website, the Boston resident has “published numerous peer-reviewed scientific papers on the health effects of secondhand smoke” and that his articles have appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, and other prestigious publications. No, it’s precisely because he’s anti-smoking that he’s worried about misrepresentations of science by anti-smoking organizations. He’s afraid that the public will not take anti-smoking campaigns seriously if organizations keep exaggerating health risks and playing to people’s emotions.
Thus, he has founded The Center for Public Accountability in Tobacco Control. He says he “became disillusioned by the direction in which the anti-smoking movement is going.”
The Center for Public Accountability in Tobacco Control is dedicated to ensuring the ethical and honest practice of tobacco control by anti-smoking organizations in the U.S. It aims to help ensure that efforts to reduce tobacco-related morbidity and mortality are sustainable by a movement that can remain credible and effective into the future. Its premise is that the anti-smoking movement is increasingly becoming more extreme, getting out of control, going too far in its agenda, and losing its solid public health basis. The tactics being used by many anti-smoking organizations have become questionable, including misleading and deceiving the public, improperly attacking individuals, and improperly using kids to promote a political agenda. The agenda itself has become less and less public health-based; it now include [sic] efforts to deny employment to smokers, treat smoking parents as child abusers, and ignore basic issues of individual privacy and autonomy to coerce smokers into adopting healthier behavior.
In order to restore the movement, the Center for Public Accountability in Tobacco Control hopes to highlight the tactics currently being used, bringing these tactics to public attention in order to hold public health groups accountable to their primary constituency: the public.
If you visit his site, you’ll see example after example of inaccurate health claims and misleading statements published by anti-smoking groups. In particular, he takes on statements made by Americans for Non-Smokers’ Rights (ANR) and Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, two organizations that are heavily relied upon by Smoke-Free Illinois advocates.
Siegel thinks the health risks are compelling enough without exaggeration, but apparently the public didn’t, which is why these other organizations felt the need to resort to hysterical rhetoric and heavy-handed tactics. It’s good to see an honest physician speak out against such abuses.
JSEB still bitter about Kellar loss
The Journal Star Editorial Board is clearly still stinging over the Surface Transportation Board’s ruling in favor of continuing rail service on the Kellar Branch, so they published these sour grapes Monday. They don’t think the city is being aggressive enough in demanding fees from the railroad companies for their use of the Kellar Branch.
Indeed, the city and village have been subsidizing service over Kellar since they purchased it. But if it’s the gold mine that rail carriers and their backers claim it is – why, it’s practically a sure thing – then there’s no need for those freebies. Just think how much Peoria and Peoria Heights residents would benefit by collecting a per-car fee or a yearly percentage of Kellar’s fair market value, up to $200,000. Those dollars could fund core city services, such as fixing potholes, plowing roads, building sidewalks. Isn’t that what the back-to-basic-services crowd has demanded?
This would be a sound argument, except for the fact that the Journal Star’s position is that this corridor should be leased to the Park District for $1 per year for 99 years so they can convert the corridor to a linear park. They have claimed that a linear park will be a catalyst for development. Perhaps they would support a special assessment on the businesses and developers along the proposed linear park — perhaps a yearly percentage of Kellar’s fair market value — since those private businesses would be profiting from the Kellar corridor, too.
To that end, the municipalities should enter into formal negotiations with the carriers over a usage fee. If a deal can’t be reached, the cities should file a pleading with the STB. While it’s rare, the STB has helped resolve disputes over contracts and conditions. Surely the feds could find some reasonable compromise between $1 and $200,000.
Yes, by all means, spend more money fighting the railroads. It’s proved so fruitful over the past decade and a half. If they’re really serious about wanting to get money out of the Kellar Branch, there are a couple of ways it could be done:
- Sell the line. Pioneer has had a standing offer of $750,000 to purchase the Kellar Branch from the city. This would get the city completely out of the railroad business, and give them three-quarters of a million dollars to boot, which they could use to help finance the CSO project or other needed things.
- Negotiate a long-term lease. There’s a legal dispute over Pioneer’s contract with the City. The City says it’s expired, and Pioneer says it’s still in force. Since neither side wants a legal battle over that, and since the STB has already ruled the line has to stay, the City could negotiate a lease that would be better than the disputed one. I believe Pioneer would welcome such a lease, even if it had higher lease rates for the line, provided the rates are reasonable and proportionate to the amount of traffic the line gets. It would take out all the uncertainty and finally put this issue to rest.
Or, the City could try to have the STB set the rates, which would be costly, time-consuming, and only exacerbate an already adversarial relationship, like the bitter Journal Star Editorial Board wishes. Here’s hoping the City ignores their advice and looks for a more constructive solution instead.
Museum “impossible” without federal earmark
Well, look who’s on the federal earmark bandwagon: Lakeview Museum.
Peoria’s Lakeview Museum has big plans for the empty Sears block in the heart of Downtown, but a museum official says they will be impossible without a federal earmark.
“It couldn’t be done,” Kathleen Woith said of trying to reach private fundraising goals to build the nearly $130 million Peoria Riverfront Museum, which officials hope to open in 2012. About $1.4 million for the project — which still faces a $24 million shortfall — is coming from federal earmarks that the museum received over the years.
It can’t be done without federal earmarks … and evidently it can’t be done with them, either. The truth is that federal earmarks are, as the article says, “nothing more than budget-bloating spending that amount to political pork.” And the museum is a perfect example of why earmarks should be eliminated.
First of all, one could argue whether federal dollars should be spent on local museums at all. But assuming the case could be made, federal money for local projects like this should be put into a grant fund to which cities could apply. Grants would be awarded based on criteria set by Congress — presumably awarding more money to projects with the most national interest. This would be a fairer, merit-based approach, and it would limit federal spending on these types of projects.
Secondly, one could make the case that earmarks are the reason this project is as bloated as it is, and why it’s failing to win popular support. The project started out as several smaller projects, each with its own plans and fundraising goals. They only combined efforts at the prompting of Rep. Ray LaHood. Why? According to a March 25, 2001, Journal Star article, “U.S. Rep. Ray LaHood has organized a Museum Collaboration Committee to encourage arts leaders to present a united front in the struggle to get federal dollars for a museum complex on the riverfront.” So because of the promise of federal pork, all our eggs are in one basket. If not enough money for the übermuseum is raised, all the individual projects fail along with it.
Finally, are we really supposed to believe that this project is impossible without federal earmarks? The earmarks amount to only $1.4 million, or one percent of the total cost of the project. I think if you took the Lakeview relocation portion out of the project, and came up with a smaller, urban design, you would have plenty of money for a history and achievement museum without having to take any federal money at all.
Monday morning open thread
Too much to do, too little time. That means hobbies (like blogging) will have to wait.
But, in the meantime, feel free to use this space to comment on whatever is on your mind this morning.
Don’t believe e-mails smearing Obama
I’m sad to report that I’ve run into more than a few people who apparently believe that Obama is a Muslim, took the oath of office on the Koran, and doesn’t say the Pledge of Allegiance. These allegations have been debunked for quite a while now, but I’m still hearing them, and I still occasionally get an e-mail about them. So, for all those who haven’t heard, here are the facts, in Obama’s own words (and from a Christian news source, just in case you’re still skeptical):
This is obviously a systematic political strategy by somebody because these e-mails don’t just keep coming out the way they have without somebody being behind it.
Basically the e-mail falsely states that I’m Muslim, that I pledged my oath of office on a Koran instead of a Bible, that I don’t Pledge Allegiance to the flag. Scurrilous stuff. I want to make sure that your viewers understand that I am a Christian who has belonged to the same church for almost 20 years now. It’s where Michelle and I got married. It’s where our kids were dedicated. I took my oath of office on my family Bible.
I lead the Pledge of Allegiance when I open up the Senate. I’ve been saying the Pledge of Allegiance since I was three years old. I think it ‘s very important for people not to buy into the kinds of dirty tricks that we’ve become so accustomed to in our politics and people need to understand I’m not and never have been of the Muslim faith.
I think that those who are of the Muslim faith are deserving of respect and dignity, but to try and feed into this fear-mongering and try to question my faith commitments and my belief in Jesus Christ, I think is offensive. And I want to make sure that people are absolutely clear about what’s going on with this, and if they get another one of these e-mails that they’re deleting it and letting their friends know that it’s nonsense.
It was Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) that had his swearing-in picture taken with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi with his hand on the Koran instead of the Bible. And the picture of Obama without his hand over his heart was taken while the national anthem was being played, not when the Pledge of Allegiance was being recited.
Also, here’s a similar statement he gave to Christianity Today magazine.
Parents: How do you feel about homework?
A couple of Canadian professors have just wrapped up a national study on homework. According to The Toronto Star:
While research shows some benefits to homework in grades 7 and 8 and high school, there’s scant evidence that it improves student achievement in the younger years, say professors Linda Cameron and Lee Bartel of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. … [They] also found it is often the source of stress and burnout in children, as well the cause of conflict – even marital stress – for many families. Try to turn the homework into a creative process, teach your kids the benefits of using software, an example is bibliography helper.
I personally don’t have a problem with my kids having homework. In addition to helping them master the material they’re learning, it also teaches them structure and time management. I don’t think a half-hour of homework unduly cuts into play time. Fighting with your child to complete her homework does create some amount of stress — but anytime you’re teaching a child the virtue of work before play, it’s going to cause stress. I don’t think that’s unique to fights over homework. It also happens when they have to empty the dishwasher or clean their room or do other household chores.
What do you think? Is homework good or bad in the lower grades?
Guest Editorial: How can a man’s home be his castle, if a man’s house is a heavy yoke around his neck?
In his work, “Democracy in America,” Alexis de Tocqueville notes, “A democratic government is the only one in which those who vote for a tax can escape the obligation to pay it,” and he questions whether a free society can long survive that discovery. Obviously that discovery has been made, for many more are eligible to vote than are required to pay, and many who are required to pay are required to pay more than they can afford. Is this what the founders of this Democracy in America sacrificed their fortunes and lives to secure? I think not!
Now it is true that the descendents of the agents of old King George live on in Washington and Springfield, and they tax much more than tea.
But it is the reincarnations of those more notorious Tax collectors of Biblical fame who reside in our local seats of government. In like manner as those who confiscated in the name of Caesar and Herod, these publicans attach themselves not only to the current fruit of our labor, but they also have the audacity to lay claim to the essential roofs over our heads. Apparently, each June and September, these fellow citizens of ours have nothing better to do than enter our private dwellings and demand the silverware.
We have not yet been compelled to sell our sons and daughters into servitude to meet their annually increasing levies against our family homes. But, like the peasants of old in Palestine, many of us have had to mortgage our houses and lands to pay these taxes, and any of us who cannot pay the last farthing will shortly find our persons and kin thrown out into the street.
And what do they use these forcibly collected monies for? Some for services to the common good, too be sure. But much of it is used to built monuments to themselves; Civic Centers, airports, office buildings, and courthouses. And of course they must always be constructing bigger and better facilities in which to secularize our children, much as the Herods of old used the taxes from the Jewish people to forcibly Hellenize their culture.
The income taxes of the current King George, while not born by all, are at least only a one-time levy on our annual increase. The sales taxes of his vassal Rob are at least a levy on the consumption of all of us, (and on luxuries which are occasionally enjoyed by even the common citizen if he has a little something left over after paying his taxes.)
But the Real Estate Tax is Regressive and Oppressive. It is a tax, not on earnings but on principle. It is a tax not on spending but on savings. It is a tax, not on the peripherals of living but on the essential of family life. It is an ever recurring and increasing levy on false and inflated home values that has to be paid with the real sweat of real brows.
Presidential candidate Clinton has recently called for moratorium on foreclosures. What is needed is the abolition of one of the causes of these personal and family catastrophes – the Real Estate tax on private family homes.
Dennis W Dillard
Hanna City, IL
Comprehensive Plan update
Peoria is in the middle of updating its Comprehensive Plan — a road map document that the City Council and staff will use to make planning and zoning decisions over the next 15-20 years. The city wants your input. They’ve set up a website to provide you with information and a survey for you to complete so they can get information from you.
Here’s an update on the process that I received from the City today:
In less than one week, the www.planpeoria.com web site has received over 1,000 visitors and the online survey has been completed by more than 650 people. The majority of the survey respondents are from the 5th and 2nd Council Districts, and from the 61614 and 61604 zip codes. At this point, Public Safety has ranked the highest in level of importance and in level of satisfaction. The survey will continue to be available until March 21, 2008.
Incidentally, I attended the Zoning Commission meeting last night, and I’m happy to report that the current Comprehensive Plan was followed for all three items I heard (I left before the meeting was over). On the other hand, the votes were all 3-2, so the Plan was followed by a narrow majority.
PeoriaIllinoisan takes red pencil to PJS forum letter
PeoriaIllinoisan knows that he can always get a link from me whenever he posts about the Kellar Branch. His post today is especially clever.