Ted Biondo

Obama’s presidency, an abuse of power or total incompetence?

Ted Biondo — Tue, 21 May 2013 04:30:30 +0000

President Obama, with his “I don’t know” Teflon administration, has abused the power of the office, with Benghazi-gate, while using the IRS against the his political enemies during the November elections and then intimidating his own bureaucracy’s whistleblowers by subpoenaing the phone records (office, cell and home phones) of the Associated Press reporters under the guise of homeland security.

Obama’s perfect storm of scandals — Benghazi, the IRS and the seizure of Associated Press phone records and now Fox News-Gate — should frighten the American people as to whether Obama’s team is abusing their power, then lying to cover up their corruption or lying to ...

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Local taxpayers could fund appeal declaring mandatory life sentence unconstitutional in Castillo case

Ted Biondo — Thu, 16 May 2013 03:39:45 +0000

When a person is charged with a crime, taken to jail by Rockford police or Winnebago County deputies, booked and placed in a cell, the entire process, including the jail and courtrooms, is paid for by the taxpayers in the city and the county.

We pay for the prisoner’s food, and healthcare (healthcare that is better than many of our law-abiding citizens have access to in our area). The process takes money that could be used for economic development and increasing jobs in Winnebago county, because taxpayers pay so much to house and prosecute and defend criminals.

When the accused goes to ...

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Punish the drunk driver, not the law-abiding citizen!

Ted Biondo — Thu, 16 May 2013 01:33:50 +0000

The National Transportation Safety Board sent out a report to the states urging them to consider (which means do it or else lose your federal road funds) reducing the legal limit for drunk driving from 0.08 to 0.05, a 37.5% reduction.

The board says new approaches are needed to combat DUIs that they say claim more than one-third of the lives in annual U.S. highway deaths. In the example used in the Rockford Register Star, the driver’s blood alcohol level was over the legal limit at 0.115, not 0.05.

The urging of the federal NTSB is more government control that does not get ...

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Illinois Chamber warns of new tax on service deliveries

Ted Biondo — Wed, 15 May 2013 18:15:20 +0000

Todd Maisch, the executive vice-president of the Illinois Chamber of Commerce writes that the Illinois Department of Revenue is trying to bypass the state legislature (similar to Obama’s – the Chicago way - bypassing Congress) to enact a delivery tax as a service charge to be paid anytime a delivery is made.

Excerpt:

Legislators in Illinois, and a lot of other states, often debate the merits of a new tax on services. Differences of opinion on the merits of a service tax can be stark, but there is consensus on one thing: the legislature is the body with Constitutional authority to
...

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Illinois public unions will sue regardless of pension plan chosen

Ted Biondo — Tue, 14 May 2013 03:17:29 +0000

James McNamee, President of the Illinois Public Pension Fund Association, wrote in response to Scott Reeder’s column, Don’t worry about pension lawsuits; worry about savings, that “An unconstitutional reform is no reform at all. It might feel good to all those who have been advocating that public employees are the problem. Not the fact that not paying what you were supposed into the retirement system.”

It’s not that public employees are the problem; it’s that the legislature over the years has voted for pensions that are unsustainable, regardless of the funding and were doomed to bankrupt the state without ...

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Tax Caps provide backdoor referendum in decreasing home market

Ted Biondo — Sat, 11 May 2013 20:03:47 +0000

Comments on my post concerning the lower income elderly paying more in taxes even though their assessments were frozen and their property was decreasing in value prompted me to post the following clarification.

Property taxes should pay for the services the taxpayers decide they want, not what legislators’ mandate, and then don’t fund. Salaries for teachers, police, firemen, drivers, infrastructure etc. should not be paid for through backdoor referendums, such as tax caps (PTELL), which don’t require the people’s input.

The tax caps people wanted, and what the General Assembly originally intended, was supposed to limit what municipalities could collect ...

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NYC considers giving noncitizens the right to vote!

Ted Biondo — Fri, 10 May 2013 19:49:56 +0000

A few weeks ago I posted that the California legislature passed a bill that would make the state the first of many blue states in the nation to allow noncitizens, who are in the country legally, to serve on jury duty.

Many commenters said so what? They are here legally and if they are not citizens, “what difference, at this point, does it make” to quote our former Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton on Benghazi.

Here is the difference that it makes – “Give a liberal an inch and they take a mile.” Now the New York City Council has just ...

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Gun crime is down since 1993 peak – Concealed Carry?

Ted Biondo — Fri, 10 May 2013 18:01:12 +0000

According to today’s issue of the Patriotic Post, crime committed with guns is down dramatically over the last 20 years.

Excerpt:

According to Pew Research Center, “Compared with 1993, the peak of U.S. gun homicides, the firearm homicide rate was 49% lower [per 100,000 people] in 2010, and there were fewer deaths, even though the nation’s population grew.

The victimization rate for other violent crimes with a firearm — assaults, robberies and sex crimes — was 75% lower in 2011 than in 1993. Violent non-fatal crime victimization overall (with or without a firearm) also is down markedly (72%)
...

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Tax Caps affect lower income elderly as property values decrease

Ted Biondo — Thu, 09 May 2013 06:15:16 +0000

Tax bills, which are scheduled to be mailed to property owners the week of May 12th, will show an increase in taxes on lower income seniors despite the fact that many have qualified for a freeze on their home assessments and are expecting their tax bills to decrease this year in sync with their property values.

The Senior Citizen Assessment Freeze, which must be renewed annually, only freezes the property’s assessment value. It does not freeze the tax rate. So, if the tax rate increases, the tax bill increases even though the property’s assessment value is frozen.

During times of increasing property values, the senior assessment ...

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Liberal Democrats say Ted Cruz not Hispanic because of political views

Ted Biondo — Wed, 08 May 2013 01:14:33 +0000

Talk about the pot calling the kettle black, former scandal-ridden New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson said that Ted Cruz, whose father is Cuban, should not be considered Hispanic because of his political views.

On ABC News this past Sunday when asked if he thought that Cruz’s political views represented most Hispanics, Richardson said, “He’s anti-immigration. Almost every Hispanic in the country wants to see immigration reform. No, I don’t think he should be defined as a Hispanic. He’s a politician from Texas. A conservative state.”

This coming from a former governor, who was subject to a federal investigation for the old Blagojevich ...

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