Schedule for presentation of the Resolution Against Smart Meter Deployment

This is the schedule for presentation of the Resolution Against Smart Meter Deployment. We would like to see all HTPP members invited to show up in support. Each presentation will be done during the "Public Comment" section, not as an agenda item.

March 15, 2011 - Humboldt County Board of Supervisors at the Court House at 1:30 P.M.
Presenters will be Sue Pierce and Fred Nelson

March 15, 2011 - Eureka City Council at the City Hall, 6 P.M.
Presenters will be Sue Pierce and Fred Nelson

March 21, 2011 - Fortuna City Council at the City Hall, 6 P.M.
Presenter will be Al Dunnegan

April 7, 2011 - Ferndale City Council at the City Hall, 7 P.M.
Presenters will be Al Dunnegan and Sue Pierce

CPUC says PG&E should allow SmartMeter opt-out; commission seems to have taken county supervisors' input to heart

◼ CPUC says PG&E should allow SmartMeter opt-out; commission seems to have taken county supervisors' input to heart - Times-Standard

Gov Scott Walker rescinds WI public sector employee layoff notices

◼ Gov Scott Walker rescinds WI public sector employee layoff notices - Protein Wisdom

Walker’s statement: - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
The Legislature helped us save 1,500 middle-class jobs by moving forward this week with the budget repair. The state will now be able to realize $30 million in savings to balance the budget and allow 1,500 state employees to keep their jobs. The reforms contained in this legislation, which require modest health care and pension contributions from all public employees, will help put Wisconsin on a path to fiscal sustainability.
While tough budget choices certainly still lie ahead, both state and local units of government will not have to do any mass layoffs or direct service reductions because of the reforms contained in the budget repair bill. Moving forward the hard-working, professional public sector employees who show up to work every day and do an excellent job will help ensure Wisconsin has a business climate that allows the private sector to create 250,000 new jobs.

Jesse Jackson responds: “Keeping jobs at the expense of losing union power is unconscionable, unsustainable, unpalatable, irretrievable....

NPR Executive Ron Schiller Calls Tea Party ‘Racist,’ ‘Xenophobic,’ ‘Scary’

◼ Coburn, DeMint Introduce Bill to Defund NPR, PBS

...DeMint and Coburn also noted that in 2010, NPR accepted a $1.8 million grant from the Open Society Foundation, backed by liberal financier George Soros, to hire 100 reporters. Additionally, NPR has an endowment of over $200 million, they said in a news release....

◼ “I think what we all believe is if we don’t have Muslim voices in our schools, on the air,” Schiller says, “it’s the same thing we faced as a nation when we didn’t have female voices.” - National Public Radio senior executive, Ron Schiller, has been captured on camera savaging conservatives and the Tea Party movement. via The Daily Caller
◼ NPR seeks funding from Sharia backers - washingtontimes
◼ NPR Executive Ron Schiller Calls Tea Party ‘Racist,’ ‘Xenophobic,’ ‘Scary’ - theothermccain
◼ Reason #7,924 to Defund NPR: They’d Be ‘Far Better Off’ - michellemalkin
◼ Shocker: Latest O’Keefe Video Catches (Now Former) NPR Exec Decrying Tea Partiers as Stupid Racists - patterico
◼ NPR, R.I.P. - legalinsurrection
◼ More on NPR and its “neutrality” and “independence” - proteinwisdom

Updated:
◼ NPR CEO Vivian Schiller Resigns - legalinsurrection
◼ All Things Considered, NPR Board Decides it’s Best to ‘Oust’ CEO Vivian Schiller; Updated - Michelle Malkin

Welfare State: Handouts Make Up One-Third of U.S. Wages

◼ Welfare State: Handouts Make Up One-Third of U.S. Wages

Government payouts—including Social Security, Medicare and unemployment insurance—make up more than a third of total wages and salaries of the U.S. population, a record figure that will only increase if action isn’t taken before the majority of Baby Boomers enter retirement.

Even as the economy has recovered, social welfare benefits make up 35 percent of wages and salaries this year, up from 21 percent in 2000 and 10 percent in 1960, according to TrimTabs Investment Research using Bureau of Economic Analysis data.

“The U.S. economy has become alarmingly dependent on government stimulus,” said Madeline Schnapp, director of Macroeconomic Research at TrimTabs, in a note to clients. “Consumption supported by wages and salaries is a much stronger foundation for economic growth than consumption based on social welfare benefits.”

National Public Radio senior executive, Ron Schiller, has been captured on camera savaging conservatives and the Tea Party movement.

◼ On the tapes, Schiller wastes little time before attacking conservatives. The Republican Party, Schiller says, has been “hijacked by this group.” The man posing as Malik finishes the sentence by adding, “the radical, racist, Islamaphobic, Tea Party people.” Schiller agrees and intensifies the criticism, saying that the Tea Party people aren’t “just Islamaphobic, but really xenophobic, I mean basically they are, they believe in sort of white, middle-America gun-toting. I mean, it’s scary. They’re seriously racist, racist people.” - dailycaller
◼ NPR seeks funding from Sharia backers - washingtontimes

It's time Americans rediscover our Constitution

◼ Suddenly the Constitution is newsworthy.
The House of Representatives recently read it aloud for the first time ever, it's been called obscure beyond understanding, termed a document of racist oppression, invoked by the Tea Party, and proposed as the basis for new legislation.

One survey found that Americans believe overwhelmingly that the Constitution is important, but they demonstrate an alarming lack of knowledge of the document: Only about one out of three could identify the branches of the federal government, and just 6 percent knew all the rights guaranteed by the First Amendment....

Majority of American students flunk civics test

◼ “Nobody got above a D+” - Barbara Hollingsworth at The Washington Examiner
A groundbreaking multi-year survey of 28,000 students attending 85 U.S. colleges and universities by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (www.isi.org) found that American institutions of higher learning are not providing students even basic instruction on American history, economics and government -- probably not even enough for them to make informed decisions at the ballot box.

Even Ivy Leaguers could not pass a multiple-choice test on America’s foundational principles. Students at Harvard scored highest nationwide, but only managed an average score of 69 percent on the 60-question test – compared to 54 percent on average for seniors and 51 percent for college freshmen.

“Nobody got above a D+,” political scientist Richard Brake, co-chair of ISI’s Civic Literacy (or more accurately, Illiteracy) Board, told The Examiner. “Less than half knew about federalism, judicial review, the Declaration of Independence, the Gettysburg Address, and NATO. And this was a multiple-choice test, with the answers staring them right in the face....”

“Our study clearly shows that college has absolutely zero positive influence. The Number One factor that encourages them to do more than vote is civic self education,” Dr. Brake said. “The better they did on our test, the more likely that they said ‘yes’ to writing letters to the editor, contributing to a political candidate, or volunteering.”

But Dr. Brake says he’s encouraged by Tea Party members, who have made it a point to read the U.S. Constitution. “I think it’s a great thing that Tea Party members are making it a priority to educate themselves. You can’t read the Constitution with all its ‘Congress shall nots…’ without coming to the conclusion that the Constitution limits government.”

"my job today is to delay, uh, a vote on a piece of legislation the people of the state have said we have not had time to consider the consequences of."

◼ Wisconsin (Democrat) lawmakers flee state to block anti-union bill
MADISON, Wis. – Faced with a near-certain Republican victory that would end a half-century of collective bargaining for public workers, Wisconsin Democrats retaliated with the only weapon they had left: They fled.

◼ Wisconsin governor to fugitive Dems: Do your job, chumps; Video: Tea partier confronts runaway Dem - hotair

◼ Watch Wisconsin, Part IV: Salary info Big Labor doesn’t want you to see; statewide strike looms, teachers’ union recruits out-of-state protesters - Michelle Malkin

◼ On Wisconsin

The Tuscon Tea Party Needs Your Help – Local Authorities Are Trying to Silence These Patriots

◼ Local Authorities Are Trying to Silence These Patriots
We are trying to hold a tea party on April 30th in Tucson. Already the blowback from some in leadership since January 8th has been to try and shut us down.

We were having a town hall/forum on mental health on Feb 18th and one by one the County Prosecutor and Sheriff have spoken to our speakers and intimidated them to the point where they will no longer speak. This really can’t happen....

Do you have any contacts that would be willing to at least consider an invitation to come and speak at our tea party that day?