Fellow Patriots

The Tea Party movement is alive and well. As our United States of America has seen an evolution toward Socialism the past many years the country is finally waking up to the facts that no matter how much they tax us they can not take care of us from cradle to grave. Maybe this is what the welfare crowd would like to see happen,  but I know that this is not what our founding fathers wanted and is certainly not what hard working American Citizens want.

Saturday, Feb. 20, Deb and I (along with 4 others  from Stephenson County) went to Rockford to the Northern IL Tea Party Town Hall at the Stockholm Inn. It was a inspiring event with fifteen speakers. All were fellow patriots that are fighting to stop the bleeding of the tax and spend policies  that are literally breaking our great Nation. I want to thank Jane Carrell and her newly formed Northern IL. Tea Party for all the work they did to put this event together. And let it be known that Jane will be our guest speaker at our Stephenson Co. Tea Party meeting on Thursday, March 11.

All the speakers were good, but the three I enjoyed the most were Jim Tobin, Savannah Liston, and Rosanna Pulido. Jim Tobin is the Director of the National Taxpayers of Illinois. He made my blood boil when he gave out a sheet of the top Illinois Government Pension Payouts. Most were from the State University System and many from the retired school teacher system. Annual payments (in the top 100) ranged from $390,716 down to $178,277. Gold Plated Pensions have created most of the current budget gap. 3,597 former IL government employees receive over $100,000 per year in pensions. Most of the pensions are not funded, but are borrowed! We are dancing, the question is when are we going to have to pay the fiddler, and how bad is it going to hurt?

The crowd of 200 was impressed with a young 16 year old home schooled Economist named Savannah Liston. She explained the reasons for the depression of 1920 and how quickly it recovered by the government doing nothing more than cutting their budget. She compared that to how long it took for the crash of 1929 to recover with its spending policies. She then explained the present recession and how part of the problem was the Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac housing loans, and also the spending by the government . She was question by a gentleman that mentioned several times he had a bachelors degree in economics, and she answered his questions very well.

The last speaker of the day was Rosanna Pulido. She was on fire about the problems with Illegal Immigration. What made it more interesting is that she is Latino and fights for legal immigrants rights. Let me tell you they don’t like it any better than we do. She brought facts to the table. Depending on which study group, but in 05 there were between 400 and 600 thousand Illegal’s in IL, ranking us number 6 in the states. The cost was $3.1 billion in education cost, $340 million in health cost, and $55 million in incarceration cost. These numbers are higher now. She gave us a sheet of all the lying politicians that say they are against Illegal Immigration and then how they voted in Illinois. HB 60- In state tuition for Illegal Aliens,- SB 1623- Agencies must accept fake ID from foreign government,- HB 1100 Pending Senate,- Driver’s certificates for illegal’s,- HB 5756 - Department of Corrections shall notify ICE of Illegal Alien discharge. Most of our IL leaders voted the wrong way on these critical issues. Bill Brady, conservative republican, voted the same as liberal democrat John Cullerton.

Stand up Patriots, we are at war with big government. I don’t mean fly a plane into the IRS building. Violence is always wrong, but we must keep each other informed so we can, through the power of vote, get common sense and accountability back into our government.

We are not radicals. Radical is the direction our country is going now. It is an evolution over several years. If the government would have made these socialistic moves over a short time it would have been a revolution and the great citizens would not have tolerated it, but it has been a slow evolution often through the power of higher education.

Patriots, get out of your lazy boy, get involved, and get educated on the facts before it is to late. Bush started the water running and Obama opened the faucet all the way and the flood gate will not get shut unless we unite, Republicans and Democrats alike. Whichever party repents and admits they are wrong and gets back to the rules of our Founding Fathers, that government should be limited, will prevail. The kids and grandkids deserve nothing less!

God Bless America - Land that I Love!

Bill Dietz

Lena, IL

The Purpose of the Economy is to Create Wealth?

Do you agree or disagree? This was the question posed to a group of committed Christians meeting Wednesday evening (Feb. 24) for “Peace Soup” at St. Boniface Hall and sponsored by the Clinton Pax Christi group. This group is meeting there at 6 p.m. every Wednesday of Lent. Their focus is on poverty and everyone is invited to attend. There is no charge and the soup is donated by the membership.

Some interesting statistics were presented. In the U.S.A. some 700,000 are without shelter on any given night. In Los Angeles alone, 11,000 people live on the streets. Recently, I returned from Florida where there has been a dramatic increase in homelessness. They are not just derelict men; they’re families. More people are living out of their cars.

In the USA, 1 in 10 households live with hunger; 36 million people including 12 million children are forced to skip meals or eat less to make ends meet. Locally our food pantries have seen a phenomenal increase in families seeking help. It’s ironic that we have both an obesity and a hunger problem. That and we have 10% unemployment and heaven knows the per cent under employed. Add to this the 45 million without health insurance and you have a picture of the USA.

A couple of years ago, I visited the USA, Union of South Africa. They have suffered between 10 and 15% unemployment for quite a few years. You pull into a McDonald’s parking lot and then pay someone to watch your car. Riding down a residential street, you can’t help notice how many homes have high barb wire fences, big locked gates and signs reading “Protected by AAA Security.” Is this the way we want to live? Is this where our country is heading?

If you agree that the purpose of the economy is to create wealth, then this is our future. Over the last decade, we have seen a massive re-distribution of wealth from the poor and middle class to the wealthy and super rich. It was greed that drove Wall Street and caused the collapse of the world economy. It was greed that enabled Bernie M to run a ponzi scheme; it was greed that caused the California “electricity shortage;” it was greed that brought down World Com. It was greed that brought columnists to write about the “failure of Capitalism.” The definition of greed is seeing the purpose of the economy being to create wealth.

So what should be the purpose of the economy? In the words of Benedict XVI, “the purpose of the economy is to serve the people.” Can we say our economy has served the people well? Not really. If it had, people would not be homeless; if it had, people would not be hungry; if it had, people would not be without needed health care. And if we don’t force our elected leaders to correct the economy and quit buying “the market will correct it” crap, we may as well be living in the Union of South Africa.

Dr. Arthur C. Donart, Ph. D.

Thomson, Illinois

Capitol Report

By Jim Sacia, State Representative

89th District

It’s 5:30 AM. I’ve just finished my workout and I hope to make it to the chapel by 7:30 AM. We meet every Wednesday and Thursday while we’re in session, bipartisan, both chambers, even those who oppose the Second Amendment. God does have room for all of us. I cherish that hour. It puts it all in proper perspective. My thanks to Pastors Bob, Tom, Sean, Gary, and Ralph. It’s a useful opportunity to agree to disagree. You’d be surprised at the large number that participate.

These days are the busiest of the year as more and more bills reach committee, and of course issues become more contentious. I am blessed with a wonderful staff, Sally and Barb in Freeport and Shelly in Springfield, who I am convinced are all angels in business attire. The phone calls and e-mails continue to increase. Sally arrived Monday morning to 556 e-mails. She reads them all, deletes the Viagra ads, answers those she can, prints out those directed to me that I need to answer personally, and sends to Barb those that assure me I have excrement for brains and where I am destined to rot for eternity (you know that place south of the green sod.) They then confer to determine whether I should even see certain ones of those. Simply put, they protect me.

For the e-mails printed out and directed to me I write a response and Sally gets it back to you. It’s a good system. Yes, I kill more trees than I should with the added paper but it insures proper attention.

Recently I wrote of our state’s financial crisis. I knew it would happen, lots of finger pointing. But it started where I least expected it, from a leader who was solid as a rock through the six-year-long Governor Blagojevich debacle.

I vividly recall July 3rd, 2004, as the Governor ordered us to return to Springfield again on July 4th, and Speaker Madigan’s calming words to settle down the members of the House. It was his finest hour. Contrast that with February 9, 2010. The Speaker is in a youtube video shot on the House floor in front of the press box. Why speak to members directly on the record, when a youtube video will get lots of play? In the video the Speaker points to the Republican side of the chamber and responds to a question on the budget saying that the state’s problems are because of “those do-nothing, drop outs” over there. That was followed by a fusillade of more derogatory comments. Wow. I can hardly wait to work with him to solve the state’s problems. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt though; he’s under a lot of pressure.

Speaking of the state’s problems, I need your help. On Wednesday, March 10th, my bill requiring drug tests for welfare recipients (HB 4810) will come before the House Human Services Committee at 8:30 AM in room D-1 of the Stratton Building in Springfield. I need you to join me in Springfield to testify about why this change makes sense to working people who have to take a drug test to get and keep their jobs. If you support this proposal but don’t want to testify before the committee, I still need you to come to the committee hearing and submit a witness slip that says you are in favor of the bill. Call Sally at to get scheduled, and thank you.

As always, you can reach me, Sally or Barb at or e-mail us at . You can also visit my website at www.jimsacia.com. It’s always a pleasure to hear from you.