freedomneedsyou

Mark Wills "Looking For America"

2011-01-12T10:42:00.000-08:00

money master

2010-07-24T18:24:00.000-07:00

Hawaii Elections Official: Obama not born here! JUNE 10, 2010

2010-06-15T09:59:00.000-07:00

Insider Patenting: How Fannie Mae Chief Got the Patent for Cap and Trade in 2006

2010-05-29T13:12:00.000-07:00

Insider Patenting: How Fannie Mae Chief Got the Patent for Cap and Trade in 2006

ShoreBank and the ‘Weatherization Underground’

2010-05-28T11:15:00.000-07:00

ShoreBank and the ‘Weatherization Underground’

The One Thing: 5/27

2010-05-28T10:23:00.000-07:00

The One Thing: 5/27

Missed Opportunity for Big Labor

2010-05-25T07:35:00.000-07:00

Missed Opportunity for Big Labor

The One Thing: 5/20

2010-05-21T11:52:00.000-07:00

The One Thing: 5/20

The One Thing: 5/13

2010-05-14T11:35:00.000-07:00

The One Thing: 5/13

The One Thing: 5/12

2010-05-13T08:27:00.000-07:00

The One Thing: 5/12

The One Thing: 4/29

2010-05-06T09:53:00.000-07:00

The One Thing: 4/29

The One Thing: 4/29 must see

2010-04-30T07:56:00.000-07:00

The One Thing: 4/29

The One Thing: 4/26

2010-04-27T12:37:00.000-07:00

The One Thing: 4/26

Is 'Green Goon Squad' at your front door?

2010-04-13T09:53:00.000-07:00

"Buried in the 2009 America Clean Energy and Security Act are federally mandated energy-efficient building regulations, which supersede all local and state codes and which will be enforced by a national, green goon squad, funded in part by revenues from energy taxes, as well as by an annual $25 million from the Department of Energy 'to provide necessary enforcement of a national energy efficiency building code,'" he confirms.
"The legislation also authorizes the Secretary of Energy to 'enhance compliance by conducting training and education of builders and other professionals in the jurisdiction concerning the national energy efficiency building code.'
"The plan is modeled on building code enforcement in California. Each time a home is built, remodeled, or – in the case of the federal plan – preparing to be sold, a G-man wearing a federal badge and armed with a clipboard will show up at your house to make sure ... all of your appliances have been updated with the most recent Energy Star-approved internal communication devices, and that the Home Area Network has been properly installed and connected to your new SmartMeter, whether you like it or not," he says.
Be the first to see the full documentation of how your life could be changed by climate-related laws, taxes and regulations, in "Climategate"
"This is not a helpful plan to assist you in meeting your family budget; it's a social engineering scheme, designed and promoted by the federal government to change your behavior," he said. "By having the capability to read your meter many times a day, the utility company is able to effectively establish demand pricing schedules; thus, using too much electricity during the peak periods is going to cost you."
Further, he writes, part of the Big Brother spy system actually already is embedded in the law..
"The term SmartGrid [made law in 2007] refers to a distribution system that allows for flow of information from a customer's meter in two directions: both inside the house to thermostats and appliances and other devices, and back to the utility. … Once the…SmartMeter [is] connected to the SmartGrid, Big Brother will become the new authority figure in your home. Want to do a load of laundry or read at 3 p.m. on a hot afternoon in August? Good luck. With a bureaucratic keystroke, anything attached to your [home] could be selectively turned off – or on – without your approval."
The book details, among other things, the warping of the scientific process over global warming, the massive enrichment of its supporters, President Obama's early and continuing support and the anti-American roots of environmental alarmism.
Sussman, formerly a highly acclaimed San Francisco meteorologist, also is the newest morning host at KSFO Radio (560 AM), the highest-rated talk show in the San Francisco Bay Area and the fourth-largest radio market in the country.
In the original scandal that spawned the name Climategate, the hacked e-mails of Phil Jones, head of the Climate Research Unit in Norwich, England, and others uncovered schemes to employ "tricks" with warming trends, squelch skeptics and defame journals that published them.
But Sussman reveals that Jones' work at the University of East Anglia wasn't alone in its apparent manipulation of research. He charges that James Hansen, director at NASA's Goddard Institute of Space Studies, has treated his position as "activist-scientist."
Hansen is quoted in the book with the opinion, "We're leaving a situation for our children and grandchildren which is not of their making, but they're going to suffer because of it. So I think they should start to act up and put some pressure on their elders, and on legislatures, and begin to get some action."
Probably the most visible alarmist over global warming has been former vice president Al Gore, who reportedly has made tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars for himself. Sussman notes that Gore has said "our grandchildren would one day look back on us as a criminal generation that had selfishly and blithely ignored clear warnings that their fate was in our hands."
Sussman even documents how Obama, as a board member for the Joyce Foundation, voted for a $1.1 million grant to launch a privately owned "Chicago Climate Exchange."
Sussman warns it never has been about weather; it's about control of Americans and everything they do.
"It’s obvious to everyone that this global-warming facade is in meltdown mode," said Joseph Farah, publisher of WND Books and founder and CEO of WorldNetDaily.com. "Now Brian's important book comes along just in time to reveal exactly why this Big Lie was foisted on us – and what we can do to stop it cold."
Earth Day is all the evidence of deception needed, said Sussman. First celebrated in 1970 on the 100th anniversary of the birth of communist leader Vladimir Lenin, it was founded by Sen. Gaylord Nelson, D-Wis.; former Stanford student body president Denis Hayes; and author and Stanford professor Paul Ehrlich.
"Lenin's core political philosophy was linked at the hip with these newly fangled environmentalists who maintained that America's government must be altered, its economy planned and regulated, and its citizens better controlled," writes Sussman. "The environment would be the perfect tool to force these changes, and the most efficient way to gain converts would be through the public school system – the earlier the better."

University of East Anglia Climate Research Unit

In one of Obama's first acts during his reign, he pushed for the 2009 "Stimulus Bill," which allows $20 billion for programs relating to energy efficiency. $16 billion for weatherization of private home and $11 billion for "modernizing the nation's power grid."
Among WND's previous reports on the global warming dispute was when Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Joe Barton, R-Texas, cited doubts about the integrity of "climate change" science when he wrote a letter demanding an accounting of U.S. taxpayer support for the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the IPCC.
The controversy exploded late last year when a series of e-mails was hacked from the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia in Britain that indicate scientists were hiding and manipulating data and trying to marginalize critics.
The revelations were significant, because the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency signed two findings Dec. 7 that concluded greenhouse gases in the atmosphere "threaten the public health and welfare of current and future generations." The EPA's rulings could mean thousands of dollars in additional taxes for individual consumers.
As the allegations of fraud expanded, Sen. James M. Inhofe, R-Okla., has suggested the Justice Department investigate scientists for potentially falsifying data.
The Orange County Register has posted a chart for consumers to try to keep up with all the scandals developing in the "global warming" community.
Among the scandals listed are:
ClimateGate: The scandal over the CRU e-mails from East Anglia.

FOIGate: In which British officials are investigating whether East Anglia scientists refused to follow that nation's freedom of information law about their work.

ChinaGate: In which dozens of weather monitoring stations in rural China apparently have simply disappeared. This would lead to higher temperature averages since city levels frequently are warmer.

HimalayaGate: In which an Indian climate official admitted in January that he falsely claimed Himalayan glaciers would melt away by 2035 to prod governments into action.

And PachauriGates I and II, SternGates I and II, AmazonGate (in which a claim that global warming would wipe out rain forests was exposed as a fraud), PeerReviewGate, RussianGate I and II and nearly a dozen others.
WND also reported recently when the St. Louis-based Peabody Energy, the largest private coal company in the world, petitioned the EPA to re-examine its decisions in light of the controversy over the scientists' e-mails.
The company noted the "seriousness of the flaws" in the work.
Given the EPA's "extensive reliance" on those reports, "the "agency has no legal option but to re-examine the Endangerment Finding in light of this new information," the petition said.
On its website, the company said the EPA's earlier ruling "could mean regulation of hundreds of thousands and perhaps millions of buildings, farms, businesses and other facilities in the U.S."
Texas officials also have filed a lawsuit accusing the federal government of using "tainted" information to arrive at the EPA conclusion and it asks that the EPA's decisions be set aside. Virginia's attorney general, Ken Cuccinelli, also filed a petition demanding the EPA reconsider its greenhouse gas finding.
The scientific community actually is anything but unanimous on climate change.
The disunity is documented by the Petition Project, launched some 10 years ago when the first few thousand signatures were gathered. The effort by Art Robinson, a research professor of chemistry and cofounder of the Linus Pauling Institute of Science and Medicine in 1973, now lists tens of thousands of qualified scientists who endorse the following statement:

There is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gases is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth's atmosphere and disruption of the Earth's climate. Moreover, there is substantial scientific evidence that increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide produce many beneficial effects upon the natural plant and animal environments of the Earth.
Among the original e-mails hacked from East Anglia and posted online was, "The fact is that we can't account for the lack of warming at the moment and it is a travesty that we can't. The CERES data published in the August (Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society) 09 supplement on 2008 shows there should be even more warming: but the data are surely wrong. Our observing system is inadequate."

the truth

2010-04-10T11:22:00.000-07:00

http://www.infowars.com/msnbcs-ratigan-remarkably-tells-truth-about-bankster-scam/

AMERICANEEDSYOU

2009-10-06T13:02:00.000-07:00

2009-09-30T09:14:00.000-07:00

view the truth

2009-08-24T16:46:00.000-07:00

freedomneedsyou

2009-08-21T19:35:00.000-07:00

Computer scientists take over electronic voting machine with new programming technique w/ Video

2009-08-17T08:49:00.000-07:00

Computer scientists take over electronic voting machine with new programming technique (w/ Video)

(PhysOrg.com) -- Computer scientists demonstrated that criminals could hack an electronic voting machine and steal votes using a malicious programming approach that had not been invented when the voting machine was designed. The team of scientists from University of California, San Diego, the University of Michigan, and Princeton University employed “return-oriented programming” to force a Sequoia AVC Advantage electronic voting machine to turn against itself and steal votes.

No One Took Barack Obama at His Word

2009-07-29T10:37:00.000-07:00

No One Took Barack Obama at His Word
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
By Glenn Beck

At the end of the sixth month, President Obama looked over all he had created and said that it was very good. So he declared the seventh month a month of rest.

"The messiah" is going on vacation.

Here's The One Thing: Obama must be tired — he's spent the last six months transforming our country; just like he told us he would do. No one paid attention to him.

• Is Beck right? Click here to sound off

If you give me the next few minutes and look with a new perspective, you'll see how he revealed the game plan to transform America and marketed it as "change." Boy, was America eager for change:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Because I never thought this day would ever happen. I won't have to worry about putting gas in my car. I won't have to worry about paying my mortgage. You know, if I help him, he's going to help me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

How is that woman feeling now? As she continues to write her own checks for her own mortgage and fill up her own gas tank, I wonder if she's disappointed in Barack Obama?

More people are becoming disappointed; his latest poll shows the number of Americans who "strongly disapprove" of his performance is eight points higher than those who "strongly approve." Too many Americans believed he was a moderate during the campaign and now, all of a sudden, he's governing from the left.

Hello? Barack Obama couldn't have been any clearer about who he was and what he planned to do. He even told us that "community organizations" would help shape his agenda:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Before I even get inaugurated, during the transition we're going to be calling all of you in to help us shape the agenda. We're going to be having meetings all across the country with community organizations, so that you have input into the agenda for the next presidency of the United States of America.

Column ArchiveNo One Took Barack Obama at His Word
ACORN Stomps on the First Amendment
Increasing the Minimum Wage Is Like Hugging a Polar Bear
What's Driving President Obama's Agenda?
This Can't Be the Same Country I Grew Up In
Full-page The One Thing Archive

Show InfoAirs Weekdays at 5 p.m. ET
Glenn Beck's bio
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Glenn Beck's interview archive
E-mail the show: glennbeck@foxnews.com
(END VIDEO CLIP)

He mentioned that he wanted to build an AmeriCorps-type volunteer organization that would be just as strong and well-funded as the U.S. military:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we've set. We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Being a community organizer is the new "it" gig: Work for the government for 10 years and your loan will be paid, but only if the loan is federalized. If that sounds a little imperial to you, don't worry, at least your kids will still have a choice… or will they?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. RAHM EMANUEL, D-ILL.: Citizenship is not an entitlement program. It comes with responsibilities.... Everybody -- somewhere between the ages 18 and 25 -- will serve three months of basic training and understanding in a kind of civil defense. That universal sense of service -- somewhere between the ages of 18 and 25 -- will give Americans, once again, a sense of what they are to be American and their contribution to a country and a common experience.

And you look at World War II -- that was a draft, this is not a draft, this is universal service. It was not an accident that we started our big march towards civil rights and expanding post-World War II, because the country came through an experience together.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

It's not a draft, it's universal service. It's not compulsory, it's required. It's not socialism, it's social justice.

Does the book "1984" come to mind?

Obama's taxation policies haven't exactly been timid either, but at least he warned us:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: It's not that I want to punish your success. I just want to make sure that everybody who is behind you, that they've got a chance at success, too.... I think when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Obama, a Marxist? No. No, that was just a good rule of thumb — sort of a "social justice" safety tip. It's not like he learned that ideology very early on from his mentor — Frank Marshall Davis, an avowed communist — and from his favorite professors in college — of whom he spoke in his book, "Dreams of My Father":

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

OBAMA: I chose my friends carefully. The more politically active black students, the foreign students, the Chicanos, the Marxist professors and structural feminists and punk rock performance poets.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

"Oh please, Glenn. You can't hold him to that. He was in his early 20s at the time."

OK, can we hold him to something he said on an Illinois public radio station in 2001 when he was an Illinois state legislator?

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

OBAMA: The Supreme Court never ventured into the issues of redistribution of wealth and sort of more basic issues of political and economic justice in this society. And to that extent as radical as I think people tried to characterize the Warren court, it wasn't that radical. It didn't break free from the essential constraints that were placed by the Founding Fathers and the Constitution, at least as it's been interpreted. And the Warren court interpreted it in the same way that generally the Constitution is a charter of negative liberties, says what the states can't do to you, says what the federal government can't do to you. But it doesn't say what the federal government or the state government must do on your behalf. And that hasn't shifted, and one of the, I think the tragedies of the civil rights movement was because the civil rights movement became so court focused, I think that there was a tendency to lose track of the political and community
organizing activities on the ground that are able to put together the actual coalitions of power through which you bring about redistributive change, and in some ways we still suffer from that."

(END AUDIO CLIP)

A document of mostly "negative liberties"? Wow, what a powerful endorsement of the most perfect political document in the history of the world. Thank you, Barack! Unfortunately, it also didn't bring about that "redistributive change" that we — and when I say "we," I mean Karl Marx, wanted so badly.

And we'll need to do lots of redistributing to the poor if Obama gets his way on energy policy:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: Under my plan of a cap-and-trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket, even, you know, regardless of what I say about whether coal is good or bad. Because I'm capping greenhouse gases, coal power plants, you know, natural gas, you name, whatever the plants were, whatever the industry was, they would have to retrofit their operations. That will cost money; they will pass that money on to consumers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

But thankfully those high prices will help break of us of our evil capitalist habits:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: We can't drive our SUVs and, you know, eat as much as we want and keep our homes on, you know, 72 degrees at all times whether we're living in a desert or we're living in the tundra and then just expect that every other country's going to say, 'OK.'

(END VIDEO CLIP)

My studio is set to 65 degrees right now. And guess what? I don't care if it hurts the feelings of some Frenchy Frenchman.

Boo-hoo! Cry me a river.

I'll go on living my life how I want to live it. If that includes 18 hours of TV and Doritos, that's my choice. Or, is it?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHELLE OBAMA: Barack Obama will require you to work... Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual, uninvolved, uninformed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

We were promised that over and over again. We were promised a "fundamental transformation of America":

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

He said it as plain as it can possibly be said and almost no one took him at his word. The question is, do you now?

— Watch "Glenn Beck" weekdays at 5 p.m. ET on FOX News Channel

hey hey

2009-05-19T19:19:00.000-07:00

Truth About TARP

2009-04-23T12:48:00.001-07:00

how many more i2009

2009-04-17T13:54:00.001-07:00

dick telling it like it is

2009-04-03T11:05:00.000-07:00

new world

2009-04-03T05:47:00.000-07:00

the media love me

2009-03-03T08:23:00.000-08:00

watch this one

2009-02-21T17:33:00.001-08:00

http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/clips/c-span-bailout/727521/

This amazing sermon given in Sept 2003 by Pastor Rod Parsley

2009-02-20T19:02:00.000-08:00

what is happen to America

2009-02-20T15:10:00.001-08:00

POLICESTATE IN THE MAKING

2009-02-19T16:42:00.001-08:00

PoliceState in the Making

2009-02-19T16:25:00.000-08:00

News News - Local
Oklahoma City police officer pulls man over for anti-Obama sign on vehicle
By Johnny Johnson - Staff Writer
Published: February 19, 2009Buzz up!

The police officers who stopped Oklahoma City motorist Chip Harrison and confiscated a sign from his car told him he has a right to his beliefs, but the Secret Service "could construe this as a threat against President Obama," according to the incident report released this morning.

Capt. Steve McCool of the Oklahoma City Police Department is seen in this NewsOK.com video frame grab. McCool says an officer who wrongly pulled a man over last week and confiscated an anti-Barack Obama sign from his vehicle misinterpreted the sign as threatening.

Featured VideoMcCool addresses officer'
Feb 19 OCPD Capt. Steve McCool addresses an incident in which an officer confiscated an anti-Obama sign from a man's vehicle.

Advertisement

The sign, which read "Abort Obama Not the Unborn," was returned to Harrison later that day, the report said.

Police spokesman Steve McCool said this morning that the sign was taken in error, and Oklahoma City residents should not be worried that their First Amendment rights will be violated.

Harrison told the officers that in his opinion the words "Abort Obama" meant to impeach him. He told the officers he does not believe in abortion because he is a Christian.

Harrison was stopped on westbound Interstate 240 at 8:45 a.m. on Feb. 12, according to the police report.

Harrison said he later received a call from a person who said he was a lieutenant supervisor for the Internal Investigations Department and wanted to know his location and return his sign to him.

According to Harrison, the supervisor said the Secret Service had been contacted on the matter and had told them the sign was not a threat to the president.

Harrison was asked if he would like to file a complaint. He said he was not sure but would take the paperwork, just in case.

But his run-in with the law wasn't over yet.

''The Secret Service called and said they were at my house," Harrison said.

After talking to his attorney, Harrison went home where he met the Secret Service.

''When I was on my way there, the Secret Service called me and said they weren't going to ransack my house or anything ... they just wanted to (walk through the house) and make sure I wasn't a part of any hate groups."

Harrison said he invited the Secret Service agents into the house and they were "very cordial."

''We walked through the house and my wife and 2-year-old were in the house," Harrison said.

He said they interviewed him for about 30 minutes and then left, not finding any evidence Harrison was a threat to the president.

''I'm still in contact with a lawyer right now," Harrison said. "I don't know what I'm going to do."

Harrison said he feels his First Amendment rights were violated.

McCool said the officer who pulled over Harrison misinterpreted the sign.

''We had an officer that his interpretation of the sign was different than what was meant," McCool said. "You've got an officer who had a different thought on what the word 'abort' meant."

McCool said the sign basically meant Obama should be impeached and it was not a threat.

''(The officer) shouldn't have taken the sign," McCool said. "That was (Harrison's) First Amendment right to voice his concern."

McCool said although the sign should not have been confiscated, the situation was made right in the end.

''We always try to do the right thing and in the end we believe we did the right thing by returning the sign," McCool said.

http://www.newsok.com/okc-officer-pulls-man-over-for-anti-obama-sign-on-vehicle/article/3347038?custom_click=headlines_widget

2009-02-15T16:50:00.001-08:00

Freedom needs you

2009-02-15T12:51:00.000-08:00

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2a7gh_lou-dobbs-china-manufacture-in-mexi_news

Lou Dobbs China Manufacture in Mexico NAFTA
Uploaded by edmond4

This government is just plain Evil.

2009-02-13T17:59:00.000-08:00

IT MAKE ME MAD AS HELL

This government is just plain Evil.

They take 40-50% of people’s income and their families have to do without. Give you an example, when you buy a loaf of bread at the store, it’s been taxed over 30%,cars,30%,phone bill 30%, cable bill tax 30%,gas and electric. I could go on and on and on put all of these charges are (hidden from the public) Now they want to take some of social security away from people. The government already took the cost of food and energy out of the CPI basket so they don't have to give the high cost of living to people to keep up with the cost of inflation.

Before they make any changes to social security, they should make changes to the money we give out to the United Nations and all other foreign aide.

Then the social security comes out of my check which is 8%. My company pays the other 8%.

If the government would have let me kept my money, I could have invested it at 4-5% a year, I would have over a million dollars.

What does the government do with all that money that people don’t collect?

Like my sister, that worked all of her life and never collected one social security check.

She died at 55 with no children

F--- Y-- Government takeing money away from family

freedom

2009-02-13T17:29:00.001-08:00

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the man

2009-02-11T12:49:00.000-08:00

the man

2009-02-11T12:40:00.000-08:00

U.N

2009-01-25T15:20:00.000-08:00

watchingyou

2009-01-24T11:57:00.000-08:00

watch it

2009-01-24T11:56:00.000-08:00

tax

2009-01-20T09:52:00.000-08:00

tax

2009-01-20T09:48:00.000-08:00

PoliceState

2009-01-19T17:32:00.000-08:00

Selling Out America

2008-05-20T07:42:00.002-07:00

PREMEDITATED MERGERSpain to run America's 1st superhighway?$12.8 billion deal would turn over control of Pennsylvania Turnpike
Posted: May 19, 20089:06 pm Eastern© 2008 WorldNetDaily
Stretching through the rural countryside with limited access and no speed limit in 1940, the Pennsylvania Turnpike was built to resemble Germany's autobahn. Now thanks to a $12.8 billion dollar offer, it may soon become Spain's.
According to a report in the Philadelphia Daily News, Gov. Ed Rendell has announced that Abertis Infraestructuras of Barcelona has offered the top dollar bid to the state of Pennsylvania for the rights to manage the toll road under a 75-year lease.
The highway could become just the latest in a string of U.S. infrastructure landmarks to be operated by foreign companies.
In 2004, management of the Chicago Skyway, a stretch of elevated road connecting I-90 and I-94, was granted to Cintra, another Spanish operation that outbid Abertis at $1.83 billion. Abertis lost out to Cintra again when the Indiana Toll Road was taken over in 2006 for $3.8 billion.
This time, Abertis beat out Cintra and other firms, hoping to add the Pennsylvania Turnpike to its list of operations including toll roads in Spain, France, Italy, the United Kingdom, Chile, Colombia and Argentina. Abertis also operates airports, including the airports in Orlando, Fla.; Burbank, Calif.; and one concourse of the Atlanta airport.
(Story continues below)

Even though the controversial Dubai ports deal was squashed by public outcry in 2006, foreign firms have nonetheless purchased long-term leases on other American transportation networks.
The Chicago Skyway is tied up for 99 years. The Indiana Toll Road is leased for 75. As WND reported earlier this year, Chicago is seeking a more than 50-year lease on Midway Airport. Among the potential suitors for Midway are 6 international firms, including Abertis.
The leases are being made possible through an increasingly common practice of establishing "public-private partnerships" (PPP's), contracts between public agencies and private entities that enable private sector participation in public transportation.
Many of the PPP's implemented in the U.S. bring large up-front cash infusions. In both the proposed Midway and Pennsylvania Turnpike offers, the billions in cash are touted as a quick solution to shoring up under-funded government employee pension funds.
Many, however, see an imminent threat in turning over U.S. infrastructure to foreign companies.
"The USA is up for sale," an attendee of a conference in Colorado to discuss PPPs told WND. "Whatever the public now owns – roads, ports, waste management water systems, rail lines, public parking facilities, airports, even lotteries and sports stadiums – are up for grabs and the only requirement is that the foreigners have the cash."
Even William Capone, the director of communications for the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, told WND in a telephone interview earlier this year, "We don't favor turning the Pennsylvania Turnpike into a private entity through a PPP lease. If we keep the Pennsylvania Turnpike in the hands of a public entity, we believe we can actually invest more dollars into roads than a private corporation could do."
"Besides," he said, "the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission is not profit-driven, so we don't have to generate profits to pay shareholders the way a PPP would have to operate."
Rendell, however, is now advocating the proposal that would turn his state's best known road over to Abertis. Rendell called the plan "a very good deal for Pennsylvanian drivers and taxpayers" and is urging lawmakers to move the highway – 359 miles of east-west routes and another northeast extension – into private hands by September.
The proposal still has to go through the Pennsylvania legislature, a decision that is likely to be hotly contested. Many in the capital are hoping Act 44, a law passed by the state legislature in 2007 to make I-80 a toll road as well, will stem the financial crisis and deflate the impetus for accepting the Turnpike proposal.
According to the newspaper report, the toll road plan with Abertis allows the newcomer to raise tolls 25 percent year and 2.5 percent or the rate of inflation every year after that.

freedomneedsyou

2008-05-20T07:42:00.001-07:00