The RAnts of RA

If you ask me, going “Green” is all about saving money — the good old green-back dollar, while living as frugally as possible. Yes, I love the earth God created but, I worship the Almighty God, our Savior and Creator.  We are charged with  being good stewards in all we do.

When we moved in January we found a larger house, which would seem to most people to be anti-green but just like in the real world there are trade-offs. Prior to our move we had discovered Dr. Heaters, which have help us to save money on our electric bill. They are very efficient and they do not create static in the air, nor do they absorb moisture from the air — a problem with most types of heat, such as that from a wood-burning fireplace.

We were concerned that a larger house would mean it would consume significantly more energy and that would result in paying more to heat it and with the rising  cost of propane and electric… We kept this in the back of our mind as we made changes in our lifestyle.    The additional space allowed us to clean out our storage unit at Mr. Stor All, in Sonora.   (At a savings  of $107.00 per month.)  They really treated us well and we appreciate the great service and smiling faces.

It’s wonderful having all of our belongings under one roof again. I’ve been trying to organize everything and toss out the excess. It’s a slow process but groups like Freecycle help make it easy to dispose of unwanted items as painlessly as possible. It can be very time-consuming dealing with the accumulation of stuff. The move really gave me renewed determination to deal with it. Now I’m simply waiting for better weather.

The first thing we did before we moved into the new place, was to investigate and purchase a new energy efficient refrigerator, stove, and dishwasher. We had not planned to buy a new washer and dryer for a few months but when we found a high-efficiency set marked half-off, we charged them to our card, hoping the savings would help us pay for them. The gamble paid off. Not only is our new house larger, our utility bills are actually a little lower than they were at our old house.

This new place also provides excellent access to nature and all the wildlife that call Twain Harte, CA home. The new place has a wrap-around deck and a couple of nice spots, which will enable us to grow vegetables, spices, flowers and we provide comforts to the local wildlife, especially in bad weather. I plan to grow some flowers to help attract butterflies, hummingbirds, and the deer of course. I’ll enjoy them as I can and allow the animals to make full use of them. I’d love to plant some blackberry bushes and a strawberry patch.

I don’t really agree with feeding wild animals and having close contact with them. It just makes me cringe when I see photos and video’s online of people hand-feeding hummingbirds and petting the deer. I justify feeding the deer because they need to survive and they are competing with people for food and we humans have the upper-hand. I try to provide fresh foods that they would eat in the wild and in the winter I buy molasses oats to help them put on some weight and survive a rough winter.

These are wild animals and need to remain that way. Making friends with the deer will inevitably cause them to get shot by some hunter providing food for his family. While I don’t begrudge the hunter his right to take a deer, providing for his families needs, I think the deer deserve a sporting chance.

I am sure if we each look around, we could implement changes to our lifestyles that would not only be energy efficient but save  the family time and money. Our new dishwasher uses just 3.9 gallons of water and costs just $25.00 to use for an entire year. The new washer and dryer are amazing. My clothes have never been so clean and the drying time has been cut  to 1/3 or less. My clothes dry faster than the washer can wash them.

If you can scrape together the money for a  high efficiency washer and dryer, do so, as soon as you can. The savings are incredible and as far as I can tell they are “earth friendly” as well. We can’t always tell because the process used to recycle many of the  things we are recycling is actually worse for the environment than just dumping them. The problem is the landfills can’t hold all of the garbage we create. So, it ends up to be to our advantage to recycle, instead of tossing stuff, even if it’s not an environmentally sound practice.

I recommend trading for services and bartering for the things you need as often as possible. With the rising inflation, it can preserve the value of tangible items.

We can sit on our thumbs and do nothing, or we can be pro-active. Consumers have learned all too well that rising gas prices (for whatever the reason) means higher prices for everything. Our food supply is being deliberately sabotaged, we need to bring things closer to home. Grow as much of your own food at home, eat out less, have guests over more. Know where your food is coming from and stock up on whatever you can afford to. We love to barter whenever we can. The more you can prepare now, the less of a hardship you will suffer when a natural or man-made disaster cripples our governments ability to provide services.

I’ve even been toying with the idea of buying foreign currency. Since the dollar is so weak, I’m just not certain how easy it will be to convert foreign currency back into dollars but at our current rate of inflation, it’s the only way I can see to protect your equity, unless you invest in gold or silver, as both continue to increase in value. If you have close neighbors, now is the time to get to know them. Talk with the neighbors you feel you can trust and plan for possible power outages, earthquakes, or other disasters. Many hands make light work and your investment will go further if you can combine your efforts.

If you can start your own garden, do so — even if you have to grow tomato plants in a planter. If you like tomatoes, it will provide needed food in case of catastrophe.

Have you noticed the rising prices at the grocery store? The gas gouging that is going on right now is shameful. If the feds were truly interested in helping to keep gas prices down, they would ease up on some of those taxes.

Just like Halliburton is getting filthy stinking rich off the war in Afghanistan, these oil companies are raking in the profits. Take a look at their bottom lines. It makes me sick to even think about it. The last time I checked was a couple years ago and they make even more profits now.

The way I see it, we are in a class war, “the haves” against “the have-nots”. Those who have mega-bucks are stealing the land through “foreclosure” laws — the redistribution of wealth — the money is simply shifting hands on a major scale. Everywhere you turn, people are talking about it.

We saw the same thing happen back in the 70’s, when  Jimmy Carter was in office,  coincidentally another Democrat. What is it with these Democrats? Until now, I’ve always said Jimmy Carter was the worst president we’ve ever had and yes, I understand we’ve had some horrible presidents in the past. As far as I’m concerned, Obama is hands-down the worst president in our nation’s  235-year  history.

I hang my head in shame because I loathed the behavior exhibited by President Clinton, but it pales in comparison to the loathsome and despicable displays by the current White House squatter.

Most of us are simply holding our breath, trying to tread water, until the next Reagan comes along to save the day.  The Gipper  was a man of strength and honor who I look upon as a modern day hero. He wasn’t a perfect man, but any woman who has ever been married knows without a doubt such a creature does not exist. (Husband’s note: I almost take offense to that.)

I have to tell you this: I believe in this nation. I believe from the depths of my heart that God is moving and shaking things up. God is still in control. Now is the time to pull together, to seek God’s will and pray for a wise, respectable man to lead the U.S.A. out of chaos and back to sanity. Or have we all lost our minds?

Schwarzenegger Sells California Out to Gambling Casinos

by Kathryn Bowen

Whoever coined the phrase “Ignorance is bliss” must have been talking about the 35 million Californians trusting that their governor and their elected officials are actually doing their job with respect to gambling casinos run by Indian tribes in our state.

“Bliss” is what Governor Schwarzenegger has been selling the public while he sells the State down the river by granting the largest expansion of gambling in history to 5 casino tribes.

In the wake of Californian’s support of Prop 1A, former Governor, Gray Davis, negotiated gambling compacts with Indian Tribes. Millions of voters succumbed to a brilliant marketing campaign that casino tribes invested nearly $100 Million into, equal to a presidential election, to persuade voters to change our State constitution and direct gambling monopolies to Indian tribes. I was one of those voters.

Here’s the bad news.

At this moment, your elected representatives in California are just about to vote on whether to grant 5 casino tribes, consisting of just 1,876 people, the ability to expand willy-nilly despite the impact on our communities, families, children and ultimately the financial future of California.

This is just the beginning; 67 additional tribes with gaming compacts are waiting in the wings and the Governor may not inform the public when renegotiations commence with these tribes.

The reality is the revenue promised for the state through gambling expansion will not materialize. The Governor and his advisors know this and should probably buy a new calculator because they know the expected income is neither measurable or enforceable!

Thousands of emails, letters, phone calls and exhaustive testimony attempting to alert our elected officials of endless issues regarding jurisdiction, regulation, accounting and disastrous social costs have fallen on deaf ears.

Hearing Loss

The reason for the hearing loss? Could it be the massive unregulated tribal contributions flowing into political campaigns of the majority of our elected officials in our State Capitol?

In fact, tribes poured $429,600 into the campaigns of just fifteen assembly members who held an “impartial” hearing on problematic regulatory issues with the compacts and will be key in deciding their fate. How impartial can they really be when taking money from the same tribes that will benefit from their vote? By any definition, this is a profound conflict of interest.

Making matters worse, the Minimum Internal Control Standards (MICS), the only federal regulatory leg left to oversee the integrity of the games and to collect the money, has been eliminated from the compacts.

What does this mean? These so-called compacts are really contracts that will cement a permanent partnership between the State of California and loosely regulated gambling casino tribes for the next 25-years, without the ability of the state to audit and collect the money or to ensure fair gaming for the patrons.

Casino tribes have kicked federal regulators off their land claiming sovereignty. What makes the state think its going to be any more successful especially given the fact there are simply not enough enforcement resources?

Moreover, Schwarzenegger privately brokered 25-year, multibillion dollar deals without so much as an economic study to show how expanded gambling will impact the people of California.

Given the fact that 80% percent of gambling revenue comes from households with incomes of less than $50,000 a year, don’t you think you need a study to show what this spread of gambling is going to do to the state?

What kind of representative government balances its budget on the backs of its poorest and most vulnerable citizens? Even Russia and other countries around the world who believed that gambling actually produced economic vitality have come to their senses and banned or closed most of their casinos due to the economic strain caused their economies.

Once again, our elected officials are going for the quick fix approach to fixing the state’s budget problems instead of assessing the long-term effects of really bad policy.

What does California get? We all get to sit by and watch our regional economy redirect billions in disposable income (taxable sales) into “sovereign tribal governments” who are not bound by the U.S. Constitution, remain outside regulatory laws and pay no taxes on their $23 Billion profits.

This massive federal scandal’s tentacles have found their way into every corner of our government through corrupt campaign finance loopholes. From the White House on down to local county governments who are faced with the dilemma of how to stand up to tribes who exploit their ancestral suffering to bully local governments into giving them what they want.

Wake up California! The gaming tribes’ plight no longer has anything to do with civil rights, justice or historical reparations, but rather with self-indulgent gambling expansion under the guise of self-determination.

About the author:

Kathryn Bowen is an expert and activist on government regarding gambling across the country.

Issues include: tribal expansion, tribal sovereignty, tribal sovereign immunity, political corruption due to unlimited funds from casino tribes both in local and state government, civil rights, equal protection issues communities struggle with due to representative government becoming too reliant on big gambling dollars. Member of the legal subcommittee team involving a lawsuit filed by Preservation of Los Olivos (POLO) and Preservation of Santa Ynez (POSY) against the federal government in 2005. This suit was filed as an appeal to the Bureau of Indian Affairs decision to accept privately purchased land by the Santa Ynez Band into federal trust status without proper representation of community interests. Writer/Producer of documentary “Big Gambling Dollars and Politics at Work”