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With no public input in the process, the officials in Star, Idaho continue to feed their small-town agenda.

Star officials recently voted to install crosswalk warning signs. Albeit, in and by itself, this means nothing. However, when you look at the facts, their agenda is staggering. They are operating an illegal entrapment act to operate a virtual speed trap to boost city revenue. How do you think that a town this size can afford to employ so many full-time officers? And where do you think that money came from to build the new City Hall?

It all comes down to money, and Star is hellbent on using the force of law to operate its speed trap.

Remember, this is the same city that illegally stretched out the speed limit on a State Highway for 5 miles in either direction. That was, until they were verbally and legally rebuked by the State Transportation Department- they DO NOT have authority over State Highways.

Here is a fun site: speedtrap.org- notice Star, Idaho has made the list.

I know Star officials are stuck in a catch-22, but let’s face it- they have a state highway running through their town. It is logical and factually represented that they are operating this speed trap for profit, not traffic enforcement. Until Idaho mandates Highway bypasses for all small-rural towns in Idaho, we need to raise our level actions to make sure we keep these power and money-hungry cities in check.

Star, Idaho is breaking the law, and we need to demand actions for their aggressive enforcement of minor and trivial infractions of the law.

Perhaps if taxpayers post “Speed Trap Ahead” signs this will help to alleviate domineering presence this small town has. More as it becomes available.

So the government/media complex has manipulated otherwise smart people into ‘cooperation’ once again. This time investors whom have given out millions of dollars on the promise of high-returns on sub-prime mortgages are the ones who will get to take the hit, ‘for the benefit of society’.

This so-called-mortgage crisis is a deliberate and willful attempt for the mortgage industry to cover its losses as it tests risky mortgage and financial ventures. After all, who can better gather ‘assets’ by force than the power of taxation by the government?

Don’t believe me? Check out this article.

The Chief Executive of Goldman Sachs, Hank Paulson, is also Treasury Secretary in the Bush Administration. Golman Sachs is one of the nations leading sub-prime mortgage backers.

With friends like these in the Bush administration, it’s no wonder that the government is suddenly seeking to ‘help’ people out of their mortgages.

There seems to be a pattern emerging for the latest round of increasing governmental power over our lives: intentional intervention.

Read between the lines: the banks are not freezing mortgage rates because they suddenly realize that it would better for ’society’ as a whole. The three major banks only signed on after indemnification was granted to them by the President and Treasury Secretary Paulson to prevent the investors from taking legal action.

In other words: someone lost their civil rights to recover their losses under the guise of ‘benefiting society’.  Is the government, as is currently done with health care, now expected to be the stop-loss mechanism for the natural cycle of real-estate? By the actions taken here it certainly seems so.

Remember, with the government it’s a short leap from ‘cooperation’ to ‘compulsion’. What prevents the government from making your cooperation the standard that others must follow? And what sort of impact will this bear on private property rights if the government starts backing the loans?

Consider this: the New World Order is not always clearly labeled as legislation or regulation that is intended to cause the erosion of liberty. The government/media complex learned long ago that subtleties in their approach is the best way to make the public apathetic to expanding governmental power over their lives.

So, for today, it’s just getting lenders to ‘cooperate’ and ‘temporarily’ freeze interest rates. Tomorrow, it may just be minor legislation or regulations of the mortgage industry. Then perhaps reserves, funded by the taxpayers dollar of course to help ‘the poor and needy’ obtain loans in an increasingly regulated marketplace. And then a couple of years later we are not to be surprised by a near completely quasi-government run mortgage market? And we are not to be concerned that the Left’s obsession with ‘political correctness’ will take from the rich to ‘help someone get into a home’??

Do you see where this all leads? This is the path to insanity.

Mortgage lenders owe society nothing. People took on these loans knowing full well that the rates would adjust. They were putting out loans that offered back-loaded interest to help people get into homes on an increasingly bloated housing market. Consumers simply swallowed the magic ‘buy now pay later’ pill. And yet somehow the government is once again supposed to ignore personal responsibility?

It seems here as if regulation is intended to replace free will. It also seems to be narrowing the free-market choices for consumers- actions that we know will require the government to ‘assist’ displaced citizens who may have needed that ARM. This is a path that should seem foreign to a country that creeds ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’.

But then again, what politician REALLY wants to stand up an say, “Well, you were the one who took out the ARM!”?

Isn’t progress great?

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A quick side note: LedeAgenda.com is quietly approaching its 6-month anniversary. I would like to extend my gratitude to my site host and web designer. I would also like to offer an extra special thanks to my wife whom has served as an editor, idea consultant and general inspiration in my life. Thanks to everyone for being part of the idea that liberty must not be spared to the government/media complex!

Let me start this post by congratulating the Boise State Bronco’s on a 10-2 season. Many fans wait lengthy periods of time in between 10+ win seasons. We have the luxury of a superior athletic department who always seems to know what it takes to keep elevating this program’s potential. However, recent decisions pushed by Athletic Director Gene Bleymaier have left many funs, including myself, puzzled by the internal debates the program must be having.

Specifically fans are concerned about Gene’s ‘1 for 1′ doctrine and the recent decision to ship the team across the Pacific for its bowl game.

To put it simply: Gene is standing on solid principal. He wants nothing but the best matchup scenarios for our team and the ability to reward players for a solid season. However, growth takes sacrifice to elevate your level of play, something Gene seems unwilling, or unable, to accommodate. What fans want to know is why.

Let me start my dissecting the ‘1 for 1′ doctrine. It is unacceptable for a non-BCS school, like Boise State, to tout demands to BCS-caliber opponents. We are not USC, Michigan or Nebraska, we do not have the luxury of being an ‘established’ college football power. We are newcomers to the scene, and we have a mighty fine record thus far to be proud of. But there is still the fatal flaw- we weaken our attractiveness by continuing to play in the WAC.

We cannot hope to maintain the momentum that catapulted the Broncos to the 2006/2007 Fiesta Bowl win without scheduling aggressively- meaning taking one away game matchups with more traditional college football schools. There is nothing wrong with agreeing to play a USC or Wisconsin at their place, it would offer BSU exposure to the BCS purists whom merely see us as a one-hit-wonder right now.

But therein lies the rub: Gene wants game contracts to include a minimum of one away AND one home game. Schools like USC and Nebraska have quickly shut down this line of discussion. Even schools that Gene HAS managed to schedule are fighting us tooth-and-nail to come play on the blue. Oregon wanted to ship our home game to China and Bowling Green keeps finding “scheduling issues” to force delays.

Quite simply- there is no incentive, or reason, for them to come and play here. Our stadium is small, so ticket percentages will drop, and the risk is great- a loss at a non-BCS school could quickly endanger a school’s national ranking. However, the reward for Boise State taking these contracts is great, albeit, we have much work to do.

Quite simply, short of the Fiesta Bowl (which, BTW, is considered a ‘neutral’ site), Boise State has NEVER won a road game against a BCS opponent. We must overcome this deficiency if we intend to maintain the level of respect that has so far been given on credit. A Fiesta Bowl win means a lot, but winning at Washington, Oregon, or another BCS opponent, now there lies a prize.

It plays out in everything- even after winning the Fiesta Bowl last year BSU still found it self ranked #24 in the nation pre-season this year. Why? New quarterback? Yes. Loss of seniors? Of course. However, the magical little words- Strength Of Schedule, kill us and will continue to kill us, unless we start scheduling better non-conference games. There will come a time when we can no longer rely on an undefeated season to get us into a BCS bowl game if we continue to let WAC scheduling rule our season.

Which brings me to my second point: Why was the decision made to send the players overseas to the Hawaii Bowl when the potential to face a BCS caliber opponent was not there? I’m sorry, but facing the East Carolina Pirates, even playing on the beautiful shores of Hawaii, does not make for a good football game.

Consider this: We could have accepted the invitation to the Las Vegas bowl and played UCLA. We could have accepted the invitation to the Humanitarian Bowl and faced Georgia Tech. We could have, but didn’t. All because Gene let the players ‘vote’ on where to go. Was thought given to building our program? Was consideration given to elevating our level of play? What about keeping our momentum rising?

The Hawaii bowl just reeks of taking a huge step backwards and Boise State fans are right to be questioning this puzzling decision by an otherwise superior Athletic Director. Let us hope all the facts, when presented together, make the picture more rosy. But what it seems like at this point is a huge disappointment for the fans, whom would of liked to have seen a better opponent and possibly another chance to watch their team play a ‘home’ game.

Again, 10-2, let’s give it up for the Broncos and look to continue building a program that has been given much credit for its accomplishments thus far. Let us not take that for granted.

Catch this story?

The Democrats are complaining that their government/media complex driven message of, ‘Iraq war hate’, is starting to fizzle.

And, ummm, why exactly shouldn’t it?

Like every other American out there, I want to know the specifics on the battle our troops are fighting. I want to know that American lives have not been given in vain. I want to make sure that the candidates have an exit strategy so we are not stuck there, like say we are in Vietnam or the Korea’s.

But quite frankly I could list off a whole pantheon of domestic issues that mean more to me than does the Iraq war.

It’s not that I don’t care. But it is a realization: that no matter who was President, Kerry, Gore, McCain, et all, we would still be at war in Iraq. For the most part Presidents only respond to military situation- most decisions of war, peace, troop deployments, are made by the Military Generals, most of whom have served multiple presidents. In other words, there is a backbone of foreign policy that doesn’t change. The President has very little influence over the decisions of foreign policy.

Which brings me to my point: why exactly then shouldn’t we focus on domestic issues?

Issues of immigration, the NAU, reducing federal regulation and growth, cutting taxes are something I can contribute to. You, me, the media, we are not in the military. They have access to all the data, we don’t. What makes you assume that you can do their job?

On the other hand, take for instance Immigration. This issue affects everyone. It affects your security, your neighborhoods, your job, the economic conditions of your local hospital. It affects your culture, your community, the crime rate in your neighborhood. Quite simply- this is a legitimate focus for decision making as far as whom should be President.

Don’t believe me that this is an issue first and foremost in Republican voters minds? Take a look at the data. The Republican fundraising troubles started directly after Republican leadership pushed for Amnesty. The McCain and Guilliani campaigns know this all to well, they where widely viewed as the GOP favorites until the voters, bloggers and Conservatives joined forces to get the Amnesty bill shut-down. And now their campaigns are in a state of turmoil. Hell, McCain was BOOED during the YouTube debate. And your telling me immigration policy is NOT a front and center issue? Please.

Mark my words- Republicans will also unite against government run healthcare as we did with immigration. Whoever emerges as a GOP front-runner had better be prepared to face the conservative blogosphere on this issue. Right now there is simply just distaste and scorn for the candidates whom cater to the ‘moderates’ by proposing some trimmed down version of Hillarycare. But read this- as soon as a leader emerges, the new political power that the Conservative base has found in online message boards, blogs and meet-up network sites will demand that the candidate have a answer that fits in with traditional GOP philosophy. Anything short would amount to continued fund raising issues and general Republican base disinterest.

In short- this new shift to domestic issues is a direct response to the ‘new media’ driven public policy debates. No longer will the MSM get to control the issues that ‘the voters should focus on’. Watch most of the MSM political reporters- they view with scorn the fact that we have forced immigration as a main election issue. And given that the Democrats have largely relied on Bush-Hate and Iraq-War-Hate to drive their political base over the last 7 years, you can almost hear them saying, “uh oh”.

Keep up the pressure bloggers, we are succeeding in destroying the government/media complex driven Presidential debates. Let us hope the candidates listen and respond to the expectations that we have for them. Anything less would be unacceptable.

Isn’t progress great?