05/15/2013 | 
Author Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey claims that the Internet sales tax mandate is not a new tax. Nor, according to Ramsey, is it an unfair tax.
Ramsey is wrong on both counts.
Currently, thanks to the 1992 Supreme Court decision Quill Corp. v. North Dakota, states are prohibited from forcing out-of-state retailers to collect sales tax on their behalf. For this reason, sales taxes are not applied when you make a purchase from an out-of-state online retailer that has no physical presence in the state to which the order is shipped. The Internet sales tax mandate, known by its misleading title as the Marketplace Fairness Act, would change that. For the first time, many of your online purchases will be subject to state sales tax.
States with sales tax also have a complementary tax called a “use tax.” You are supposed to pay a use tax on a product if you buy the good without paying sales tax on it. So, for instance, if you buy a product in New Hampshire, which has no sales tax, and then bring that product back to Tennessee to use or consume, you are supposed to pay a use tax — equivalent to the sales tax rate — to the state of Tennessee.
When soldiers came home from the war, they found their McMinn County Government had become corrupt and abusive. This corrupt government was capable of Gestapo type actions that included stealing ballot boxes, shooting and beating voters who resisted their will, bribery, and misuse of the public trust and power. They were not the same farm boys who had gone off to war. These GI s formed a political organization to overthrow the corrupt regime on election day. When they were met with violence and intimidation they fought back with fists, pistols, rifles and even dynamite.
Here is a link to the show. It will probably go off of the link Sun. Feb 3rd
http://theveterannextdoor.com/online-show/
Posted in Civil Liberties, Home School, Local Issues, National Politics, Privacy | 
Tags: 2nd amendment, liberty | 
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On January 9, Bill and Norma Jarnigan were shocked to open a letter from the Jefferson County Economic Development Oversight Committee (EDOC) that laid out the county government’s blatant attempt to cajole the couple into selling their home of four decades. The county hopes to acquire their land and hand it over to a developer to build an industrial manufacturing megasite the county hopes will bring more jobs and tax revenue than the Jarnigan’s home. Opening such a letter certainly did not brighten the day of 68-year-old Mrs. Jarnigan, who stated, “I’d hate to think I’d have to move, me as old as I am.”
Meanwhile, at a press conference held that very afternoon, Jefferson County officials were unveiling plans for the East Tennessee Regional Megasite to be located on an 1800-acre tract of land where the Jarnigan’s and their neighbors’ homes currently stand. The press conference was all smiles, with claims being made that the Megasite could “provide 2,000 direct jobs and 6,000 to 8,000 indirect jobs in the initial phase,” and further that “It would have a very wide and broad impact” for the Jefferson County economy (all such claims assuming that the site could first be purchased, then certified, and finally bought by a corporation, none of which are even remotely certain at this point).
Jefferson County is no stranger to wanting land that isn’t theirs. In 1942, the construction of the Douglas Dam by the Tennessee Valley Authority, a federal New Deal corporation formed to provide “economic redevelopment” to the Tennessee Valley region, permanently flooded a majority of the county’s most fertile farmland. If it had not been for county residents personally petitioning then-first Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, the current Jefferson County seat of Dandridge would not exist—at least above water.
Seventy years later, the “megasite” announcement is the latest government instance of threatening Jefferson County farmland and the rights of property owners. But not to worry, says Garrett Wagley, director of economic development for the Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce. The county is “really committed to an open process, and having a conversation about the plans…[for] this exciting opportunity.” Thank heavens these landowners received letters encouraging them to pony up…er, rather, sell their land mere hours before the EDOC’s press conference.
Just a few days after the unveiling of the “megasite” plans, property owners in the megasite’s potential footprint voiced their outrage at the prospect of the government seizing their land. Oliver and Jean Wood, proud owners of a 590-acre farm who received the same letter as the Jarnigan’s last week, boldly asserted that they would not surrender their farm for any price. Mr. Wood pointed out that city officials “have not taken into account the economic costs and the human costs of taking away century-old farms and disrupting lives.”
Wagley stated that “he hoped the issue of eminent domain would not come up,” but hope is a cheap thing relative to a megasite project with a million dollar price tag being sold to so many private landowners as an “exciting opportunity.” Encouragingly for property rights activists everywhere, however, citizens like the Woods and the Jarnigans are not taking the government’s phony bait.
Tennessee has a sordid history of abusing eminent domain in the name of “economic development.” The state’s eminent domain laws received a big fat grade of D- from the Institute for Justice for failing to ensure that property rights are adequately protected.
–Robert Fountain
This Article if from the Institute for Justice
See more here: http://www.ij.org/one-hundred-tennessee-property-owners-under-threat-for-nebulous-megasite-development
Posted in Civil Liberties, Economics, Free Markets, General Economic, Local Issues | Tags: Eminent Domain, Jefferson County, Property Rights | No Comments »
Former IRS Agent Sherry Peel Jackson, who spent nearly four years in prison for failing to file her income tax returns, chose her words carefully Monday night.
A self-styled “political prisoner,” the Georgia author and financial consultant still maintains her innocence and she still questions the government’s authority to levy a federal income tax.
She claimed that after speaking out publicly with other tax defiers, the judge was against her from the get-go, the jurors too fearful to deliver anything other than the guilty verdicts that sent her to a federal prison camp for women in Florida.
“When you’re too visible to kill, that’s what they do to shut you up,” said Jackson, 50, during her presentation to the Knoxville Patriots’ meeting at the Mandarin House restaurant in North Knoxville.
http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2013/jan/14/no-returns-ex-irs-agent-still-challenging-power/
Public utility officials in Chattanooga, Knoxville and Memphis have preached the benefits of a new taxpayer-subsidized technology they say will lower their customers’ utility bills and reduce electrical outages.
Known as a digital smart grid, this technology uses computers to distribute electricity. Those benefits, however, are short term — and that makes this investment, funded with almost $1 billion in federal stimulus dollars nationwide, an unwise use of money, according to an expert in computer and communications engineering. >>READ MORE
Governor Bill Haslam recently announced he plans to put off the decision on whether to form the health care exchanges outlined in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, after HHS Secretary Kathleen Sibelius extended the deadline for states to notify the federal government until Dec. 14.
No doubt, the governor is getting significant pressure from both sides of the exchange fight, with insurance company lobbyists emphasizing that they’d prefer to work with the state government instead of the federal government, while individual citizens and employers are mounting a lobbying effort of their own against the exchanges.
One has to wonder if perhaps Haslam isn’t waiting in the hope that Tennesseans will …. to read this entire article by Lesley Swann, please CLICK HERE.
A reader from New Jersey, who is familiar with the intersection in question, forwarded the link below. The article details the upsetting results after installing red-light cameras at the busy intersection of Route 1 with Bakers Basin Road/Franklin Corner Road. See article from New Jersey HERE.
It documents that the number of accidents over equal 7-month periods increased from 25 before camera installation to 49 after red-light cameras were installed. A simple statistical analysis shows that the difference is significant at the 99.6% confidence level. That leads one to conclude that there was a systematic change at that intersection causing the 96% increase in the accident rate. The most obvious systematic change that could account for the significant increase in the accident rate is the installation of red-light cameras.
If you read the article in the link above, you will note that the increase in the accident rate was mainly due to a higher frequency of rear-end collisions. That is consistent with virtually all the comprehensive and competent studies that have been reported on the impact of red-light cameras, as referenced in other articles on the TLA web site ( SEE HERE ). Those studies document that red-light cameras yield an insignificant reduction in right-angle collisions, but cause a significant increase in rear-end collisions.
Another point noticed in the New Jersey experience is that the majority of revenue from the camera automated traffic tickets comes from right turns on red, i.e., not coming to a complete stop before the stop line. In 2011, the State of Tennessee passed a law making it unlawful for red-light cameras to issue traffic tickets for right turns on red lights. Across Tennessee, red-light camera revenues dropped precipitously, because the vast majority of camera ticket revenue came from right turns on red. Ironically, right turns on red were not causing accidents in proportion to the ticket volume. In other words, drivers were not unsafely making right turns on red, even though they may not have come to a complete stop over the camera sensors.
There is copious, sound evidence that red light cameras do not improve safety at intersections. Yet, red-light camera companies and municipalities continue to pursue them, as if that evidence did not exist. Why? Because the cameras generate revenue. This is a money-making scheme perpetrated on drivers by local governments and red-light camera companies in the fallacious name of safety.
Dale Gedcke B.Eng., M.Sc., Ph.D.
Marketing & Technical Consultant
Over the past thirty years the community of Bethel, Tenn. has been in the middle of an annexation debate in some form or fashion. Bethel sits between Norris and Clinton, Tenn. Both cities have looked to annex ‘Bethel Unincorporated’ during those thirty years. Recently the city of Norris voted to annex two pieces of property within the Bethel community. During the annexation hearing many spoke out against the city of Norris and their attempt. They see that Norris may look to their property in the future and see it as income. Regardless of the vast opposition the City decided to annex anyway. Most people that reside in Bethel say that they just want to be left alone and do not want annexation from either Norris or Clinton.
The Tennessee Liberty Alliance sees this as an issue that would affect others in the state as well. There may be more to this than just a neighbor and business owner losing some property rights. Also, in attendance, during the annexation meeting was Mike Carberry. Mike is the Comprehensive Planning Manager for the Knoxville-Knox County Metropolitan Planning Commission. Mike might possibly live in the Norris area. However there were two other gentlemen there who participated in the PlanET forums, acted as regular attendees and were actually government employees within planning and zoning departments. The MPC holds the contract for PlanET (Covers Anderson, Knox, Union, Loudon, & Blount cos.). A regional plan for establishing so called ‘sustainable’ communities.
The Norris 25 year comprehensive plan will be available for review. We look to produce solutions so that your property rights will be upheld for generations to come.
All of this will be fleshed out and covered in a town hall meeting. Location and time is listed below.
Oct. 25, 2012 6:30pm-8:30pm
Norris City Building 20
Chestnut Drive
Norris, Tennessee 37828
The TLA Board will meet at Panera Bread in Turkey Creek on Thursday, September 20 at 7:00 P.M. The address is: 11361 Parkside Drive, Knoxville, TN 37934. For more information contact Richard Esparza at richard@tnliberty.org.
