Apparently, Nebraska is sending a lot of food to be burned.
Nebraska is the third ranked state with regard to corn production in the U.S, and second in the production of ethanol.
With three new plants added in November, annual corn demand for ethanol production in Nebraska passed the 500-million-bushel mark for the first time, using 37% of Nebraska's corn.
Corruption can't flourish with someone watching over your shoulder. In government, that transparency is doubly important. Every government expenditure is made with money taken from people's pockets. Government has an obligation to explain to each of us why it took our money and what exactly it's doing with it . . .
Modern technology has created tools to make even the smallest details of government accessible to everyone. One hundred years ago, opening the books to public inspection would have been burdensome and impractical in all but the smallest of towns. But the Internet has changed that and created a national movement toward government transparency.
. . . Missouri's Web site, www.mapyourtaxes.mo.gov, is a good example of what's possible . . .
The general idea is to list online every government expenditure by name, date and amount . . . A transparency Web site is designed to show not just how much government is spending but the details of what our money is being spent on. Every person, company and amount will be listed so we know who received the money taken from us and what exactly it was for.
Knowing what is happening doesn't necessarily dictate a policy decision. That's why the transparency movement is being encouraged by both Grover Norquist, the most influential conservative taxpayer advocate, and Ralph Nader, longtime liberal consumer advocate.
For smaller towns, this task is relatively simple. Every transaction can be posted online. Credit card statements can be posted in their entirety so we know each charge, regardless of size.
Not everyone will bother checking the town Web site. But in each town there are a few dedicated souls who concern themselves with every little detail of government. Opening up the details to their eyes lets everyone know that someone's watching. That very transparency should keep anything from happening in all but the most extreme cases . . .
Sometimes leadership filters up. Once a few cities and towns start opening the doors of their government to the people, state government might start talking about it.
Unfortunately, today state government can't even tell us how much it spends in total on a regular basis . . . A little kick-start from the towns might be in order.
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The Microsoft fact in Illinois by ZDNet's Paul Murphy -- The Illinois study is one of eight documents from the Microsoft web site, all intended to sell IT managers on the idea that a small commitment to Microsoft can be leveraged to produce significant budget and span of control gains.
"Everybody, in my opinion, is holding out to see what comes out of Washington in the next energy bill and the next farm bill," he said. "I know a lot of people in the industry would call me a Judas for saying this, but as long as you have mandates, it's a license to steal."Indeed. Ain't government market intervention wonderful?
Village of Bayview Gardens
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| Village of Benson
| City of Minonk
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| Village of Congerville
| Village of Panola
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| City of El Paso
| Village of Roanoke
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| City of Eureka
| Village of Secor
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| Village of Germantown Hills
| Village of Spring Bay
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| Village of Goodfield
| Village of Washburn |
Sunday, September 23, 2007 11:01 PM CDT
Anyone who regularly reads Internet blogs, comments made after stories on www.pantagraph.com and even letters to the editor on this page has seen how many people can ardently, fervently believe something no matter how much contradictory information is available.
The old Mark Twain quotation that “a lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes” may have been a humorous observation in his day but it’s deadly accurate in the era of the World Wide Web.
For those who are troubled by that, there’s no comfort in a recent study by University of Michigan social psychologist Norbert Schwarz. He found that even when people are told by an authoritative source that something is not true, a large percentage of them will erroneously remember the false information as true. Worse, they will attribute the false information to the source that tried to debunk it.
A lot depends on what people hear first — the correct information or the myth, according to Schwarz and other researchers.
The situation would be almost comical if not for the serious implications.
Schwarz’s latest research involved a myth vs. fact flier distributed by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention regarding the flu vaccine.
But such examples also have been witnesses— and most likely will continue to be seen — in political campaigns, whether it’s the issue of which candidate is “smarter” than the other or what a candidate did decades earlier while serving in a combat zone.
Political consultants are well aware of the phenomenon — confirmed by these researchers — that repetition leads more people to believe something, even if the repetition is from an unreliable source or involves individuals trying to debunk the information.
But ignoring a falsehood won’t make it go away.
In the “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” category is research finding that failure to respond promptly to accusations leads many people to believe they are true.
Just ask unsuccessful presidential candidate John Kerry.
Therefore, whether you are the CDC or a political candidate, you have to do your best to get your message out and hope for the best. There is not a lot you can do about human nature.
But there is something we, as individuals, can do — and must do.
We can be careful consumers of information who read things carefully and consider the source or sources.
Woodford Pundit wrote on Sep 24, 2007 7:22 AM:
no facts gonna make no difference" attitude. Empirical, evidential reasoning seems dead. The ancient Greeks must be turning over in their graves. Wait . . . you know they're not really dead . . . "We heard that in an email we got from an online blog we read (well, we looked at the pictures anyway . . . )."
... using the new, free FFATA Portal. A spokesman for Global Computer Enterprises, Inc., the private company that created the site, told Federal Computer Week that "the goal of the search portal is to make the information easy to find by taking out the government jargon." The site explains:
The portal offers free, instant access to contracts and grants awarded across the federal government via a user-friendly free text search and dynamic reporting tool. No login or registration is required – the public has instant access to federal spending information and the ability to create custom reports from that information. This site is not associated with any government agency and is provided free of charge from GCE.
By providing more transparency in government, this site is the easy way to track federal spending and your tax dollars at work. Users are able to search government contracts, grants data, and earmark grants from the appropriations process.
OMB Watch is another private entity that offers a federal spending database.
Saudi Arabia has refused to cut interest rates in lockstep with the US Federal Reserve for the first time, signalling that the oil-rich Gulf kingdom is preparing to break the dollar currency peg in a move that risks setting off a stampede out of the dollar across the Middle East.
• you are at least 65 years old;
• you own and occupy the property as a residence (or lease and occupy a single-family
residence; and
• you are required to pay the property taxes for the residence.
The maximum amount of the exemption from equalized assessed value is $2,000 ($2,500 in
Cook County.)
Senior Citizens Assessment Freeze Homestead Exemption — You qualify for this exemption if
• you are at least 65 years old;
• your total household income is $40,000 or less; and
• you meet certain other qualifications.
This exemption “freezes” your property’s equalized assessed value the year that you qualify for
the exemption. Your property’s equalized assessed value does not increase as long as you
qualify for the exemption. Your tax bill may still increase if any tax rates are increased or if you
add improvements that increase the value of the property."
