Preserving The American Political Philosophy: New Markets Tax Credit Program To Be Distributed to MRRA- High Paid Hotbed of Corporate Welfare !

Now that the Cate Street Scandal, costing Maine Taxpayers 76 million dollars is fading from the news cycle, the Maine legislature is already talking about increasing by 100% the limit for this transfer of wealth from tax payers pockets to corporate bank accounts and to distribute that wealth not to the low income high unemplyment areas but to unconstitutionally state governed municipalities located at former military zones which are hotbeds for Maine's corporate welfare system creating the highest paid workers in the state at a continually escalating rate !
http://bit.ly/1GvY2cT

Preserving The American Political Philosophy: Cate Street Capital- Legal Fraud Staus Checks Out -Here's How it Happened !

I am correcting my earlier assesment on this statute as I found the New Markets Tax Credit fully embedded in an amendment to teh bill that The House and Senate Voted on. That means, that although it seems compromising to put a statute into a budget with many other items, it is true that the House and Senate voted on it. The reason why the bill of the same name as the statute died is because the bill was inserted into the budget and so instead of going by the name of the statute, it goes by the name of the budget/
http://bit.ly/1Gto3cQ

Preserving The American Political Philosophy: Cate Street Capital - A Legal Faud: By What Rule of Law?

The media tells us that the Cate Street debacle is a "legal fraud" on the Maine Taxpayers indebting them to the tune of 76 million dollars. The main stream story is that the statute on which the taxpayer debt is premised was enacted during a budget meeting and that when the House and Senate approved of the budget, they also enacted the statute. Research comes up with two separate bill status for LD 1043 (HP 778) - One that states that it was enacted and signed byThe Governor.The bill text includes a summary for the New Markets Tax Credit statute. The other bill status records the vote for the House and Senate. The text for that bill status makes no mention of the New Markets tax credit.
http://bit.ly/1Gt0UqY

Preserving The American Political Philosophy: Statute Enacted By Maine's Budget Committee Basis for "Legal Fraud" Foisted on TaxPayers !

"Legal Fraud" reported by the Maine medai as rsulting in the Maine taxpayers owing shsyters $91 million dollars is premised in a statute enacted not by a vote by both legislative houses- but by the budget committing inserting a nearly identical statute into the Maine budget. As reported by an FOA response received from Maine legislative library- this statute resulting in a huge burden on Maine taxpayers was enacted by teh budget committee which now wants to double the limit for teh New Markets Refundable Tax Credit.
http://bit.ly/1z6olsG

Preserving The American Political Philosophy: Rule Changes proposed by Lepage Threaten Private Property Rights in Maine

Maine Governor LePage is sponsoring an act to limit the authority of the State Attorney General over state agency rule making processes. The act also includes a new rule that says statutory law can over write the constitutional protection of private property rights, underscoring why we need an Attorney General with concern for our constitution to reign in politicians
http://bit.ly/1A4gA1y

Preserving The American Political Philosophy: Maine Media Reports LD991 New Markets Tax Credit Passed- FOA Response Says It Didn't !

In his otherwise well researched and informative article, Mr Whit Richardson continues to report that the ever more expensive scandal which costs are thrown on the backs of the Maine tax payers is a "legal fraud" - but I ask how legal can it be when the bill upon which the statute is based died in the Senate as is cofirmed by my own FOA request to the Maine Legislative Library. How can the Maine taxpayers owe these continually escalating sums to out of state shysters when our representatives never signed off on the deal ?- or if they did it is a very closely guarded secret to which even the Maine Legislative Library has no access !
http://bit.ly/1DMViWQ

Preserving The American Political Philosophy: Maine's Minimum Wage Bill Ties Increase to Inflation

Increase in Wages must be tied to productivity not inflation #mepolitics #minwage #Maine
http://bit.ly/1bszcCi

Preserving The American Political Philosophy: Mystery of the Missing Maine Senate Vote Passing New Markets Tax Credit

Can The Maine taxpayers owe out of state shyters 16 million dollars if New Markets Tax Credit was never voted upon by Maine Senate before it was published into law?
http://bit.ly/1yWRC9q

Preserving The American Political Philosophy: Maine Media Breaks It's Silence on The Refundable Tax Credit

In Whit Richardson's article in the Portland Press Herald, Payday At The Mill, the Maine media finally breaks its code of secrecy about refundable tax credits, which are the life blood of the state's corporate welfare system but no one seems to have noticed that although there is indeed a bill for the New Markets Tax Credit published in the Maine Statutes and dated 2011. the bill status says that the bill died on adjournment of June 259 2011.
http://bit.ly/1DsUm9L

Preserving The American Political Philosophy: Maine Media Breaks It's Silence on The Refundable Tax Credit

I have been saying for a long time that nothing will change in the state of Maine until there is a change in the Maine media. One of the subjects I have been writing about is the refundable tax credit and being frustrated by the fact that the Maine media not only does not explain to the public what a refundable tax credit is but doesn't even mention the fact that the tax credits that we hear about so often are refundable. Refundable tax credits are at the heart of this story of a carefully orchestrated legal theft of 16 million dollars from the Maine taxpayers. This was made possible by the Maine legislature which allowed the beneficiaries of a new program to write the program them selves, including the refundable tax credit which is ubiquitous through our Maine's unconstitutional corporate state's corporate welfare programs. Thanks to staff writer Whit Richardson of The Portland Press Herald for getting this story out there using a much larger microphone than my own
http://bit.ly/1DsUm9L

Preserving The American Political Philosophy: Big Money, Redistributed Wealth and Legal Opacity Make For Happy Bed Fellows!

This is an update of a post written in 2013 in response to the Expanded and Improved Seed Capital Tax Credit unanimously passed by the Maine legislature amid a flurry of biased news coverage focusing almost exclusively on businesses that stand to get a cash infusion from the passage of the bill.

No single bill is passed in isolation but is part of a larger and incremental strategy dating approximately back to the charter of the Maine Development Foundation Corporation serving as the foundation stone for the ever expanding corporation of Maine- a corporation that goes without an official name but is in fact an interlink web of state corporations all of which do have names.

This post adds recent information expanding the historical context from past to present which sheds light on the true function of the Seed Capital Tax Credit and its role as a device for implementing special interest politics. This post is technical but a perfect example of "the devil is in the details"
http://bit.ly/1CLqAwG

Preserving The American Political Philosophy: Bill Proposed to Include Town of Berwick, Maine in Pine Tree Zone Corporate Welfare Benefits

Representative Beth O'Connor is sponsoring a bill to include the town of Berwick, Maine as an area qualified to receive Maine's Pine Tree Zone Corporate Welfare benefits.

When I joined the conversation and pointed out that there is something wrong with a picture where in there has to be special acts of legislation passed in order to include a specific town in Maine for a benefit which was originally created in 2003 for any area in the state of Maine that has high unemployment and low income. The Pine tree Zone statute was fundamentally transformed in 2009 amid minimal media coverage. The minimal media coverage reported that the Pine Tree Zone was being expanded to cover the entire state. If that was true why is Representative Beth O'Connor proposing a special act of legislation to include the town of Berwick in Pine Tree Zone benefits?
http://bit.ly/1D9mHoF

Andersen Studio Evolution Diaries: Andersen Design Seeks Slip casting Production Collaborator in Developing Prototype

Andersen Design of Maine has been designing and producing American slip cast ceramics since 1952. We have a large line of wildlife sculptures and functional forms which have maintained marketability over the decades establishing Andersen Design as a classic in their field. Andersen Design has traditionally used our own proprietary body and glazes. We will continue this tradition but are looking to develop another line based on standardized & widely available solutions applied to our classic line of functional forms. We are seeking another American slip casting company with whom we can collaborate in developing the prototype of our first product produced in this way.
http://bit.ly/1Fr4Isj

A Unique Vision For Reviving American Ceramic Slip Casting Production

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I have been expounding upon my vision for The Great American Ceramic Artists Designer Craftsmen Network for.many years without connecting to a ways and means for bringing it about.

• The central idea is to distribute production of the Andersen Design line through a string of independent slip casting productions,  I particularly envisioned businesses attached to the home.
• In order to maintain control over distribution of the molds, I envisioned one central mold maker who would distribute the molds to the network as needed.

This week I discovered a network of this sort which is already in place which came about through a conversation with the mold maker with whom I have been working with on the the wide gingerbread mug project.

I sent the mold maker a brief description of my vision, 

He came up with h a  suggestion that I contact some of the “Mom & Pop” business listed on his website. As I understand it, the mold maker's primary business is in providing molds for the industry that provides bisque for the public to decorate.

This idea has great potential.This is a network of existing slip-casters across the United States operating a home business, or else a small independent business. They have the production equipment and they like the work

I called one operation and found a woman on the other end of the phone who is very pleasant with whom it was easy to converse. She said she has a storeroom full of molds that she is going to pour- so she loves pouring. The business appears to be doing workshops in which the public decorates the bisqueware- that means they are working with people who love decorating. The level of creativity is likely similar to what is found on Etsy- which is the entire spectrum of talent . There would be, in this model, someone who is employed as the creative stylist. Ideas for decoration can be drawn from the pool of creativity of a public decorating bisqueware. A design royalty will be offered.for a pattern selected to be used in production of the Andersen line. This would provide an opportunity for people to take something that they do for pleasure and turn it into a career, following the tradition spawned by the popular TV show American Idol.

We have to convince a culture composed of free agents to do what they are already doing as a different kind of business.

One needs to at first find one such enterprise who would be willing to work with Andersen Design on these terms. The first entity will be the scalable model. Once something is working successfully. it is much easier to find others.

So I came up with an ambitious idea for a video documenting our mission to find ceramic slip-casters in the USA through which to distribute production of our historic line of ceramic functional forms and wildlife sculptures. Sich a video has potential to be marketed to cable TV such as Great American Country, which features rural American lifestyles.

The story line is that Andersen Design -also known as Andersen Studio, established in 1952 with the philosophy of creating a hand made product affordable to the middle class, now in 2015 our mission is to preserve a handmade work process and in so doing help to revitalize the American middle class lifestyle with a focus on the home business.- or as Daniel Pink wrote about in Free Agent Nation, the independent individualist American lifestyle which is the antithesis of the corporate grid.

In the ideal scenario a videographer takes a trip across the USA visiting various locations and documents the stories of those who are willing subjects, creating a narrative about a unique niche of American culture, which also becomes a journal through which a business such as Andersen Design can be in touch with that community. This is a story about how the individual desire to make things is always present, even when, as I was told by the owner of the studio that I contacted, many of the molds which are being used are made in China.

Taking it a step further, it would be a video documenting our journey in trying and hopefully succeeding in finding a network of slip casters to whom we can hand down the Andersen Stoneware tradition. The video would document our story of transformation from start to successful realization of The Great American Ceramic Artists Designer's Craftsmen Network.

Andersen Design has long been committed to remaining an American made product in a field in which most of the western industry has moved production to low wage global labor markets. Our line has been competitive with those products for decades. We believe the times are changing and that is all the more reason why the time is ripe for a revolution in American ceramic slip-casting and a more intimate work environment than the corporate grid being capitalized by government investments. America is meant to be a land where every one can find a place in which they fit.

The other way to approach this project is to get the studios to make their own videos perhaps by means of a contest and procuring permission to use what they have created in a larger video depicting a larger American story line.

For now it is just an idea in waiting. First I have to convince my own siblings, which is a unique process in itself.