B. L. Hyde, Author, We The People

Hollwywood Book Festival Recognizes "We The People"

Congratulations to Bonnie Lee "B. L." Hyde.

The Hollywood Book Festival awarded her political thriller, We The People, an Honorable Mention at their award ceremony held on July 11, 2008 in Hollywood California.

The Hollywood Book Festival is produced by JM Northern Media LLC. Other book festivals they produce include; The New York Book Festival, The London Book Festival, and The Los Angeles Holiday Book Festival.

Ms. Hyde is very proud and honored to have won this prestigious award and looks forward to many more.

Is a screenplay offer not far off?

See what the buzz is all about. Enjoy three free chapters of We The People by going to www.blhyde.com
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The Case for Capital Punishment

Jennie didn’t come home from school that Friday afternoon, she always came directly home and her mother was worried. She called the homes of all of her friends on the chance Jennie was with one of them, but none of them knew where she was. They all told her the last time they had seen Jennie was at the corner leading to her house.

Now Jennie’s mother was really worried, Jennie’s white first communion dress and veil was hanging on her door and she was to have used them at the following Sunday mass. Her mother was in tears when she called the Trenton Michigan Police Department, and told them her story.

The police took her story seriously, as they all knew her and her daughter. Trenton at that time was a fairly small town, and everyone knew everyone else and their kids. A policeman came to the house quickly to get a picture of Jennie and copied it for each member of the force and for the volunteers who would help in the search.

They found her body three days later in an abandoned fair grounds behind an old sign lying against a fence. She had been tortured and raped and her nude body shoved behind the sign. An all points bulletin was sent out to the surrounding towns and to every police departments in the state.

A Wyandotte police officer arrested a man who had tried to take a young girl from her front yard, but she screamed and her mother came outside and the man ran away. They called the police right away and they gave them a very good description of the man. The police found him cowering behind a trash barrel and arrested him. They called the Trenton police and invited them to be at the interrogation of the man.
While interrogating him he admitted he had been arrested before for abusing young girls and had just gotten out of jail on parole for the 3rd time. He also confessed to the murder of Jennie and told them where to find the body of another missing young girl in Trenton.

After finding the other body, the Trenton police took him into custody and back to Trenton. As he was getting out of the police car he made a move as if to run away.  The police officers told him gruffly to “Run you bastard, we need a good excuse to shoot you!”

He backed up and then pleaded not to be sent back to the Michigan State Prison as he knew the prisoners hated child molesters and he was harassed for all the time he had spent there on his three convictions.

Now we are debating whether repeat offenders should be tried as capital cases. Well, the case above is just one example of why he should have been tried that way the first time. I’ve heard the arguments against capital punishment; they say it’s not a deterrent to crime, and that the Bible says “Thou shall not kill,” That in fact is one of the commandants, and they also quote out of order the verse that says “Vengeance is mine sayeth the lord.” But they forget he also said “He that kills with the sword shall be punished by the sword.”

If capital punishment had been used in that man’s first offence he never would have been paroled 3 times to kill those two girls, and make a try for another. Treating these offenders with kid’s gloves and trying to treat them is a fantasy trip. They are all supposed to register as offenders but I’m sure some don’t or move to other states and continue to offend. When the police notify neighbors a registered offender has moved into their neighborhood, they cry discrimination. Worse yet some misguided citizens back them up.

It isn’t just child killers that should get the death penalty and although many grievous criminals are already on death row, they are allowed to receive, time after time, the chance to appeal and if all else fails to try to get the governors to change their sentences.

Now I know some of those were falsely convicted but they are in the minority, and I truly hope they or their lawyers can get their convictions overturned. Right here in Arizona we have a slew of convicts on death row. They have all spent years on appeals, but unfortunately, ther victims and their survivors have no appeal to the long legal battle allowed to the criminal.

These days, thank God, we have the benefit of crime labs and DNA testing that was lacking when Jennie was murdered. So there isn’t much doubt that those remaining on death row really did the crime. In fact some convicted men have been released because DNA proved they were not guilty.

Don’t try to tell me the death penalty should be outlawed. The argument that it doesn’t prevent crime is false, if that was so why do convicted criminals fear it so much?  In the days of the gas chambers and electric chair we may have made a case for cruel and unusual punishment, but at least I think today’s method of putting them to sleep for good is somewhat better. I know it is better treatment than they afforded their victims.

In case you think I made up the story of Jennie, I didn’t, as I lived in Trenton when it occurred. I was in high school at the time and took part in the search for her. Telling her story can still bring a tear to my eyes. By the way, the man who killed her was right, he was sent back to the Michigan Prison with a life sentence and before he had served two years of it was found dead in his cell with signs he had been beaten to death by at least one of the other prisoners. They never found his killer, but I really don’t think they looked too hard for him or them.      

Presidential Candidates Are Getting Too Personal

In this election, the Presidential Candidates, Barak Obama and John McCain are simply getting too personal and forgetting the issues. They should both stop personal attacks and concentrate on what the issues facing the nation. WE small business owners are the backbone of this country and faithfully pay our taxes
to the national government, our state and city.

Bill Gluth's Creative Business Strategy Blog talks about this craziness today at http://blog.billgluth.com/2008/08/john-mccain-and-barak-obamas-ad-hell.html

I would expect more from both candidates, especially John McCain, I think Obama would have a hard time remembering all of the homes he lived in in his life. I believe he is a typical liberal who will tax us to death and doesn't know that big business and small business are the ones that create jobs, the government can't do that without nationalizing our businesses.

Social Security or Social Disaster

Social Security is a controversial subject today. I wonder how many if not all the young workers even expect to get Social Social Security when they retire.
 
Since the time Social Security was established in 1935 to provide a floor for the workers owns savings or pensions, it has developed step by step into something far removed from the original idea. From 1935 through 1939 workers who retired before becoming fully insured, received a refund of their contribution plus interest.  However in 1939 our Congress in all of its "wisdom" canceled the refund provision and broadened Social Security to include dependents and surviving spouses.
 
Between 1937 and 1949 only 2 percent of the American payroll was taxed for Social Security, with a maximum payment of $60.00 per year. But by 1955 Social Security taxes had risen to $136.00 per year. In 1956 disability was added and in 1965 Medicare, by this almost everyone was covered.
 
All benefits and administrative cost are paid for by Social Security taxes which should be and at one time were put into a trust fund.
 
Trust Fund!  Now that has a nice ring to it doesn't it? Visions of a professionally managed, well invested instrument! However, since the refund provision was eliminated in 1939, today's workers must pay at least 10 years worth Social Security taxes to have the right to any benefit at all. IF a
worker, for some reason, falls as little as three months short of the ten year limit, they may receive no benefit at all. Some Trust Fund HUH??
 
From the original signing of the Social Security Act in 1935 ther has been a continual upward spiral of both Social Security taxes and benefits with no relief in sight. Most young workers today no longer believe they will ever receive any Social Security benefits; yet they are locked into the tax and our always loquacious Congress, ever looking to the next election, are afraid to touch this Sacred Cow. and it has become a political football.
 
There in lies the problem, so maybe it's time to take it out of the hands of , and as Pat Murphy said several years ago, "turn it over to private investment firms who have the experience to make an investment grow." At the very least create a semi-autonomous Government Corporation,  managed by actuaries who would be forbidden by law to meddle with the program or treat it like a political birthright.
 
Benefits of such a change could be manta, workers, particularly the younger workers might well have a better life and earlier realization of their financial dreams.  Business, especially small business, relieved of some of the heavy burden, may see their books go from red to black ink and show a profit, and some of it might even trickle down to the consumer.
 
One wonders if human nature has changed at all in the last two centuries. We have only to look at the bungling Federal budget deficit and the present threat of the collapse of Social Security to know it has NOT!!!
    
Social Security or Social Disaster? The choice is ours. We can stand by and watch the Social Security system collapse from it's own weight or we can take action by writing our representatives or confronting them at political meetings and telling them We are tired of their fiscal insanity!

Fiscal Sanity Rests in YOUR Hands Now

Administration officials admit most if not all American Citizens could not afford to take advantage of any of their projects. I say they have learned to vote themselves largess from the public's treasurary.
 
Please be aware that HUD alone is not at fault here. there literary dozens of dubious expenditures permeating our budget. still our congress keeps pushing them through, even though the billion dollar deficit keeps growing. This year hasn't been any different they funded a bridge to nowhere in Alaska.
 
The tragedy  here is Congress knowingly vote to spend more than the U.S. treasury is taking in and in essence is thumbing it's nose at the lowly taxpayer.
 
How do they get away with it?  Well we let them!  We allow this waste by apathy....We all know the budget is filled with waste, but we fail to express our anger. Our news media, ever vigilant to snoop out political dirt, has failed miserable to raise a big fuss about it and keep before the citizens.
 
We are all to blame for this budget farse. We all are part of the problem and we can all be part of the solution. 

Congress has again raised the Government Debt ceiling  on top of the trillions already accumulated. For your information: 1 trillion dollars would go around our globe 4000 times.
 
If the spending is allowed to continue, debt, which you reading this today will never see paid but pass on to our children and grandchildren and they to their children.
 
If this made you angry, my friends I'm glad! For you can stop this madness! Call or write your representatives and make them answer tough questions when they appear in your town. I will list the address for writing your representative, both your Senator and Congress manor woman.

If you don't know who they are shame on you, but you can find out by calling your local political headquarters.
 
You can write to your State Senator, By name, The honorable--------, Senate Office Building, Washington, DC  20510.

Congressman, The honorable----- House Office Building, Washington DC  20515.
 
Please get involved!  It way past time more of us raise our voices and cry STOP!! Let them know  that you care about fiscal sanity. Your voice will be heard.

Examing Waste in the Federal Budget

Lets examine just a few instances of waste in the Federal Budget. The department of Housing & Development (HUD's) Urban Development action Grant Program, (UDAG) UDAG is an excellent example of pork barrel fat which should not just be cut but suctioned out.

Please note, this program is a grant not a loan UDAG cost we taxpayers $225 Million a year. This administration wants this plan abolished.

However, the big spenders who control the purse strings in congress have steadfastly refused. They cry that it is needed to stimulate local investment and new jobs.

What they really mean is it may dies-stimulate their chances for re-election. Examine with me just a few of the grant that have been awarded in the past few years. These are typical examples of your tax dollars at work through the UDAG. You be the Judge!

One year alone $1.7 Million went to Corning Glass, the makers of expensive Corning Wear. $1.5 Million of the grant was for the upgrade of Corning's melting furnaces, I could not discover why the other $.2 million was granted.

$23.9 million was granted to Detroit. Now Detroit is a depressed area, and I know those funds could been used to create jobs for the needy. However, that's not what the grant was earmarked for... $1.5 million was earmarked for the purpose of clearing a site for a new Chrysler plant.

Now that year Chrysler earned $21.2 billion, yet they couldn't clear their own building site? $8.9 million was earmarked to help renovate Detroit's Book Cadillac Hotel. When it was finished it had 471 luxury rooms, class A office space and a 600 space parking facility.

I'm sorry, but I find it hard to believe that the poor of Detroit will get much from that grant except a few minimum wage jobs.

$10 million went to a Philadelphia Real Estate Developer to build Festival Mall, with Gourmet shops, Boutiques, a 1st class restaurant and a theater.

$10.6 million in funds went to New Haven Connecticut , one of the richest cities in our country. The grant was for 530 housing units, retail space and parking facilities. While we all know low cost housing is needed disparity all over our country.

Officials in New Haven admitted only about 20% of those new or refurbished units were available to low or moderate income residents. And you thought Hud was supposed to help the low and moderate income citizens!

This list of Hud's giveaways goes on and on and our lawmakers have the audacity to tell us, "If Uncle Sam didn't disperse the money, these projects would never been built."

To that statement I say hogwash!

Do you have trouble visualizing a trillion Dollars?

That's a 1 with 12 0's following it. one month, a few years ago our congress passed the largest budget in our history and keeps adding to it.

Our congressmen are telling us they can't make cuts in the budget which they themselves mandated by passage of the Grahm Rudman act in 1986.

Then they tell us they would have to cut all of the programs to the bone, but the truth is there's still a lot of fat on those bones. Where, they ask, can the budget be cut without hurting essential social programs?

That's a good Question! But first lets discuss our original form of government....... Our form of Government was never meant to provide for us from the cradle to the grave. That is neither a Democracy nor a Republic, it is Socialism pure and simple.

Alexander Tyler said it best, writing in George Washington's time. Tyler wrote: "A democracy can only exist until the voters discover they can vote themselves largess from the public treasury." He went on to say...... "From that moment on, a majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury resulting in the collapse of the democracy over a loose fiscal policy. Always followed by a dictatorship.