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Kansas Department of Health and Environment
The Division of Environment
Bureau of Air and Radiation
1000 SW Jackson, Suite 310 - Topeka, KS 66612-1366
Phone: 785-296-1593 - Fax: 785-296-7455
http://www.kdheks.gov/bar/index.html

Terry Tavener. Air Quality Engineer
Phone: 785-296-1570 or 785-296-1581
Fax: 785-291-3953
EMail: ttavener@kdhe.state.ks.us

We (signed below) have several urgent concerns regarding the impact of the construction and operation of the Ethenex Ethanol Plant at Jeffrey Energy Center on the surrounding environment and residents and their property.

We therefore ask for a public hearing on the permit application for the proposed Ethenex Ethanol Plant at Jeffrey Energy Center to address these concerns and to make sure there is ample time for local residents to participate, even those with limited time in their busy work-schedule.

1. Concern for Impact on the Environment

2. Concern for Impact on Traffic

3. Concern for Taking of Private Property

4. Concern for Limited Availability of Important Details

5. Concern for Redress and Damages

Amidst a firestorm of opposition to the Trans Texas Corridor the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) held the second annual Texas Transportation Forum on Wednesday, July 18 through Friday, July 20 at the downtown Hilton in Austin, Texas. The Trans Texas Corridor would be part of the planned NAFTA superhighway running from Mexico to Canada.

The forum was attended by what amounts to Texas Governor Rick Perry's constituency: highway construction companies, related contractors and sub-contractors, civil engineers, attorneys, bankers, international investors, and various state and federal bureaucrats, all seeing dollar signs in their eyes as they came together to discuss strategy and tactics aimed at conning the people of Texas into paying for their own economic and national demise by forcing Texas motorists to pay tolls on new and existing highways. Most attendees were there to promote their various business interests, but many were there to facilitate building the super-corridor system needed to make possible the North American Union — a merger of the United States, Canada, and Mexico into a single economic, political, military, educational, and cultural entity.

Rick Perry's vision for Texas, the Trans Texas Corridor, made it through the State Legislature in 2003. H.B. 3588, the enabling bill for the Trans Texas Corridor and, hence, the largest spending bill in the state's history, became law in large part because Texas' mainstream press, used as a watchdog, was inexplicably asleep.

On Wednesday, July 11, 2007 the House passed HR.2900 without allowing the Ron Paul (R-TX) amendments to protect dietary supplements. Representatives Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), John Dingell (D-MI), Henry Waxman (D-CA), and others falsely proclaimed that they were doing America a favor by passing this sweeping FDA-supported legislation that grants the rouge agency more power and money, and even transforms it into a quasi drug company.

Both the House and Senate (S.1082) have made the fatally flawed assumption that the reason for so many deaths and injuries from drugs was due to the FDA's lack of resources. In reality, it is the INTENTION of FDA management that is the problem, combined with the simple fact that multiple drugs are extremely toxic and don't work as advertised. Giving the FDA more power and money will only cause the agency to speed more drugs onto the market faster with even less safety testing -- while abusing its power and actively stamping out competition to drugs.

[Source Article]

On July 11, 2007, the U.S. House of Representatives passed HR 2900, blocking debate on the law and preventing the introduction of any amendments that might have provided meaningful drug safety protections for consumers. This action demonstrates that the House of Representatives, much like the Senate, is utterly controlled by Big Pharma and has abandoned any responsibility to defend the interests of the voters. Drug companies now have complete control over the U.S. Congress, and through a campaign of intense lobbying and financial influence, they have managed to easily water down a law that once proposed to end the American monopoly on pharmaceuticals and ban advertising on new drugs.

Instead of placing new restrictions on Big Pharma and the increasingly dangerous power of the FDA, this new law (a combination of HR.2900 and S.1082, when it is hammered out in conference) grants more power to the FDA while deepening the financial ties between the agency and drug companies. The law effectively surrenders America to a system of medical tyranny under which a criminally-operated FDA will continue to promote pharmaceuticals, censor nutritional education and discredit alternatives that threaten drug company profits. Nothing in the new law protects consumers' access to dietary supplements or natural medicine.

Congress had the potential to pass a really good law here -- one that would have ended direct-to-consumer advertising, banned conflicts of interest at the FDA, required the open source publication of drug trials and ended the U.S. monopoly on pharmaceuticals. Instead, Congress chose to do none of these things. It staged a song and dance about "FDA reform" while selling out the future of America's health to a tiny but powerful group of ultra-wealthy corporations that now virtually rule this country. There is nothing in the new law worth celebrating unless, of course, you are the CEO or major shareholder of a Big Pharma corporation, in which case you will like be stunned at just how cheaply and easily U.S. lawmakers can be bought.

[Source Article]

This is an urgent health freedom alert from NewsTarget. The deadline is tight: A vote is scheduled on the House floor on Tuesday, July 10th, to pass HR 2900 while blocking all amendments and debate. This would disallow the pro-health freedom Emord amendments which Rep. Ron Paul is ready to introduce on the floor. But thanks to Majority leader Nancy Pelosi, who has placed HR 2900 on a "Suspension Calendar" status, no debate or amendments will be allowed.

This may be a strategy by Pelosi to disallow pro-Pharma amendments from various congressional Republicans who want to water down the language, but it also has the side effect of sidelining important health freedom amendments that did not make it into the Senate version of the bill.

As an obstetrician who has delivered over 4000 children, I have long been concerned with the rights of unborn people. I believe this is the greatest moral issue of our time. The very best of the western intellectual tradition has understood the critical link between moral and political action. Each of these disciplines should strongly inform and support the other.

I have become increasingly concerned over the years that the pro-life movement I so strongly support is getting further off track, both politically and morally. I sponsored the original pro-life amendment, which used a constitutional approach to solve the crisis of federalization of abortion law by the courts. The pro-life movement was with me and had my full support and admiration.

Those who cherish unborn life have become frustrated by our inability to overturn or significantly curtail Roe v. Wade. Because of this, attempts were made to fight against abortion using political convenience rather than principle. There is nothing wrong per se with fighting winnable battles, but a danger exists when political pragmatism requires the pro-life movement to surrender important moral and political principles.

When we surrender constitutional principles, we do untold damage to the moral underpinnings on which our Constitution and entire system of government rest. Those underpinnings are the inalienable right to life, liberty, and property. Commenting upon the link between our most important rights, Thomas Jefferson said “The God which gave us life gave us at the same time liberty. The hands of force may destroy but can never divide these.”

Full article here:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/paul/paul100.html

The senseless and horrific killings last week on the campus of Virginia Tech University reinforced an uneasy feeling many Americans experienced after September 11th: namely, that government cannot protect us. No matter how many laws we pass, no matter how many police or federal agents we put on the streets, a determined individual or group still can cause great harm. Perhaps the only good that can come from these terrible killings is a reinforced understanding that we as individuals are responsible for our safety and the safety of our families.

Although Virginia does allow individuals to carry concealed weapons if they first obtain a permit, college campuses within the state are specifically exempted. Virginia Tech, like all Virginia colleges, is therefore a gun-free zone, at least for private individuals. And as we witnessed, it didnt matter how many guns the police had. Only private individuals on the scene could have prevented or lessened this tragedy. Prohibiting guns on campus made the Virginia Tech students less safe, not more.

Full article here: http://www.lewrockwell.com/paul/paul383.html

Those (so called) champions of less government,
Farm Bureau and NCBA,
Are creating a new monster
in collusion with the USDA.

Call it animal ID or insane delusion
or whatever you please,
Cost of implementation
will bring ranchers to the knees.

ID cost the Australians
$37.28 per head just last year.
Of course, NCBA's glib spokesmen
say we have nothing to fear.

In Farm Bureau promotions
they claim it's just another tool.
I say if you believe that
You're certainly a fool.

The IRS just keeps smiling;
they'll figure taxes when the calves are born.
And ranchers meekly sign up
just like sheep getting shorn.

The greatest threat facing America today is not terrorism, or foreign economic competition, or illegal immigration. The greatest threat facing America today is the disastrous fiscal policies of our own government, marked by shameless deficit spending and Federal Reserve currency devaluation. It is this one-two punch -- Congress spending more than it can tax or borrow, and the Fed printing money to make up the difference -- that threatens to impoverish us by further destroying the value of our dollars.

Full article here:
http://www.house.gov/paul/tst/tst2007/tst040907.htm