Penny Press

Las Vegas, NV Volume 2 Number 29 A

PRIL 14, 2005

Our EnemiesWill Never See This Coming

Why Budget Cuts At Nellis Are A Really

Bad IdeaSee Editorial Page 6

THE PENNY PRESS, APRIL 14, 2005 PAGE 2

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Credits:Publisher and Editor: Contributing Editors:Fred Weinberg George Harris Al Thomas Circulation: Doug French Bill HereCharlotte Weinberg Dolores Lonergan Pat Choate Joyce Meyer Bob Jennings

The Penny Press is published weekly by 5010 Productions, Inc. All Contents © Penny Press 2005

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Commentary: Steve SansonEditor’s Note: Steve Sanson’s first try for political office—ward six city councilman—did not end in a victory. In fact, it wasn’t even close. But he worked so hard at it, we thought his per-spective would be interesting, so we asked him to write about his experience. His response follows:

This is a great country. It’s amazing how a Jamaican

born young man could join the United States Marine Corps and have the honor of becoming an American citizen and run for a political office.

I enjoyed running for the City Council Seat in Ward 6.

I collect bad debt for a liv-ing and I am use to dealing with some real nasty people.

Running for City Council made me reevaluate people and I found out that there are some really nice genuine people out there.

There are many people who care about our community and our way of life in Las Vegas.

It’s too bad that some of my opponents ran for office just to get their names in the paper or just to take away votes from true candidates who want to make a difference or to take away votes from one candidate to allow another to claim victory.

I find this to be selfish and mean, but the truth remains this is how politics works.

I also firmly believe that some candidates did run to make a difference.

I for one, truly care about

this community and the people that live in it. I believe that you should let the people know what you could bring to the table and the vision you have to better this community, instead of trying to tell people about someone else’s past. Your past is what makes you a better person today if you learn from it.

I learned that I can not do it all. I need to leave cam-paign strategy to my Campaign Manager. I need to have a fund raiser, schedulers, consultant, and someone to operate my grassroots.

I also realize that I needed to spend more time with my fam-ily throughout the entire cam-paign, meaning I should have had more family time instead of campaigning time. If I allowed volunteers to help me with my campaign, I would not have been so stressed out.

Las Vegas has not seeing the last of Steve “Devil Dog” Sanson I will seek an appoint-ment in an effort to help the residents of Las Vegas and to stay in the public’s eye. I will run again and I will learn from all my mistakes and turn those mistakes into a learning experi-ence.

I would like to thank all who helped me during my campaign and all who believed in me. The first step in being a candidate is that you have to believe in your-self and I had the first step.

Thank you Las Vegas from the bottom of my heart.

STEVE SANSON

By DOUG FRENCHContributing Editor

This speech was delivered on the occasion of Mr. French’s receiving the Center for Libertarian Studies’ Murray N. Rothbard Award in rec-

ognition of his generous dedica-tion to the ideals of liberty in the Rothbardian tradition.

It was only through a series of lucky breaks that I studied under Murray Rothbard.

After moving to Las Vegas in 1986, I decided to go back to school and pursue a Masters degree in Economics in the fall of 1989. Why economics? I minored in the subject as an undergrad and kind of liked it.

But, at the time MBA degrees were all the rage, and I was advised that an MBA would be better for my career, but I decided on economics. This was my first lucky break.

By the fall of 1990, I had taken 12 hours worth of Masters’ courses and was trying desperately to stay away from statistics and economet-rics classes. I spotted “History of Economic Thought” with Rothbard as the instructor in the UNLV course catalog and thought – perfect!

I mentioned to one of my class-mates that I would be taking the course with Rothbard and he strong-ly advised against it, contending that Rothbard was “a kook.” He said I should take the course independent study with another professor.

I didn’t know who Murray was, or what Austrian Economics was, nor had I heard of the term Libertarian. But, since I worked all day and took classes at night I didn’t

have time to hassle with lining up an instructor for independent study so I went ahead and took Rothbard. My second break.

The first night of class, Murray hit the door and started talking imme-diately, something about dumb poli-ticians threatening the evil oil com-panies that were raising gas prices. From that thought, he just continued right into his History of Economic Thought lecture. He didn’t take roll, or hand out a syllabus. Murray didn’t have time for that; he had centuries of history to cover.

So the 8 or 10 of us in the class furiously took notes trying to keep up. I didn’t know it at the time, but only half of us were taking the class for credit, the other half were just auditing the course, having taken it previously for credit. Murray changed his History of Thought lec-tures each semester, so students took it as often as it was offered. In the

fall of 1990, the course had a finan-cial history emphasis.

I also took Murray for US Economic History the following semester. But, I still didn’t know Murray at all. The only time we spoke was one night when there was a bomb scare at Beem Hall where our classroom and the school of business instructors’ offices were housed. Not being able to enter the building I went to the student union and saw Murray sitting with one of my classmates. I asked what was going on, and Murray mentioned the bomb scare. I sardonically suggest-ed to him; “We should send some underclassman in there to find it.” “I like the way you think, Douglas,” Murray shot back, cackling.

At this point I needed to decide whether to take a comprehensive test to complete my Masters or write a thesis. I was actually leaning toward

Penny PressLAS VEGAS, NEVADA 16 PAGES VOLUME 2 NUMBER 29 APRIL 14, 2005

Penny Wisdom

Economics is extremely use-ful as a form of employment for economists. —John Kenneth Galbraith

The Conservative Weekly Voice Of Las Vegas

Inside:Why Budget Cuts At Nellis Are SillySee Editorial Page 6

PAT CHOATE PAGE 5FRED WEINBERG PAGE 6BILLHERE PAGE 8AL THOMAS PAGE 10DIANE GRASSI PAGE 11JOYCE MEYER PAGE 12BULLRING RESULTS PAGE 13PET OF THE WEEK PAGE 15

Reminiscences Of Murray

Commentary

Continued on page4

THE PENNY PRESS, APRIL 14, 2005 PAGE 4

the testing route but someone talked me into writing a thesis. My third break.

But, other than the bomb scare conversation and taking him for two classes, I still really didn’t know Murray all that well and wasn’t comfort-able asking him to be my thesis advisor.

So, I spoke with Professor Rick Tilman about writing a thesis. However, Tilman couldn’t do it; he was not an instructor in the school of business. Break number four.

My fifth break was that the “Theory and Policy track” was still avail-able in the Economics Masters degree program. I believe that I was the last student to graduate via Theory and Policy. Subsequent to my completion of the program, the economics department graduate coordinator and others managed to dump the “Theory and Policy Track” to keep students from coming to UNLV to study under Murray and Hans Hoppe.

I then went to Murray and re-introduced myself to him. I asked if he would be my thesis advisor and proposed a subject. Murray welcomed me with open arms. He proceeded to rattle off about 20 sources on speculative bubbles to get me started and away we went.

I got to know Murray during the researching and writing of my thesis. But, I really still didn’t realize his greatness. To me he was just a good guy.

Over time I realized how brilliant he was. As a banker, I meet a lot of people – other bankers, customers, regulators, etc. who think they are bril-liant, and are anything but. They constantly work at convincing you that they know everything.

Murray was a guy who actually did know everything – but he didn’t act like it. He was never pompous, nor did he ever talk down to me or anyone else that I know of.

When I asked him a question he would start his answer almost humbly with “Well, in my view…”

He didn’t act like he had all the answers…but he did. Inexplicably though, he would occasionally ask me for advice: like

whether he should get a 15-year or 30-year mortgage. As for his professional stature, I didn’t have a sense of it until I attended

a Mises conference at Stanford. When I told some people I was from Las Vegas and studied under Murray these folks proceeded to beg me for my class notes.

Of course Murray was a walking bibliography. Every time I would meet with him he would give me more sources for my project. He provided not just the title, but author, publisher and often the year published. I can’t imag-ine having a better thesis advisor.

However the department chair Dr. Thayer didn’t give Murray high marks for his 1991 annual evaluation

Although the chairman rated Murray satisfactory in the area of teaching, he criticized Murray for having “only limited contact with most econom-ics students.” Incredibly, in the area of “Scholarly Research or Creative Activity” Thayer wrote; “Professor Rothbard’s performance in the area of professional growth has been disappointing.” Thayer also wrote that Murray was disappointing in the area of “Service.”

Chairman Thayer gave Murray an overall Satisfactory rating, but con-cluded his evaluation with: “Also, we expect professor Rothbard to partici-pate in departmental affairs, to teach more students, to be available as a role model for junior faculty.”

As one would expect, Murray blasted Thayer with a 3,000 word “com-ment” calling Chairman Thayer’s evaluation an “outrage.” Murray pointed out 11 of his scholarly accomplishments for 1991 that for some reason

Continued from page 3

Reminiscences Of Murray

Continued on page 7

Real PunishmentIn the good ole days, miscreants

were often forced to serve time in a public stockade, tied and put on view where the public could shame them. But that is too cruel for mod-ern sensibilities. Thus, we need a replacement – something short of jail time, but painful enough to be a deterrent that can really frighten people into good behavior.

My suggestion is to force the guilty ones to fly commercial in the cheap seats for specified periods of time, such as a week, or two weeks, or a month. Regardless of what time period a judge might impose, even a trip across country, will seem like a lifetime. Certainly, no sane person would want a repeat sentence.

Ah, those cheap seats. Someone educated in the details of the Spanish Inquisition must have designed them. United Airlines has two ver-sions. One is short cheap. The other is long cheap, which has an extra 5 inches of legroom. The short cheap seats are so close to those in front that the trays will barely come down without hitting the arm rests. They are so close that the passenger behind can easily look over the shoulder of the person in front and read along. Certainly, these seats are not for shy people. The long cheap seats have seat belts with just enough length to fit Twiggy. For those too young to recognize Twiggy, go to Google.

The food, well, there is no food on most airlines anymore, except in the first class seats, which costs several times more than the cheap

seats. For those in the air ghetto coming from Tucson to Washington on United, we were offered stale sandwiches and snacks for $5. The best description is they were filling.

As to reservations, thank good-ness, I am computer literate other-wise I could never schedule a trip. My accent is Southern, which means that the computers can never under-stand what I say and when I finally punch enough buttons and say help repeatedly, I get a live operator who still can’t understand. The reason is obvious – the airlines have out-sourced that work to some foreign place where the agents may have a passing understanding of standard British Broadcasting Corporation English, but not the dialect I speak. My only consolation is that about a third of the nation is from the South and probably all have the same trou-ble as I do with foreign-based reser-vation agents.

Of course, simply holding a res-ervation is no guarantee that you have a seat on a specific flight. I am writ-ing this piece from a hotel room near the Dulles Airport near Washington D.C. because I got bumped from a United Airlines flight yesterday and was forced to wait 24 hours, unless of course I wanted to make 4 stops, take 15 hours and arrive in the middle of the night for a flight that normally takes 6 hours and makes one-stop.

And why did I get bumped, my wife asked? I arrived at the ticket machine 45 minutes before the flight and it would not produce my ticket. When I went to a live agent behind the United Airlines counter, he told me that I could not check-in as the

flight was full and already board-ed. United had oversold the flight, boarded passengers early and then cancelled the tickets of those who arrived under a normal schedule. Of course, I see their logic. By knock-ing us later arrivals off the plane, United had no need to ask passen-gers to volunteer their seats with a reward of a later flight, hotel room, dinner and a bonus ticket. No. We draftees got none of that.

United Airlines’ big concession is that it booked me on the same flight 24 hours later at no charge for changing my ticket. Nothing else. I was on my own until then.

Fortunately, the Hyatt Hotel in Herndon, Virginia is a wonderful place to stay with an inexpensive weekend rate. When they learned that I had been bumped, they upgraded me to a small suite at no additional charge and then allowed me to checkout late, still at no addi-tional charge.

I will be staying at the Hyatt Hotels again. They seem to value their customers. I will probably have to use United Airlines again. They, of course, will be my last choice. Hitch hiking is now an option.

I guess the best thing about what United did to me is that it gave me time to write this article.

And one more thing. If Congress ever does allow judges to sentence people to air travel as a punish-ment, I suggest that they give United Airlines a priority consideration to mete it out.

They are really know how to do it.

PAT CHOATE

THE PENNY PRESS, APRIL 14, 2005 PAGE 5

Commentary: Pat Choate

The Penny Press Tips Its Cap To:Developer Larry Davis who is working on building affordable (well, as Las Vegas real estate goes, anyway) houses in the East Fremont neighborhoods near where this newspaper's offices are located. This is the exact kind of development which will bring young professionals back into the near down-town area and make the area as vibrant as it was 40 years ago.

The woman in Las Vegas who claimed mental distress and all kinds of other things for allegedly finding a human finger in a serving of Wendy's Chili in California. Seems that now that she is a target of an investigation, she's no longer talking to the media. What a relief.

The Penny Press Sends A Bronx Cheer And A Bouquet of Weeds To:The Nevada Assembly for passing a law creating a misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter so that when somebody gets killed in a traffic accident the driver can be charged with something, anything to avenge the alleged crime. Maybe the Assembly should create a crime called misdemeanor political stupidity. Of which all but one would probably be guilty.

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THE PENNY PRESS, APRIL 14, 2005 PAGE 6

OPINIONFrom The Publisher...

Leave Nellis Training Budgets AloneOn the front page of this week’s issue is a picture of an activity—when it’s performed in war—that you—and our enemies—will never see.

B2 bombers, unlike the rest of the aircraft in the United States’ bomber fleet, are designed to break things and kill people without being seen. And the picture of a B2 actually dropping bombs is a rarity.

The stealth technology, developed here in the United States at a fairly high cost, keeps us safe because it reduces our enemies to hijacking airplanes and crashing them into build-ings as opposed to using airplanes to bomb our cities. And as horrific as a terrorist attack is, the reason they cannot use weapons systems against our populace is that we have those kinds of attacks covered.

And if you think that 9-11 was big, imagine a nuclear attack from a bomber against New York City.

The fact is that the largest air force in the world is the United States Air Force. The second largest belongs to the United States Navy.

There are those within the media and politics who see this as an opportunity to cut budgets.

That line of thinking usually goes like this: The United States is so dominant that we no longer need all of that expensive hardware, so let’s spend some of that money on other things.

What those folks always forget is that we became dominant precisely because we are a nation which could invent that technology.

Nobody, certainly not anybody we know in the military, wants war.

But the way we keep the peace is deterrence. And nothing deters nations who would like to harm us like complete and total military superiority.

There is much more to air dominance than hardware.

The Air Warfare Center at Nellis Air Force Base provides the single most important part of the equation—superior train-ing.

As the now defunct Iraqi Air Force proved to the world, you can have some of the finest airplanes in the world but unless you have superior maintenance, pilots and tactics, your planes will be on the ground, blown up by B2s, B1s and F117s, during the first day of the war.

We realize that this is hard to take for people who don’t think we need to have a military in the first place, but he who ignores history is condemned to repeat it.

If the folks at the New York Times and other journals of the “hate America first” crowd don’t get their way by cutting hardware programs, the next thing they want to do is to cut the training.

Already, word of severe budget cuts at Nellis have made their way past the gates of the base.

Cutting the budget of what is already one of the most effi-cient training organizations in the world is the height of stupidity.

The fact is that the people in charge of the Air Warfare Center understand what it takes to properly train pilots and crews in the tactics and operations of the world’s most sophisticated weapons systems. They’ve been at it very successfully for many years.

And their track record speaks for itself.

So when civilian politicians who have limited knowledge of what it takes to go to war with the best trained forces in the world decide to make a financial decision, they ought to listen to the people whose trainees actually have to do the fighting. To the exclusion of the New York Times and its ilk.

If they don’t, we risk homeland threats which make 9-11 look like a food fight.

FRED WEINBERG

THE PENNY PRESS, APRIL 14, 2005 PAGE 7

Commentary: Doug French

www.pennypresslv.com

Thayer had overlooked. Commenting on Thayer’s rat-

ing him disappointing for service, Murray wrote:

In the economics department, I have attended and participated in all department meetings, and I have not refused appointment to any department committees. I don’t know what Chairman Thayer means by “seldom participating in the daily life of the department.” Teaching courses, advising students, keeping office hours, attending department meetings: what other “daily life” am I supposed to be missing?

The only clue in Chairman Thayer’s remarks is that I am sup-posed to be “available as a role model for Junior faculty.” Apart from wondering why Mr. Thayer should possibly want someone of “limited professional growth,” to serve as a “role model” I must say that the best way someone, including myself, can so serve, is to be allowed to go about his business as a scholar and teacher without being subject to harassment.

Along with Chairman Thayer, the Graduate Coordinator Tom Carroll was also antagonistic towards Murray and his students. After I had completed my thesis defense, Murray handed me a sarcastic memo that Carroll had circulated to the economics department faculty.

On Thursday, April 2, at 3:00 PM, Doug French will defend his thesis in room 518. Since he has not shared his thesis topic with me, you will have to learn that on Thursday. As far as I know, his com-mittee consists of Murray Rothbard, Hans Hoppe and Terry Ridgway. Nevertheless, all graduate faculty from the department are permitted to attend the presentation, ask ques-tions, and to make recommendations to the candidate’s committee.

Of course the idea that Carroll, as Graduate Coordinator didn’t know what my topic was, or who was on my committee was complete non-sense. He signed off on my Thesis

Prospectus form on October 2, 1991 approving my topic, and signed my Appointment Of Examination Committee form on November 21, 1991 approving my committee members.

Carroll’s memo clearly bothered Murray, but he didn’t want me upset so he didn’t show it to me until after I had completed my defense.

Murray’s mentoring didn’t stop when I completed my thesis and graduated. I moved to Reno but we stayed in touch by mail.

Murray encouraged me to take the part of my thesis that dealt with Tulipmania and submit it as an arti-cle for publication in various main-stream economics journals. He felt that I had a good chance for publica-tion, believing that I had made, as he put it, “a contribution.” However, none of the seven or eight econom-ics journals I tried shared Murray’s view.

In a December 1992 letter Murray wrote:

Your experience with the jour-nals reminds me that every time I’ve been rejected by a scholarly journal, I’ve been infuriated, not because of the rejection, but because the referees all seemed to be a pack of morons who missed the point of the article. Hence, I rarely submit stuff to the journals anyone.

But, Murray wanted me to con-tinue trying and mentioned three other journals to submit to.

A year latter Murray wrote:That’s monstrous about these

rejections; I might have told you that I’ve never received a rejection letter that furthered the alleged purpose of offering helpful criticisms, and I guess it’s still a perfect record. If you haven’t tried Economic Inquiry, and the Southern Economic Journal, you might try them, if Journal of MCB turns it down. I f all else fails, don’t forget the Review of Austrian Economics, which will certainly be receptive. [It wasn’t]

I was back in Las Vegas in December 1994, and went to see Murray. I waited over an hour for

him to show for his office hours. I gave up and took the elevator down to leave. But, as the elevator doors opened on the ground floor, there he was on his way to his office. We chatted for a while before he had to give one of his finals and (as was his custom) catch the red-eye to New York that night after grading all of his final exams and term papers.

I told Murray about a Liberty Magazine conference that I had attended that fall and a talk given by Bill Bradford entitled “Why Libertarians Love to Hate.” The speech was about Ayn Rand and Murray. Murray howled with laugh-ter when I told him about it. I had ordered a tape of Bradford’s talk and we made plans to get together

after he returned from New York to listen to it – what fun that would have been.

Unfortunately that’s a laugh we were never able to share. But, I consider it another lucky break that I waited around long enough to see him for – as it turned out – the last time.

I consider myself extraordinarily lucky to have known Murray and have the rare privilege to study under him. It is because of my good for-tune that I feel an obligation to help Lew and Burt continue Murray’s work and further his legacy.

Thank you for this magnificent honor and for this wonderful eve-ning.

Continued from page 4

THE PENNY PRESS, APRIL 14, 2005 PAGE 8

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THE PENNY PRESS, APRIL 14, 2005 PAGE 9

THE PENNY PRESS, APRIL 14, 2005 PAGE 10

Commentary: Albert ThomasMy Neighbor Got A New Car

I don’t know what kind it is, but I saw it on TV running full speed along the shore (I don’t live near the shore) throwing up spray or maybe it was that one climbing up the steep mountain trail thru the mud, rocks and snow. Very exciting. (I don’t live near the mountains either.) WOW! Just what I need.

But there are a few obstacles.It costs about $28,000. (That’s close to the

average annual wage.) I have perfect credit and they’ll give it to me for no money down. All I have to do is make the monthly payments for the next 5 years of only $541. Maybe it won’t be that much because I’ll be trading in my car and I have it almost paid for it.

I can see me now headed for the beach or climbing that mountain in that shiny new car.

I tell my wife.She says, “So”.I say, “Waddayamean ‘so’?”She elaborates that our car is almost paid

for and hasn’t a scratch on it. It looks like new when it is washed and waxed and runs great. She whacks me with if I want a different car we can have this one repainted and put on new slip covers. The transmission and AC have both been replaced and it has less than 100,000 miles on it. She remembers the engine is rated for 200,000 miles and the tires are good for another 50,000 miles. How does she recall those statistics? I can’t win for losing with this woman.

There is a tone in her voice that I know means finality when she iterates, “You might want a new car, but we don’t need one”. My reply is the car

might break down and may cost thousands to fix”. Her lightning reply, “Well, it won’t cost $28,000 and our insurance bill won’t go up either. If you want payments you can make an extra mortgage payment each month. Better yet let’s knock down that credit card debt.” I hear the air hissing out of my balloon. No beach. No mountains. Forget all that practical stuff like saving for retirement or having some extra cash put away for emergen-cies. Damn.

BUT - my neighbor has a new car. AL THOMASAl Thomas’ best selling book, “If It Doesn’t Go Up, Don’t Buy It!” has helped thousands of people make money and keep their profits with his simple 2-step method. Read the first chapter and receive his market letter at www.mutualfund-magic.com and discover why he’s the man that Wall Street does not want you to know.

www.pennypresslv.com

THE PENNY PRESS, APRIL 14, 2005 PAGE 11

Commentary: Diane GrassiLatest Totalization Agreement Threatens Social Security

One need not be an expert in fiscal spending nor have access to the inner circle of Capitol Hill to know that Social Security needs a boost in funding in order to sustain itself for more than the next two decades.

As President Bush has traveled throughout the country for over two months now, citing his plan to privatize Social Security, few of us have been informed about a misguided agreement signed between the United States and Mexico which potentially threatens Social Security’s long-term health.

On June 29, 2004 the Commissioner of Social Security and the Director General of the Mexican Social Security Institute signed a totalization agree-ment which would allow Mexican citizens working illegally in the United States to earn Social Security coverage credits. The execution of the agree-ment represented the first step towards its approval process in becoming legislation. It was then sent to the White House and the State Department for review. Ultimately President Bush decides whether or not to send it to the Congress for approval. The Congress then has 60 days in which either the House of Representatives or the Senate must write legislation to then approve or disapprove of the agreement.

At this juncture preliminary legislation has already been proposed by Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R-AZ) and by Rep. Virgil Goode, Jr. (R-VA) in order to prevent the fruition of such legislation. Both of their proposals are cur-rently in committee as Hayworth’s bill, H.R. 20, was submitted to the House Committee on Ways and Means on 1/04/05 and to the House Subcommittee on Social Security on 1/25/05. Likewise, Goode’s bill, H.R. 50, was referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means on 2/09/05 and to the House Subcommittee on Social Security on 2/17/05.

Both Congressmen presently continue to rouse up support of their pro-posed legislation on Capitol Hill in order to be ready for when and if the White House submits the U.S.-Mexico Totalization Agreement to Congress for approval. They as well as anti-illegal immigration advocate Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) are gearing up for this all-important fight.

Rep. Hayworth sees the totalization agreement as an issue which regards the solvency of the Social Security fund as opposed to an issue of illegal immigration. But logic dictates that it would not be a Social Security issue if the U.S. did not have an illegal immigration crisis. Hayworth claims that under the agreement Mexican beneficiaries will have access to billions of dollars from the Social Security trust fund. In addition many millions more could be grandfathered into the Social Security system should Congress enact the president’s guest-worker program.

In a report by the Government Accountability Office in September 2003 concerning the solvency of the Social Security trust fund, the figures at that time did not directly consider the estimated millions of unauthorized work-ers in the U.S. With the new totalization agreement, unauthorized illegal immigrants could qualify for Social Security benefits with as few as 6 cov-

erage credits as opposed to the previously required 40, combined with earn-ings from Mexico. Additionally the illegal worker could qualify for partial benefits after only 18 months while the American worker would still have to work 10 years in order to vest. And further to benefits being paid out to just the worker, family members of Mexican workers would be entitled to benefits as dependents and survivors, even if not residing in the U.S.

The primary argument against the totalization agreement is that it rewards illegal acts and helps to bail out the economy of Mexico while shunning the American people. At such a time when Capitol Hill holds daily debates about the solvency of the Social Security trust fund, it makes no sense to drain up to $345 billion dollars from it over the next two decades, by rewarding illegal aliens and their families with such benefits. While U.S. citizens have contributed toward the Social Security system their entire working lives they have now been told by the president not to depend on it as a source of income when they reach retirement age if they are presently under the age of 50.

According to Rep. Tancredo, unlike the 20 other totalization agreements the U.S. has with other foreign countries mostly in Europe, the agreement with Mexico is not reciprocal with the primary burden on the U.S. Both Hayworth’s and Goode’s resolutions wrest their disapproval of the totaliza-tion agreement on the fact that the Social Security Administration simply avoided relevant figures and projections of the illegal Mexican population currently residing in the U.S., in addition to the continual arrival of thou-sands of illegal aliens crossing our southern border daily, when evaluating its fiscal health.

Had we not been bombarded by the powers-that-be in Washington on a daily basis with talk about retro-fitting and privatizing Social Security, since before the 2004 presidential election, many of us would have even less information about what is taking place behind the scenes. But the impact of illegal immigration is now being felt by the average American as it pres-ently impacts many areas of the quality of life in the U.S. So it is astounding that our lawmakers, with the exception of a very few, as well as the White House believe they can just pass this legislation without retribution from their constituents.

The obligation of our elected representatives and the president is to protect the interests of the American people. Yet we as the electorate can-not support proposed plans to redefine Social Security as we know it with only partial information. And likewise, the White House and the Congress in good conscience should not approve of nor vote on legislation on behalf of the American people with half-baked information that merely sounds good, only to find out later that the law is flawed. And while a majority of the voting public has identified the big disconnect between Washington and the American people our obligation is keep informed as much as possible and remain strident in defending our rights as Americans. We must make it clear that America is not for sale; not to foreign countries and not to our sell-out lawmakers.

DIANE GRASSI

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If You’re Disappointed, Get Reappointed!

Have you ever noticed how frus-trating life can be? Of course you have—no one can escape the chal-lenges of life and the frustrations, disappointments, and discourage-ments that come with it. But we must be very careful how we deal with these feelings, because if we allow them to build up, they can bring us into a state of depression. Depression is defined as “a hollow; being in a low state; a state of sad-ness; dejection”—and many, many people are dealing with this danger-ous problem in today’s demanding world.

I believe that one of the rea-sons so many people—including Christians—suffer from depression is because everyone has to deal with disappointment. When things don’t succeed according to our plans, it is normal to feel disappointed. But we must know how to deal with that feeling, or it can lead to something more serious.

As soon as we become disap-pointed, it is up to us to decide what we will do about it and how we will respond. I have found that if I stay disappointed for too long, I start to feel discouraged—and that’s not good, because discouragement is a little deeper problem than disap-pointment.

However, we cannot be dis-couraged and hopeful at the same time. As soon as hope comes back in, discouragement has to leave. Sometimes when we’re fighting to have a right attitude, we may vacil-late between hope and discourage-ment. The Holy Spirit is leading us to be hopeful, and Satan is attacking us with discouragement—and the ultimate decision is up to us.

If we are to have victory and keep our attitude hopeful, we must renew our mind according to God’s promises found in the Bible. We can look for Scripture verses that address our specific situation, and then we can make a decision to believe that

God will do what His Word says He will do.

When we turn our disappoint-ment over to God, He can reappoint us. In Philippians 3:13, Paul said that he found it important to let go of the past and press toward what was ahead. When we get reappointed after a disappointment, this is exact-ly what we’re doing. We’re letting go of the causes for the disappoint-ment and pressing toward all that God has for us…now, as well as in the future. We get a new vision and plan, a fresh outlook, a new mindset,

and we decide to focus on that. God will do wonderful new

things for those who are willing to let go of yesterday’s disappoint-ments. So if you are disappointed, make a decision to allow God to reappoint you. He always has some-thing fresh for us, but we must make a decision to change our focus and move forward.

God does not want us to be dis-couraged or depressed. He assures us that He is with us and reminds us of how much He loves us, how much we have overcome, and how

much we have to look forward to. Will you listen to Him and believe Him?

If you will listen to God and give Him the chance, He will cheer you up and make you feel good about yourself. He will give you peace about the past, joy for the present, and hope for the future. JOYCE MEYERFor more on this topic, you may order Joyce’s six-part series, Victory over Depression, which is available by calling 1-800-727-9673 or online at www.joycemeyer.org.

THE PENNY PRESS, APRIL 14, 2005 PAGE 12

Commentary: Joyce Meyer

THE PENNY PRESS, APRIL 14, 2005 PAGE 13

By TARA BARKISSpecial To The Penny Press

Super Late Model driver Mike Cofer dominated the Super Late Model race during opening night of the NASCAR Dodge Weekly Series at the Bullring at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Mike Cofer was the fastest quali-fier and went on to lead the entire race. Thane Alderman was in a close second throughout the race but Cofer was able to hold him off for the checkered flag. Thane Alderman finished second, while Scott Gafforini captured third posi-tion. Tom Lovelady finished fourth.

“Thane, he’s a heck of a guy,” said Cofer. “He ran clean. He dipped his nose down in there a couple of times. I think he knew I was going to bury it on in there and close the door on him. That’s what we had to do.”

Matt Jaskol of Las Vegas was the top qualifier and the race winner in the Speed Trucks division. This was only his second oval race.

“This was amazing,” said Jaskol. “I can’t believe it. I knew I wanted to win coming into this thing in front of my hometown but I didn’t dream of this.”

Brian Matzke won the 3-888-LAW Chargers main event. Phil Goodwin finished second followed by Fred Kiser and Tom Youman.

Josh Gross found victory lane in the Delta Gunite Legends division followed by Zach Kavert and Rick Rogas. Dustin Ash was fourth.

In the Sudden Impact IMCA Modifieds division, Matt Williams took the checkered. Aaron McMorran finished second followed by Randall Bore and Larry Gerchman.

Joe Crouch won the season open-er of the 7-Eleven Bullring Bombers followed by Tom Gallagher and Gary Wyatt.

Official results from Bullring, April 9

Super Late Models Main Event Results (50 laps): 1. Mike Cofer, 2. Thane Alderman, 3. Scott Gafforini, 4. Tom Lovelady, 5. Chuck Trickle, 6. Spencer Clark, 7. David Anderson, 8. Justin Johnson, 9. Jimmy Parker Jr., 10. Travis Swalwell, 11. Steve Anderson, 12. Rich Attasani, 13. Taylor

Barton, 14. Ray Hooper, 15. Richard Bridges, 16. Eric Bauer, 17. Nick Parmelee, 18. Brett Edwards, 19. Charlie Pike, 20. Eric Sweetman, 21. Chris Gerchman, 22. Billy Mitchell, 23. Kyle Cline, 24. Dow Woerner, 25. Bob Wickey, 26. Brandon Schilling

Speed Trucks Main Event Results (75 laps): 1. Matt Jaskol, 2. Darren Young, 3. Kyle Cattanach, 4. Clay Andrews, 5. Alex Haase, 6. Matt Daly, 7. Jim Putman, 8. George Antill, 9. Bobby McGowan, 10. Steve Guccione, 11. Scott Dodd, 12. Terry Young, 13. Joe Farre, 14. Donny Goodwin, 15. Lee Hatch, 16. Kenny Smith, 17. Kevin Fedders, 18. Justin Fisher, 19. Moses Smith, 20. Don Davis, 21. Bobby Sayers, 22. Marcus Smith, 23. Robby Mott, 24. Robby MacDonald, 25. Joey Mogar, 26. Scott Franchimone, 27. Patrick Britan, 28. Andy Allen

Chargers Main Event Results (25 laps): 1. Brian Matzke,

2. Phil Goodwin, 3. Fred Kiser, 4. Tom Youman, 5. Rollins, 6. Jim Petrie, 7. Bill Mullen, 8. Joe DeGuevara, 9. Wade Reeder, 10. Steve Dessor, 11. Dale Ward, 12. Jimmy Wilson, 13. Mario Opipari, 14. Jerry Gentry, 15. John Delapenna

Master Legends Cars Main Event Results (25 laps): 1. Rick Rogas, 2. Darin Carlton, 3. Ken Neff, 4. Fletcher Hammond, 5. BJ Bollman, 6. Mike Leavitt, 7. Jim Galza, 8. Kurt Minnick, 9. Larry Toddy. 10. Robby Guevara

Pro Legends Cars Main Event Results (25 laps): 1. Josh Gross, 2. Dustin Ash, 3. Derek Frohlich, 4. Chris Gedicks

Semi-Pro Legends Cars Main Event Results (25 laps): 1. Zach Kavert, 2. Johnny Morrisey, 3. Matt Williams, 4. Joel Montross, 5. Bear Rzesnowiesky, 6. Matt Mawhinney, 7. Jonathon Mawhinney, 8. Jeff Craig, 9.Rich Lombardo, 10. Steve Bracho, 11. Ryan Bird, 12. Mike Anderson, 13. Brandy Radke, 14. Eric Chelberg, 15. Keith Wellman

IMCA Modifieds Main Event Results (30 laps): 1. Matt Williams, 2. Aaron McMorran, 3. Randall Bore, 4. Larry Gerchman, 5. Chris Gerchman, 6. CJ Sherkenbach, 7. Dennis Lovelady, 8. Chad Stevens, 9. Michael Riefler, 10. Joe Porche, 11. Russell Ward, 12. Gary Bryant, 13. Stoney Gray, 14. Dave McCall, 15. Michael Morrison

Bullring Bombers Main Event Results (40 laps): 1. Gary Wyatt, 2. JJ Nunn, 3. Anthony Finley, 4. Rick Lamb, 5. Vinny Raucci, 6. Wade Pearson, 7. Matt Cunningham, 8. Scott Grossardt, 9. Brent Rawlin, 10. Chris Dillon, 11. Russel Ward , 12. Chris Gray, 13. Dan Gardner (First-place finisher Joe Crouch (No. 08) and second-place finisher Tom Gallagher (No. K9) were disqualified after their cars failed to pass post-race inspection.)

Cofer Dominates Super Late Model Division At Bullring

THE PENNY PRESS, APRIL 14, 2005 PAGE 14

THE PENNY PRESS, APRIL 14, 2005 PAGE 15

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Pet Of The WeekAdopt This Pet !

Sweetie Pie is a six month old tabby/white female. She has been spayed and is current on yearly vaccinations. Sweetie does well with cats and dogs. She loves to play and is curious about the outdoors. She loves to sit in the sun in the window. Sweetie Pie is anxiously awaiting a new home.

If you are looking for a pet we will do our best to find you a pet that fits your needs and you will fit theirs.

This is just one of the pets awaiting a loving home.To inquire about a certain pet you can e-mail us at: adoptions@animaladoptionsltd.org or call 361-2484. Also, we need kitty litter and food donations.

Betty Honn founded Southern Nevada’s first no-kill, non-profit animal sanctuary in 1968. Since then, volunteers, contributors and patrons have made our daily operations possible.

Betty passed away in 1997, but not before saving countless thousands of animals from needless euthanasia. Her daughter, Teresa now continues the work, and is committed to fulfilling her mother’s vision.For more than 30 years, from kittens to Kodiaks, Betty Honn’s Animal Adoptions, Ltd. has provided refuge for animals.

THE PENNY PRESS, APRIL 14, 2005 PAGE 16

COMING TO

LAS VEGASNorth Las Vegas Airport

April 15th thru 17th