I don't know how this slipped by the radar but tonight the Round Rock City council will have a hearing to raise the tax rate. I encourage all citizens to attend the meeting and voice your opinion of higher taxes!

This Wednesday, Former Governor Richards has passed away. The real "tough grandma" will be sorely missed as her laugh and smile were highly infectious. She was a beacon of hope for silver citizens with her fight with Osteoporosis. She took to her fight with esophageal cancer as she did with her battle with Osteoporosis. The good lord has other plans for her and brought her home.

Your work was a success, may you enjoy retirement. Rest in peace

1. The region that includes Williamson, Travis, Hays, Bastrop, and Caldwell Counties was home to approximately 1.2 million people in 2000. This region is expected to more than double in population by the year 2035. If this growth occurs, which of the following statements best describes how you think the region should grow?

• Continue to grow as we have in the past, with most population growth being accommodated in new single-family residential subdivisions on the edges of Austin and neighboring cities.
• Accommodate more growth in central Austin by constructing new condominiums, apartment buildings, townhouses, and office towers.
  

I'll start with the anti Libertarian trends in American medicine. Any changes which remove choice from individuals and puts it into the hands of government must eventually result in loss of liberty for individuals. From this perspective, the provision of health care by the government (a responsibility of the federal government not found anywhere in my copy of the Constitution) must enroll in Medicare and begin to pay premiums no choice allowed, that you can use this government mandated health care benefit you must go only to physicians who are approved by the government you can see that there is definite loss of choice involved. Even more coercive for physicians, once a physician has joined Medicare as a provider he or she must submit copious paperwork in order to unjoin and must resubmit paperwork every two years in order to remain a non-provider of Medicare services and should a non-provider physician accidentally have a claim for payment submitted to Medicare, even by the patient without the physician's knowledge, the physician faces heavy fines or even jail time. So the physician's freedom has been curtailed. And of course the taxpayer's choice on how to spend their own money has been lessened by the amount the government must tax them to pay for Medicare, currently 1.5% of every dollar you earn starting with the first dollar of earnings each year.

CAMPO Survey

Considering the attitude that the CAMPO board has displayed at the toll road meetings I am surprised to see this on their web site.

If this is anything short of dissolving a regional authority and leaving the mobility planning to the elected officials, then they can count on a poor score from me.

(CNN) -- A federal judge on Thursday ruled that the U.S. government's warrantless wiretapping program is unconstitutional and ordered it ended immediately.

In a 44-page memorandum and order, U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor, -- who is based in Detroit, Michigan --struck down the National Security Agency's program, which she said violates the rights to free speech and privacy.

"NSA eavesdropping program ruled unconstitutional" (2006) CNN website: www.cnn.com
retrieved on 8/17/2006
http://

First of all, considering that Libertarianism is based on maximizing the freedom, independence and responsibility of the individual citizen, it would mostly be a "non-system".

No prescription required! You could buy any medication you desired in any quantity at your local drugstore or online from any vendor in the world. Caveat emptor. About the only responsibility of the government might be to insure that the product you were buying was what it was labeled to be and that false advertising was not allowed. The "Pure Food and Drug Act" would be once again relegated to assuring that the drugs you buy are pure and unadulterated and will do what they claim to do. If you wanted to go to some sort of "health provider" and get a prescription, fine, if not fine also. Education as to the benefits and risks of medications would be required but need not be done by the government but could be done by the private sector with government oversight to assure that the information provided is unbiased. No license required! Any individual could be a "health care provider". You could spend your dollars (or the dollars your insurance company has agreed to spend on your behalf) on any sort of provider you want. Physician, nurse, chiropractor, holistic practitioner, acupuncturist, whatever would all be allowed to do what we now reserve to physicians. You contract with an individual to take a medical history, do a medical examination, and treat according to what you and they agree is proper treatment. If you chose to go to a chiropractor for your back pain or even for your lung cancer or your appendectomy, that would be your lookout.