Bush... hater of the poor

From Scripps Howard....

Seven years ago, Mangano took over the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, reporting to the White House and setting out as a kind of evangelist to convince local governments to sign up for 10-year partnerships with the federal government. Saying yes were 350 communities in which some 90 percent of the homeless live, and guess what? According to data from as recently as 2007, the number of the most seriously disabled out on the streets is down by 30 percent.

It's a remarkable story that maybe you haven't heard because the administration -- frequently said to be unconcerned about the poor -- has avoided bragging. This is a non-partisan effort -- the arrangements being made are with officials of all parties, but mainly Democratic mayors. If the Democrats sense any political advantage seeking by Republicans here, they might be more reluctant to participate, and the administration has therefore sacrificed publicity for the sake of getting something done.

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Boy George Performs "Yes we can"

Meet Obama supporter Boy George. Good luck to him while he meets some new boyfriends in the slam.

Outliers

I just finished reading the book Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell.

In the book, Gladwell takes various anecdotes of success and analyzes them from a statistical viewpoint. He looks at the computer gazillionaires (Jobs, Gates, Joy, et al.) as well as The Beattles and NHL hockey players.

His treatise is that few people are truly self made. More often, there are many other factors in determining success.

However, there is one items that's within one's control in determining success. Gladwell calls it the 10,000 hour rule. Mainly, in order to be successful, one needs 10,000 hours in their discipline to master the field.

As I've read the accounts of the US Scareway airliner that went down this week it had me wonder. Do you think Sully had 10,000 hours of flight time in?

It was his experience that ultimately saved that plane.

What is your 10,000 hour discipline? Unfortunately, for too many Americans the answer is guitar hero.

Congratulations Loveland schools

From the Enquirer....

Loveland High School earned the silver medal on U.S. News and World Report second annual list of America’s Best High Schools.

Loveland was inadvertently left out the initial announcement made in December.

America’s Best High Schools recognizes three categories of distinction: gold, silver, and bronze.

Analysis is based on: standardized test performance; proficiency rates of all students, including the least advantaged; and challenging college-ready curriculum.

The silver medal recognizes high schools meeting all three criteria. Out of the 821 high schools in Ohio, only 5 percent were awarded a silver or gold medal.

Out of curiosity, I wonder how many of the schools on this list are run in blue areas v. red ones.

Hamilton County seeks refuge for their incompetence

I'm pretty sure that some how Mike Brown and Bernie Madoff are related somehow (Just look at the initials MB - BM). In my mind, both are thieves and deserve time in prison. Unfortunately, Mike Brown operated through the government, the same protection senators get for their trillion dollar Ponzi scheme known as Social Security.

None the less, it is absolutely ridiculous for Hamilton County to go back to Brown and ask him to re do the lease on the Mecca the county built for that ass hole.....

The Cincinnati Bengals have made their last rent payment for Paul Brown Stadium, and in 10 more years taxpayers will start paying part of the salaries of tomorrow's Ocho Cincos and Carson Palmers.

Hamilton County Commission President David Pepper says that's a problem, and wants help from the Bengals or the NFL.

But Bengals owner Mike Brown said Thursday the team is being scapegoated again.

With county budget deficits causing cuts in jail space, prisoner releases and public safety concerns, Pepper told The Enquirer he's considering a plea to the NFL for a bailout. "It may be a Don Quixote mission, but it's worth raising," he said. "It's a bleak contrast. We have this first-rate stadium on the river, and 10 blocks north we have an under-funded county government."

Brown replied, "I'm surprised at the remarkable staying power of the political arguments around this project. There have been many attempts to scapegoat this situation for political reasons. I just think it's odd how it has cropped up here."

Brown's right. He's still a pile of excrement but in this case he is correct.

The county, under the leadership of Bob Bengalhaus, gave the Bengals the most lucrative lease in the NFL and now they want to renegotiate.

Exactly, how does the county come up with the stones to go back and ask for a renegotiation after they gave this douchebag the deal of the century?

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Kim Jong Il or US president? You decide

For the celebration of Kim Jong Il's inauguration.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

The Boss

A mass email I got from a friend and client. I'm sure it's not legit but it still makes the point.....

MEMO

To: All Employees

From: Your Boss

RE Job Security

There have been some rumblings around the office about the future of this company, and more specifically, your job. As you know, the economy has changed for the worse and presents many challenges. However, the good news is this: The economy doesn't pose a threat to your job. What does threaten your job however, is the changing political landscape in this country.

However, let me tell you some little tidbits of fact which might help you decide what is in your best interests.

First, while it is easy to spew rhetoric that casts employers against employees, you have to understand that for every business owner there is a Back Story. This back story is often neglected and overshadowed by what you see and hear. Sure, you see me park my Mercedes outside. You've seen my home at last years Chris tmas party. I'm sure; all these flashy icons of luxury conjure up some idealized thoughts about my life.

However, what you don't see is the BACK STORY :

I started this company 28 years ago. At that time, I lived in a 300 square foot studio apartment for 3 years. My entire living apartment was converted into an office so I could put forth 100% effort into building a company, which by the way, would eventually employ you.

My diet consisted of Ramen Pride noodles because every dollar I spent went back into this company. I drove a rusty Toyota Corolla with a defective transmission. I didn't have time to date. Often times, I stayed home on weekends, while my friends went out drinking and partying. In fact, I was married to my business -- hard work, discipline, and sacrifice.

Meanwhile, my friends got jobs. They worked 40 hours a week and made a modest $50K a year and spent every dime they earned. They drove flashy cars and lived in expensive homes and wore fancy designer clothes. Instead of hitting the Nordstrom's for the latest hot fashion item, I was trolling through the discount store extracting any clothing item that didn't look like it was birthed in the 70's. My friends refinanced their mortgages and lived a life of luxury. I, however, did not. I put my time, my money, and my life into a business with a vision that eventually, some day, I too, will be able to afford these luxuries my friends supposedly had.

So, while you physically arrive at the office at 9am, mentally check in at about noon, and then leave at 5pm, I don't. There is no "off" button for me. When you leave the office, you are done and you have a weekend all to yourself. I unfortunately do not have the freedom. I eat, and breathe this company every minute of the day. There is no rest. There is no weekend. There is no happy hour. Every day this business is attached to my hip like a 1 year old special-needs child. You, of course, only see the fruits of that garden -- the nice house, the Mercedes, the vacations... you never realize the Back Story and the sacrifices I've made.

Now, the economy is falling apart and I, the guy that made all the right decisions and saved his money, have to bail-out all the people who didn't. The people that overspent their paychecks suddenly feel entitled to the same luxuries that I earned and sacrificed decades of my life for.

Yes, business ownership has is benefits but the price I've paid is steep and not without wounds.

Unfortunately, the cost of running this business, and employing you, is starting to eclipse the threshold of marginal benefit and let me tell you why:

I am being taxed to death and the government thinks I don't pay enough. I have state taxes. Federal taxes. Property taxes. Sales and use taxes. Payroll taxes. Workers compensation taxes. Unemployment taxes. Taxes on taxes. I have to hire a tax man to manage all these taxes and then guess what? I have to pay taxes for employing him. Government mandates and regulations and all the accounting that goes with it, now occupy most of my time. On Oct 15th, I wrote a check to the US Treasury for $288,000 for quarterly taxes. You know what my "stimulus" check was? Zero. Nada. Zilch.

The question I have is this: Who is stimulating the economy? Me, the guy who has provided 23 people good paying jobs and serves over 2,200,000 people per year with a flourishing business? Or, the single mother sitting at home pregnant with her fourth child waiting for her next welfare check? Obviously, government feels the latter is the economic stimulus of this country.

The fact is, if I deducted (Read: Stole) 50% of your paycheck you'd quit and you wouldn't work here. I mean, why should you? That's nuts. Who wants to get rewarded only 50% of their hard work? Well, I agree which is why your job is in jeopardy.

Here is what many of you don't understand ... to stimulate the economy you need to stimulate what runs the economy. Had suddenly government mandated to me that I didn't need to pay taxes, guess what? Instead of depositing that $288,000 into the Washington black-hole, I would have spent it, hired more employees, and generated substantial economic growth. My employees would have enjoyed the wealth of that tax cut in the form of promotions and better salaries. But you can forget it now.

When you have a comatose man on the verge of death, you don't defibrillate and shock his thumb thinking that will bring him back to life, do you? Or, do you defibrillate his heart? Business is at the heart of America and always has been. To restart it, you must stimulate it, not kill it. Suddenly, the power brokers in Washington believe the poor of America are the essential drivers of the American economic engine. Nothing could be further from the truth and this is the type of change you can keep. So where am I going with all this?

It's quite simple.

If any new taxes are levied on me, or my company, my reaction will be swift and simple. I fire you. I fire your co-workers. You can then plead with the government to pay for your mortgage, your SUV, and your child's future. Frankly, it isn't my problem any more.

Then, I will close this company down, move to another country, and retire. You see, I'm done. I'm done with a country that penalizes the productive and gives to the unproductive. My motivation to work and to provide jobs will be destroyed, and with it, will be my citizenship.

So, if you lose your job, it won't be at the hands of the economy; it will be at the hands of a political hurricane that swept through this country, steamrolled the constitution, and will have changed its landscape forever. If that happens, you can find me sitting on a beach, retired, and with no employees to worry about....

Signed, THE BOSS

And Atlas Shrugged

"Progressive" policies hurt the poor

It's always been my belief that liberal policies don't hurt the rich. They, after all, have the resources to circumvent onerous regulation and taxation.

No. Liberal policies overwhelmingly hurt the poor.

Now, some people are starting to get it....

Hollywood's Sundance Kid is hurting poor people.

So say some East Coast ministers and conservative activists, who took to the streets in front of a downtown Salt Lake City theater on the eve of Robert Redford's Sundance Film Festival to accuse the actor of holding down low-income Americans with his opposition to oil and gas drilling near national parks in Utah.

The protesters, led by the Congress of Racial Equality's national spokesman Niger Innis, suggested Redford should "relinquish his wealth" and live like a poor person. They complained that the filmmaker's anti-drilling stance could lead to higher energy prices for inner-city residents, forcing them to accept a lower standard of living.

The clergymen prayed for Redford "to see the light" and linked his environmental activism with racism.

"The high energy prices we're going to see this winter are essentially discriminatory," said Bishop Harry Jackson Jr. of the Hope Christian Church in Beltsville, Md., chairman of the High-Impact Leadership Coalition, a petroleum industry advocate.

A month ago, Redford, a trustee of the National Resources Defense Council, voiced support for a federal lawsuit aimed at blocking the Bush administration's "morally criminal" attempt to auction 103,000 acres of scenic redrock desert for oil and gas drilling near Arches and Canyonlands national parks and Dinosaur National Monument.

Do you think ole Bobby Redford has any problems heating any one of his how many homes?

I'm thinking no.

Do you think Bobby is hurting for a job?

Again, I'm thinking no.

Do you think Bobby, a liberal, has any compassion for the poor.

I think that's a big three strikes and your out.

More....

Another Branch Gorevidian

Speaking of crack pipe, will someone please pull Henry Waxman's from him.

The chairman of a key House committee said Thursday he will move "quickly and decisively" to push legislation curbing greenhouse gases with a goal of passing climate legislation out of his committee before Memorial Day.

Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., opening the new Congress' first hearing on the threats from global warming, said inaction on the climate issue is causing uncertainties that make it more difficult to emerge from the recession.

"Our environment and our economy depend on congressional action to confront the threat of climate change and secure our energy independence," said Waxman. "U.S. industries want to invest in a clean energy future, but uncertainties about whether, when and how greenhouse gas emissions will be reduced is deterring these vital investments."

Does this guy read the news? Bartman informs us that Chicago is about -400 degrees below zero but this guy is worrying about global warming? Huh?

I'm starting to wonder if Al Gore and the rest of the Branch Gorevidians are on some nationwide global warming tour, thus kicking in the Gore Effect....

By the way, I don't like to make fun of people's looks in general, but let's face it, would you invite Henry Waxman into a bathroom to do a couple of lines of coke with you? He'd probably snort up the whole bag.

The Stimulus Trap

The Weekly Standard with a great piece on the potential ineffectiveness of Keynesian economic models in today's current downturn (Thanks to reader Tim).

Pretty much everybody seems to agree that the economy needs stimulating. They agree on this because the United States has been in recession for more than a year and the outlook is bleak. There aren't a lot of options left to policymakers. In most recessions, the Federal Reserve increases demand by manipulating interest rates. But, in December, the Fed effectively lowered those rates to zero and lost a lot of its leverage over the economy. The nation's central bank now has to rely on other forms of monetary policy--mostly printing money--in order to help the United States pull out of recession. But that might not be enough.

By keeping interest rates so low for so long over the past decade, then lowering them some more after the recession hit, the Federal Reserve stumbled into a "liquidity trap." You get caught in a liquidity trap when monetary policy loses its effectiveness even though interest rates are at zero--just like today. It's as though the Fed has been dancing the limbo and has finally reached its limit. Rates can't go any lower to get money moving. The central bank has done all that it can do.

Let's put this into hip hop lexicon. Think of our economy like a crack whore. The feds have been artificially injecting liquidity into the market for years in the form of low interest rates and regulatory demands on banks to loan to dead beats. This created a huge boom in the business cycle and now that the economy is drawing down, it feels like a hangover.

It mirrors a crack whore in that it takes more and more crack to get the same high you use to get for $10.00.

Our economy is no different. The Obamamaniacs think that it's going to take trillions to turn around an economy that's been living on $300 billion deficits for years. Well it probably will until that next business cycle downturn... then it will take quadrillions or whatever denomination lot's of trillions are, to make another recovery.

To paraphrase Nancy Reagan, "Just Say NO!"

Now pass me the pipe.

Who did she vote for? #118

Meet Tamieko Gardner.

Why is Ms. Gardner in the news?

A Hamilton County mom is in big trouble after
leaving her three young children home alone for several hours Tuesday.

Tamieko Gardner, 29, apparently left the
kids, ages 8, 7 and 5, home for three hours without supervision. When they arrived, police allegedly found nearly a kilo of marijuana within reach of the kids.

Gardner is now being held without bond in the
Hamilton County jail. She is charged with three counts of child endangering and more charges could be pending.

So this past November, did Ms. Gardner vote for The Messiah or that democrat, John McCain?

HT WLW

But he was so open and sensitive when we met......

Remember all those criticisms of the Bush Administration for being so tight fisted with information. For always being secretive.

I guess we now have four more years of Bush......

President-elect Obama’s evident distrust in sharing with Congress sensitive information about the internal workings of his administration has begun to irk Democratic committee chairmen.

Obama and his top advisers took pride in running a leak-free campaign for president and since the election have kept tight controls on information.

They are discovering, however, that in Washington, where information is a valuable commodity, it’s not considered nice to hoard.

Ten committee chairmen in the Senate and House said that Obama’s advisers did not alert them ahead of time about the incoming president’s Cabinet selections. Nine of them learned of the picks from the media, even though the Senate committee chairmen have confirmation authority over them.

Hey, I'm the first guy who will line up to say "if congress is pissed, that's a good thing", but do you think there's a double standard here?

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Another liberal tax deadbeat

Wanted: a liberal who doesn't have any tax issues to assume the position of Treasury Secretary. Interested candidates can send resume to Charles Rangel.....

Timothy Geithner, whose nomination as Treasury secretary has been delayed by his past failure to pay taxes, was repeatedly advised in writing by the International Monetary Fund that he would be responsible for any Social Security and Medicare taxes he owed on income he earned at the IMF between 2001 and 2004.

Questions about Mr. Geithner's initial failure to pay more than $34,000 in taxes are clouding his prospects for confirmation. The Senate Finance Committee postponed Mr. Geithner's confirmation hearing from a tentative Friday date to next Wednesday, which means President-elect Barack Obama will take office without a Treasury secretary amid the biggest financial crisis in decades.

Current and former IMF officials said the fund provided numerous warnings to U.S. employees about payroll taxes. According to IMF documents released by the Senate Finance panel, Mr. Geithner regularly received information about his tax obligations.

Mr. Geithner didn't make any Social Security or Medicare tax payments on his income during the years he worked for the IMF, though he did pay income taxes. After the Internal Revenue Service audited him in 2006 and discovered the payroll-tax errors, Mr. Geithner corrected them for 2003 and 2004. Only after Mr. Obama picked him for Treasury secretary last fall did Mr. Geithner pay the Social Security and Medicare tax he owed for 2001 and 2002.

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Newpaper layoffs

Gannett is announcing layoffs and mandated unpaid furloughs in a cost cutting move.

Question for Gannett.

How many people does it really take to do a daily Cincinnati Enquirer now?

I figure it should take about three.

One to download the AP wire stories, another to run the photocopier of those stories and a third to deliver it to the four households that have subscriptions.

Seriously, is it me or has the paper shrunk significantly since they boosted the price to 75 cents?

You can get more information out of the local Auto Trader; which is free by the way.

These guys made their own demise.

Here's a taste of the news Enquirer style. On the web site the article is titled "Bundle up, it's cold outside".... As if you would never had noticed it without the hard hitting expose by your local rag.

Oh, the left's consistent hypocrisy

From a January, 2005 by line.....

The D.C. press corps failed to ask hard questions about the inauguration's huge cost and its unprecedented security.

Now.....

Barack Obama's inauguration is set to cost more than £100m making it the most expensive swearing-in ceremony in US history.

The President-elect will take less than a minute to recite the oath of office in front of an estimated two million people in the US capital next week.

But by the time the final dance has been held at one of the many inaugural balls the costs for the day will be a staggering £110m.

The cost was revealed as Mr Obama scrambled to answer questions about the nomination of Treasury Secretary pick Timothy Geithner.

Of course you'll notice the latter comes from a foreign newspaper since no American paper will touch a negative story on The Messiah.

Where's my global warming?

It's a good thing the Branch Gorevidians invented global warming. Otherwise my thermometer would have shown 8 degrees this morning instead of 10.

Where the hell is my global warming?

Modest Expectations From An Obama Supporter

A reminder....

Apparently, you still have to make your mortgage payment and put gas in your car until next Tuesday.

When adults take over

I heard a commentator a couple of months ago state "the most important thing to a politician is his next election".

So needless to say, Obama wins the White House and now seems to be back tracking on all those anti Bush sentiments.

I guess Obama, the campaigning teenager, became Obama, the adult boss.

For many liberals, that Obamagasmic "tingle going up their legs" from the campaign season -- to paraphrase MSNBC's Chris Matthews -- may have crept upward into stomach-churning queasiness as Inauguration Day nears. Consider this counterfactual: If John McCain had won the 2008 presidential election (just a scant half million votes needed to swing the other way in Colorado, Florida, Indiana, North Carolina, Ohio, and Virginia ... I know, I know), it's easy to imagine him picking Bono-approved, "new age" evangelist Rick Warren to give the inaugural invocation, leaving Robert Gates as defense secretary and proposing an economic stimulus package that included $300 billion in tax breaks for individuals and businesses.

Yet that's just the sort of "big change" Barack Obama has provided in the two months since winning a near-landslide victory over the man Democrats derided as "McBush." (Let's see will.i.am make a YouTube video about this right-turn of events.) Even worse for the Left, Obama advisers are now signaling, says the New York Times, "that they may put off renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement, overhauling immigration laws, restricting carbon emissions, raising taxes on the wealthy and allowing gay men and lesbians to serve openly in the military." You know, like, pretty much the very heart and soul of the liberal policy agenda. Even healthcare reform might only be getting what aides call a “down payment” as a "sign of dedication to the broader goals." Let the wretching begin, Daily Kossacks. (Fun Fact: Obama gave his big economic speech at George Mason University, a bastion of free-market scholarship.)

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But let's be eco friendly

I was talking to Mrs. Gekko the other day about Tom Brady, Patriot quarterback and model FB, about the staff infection in his knee and that there are reports he may miss next season because they can't clean out the infection.

According to Mrs. Gekko, her hospital no longer uses bleach as a cleaning agent since it's not environmentally friendly.

I guess staff infection is.

Then I read this story this morning...

One year after bleach maker Clorox started selling a line of natural cleaning products, it has reached the top of the market for eco-friendly cleaners.

The company plans to announce today that its Greenworks cleaners, made mostly with coconut oil, corn and lemon -- and without bleach -- have become the top-sellers among natural cleaners.

Clorox now has 42 percent of the total market, estimated to generate more than $200 million in revenue per year.

"We've grown [the eco-friendly cleaners category] by more than 100 percent since we launched," Clorox Chief Executive Don Knauss said. "Getting a national player in this space has really helped."

Clorox Co., based in Oakland, Calif., launched the Greenworks line in December 2007. It has used its distribution network and lower prices to attract shoppers away from competitors such as Method and Seventh Generation.

My thoughts... Why use use the Clorox "green" products to clean with? It's about as effective as not cleaning at all or using urine as a cleaning agent. If you want to actually kill germs, go buy the bleach.

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Nice pick

Another Clintonite chosen.....

Until last week, Carol M. Browner, President-elect Barack Obama's pick as global warming czar, was listed as one of 14 leaders of a socialist group's Commission for a Sustainable World Society, which calls for "global governance" and says rich countries must shrink their economies to address climate change.

By Thursday, Mrs. Browner's name and biography had been removed from Socialist International's Web page, though a photo of her speaking June 30 to the group's congress in Greece was still available.

Socialist International, an umbrella group for many of the world's social democratic political parties such as Britain's Labor Party, says it supports socialism and is harshly critical of U.S. policies.

The group's Commission for a Sustainable World Society, the organization's action arm on climate change, says the developed world must reduce consumption and commit to binding and punitive limits on greenhouse gas emissions.

Mr. Obama, who has said action on climate change would be a priority in his administration, tapped Mrs. Browner last month to fill a new position as White House coordinator of climate and energy policies. The appointment does not need Senate confirmation.

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Greenland Melting? Not...

From reader Mark. He says it better than I can.

It's not newsworthy to me that this article describes evidence contrary to global warming. The newsworthy part is that Yahoo has decided to carry it. Yahoo has been global warming alarmists for years, in terms of the stories they choose to post.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/scienceclimatewarmingglaciersgreenland_newsmlmmd

Now that Obama has safely locked up the Oval Office I think we might see a flood of "new data" in the main stream that will begin to debunk the irrefutable evidence claimed by Al Gore et al. I saw the Huffington Post entry in one of your ealier posts. Same thing.

The enviro-whakos better get used to it. Bend over like the rest of us. Now that the election is over, such special interests have served their purpose. The media will be all about giving Obama cover. That means minimizing the need for actual solutions. Global warming will disappear. Poverty will disappear. The economy will improve, even if the numbers don't support any of this. Gas prices falling will be a good thing. Gas prices rising will be a good thing. In future summers we will gain comfort by reading how cool it's gotten since 2008.

I think those assumptions are pretty good.

It's not hell. It's Ikea

The Gekko's made our quarterly pilgrimage to help the Vietnamese, Turkish, and Sri Lankan economies by visiting Ikea.

I'm not sure what hell looks like, but I'm pretty sure that it looks like a 24/7 day shopping at this place.

First, you need to beat back all the lesbians in their Subaru Outbacks with the Obama '08 stickers just to get through the parking lot.

Then you have to follow along the cattle trail to look at home furnishings, only to find that you need to go to the warehouse to actually pick up your crap.

Unfortunately, your day just began, because now you have the eternal honey do list putting crap together out of instructions with no words, just pictures.

Maybe someday, someone can clue me in on how junk bought at Ikea is somehow more noble, green and trendy than junk bought at my neighborhood Walmart.