Flight of The Golden Geese

139 Muslim American Planned Attacks Since 9-11... 41 in 2009

Life in "Progress" City

From the lovely Mrs. Gekko's home town of Warren Ohio, who hasn't had a conservative in city government since horse and buggies ruled the landscape..........

All day long the front door buzzes at Uptown Gems & Jewels. The people come in with their trinkets wrapped in tissue or velvet boxes. They say their hours have been cut or they've been laid off. Some have their first names stitched in cursive on their uniforms, others wear safety-toe boots.

At campaign time, they are celebrated as the people who built America. Now they just want to know how much they can get for a wedding band.

"Let me show you something," says Dallas Root, standing behind the counter with a jeweler's loupe strung around his neck. He holds up a gallon-size Ziploc bag that's two-thirds full of gold -- engagement rings, class rings, promise rings, serpentine chains, St. Christopher medals, bracelets, anklets and earrings.

"This is just this week," Root says.

Uptown Gems & Jewels doesn't offer the refined science of Wall Street or Washington. But when Root puts the loupe to his eye, he peers into the lives of the working class and sees how badly the recession has knocked them to the ground.

What's so "progressive" about despair?

More....

Krauthammer: Obama Security Breach Speech 'Appalling'

Life in "Progress" city

From the city of San Francisco, who hasn't had a conservative in city government since the gold rush........

Chris Daly, a San Francisco Supervisor known for outrageous behavior and profane language, cursed at a Rules Committee meeting at City Hall on Thursday and promised to use the "F" word in every board meeting for the rest of the year.

The supervisor said he was upset about a Bay Guardian newspaper article taking Daly to task for his bad language.

"I do want to warn the easily offended," Daly said at the meeting. "I just updated my Facebook page vowing that in 2010 I'll use the word f*** in every Board of Supervisors meeting," Daly added.

More......

John McCain: Obama is Leading an Extreme Left-Wing Crusade to Bankrupt America

Republican Scott Brown Says He Will be the 41st Vote Against Obamacare

President Obama Personnel Alert: U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis

Who did she vote for? #901

Meet anonymous fast food customer who threw a tanturm at a McDonald's.

Is she a hope and changer or a four more years of Bush type voter?

How's hope and change working out for Peggy today?

Ohio business tax climate, fail

Like Jews during the Exodus, wealth and jobs have been fleeing the state under the rule of Pharaohs Voinovich, Taft and Strickland............

Ohio lawmakers recently reached a last-minute deal to close the state's $851 million budget shortfall by delaying a scheduled 4.2 percent income tax cut. As many lawmakers acknowledged, the deal was just a band-aid solution and avoids addressing the more structural issues facing the state's finances.

At the heart of Ohio's fiscal problems is a tax system and business climate that has been driving people out of the state for more than 15 years, resulting in a shrinking economy and a smaller tax base. At the same time, state government spending grew unchecked, resulting in a heavier tax burden on the state's remaining citizens. Ohio taxpayers now have one of the highest tax burdens in the nation.

The key to reversing these trends and improving the long-term fiscal health of the state is a sensible reform of the state's tax system.

15 Years of Taxpayer Flight
For more than 15 years, Ohio has seen more taxpayers leave the state than move into it. Chart 1, based on Tax Foundation analysis of IRS migration data, shows the net loss of taxpayers (or tax returns)[1] to other states between 1993 and 2008.

You what Ohio needs right now? A tax increase. Isn't that the cure all for all communities woes?

More....

HT WMD

Who did she vote for? #71

Meet Melodi Dushane. Why is Melodi in the news?

Melodi Dushane really, really wanted some Chicken McNuggets. The Ohio woman punched through a McDonald's drive-thru window on New Year's Day because the location wasn't serving nuggets, and landed herself in jail after she was treated for injuries, according to Perez Hilton.

She pleaded not guilty to vandalism charges, and was released on a recognizance bond. She's not allowed back to the restaurant, obviously.

The 24-year-old apparently went to the restaurant at 6:20am, and dinner items are not available after 2:30am. Dushane apparently took a swing at the night manager and possibly another worker, then went straight for the window. According to rightpundits.com, the glass broke and sent shards flying everywhere. Happy New Year!

Now in November, 2008 was Melodi a fan of the Hope and Change candidate or the Four More years of Bush candidate.

More....

Obama's Dynamic National Security Duo: Shocked About Al Qaeda

As Charles Krauthammer said.

"has she not read a newspaper in the past ten years?"

Bi partisan corruption

I occasionally read the first paragraph of a Matt Taibbi piece in Rolling Stone before he drops some "Bush = Satan" rant then I move on.

For once, he does have a good read here.

Everyone was involved in the mortgage scam. At the lender level the deceptions were myriad; liar’s loans, fraudulent income documentation, negative amortization loans, HELOCs, etc. The rush to get as many loans written as possible and then get those hot potatoes moved to the next sucker in the line was furious and extended from coast to coast, sinking one lender after another

in Ponzoid debt and indictments.

Then there were the countless deceptions that emerged from the securitization process, the bad math that allowed banks like Goldman to do $474 million mortgage deals where the average equity in the home was just 0.71 percent, and sell 93% of that deal as investment grade paper.

Are we really to believe that the people who did those deals didn’t know what total crap they were selling? That the people who used CDO-squareds to magically turn BBB investments into AAA investments didn’t know how nuts that was?

There were the ratings agencies, who accepted all that bad math and slapped AAA ratings on crap mortgage-backed securities in exchange for the continued largess of the banks upon whom they were financially dependent — the same ratings agencies that later sputtered and coughed up bullshit my-dog-ate-my-homework excuses for mismarking mortgages, with the Moody’s revelation that a computer error caused them to misapply AAA ratings to billions’ worth of MBS being the comic low point.

Then further along in the chain you had crooks like the folks at AIG, who took advantage of the basic nonexistence of derivatives regulation to issue billions in guarantees for these mortgage investments that they had never had any intention of paying off, to say nothing of actually having the ability to do so. And of course underwriting the entire enterprise was the implicit guarantee of Alan Greenspan’s Fed, which made it known time and time again that its modus operandi was to refuse to recognize the existence of bubbles until after they blew up, at which point it would rush in and clean up the mess, bailing out all the chief actors out with easy money.

Everyone had a hand in the bubble, from the congressmen who killed regulatory initiatives to the regulators who snoozed at the wheel to the GSEs to the Fed to the banks to the ratings agencies to the lenders. I don’t think it’s really controversial to say that, but it does seem like there’s an argument brewing about what that across-the-board complicity means.

My own personal feeling is that our recent bubbles weren’t much different than pyramid scams and lotteries; they’re the handiwork of an essentially regressive and deeply cynical political organization that systematically hoovers up taxes and investment money mainly from middle-class suckers, where it eventually gets eaten in short-term cashouts and mostly blown on sports cars and tropical vacations and eye jobs for the trophy wives of Wall Street executives. Crackonomics: take literally all the spare money from four square city blocks and turn it into one tricked-out Escalade.

Read the whole thing........

Life in "Progress" State

If you weren't aware, there will soon be a special election in Massachusetts for Ted Kennedy's senate seat.

The Boston Globe, aka The NY Time Jr. (not exactly a conservative blog), has this to say about the democratic candidate, Martha Coakley............

If you're a registered voter in Massachusetts, your friendly Democratic Senate candidate, Martha Coakley, is sticking her thumb in your eye.

Coakley, in exquisitely diva-like form, is refusing all invitations to debate her Republican opponent in the race, Scott Brown, unless a third-party candidate with no apparent credentials is included on the stage. She may also require a crystal bowl of orange-only M&Ms in her dressing room, but we haven't gotten that far yet. Her demands have led to an astonishing result: there will be just one -- that's one -- live televised debate in the Boston media market this general election season.

Think about that for a moment. We tend to elect our members of Congress for life in this state, especially when they're Democrats, which they usually are. This particular race, a special election, has unfolded at breakneck speed. We have two barely known candidates -- Coakley has run statewide just once, Brown is a state senator from exurbia -- trying to fill a huge void at a time of war and economic upheaval.

And Coakley's overriding strategy is to quietly back into the job, to have you, the voter, know less about the major candidates rather than more.

Here's all a Massachusetts voter needs to know. She'd vote for obamacare.

What's so "progressive" about avoiding vigorous debate?


More...

Life in "Progress" City

From the Queen City of Cincinnati, who hasn't had a conservative in city government since Boss Cox ruled the land.......

Yvette Hooten sits on the bed and stretches.

She rolls onto her son’s pillow and inhales deeply before she cries.

And then, she prays herself to sleep hoping that one day, just one time, her son’s face and his words will come to her in her dreams.

They haven’t.

In fact, she said she hasn’t dreamed in the 5½ months since her son, Mark Hooten, 16, was shot to death on a South Cumminsville street by two men who police say gunned him down and raced off.

Hooten said she always worried about her son’s safety.

For good reason.

Young and old, black men have been killing other black men at a record-setting pace since Cincinnati’s homicide rate jumped from 32 a year in 1999 to 60 in 2009.

Of Cincinnati’s 60 homicide victims in 2009, all but five were are black. Most of the killings involved drugs or retribution.

Here's a link to the map where these murders took place. You probably couldn't find a McCain voter in these neighborhoods with X-ray vision.

Is that a coincidence?

A few weeks ago, a family friend questioned me about this series. He told me that he thought it was unfair for me to characterize these cities as "progressive".

Him I think it's a little unfair to blame democratic policies on the decline of cities.

Me Then can you explain to me how it is that every thing democrats run is an absolute shit hole?

Him Well, the unfortunate thing is that democrats are burdened by addressing the needs of the underclass.

Me And you don't think that democratic policies are responsible for creating that underclass.

Him No

Me Let me ask you this question. This underclass you speak of. How did they get there?

Him Lack of education, job opportunities, teen age pregnancy, crime etc.

Me Would you agree that many of these people have a history of making poor choices in their lives?

Him Yes, except that many of their choices are a result of bad opportunities. Don't have a job, get pregnant.

Me OK, so let's assume that these people make a lot of bad choices in their lives. Would you not agree that continuing to vote for a political party who policies continue to give them bad opportunities is a bad choice in and of itself?

I mean let's face it. This is a chicken/egg problem. Did liberal politicians build an infrastructure that created our American underclass or does our underclass (already known for horrible decisions) vote for politicians to keep these horrible institutions shitty? In essence, voting for their enabler?

It reminds me of the infamous Charles Barkley quote "poor people have been voting for democrats for 50 years and they're still poor"

Either way, that's not exactly a ringing endorsement of liberal politics.

Obama PC fails to link Ft Hood shooter w/ panty bomber

In order to solve a problem you have to recognize it.



Watch CBS News Videos Online

Obama's Health Care Lies And Reversals

Ditka does interview in his underwear

Jack Cafferty Rips Obama on Failed Openness Pledge: 'Just Another Lie Told for Political Expediency'

Lebron James Hits From Behind the Backboard

I don't watch pro sports anymore.

But this is a good shot.

Tim Geitner, CEO Scumbag Inc

E-mail exchanges show that Tim Geithner's New York Federal Reserve bank told AIG not to disclose payouts it made during the height of the financial crisis. From the New York Times:

The e-mail exchange between the bailed-out insurance giant and its regulator portray a strange reversal of roles, with A.I.G. staff arguing for the disclosure of certain details on payments for credit-default swaps to major banks, only to be discouraged by officials at, or representing, the Federal Reserve.

In a draft of one regulatory filing, A.I.G. stated that it had paid banks — including Goldman Sachs Group, Merrill Lynch, Societe Generale and Deutsche Bank — the full value of C.D.O.s, or collateralized debt obligations, that they had bought from the company. In the response to that draft from the law firm Davis Polk and Wardwell, which represented the New York Fed, that crucial sentence was crossed out, and did not appear in the final version filed on Dec. 24, 2008.

By the end of December 2008, A.I.G. had become the proxy in tug-of-war between government agencies, with the Securities and Exchange Commission asking the company to revise its disclosure, which the regulator saw as falling short of full compliance.

The e-mails were initially obtained by Rep. Darrell Issa (R., Calif.).

“It appears that the New York Fed deliberately pressured AIG to restrict and delay the disclosure of important information to the S.E.C.,” Issa said in a statement.

More.....

Newt Gingrich on Obama Administration: This is a Ruthless Machine.

YouTube- America Rising An Open Letter to Democrat Politicians.mp4

Andrew Brietbart: Obama Took a Surfboard Accident With a Kid More Seriously Than Underwear Bomber

The COEXIST calculus

This guy breaks down the whole meaning of those COEXIST stickers you see on cars....

And let’s assume a very broad definition of “coexist”: living together without calling for the destruction of each other. Here are the problems with that:

• C wants to kill E, X, T, and (by implication) O. If they achieved the world they wanted, I and S would also no longer exist.
• O doesn’t allow for effective resistance or defeat of C.
• E stands in direct opposition to C, X, and T, and accuses those who speak against them of hate speech. Also, they’re trying to edge X and T out of public schools in favor of their own agenda. (They’re afraid C will be offended, so they get less trouble.) E is actually very, very intolerant.
• X’s existence is threatened not only by C but also by O, who invariably supports C over X.
• I and S are statistically insignificant and are mainly on there to complete the bumper sticker.
• T is who the bumper sticker is really arguing against, but poses no physical threat to any of the others.

• 
  

Read the whole thing.....

Andy Stern Lobbyist Scandal

Collapsing Economies 101

Here's a 3 credit hour course in how economies collapse.

Memorize this and report back.....






For you ignorant liberal types who believe in the "science" of global warming yet somehow never learned anything about econ 101, here's a hint. You can't keep adding all those fat ass, cushy government jobs without a hearty, thriving private sector. It just is. Kind of like the science of gravity; the science has been settled.

Krauthammer: "Insane" To Give Terrorist A Lawyer

Transparency

Who did they vote for? #371

This one's a gimme. Just expand the photo.






Thanks to reader Bartman

Why we're going broke

Because public sector jobs are continued boulders on the shoulders of private sector workers.....

State and local governments face large budget deficits
as revenues have stagnated and spending has remained at
high levels. To reduce deficits, large savings can be found
in the generous compensation packages of the nation’s 20
million state and local workers. In 2008, wages and
benefits of $1.1 trillion accounted for half of total state and
local government spending.1 This bulletin examines state
and local compensation costs, with a focus on the lucrative
pensions enjoyed by public sector workers.

The the entire piece here......

10,000 Enrons

Also known as the great unfunded pension swindle..........

The Financial Times runs a story today by Francesco Guerrera and Nicole Bullock on the looming problems of underfunded public pensions at the state and local level in the United States. The news story cites a new study by Orin Kramer, chairman of New Jersey’s pension fund:

The estimate by Orin Kramer will fuel investors’ concerns over the deteriorating financial health of US states after the recession. “State and local governments are correctly perceived to be in serious difficulty,” Mr Kramer told the Financial Times.

“If you factor in the reality of these unfunded promises, their deficits will rise exponentially.”

Estimates of aggregate funding requirement of the US pension system have ranged between $400bn and $500bn, but Mr Kramer’s analysis concluded that public funds would need to find more than $2,000bn to meet future pension obligations.

Two trillion dollars? One question about these obligations is whether taxpayers will stick around to pay them, or instead will vote with their feet. (“Vote with their feet” is something that has been discussed in various ways at VC — as an aspect of a federal system and states with their own laws.) Many of these pension obligations have been incurred by municipalities and others by states, and in some cases the obligations are intertwined. But what happens if voters-taxpayers move out?

More.....

Responding to Paul

I recently received this comment to my post on how public education is the "public option" to our education demands.

Let me offer these notes point by point.

Allegations of price-fixing, bid-rigging, exclusive sales contracts, local price cutting to freeze out competitors, and the dividing up of markets need to be fully explored through subpoenas and depositions (a law suit by all 50 States and joined by the Feds) so we can get rid of our dysfunctional corporate health care system that's choking the economy to death.

First, I agree that there is a lack of competition but it's because states will not allow out of state carriers into their markets. Even with that, nearly every insurance carrier pays out 85% of their premiums in claims (with the remaining 15% to cover overhead and profit). I don't think that's bad.

I agree that the current system is dysfunctional but that's because we expect our employer's to pay for our use of the health care system. I wouldn't think of handing my home or auto insurance premium over to my employer to pay. What makes health care (something so much more personal) more reasonable.

Federal workers and retirees can select plans at a cost range from $100 dollars a month for the cheapest individual coverage to $500 dollars for the most expensive family plan.

Paul, this is where you show that you are a dumb ass. The federal system you so value is broke and cannot be sustained long term. Of course, you think that's wonderful because people are getting more than they are paying for. But if you had ever taken a short econ 101 course, you would have realized that.

I’m voting “MY” pocket book - I want lower premiums and less money taken out of my paycheck - if they want to help spur on the economy they will make sure this happens for all - not just a select group.

See dumb ass comment above. My guess is you also want a pony. If you want to vote your pocket book, pay for your own damn health care and don't expect me to subsidize yours.

90% of the wealth concentrated in 1% of the population is no way to run a country but a heck of a way to establish a royalty ruling class. Yacht sales can not sustain 350 million people. I'm for the public option, competition and a level playing field or break up the big insurers like we did AT&T.

Paul, have you ever heard the term economies of scale? Look it up. None the less, if you want to increase competition, simply allow cross state sales and purchase of health insurance. That wioll add competition by default. That's not one of the plans from Reid and company.

A slavish focus on profit margin might be good for the individual or a business, but it is one helluva lousy way to "govern" a Country. The GOP being a wholly owned subsidiary of Corporate America has a hard time with that concept.

First, If you looked at last year's donations to the presidential candidates, you would see that Obama and co. received far more political donations from Goldman Sacs and the rest of the Wall Street vermin than McCain did.

Look at how prominent democrats like Rubin, Gorelick and Johnson, looted many Wall Street firms and then preach to me about the GOP.

Other than that, you're point is a non sequitor.

You are a writer and spent a lot of time with this comment but you failed to address the fundamental truth. Look at the way government runs many of our institutions and how the private sector delivers the same product/service. Are you seriously trying to tell me that customer satisfaction with private schools is poorer than public schools?

Or that customers of Fed Ex or UPS dislike their service over, say, the US Postal Service?

You really aren't the serious type are you?

Now go find someone to buy you a pony.

Sowell on intellectuals

If there is any lesson in the history of ideas, it is that good intentions tell you nothing about the actual consequences. But intellectuals who generate ideas do not have to pay the consequences.

Academic intellectuals are shielded by the principles of academic freedom and journalists in democratic societies are shielded by the principle of freedom of the press. Seldom do those who produce or peddle dangerous, or even fatal, ideas have to pay a price, even in a loss of credibility.

Who blames Rachel Carson, an environmentalist icon, because her crusading writings against DDT led to the ban of this insecticide in countries around the world-- followed by a resurgence of malaria that killed, and continues to kill, millions of people in tropical Third World countries?

More....

Why I'm a conservative #66

Because I understand that governments do not have the discipline to make the tough decision.

Don't take my word for it. Just ask Willie Brown, not exactly your garden variety conservative......

If we as a state want to make a New Year's resolution, I suggest taking a good look at the California we have created. From our out-of-sync tax system to our out-of-control civil service, it's time for politicians to begin an honest dialogue about what we've become.

Take the civil service.

The system was set up so politicians like me couldn't come in and fire the people (relatives) hired by the guy they beat and replace them with their own friends and relatives.

Over the years, however, the civil service system has changed from one that protects jobs to one that runs the show.

The deal used to be that civil servants were paid less than private sector workers in exchange for an understanding that they had job security for life.

But we politicians, pushed by our friends in labor, gradually expanded pay and benefits to private-sector levels while keeping the job protections and layering on incredibly generous retirement packages that pay ex-workers almost as much as current workers.

Talking about this is politically unpopular and potentially even career suicide for most officeholders. But at some point, someone is going to have to get honest about the fact that 80 percent of the state, county and city budget deficits are due to employee costs.

Either we do something about it at the ballot box, or a judge will do something about in Bankruptcy Court. And if you think I'm kidding, just look at Vallejo.

Read the rest of brown's thoughts here.....

Where's Pol Pot when you need him

From The American Thinker....

The racial madness that has left-wing America in its thrall finds its apogee in the Berkeley, California public schools. Berkeley High School is now poised to eliminate science laboratory classes because "science labs were largely classes for white students." Eric Klein writes in The Easy Bay Express:

The proposal to put the science-lab cuts on the table was approved recently by Berkeley High's School Governance Council, a body of teachers, parents, and students who oversee a plan to change the structure of the high school to address Berkeley's dismal racial achievement gap, where white students are doing far better than the state average while black and Latino students are doing worse.

Five science teachers will lose their jobs if the proposal is adopted when the School Board meets next week:

It will come before the Berkeley School Board as an information item at its January 13 meeting. Generally, such agenda items are passed without debate, but if the school board chooses to play a more direct role in the High School Redesign, it could bring the item back as an action item at a future meeting.

All Berkeley High students, whatever their race, would lose the opportunity to get a solid grounding in science, opening up the door to achievement in higher education and life via scientific study. Notes Klein:

Mardi Sicular-Mertens, the senior member of Berkeley High School's science department ... who has taught science at BHS for 24 years, said the possible cuts will impact her black students as well. She says there are twelve African-American males in her AP classes and that her four environmental science classes are 17.5 percent African American and 13.9 percent Latino. "As teachers, we are greatly saddened at the thought of losing the opportunity to help all of our students master the skills they need to find satisfaction and success in their education," she told the board.

So in order to "help" black and Latino students, the idea is to eliminate the opportunity for said students to make something of themselves through science. Those students who excel will be disfavored, while those who do not will be given more resources. The problem is that science training is one of the elements of educataion least susceptible to the multicultural indoctrination that pervades education in Berekeley and far too many other places. Replacing science with something dreamed up by the education-school-trained "experts" is unlikely to bring any improvement, even for its purported beneficiaries.

More....

How are liberals handling the economy?

Not very well if you read this.......

In terms of U.S. output contractions, the so-called Great Recession was not much more severe than the recessions in 1973-75 and 1981-82. Yet recovery from the latest recession has started out much more slowly. For example, real GDP expanded by 7.7% in 1983 after unemployment peaked at 10.8% in December 1982, whereas GDP grew at an unimpressive annual rate of 2.2% in the third quarter of 2009. Although the fourth quarter is likely to show better numbers—probably much better—there are no signs of an explosive take off from the recession.

We believe two factors are behind this rather tepid rebound. An obvious one is the severe financial crisis that precipitated this recession, with many major financial institutions receiving large bailouts from the federal government. The confidence of bankers and venture capitalists has been shattered, at least for a while, and it will take time for them to recover from the financial turmoil of the past couple of years. The household sector also faces a difficult period of financial retrenchment in the wake of a major collapse in home prices, overextended debt positions for many, and high unemployment.

The second factor is less obvious, but possibly also of great importance. Liberal Democrats won a major victory in the 2008 elections, winning the presidency and large majorities in both the House and Senate. They interpreted this as evidence that a large majority of Americans want major reforms in the economy, health-care and many other areas. So in addition to continuing and extending the Bush-initiated bailout of banks, AIG, General Motors, Chrysler and other companies, Congress and President Obama signaled their intentions to introduce major changes in taxes, government spending and regulations—changes that could radically transform the American economy.

Read the rest.......

Public schools - Education's "Public Option"

A commenter to one of my posts put it most eloquently........

Public schools are education's version of the "public option". In the health care debate we supposedly need the public option to provide competition to the private sector. The result is millions of parents that will do just about use any option to get their kids out of public schools. So what's the socialists' answer? Fix the schools? Nope. Cut off the options. Force them into the public system.

This is the plan for the health system too. Bring in a public option, then cut off the oxygen to any private alternatives.

Ditto

The land of plenty goes south

The "ought" decade was one promise after another turned into trauma for California. It began with a popular Democratic governor, judging from the voter majority that put him in office. But his popularity plummeted in tandem with the state's nosediving finances. The decade ends with a Republican governor who, at first, was every bit as popular, judging from the wide voter margin that elected him. His popularity and the state's finances likewise hit bottom.

The chief distinction between Democrat Gray Davis and Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger may be that the former was recalled from office, and the latter will be permitted to finish his term next year. Perhaps Schwarzenegger was spared because voters remember the lousy results of the previous recall.

California's bipartisan gubernatorial failures were uncomfortably similar. Profligate spending, overextended borrowing and looming deficits were Davis' undoing. Schwarzenegger promised to "blow up the boxes" and cut up the credit cards, but ended up spending and borrowing on a par with, and sinking every bit as deep in debt, as Davis. This downward trajectory means Californians are among the highest-taxed, most over-regulated and poorly served citizens in the 50 states.

More.....

The future of Amercian health care

CHILD cancer patients with damaged immune systems are being placed in filthy, rundown isolation rooms at one of the State's premier hospitals.

In some rooms in the oncology ward of Sydney Children's Hospital at Randwick, airconditioning vents are filled with thick dust, mould is growing in bathrooms and meals are placed in the same cupboard as bedpans.

Todd Leach, the father of six-year-old Hailey Ryan Leach, who has just undergone a bone-marrow transplant for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, took photographs in Ward 2 West, where Hailey was supposed to be in isolation for 100 days to protect her compromised immune system.

Mr Leach said that although the hospital's doctors and nurses give 100 per cent, he was appalled by the condition of some of the rooms.

"Maybe it's OK for a kid with a broken arm or leg - but not for a kid with no immune system," he told The Sunday Telegraph.

More.....

Life in "Progress" City

Or could be filed under Arranging Deck Chairs on the Titanic.........

In San Francisco, Mayor Gavin Newsom is slated to propose an ordinance that would require retailers to post labels on store shelves warning about possible dangers of cell phone radiation. In Maine, state representative Andrea Boland will present to the legislature her proposal requiring manufacturers to warn that excessive cell phone use could cause cancer.

If San Francisco really wanted to help their residents they should pass a law requiring brochures be mailed to all residents indicating that your chance of dying of homicide in the city is a 1000 times higher than living in the suburbs.

More.....

Democrats kill hope for DC parents

Maybe a liberal out there can explain to me how "choice" is so important when it comes to abortion but when it means getting your kids out of disgusting schools, not so much.....

This is big government at its finest hour. The Democrats have officially killed a successful private school voucher program banishing more than 3,300 low-income children back to the DC schools they so desperately wanted to escape. The Heartland Institute reports:

The leaders of D.C.’s school choice movement, Kevin P. Chavous (former D.C. Councilman) and Virginia Walden Ford (executive director of D.C. Parents for School Choice), today issued the following statement:

“House and Senate Appropriators this week ignored the wishes of D.C.’s mayor, D.C.’s public schools chancellor, a majority of D.C.’s city council, and more than 70 percent of D.C. residents and have mandated the slow death of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program. This successful school voucher program—for D.C.’s poorest families—has allowed more than 3,300 children to attend the best schools they have ever known.

The decision to end the program, a decision buried in a thousand-page spending bill and announced right before the holidays, destroys the hopes and dreams of thousands of D.C. families. Parents and children have rallied countless times over the past year in support of reauthorization and in favor of strengthening the OSP.

Yet, despite the clearly positive results and the proven success of this program, Sen. Dick Durbin, Rep. Jose Serrano, Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, and Secretary Arne Duncan worked together to kill the OSP. Funding the program only for existing children shrinks the program each year, compromises the federal evaluation of the program, denies entry to the siblings of existing participants, and punishes those children waiting in line by sentencing them to failing and often unsafe schools.

[emphasis mine]

The Democrats have effectively ended the voucher program. Obama only extended it into the 2009-2010 school year. He could have done more. He didn’t. Underpriveleged children–whom the Democrats oppress “protect” from the greed and injustices of the Right had a chance to gain the social justice and fairness Obama continuously touts in his speeches.

More.....

We're surprised?

Apparently, media types are just now figuring out that the Obama cool is just a bit tepid.....

I get No-Drama Obama. I see what it's about and agree with it usually.

But I don't much care for it when an al-Qaida-trained terrorist nearly blows up one of our airplanes on approach to Detroit on Christmas Day. In that case, the drama is already out of the bag.

I want somebody to get dramatic in my behalf -- outraged, I mean -- and to do so instinctively and quickly, if not quite impulsively.

No-Drama Obama, as Barack Obama came to be known in the recent campaign, refers to a style that is restrained, deliberate and measured, and which lets the overheated moment pass before speaking or acting.

If you want get Obama pissed, let a terrorist get in the wait of his eating his waffle.

More.....

Why more guns?

You've seen the headlines. Deranged douche bag goes into (shopping mall, classroom, office, restaurant, museum, etc) and kills several people with a gun.

Have you ever wondered what would happen if one of these lunatics would invade a place and started shooting at people with guns.

You need wonder no more.......

The headline

Police Ambush Leaves One Dead

The dead one?

A man ambushed and shot a Mount Orab police officer in the back early today, before that officer and another officer returned fire and shot him dead.

Kind of strange how that works isn't it?

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Life in "Progress" City

From the Empire City of New York, who hasn't had a conservative run the city since the Indians vacated......

So you're putting together your municipal budget knowing you have a budget crunch. You probably prioritize your spending on the important city services

Police - check
Fire - check
Roads - check
Brochures aiding heroin users - check.....

Here's the latest smack on taxpayers.

The city spent $32,000 on 70,000 fliers that tell you how to shoot heroin, complete with detailed tips on prepping the dope and injecting it into your arm.

The Health Department handout has outraged New York's top drug prosecutors and abuse experts.

"It's basically step-by- step instruction on how to inject a poison," said John Gilbride, who heads the Drug Enforcement Administration's New York office.

"It's sick," said City Council member Peter Vallone Jr. (D-Queens)

"Foolish," said Columbia University drug researcher and treatment expert Dr. Herbert Kleber.

The 16-page pamphlet features seven comics-like illustrations and offers dope fiends such useful advice as "Warm your body (jump up and down) to show your veins," and "Find the vein before you try to inject."

It even encourages addicts to keep jabbing if their needles miss the mark.

"If you don't 'register,' pull out and try again," it says.

You really can't make this stuff up. Hey, you have a better chance of shooting heroin in NY than getting some greasy french fries from a vat of trans fat.

What's so "progressive" about how to shoot heroin?

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Members of media not exactly Mensa members

Why is crime going down despite the economic downturn?

The Washington Post comes up with all kinds of nonsensical reasons...........

If only we knew exactly why and how it has occurred. An accident of demography? The passing of the crack cocaine epidemic? We're inclined to credit policies that put more brave and dedicated cops on the street, with better technology and smarter tactics. Still New York City continued to rack up lower homicide rates in the past decade even as its police force shrank by 6,000. New York officials say that city's tougher gun laws have helped; yet Houston also recorded a drop in homicide in the first half of 2009 despite loose gun laws.

Tougher sentencing probably took some career criminals off the streets -- though there's little evidence that the death penalty deters murder. No doubt new lifesaving medical techniques turned potential homicides into lesser offenses -- yet aggravated assault is down, too.

Government at all levels spends much time and money figuring out what's going wrong in our society and how to fix it. Perhaps we need a bigger effort to determine what's been going right in the fight against violent crime -- and to spread that knowledge to every jurisdiction in the country.

Huh??????

Maybe someone at the Washington Post needs a clue as to what the 80/20 principle is.

In this case, it means that 80 percent of violent crime is committed by 20 percent of criminals. For decades of coddling this 20 percent of degenerates (one the failures of social engineering), common sense finally prevailed and we actually started keeping more of these miscreants in jail. Hence, felons committing fewer crimes.

But for the dumb asses who seem to take pride in being "journalists", the cause/effect quotient seems to elude them.

And these morons wonder why people aren't all that interested in what they have to say.

More here if you can check your brain at the door.....