Saturday, July 24, 2010
Luke Russert vs. Charlie Rangel Over Ethics Violations (VIDEO)
In defense of Charlie Rangel, why shouldn't he expect softballs from the media, especially MSNBC as he so describes?
Our current media breeds corruption and incompetence by failing to vet the politicians whose policies they agree with.
It's how we have our current idiot and chief and why he gets testy with the simplest of questions.
" Can't I just eat my waffle? "
Friday, July 23, 2010
more "progressive" projection
Geez, it looks like a Wisconsin bowling league.
Out of curiosity, I wonder how many of these people would be willing to resign the position for their company to "diversify" their workforce.....
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If liberals are so smart, then why can't they........
Yet, in pursuit of their liberal arts major at Stuffed Shirt University and Prep School, they never learned anything in Psych 101 about psychological projection?
For instance, if you were to listen to Shirley Sherrod there's a reason she sees a racist in every white person. Because race is the only context she relate to. So, of course, if you can only see race, then the reason that Whopper came with mayo when you ordered it without is because some white guy behind the heat lamp must be a racist.
The same is true about taxes. Democrats are big on believing republicans cheat on their "fair share". Why? Well look at Charlie Rangel and John Kerry................
Sen. John Kerry, who has repeatedly voted to raise taxes while in Congress, dodged a whopping six-figure state tax bill on his new multimillion-dollar yacht by mooring her in Newport, R.I.
Isabel - Kerry’s luxe, 76-foot New Zealand-built Friendship sloop with an Edwardian-style, glossy varnished teak interior, two VIP main cabins and a pilothouse fitted with a wet bar and cold wine storage - was designed by Rhode Island boat designer Ted Fontaine.
But instead of berthing the vessel in Nantucket, where the senator summers with the missus, Teresa Heinz, Isabel’s hailing port is listed as “Newport” on her stern.
Could the reason be that the Ocean State repealed its Boat Sales and Use Tax back in 1993, making the tiny state to the south a haven - like the Cayman Islands, Bermuda and Nassau - for tax-skirting luxury yacht owners?
Nah, I'm sure Sir John will step up to the plate and pay his fair share to the fine people in the Socialist Republic of Massachusetts.
It's all to similar to Howard Metzenbaum changing hi residence to Florida to avoid the Ohio estate tax.
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Thursday, July 22, 2010
Life in "Progress" City - Ann Arbor edition
The debate in Ann Arbor, where firefighters are being laid off due to a multimillion dollar budget deficit, is over an $850,000 piece of art.
That's how much the city has agreed to pay German artist Herbert Dreiseitl for a three-piece water sculpture that would go in front of the new police and courts building right by the City Hall.
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Who did she vote for? #14
Meet Ieshuh Griffin.
Why is Ieshuh in the news?
State elections officials Wednesday narrowly rejected a Milwaukee Assembly candidate's attempt to run with the slogan "NOT the 'whiteman's bitch' " under her name on the ballot.
Now on November 2008 did Ieshuh here pull the chain for The One or The Maverick?
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Why the chronic unemployment?
The White House last year released a supposedly sci entific analysis that claimed to show that adopting the "stimulus" bill would cut unemployment. Indeed, the report specifically estimated that the unemployment rate today would be down to 7.5 percent.Something obviously went wrong. The actual unemployment rate is 9.5 percent, a statistic that doesn't include the millions who've given up looking for work or can only find part-time jobs. What were President Obama's biggest mistakes?
Part of the problem was a misplaced faith in Keynesian economics -- that is, in the discredited notion that politicians can borrow money from the economy's right pocket and increase prosperity by dumping money in the economy's left pocket.
But the bigger stumbling block is the folks in the White House seem to have no clue how the real-world economy works. Critics have noted that the Obama Cabinet sets the record for the lowest-ever level of private-sector experience. That doesn't necessarily mean people who don't understand how and why jobs are created -- but that seems to be the case with this administration.
As if you ever needed another reason not to hire an American worker
The Obama administration is backing legislation that includes regulations requiring U.S. businesses to provide to the government data about employee pay as it relates to the sex, race and national origin of employees.
In an orchestrated effort that included a statement by President Barack Obama and an event at the White House featuring Vice President Joe Biden, Attorney General Eric Holder and Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, the president and his cabinet endorsed the Paycheck Fairness Act.
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Life in "Progress" City - Newark edition
Things are getting so bad in Newark that the mayor has ordered the government to stop buying toilet paper.It's part of Newark Mayor Cory Booker's belt-tightening plans that include reducing most city workers to a 4-day work week and shuttering city pools. Booker estimates that the pool closures alone would save $250,000. He also says that no gas will be purchased for municipal vehicles that are not deemed critically important.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Why I'm a tea partier and proud of it!
In some ways, I feel like a chump. The Gekko's maintain a 1300 square foot palatial estate that Mrs. Gekko paid $140,000 for seven years ago. After about $20,000 in improvements we just got our appraisal in and now it's worth a whopping $137,000.
Our mistake was not buying a $350,000 house and living in it without making a payment. It would have taken the bank at least two years to foreclose, then we could have delayed the proceedings through various legal wranglings, finally giving up the house in a strategic foreclosure. All the while pocketing our $3500 a month payment.
Instead, the Gekko's did what we were taught a long time ago. Took menial jobs, got our educations, worked hard and didn't over spend. And bought a home that fit our lifestyles; no more and no less.
Because we oppose subsidizing people who continually fuck up (mainly because we know that the school of hard knocks may be the best education one could ever get), we're labeled as racist tea partiers.
Well, let's look at the effectiveness of the welfare state and the ability of government to get people out of poverty.
Here's a graph detailing how much the government has spent on welfare since 1950. (HT Shakes at Cesspool of Humanity)
Now you would think that after spending all this money, we would have one of the most affluent poor people in the world. And we do.
To be born poor in this country is to be born one of the richest people in the world. But being poor in this country should suck. So much so that people would be willing to do something to not be poor. But instead, it's such a decent life, more people have decided that it's easier than working your ass off to make that mortgage payment.
Watch this video of Ronald Reagan back in 1964. At the 4:30 mark in the video, he talks about the accountability of the welfare state. How prophetic his words are today.
There's a lot of talk about who or what is a tea partier; whether they are racist or not; should they organize; who's the leader, etc.
But the fact of the matter is, your average tea partier is someone who does the shit your supposed to in life; work hard, play hard, raise children, pay your mortgage, pay your other bills. In other words, being a contributing member of society.
Instead of being applauded by elites, we've been cast off as "parochial", "racist", and "unsympathetic to the poor".
And it's clear that with this latest dust up at the NAACP, the average person knows that just because you've witnessed the above welfare state in action and seen the above results, that doesn't make you a racist, that makes you worthy of being heard; hence the Tea Parties.
Nothing makes me more angry than the attempts by liberal journalists who contribute to the Journolist (read the emails), of conspiring to smear the character of people like Fred Barnes by labeling them as racist just because he sees what's happened to our culture over the past 40 years. It's disgusting.
So while I'm signing my loan docs today, I want to fire out a big old FU to all you liberals who want to characterize me as one of the problems in our country instead of one of the solutions.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Life in "Progress" city - Bell edition
Bell, one of the poorest cities in Los Angeles County, pays its top officials some of the highest salaries in the nation, including nearly $800,000 annually for its city manager, according to documents reviewed by The Times.In addition to the $787,637 salary of Chief Administrative Officer Robert Rizzo, Bell pays Police Chief Randy Adams $457,000 a year, about 50% more than Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck or Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca and more than double New York City's police commissioner. Assistant City Manager Angela Spaccia makes $376,288 annually, more than most city managers.
Top officials have routinely received hefty annual raises in recent years. Rizzo's contract calls for 12% raises each July, the same as his top deputy, according to documents obtained under the California Public Records Act.Rizzo, who has run Bell's day-to-day civic affairs since 1993, was unapologetic about his salary.
"If that's a number people choke on, maybe I'm in the wrong business," he said. "I could go into private business and make that money. This council has compensated me for the job I've done."
Bullshit! This clown would never be able this kind of scratch in the private sector.
Looting the public treasury?
Now that's "progressive"!
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You mean to tell me governments don't know how to run auto companies
President Obama’s auto task force pressed General Motors and Chrysler to close scores of dealerships without adequately considering the jobs that would be lost or having a firm idea of the cost savings that would be achieved, an audit of the process has concluded.
The report, by Neil M. Barofsky, the special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program of the Treasury Department, said both carmakers needed to shut down some underperforming dealerships. But it questioned whether the cuts should have been made so quickly, particularly during a recession. The report, released on Sunday, estimated that tens of thousands of jobs were lost as a result.“It is not at all clear that the greatly accelerated pace of the dealership closings during one of the most severe economic downturns in our nation’s history was either necessary for the sake of the companies’ economic survival or prudent for the sake of the nation’s economic recovery,” the report said.
Brought to you by the same people who brought you the Yugo.
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It's 2008 all over again
It was the moment of greatest peril for then-Sen. Barack Obama’s political career. In the heat of the presidential campaign, videos surfaced of Obama’s pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, angrily denouncing whites, the U.S. government and America itself. Obama had once bragged of his closeness to Wright. Now the black nationalist preacher’s rhetoric was threatening to torpedo Obama’s campaign.
The crisis reached a howling pitch in mid-April, 2008, at an ABC News debate moderated by Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos. Gibson asked Obama why it had taken him so long – nearly a year since Wright’s remarks became public – to dissociate himself from them. Stephanopoulos asked, “Do you think Reverend Wright loves America as much as you do?”
Watching this all at home were members of Journolist, a listserv comprised of several hundred liberal journalists, as well as like-minded professors and activists. The tough questioning from the ABC anchors left many of them outraged. “George [Stephanopoulos],” fumed Richard Kim of the Nation, is “being a disgusting little rat snake.”
Others went further. According to records obtained by The Daily Caller, at several points during the 2008 presidential campaign a group of liberal journalists took radical steps to protect their favored candidate. Employees of news organizations including Time, Politico, the Huffington Post, the Baltimore Sun, the Guardian, Salon and the New Republic participated in outpourings of anger over how Obama had been treated in the media, and in some cases plotted to fix the damage.
In one instance, Spencer Ackerman of the Washington Independent urged his colleagues to deflect attention from Obama’s relationship with Wright by changing the subject. Pick one of Obama’s conservative critics, Ackerman wrote, “Fred Barnes, Karl Rove, who cares — and call them racists.”
Hatin' on the poor again.
They won't extend unemployment benefits for the likes of these poor folks............
The group of jovial unemployed say they are finally doing what they have always wanted to do - whether it is blogging or starting a nonprofit organisation, Fox News reported.
Christy Annis got laid off last year after graduating from New Orleans' Tulane law school and practicing for more than a decade but said losing her jobs was one of the best things that happened to her.
“I love waking up everyday and it’s just - what am I going to create today?” Ms Annis said.
“I have so many opportunities. The internet and blogs and Twitter and Facebook; it’s very powerful and it is so easy for people to get information and to find people doing things. You can do anything you want right now.”
I guess looking for work isn't one of those things.
While I realize a review of my practice does not make for a good statistical analysis unless I were in the global warming community, most of the unemployed people I see at my practice are usually 1) older people who were already weighing retirement 2) one of a two person household. Many of these people have opted to just get the unemployment benefit until it runs out before they start looking for work again.
It actually makes sense. Let's assume both spouses work and you pay $200 a week for two kids' day care.
If you make less than $35,000, it's probably actually more cost efficient to collect the check than to go back to work.
But to somehow oppose funemployment makes you a racist bigot.
Now get back to work so you can help out Christy figure out what fun stuff she's going to do today
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Monday, July 19, 2010
Should your congressman fear you?
Let's face it, a government who can arbitrarily take money it has no legal claim to should expect some violence in return.
Think about it, the government can take assets it doesn't have title to (and face no repercussions) but if Wesley Snipes denies the government his money he gets to spend three years in the can. By the way, they won't be guarding him with squirt guns and silly string.
We face the same thing is this country with asset seizure laws; whereby the state doesn't have to prove your assets were acquired illegally, they can just show up with their guns and take your crap.
Or how about mandatory health insurance where you face potential imprisonment for not buying a product from a private entity.
Mrs. Gekko and I go to a lot of festivals where we are inevitably solicited by a politician. From now on, I'm going to start taking my wallet out of my pocket and demanding that politician have the balls to take it from me.
My guess is that they will inevitably refuse and then I'm going to verbally harass them for not having the balls to take it from me directly but passively anesthetizing the process by hiding behind "the law".
In fact, I think tea partiers should start getting their way into some of these political rallies and start pelting politicians with velcro wallets as a statement about the uncontrolled theft being perpetrated by our government.
This summer let's make our congress people as uncomfortable as the clown in the previous video.
Watch your Ohio speed trap
More......When you’re driving on Ohio interstates and highways and you just get out of the traffic congestion around a city, here’s a little advice: Slow down.
Some of the hottest spots to get speeding tickets are in rural areas, a Dayton Daily News analysis of more than 1 million speeding citations has found.
The top ticket spot in the state is on Interstate 71, just northwest of Wilmington at milepost 48. From 2007 through 2009, troopers wrote 5,524 tickets to speeders clocked at that location.
“People coming north out of Cincinnati, they’re in that congested traffic down there,” said Ohio Highway Patrol Lt. Jack Tibbs, commander of the Wilmington Post. “The first chance they really get away from the traffic is when they enter Clinton County, right at milepost 42. And their foot tends to take off on them.”
No. 2 in the state: U.S. 23, milepost 18, just north of Lucasville. Troopers wrote 4,575 tickets there in the three-year period.
No. 3 is on I-71, milepost 187, just east of Ashland, 4,291 tickets.
The top spot on I-75, No. 4 in the state, is an exception: milepost 20, just north of West Chester; 3,994 tickets.
When the rich cutback
The economic recovery has been helped in large part by the spending of the most affluent. Now, even the rich appear to be tightening their belts.Late last year, the highest-income households started spending more confidently, while other consumers held back. But their confidence has since ebbed, according to retail sales reports and some economic analysis.
“One of the reasons that the recovery has lost momentum is that high-end consumers have become more jittery and more cautious,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody’s Analytics.
You mean to tell me that the behavior of rich people has a profound impact on the middle class?
Who would have thunk it?
Somebody tell the Obamunists...........
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Do these guys read any blogs
CBS's Bob Schieffer on Sunday said the reason he didn't ask Attorney General Eric Holder about the New Black Panther Party voter intimidation case on last week's "Face the Nation" was because he didn't know about it.
Chatting with Howard Kurtz on CNN's "Reliable Sources," Schieffer said, "This all really became a story when the whistleblower came out and testified that he'd had to leave the Justice Department and so on. And, frankly, had I known about that, I would have asked the question."
His excuse?
"I was on vacation that week. This happened -- apparently, it got very little publicity. And, you know, I just didn't know about it" (video follows with transcript and commentary):
If you think health care's expensive. Wait until it's free.
The relentlessly rising cost of health insurance is prompting some small Massachusetts companies to drop coverage for their workers and encourage them to sign up for state-subsidized care instead, a trend that, some analysts say, could eventually weigh heavily on the state’s already-stressed budget.Since April 1, the date many insurance contracts are renewed for small businesses, the owners of about 90 small companies terminated their insurance plans with Braintree-based broker Jeff Rich and indicated in a follow-up survey that they were relying on publicly-funded insurance for their employees.
In Sandwich, business consultant Bill Fields said he has been hired by small businesses to enroll about 400 workers in state-subsidized care since April, because the company owners said they could no longer afford to provide coverage. Fields said that is by far the largest number he has handled in such a short time.
“They are giving up out of frustration,’’ Fields said of the employers. “Most of them are very compassionate but they simply can’t afford health insurance any more.’’
Precisely how many small businesses have recently given up offering insurance is hard to pinpoint. The Office of Labor and Workforce Development said the most recent quarterly insurance data collected from small companies has not been compiled.
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Life in "Progress" City - Chicago edition
Police Officer Michael Bailey was less than a month away from retirement when he ended an overnight shift guarding the mayor's home early Sunday morning.
The 62-year-old had recently developed a routine: He'd park outside his South Side home, lock his bulletproof vest in the trunk and wipe down the shiny black Buick Regal he'd bought just three weeks ago to celebrate the quieter life he was about to enjoy.
He never got the chance.Gunned down in an apparent botched robbery just steps from his front door as he cleaned his car in the 7400 block of South Evans at 6 a.m., the devoted father of three is the third Chicago Police officer to be shot dead since May 19 and the latest victim of the worst two-month run of fatal gun violence against the city's police in 40 years.
Killing cops?
Now that's "Progressive"!
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Life in "Progress" City - Indianapolis edition
Three separate shootings left 10 people wounded and scattered hundreds in downtown Indianapolis during the crowded Indiana Black Expo, police said early Sunday.
Police spokesman Lt. Jeff Duhamell said authorities made no immediate arrests directly tied to the shootings and investigators were seeking leads to the suspects.
None of the victims' injuries were life-threatening, Duhamell told The Associated Press, adding police had made three unrelated arrests on weapons charges.
The shooting began when several shots rang out around 9:30 p.m. Saturday near Circle Centre mall, leaving eight people wounded and sending people running, Duhamell said.
He said a second shooting occurred nearby just minutes after the initial shooting and left one young man wounded. He added that the third shooting occurred around 11:30 p.m. and left another man wounded.
Duhamell said the shooting victims were all males between 10 and 18 years old. He said most were taken to two area hospitals where they were in good condition early Sunday. One person was treated at the scene.
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When "not a tax" is a tax
When Congress required most Americans to obtain health insurance or pay a penalty, Democrats denied that they were creating a new tax. But in court, the Obama administration and its allies now defend the requirement as an exercise of the government’s “power to lay and collect taxes.”
And that power, they say, is even more sweeping than the federal power to regulate interstate commerce.
Administration officials say the tax argument is a linchpin of their legal case in defense of the health care overhaul and its individual mandate, now being challenged in court by more than 20 states and several private organizations.
Under the legislation signed by President Obama in March, most Americans will have to maintain “minimum essential coverage” starting in 2014. Many people will be eligible for federal subsidies to help them pay premiums.
In a brief defending the law, the Justice Department says the requirement for people to carry insurance or pay the penalty is “a valid exercise” of Congress’s power to impose taxes.
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Sunday, July 18, 2010
Carter's National Security Adviser Brzezinski Senses "Malaise" With Obama
Malaise..... It's not just for sandwiches anymore
O finally rests
President Obama and his family arrived Friday for a weekend getaway in Maine, but along with a little rest and relaxation comes criticism that the president is taking it easy with the Gulf of Mexico oil crisis in a critical phase.More....The Obamas plan to spend the weekend on Mount Desert Island, home of Acadia National Park. The trip marks the president's third weekend vacation since the oil disaster began in April.
The Republican National Committee launched a website blasting what it considers Obama's "leisure activities or missteps" during the oil disaster, like playing golf, attending concerts and vacationing in Asheville, North Carolina; Chicago, Illinois; and now Maine.
Government health care at work
Elderly Russian immigrants lined up to take kickbacks from the backroom of a Brooklyn clinic. Claims flooded in from Miami for HIV treatments that never occurred. One professional patient was named in nearly 4,000 false Medicare claims.Authorities said busts carried out this week in Miami, New York City, Detroit, Houston and Baton Rouge, La., were the largest Medicare fraud takedown in history — part of a massive overhaul in the way federal officials are preventing and prosecuting the crimes.
In all, 94 people — including several doctors and nurses — were charged Friday in scams totaling $251 million. Federal authorities, while touting the operation, cautioned the cases represent only a fraction of the estimated $60 billion to $90 billion in Medicare fraud absorbed by taxpayers each year.