Saturday, July 02, 2011
Friday, July 01, 2011
Obama's greatest hits
How to create jobs by making them more expensive
So what was the impact of the minimum wage on teenage unemployment?
Who would have thunk it? You make it more expensive for employers to hire young people and they turn around and hire fewer............
Perhaps you've already noticed around the neighborhood, but this is a rotten summer for young Americans to find a job. The Department of Labor reported last week that a smaller share of 16-19 year-olds are working than at anytime since records began to be kept in 1948.
Only 24% of teens, one in four, have jobs, compared to 42% as recently as the summer of 2001. The nearby chart chronicles the teen employment percentage over time, including the notable plunge in the last decade. So instead of learning valuable job skills—getting out of bed before noon, showing up on time, being courteous to customers, operating a cash register or fork lift—millions of kids will spend the summer playing computer games or hanging out.
The lousy economic recovery explains much of this decline in teens working, and some is due to increases in teen summer school enrollment. Some is also cultural: Many parents don't put the same demands on teens as they once did to get out and work.
But Congress has also contributed by passing one of the most ill-timed minimum wage increases in history. One of the first acts of the gone-but-not-forgotten Nancy Pelosi ascendancy was to raise the minimum wage in stages to $7.25 an hour in 2009 from $5.15 in 2007. Even liberals ought to understand that raising the cost of hiring the young and unskilled while employers are slashing payrolls is loopy economics.
More......
Life in "Progress" City - Cincinnati edition
Five people were shot and wounded in what may have been a gun battle outside a residence in the 7700 block of Stillwell Avenue, a Cincinnati police official said.All of the victims suffered non-life threatening injuries and are expected to recover, said Cincinnati Police Captain Paul Neudigate, the night chief.
As many as 20 people may have been standing outside a house about midnight when one, possibly two, of them pulled out handguns and started shooting, he said. Neighbors reported hearing as many as 15 to 20 gunshots.
You know the big difference between "Progress" City and "Redville"? At midnight, our residents are sleeping because they're going to work the next morning. They're not hanging out at midnight on the streets shooting up the neighborhood.
Now ask yourself these questions.
How many of these people were collecting some form of "public assistance"?
How many of these people have jobs?
How many of these people have concealed carry permits?
More.....
Get rid of the jets
Wednesday's speech by President Obama made it clear that when it comes to dealing with the nation's debt problem, Republican lawmakers need to be willing to raise taxes on the richest Americans.In the speech, the president said, " If everybody else is willing to take on their sacred cows and willing to do tough things in order to achieve the goal of real deficit to reduction then I think it would be hard for the Republicans to stand there and say that tax break for corporate jets is sufficiently important that we're not willing to come to the table and get the deal done."
What the president may have been referring to is an attempt by some Democrats to close up a tax loophole called "accelerate depreciation." In layman's terms, it is a depreciation method which allows faster write-offs than the straight line method.
I once worked for a large super regional bank that owned a corporate "jet". It was actually an eight seat prop plane that was scarier to ride in than crossing the Brent Spence Bridge.
As a member of the company's due diligence team, I would frequently get a ride on the plane to such destinations as Scranton PA, Lorain OH, Crawfordsville IN to name a few.
Often, the plane was used because commercial travel was too unwieldy to get 10-20 people to such awesome destinations.
But from what I understand most companies have forgone their company jet fleets to outsourcing services like Net Jet, where the company simply pays for what flight time it uses and no more.
If a company does own a jet, it usually allows a company like Net Jet to rent it out for other travelers to use.
So while the president wants to paint a picture of a bunch of Fat Cats hauling their jets off to some tropical island to get a round of golf in. The truth is that unless a company official can tie their business around their personal travel, they have to pick up the use of that jet as taxable income. Kind of like when the president flies to Philadelphia on AF1 for a fundraiser, I mean, official visit.
Changing the depreciation methods is a total canard. The only thing the depreciation method might influence is the timing of a jet purchase not the decision to own one.
But never let the facts get in the way of a good story.
Life in "Progress" State - CA edition
I don't know why
You call some place Paradise
Kiss it Goodbye
Now consider thisCalifornia isn't what it used to be. Sure, America's most populous state, with 37.3 million people, is still home to Hollywood, "The OC," Silicon Valley and other cultural and economic engines. But for average Americans, the state seems to have lost its appeal.
No longer is California the larger-than-life destination where anything's possible -- the pot of gold at the end of our collective path westward.
It's too crowded and pricey for that.
Census data outlines the state's fall from grace. California grew at a slower rate from 2000 to 2010 than in any period since statehood in 1850, according to U.S. Census Bureau data released this year. Put another way: This is the biggest population slump in California's history.
Many middle class people are leaving the state for Texas, Colorado, Nevada and Arizona, where taxes and the cost of living are lower. In the past decade, 1.5 million more people left California for other states than came to California from another part of the United States, according to analysis from the Public Policy Institute of California.
California has the most resources of any state in the union; excellent farmland, minerals, oil & gas, the list goes on.
Yet how is it that the Golden State suffers while states like Indiana prosper?
More....
What about this science?
Better Job, Wage Gains
It seems to be a good deal for the workers, too. The U.S. unemployment rate is 9.1%. In right-to-work states the average is 7.9% — 8.6% adjusted for population.
Between 1977-08, employment grew 100% in right-to-work states vs. the national average of 71% and 56.5% in non-right-to-work states. That's according to a January study that Ohio University economics professor Richard Vedder did for the Indiana Chamber of Commerce.
In this period, real per capita income in the right-to-work states grew 62.3% vs. the national average of 54.7% and 52.8% for non-right-to-work states.
Vedder has studied right-to-work laws for decades and argues that this success is not a coincidence.
" I've been looking for ways to show that these laws don't really (impact) anything. But I haven't found it yet," Vedder said.
More.....
We'll have to pass it to know what's in it
Older adults of the same age and income with similar medical histories would pay sharply different amounts for private health insurance due to what appears to be an unintended consequence of the new health care law.Aware of the problem, the administration says it is exploring options to address a potential disparity that could mean added controversy for President Barack Obama's health care overhaul. The law expands coverage to more than 30 million uninsured people and would require most Americans to carry insurance.
The glitch mainly affects older adults who are too young for a Medicare card but have reached 62, when people can qualify for early retirement from Social Security. Sixty-two is the most common age at which Americans start taking Social Security, although their monthly benefit is reduced.
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Who loves ya' Obama?
And the pols see it that way as well............
President Barack Obama’s approval has hit an all-time low among the poorest Americans, according to the Gallup poll. Meanwhile, when compared to the other income brackets reported by Gallup, Obama's approval is highest among the richest Americans.Once again, let's ask the question. The Obamunist economic policies since his inauguration have had the biggest impact on which people.In the week of June 20-26--the most recent week published by Gallup--only 45 percent of Americans in the lowest income bracket reported by the polling company (those earning less than $2,000 per month) said they approved of the job Obama was doing as president.
Gallup publishes the president’s weekly approval numbers among Americans in four income brackets: those earning less than $2,000 per month, those earning between $2,000 and $4,999 per month, those earning between $5,000 and $7,499 and those earning more than $7,500.
In Gallup's most recent survey, Obama had majority approval in none of these income brackets.
However, of the four, his approval was highest--47 percent--in the richest bracket, those earning more than $7,500 per month.
1) An unemployed forklift operator
2) A retired hairdresser
3) LeBron James
4) A PhD Chemist
More....
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Why liberals hate Bachmann
Now the mainstream media has new trash cans to canvass, new foster children to interview, new emails to hack and they appear to be Bachmann's.
Seriously, the scruntiny this woman is receiving is laughable. Especially when considering the lack of vetting done on the current president, which has been nothing.
I read this headline yesterday and I did a LOL so hard I spit my coffee all over my computer screen.
Michele Bachmann’s thin legislative résumé
Are you serious?
Now for the record, I'm not wild about Bachmann as a candidate. While I do appreciate her business background and her fight for social conservative values, I do believe she lacks executive government experience. Without that experience, whether as mayor or governor, I think we could very well end up with a president not too disimilar to who we have today.
But seriously, what was Obama's shining legislative achievement? Anyone, Anyone, Buehler.
I actually googled the term "obama's signature achievement as a legislator" and you know how many hits I got? A BIG FAT 0, nada, nothing. Can you name anything? Remember that Obama-Feingold bill? or Leiberman-Obama defense bill? Neither do I.
So it appears that Bachmann has now taken over as the LMT (Liberal Misogyny Target).
Once again, we have to wonder why liberals have so much vile towards one person.
And, like Palin, I espouse the following
1) She's attractive.
2) She never sacrificed family for career and achieved none the less.
3) She never had to rely on a spouse or a daddy to achieve her political ambition.
4) She never had to sleep with a total pig to get ahead.
She is the antithesis of everything the feminist movement has lived for the past 40 years.
So let me give a tip to the media on where to find the scoop on Bachmann. All the dirt is sitting right next to Obama's senior thesis, his college transcripts, his Harvard Law Review articles, his emails, etc.
How do workers view unions?
She left that position for a position at another hospital for slightly less pay but she will tell you the work conditions are markedly better.
Last week, we were out with some of her nursing friends and one of loud mouth liberal co workers started yapping about getting a union into there work place.
On the way home, Mrs. Gekko asked me what I thought about a union at her work place and I told her "take the worst employee on your floor and then imagine that you are surrounded with such people. Besides you already worked in a union shop what did you think of that environment?"
It was the shortest educational exercise ever.
So it doesn't take a mental giant to understand why people don't want unions in their workplace.
Even in Blue State New York.........
Confronted with an unwelcome intrusion, employees at a Target store in New York rejected unionization and dealt a blow to the grand plans of the UFCW.
That average Americans continue to stand against these job-killing, profit-leaching forces is most encouraging. But make no mistake, the fight is far from over.
Labor unions are in decline and desperate. Today, union membership is under 12% of the U.S. workforce -- it was over 20% in the 1980's. Among retail unions, like the United Food and Commercial Workers International (UFCW), membership has also undergone sizeable erosion, down over 40% nationwide since 1983.
More, public support for unions has fallen sharply and, according to the Pew Research Center, at near quarter-century lows. Not surprisingly, unions are seen as having both a negative impact on the "availability of good jobs" in the U.S., while placing our companies at a competitive disadvantage globally.
Yes, even with its allies in the White House, the press, and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), Americans are not fooled. And the "collective" repulsion of unionization is increasing. Like employees of the Target chain, most do not want, nor need, its tentacles in the workplace.
More......
Life in "Progress' Country - Greece
They claim to be a higher brow, more educated people over those slopey headed conservatives.
They claim to use "science" over whatever when it comes to formulating policy.
So maybe a liberal out there can explain to me how it is that Europe is collapsing as a result of their welfare states and yet believe that the US is somehow immune to the same?
Life in "Progress" City - Philadelphia edition
The streets were vibrant. The weather was nice.
"The city had a good vibe," remembered one of the women, Maria, who requested her full name not be printed.
But their night on the town was about to become frightening.
Heading their way was a pack of teens roving through Center City after leaving a North Philadelphia music festival.
They were part of about 100 or more young people who had left Saturday night's event, police said, committing a series of violent assaults and robberies, including one against Maria, 25, of North Philadelphia, and her cousin Cecilia, 29, of Havertown.
Donta Holdclaw was in the crowd of teens that night. On Tuesday afternoon, he stood on the front step of his mother's North Philadelphia apartment and said the group was bound for South Street.
"They were holding fireworks," he said. "That's what we were going to see."
He had gone to the Susquehanna Community Festival, along Susquehanna Avenue near Broad Street, with his older brother, Aleek Hamilton, 19. Last week, Hamilton graduated from Mastbaum Vocational/Technical High School, with plans to attend college and become a mechanic, said his mother, Letitia Washington. He also was working at a West Philadelphia thrift shop.
Hamilton is now in jail, charged with robbing Cecilia.
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Dear Barack
I'm a married small business owner with no kids.
Apparently, I have horrible time management skills because I can't seem to find the time to get nine holes of golf in a week.
So maybe you can tell me how it is that you're presiding over the free world, three wars, and a flailing economy yet you still find time to get in 74 rounds of golf during your presidency?
I know your time is limited so I'll just pick up a NY Times and maybe they'll report on how you're so efficient.
Stuff liberals run - education
The good news is that more Ohio sophomores are passing the State's high school proficiency tests.
Let me ask these questions, if 65 percent can pass a high school proficiency test as sophomores, why do we continue to have these kids in school when they've already mastered the basics? Only a liberal would have you pay more for something you already have.The percent of local high school sophomores who passed all five sections of the Ohio Graduation Test this year jumped nearly 10 percentage points from last year, according to preliminary results from the Ohio Department of Education.
Of the 16,020 sophomores in Southwest Ohio who took all five parts, 12,032, or 75.1 percent, passed all of them the first time around.
Last year, 16,003 sophomores took all five parts but only 10,385, or 64.9 percent, passed them all.
How is it that so many kids are so advanced on their state proficiency tests, yet there's never been more kids in need of remedial training once attending a college?
I'm thinking that the tests are too easy. Yet when I went to the State's web site to take a practice exam, I thought it was pretty challenging. In fact, I've met enough dumbass kids to know that there's no way 65% could pass those sample questions.
So what is it?
Jonah rides the train
This last weekend, my wife, my daughter, and I needed to go up to NYC for the weekend (the grown-ups to attend Rich Lowry’s spectacular wedding to his spectacular new bride, my daughter to stay with grandma). For boring and ill-thought-out reasons we decided to take the train instead of driving. Basically, our six-year-old Volvo SUV needs to go to the shop and both the Fair Jessica and I are on brutal work deadlines and we figured we could get some writing done on the train. So we booked three unreserved coach tickets, round trip, weekend rate. The total cost? $750. Unlike the more pleasant, and more expensive, Acela, the train was loud, dirty, and crowded. The bathrooms had the rich, earthy musk of — literally — a Port-o-John on rails.
Now, as I understand it, Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor service is by far its most popular. Something like a third of all Amtrak’s daily usage is in the Northeast. Amtrak, of course, loses money, though its biggest losses come from the long-haul service. Anyway, my point isn’t to get deep in the policy weeds or the service’s books. But come on! $750 to replace a drive to New York City and back. We feel like idiots for doing it.
More......
Here's more shovel ready
In particular, the Brent Spence Bridge which will see more people die on it than any bridge in the country. Unfortunately, it will happen one at a time as to avoid any serious media/public scrutiny.
But this area is the only area in need of a major artery fix. How about New York..............
Last October, more than a year into his $787 billion stimulus program, President Obama concluded in a New York Times Magazine interview that “there’s no such thing as shovel-ready projects.” To learn why America can’t build stuff quickly (or even slowly), Obama should take a rush-hour ride over the Tappan Zee Bridge, which connects Rockland and Westchester Counties over the Hudson River, just north of New York City.The Tappan Zee exemplifies the state of America’s infrastructure in 2011. We rely on it more than ever: each year, 51 million cars, trucks, and buses traverse the seven-lane “Tap,” as locals call it. More people commute over it than through the Lincoln or the Holland Tunnel, both of which cross the river to the south. Yet New York outgrew the bridge decades ago, with today’s traffic far exceeding the structure’s designed capacity. Worse, the Tappan Zee is a disaster in slow motion. Absent ceaseless repairs and ever-vigilant inspectors, it could collapse. Even short of such a disaster, the bridge’s deterioration poses a significant risk to the regional economy: if state officials ever felt that they were losing the battle against the Tap’s decay, they would shut it immediately, diverting traffic to already-clogged arteries to the south and preventing thousands of the downstate region’s workers and customers from getting to their destinations.
The Tappan Zee’s parlous condition is nothing new. Yet New York State, after more than a decade of halfhearted attempts to start building a replacement, remains at least another decade away from finishing a new bridge—in fact, a half-decade away from even beginning the project. This failure reflects a lack of political will, a weakness that threatens the Empire State’s capacity to grow.
Now let's hear a collective yawn from this administration.
But hey there's 45 mph high speed rail projects to get to.....
When did competent government become "flaky"
But I wish Bachmann would have answered with this.
Since when did small, limited government become a "flaky" concept?
How is it "flaky" to understand that a government cannot continue to spend trillions more every year than it takes in ad infinitum. We need only look at Portugal, Greece, Italy and Ireland as a current case study.
How is it that because we have great global evidence that Euro government models don't work and that is where this president is leading us, yet I'm the "flaky" one?
Maybe someone can explain to me how it's "flaky" to understand that you don't reduce unemployment by making it more expensive for employers to hire American workers via aggressive NLRB and EPA policies, healthcare reform, etc.
Seriously, a NY Times writer can call out fly over folks as slopy headed but when you look at the condition of Red State finances versus Blue State, who's really the mentally deficient?
Monday, June 27, 2011
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Watch Sander Hall Fall -- Again
I lived on the 22nd floor of this building, the last year it was open as a dorm.
After a fire nearly killed a student, the school decided that the building needed another stairwell.
After the stairwell was installed at a cost more than the original construction, asbestos was discovered.
Once the asbestos was abated at a cost in the millions, the school decided the building was still a dump and imploded it.
Fortunately, I was upwind when it went down.
I can't believe it's been 20 year since I attended the implosion and 30 since I lived in it.
More liberal hypocrisy
The global warming debate has always been a touchy one for both sides, and when the world’s top global warming activist is talking about the size of population and how that contributes to the choices societies make, it might be worth taking note.
In an appearance Monday in New York City, former Vice President Al Gore, prominently known for his climate change activism, took on the subject of population size and the role of society in controlling it to reduce pollution.
He offered some ideas about what might be done for females in the name of stabilizing population growth. (h/t Chris Horner via wattsupwiththat.com)
“One of the things we could do about it is to change the technologies, to put out less of this pollution, to stabilize the population, and one of the principle ways of doing that is to empower and educate girls and women,” Gore said. “You have to have ubiquitous availability of fertility management so women can choose how many children have, the spacing of the children.
Who did she vote for? #10009
Meet Stephanie Greene.
Why is Stephanie in the news?
Authorities in South Carolina say an infant girl died from a lethal dose of morphine that was in her mother's breast milk.Now I am going to go out on a limb to suggest that someone addicted to morphine is probably not employed and is probably getting public assistance.The mother, 37-year-old Stephanie Greene, was charged Friday with homicide by child abuse.
Investigators say Greene's 6-week-old daughter, Alexis, was found dead in her parents' bed in their Campobello home in November 2010.
Autopsy results showed high levels of morphine in the child's blood.
Authorities say the painkiller got into Greene's breast milk after she took pills and used patches containing morphine constantly since the baby's birth.
So why would you object to preventing the death of an innocent child by requiring all people receiving public assistance be drug tested?
None the less, in the last election did Stephanie vote for the One or Four more years of Bush?
More.....
Life in "Progress" City - Philadelphia edition
A mob of about 40 people stormed into the Sears department store on 69th Street Thursday, and in a flash stole thousands of dollars worth of merchandise, officials said.
Police were able to round up 15 juveniles and one adult, 19, all from West Philadelphia.
“They came in on the El train and hit Sears,” police Superintendent Michael Chitwood said. “They stole sneakers, socks, watches, whatever they could get their hands on, and left.
“Imagine the guts of this gang of young hoodlums. One was 11 years old. The others arrested ranged from 12 to 16 years old. They planned this out earlier in the day on a social networking site. It was pre-planned. They got on the El, got off at 69th Street Terminal and walked up the hill to Sears.”
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Life in "Progress" City - Chicago edition
The teenage robbery mobs are at it again on North Michigan Avenue.Some 50 young people barged into a Walgreens at Michigan and Chicago on the Magnificent Mile on Tuesday afternoon. They took bottled drinks and sandwiches off the shelves, then ran off, CBS 2′s Suzanne Le Mignot reports.
A police report says authorities were able to nab three of the thieves.
Walgreens says the store is working with police, helping investigators with video from the store security camera.
The Mag Mile earlier this year was hit by similar mobs of young thieves. Attacks on commuters and bicyclists have become violent, and police have stepped up patrols.
More....
Is not uncertainty killing the economy
The Environmental Protection Agency said Friday it would delay issuing final regulations aimed at cutting pollution from factory boilers until April 2012, amid pressure from industry groups and lawmakers.
The EPA decision came just days after a top EPA official publicly touted the health and economic benefits of a separate but similar rule to control mercury emissions from aging coal-fired power plants.
The EPA faces increasing pressure from Congress and business groups to slow down a broad regulatory agenda, including proposals to curb carbon dioxide emissions using the Clean Air Act and several rules aimed at clamping down on emissions from coal-burning power plants.
The boiler rules were the target of a House bill introduced by four Republicans and four Democrats Wednesday that would give the agency 15 months to finalize the boiler rules and allow factories at least five years to comply.
Rep. Fred Upton (R., Mich.), who chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said the EPA was still operating on too short a schedule to issue the boiler rules, given its plan to propose standards by the end of October. "The limited time frame EPA has announced will prevent the agency from revising the rules in their entirety and addressing all the difficult technical issues that have been raised," Mr. Upton said.
EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson has said stronger controls on emissions of toxic substances such as mercury from boilers would yield a significant improvement to public health.
First, let me ask you a question. Why would you expand or build a new plant in this country when you can go elsewhere and build and not incur the wrath of the environistas in this country?
Sure they're delaying implementation until 2012, but don't you think that company executives think beyond an election cycle before spending millions on production facilities?
Second, I keep hearing about improvement to public health; like California where they're looking to ban all semitractor trailers. But how has public health improved as a result of getting food and medicine to store shelves faster?
Think of a world with no production facilities. We used to call that the 1700's. Are you telling me that the increase in carbon releases is a bad trade off to a time where people we're lucky to live to 40?
So again, I ask the question, who is impacted the most by the fact that companies are flat out afraid to build any kind of serious production capacity in this country.
1) Eminem
2) Steve Jobs
3) An unemployed factory worker
4) Keith Olberman
More....
How about funding this "shovel ready" disaster
As a result, another person lost their life as a result of government non response...........
The body of a man knocked off the Brent Spence Bridge in an early-morning car crash Friday has been recovered.River crews pulled the body out of the Ohio River just after 4 a.m. Saturday. He was identified as Abdoulaye Yattara, 42. He is originally from Africa, said Covington police Capt. Teal Nally. A records search revealed that Yattara, who police said was married, most recently lived in Westwood
Yattara’s car – a silver Chevrolet Camaro – ran out of gas in the southbound lanes of the Brent Spence Bridge around 6:50 a.m. Friday. He got out of his car to talk to another motorist, Jerry Hargett, a 49-year-old father of five from Delhi Township.
“He tried pushing it for about five feet,” Hargett said. “His flashers weren’t on. I figured I would stop to see if I could help.”Hargett, a facilities director for the Sisters of Notre Dame in Covington, was on his way to work. He has been labeled the “Good Samaritan Driver.”
Hargett shuns that label.
“I did not do anything special,” he said. “I did what anyone else should do in that situation. I’ve stopped to help people many times. I’ve driven on, too. Don’t know what made me stop this time.”
When Hargett pulled over to help Yattara, he immediately put on his emergency flashing lights. As he spoke with Yattara, a Toyota Sienna crashed into the good Samaritan’s vehicle, a Chevrolet Tahoe. The impact knocked Yattara off the bridge and into the Ohio River.
Of course, on a fully functional bridge this tragedy could have been averted because there would be a place to pull your automobile over.
Unfortunately, those lanes were converted to regular traffic years ago to support the increased traffic load.
So while Mayor Mark Mallory has been spending all his political capital getting funding for a trolley system that won't have 160,000 passengers in its lifetime he could have been lobbying for a replacement to this nightmare across the Ohio.
The Enquirer actually has a nice chronology of the deaths related to the functional obsolescence of this bridge. While not as dramatic as the Minnesota collapse, trust me when I say there will be more than 13 deaths on this bridge before a bunch of bureaucrats decide to actually do something about a "shovel ready " problem.
Unfortunately for Mr Yattara his death will probably be in vain.