Friday, October 21, 2011

I am...... the 84 percentile

Here's an area at the WSJ where you can plug in your annual household income and it will tell you where you're at on the US totem pole.

Bundler in Chief

With the approval of the Obama administration, an electric car company that received a $529 million federal government loan guarantee is assembling its first line of cars in Finland, saying it could not find a facility in the United States capable of doing the work.

Vice President Joseph Biden heralded the Energy Department's $529 million loan to the start-up electric car company called Fisker as a bright new path to thousands of American manufacturing jobs. But two years after the loan was announced, the job of assembling the flashy electric Fisker Karma sports car has been outsourced to Finland.

"There was no contract manufacturer in the U.S. that could actually produce our vehicle," the car company's founder and namesake told ABC News. "They don't exist here."

Henrik Fisker said the U.S. money so far has been spent on engineering and design work that stayed in the U.S., not on the 500 manufacturing jobs that went to a rural Finnish firm, Valmet Automotive.

"We're not in the business of failing; we're in the business of winning. So we make the right decision for the business," Fisker said. "That's why we went to Finland."


Hey, part of the winning formula is to bilk the US out of millions in free money.

More.....

Jobs, Jobs, Jobs

Often, you have wonder about people's opinions when the say things in front of a camera.

But what about those things said in candor?

Apparently, Steve Jobs gave the president and earful...........

Steve Jobs told President Barack Obama he was “headed for a one-term presidency,” citing the U.S.’s competitive disadvantages with China and a “crippled” education system, a new biography of former Apple CEO indicates.

“You’re headed for a one-term presidency,” Jobs told Obama in a meeting last year where he asserted that the White House needed to be more friendly toward business, according to the Huffington Post, which obtained a copy of the Walter Isaacson’s forthcoming book, “Steve Jobs.”

Jobs also told Obama that “regulations and unnecessary costs” put the United States at a competitive disadvantage with China, where companies can build factories more cheaply.

Life in "Progress" City - Lower Manhattan edition

Life in Lower Manhattan, where you can't find a republican with traps baited with money and toy elephants.....

Livid lower Manhattan residents went off on Zuccotti Park protesters at a heated Community Board 1 meeting last night and blasted politicians for not controlling the chaos.

“They’re defecating on our doorsteps,” fumed board member Catherine Hughes, a stay-at-home mom who lives one block from the protest. “The cowbells start at 4 a.m. and the drumming goes past 10 a.m. A lot of people are very frustrated. A lot of people are concerned about the safety of our kids.”

Fed-up homeowners said they’ve been insulted and harassed as they trek to their jobs each morning. “The protesters taunt people who are on their way to work,” said James Fernandez, 51.

The meeting, packed with more than 200 people, spilled out onto the street, where Zuccotti sympathizers began sparring with their critics.

Board member Paul Cantor said sleepless residents can’t take the incessant racket. “If people can’t sleep ... then that’s a problem,” he said.

Geez, out here my little community of "Redville" I slept quite well, was able to drive to work unmolested and no one has shit on my stoop.

Seriously, ask yourself this question. Has the leadership of NYC done more to support the occupiers or the people who live there paying taxes?

If you wonder why people with money ultimately leave the city and take their dirty, grubby tax dollars with them. It's probably because of the paragraph above.


Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/zuccotti_neighbors_stop_dumping_mc4A6o0HMOuuvkyb4kIU3J#ixzz1bQDxw1vq

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Animal Farm

The big news here in Ohio is the wild African safari set loose near Zanesville........

Fred Polk had occasional run-ins with wolves that escaped from his neighbor's exotic-animal preserve, but he never expected the wild menagerie next door to bring a safari to his land.

He was home Tuesday night when an African lion, a mountain lion and three bears climbed over the fence and onto his cattle ranch.

Armed sheriff's deputies accompanying Polk chased the animals and killed a grizzly as it charged at them. They shot the African lion and got the mountain lion 40 feet from the front of Polk's house as his wife locked herself inside.

Governor Kasich is drawing criticism for allowing Ted Strickland's executive order on exotic animals expire earlier this year.

Apparently, unless this guy bought all these animals within the past couple of months, he's had this operation running while Strickland's order was in effect.

Meaning the law had no impact on this situation in the first place. So how should Kasich get any slack?

The fact is, the government cannot insulate the public for every single risk that life presents.

It's why we should all be packing. You'll never know when a rhinoceros is grazing in your yard.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

The Isiah Thomas of government

If you are not familiar with Isiah Thomas, he's a former Detroit Piston who's managed to ruin everything he's run after his playing days were over.

And the thing I've never understood is people keep giving him jobs.

Government has their own version of Thomas and her name is Jamie Gorelick.

Here's a taste of her management skills on file at Wiki.........

In an additional scandal concerning falsified financial transactions that helped the company meet earnings targets for 1998, a "manipulation" that triggered multimillion-dollar bonuses for top executives,[11] Gorelick received $779,625.

Investigation by the OFHEO detailed in their official report on the accounting scandal in 2006 on page 66 that from 1998 to 2002 Gorelick received a total of $26,466,834.00 in income.

So with her awesome track record, you think she might be able to run a roadkill service. But nooooooooooo. Let's put her in a position so she can ruin our nation's military.................

Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and retired Marine Corps Gen. James Cartwright are among five new members of the Defense Policy Board, a panel advising top Pentagon officials on matters of defense policy.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta also named Jamie Gorelick, former deputy attorney general and member of the 9/11 Commission, former U.S. congresswoman Jane Harman and retired Adm. Gary Roughead, former chief of naval operations.


More......

Living in poverty one cell phone and air conditioner at a time

One of my clients likes to say you can divide up all the world's wealth equally among all seven billions human inhabitants and by the end of the next three day weekend it will be right back where it started.

So when I hear poverty statistics in this country I just roll my eyes. Afterall, didn't we solve our poverty problem several trillion dollars ago............

The U.S. Census Bureau’s annual poverty report states that 46.2 million people, or roughly one of seven Americans, were poor in 2010. That’s a shocking statistic.

Currently, poverty earnings levels in the contiguous 48 states are $10,890 for individuals, $14,710 for couples and $22,350 for a family of four. The thresholds are higher for residents of Hawaii and Alaska.

Obviously, those annual earnings figures are pretty low, and people living at those income levels certainly face challenges. But understand that meeting a poverty threshold makes you eligible for federal and state assistance, like welfare, Medicaid, Aid to Dependent Children, food stamps, housing subsidies, student loans, etc., that help those who are classified as poor. In all, there are 71 federal means-tested welfare programs.

Unfortunately, poverty has political implications. For example, if you raise or lower those thresholds, you immediately change the number of poor in America. That is not to suggest that those thresholds are too low, only that you can create or eliminate a lot of poverty simply by changing the poverty thresholds. And there are political advantages to increased numbers of people in poverty.

When you look beneath the surface of the poverty issue it becomes quickly evident that some of those classified as poor — emphasis on “some” — aren’t as bad off as we might think.


Read all the amenities "the poor" have in this country.

Anyone want to make a wager as to the percentage of people in poverty with a tattoo against those who don't live in poverty?

When they eat their own

If you really break it down, democrats is a coalition party made up of victimized (albeit perceived) groups.

Women being held down by men.

Workers being held down by corporations.

Blacks being held down by whites.

Pot Smokers being held down by.... uh.... They're not being held down. It just feels that way because they can't get up.

Jews being held down by Christians.

Environmentalists being held down by Big Oil.

Etc.

Etc.

Etc.

So it's kind of funny when the groups victimize each other. Like when animal rights groups are victimized by greens..........

Thirty-five windmills at a western Pennsylvania wind farm have been silenced at night since a bat that belongs to an endangered species was found dead under one of the turbines.

The Tribune-Democrat of Johnstown is reporting the farm shut down the windmills overnight after the Indiana bat was found Sept. 26.

The farm in question was built by Gamesa Energy USA and covers parts of Portage, Washington, and Cresson Townships in Cambria County, and part of Blair County, about 60 miles east of Pittsburgh.

A spokesman for Duke Energy, which now owns the wind farm, says it has a cooperative monitoring agreement with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to determine whether bats are being harmed by the windmills.


More reason to burn oil.

More.....

Life in "progress" State - Illinois edition

In Illinois, if you own a nursing home caring for the elderly, it's taking you six months to get paid for the services you provide.

If you're triple dipping the Illinois public pension system, you go to the front of the line............

Kenneth E. Pannaralla — once a top precinct captain for Illinois House Speaker Michael J. Madigan — has made a good living in government.

Pannaralla, 63, gets a pension from the city of Chicago in addition to the three paychecks from his three current government jobs, including one as the executive director of the Southwest Home Equity Assurance Program, a government agency created under a law Madigan co-sponsored.

Madigan, who is also chairman of the Illinois Democratic Party, also gave Pannaralla’s daughter, Jennifer Pannaralla, a one-year legislative scholarship in 2003 to the University of Illinois at Chicago. And Pannaralla’s son, Kenneth, is paid $24,000 a year as an aide to Madigan.

Pannaralla makes a total of $213,418 a year, including:

†A $94,551 yearly pension from the city of Chicago, where he worked for 28 years, retiring under an early-retirement program passed by the Madigan-led Illinois Legislature that allowed him to buy an additional five years of service. Half of that pension goes to Pannaralla’s ex-wife under their divorce settlement, court records show.

Nothing says free money like being connected to a democrat........

This is what Ohio looks like if voters vote no on Ohio 2.

So vote yes.

More......

Life in "Progress" States - The Lowe's store closing edition

Lowe's announced 20 store closings this week.

Here are the stores

Los Banos, CA



Biddeford, ME



Old Bridge, NJ

Westminster, CA



Ellsworth, ME



Batavia, NY

Denver, CO



Ionia, MI



N. Kingstown, RI

Aurora, IL



Rogers, MN



Emporia, VA

Oswego, IL



Claremont, NH



S. Tacoma, WA

Chalmette, LA



Hooksett, NH



Brown Deer, WI

Haverhill, MA



Manchester, NH





Notice the connection? The PJ Tatler did.Link

All but one of the stores Lowe’s is closing are in states Obama carried in 2008.

Closing stores because people are fleeing your area? Now that's "progressive"!

Life in "Progress" City - Detroit edition

Like many swaths of the city, Keith Wicks' historic Indian Village neighborhood has remained largely dark at night after vandals destroyed transformers in nearly every streetlight pole that powers them.

On a recent rainy day, Wicks, 64, a retired GM engineer who has lived in Detroit for decades, watched as city Public Lighting workers put new transformers at the top of the aging wooden poles. Just days later, those streetlights were out — again.

"We've still got a ways to go," Wicks said with a laugh.

The growing lack of public lighting has become a troubling problem for cash-starved Detroit, where entire stretches of neighborhoods and thoroughfares — such as portions of the Southfield Freeway — are feeling the effects.

"This city…it's dark without streetlights," said Wicks, who lives on Iroquois. "You look down Iroquois at night now, it's black. It's very dangerous."

The war to keep the lights on in Detroit is a serious one. Thieves, antiquated equipment and a lack of funding have made it impossible for city officials to catch up to the problem.

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Dem Mayor Pleads for Obama to Stop New Regulations Driving Small Busines...

Life in "Progress" City - Occupy edition

You mean to tell me that people who think it's totally OK to take money from others to pay off their student loans are having a problem with a poor crack head stealing what they have to pay off their drug dealer........

Occupy Wall Street protesters said yesterday that packs of brazen crooks within their ranks have been robbing their fellow demonstrators blind, making off with pricey cameras, phones and laptops -- and even a hefty bundle of donated cash and food.

“Stealing is our biggest problem at the moment,” said Nan Terrie, 18, a kitchen and legal-team volunteer from Fort Lauderdale.

“I had my Mac stolen -- that was like $5,500. Every night, something else is gone. Last night, our entire [kitchen] budget for the day was stolen, so the first thing I had to do was . . . get the message out to our supporters that we needed food!”



From one of our "progressive" utopia's, where you can't find a conservative with a cadaver dog

Governor John Kasich - YES on Issue 2 HD (Large File)

Monday, October 17, 2011

The socialist OWS mob invades Oakland, California.

Life in "Progress" State - Illinois edition

You think we might see an entire state join the Occupy movement? After all the state of Illinois has all the qualities of a deadbeat son living in their parent's basement...............

Drowning in deficits, Illinois has turned to a deliberate policy of not paying billions of dollars in bills for months at a time, creating a cycle of hardship and sacrifice for residents and businesses helping the state carry out some of the most important government tasks.

Once intended as a stop-gap, the months-long delay in paying bills has now become a regular part of the state's budget management, forcing businesses and charity groups to borrow money, cut jobs and services and take on personal debt. Getting paid can be such a confusing process that it requires begging the state for money and sometimes has more to do with knowing the right people than being next in line.

As of early last month, the state owed on 166,000 unpaid bills worth a breathtaking $5 billion, with nearly half of that amount more than a month overdue and hundreds of bills dating back to 2010, according to an Associated Press analysis of state documents.

Will the media challenge the Obamunists on this?

So let me make sure I have this right. Republicans so hate the president they're willing to sabotage the entire economy by not passing his jobs bill?

The same republicans who tried to butcher the president's economic plan by passing the Panama, South Korea and Columbia free trade agreements in SIX DAYS?

The sad thing is republicans are saving Obama from himself. The true political play for them would be to pass his Son of Stimulus plan and sit back and count the failures one by one. The only downside is he would take the whole country down with him.

But do you think the media will challenge the conventional wisdom?

Do hold your breath.