Can we get back to don't ask, don't tell

Prior to August 24th, a daily source of conversation in the Gekko household was about who Ken Mehlman was sleeping with.

Not really.

But should I have as much interest in who Ken Mehlman is sleeping with today now that he insists on telling me, and the rest of the world, he is gay? What if he came out of the closet and told the world he was really into being ball gagged and spanked with an adult diaper on (special turn on if it's Barbara Walters doing the spanking)? Do we, as the public need, to know that or even care?

By the way, here's a partial list of people that I don't care, want to know, have any interest in knowing who they are sleeping with.........

Ed Asner
Alan Simpson
Sheryl Crow
Cokie Roberts
Chad Ochocinco
Lindsay Graham
Joy Behar
Tom Delay
Donald Southerland
Katie Couric
Haley Barbour
Jack White
Nick Jonas
Lady Gaga
Bob Shiefer
Ted Strickland
Newt Gingrich
Fuzzy Zoeller
Buzz Aldrin

So I'll make you a deal. The day you want to hear about who I've banged during my lifetime, I'll be more than happy to send you video/audio tapes.

But you need not worry about me asking about your fetishes, proclivities, compulsions, kinky turn-ons, etc....... because I don't care.

Article here

bear trampoline fall

LIBRARY DIRECTOR and Rep. Bean

"500%" of Black US Farmers Sign Up for Reparations From Obama Administra...

Why small businesses aren't hiring

Here's an interesting take on what ails small businesses. This one in particular hit close to home for a friend of mine.

3. Small business owners use their homes to obtain business credit. According to the 2009 Gallup/NFIB survey, 16 percent of small business owners finance a business with a home mortgage, and an additional 6 percent pledge that real estate as collateral. As a result, business borrowing of more than one in five small business owners is tied to the value of their homes.

As home prices have fallen, small-business-owning households have seen their personal balance sheets weaken. And the NFIB survey shows that 9 percent of owners owe more than their homes are worth.

The more fragile financial position of small business owners has made expansion difficult. In addition, as home values have fallen, the 22 percent of small business owners whose business debt is linked to residential real estate have faced demand for more collateral by lenders. The weakened balance sheets and demand for additional collateral has meant that fewer small business owners have been able to expand.

One of my friends is filing bankruptcy today. At one time, he owned a home in a nice part of the city. That home appreciated from his purchase price of 290k fourteen years ago to 790k two years ago.

He used the 200k of the equity in the home to finance a start up business which ultimately failed. Now he's on the hook for 490k in debt on a home that now appraises for $475k.

What's interesting is that they received an offer just before the crash for $720k that they declined because they thought they could get more.

So for all the douche bags out there who want to jump start the housing industry, here's a real life case study on what over inflated real estate values did to people during the past two years.

First, by creating all these home ownership programs, which included stated income loans (liar loans), the feds created an environment for speculators in the housing market.

Second, if this market had more normal rates of returns, this guy would never had the equity to speculate in a business (which I thought was a loser from the get go).

Third, too many business owners knew they could keep borrowing on their house believing the rates of return would keep skyrocketing. Shit, why sell at $720k when I can get $820k next year! In addition, I have all kinds of equity to do a plant expansion.

Fourth, the banks got Viagra like results when they could take a home as collateral. The thinking was "hell, people won't let their houses go". How'd that thinking work out? I know of banks doing 150 percent loan to value home equity loans. That was bad enough but combine that with an appraisal industry more than willing to be an accomplice in inflated appraised values and you have a giant real estate Ponzi scheme.

During the time of all this, I counseled (some would say lectured) my clients on the importance of treating housing like any other consumable item..........not an investment.

I also lectured clients on the importance of not rolling other debt on the house; credit cards, auto, or otherwise.

But it's like spitting into the wind an entire industry and the feds are promoting houses for everyone.

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Stuff liberals run - Public Pensions

Did Ken Lay come back from the dead?

So now that the state of New Jersey has been charged by the SEC with lying to bond investors about the (desiccated, horrific, probably insolvent) state of its pension funds, the guessing game begins: Who is next? Exchequer readers will not be surprised to learn that Illinois, the place where Barack Obama developed his famous financial acumen, is on the list of potential targets.

When Illinois passed its pension “reform” law a few months ago, it decided it could skip an additional $300 million in pension contributions this year, and many millions more in the future. This, for a pension system that already is less than half funded. The New York Times asked a few actuaries about that decision, and the bean-counters are crying foul:

Paradoxically, even though the state will make smaller contributions, the report forecasts that Illinois will get its pension funds back on track to a respectable 90 percent funding level by 2045. It projects that costs will increase slowly and an economic recovery will make cash available for the state to make the contributions it has failed to do in the past.

Whether that is even possible is contested by some actuaries who note that its family of pension funds is now only 39 percent funded. (If a company let its pension fund dwindle to that level, the federal government would probably step in, but federal officials have no authority to seize state pension funds.)

Some actuaries who have reviewed the state’s plans said that shrinking contributions would make the pension funds shakier, not stronger.

Indeed, one of them, Jeremy Gold, called Illinois’s plan “irresponsible” and said it could drive the pension funds to the brink.

Further, Mr. Gold pointed out that Illinois’s official disclosures said that its pension calculations used an actuarial method known as “projected unit credit,” but that the pension reform report used another method, which had not been approved for disclosure.

“According to Illinois statute, the prescribed contributions are determined under a method that may not be in compliance with the pertinent actuarial standards of practice,” Mr. Gold said.

The Wall Street Journal has more on state pension shenanigans here.

Hey, taxpayer: How’s your retirement fund looking these days? Anything left to put in it after the state-workers’ unions are done with you? Heck, you’re probably the kind of sucker who pays his mortgage with his own money.

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Life in "Progress" State - New York edition

At Bruegger's Bagels in Albany, New York, getting your bagel sliced is going to cost you an extra 8 cents. Not because the owner is a cheap jerk, although that's what many customers thought when the price increase was initially posted this summer. Instead, the use of knives in a bagel shop magically summons the tax man:

In New York, the sale of whole bagels isn't subject to sales tax. But the tax does apply to "sliced or prepared bagels (with cream cheese or other toppings)," according to the state Department of Taxation and Finance. And if the bagel is eaten in the store, even if it's never been touched by a knife, it's also taxed.

This isn't an isolated incident, and stories like this are likely to become more common as state governments that are out of money start looking for ways to nickle and dime their taxpayers.

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Never Enough: William Voegeli on America's Limitless Welfare State

A must read

Do you want to know why jobs aren't so plentiful?

Ask someone who actually hires people............

Intel chief executive Paul Otellini offered a depressing set of observations about the economy and the Obama administration Monday evening, coupled with a dark commentary on the future of the technology industry if nothing changes.

Otellini's remarks during dinner at the Technology Policy Institute's Aspen Forum here amounted to a warning to the administration officials and assorted Capitol Hill aides in the audience: Unless government policies are altered, he predicted, "the next big thing will not be invented here. Jobs will not be created here."

snip

Otellini singled out the political state of affairs in Democrat-dominated Washington, saying: "I think this group does not understand what it takes to create jobs. And I think they're flummoxed by their experiment in Keynesian economics not working."

Since an unusually sharp downturn accelerated in late 2008, the Obama administration and its allies in the U.S. Congress have enacted trillions in deficit spending they say will create an economic stimulus -- but have not extended the Bush tax cuts and have pushed to levy extensive new health care and carbon regulations on businesses.

"They're in a 'Do' loop right now trying to figure out what the answer is," Otellini said.

As a result, he said, "every business in America has a list of more variables than I've ever seen in my career." If variables like capital gains taxes and the R&D tax credit are resolved correctly, jobs will stay here, but if politicians make decisions "the wrong way, people will not invest in the United States. They'll invest elsewhere."

Take factories. "I can tell you definitively that it costs $1 billion more per factory for me to build, equip, and operate a semiconductor manufacturing facility in the United States," Otellini said.

The rub: Ninety percent of that additional cost of a $4 billion factory is not labor but the cost to comply with taxes and regulations that other nations don't impose. (Cypress Semiconductor CEO T.J. Rodgers elaborated on this in an interview with CNET, saying the problem is not higher U.S. wages but anti-business laws: "The killer factor in California for a manufacturer to create, say, a thousand blue-collar jobs is a hostile government that doesn't want you there and demonstrates it in thousands of ways.")

So if you're a new tech grad looking for that good paying job, you can thank that Hope and Change guy you supported last election.

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White House counterterrorism adviser storms out of Washington Times offices

One Term?

Cavuto's spot on

Life in "Progress" State - California edition

They called it Paradise
I don't why
You call some place Paradise
Kiss it Goodbye

Computer software giant Adobe, computer game monster EA Games, and Internet auction king ebay are abandoning California to set up shop in Utah. Why? California’s horrid business climate and high taxes.

Adobe Systems, maker of a suite of graphics programs such as Adobe PDF, Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign, have announced that they are building a $100 million facility in either Salt Lake City or in nearby Utah County, Utah. The facility will bring thousands of jobs to Utah over the next few decades.

In May the Internet auction company ebay also announced a major new facility to be built in Salt Lake City. The $287 million data center will also bring hundreds of new jobs to the Bee Hive State.

Not to be forgotten, games maker Electronic Arts opened its new facility in July in Salt Lake City where around 100 employees are already at work.

These companies fleeing California’s horrid business climate are not alone. There has been a steady flow of businesses out of California for the better part of a decade. As California’s political morass worsens, as its budget woes increase, and as her politicians are proven incapable of making the hard budgetary decisions to take power from unions and chop unnecessarily lavish social programs, the state’s jobs are bleeding out. California is an a freefall the end of which is still unseen.

Jobs? We don't need no stinkin' jobs...........

Now that's "progressive"!

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London less expensive than New York?

The Lovely Mrs Gekko and I are TV drama junkies.

A few months ago, I asked Mrs. Gekko why a number of the shows we watch are shot in non LA/NY locations, Burn Notice and Dexter (Miami), In Plain Sight (Albequerque), Hung (Detroit), etc.

It's been my theory the part of the reason is the costs of doing business in those cities versus the cost of LA and/or NY.

Now Woody Allen offers this.............

MADRID — Woody Allen says he began shooting movies in European cities because he couldn't afford to do so in New York.

However, the film director told reporters in the northern Spanish city of Oviedo that he finds Manhattan poses fewer limitations than European cities, where more tailoring of the story is required to fit the location.

Allen was in Spain Tuesday to attend a premiere of his last film, "You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger" in the nearby town of Aviles.

The film, shot in London, stars Naomi Watts, Josh Brolin and Antonio Banderas.

When London is less expensive then LA or New York, what the hell does that say about your local business environment?

But hey, it's not like any of those people looking to be extras have any problem flying to London.

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Wow

It's hard to believe this dude is alive..... for now.

Where's my Congressman?

Life in "Progress" City - Kansas City edition

While everyone is doing a lot of back slapping regarding the new one half billion dollar LA public school, let's go back in time and remember another liberal school experiment in Kansas City, where they spent more than a billion dollars at the time to upgrade the schools.

Remember how the public was told how people would be leaving the suburbs to get their kids into the KC schools?

Well, in a surprise to no one, it didn't quite work out that way............

Like so many other public school parents, Reshonda Sanders felt confused on Thursday as she tried to comprehend why nearly half of the schools here, including her own alma mater, are to close for good at the end of the year. As the mother of two high school students, she was well aware of the district’s struggles.

“But even so, I thought, Could they be serious? Close almost 30 schools, all at once?” said Ms. Sanders, 34. “That’s devastating for us. How did it get to be this bad? What were they doing for years and years so that something like this happens just like overnight?”

In her bafflement, Ms. Sanders is not alone. In the wake of the Kansas City school board’s decision to shutter 28 of its 61 schools, many people were left scratching their heads. While school closings as a result of demographic change and tight budgets are commonplace across the country, rarely does a system lose half of itself in one sweep.

The sudden move suggests a depth of dysfunction here that is rarely associated with Kansas City, a lively heartland town with a reputation for order. But a closer look at the school board’s recent history reveals a chaotic, almost nonfunctioning body that put off making tough choices and even routine improvements for generations. Experts said that in the board’s years of inaction is a cautionary tale for school districts everywhere.

Needless to say, it's just one of the many things that liberals have managed to rot.

The most pathetic thing about this article is the last sentence.

Nakisha Eubanks, a mother of three students, said: “I don’t want my kids in this district, going through all this disruption. But I can’t move, and I don’t have transportation. So, this is it.”

And that my friends is the only way liberal can govern; by forcing the people who have no choice into accepting the putrid and disgusting.

Now that's "progressive"!

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Who did he vote for? #189

Let's get to know Joseph Needels. Why is Joseph in the news?

A stunt gone awry Sunday on Interstate 275 has left a Cincinnati man dead after he attempted to climb onto the roof of a moving car, fell and was hit by at least two vehicles.

The accident happened at about 2 a.m. on the interstate between the Five Mile Road and New Richmond exits.

According to the Hamilton County Sheriff’s office, Joseph S. Needels, 29, slipped and fell from the passenger window of a 1999 Chevrolet Cavalier when the vehicle drove over a patch of rough pavement.

He was hit by a 2006 Kenworth semi-tractor trailer, a 2009 Mazda 3 and possibly a white pick-up truck that left the scene, investigators said.

Needels was pronounced dead at the scene.

The driver of the semi trailer, 31-year-old Theodore A. Hooks II of Cincinnati, was taken to Mercy Hospital Anderson, where he was treated and released. The Mazda 3 driver, Adrienne Williams, 18, of St. Bernard, was not injured, nor was the driver of the Cavalier, 22-year-old Courtney L. Groeshen of Cincinnati.

Alcohol and/or drugs are believed to be factors, authorities said.

Let's see....... 2:00 am..... guy falls off of moving car......... Yeah, I'd say alcohol was most definitely involved.

None the less, did this Future Darwin Award winner vote for The One or The Maverick in that 2008 presidential election?

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The Hills they die on

W few years ago, I put together a list of hills the democratic party would defend until death. That list was.........

For instance, let's go through the list....

#7 Caribou

#6 Judicial Fiat

#5 The NEA

#4 The Welfare State

#3 Trial Lawyers

#2 Affirmative Action

#1 Abortion

You know what you won't find on that list. Your average garden variety working schlep. You know the people democrats claim to represent. But when push comes to shove, if the interest of your average union worker gets in the way of any of these hills..........tough shit.

If needed any evidence of that read this piece.

Senior Obama administration officials concluded the federal moratorium on deepwater oil drilling would cost roughly 23,000 jobs, but went ahead with the ban because they didn’t trust the industry’s safety equipment and the government’s own inspection process, according to previously undisclosed documents.

Critics of the moratorium, including Gulf Coast political figures and oil-industry leaders, have said it is crippling the region’s economy, and some have called on the administration to make public its economic analysis. A federal judge who in June threw out an earlier six-month moratorium faulted the administration for playing down the economic effects.

So let me make sure I have this right. The Obamunists were more than willing to sacrifice the jobs (probably high paying union ones at that) for some unknown environmental threats?

What gets me is how the union heads are so committed to a party that would sell them out in a heart beat.

Rep. Phil Hare: Questions About the Constitution & Health Care Are "Sill...

Life in "Progress" City - Miami edition

They say a liberal is a conservative who hasn't been mugged yet.

It looks like we have a new recruit............

Police in North Miami say a Democratic congressional candidate has been robbed at gunpoint while waiting to make a campaign appearance at a church.

Police Lt. Neal Cuevas said that Marleine Bastien was in a car Saturday with her sister outside the Church of the Living God when another car pulled up along side them. A man got out, opened the driver's door, and demanded the women give him their purses and threatened to kill them.

Cuevas says the man then took off. Investigators believe he was involved in a similar robbery 30 minutes earlier.

Bastien is one of four Haitian-born candidates running in a Democratic primary next week for an open House seat in a South Florida district.

Article here........