Only in government.......

is failure rewarded with more money.........

In the wake of Enquirer reports that Hamilton County's Job and Family Services agency is at the breaking point - with too many cases per worker and woefully out-of-date technology - two commissioners said Monday they want to help the agency.

Commission President Greg Hartmann, a Republican, and Todd Portune, a Democrat, both suggested allowing the agency to dip in a $28 million reserve in the children's services levy. That money has been set aside for an expected penalty for bad bookkeeping decisions a decade ago.

The idea to give JFS a cash infusion comes up 48 hours before Hamilton County commissioners are set to vote on the county's 2012 budget. It's expected to come in at $208.8 million, about the same as this year.

A technology upgrade could cost as much as $750,000 - but it all depends on what equipment is purchased and for how many social workers. Details are still being worked out, Hartmann said.

It will take two votes of the three-man board of commissioners to make the purchase.

Commissioners Chris Monzel was not at Monday's regular staff meeting due to a family medical emergency.

JFS Director Moira Weir, who oversees the children's services division, could not be reached for comment.

The Enquirer revealed the children's service's surplus last week. The agency is asking voters Nov. 8 to renew the levy that pays for the care of abused and neglected children in the county.

All eyes are on the agency right now after the Oct. 21 death of Damarcus Jackson, a 2-year-old who spent nearly his whole life in Hamilton County foster care. A Hamilton County Juvenile Court magistrate in August sent Damarcus to live with his biological parents.

So someone please explain to me how it is that better technology will help people make a decision to move a kid back into an abusive household?

More.....

Solyndra Jr.

Another great investment by the feds goes feet up.............

(Reuters) - Beacon Power Corp filed for bankruptcy on Sunday just a year after the energy storage company received a $43 million loan guarantee from a controversial U.S. Department of Energy program.

The move comes about two months after solar panel maker Solyndra also filed for bankruptcy, setting off criticism of the government loan program.

The department guaranteed $535 million in loans to Solyndra, and Congress is investigating whether political influence played a role.

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EAT THE RICH!

I wonder if reading Animal Farm was part of her degree?

MSNBC's Karen Finney on Herman Cain

Peter Schiff Speaks for 1 Percent at Occupy Wall Street

Rise of the Obamavilles

Obama In San Francisco: As Americans, "We Have Lost Our Ambition, Our Im...

Have you ever been around a VDP (very draining person)? The kind of person who, just by their presence, sucks the life out of a room.

BO is that person. His very presence anywhere sucks ambition and imagination from the room. Who really wants to be around this a-hole?

They won't have those corporate jet owners to kick around anymore

Or the employees who build them..........

Piper Aircraft Inc. on Monday announced it will lay off 150 employees and release 55 contract personnel as a result of a decision to indefinitely suspend its Piper Altaire light business jet program.

Layoffs will begin this week and progress through the end of the year as the program winds down. Employees will receive individual separation packages depending on factors such as the length of time they were employed, said Piper spokeswoman Jackie Carlon.

Contract personnel were let go today. The contract personnel were largely engineers working as independent contractors or through an agency. They were primarily based at the Vero Beach facility. according to the company.

While the Altaire program was on schedule and budget, Carlon said "the market for light business jets is not recovering sufficiently enough or quickly enough for us to continue developing the program under the economic conditions we currently face,"

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Life in "Progress" City - St. Louis edition

St. Louis police are looking for a group of 10 to 15 people who brutally beat a 51-year-old man.

It happened near the public library in the 3300 block of South Grand around 11:40 p.m. on October 21.

St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay was the first person to spot the victim. He tells NewsChannel 5 he was driving along Grand with his security officer when they saw the crowd from a distance.

Slay says when they got closer the crowd ran off, leaving the bloody and unconscious victim and a friend.

The friend said he and the victim were walking from a nearby grocery store when the man was punched in the face and knocked out cold for no reason.

More......

Life in "Progress" City - San Francisco edition

Brazen thieves have stolen a 2.6-tonne church bell from an iconic church in San Francisco.

The 122-year-old relic, which sat in front of St Mary's Cathedral after being replaced by an electronic chime in the 1970s, had survived the devastating 1906 San Francisco earthquake and a 1962 arson attack that gutted the building, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

But it was unable to withstand the determination of metal thieves who would have used heavy lifting equipment in the brazen heist.

Made up of 80 percent copper and 20 percent tin, the bell would fetch close to $75,000 if melted down.

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"Us"

Why businesses leave this country

Because politicians have this attitude and put it into policy............

If ever there was a “company town,” it is Lynchburg, Tenn.

Jack Daniel’s and Lynchburg have been inseparable since a young man named Jack Daniel came there more than a century ago to learn the art of distilling corn mash into whiskey. He set up shop on the northeastern end of town and the company has never looked to go anywhere else. It produces 23 million gallons of amber gold – about a billion dollars worth, every year.

But the company’s deep pockets make it a prime target for a local government that is strapped for revenue – and now a private citizen wants to slap the storied whiskey producer with a $10 tax on each and every barrel the distillery fills.

“We are entitled to more money from the only industry in the county – Jack Daniel’s distillery,” said Charles Rogers, a 75-year-old retiree and self-described “concerned citizen” of Moore County – home to Lynchburg and Jack Daniel’s.

Seriously? You're "entitled" to someone's money who does nothing but employees people in your community, brings tourist into town which helps other businesses and already pays loads of taxes to begin with?

It used to be these were the things said behind closed doors. Now it's a perfectly acceptable in public discourse.


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/10/21/jack-daniels-faces-more-taxes-from-cash-strapped-hometown-in-tennessee/#ixzz1bnnQicGd

Gibson Guitar CEO Speaks Out

occupy Dayton

Apparently my boycott is working

A while back I noted my boycott of NBC. For me it's not much of a sacrifice; kind of like boycotting brussels sprouts.

But apparently, my boycott is taking hold............

NBC's downward slide is getting steeper.

Long a ratings laggard, the network has fallen further behind its competitors this fall, heightening the challenge facing its new owner Comcast Corp. as it works to mount a turnaround.

Through the first four weeks of the TV season ending Oct. 16, about 3.3 million adults under 50 years old have been watching prime-time TV shows on NBC, according to the latest figures from Nielsen Holdings NV. That is down 9.3% from the same period a year earlier. Much of the decline is concentrated in NBC's entertainment shows.

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Life in "progress" State - Illinois edition

Or as they say in the Mediterranean, Welcome to Greece........................

Illinois is losing the hearts and minds of the people who put people to work here.

The chief executives at some of Illinois' largest companies think economic conditions are better in neighboring states. They expect economic growth here to lag the nation's growth. They believe Illinois taxes are a roadblock to investment. They have no faith that political leaders will use the 67 percent income tax increase imposed this year to put state government on firmer financial ground.

The business leaders have no confidence in Illinois' ability to compete with its neighboring states.

They have no confidence in its ability to resolve its fiscal crisis.

They have no confidence in the state's political leaders.

The Chicago Tribune editorial board surveyed 45 chief executives at large, publicly held companies based in Illinois. The results should be a wake-up call. The executives delivered a thudding vote of no confidence in the leadership and direction of the state they call home.

Sounds like the same vote of no confidence towards the president from that very state.

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Life in "Progress" State - RI edition

ON the night of Sept. 8, Gina M. Raimondo, a financier by trade, rolled up here with news no one wanted to hear: Rhode Island, she declared, was going broke.

Maybe not today, and maybe not tomorrow. But if current trends held, Ms. Raimondo warned, the Ocean State would soon look like Athens on the Narragansett: undersized and overextended. Its economy would wither. Jobs would vanish. The state would be hollowed out.

It is not the sort of message you might expect from Ms. Raimondo, a proud daughter of Providence, a successful venture capitalist and, not least, the current general treasurer of Rhode Island. But it is a message worth hearing. The smallest state in the union, it turns out, has a very big debt problem.

After decades of drift, denial and inaction, Rhode Island’s $14.8 billion pension system is in crisis. Ten cents of every state tax dollar now goes to retired public workers. Before long, Ms. Raimondo has been cautioning in whistle-stops here and across the state, that figure will climb perilously toward 20 cents. But the scary thing is that no one really knows. The Providence Journal recently tried to count all the municipal pension plans outside the state system and stopped at 155, conceding that it might have missed some. Even the Securities and Exchange Commission is asking questions, including the big one: Are these numbers for real?

As real as global warming numbers.

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Berkley-Reid-Obama - They've Made It Worse

Who did he vote for? #109

Meet Vincent Pickens, or at least his resume.

Why is Vince in the news?

Let's just say he's one of the 99%ers. But at least he's looking for a job...... I think.

Here's a sample of his resume

Lazy m@ther f$%ker

Sit my ass on the couch corporation -

Champaign, IL

Present

Don't do shit. sit there smoke weed and eat all the f^&kin food in the damn house. Also search the school yards for 7 year old girls..

Fork Lift Operator/Customer Service

HK Systems -

Peoria, IL

June 2007 to June 2009

* Loaded and unloaded products from trailers to dock
* Checked Inventory in/out using Oracle scanning
system
* Placed products into proper location using to record location
* Assured accuracy of parts on Caterpillar Engine
Assembly Line

So in 2008, let's assume this guy found enough energy to get to a polling station. Did he pull the chain for Obama or McCain?