S*%t liberals run - student loans

It's kind of interesting how politicians create laws to help debtors walk away from bad home loans, credit card debt, etc. But you know, the government's not so generous when you owe them money.

Take student loans. If you owe the government money on a student loan, they will hound you FOREVER. Student loans can't be discharged in bankruptcy. The feds can seize any tax refund to apply against your student loan. In other words, you'd be better off borrowing money from Carmine, your neighborhood Youngstown pawn shop owner/"banker". See, if you default on a loan from Carmine, he'll send over his collectors, Big Nicky and Tony the Fish, to "talk" to you about your repayment plans.

Now, they may break a bone or two in the process but at least you have the ability to run away and start a new life in Lexington KY or Athens GA without too much fear of repercussion.

Try doing that with a student loan.

I note this as a backdrop in what is coming down the pike. Massive defaults on student loans...............

Over the last decade, private lenders, abetted by college financial aid offices, eagerly handed young people hundreds of thousands of dollars to earn bachelor's degrees. The student loan bubble may be about to burst.

In some respects, the student loan crisis looks remarkably like the subprime mortgage crisis. First, outstanding student loan debt has ballooned: It grew roughly four-fold in the last decade to $833 billion as of June — surpassing outstanding credit card debt for the first time.

Secondly, defaults have soared amid the difficult job market. In 2008, the most recent year for which data are available, nearly 3.4 million borrowers began repayment, and more than 238,000 defaulted on their loans. The number of loans that went into forbearance or deferment (when borrowers receive temporary relief from payments) rose to 22 percent in 2007, from 10 percent a decade earlier, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education. Over a 15-year period, default rates range from 20 percent for federal loans to 40 percent on loans to students who attend for-profit schools, The Chronicle found.

When are we going to have congressional hearing on the feds pushing loans on to students who had no ability to repay them?

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More tax fraud

Just a few posts ago, I noted how the tax business is rife with widespread fraud.

Now we have prisoners getting refunds.......

A government investigator says nearly 50,000 prison inmates claimed more than $130 million in tax refunds this year without providing any wage information to the IRS.

A report by the Treasury Department's inspector general for tax administration stops short of saying the refunds were fraudulently claimed. It does, however, say the Internal Revenue Service should investigate further.

The report, scheduled for release on Thursday, is the latest in a series of audits looking at prison inmates claiming tax credits and other government payments.

The report noted that the IRS identified nearly 250,000 fraudulent tax returns during the 2010 filing season — a 50 percent increase over 2009 — preventing $1.48 billion in fraudulent refunds.

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intellectual elitism

Ted Srtickland criticizing the democrats for "intellectual elitism".

The money quote........

"I mean, if we can't win that argument we might as well just fold up," he said. "These people are saying we are going to insist on tax cuts for the richest people in the country and we don't care if they are paid for, and we don't think it is a problem if it contributes to the deficit, but we are not going to vote to extend unemployment benefits to working people if they aren't paid for because they contribute to the deficit. I mean, what is wrong with that? How can it be more clear?"

Well Ted, there's no better example of the intellectual elitism than your quote above. Your language starts from the presumption that all money is the government's first and that the people need to show the government how they'll pay for stuff in order to have their own money back.

Years ago, I was at a tax conference where the head of the Ohio Department of Taxation got up and talked about how the state would be able to "afford" a lapse in what was supposed to be a temporary sales tax hike.

I challenged her first by getting her to acknowledge that her job with ODOT was to simply collect the tax not to deal with how those funds would be spent and second to get her to acknowledge the government will spend what the citizens decide to give it.

Somehow, I don't remember these people showing up to my office expressing concern about how I'll continue my business when my best client leaves or I have to reduce my prices because of competitive forces.

But hell maybe I'm not as smart as the Governor. The next time a client of mine wants to sell his business, I'll tell him "you can sell your business but how are you going to replace my loss in revenue?"

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It's still the spending stupid

Veronique de Rugy on taxes..........

This chart by Mercatus Center Senior Research Fellow Veronique de Rugy shows the historical path of federal taxation as a percentage of GDP using the earliest records available from the Office of Management and Budget and top marginal tax rate data from the Tax Policy Center. From 1930 to 2010, tax revenue collection in the United States has never topped 20.9%, averaging 16.5% of GDP over these 80 years. This comes despite the drastic historical fluctuation in the rate of taxes on the wealthiest Americans. As we move toward debt reduction, it is critical to keep the long-term path of the United States in mind.

It's the spending stupid.....

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It's the spending stupid

Last weekend, I was driving through a local park in the city and I noticed a plaque on a shelter house acknowledging the WPA.

Now we can debate the propriety of the WPA's, CCC's, et al, impact on the economy during the depression. But what we can't debate is that through many of those works, we still have functioning projects that have paid extended dividends to society well after their original construction.

Hoover Dam, the TVA, etc. are all projects that continue to provide value for their tax dollars.

Fast forward to the fifties and sixties where we have a great interstate highway system that provides Americans with prosperity via increased productivity. The space program provided all kinds of technological advances that have progressed to this day.

You can even move ahead to the 80's when Reagan's SDI ("Star Wars" to his haters) has paid dividends through the development of GPS systems and satellite & laser technology. You could argue that the development of those technologies is what fueled the tech boom of the '90's.

But as I was looking at that shelter house, I started to wonder. With all the trillions being spent by governments of all levels, what will be the recurring dividend to the public who had to dole out those trillions?

In other words, 30 years from now, we be able to say, "Wow! For 20 trillion dollars, we got.........."?

The fact is, this is what the masses are pissed about. We are effectively spending trillions of dollars for all kinds of shit and we have nothing to show for it. No damns, no nuclear facilities, no new transportation systems (that work). Hell, we don't even get a nice pyramid out of the deal.

In fact, here in Cincinnati there are at least four significant bridges/via ducts within the city that commuters get to watch crumble before their very eyes and there's yet no plan to replace these.

There is absolutely no economic multiplier effect if all we're doing is taking money from person X, borrowing from country Y, and giving it to person Z.

And it would be one thing if we could say that for 4 trillion dollars we wiped out poverty, or for $100 billion we reduced crime, or we've spent trillions on education and now our kids are the smartest in the world. But we've spent money on these things with absolutely no visible and/or tangible results. In fact, I would offer that the spending of these funds have been counter productive.

I went to this site to check the state of government spending since 1980. Since 1980, government spending at all levels has an inflation rate of 5.7% (the rate of growth is about the same for federal spending alone). When is the last time you got a 5.7% raise?

It doesn't take an awesome mathematician to figure out that if wages are only growing at 1-2% a year but government grows at 5.5-6% per year there will be a breaking point at some point in time.

And despite all that spending, in the end, we'll have nothing to show for it.

So when the Obamunists keep saying the government can't afford tax cuts for families over $250k a year (forget for a moment the assumption that it's the government's first), I have to ask "to do what?"

Life in "Progress" City - Chicago edition

Thousands of fraudulent free rides have been taken on Chicago's mass-transit system by people using passes issued to now-deceased senior citizens, officials said Monday.

The Regional Transportation Authority found that at least 164 senior free-ride cards remained in use after the person to whom the card was issued had died. One card alone racked up as many as 1,400 free trips, officials said.

An RTA audit turned up about 25,000 fraudulent free rides in 2009, costing the transit agencies about $50,000, said Grace Gallucci, RTA deputy executive director.

Although this is a relatively small amount of revenue and ridership, RTA officials fear more widespread abuse of the free-rides program is taking place.

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Life in "Progress" City - Newark edition

There is concern and worry in New Jersey’s largest city.

Newark residents were wondering Tuesday if their streets were safe after 14 percent of the city’s police officers were laid off, CBS 2’s Pablo Guzman reports.

The mayor of Newark and his police director said even with 167 officers laid off, people will not notice a difference on the street.

"Newark residents should know that tonight. We will have virtually the same amount of people, on patrol. As we had last night. And the night before,” Mayor Cory Booker said.

If that's the case, why were these people on payroll in the first place?

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"The most ethical congress evah"

Today's corrupt representative is..............

U.S. Rep. John Conyers, D-Detroit, today called his son's use of his congressional vehicle over the Thanksgiving holiday "inappropriate" after the SUV was broken into and items were stolen.

The longtime congressman released the statement from Washington after news broke of his son, John Conyers III, filing a police report early Thanksgiving morning that the 2010 Cadillac Escalade registered to his dad's Detroit office had two laptops and $27,500 worth of concert tickets stolen from it. The SUV was parked at the corner of Brush and Congress.

"I am sorry it happened and will make sure that it does not happen again," Conyers said in a statement. "I will review the full circumstances of the use of this vehicle and make restitution to the Treasury for any non-official use."

A phone call to Conyers III was not returned.

Conyers, 81, who is the House Judiciary Committee chairman, did not address why his son was driving the vehicle or whether he was in town when the break-in occurred while the car was parked.

The police report stated Conyers III parked the car around 11:30 p.m. and when he returned an hour later, the burgundy SUV had been broken into.

The tickets were intended to be distributed to select retail locations as part of a Black Friday promotion for local Rapper Big Sean's concert at the Fillmore on Dec. 26. Conyers III is affiliated with Big Sean and the promotional group selling the tickets, an executive at the Fillmore confirmed.

Conyers' wife, Monica, a former Detroit City Councilwoman, is serving 37 months in prison for taking at least $6,000 to change her vote on the controversial $1.2 billion Synagro sludge hauling contract in 2007. The conviction was part of a wide-ranging ongoing probe of city corruption.

Hey it's all in the family!

The unemployment canard

If your only news consumption was the traditional network news media you'd never really understand the whole unemployment benefit debate going on today.

First, let me explain how unemployment works. Employers pay into a state insurance funds and the rate varies based on the company's history.

When a worker gets laid off, they can collect up to 26 weeks of unemployment benefits through that fund.

The feds have a backup fund (employers also pay into) that they can use to extend the base from 26 weeks to 39. The states are required to share in the costs of those extensions.

The feds have passed various extensions to now 73 weeks giving the unemployed 99 weeks of benefits.

Or have they?

What people don't know is that only 12 states have decided to participate in the extra benefit program.

Federal jobless payments, which last up to 73 weeks, kick in after the state-funded 26 weeks of coverage expire. These federal benefits are divided into four tiers of emergency unemployment compensation, which last between six and 20 weeks, followed by up to five months of extended benefits. The jobless must apply each time they move into a new tier.

Unemployed Americans who've just exhausted their state benefits are already blocked from entering the federal system in most states. They would have had to file their initial federal claim by this past weekend.

Those already in a federal emergency benefits system will not be able to move to the next tier after this coming weekend. However, they can continue to collect the benefits available in their current level. So those who just entered a tier could continue receiving benefits for awhile, but those who are near the end of their tier will see payments dry up sooner.

Many of the jobless who are in the last stage of the federal safety net -- the up to five months of extended benefits -- will stop getting checks this month no matter when they started this level. That's because the federal government will stop fully funding this stage after Nov. 30.

Not every state offers federal extended benefits, because they were required to split the costs of the program with the federal government. Prior to last year, only 12 states provided this support, depending on their state unemployment rate.

But of course, if republicans won't pass an extension it means that they're hating on the poor working guy. Never mind, that if you happen to live in one of 38 states, your state government is hating on you too.........

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How to clean up a problem

As a libertarian, I'm against most governmental license and permit programs because they usually do nothing but bar entrants into any particular field.

For instance, maybe my only asset is a perfectly well running auto but I can't use it for a transportation service without obtaining a taxi license, which often are limited by most cities; hence driving up the cost.

However, as a tax preparer, you hear stories about the flat out fraud that is going on in the tax preparation business. As a result of this fraud, the IRS has instituted a series of changes to rid the profession of fraud and incompetence.

One of the changes, is the requirement that all paid preparers get a PTIN. The American Thinker with the story..........

Reports are circulating that the IRS is amping up regulation of tax preparers, with sinister possibilities being raised.

Here's the deal: since just about forever the IRS has required preparers to have their own social security numbers on the returns. In the late 90's, when identity theft started becoming prevalent, preparers complained to the IRS that our numbers were becoming common knowledge, since the returns were being used to get loans and all that, and who knew where the SSN's would go from there.

So, in 1998, the IRS provided a different option -- those preparers who wanted to could obtain from the IRS a new preparer identification number that they could use instead of their SSN's. Some got the numbers, some did not, and the IRS did not care either way.

Now, under the new law, everybody has to get and use a PIN.

I received a PTIN back around 2004. At the time, all you did was fill out an application and the service issued the number that a preparer could use in lieu of their social security number.

I just completed the application for the revised law and you are required to have all of your tax returns filed and taxes paid, not have a felony in the past ten years, and have some level of tax education (which I have as a CPA).

All of these seem to be modest requirements so that the public can trust the tax prep business.

But all this stuff eludes the basic question. How is it that the business has become polluted with so many derelicts?

And like most questions in life, if you answer "money" you'll be right 95% of the time.

See the dirty little secret in the tax prep business is that if there were no Earned Income Credit, the felons would look somewhere else to commit their crime.

For instance, if you are a single mom with two kids and earn $15,000, you can expect a tax refund of around $7,000 from the earned income credit and refundable child credit. (see a copy of a dummy return above).

Since most of these people don't have the skills to do these returns themselves, they show up at your local neighborhood Jackson Hewitt or Liberty Tax Service and pay upwards of $500 for tax preparation and rapid refunds. Go into your average bad neighborhood and you'll see these places right next to the local carryout, bodega or pawn shop. They're like the only business profiting in the 'hood.

And of course when someone walks out of one of those shops with $6,000 cash in hand, it doesn't take long before people come up with ways to defraud the system and for tax preparers to become complicit in the process.

So the IRS can start cracking down on preparers, it just gives guys like me another reason to increase my fees. Or congress can take the money out of the system and the system will clean itself up.

So you can guess what's really going to happen.

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And liberals are supposed to be the smart ones

From Newsweek..........

President Obama is often blamed for not reaching out to Republicans. In truth, as Monday morning's announcement that Obama wants to cut the pay of all federal employees illustrates, he has the opposite problem. Obama frequently proposes essentially Republican policies, which makes it impossible for him to use those ideas to buy Republican votes for bipartisan legislation.

This is what cracks me up. Only in liberal land is a "freeze" a "cut".

If you want to know why tea partiers a grabbing traction, it's because they know the difference and are tired of this kind of nonsense.

Who do these people represent?

For years, I've wondered why unions support democratic policies that seem to undercut their own membership.

For instance, why would unions support moratoriums on gulf oil drilling when more of those job means more for their rank and file?

Or immigration policy, where illegals undercut the wages of working union members?

I've come to the realization that union leadership has been infiltrated with communists. If you don't believe me then watch this.............





Article here......

Random thoughts

I've started watching my old X-Files DVD's and one thing that has me scratching my head. If you are a conspiracy theorist, how is it that a government who can stage the Kennedy assassination, 9/11, United 800 etc. can't seem to make a lunatic in Switzerland disappear? Where the hell is Jason Bourne or Valerie Plame?

By the way, isn't it kind of funny that the people who view the west as a bigger threat to the world than your garden variety communist country are never willing to pull this stunt on, say Vladamir Putin?

Maybe it's because they don't like the prospects of drinking radioactive milkshakes

"We'll have to pass it before we'll know what's in it"

I wonder how these SEIU employees feel about that...........

One of the largest union-administered health-insurance funds in New York is dropping coverage for the children of more than 30,000 low-wage home attendants, union officials said. The union blamed financial problems it said were caused by the state’s health department and new national health-insurance requirements.

The fund is administered by 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union. Union officials said the state compelled the fund to start buying coverage from a third party, which increased premiums by 60%. State health officials denied forcing the union fund to make the switch, saying the fund had been struggling financially even before the switch to third-party coverage.

The fund informed its members late last month that their dependents will no longer be covered as of Jan. 1, 2011. Currently about 6,000 children are covered by the benefit fund, some until age 23.

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Pew

Score your political acumen here.....

Let me know your score.

I got 11 of 12.

Life in "Progress" City - Hamtramck edition

More bad news out of Michigan: Facing a $3 million deficit on its $18 million budget, the Detroit suburb of Hamtramck is seeking permission to file bankruptcy. Other towns may not be far behind.

Hamtramck suffers from high unemployment and falling income, but its budget problems go deeper than the recession. The town began running million-dollar deficits 10 years ago due to union contracts that would make Greeks blush. City workers were entitled to annual wage increases at four times the inflation rate and eight paid weeks of vacation each year. That’s in addition to 15 paid sick days, three paid emergency leave days, three paid personal days and one paid birthday.

In 2000 the state appointed an Emergency Financial Manager who in five years managed to balance the budget by cutting the city work force, privatizing services and selling bonds. He got the unions to renegotiate some benefits by promising retirement service credits and promotions, but that set the city up for future pension woes.

Fast forward and the city again teeters toward bankruptcy. Workers still receive five weeks paid vacation and their health plans have no co-pays or deductibles. City health costs have risen nearly 40% this year and are expected to shoot up another 40% next year. Pension costs have climbed 36% in a year. . . . While many cities blame their deficits on the recession, their insolvency is the natural result of politically dominant public unions. By allowing workers to collectively bargain, states and cities have ceded control of the public purse to workers whose main interest is enlarging government. Hamtramck is a harbinger of bankruptcies to come, and a case study in why politicians from FDR to Fiorello LaGuardia opposed the creation of government employee unions.

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College football recap

My thoughts after watching 24 hours of football the past two days.

1) My Bearcats have been embarrassing this year. While I didn't expect a perfect season this year, I did expect the cats to be bowl eligible. I guess if Texas can get bowl eligible, I shouldn't be too upset.

2) The Big MAC ended in a three way tie for first. No word from Gordon Gee if that "murderer's row" of Minnesota, Purdue, Indiana, Northwestern, Illinois will move to the Little MAC in the hopes of winning a title.

3) Miami fires Randy Shannon. I guess Donna Shalala, that poster child for college football integrity, decided that life was better in Coral Gables when Miami was a pack of thugs winning championships.

4) Did you see this play? I don't believe I've ever seen a better play combining smarts and athletic ability




Good stuff

Is unemployment an indefinite benefit ?

From the NY Times

It is hard to believe, as the holidays approach yet again amid economic hard times, but Congress looks as if it may let federal unemployment benefits lapse for the fourth time this year.

Lame duck lawmakers will have only one day when they return to work on Monday to renew the expiring benefits. If they don’t, two million people will be cut off in December alone. This lack of regard for working Americans is shocking. Last summer, benefits were blocked for 51 days, as senators in both parties focused on preserving tax breaks for wealthy money managers and other affluent constituents.

This time, tax cuts for the rich are bound to drive and distort the debate again. Republicans and Democrats will almost certainly link the renewal of jobless benefits to an extension of the high-end Bush-era tax cuts. That would be a travesty. There is no good argument for letting jobless benefits expire, or for extending those cuts.

Last year, I had 33 clients who reported unemployment benefits on their tax return.

I went back to those 33 client's and evaluated their situations this way.

1) 14 clients had a spouse who continued to maintain their current salary.
2) 8 are clients in their late 50's early 60's who are basically taking an extended vacation until they retire or the benefits run out, which ever come first.
3) 3 are single wage earners who, although not working, have savings to support them while they're out of work.
4) 3 are people who are working "under the table" while claiming their unemployment.
5) 5 are people who are out of work with little savings and few job prospects.

So while I realize that my clientele is not a statistical analysis of the unemployed as a whole, I would be surprised that more than 25% of the people on unemployment would have no options without that income.

Here's what I don't get. Where was the outcry from the NY Times for the unemployed worker who lost his job in, say, 2006? When his 26 weeks were up, it was ball game.

Where's the fairness to that guy?

Life in "Progress" City - Portland edition

It's bad enough that we conservatives have to fight for things like gun rights for ourselves. What puts salt in the wound is our victories prevent liberals from having to suffer the consequences of their own stupidity.

Seriously, have you ever seen a liberal's home with one of those no gun signs posted on their doors?

In 2005, leaders in Portland, Oregon, angry at the Bush administration's conduct of the war on terror, voted not to allow city law enforcement officers to participate in a key anti-terror initiative, the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force. On Friday, that task force helped prevent what could have been a horrific terrorist attack in Portland. Now city officials say they might re-think their participation in the task force -- because Barack Obama is in the White House.

Reading the FBI affidavit describing Islamist terror suspect Mohamed Osman Mohamud's plan to bomb a Christmas tree lighting ceremony in Portland's Pioneer Courthouse Square is a chilling experience. Mohamud, a Somali-born naturalized U.S. citizen who attended Oregon State University, told undercover FBI agents he dreamed of performing acts of jihad in which hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Americans would die. "Do you remember when 9/11 happened when those people were jumping from skyscrapers?" Mohamud asked the agents, according to the affidavit. "I thought that was awesome."

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SPOS

Sarah Palin Obsession Syndrome..............



Maybe we can get her reality show to tape her beating a democrat in the head to knock some sense into them.

Life in "Progress" City - NY edition

I'm a big time believer in legalizing drugs. maybe the only worse defeat in our war on drugs has been our war on poverty.

I'm ready to wave the white flag on both.

None the less, while I'm a believer in legalizing drugs, I'm not one of those people who believe you can just legalize them and "tax the crap out of them".

Why?

Because we already have an underground economy already established to deliver those drugs to market. All taxing them does is keep that pipeline going. Then all we would have is "legitimate" dealers being undercut by black market activity.

All you need for proof is to examine what New York has done to cigarettes......

The underground tobacco market is spreading like a fast-growing cancer in the wake of tax hikes that make New York cigarettes the most expensive in the nation -- and it's costing the state tens of millions a month in lost tax revenue, a Post analysis has found.

Illegal cigarettes are pouring into neighborhood bodegas by the truckload from neighboring Indian reservations, lower-tax states in the South and even as far away as China, authorities say.

Government data show that New York state is being smoked out of as much as $20 million a month from all these illegal cigarette purchases -- an estimated 7.3 million packs a month sold off the state tax radar.

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The Pilgrims and Property Rights: How our ancestors got fat & happy

'The Euro Game Is Up! Who the hell do you think you are?' - Nigel Farage...

Thought of the day

As I see yet another photo of a 7 year old being felt up by a TSA agent I can't help but think about the comparing the following scenarios

TSA screening at airports, which has never busted one terrorist in action. In fact, we have the shoe bomber and the undie bomber, both of which got through security and were drilled by passengers.

Then we have a sieve on the border, where we have immigrants walking on into the country bringing crime, disease, bed bugs, weapons, gangs, drugs and other contraband with them.

So in the federal governments mind, where are resources best spent to protect American lives?

Ask Chandra Levy, I'm sure she'd love to be felt up by a TSA agent. Well, if she were alive.

Accountants are cooler than.......

As an accountant, you often run into an identity crisis when you realize that accountants aren't quite as cool as, say, a rock star.

But the only saving grace about being an accountant is that I know I'm cooler than the following groups of people....

Senators
Dungeons and Dragon participants
NFL Draft Groupies
Star Wars fans

But it's getting cooler for accountants out there. Now we get to add some additional groups that we're cooler than; both revealing themselves within the past 24 hours.

Bengals fans
Black Friday shoppers

Seriously, who in their right mind would get up at 4:00 am to spend money. Not even a senator is that damn stupid. Add extra loserdom points if you're the type to get violent at your local Walmart.

As for Bengals fans. I mean c'mon. Just come over to my house and I'll kick you in the balls.... I won't be nearly as painful.

Assuming Bob Dole doesn't run again

Or John McCain or George Bush.......

We're fast approaching the halfway point in Barack Obama's term. With Nov. 2 behind him, everything the president does will be calculated to boost, or at least not harm, his chances of re-election in 2012. What's not clear is whether he fully appreciates how badly the coalition he led to victory in 2008 has frayed in just two years. A look inside his poll numbers suggests that if he cannot turn around some key trends, he'll be a one-term president.

Just look at the exit polls from 2008, which reveal the demographic contours of Obama's support. Compare those with Gallup's weekly analysis of the president's approval rating, drawn from multiple polls broken down by age, gender, political philosophy, and the like. Throw in some insights from the midterm elections, and the mix shows a dramatic deterioration in Obama's 2008 support. "His majority coalition is not there," says Republican pollster David Winston. "What he put together, at least in the way he put it together, just isn't there."

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://washingtonexaminer.com/politics/2010/11/obamas-poll-numbers-point-his-defeat-2012#ixzz16Pp5ryCn

Much to be thankful for

Since mid October, I have gone from fighting what I thought was a common cold to fighting subsequent ear infections, pneumonia, bronchitis and now............ an asthma attack. Easy breathing has been anything but for the past 6 weeks.

I spent yesterday in an urgent care facility getting a breathing treatment, a steroid pack and some super duper antibiotic that cost me $100.

None the less, unlike Angelina Jolie, I intend to celebrate big today; since there is much to be thankful for.

I'm thankful that somewhere in my family tree some Irish immigrants' lives were so horrible in their home country, they opted to flee their homes under indentured servant contracts for a better life.

I'm also thankful that those immigrants found out when they got here, that those contracts they worked under would be worse than slavery. See, unlike a slave, an indentured servant was not property for their master to keep in running order for life. As a result, those masters didn't give a crap if they beat, raped, worked those servants to death since they would just be gone in five years anyway. Kind of like renters treating their homes over owners.

I'm also thankful that those "servants" ran away into the hills of Appalachia where they took their Irish culture with them.

I'm also thankful for having the knowledge that most of the Europeans that came to this country weren't rich oppressors here to pass disease and alcohol to the natives at the time. In fact, most of the people who came to this country did so out of starvation of some type.

I'm thankful that all these people came to this country out of their own hunger and creating a world where we can all have nice bloated stomachs in a climate controlled environment watching football.

But more importantly, I'm most thankful that someone had the smarts and profit motivation to "extort" me out of $100 so that I can breathe better today.

And when Angelina's willing to give all her possessions to a Shawnee nation somewhere, I'll quit believing she's less full of crap than I will be at 6:00.

The Story of Business: when costs compete with passion

The cartel known as NCAA football

As we enter the weekend of 24/7 football, we get to kick it off with this......

Even if TCU and Boise State run the table, they still don't deserve to be in the Bowl Championship Series title game, Ohio State president E. Gordon Gee said Wednesday.

In an interview with The Associated Press, the president at the university with the largest athletic program in the country said that TCU and Boise State do not face a difficult enough schedule to play in the national championship game.

“Well, I don't know enough about the Xs and Os of college football,” said Gee, formerly the president at West Virginia, Colorado, Brown and Vanderbilt universities. “I do know, having been both a Southeastern Conference president and a Big Ten president, that it's like murderer's row every week for these schools. We do not play the Little Sisters of the Poor. We play very fine schools on any given day. So I think until a university runs through that gantlet that there's some reason to believe that they not be the best teams to (be) in the big ballgame.”

Isn't that generous of Gordon? Of course, the only problem with his opinion is that it's a win win for Semi pro college teams like OSU, Florida, Alabama, Notre Dame, etc. They won't play tough games against non BCS teams and then claim that because of their weak schedules they don't deserve to eat at the same semi pro football trough as the BCS elite.

You don't think Boise would jump at the chance to play OSU in a game? But of course, the Buckeyes would have to squeeze out one of those home cooking MAC twinkies on their schedule to play a real team.

It's no coincidence that OSU paid UC $1 million to get them back in the Horseshoe rather than play them on the road.

I love college football, not necessarily the semi pro version, but real college ball.

I still think the non BCS teams should collude to charge $5 million dollars to play BCS on their home fields.

I'm guessing that Gordan Gee, one of the lords of cartel football, would be the first to start bitching and moaning.

More.....

Potato famine revisted

Ireland unveiled the harshest budget measures in its history Wednesday, a four-year plan to slash deficits euro15 billion ($20 billion) so it can get a massive bailout from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.

The plan seeks to cut euro10 billion ($13.3 billion) from spending and raise euro5 billion ($6.7 billion) in extra taxes from 2011 to 2014. It axes thousands of state jobs, welfare benefits, and pension payments while raising university fees and taxes, forcing even Prime Minister Brian Cowen to concede it will hurt the living standard of everyone in the nation.

Analysts, meanwhile, feared that the size of the EU-IMF bailout — estimated at euro85 billion ($115 billion) — will be too little to save Ireland from an eventual default.

And bank shares plummeted for a third straight day on the Irish Stock Exchange in growing expectation that investors would be wiped out if the government is forced to seize total control of the country's two dominant banks, Allied Irish and Bank of Ireland.

"The government is completely in denial about the amount of money they'll have to borrow," said Constantin Gurdgiev, a finance lecturer at Trinity College Dublin and an economics adviser to IBM in Europe.

Ireland is still negotiating the terms of the bailout with European Central Bank and IMF experts. It hopes the tough budgetary medicine will permit its 2014 deficit to fall to 3 percent of gross domestic product, the limit for the 16 nations that use the euro currency.

While most eurozone members are violating that rule, Ireland's deficit this year is forecast to reach 32 percent, a modern European record, fueled by exceptional costs from Ireland's unfathomable bank-bailout effort.

Expect a few more Irish immigrants soon.

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WKRP Turkey Drop "As God as my witness I thought turkeys could fly"

How the financial crisis happened

More White House stupidity

The Obama administration on Monday outlined rules to restrict health insurers’ spending beginning next year, a key provision of the health care overhaul that aims to improve value for consumers.

The rules will have vast implications for how insurance companies spend money as well as for other aspects of the health care industry. Insurers’ worries that the Department of Health and Human Services would rule against them on a number of issues were unfounded, and many of the nation’s largest insurance companies’ stocks rose on the news Monday.

Still, liberal advocacy groups and Democratic lawmakers who backed the idea of spending requirements heralded the regulation as a crackdown on the industry and a win for consumers.

President Barack Obama, in an email released Monday, said the rules “will make our health care marketplace more transparent and ensure you get the best value for your premium dollars. And it is just one of the many parts of the Affordable Care Act that are already making our health care system stronger.”

Under the new rules, issued in the form of a regulation, most insurance companies will have to spend 85 percent of the money they collect in premiums on health care. Insurers selling to small groups or directly to individuals will have to spend 80 percent. The rest of the money can be spent on administrative costs and profit.

I went through the United Health Care 10K financial report and for the last three years their medical care ratios were 82.3, 82.0 and 80.6 percent (for the years 2009, 2008, and 2007 respectively).

Now in order to get to the 85% ratio, United Health Care can do one of three things to meet these ratios.

1) They can reduce operating expenses. Great you say? Except those clerks who actually pay health insurance claims will be fewer in number and/or competence. How anxious is a doctor going to be to treat you knowing that he probably won't get paid for six months. BTW. who won't be getting a pay raise next year? Those people in the claims office who could use the money.

2) They can pay out more for the claims. An X-ray that used to cost you $275 will now be $300. That's awesome for everyone but the insured.

3) They can raise your premiums. Think about it. Let's assume that you've cut your overhead to 17% of the 100 million in premiums you've collected and you're down to the bone. Simply raise your premiums to $110 million and your ratios are in like flint.

Needless to say, price hikes are the path of least resistance since most insurers are not out to run nice and fat overhead operations.

So doctors and hospitals can look forward to a nice raise soon.

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Middle Class Veteran Mother to Obama "Frankly, I'm Exhausted at Defendin...

Velma lost her job this week. I wonder how fired up she is defending The Won now?

Hart has become another casualty of the tough economy in which so many people have lost their jobs.

"It's not anything she did," said Jim King, the national executive director of Am Vets. "She got bit by the same snake that has bit a lot of people. It was a move to cut our bottom line. Most not-for-profits are seeing their money pinched."

King would not say whether the organization had had other layoffs.

"Velma was a good employee," he said. "It was just a matter of looking at the bottom line and where could we make the best cuts and survive."

King hadn't seen the irony in Hart being fired just two months after she emotionally told Obama about her fears for her own financial well-being during a town hall meeting in Washington.

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Life in "Progress" City - Mount Clemens MI edition

A Michigan city is pleading with churches, schools and a hospital for donations to help cover its staggering budget deficit.

The mayor of Mount Clemens, Barb Dempsey, sent a letter this week to 35 tax-exempt organizations asking them to voluntarily contribute to the city’s general fund, which pays for services like fire protection, streetlights and roads. Ms. Dempsey said the city has already drastically cut its expenses, having disbanded the police department six years ago, but still faces a $960,000 deficit that is projected to reach $1.5 million next year.

“Those are all services that they utilize at no cost to them,” Ms. Dempsey said. “We figured it can’t hurt to send out letters. If you don’t ask, you never know.”

Mount Clemens, about 25 miles northeast of Detroit, collects no taxes from 42 percent of the property within its borders. The 4.2-square-mile city has about 17,000 residents and is home to 26 churches, a hospital, several schools and the headquarters of Macomb County, the third largest in Michigan. If not exempt, the properties would pay at least $1.2 million, enough to wipe out the deficit, Ms. Dempsey said.

Plunging property values across Michigan have greatly reduced the revenue collected by municipalities, and tax caps hinder governments’ abilities to demand more from businesses and residents. A proposal that would have allowed Mount Clemens to increase its tax rate was defeated this month by a little fewer than 500 votes.

Ms. Dempsey’s unusual request came several days after Hamtramck, a city adjacent to Detroit, asked the state for permission to file for bankruptcy, something no Michigan government had ever done before. The departing governor, Jennifer M. Granholm, said she hoped to find an alternative for Hamtramck, but warned that many communities were nearing insolvency.

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Thanks reader Becky for the tip.

Why work?

It's a basic economic formula.

Why work your ass off when you can net more by not.............

Tonight's stunning financial piece de resistance comes from Wyatt Emerich of The Cleveland Current. In what is sure to inspire some serious ire among all those who once believed Ronald Reagan that it was the USSR that was the "Evil Empire", Emmerich analyzes disposable income and economic benefits among several key income classes and comes to the stunning (and verifiable) conclusion that "a one-parent family of three making $14,500 a year (minimum wage) has more disposable income than a family making $60,000 a year." And that excludes benefits from Supplemental Security Income disability checks. America is now a country which punishes those middle-class people who not only try to work hard, but avoid scamming the system. Not surprisingly, it is not only the richest and most audacious thieves that prosper - it is also the penny scammers at the very bottom of the economic ladder that rip off the middle class each and every day, courtesy of the world's most generous entitlement system. Perhaps if Reagan were alive today, he would wish to modify the object of his once legendary remark.

Read the whole thing here........

After the Clinton welfare reforms in the 1990's, The Cincinnati Enquirer did a piece detailing the benefits a woman was going to lose as a result of the reforms. What was most insulting was that she hated her "dead end job" cleaning hotel rooms.

I calculated the benefits she received from not working and I calculated that she was making $8.50 an hour just to exist.

It doesn't take a smart liberal to figure out that one can work their ass off and make $9.00 or can do nothing for $8.50. It's the cost/benefit principle at it's best.

Thought of the day

It seems to me that these TSA strip searches are bad enough but not allowing you to have a smoke after being felt up seems a little over the top.

He Can't Help It... Obama Bashes Bush During NATO Q & A

Cal Bears Football 82: The Play

The Story of Business: moving forward in uncertain times

Liberalism - killing the ones you (allegedly) care about

As I repeatedly say on this blog, I'm not a conservative for me or my lovely bride. I'm a conservative for the people who have few options in life.

Take this for example..................

A leading U.K. fuel poverty charity is predicting deaths to skyrocket this winter as over 5 million homes struggle to pay rising fuel bills.

The Express is reporting that energy prices “have soared more than 80 per cent in the last five years,” and singles out British Gas for announcing a seven per cent hike when “the number of families struggling to pay their heating bills reaches 5.5 million and excess winter deaths this year are expected to be higher than ever.”

What the article failed to explain, or even mention, is the primary reason energy costs have become so dangerously prohibitive in the U.K: Green energy policy.

According to British Gas managing director Phil Bentley, not only is the price of wholesale gas up since spring, but the company is also fighting the ever-increasing costs of meeting its “environmental obligations.”

E.U. targets require the U.K. to produce 15 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2020, a sevenfold jump from 2008 implementation. And Britain has set an even loftier goal for its electricity production, mandating 35 percent be derived from renewables by 2020.

Now ask yourself this question. Does this hurt the rich or the poor more?

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More TSA stupidity

I won't fly within a 12 hour driving radius. Mainly, because I refuse to participation of this stupidity..........

A Charlotte-area flight attendant and cancer survivor contacted WBTV after she says she was forced to show her prosthetic breast during a pat-down.

Cathy Bossi lives in south Charlotte and has been a flight attendant for the past 32 years, working the past 28 for U.S. Airways.

In early August Bossie was walking through security when she says she was asked to go through the new full body-scanners at Concourse "D" at Charlotte Douglas International.

She reluctantly agreed. As a 3-year breast cancer survivor she says she didn't want the added radiation through her body. But, Bossi says she did agree.

"The T.S.A. Agent told me to put my I.D. on my back," she said. "When I got out of there she said because my I.D. was on my back, I had to go to a personal screening area."

She says two female Charlotte T.S.A. agents took her to a private room and began what she calls an aggressive pat down. She says they stopped when they got around to feeling her right breast… the one where she'd had surgery.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest to the TSA that a 28 year airline employee has probably not been working for a terror sleeper cell all these years looking for the right time to blow up a plane.

In addition, I'm thinking that a pilot of a 100 ton missile probably doesn't need to be checked for a toner cartridge full of c-4 shoved up his ass.

This is the type of lunacy liberalism brings to the world. Fortunately, more people are feeling the results of the stupidity............literally.

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Life in "Progress" City - Gary IN edition

Black males have higher rates of incarceration and of repeat offenses that land them back in jail or prison, statistics show.

Changing that dynamic could begin with expunging their criminal records.

That was the consensus of a discussion Thursday sponsored by the Gary Commission on the Social Status of Black Males in conjunction with the East Chicago-based group Working Outside the Walls and an alliance of grassroot activists.

The panel discussion brought together activists, religious leaders, law enforcement officers and area legislators to talk about a possible Expungement Summit in Northwest Indiana. Expunging the criminal records of juveniles and adults would help them find jobs and turn their lives around, said Bennie Muhammed, GCSSBM executive director.

Dorothy Brown, clerk of the Cook County (Ill.) Circuit Court, outlined how she has organized expungement summits across the state line.

"It's important for all our communities because we all have the same problem," she said.

Brown recommended that all agencies working with ex-offenders help organize and participate in an expungement summit. That includes police departments, the courts, lawyers, the public defenders office and the prison review board, Brown said.

"This helps ex-offenders to see us all working together to give them a second chance," she said.

Some offenses, however, don't qualify for expungement, including first-degree murder, sexual offense of a minor and DUI, Brown said.

So let me see. If I'm black, I can get a rape (as long as it's not a minor) expunged but not a DUI?

Read the rest of this stupidity here........

Who did he vote for? #189

Meet Walter Edmund Bond. Why is Wally in the news?

A self-described animal-rights activist known on the Internet as “Lone Wolf” pleaded guilty in federal court on Thursday to arson in a fire that destroyed a local sheepskin business.

Walter Edmund Bond, 34, admitted in U.S. District Court to setting the fire that burned the Sheepskin Factory to the ground on April 30, 2010. The store sold sheepskin blankets, rugs and related products.

Authorities were led to Bond after an informant told them Bond — who called himself “Lone Wolf” on the Internet and has the word “Vegan” tattooed in his neck in large letters — bragged on an animal rights web site that he “torched” the business.

“Be warned that making a living from the use and abuse of animals will not be tolerated,” Bond allegedly wrote on the web site.

FBI Special Agent in Charge James Davis said in a statement that federal authorities will aggressively investigate “ideologically driven” violent crimes.

“Our priority with acts of terrorism remains to be proactive and preventative. But when acts do occur, they will be pursued to justice,” Davis said.

The article doesn't mention his home state so let's flashback to 2008. Did Wally here vote for McCain or Obama?

I'd love to tell this clown that the vegan tattoo on his neck was done with animal tested inks.

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Rangel's punishment

So the house is in a tither about how to punish Charles Rangel.

Here's an idea. How about making him pay restitution to the landlord of the rent controlled apartment he used for his campaign.

Naaaahhhhh. A censure from your brethren is so much harsher.

Life in "Progress" City - DC edition

Depending on whom you ask, West Potomac High School's latest change to student grading is either another sign of a coddled generation or a necessary step to help struggling kids.

The dreaded F has been all but banished from the grade books.

The report cards that arrived home late last week showed few failing grades but instead marks of "I" for incomplete, indicating that students still owe their teachers essential work. They will get Fs only if they fail to complete assignments and learn the content in the months to come.

The change in educational philosophy is intended to encourage students to continue working toward mastery of material rather than accepting a failing grade and moving on.

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Those violent tea partiers

More censorship from the party of free speech

Sen. McCaskill discusses TSA screening procedures on CNN

Those love pats are probably the only action she's getting.

Experience Hendrix

The Gekko's spent last night at the Experience Hendrix show last night. It was essentially an all star game of Fender guitar players (Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Susan Tedeschi, Robert Randolph, Jonny Lang, Steve Vai, Los Lobos’ David Hidalgo and Cesar Rosas, Eric Johnson, Ernie Isley, Living Colour, Chris Layton of Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble and The Slide Brothers a/k/a Chuck and Darick Campbell of Sacred Steel).

It was a good show for the most part. Living Colour's rendition of Crosstown Traffic and Kenny Wayne Shepard's solo on Voodoo Child were the highlights of the evening for me.

But I was never a big Jimi Hendrix fan and last night's show highlighted why. I can take an occasional Hendrix guitar solo but 10 minute solos of loud, fast and distorted guitar on each song flat out wore me out. I get it. All you guys can play.

It's a three hour show which was about a half hour too long for me but if you are into guitars it really is a show you need to take in.






Other items of note.

1) The Taft Theatre is a dump. What it lacks in comfortable seating it makes up for in warm beer and three urinals in the men's john.

2) Brad Whitford of Aerosmith, I think you need to talk to Sally Fields about a Boniva script.

3) Bootsy Collins, C'mon man. If you're going to sing a Hendrix song, would it have killed you know the lyrics before you got up on stage. Watching you read Purple Haze lyrics off a program was kind of a buzz kill. It's especially worse given that you narrated Jimi's voice in his biography.

Life in "Progress" City - San Francisco edition

Is the presidency too big?

Yeah, if you give the job to a guy that's never even run a lemonade stand and wants to play golf 30 times a year.

Greene for president

I found it so hilarious that the media wanted to highlight Christine O'Donnell during the last election but paid no nevermind with South Carolina's democratic nominee for senate Alvin Greene. Now Alvin wants to run for president..............

Former South Carolina Democratic Senate candidate Alvin Greene has only the highest hopes for his political future despite his crushing defeat two weeks ago — he thinks he will be the next president.

When you think about it, it's not really so far fetched. He's run as many things as our current president.

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Union Members: Where Do Your Dues Go?

Wait and See

OMG... Big Sis Considers Giving Exemptions to Muslim Women at Airports

Life in "Progress" City - LA edition

Enacting one of the nation's most aggressive environmental measures, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to ban plastic grocery bags in unincorporated areas of the county.

The vote was 3-1, supported by Supervisors Gloria Molina, Mark Ridley-Thomas, and Zev Yaroslavsky, and opposed by Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich. Supervisor Don Knabe was absent.

The ban, which will cover nearly 1.1 million residents countywide, is to the point: “No store shall provide to any customer a plastic carryout bag.” An exception would be made for plastic bags that are used to hold fruit, vegetables or raw meat in order to prevent contamination with other grocery items.

If grocers choose to offer paper bags, they must sell them for 10 cents each, according to the ordinance. The revenue will be retained by the stores to purchase the paper bags and educate customers about the law.

“Plastic bags are a pollutant. They pollute the urban landscape. They are what we call in our county urban tumbleweed,” Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said.

Mark Gold, president of the Santa Monica environmental group Heal the Bay, said previous county efforts to promote recycling of plastic bags at grocery stores was a failure.

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Stuff liberals run - Colleges and universities

The ranks of the most expensive colleges have grown again: 100 institutions are charging $50,000 or more for tuition, fees, room, and board in 2010-11, according to a Chronicle analysis of data released last week by the College Board. That's well above the 58 universities and colleges that charged that much in 2009-10, and a major jump from the year before, when only five colleges were priced over $50,000.

This year marks a milestone as the first public institution has joined that elite club: the University of California at Berkeley is charging out-of-state residents $50,649 for tuition, fees, room, and board. (The price for in-state residents is only $27,770.)

All of the other 99 colleges charging $50,000 or more are private. They made up 9% of the 1,058 private institutions reporting any amount for tuition, fees, room, and board.

But hey, you can't get rich as an academician right?

Not exactly........

Following up on my previous post, 100 Colleges Charge $50k/Year -- Up from 58 in 2009-10 and 5 in 2008-09: 30 college presidents earned more than $1 million in compensation in 2008 (up from 23 in 2007), topped by Touro President Bernard Lander's $4,786,830 compensation. (Hat Tip: Ann Murphy.)

Maybe that's how the inflation curve for higher education looks like this........

Life in "Progress" City - Detroit edition

Just how "progressive" is Detroit? Often, I make fun of how hard it is to find a republican in some of our most "progressive" cities. In Detroit, it's no joke.

theblogprof has the results of the most recent elections in Detroit.


2008 General Election results-DEM: 96.93% GOP: 2.65%
2006 General Election results-DEM: 95.05% GOP: 4.33%
2004 General Election results-DEM: 93.61% GOP: 5.93%

So if you are a native Detroiter, when the hell do you start blaming the condition of your city on your democratic officials? Based on the above figures, I'm guessing never.

Life in "Progress" City - Cincinnati edition

If you look at the photo to the right, you might guess that it's a shot of a homeless encampment.

It's not. This is an encampment of families waiting in line in the hopes of enrolling their kids into one of the better Cincinnati magnet schools..........

Rodrigo Coronel had originally planned to set up his tent Saturday at the Fairview Clifton German Language School.

The West End man figured he would be there in plenty of time to snag his son a spot on the enrollment list for the school’s pre-kindergarten program. After all, the school won’t take applications until 12:01 a.m. Tuesday.

He figured wrong.

“I went to work (Friday) and a co-worker said ‘aren’t you supposed to be at school? I heard there was about 70 people already!’” he said.

So Coronel, who works in marketing at Procter & Gamble, canceled his day of meetings, hailed a cab and rushed over.

He managed to snag spot No. 67 in line – a low enough number to guarantee his child’s enrollment.

Waiting in line for days in the hopes of getting your kids into a decent school.

Now that's "progressive"!

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