When you've lost the AP

You're really hurting.......

Here is a look at some of Obama's assertions in his address to the nation Monday, and how they compare with the facts:

OBAMA: "Our most effective alliance, NATO, has taken command of the enforcement of the arms embargo and no-fly zone. ... Going forward, the lead in enforcing the no-fly zone and protecting civilians on the ground will transition to our allies and partners, and I am fully confident that our coalition will keep the pressure on Gadhafi's remaining forces. In that effort, the United States will play a supporting role."

THE FACTS: As by far the pre-eminent player in NATO, and a nation historically reluctant to put its forces under operational foreign command, the United States will not be taking a back seat in the campaign even as its profile diminishes for public consumption.

Read the rest of their fact check here.........

Why are working people resisting unions?

If unions are so wonderful for the working guy, why is it that so many working schleps are resistant to organizing?

Deric Golden has what he calls his dream job, fixing small flaws on the sedans being churned out at the Hyundai factory here.

So when two organizers from the United Auto Workers knocked on his apartment door one day, hoping to get him to sign a union card, he quickly sent them packing.

"I told them I didn't work at the plant," said Golden, 29. "I just wasn't interested."

It's the same story in town after town along the southern tier of Auto Alley, a corridor that runs north-south along interstates 75 and 65 from Lexington, Ky., to Montgomery.

Foreign automakers — including Honda, Kia, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Toyota and Volkswagen — are placing their U.S. factories in this region because of generous state and local incentives and a workforce famously resistant to unions.

Still, this is the region that Bob King, president of the UAW, calls a key battleground that could alter the future of the industry's labor movement. And it's workers like Golden whom the union must win over.

But hey you've done so much for Detroit.

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Reagan v Govt Socialist Plans

This speech is almost 50 years old. You'd think Reagan was Nostradamus.

Taxes and Beer

Blue state exodus - African American edition

You know how all those racist whites left town because of the racist beliefs and raise their racist kids out of the city?

Apparently, there's a lot of blacks more than happy to live near them................

Two milestones in the long, painful decline of the blue social model were reached this week and reported, of all places, in the pages of the very éminence grise of the monde bleu: the New York Times.

The first was a piece of national and historical news: The Census reported that waves of blue state blacks fled the stagnant job opportunities, high taxes and rotten social conditions of the mostly blue northern states to seek better lives for themselves in the south. The second milestone was local and literary: Bob Herbert, for many years the only regular Black columnist on the New York Times‘ op-ed page, has written his last column before stepping down.

The Census story is a shocker. First, according to the Times, the Blacks leaving tend to be the “younger and better educated”. Second, the three states Blacks left in largest numbers don’t just include snake-bit Michigan; the other two are Illinois and New York. Within those states, Chicago and the city of the New York (widely considered among the most successful cities in the country) are the places Blacks are deserting. 17 percent of the Black flight from Big Blue is from the Empire State; after almost a century of trailblazing social policy, New York State has succeeded in creating the most hostile environment for Blacks in the country.

It's the story of "progressive" governance. The day a government shifts it's focus from the people who pay tax to the ones who use them is the very day the exodus begins.

I can provide more scientific evidence of this than a "progressive" can global warming. Yet do you think they care about the former?

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Roads and public safety

In my mind there is only two things the government should be involved with........building roads and administering public safety. Here's what happens when you focus falls off of either............

Ten people with felony histories were on probation at the time they were arrested on suspicion of murder and attempted murder during the last nine months in Colorado.

The Denver Post reported Sunday that court files for each of the 10 suspects show they were repeatedly given the chance to continue probation rather than going to prison after instances in which their probation could have been revoked.

The crimes the 10 suspects are accused of include the fatal shooting of a college football player in Boulder, the mutilation death of a 16-year-old Denver girl and the slaying of a Weld County sheriff’s deputy.

The newspaper reported that probation has become a more attractive option than prison because it’s less expensive. It costs taxpayers $35,000 per year to put someone in state prison. Probation costs $9,000 a year.

“I know how serious and upsetting it is to us – especially the officers in the field – when cases end tragically like this,” said Tom Quinn, director of the state’s Division of Probation Services. He said the department will consider implementing a review process in cases where people on probation are accused of violent crimes. The department does not have such a review now.

Probation officers in Colorado are supposed to have only 25 cases when they’re in charge of supervising high-risk offenders, but that limit is often waived, the Post reported.

Let me ask the question. Does Colorado spend money on Medicaid? how about welfare? public health?

I'm thinking the families of all those murder victims think those felons should have been behind bars.

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Who did they vote for? #10967

Watch the video and tell me did Obama carry the "start a riot at the local Burger King" constituency or did McCain?

IHOP owner Scott Womack on Obamacare

Life in "Progress" City - New Orleans edition

I say there's nothing civilized about "progress"..............

As the Crescent City closes in on five dozen murders within the first three months of 2011, law enforcement officials gathered at a crime summit downtown Saturday afternoon, hoping to stop the violence.

"The crime rate is unacceptable," said Crimefighters founder Irv Magri. "It's unacceptable in a civilized society."

The meeting, organized by Magri's group, comes a day after the U.S. Justice Department issued two new reports on crime trends in New Orleans and the NOPD. Among the recommendations were that the homicide division improve training and hire more officers.

"They have told me nothing that I haven't known and seen and complained about," said Magri, retired NOPD officer. "Let me just tell you, this is not politically popular for me to say. But what we need to do is raise the standards for the NOPD officers, dramatically."

The Justice Department's first report last week slammed the NOPD for deeply rooted patterns of violating people's rights. But officials at Saturday's crime summit believe the tide is turning.

"Certainly we've seen some pretty grim recent events with the Department of Justice, with some of the latest murders, but I am optimistic that we're going to get better," said Orleans Parish Sheriff Marlin Gusman. "I think the leadership in the police department, Superintendent Serpas and the mayor, are committed to change."

NOPD officials say that's what they're working toward, with efforts like ramped up training. But District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro says solving New Orleans' crime problem will take more than a reformed police department.

When you run a city that caters to the under class should it be a surprise that this is what you get?

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Life in "Progress" City - Costa Mesa edition

More on what happens when you don't address issues when you need to......

To solve a looming pension crisis and budget gap, city officials here said, they needed to take drastic action. And everyone agrees on one thing: they did.

Nearly half of this city’s workers were told late last week that, come September, they would probably be out of a job. Nearly every city department will be eliminated. More than a dozen tasks will be outsourced, including graffiti removal, firefighting, building maintenance and street cleaning.

Unlike the drama that played out over the last two months in Madison, Wis., the battle over public workers in this bustling suburb and upscale shopping mecca in the heart of Orange County is happening at lightning speed.

Layoff letters went out last week to more than 200 of the city’s roughly 450 workers, sending many of them into a panic as they scurried to look for new jobs. The move will, in one great swoop, reinvent municipal government here, and perhaps lead the way for other cities.

I know reader Becky did a sentence there and they left. Like anyone else who has the means will.......

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What if a Bushie had pulled this?

Staffers with Vice President Joe Biden confined an Orlando Sentinel reporter in a closet this week to keep him from mingling with high-powered guests gathered for a Democratic fundraiser.

Reporter Scott Powers was the designated “pool reporter” for the vice president’s Wednesday visit to the massive Winter Park, Fla., home of developer and philanthropist Alan Ginsburg. The veep hadn’t arrived yet but most of the 150 guests (minimum $500 donation) had. They were busy noshing on caprese crostini with oven-dried mozzarella and basil, rosemary flatbread with grapes honey and gorgonzola cheese and bacon deviled eggs, before a lunch of grilled chicken Caesar and garden vegetable wraps.

Not so for Powers. A “low-level staffer” put Powers in a storage closet and then stood guard outside the door, Powers told the DRUDGE REPORT. “When I’d stick my head out, they’d say, ‘Not yet. We’ll let you know when you can come out.’”

And no crustini for Powers, either. He made do with a bottle of water to sip as he sat at a tiny makeshift desk, right next to a bag marked “consignment.” Powers was closeted at about 11:30 a.m., held for about an hour and 15 minutes, came out for 35 minutes of remarks by Biden and Sen. Bill Nelson, Florida Democrat, and then returned to his jail for the remainder of the event.

Powers’ phone didn’t work in the closet, but his Blackberry did, so he fired a picture of his impromptu prison to his editors, who posted a short blog item on the lack of freedom of the press under the veep’s control.

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Government heroin

Last week, I met with a client who couldn't understand why the people who run the FASFA program wouldn't treat her son as an "emancipated" student; thus qualifying for more financial aid.

I explained to her that it's difficult to claim that someone is "emancipated" when they still live at home.

What struck me was the comment she made as she was leaving my office.

"They expect us to use our home equity to fund his college!"

Since I had about a hundred tax returns to finish, I really didn't think about what she was saying. But think about the implication of her comments.

She's not willing to use her assets to educate her kid but she expects the rest of us to do it for her.

While it's easy to pick on her for this comment, it's actually more prevalent for people who are trying to shield a parent's assets so they can put their parent in a nursing home paid by.... anyone.... anyone..... anyone.... the taxpayer.

It's actually one of the more unseemly side effects of government involvement in our lives.

Seriously, why should you save money for anything when the government will be there to bail your ass out?

Why shouldn't this woman expect the taxpayer's to pay for her kids tuition when her tax dollars are being spent on health care for the indigent or some inflated pension for a public sector worker.

So I have a solution, let's all keep our own money and pay for our own shit. At least we get the middle man out of the equation.

Where's welfare in this article?

If you're on a diet read this before your next meal. You'll lose your appetite in no time.....

As soon as the child was born, she was taken from her mother. Both were addicted to heroin, Clermont County officials said.

The girl weighed 6 pounds, 8 ounces that day in 2009, but her weight dropped as she coped with tremors while withdrawing from the drug over the next couple weeks.

"I spent several days with her while she was still in the hospital," said Denise Strimple, 60, of Tate Township, the child's foster mother for the last 16 months. "I held her and cuddled her and let her know somebody loved her."

Known as Baby H to protect her identity, she is among an increasing number of children being removed from parents accused of using drugs in the Greater Cincinnati area.

Baby H was part of a 78 percent rise in two years of children taken from parents in Clermont County because of abuse or neglect, up from 132 in 2008 to 235 last year, said Tim Dick, deputy director of Clermont County Children's Protective Services.

About 41 percent of last year's cases involved drug abuse by parents. Of those 97 cases, 71 involved opiates such as heroin, Dick said. Marijuana was the second-most problematic drug. "Four years ago, cocaine was the drug of choice," Dick said. "Opiates have overtaken that. Heroin is cheap, and it's readily available."

In Butler County, the number of children removed because of drug or alcohol abuse by a parent increased by 68 percent in two years, said Jeff Centers, director of Children Services. Last year, 264 kids were removed for such reasons, up from 219 in 2009 and 157 the year before.

You know what's missing from this article?

The prevalence of welfare in these families.

Let's face reality for a second. When your food, clothing and housing are supported by the state what does that leave you?

TIME.

TIME.

And more TIME.

See, if these people were out looking for employment, they wouldn't have TIME to sit around all day getting high.

But if you are a family, Here's a partial list of all the governmental programs you have access to.

ADC

Food stamps

Unemployment

Subsidized housing

Medicaid

Earned income credit

General welfare

Free school lunches and breakfasts for the children.

When you add all that up, you can spend your whole day not doing shit.......... except getting high and screwing, which provides us with the derelicts of the future.

The conventional wisdom is that democrats are the party of compassion.

Exactly what's so compassionate about a newborn shaking from withdrawal tremors?

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Newt Gingrich Schools Chris Wallace on Clinton Impeachment

Bill Ayers at MSU March 24, 2011

Help Wanted...... Another liberal

CBS is looking for another liberal to host it's evening news program. Conservatives need not apply.

The CBS Evening News anchor is very likely to leave in June, and Scott Pelley is a top contender to replace her—but CBS is looking both within and outside the network, Howard Kurtz reports. Plus, behind the CBS News shakeup.

The search is on for Katie Couric’s successor.

The new CBS News chairman, Jeff Fager, is looking at candidates both within and outside the network, insiders say.

When it comes to news, people just weren't all the fired up about "Perky" Katie.

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Life in "Progress" State - Massachusetts edition

"Progressives" are all about jobs. They just hate the companies who provide them..........

A Massachusetts employment organization has canceled its annual job fair because not enough companies have come forward to offer jobs.

Richard Shafer, chairman of the Taunton Employment Task Force, says 20 to 25 employers are needed for the fair scheduled for April 6, but just 10 tables had been reserved. One table was reserved by a nonprofit that offers human services to job seekers, and three by temporary employment agencies.

Shafer tells the Taunton Daily Gazette the lack of employers means the task force won't have enough money to properly advertise the fair.

The task force has been organizing the job fair nearly every year since 1984.

Shafer says the cancellation reflects the current economy -- even though things are getting better, companies are still cautious about hiring full-time workers.

There's a certain irony that the people who provide jobs aren't all that willing when they're being taxed and regulated to death.

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Blue State exodus - Illinois edition

Where's john Galt?

The chairman and CEO of Peoria-based Caterpillar Inc. is raising the specter of moving the heavy equipment maker out of Illinois.

In a letter sent March 21 to Gov. Pat Quinn, Caterpillar chief executive officer Doug Oberhelman said officials in at least four other states have approached the company about relocating since Illinois raised its income tax in January.

"I want to stay here. But as the leader of this business, I have to do what's right for Caterpillar when making decisions about where to invest," Oberhelman wrote in the letter obtained Friday by the Lee Enterprises Springfield bureau. "The direction that this state is headed in is not favorable to business and I'd like to work with you to change that."

Oberhelman said he's being actively courted to move.

"I have been called, 'cornered' in meetings and 'wined and dined' -- the heat is on," Oberhelman wrote. "Before, I never really considered living anywhere else and certainly never considered the possibility of Caterpillar relocating. But I have to admit, the policymakers in Springfield seem to make it harder by the day."

Cat spokesman Jim Dugan said the letter was designed to show Quinn that Oberhelman wants to be involved in finding solutions that benefit the company, which employs 23,000 people in Illinois.

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Senator Lautenberg at 03/22/2011 Planned Parenthood Rally

Walter Williams: Up From the Projects

Save Ohio's Firefighters and Police Officers

Watch this and vomit.

This should be title "How to exploit children to screw citizens who pay the tab"

Sen. Joe Biden: Iran & Impeachment

Who did she vote for? #1888

Meet Snooki...... oh...... sorry. Meet Dawn Dixon, the latest welfare queen in the news...........

Cincinnati police began searching Tuesday for the 25-year-old woman who escaped from a local hospital days after being accused of participating in the theft of a minivan in Northern Kentucky with a 4-year-old child inside.

The young woman has racked up numerous criminal charges in Kenton County since she turned 18, including violating parole, unpaid child support and a number of drug arrests. She is a convicted felon.

Described as a white female about 5-foot-2 and 128 pounds, Dixon has long brown hair that she was last seen wearing in a bun. She wore a beige zip-up hooded sweatshirt with "Pink" written on the front and blue jeans when she left the hospital. A last known address for Dixon is in the 700 block of Greenup St., Covington.

Oh and by the way, this mother of the year is seven months pregnant and a heroin addict. She was in Good Sam to detox.

So congratulations taxpayer's, you've got another bun in the oven you get to take care of soon.

Oh and did Snooki, er Dawn vote for Obama or McCain in the last election?

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Life in "Progress" City - Detroit edition

So just how "progressive" is Detroit.

Just look at the last three election results from theblogprof.........

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 you can see that Detroit has managed to purge it's city of nearly every republican.

Now ask yourself, is Detroit a more livable city today?

Of course, maybe it is and the only people leaving the city are those damn nasty conservatives.......

Detroit's population fell to 713,777 in 2010, its lowest level in a century, according to U.S. Census figures released today.

The loss of 237,493 residents since 2000 is a sobering statistical stamp on a decade's worth of job losses, plant closings and foreclosures in a city that was home to 1.8 million residents in 1950. Detroit's nearly 25 percent decline in population was the most by far among the top 20 cities. The population of Chicago, by contrast, dropped 6.9 percent. It's the largest 10-year drop in Detroit's history, including the years after the 1967 riots. Already, at least two council members are calling on Mayor Dave Bing to contest the results.

The dirty little secret is that the people who can leave, do. The people who can't stay. As a result, you have a burgeoning underclass with no rich people to pay for them.

How's that working out for you?


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Blue city exodus

It's not just white flight depleting our once great cities of residents..........

The number of black people living in major cities is declining as a growing number are choosing to move to the suburbs or warmer parts of the country.

2010 Census data released so far this year show that 20 of the 25 cities that have at least 250,000 people and a 20 per cent black population either lost more black people or gained fewer in the past decade than during the 1990s.

According to USA Today, the decline happened in some traditional black strongholds such as Chicago, Oakland, Atlanta, Cleveland and St Louis.

Let's face it if you want to live in a place with high taxes, high crime, shitty schools and business communities, the city if the place to be.

Maybe these blacks that decided to leave didn't want that for their families.

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Claire McCaskill Refuses To Answer Questions About Private Jet Scandal

Who did they vote for? #10

Meet Meghan Brown.

Why is Meghan in the news?

When a burly ex-convict forced his way into a posh Florida home last week, he had no idea what awaited him -- a 25-year-old beauty queen with a pink .38-caliber handgun.

Meghan Brown, a former Florida pageant queen, shot and killed 42-year-old Albert Franklin Hill during a home invasion March 12 at the 2,732-square-foot house she shares with her fiance in Tierra Verde, Fla.

But hey, let's not forget the perpetrator. What do we know about Albert Hill..........

Hill had a criminal record stretching back nearly three decades -- including arrests for burglary, battery, drug possession and grand theft. He reportedly served a 13-year prison term in 1987 and was released in September after serving a fourth term behind bars.

So During the 2008 presidential election, who did these folks vote for? Obama? McCain?

We report you decide.

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Life in "Progress" City - Costa Mesa edition

So what happens when you don't get those pension costs in check.

It looks like this............

Nearly half the city workers in Costa Mesa received layoff notices last week. Street sweepers. Firefighters. Mechanics. Payroll clerks. Animal control workers. In all, about 210 of the city’s 472 employees, many of whom have worked there for decades. On Thursday, as the notices were being handed out, one maintenance worker committed suicide by jumping from the city hall roof.

“It’s like they decided to blow up the city,” said Billy Folsom, 58, a mechanic who got a pink slip. “It’s devastating.”

The cutbacks are necessary because the escalating costs of providing pensions for police, firefighters and other unionized employees are draining the city’s revenue, city leaders say.

Within three years, city projections show, more than one of every five tax dollars will be spent on employees’ retirement benefits, which were made far more generous in the years before the stock market crashed in 2008.

“Just do the math — this is unsustainable,” said Jim Righeimer, the city’s recently elected mayor pro tem. He campaigned on the pension issue, eliciting anger and a counter-campaign from the city’s police and firefighters. “Under these kinds of burdens, we can’t do everything the city needs to do.”

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Billy Madison - Ultimate Insult (Academic Decathlon)

Climategate 'hide the decline' explained by Berkeley professor Richard A...

The Left's Economic Terrorism Playbook: Coalition too Destroy US Capital...

Union leaders killing their rank and file

Doug Ross notes how union leaders are more than willing to sell out their members for political power..........

Did you know that your very own union bosses are working against you? Did you know that nearly every union official is out to make him or herself wealthier and more powerful -- at your expense? And did you know that this is easy to prove, if you can just assemble the puzzle pieces?

Please consider:

Mine workers -- According to a study by the United Mine Workers of America, a new EPA rule cracking down on "airborne toxins" could cost 250,000 workers their jobs.

Steel workers -- The United Steelworkers wrote last August that the EPA's new environmental regulations would cost "tens of thousands" of union members their jobs.

Farm workers -- Legendary unions like the United Farm Workers are threatened by oppressive EPA regulations ranging from oversight of spilled milk to dust kicked up by farm equipment. By making farming more expensive with onerous regulations, fewer dollars can be spent on workers' salaries and benefits. Layoffs of union members will be the inevitable result.

Labor -- For at least a dozen years, certain powerful union bosses have advocated open borders policies. In 2000, the AFL-CIO's bosses have "called for blanket amnesty for illegal immigrants."

Don't forget how those jobs in the gulf are largely good paying union jobs. What about the potential for good union jobs in ANWAR?

Consider that every time the EPA, DOL or any other government bureaucracy kicks out a new regulation, it just incentives another American business to relocate outside of the country.


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ClaireAir - Now Serving Senator Claire McCaskill

Blue state exodus - Illinois edition

Roger Keats, a former Illinois state senator and Cook County Board president, is packing up and leaving the Land of Lincoln for good. The 62-year-old Keats was a good government reformer who helped clean up the rampant corruption in the Chicago-area courts uncovered by Operations Greylord and Gambat.

But now he’s throwing in the towel, and he and his wife are heading for Texas. “I am tired of subsidizing crooks," Keats told the Wilmette Beacon.

In “Good Bye and Good Luck,” a letter to all the friends and political supporters he’s leaving behind after 60 years, Keats says he is leaving what he calls “the most corrupt big city…and most corrupt state in America” with “a heavy heart.”

“But enough is enough!” he writes. “The leaders of Illinois refuse to see we can’t continue going in the direction we are and expect people who have options to stay here.”

Indeed, Illinois has already lost a quarter of its population and will lose another seat in the next Congress.

And that’s not the only sign of serious, and possibly irreversible, decline.

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/2011/03/ill-state-senator-leaves-texas-im-tired-subsidizing-crooks?utm_source=feedburner+BeltwayConfidential&utm_medium=feed+Beltway+Confidential&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+BeltwayConfidential+%28Beltway+Confidential%29feed&utm_content=Netvibesfeed&utm_term=Netvibesfeed#ixzz1HKJxUEGj

The party of the little people

No problem raising taxes when you don't plan to pay them...........

In a conference call with reporters, Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill just disclosed that she failed to pay $287,000 in property taxes related to her co-ownership of a private aircraft. This scandal comes quickly on the heels of recent revelations that McCaskill improperly billed taxpayers for use of the same private aircraft, for which McCaskill reimbursed the Treasury $88,000:

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Life in "Redville"

Isn't it kind of interesting that the more republican the south has become, the more diverse it's become...............

For generations here in the deepest South, there had been a great taboo: publicly crossing the color line for love. Less than 45 years ago, marriage between blacks and whites was illegal, and it has been frowned upon for much of the time since.

So when a great job beckoned about an hour’s drive north of the Gulf Coast, Jeffrey Norwood, a black college basketball coach, had reservations. He was in a serious relationship with a woman who was white and Asian.

“You’re thinking about a life in South Mississippi?” his father said in a skeptical voice, recalling days when a black man could face mortal danger just being seen with a woman of another race, regardless of intentions. “Are you sure?”

But on visits to Hattiesburg, the younger Mr. Norwood said he liked what he saw: growing diversity. So he moved, married, and, with his wife, had a baby girl who was counted on the last census as black, white and Asian. Taylor Rae Norwood, 3, is one of thousands of mixed-race children who have made this state home to one of the country’s most rapidly expanding multiracial populations, up 70 percent between 2000 and 2010, according to new data from the Census Bureau.

In the first comprehensive accounting of multiracial Americans since statistics were first collected about them in 2000, reporting from the 2010 census, made public in recent days, shows that the nation’s mixed-race population is growing far more quickly than many demographers had estimated, particularly in the South and parts of the Midwest. That conclusion is based on the bureau’s analysis of 42 states; the data from the remaining eight states will be released this week.

In North Carolina, the mixed-race population doubled. In Georgia, it expanded by more than 80 percent, and by nearly as much in Kentucky and Tennessee. In Indiana, Iowa and South Dakota, the multiracial population increased by about 70 percent.

“Anything over 50 percent is impressive,” said William H. Frey, a sociologist and demographer at the Brookings Institution. “The fact that even states like Mississippi were able to see a large explosion of residents identifying as both black and white tells us something that people would not have predicted 10 or 20 years ago.”

Well yes it does Mr. Frey. It tells us that the only people obsessed with race are the liberals at the Brookings Institution.

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More Drilling Is "A Problem Not A Solution"

Life in "Progress" City - San Francisco edition

Apparently, even "progressives" have a limit when it comes to compassion for the poor and downtrodden..............

San Francisco prides itself on helping the homeless, and it even created a special committee for grievances from those kicked out of shelters.

But this month, it began a new experiment that treats the homeless more harshly than the city's other policies. After lengthy training, police began enforcing an ordinance that bans sitting or lying on sidewalks during daytime hours.

The measure, which was approved by 54 percent of city voters in November, has drawn criticism from homeless groups and the down-and-out themselves.

The new approach comes at a time when the city is working to bolster tourism and local businesses in a tough economy.

Many residents have welcomed the ordinance, which was spearheaded by a neighborhood group from 1960s counterculture haven Haight-Ashbury.

Now out here in "Redville" we have no homeless. How is it that we seem not to have such a population. I'm guessing that if our community announced such things as sponsoring a methadone clinic, opened some community homeless shelters, opened a food bank, provided clean needles to users, and allowed people to shit and piss in public parks we would develop a nice homeless population within days.

So who's more compassionate?

It's been 15 years since I last visited San Francisco, and the thing that will always stand out to me were the throngs of people living in Golden Gate park while a bunch of old Italians were playing Bocci, the bum who opened a garbage can and started eating a half eaten burrito, watching a couple cops arrest some dude who was shitting himself on the corner of Haight and Asbury and the smell of urine everywhere.

It was like going to a zoo. Now that's "progressive"!

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Bus driver who showed for work 'impaired' won't be fired

Life in "Progress" City - San Francisco edition

Someone has some splainin' to do......

San Francisco's public-employee pension fund is in weaker shape than many people realize, according to an analysis by Stanford University Professor Joe Nation released Tuesday. It is underfunded by some $6.8 billion, Nation's report finds.

The city's pension fund is officially underfunded by $1.6 billion. Nation's study argues that the pension fund is relying on a 7.75 percent annual rate of return that is unrealistic over the long term. The study argues for 6.2 percent, which it says was the average rate of return in the capital markets from 1900 through 1999.

There would be indictments for outright fraud if this were a private company.

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Stuff liberals run - universities

What do you get when you mix liberal leadership with high union involvement stirred with political correctness?

You get a heap load of inflation..........

Ferguson graduated from Occidental College in 1978 and the tab for his senior year was $5100; adjusted for normal inflation, that tuition today would be $16,500. But no: it’s now in excess of $40,000 (not including room and board), an example of how higher education occupies a rarefied category in American industries. This isn’t breaking news, but when it’s not simply an abstract head-scratcher, meaning when if affects you, the obscene cost of college is staggering. Ferguson interviewed Richard Vedder, an economics professor at Ohio University who’s “studied college tuition so long, so thoroughly, and so honestly that college administrators can’t stand him.” Vedder’s “short answer” when the author queried about how colleges can get away with this legal larceny, he simply said, “Because they can! I mean, who’s going to stop them? Parents? The government? There’s nothing stopping them—literally nothing.”

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SEIU members protest at ESSA Bank headquarters in Stroudsburg, Pa.

The Day the Dollar Died

How lucrative are public pensions?

Have you ever watched a crime show where a dirty cop gets busted for killing someone?

This is how the conversation goes.

Detective - So do you want to tell us what happened?

Dirty cop - Not if it jeopardizes my pension.

Detective - You're looking at the death penalty here unless you cooperate.

Dirty cop - I'm saying anything without my pension being protected.

That's what I think of when I read this piece sent to me by reader Jeremy...........

A District Court judge denied a motion to dismiss a fraud charge Wednesday against the city's former human resources director.

Lisa Roth is accused of directing staff members to falsify documents to allow a former Police Department employee, Linda Clark, to be eligible for retirement. She is charged with a misdemeanor count of making false statements to the state retirement system.

Laura Masters, a former compensation analyst with the city, said Clark was facing termination and did not have enough hours to qualify for retirement benefits.

Masters said Roth directed her to “fix it that she can retire.” Masters said Clark had 19 years of service and needed 20 years to qualify for retirement benefits. She said city policy allowed only sick pay to be used in accumulating additional days of service for retirement, but Masters said Roth directed her to apply comp time and vacation time to Clark's service

.

Now why would someone go to such trouble unless it was worth it?

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Feeling the love

Remember the old days when a carton of cigarettes was under $20 and the world would love us once Barack Obama was president............

Brazilians protesting the imminent visit of President Barack Obama struck the U.S. consulate in Rio de Janeiro with a Molotov cocktail Friday, prompting police to respond with rubber bullets, according to local news accounts.

The U.S. Consulate in Rio said one security guard was treated at a local hospital for minor injuries after the brief demonstration. A radio reporter was hit by the rubber bullets, Brazilian newspaper O Globo reported.

Can you feel the love?

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Ouch

How about this for an auto review from our Federal Government owned Chrysler.............

The News’ auto critic, Scott Burgess, resigned this week after his editors softened a review of the Chrysler 200 – making changes to an online version of the piece following a complaint from a local dealer who advertises in the paper, according to online auto site Jalopnik.com.

The rift ignited a firestorm – largely in support of Burgess – that started in journalism circles and the blogosphere but eventually made its way to prime time with a mention on the Rachel Maddow Show.

The Jalopnik story, headlined “How the Detroit News Sold Its Soul” features before and after versions of Burgess’ column, which shows some of his harshest words omitted. Among the lines to get the ax: “If this is the best vehicle Detroit exports, then Glenn Beck is right.”

Burgess goes on to call the car a “dog” and compare its profile to “a loggerhead turtle.” “If this car came in tortoise shell, the EPA would have to put it on the endangered sedan list to prevent trappers and automotive enthusiasts from rightfully shooting it into extinction,” he writes in one of the deleted lines.

No room for ambiguity here.

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"Progressive" = projection

You know how liberals know that business owners are out to screw the little guy?

Because when they own businesses, that's exactly what they do..........

A strike called by unpaid Huffington Post contributors received a major boost Wednesday with a call to arms released by the national Newspaper Guild.

The industry association called on contributors not currently on strike to cease contributions and asked members to help by “shining a light on the unprofessional and unethical practices of this company.”

The Newspaper Guild boasts 26,000 members and is affiliated with the Communications Workers of America (CWA). The CWA is affiliated with the AFL-CIO.

The strike was called earlier this year by the membership of Visual Art Source, whose 50 members had previously contributed content for free to the site.

“Just as we would ask writers to stand fast and not cross a physical picket line, we ask that they honor this electronic picket line,” wrote the Guild.

But hey, I get Arianna. I've got an ungrateful, unpaid contributor that's gone on strike until I'm willing to retract my comment that Coldplay sucks.


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More "Present" from the President

President "Present" (by the way, I called it before the WSJ did) must be too busy filling out an NIT bracket for this heavy lifting...........

In a sign of how frustrated members of both parties are with President Obama’s disengagement from the budget debate on Capitol Hill, a supermajority of 64 senators, including Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., have signed a letter urging the president to “to engage in a broader discussion about a comprehensive deficit reduction package.”

Sen. Mike Johanns, R-Neb., and Michael Bennet, D-Colo., organized the effort, signed by 32 Republicans and 32 Democrats. In a conference call with reporters today, Johanns said any hope for broad reform will require leadership from the White House, which the lawmakers haven’t seen so far.

can't you guys let the poor guy finish his pancakes?

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Tax the rich

I'm finishing up my Friday by completing a tax return for a client who made $671,000 last year.

Now $671k is a lot of money. I think that probably qualifies you as rich. If you are of the persuasion to believe that the rich don't pay enough tax, I challenge share with all of us what "fair" would be for this family.

I've thrown this out in the past but you'll notice that I never divulge what the taxpayer actually pays. I do that for a couple of reasons

1) I think it's more important to give thought to the subject rather than just throw out another opinion

2) I'm waiting for someone to actually address the issue in my comment section so we can have a great debate on the subject. When someone gives me a well thought out opinion on the subject, I'll divulge the amount.

I would be willing to bet that Jan Schakowsky, who wants to raise taxes on the top 1% of wage earners, actually has no idea what rich people (including herself) pay in taxes. I'm actually surprised that no media member has actually challenged Anthony Weiner or any of the other liberal demagogues to specifically state, in whole dollar amount what the "fair" amount of tax people should pay.

So throw it out there Mr./Ms. "Progressive". Tell us all how much is fair? If you've got the guts..... or the intelligence.

Blue State Exodus - California edition

Who needs those stinkin' jobs......

OKLAHOMA CITY -- The Boeing Company says it is relocating two programs from Long Beach, Calif., to Oklahoma City, a move expected to bring 550 engineering jobs to the state.

Boeing announced in a news release Monday it is moving its C-130 Avionics Modernization program to Oklahoma City beginning in the first quarter of 2011. The move of the B-1 program is expected toward the end of 2012.

"Part of our decision was affordability," said Jennifer Hogan with Boeing in Oklahoma City. "Oklahoma City is a great place to do business. We are conscience of the budget cuts Defense is going through and this move will also make us competitive for future work."

Both programs are part of the Maintenance, Modifications & Upgrades division of the company's St. Louis-based Boeing Defense, Space & Security.

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Who did he vote for? #1000

Meet Mark Gerth. Besides his resemblance to Mark Wahlberg, why is he in the news........

Hamilton County Judge Robert Taylor set bond at $2.25 million on Thursday for Mark Gerth, the man accused of crashing a stolen car into a cab, killing the driver and a passenger.

Just after 9 a.m. Gerth was led into a Hamilton County courtroom at the Justice Center. His gait was slow and deliberate. Gerth's leg was gashed and closed by staples.

He appeared emotionless as the charges were read. Judge Taylor flipped through Gerth's lengthy criminal record, which includes 8 violent felonies, four other felonies and 11 misdemeanors.

Gerth moved here from Sandusky last year. He has been homeless since he was released from prison.

This guy is 39 and has 12 felonies and is not in prison? Are you serious?

Let me ask you a question. Is it "progressive" or conservative policies that allow this pile of crap on the streets?

You know, when I hear that "progressives" care about the poor & downtrodden where is their compassion for this immigrant working his ass off driving a cab? Or the passenger, who probably couldn't drive for whatever reason. If this guy were behind bars, where he should have been, those people would be alive today.

As far as I'm concerned, liberals in this country have the blood of two more murder victims on their hands because they're more worried about protecting the rights of Marky Mark here then the working people of this country.

Oh and by the way, you should also take note of the fact that this scumbag didn't head to Redville after his last stay in the clink, he headed to "Progress" City where he could victimize other liberals.

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mark it down

I've been debating for some time as to how/when/where to do my annual April 15th fun fest.

Since the feds made Monday the 18th the filing deadline, I have a tough decision to make. Do I stay with the 15th because it's a Friday or do I make it the regular 18th?

So this year we're sticking with the 15th at Cindy's Friendly Tavern in Loveland. The main decision maker? The Lovely Mrs. Gekko and her nurse friends scheduled off the 15th before clearing it with me.

Who says men run the household? Or the annual tax day celebration?

Regardless, if you want to hang with a bunch of drunken nurses and a drunk accountant, this will be a great opportunity.

Wisconsin protesters get children to chant

President "Present"

I'm not a guy who believes that presidents get "vacations" during their time in office. it's literally a 24/7 gig.

Yet it seems to me that right now we have a lot of issues going around in the world and our president appears to be laying back waiting for things to show up on his desk.

In the Illinois legislature state Sen. Barack Obama voted "present" 129 times. Today he seems to be voting present on two major issues, Libya and the budget. National Security Adviser Tom Donilon told reporters Thursday that the United States and other nations have "taken a range of steps . . . to squeeze Gadhafi, isolate him, really turn him into a pariah."

But the steps the United States has taken may well have bolstered Gadhafi's determination to crush the rebellion against his regime.

On the one hand we supported the United Nations resolution giving the International Criminal Court jurisdiction to prosecute Gadhafi and his minions. That means we have blocked off any escape route to a safe retirement.

On the other hand we have interpreted the Security Council resolution ordering an arms embargo as applying to the Libyan rebels as well as the Gadhafi regime.

Or at least that's the interpretation of State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley. An anonymous White House source said maybe the resolution doesn't apply to the rebels.

The White House has said the United States will send aid to the rebels and that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will meet with their transitional council next week.

Aid, not arms; a meeting, but (unlike France and Portugal) no official recognition. The president seems to be voting "present" once again.

Now if Obama wants to golf on the weekend, why not show so love across the isle and invite John Boehner. They used to call it multitasking.

But now it appears that he has more important issues to attend..... like filling out his NCAA bracket.

Seriously.


Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://washingtonexaminer.com/politics/2011/03/libya-and-budget-president-obama-votes-present#ixzz1GgvaQgZj

Glendale-Coyotes situation on FBN

Teachers Unions

A few years ago, I noted how every dumbass on a college campus inevitably ends up at Teacher's College..... and that starts with the faculty.

Seriously, I met some people in Teacher's college who should never have graduated from high school let alone into a college curriculum. Yet there they were.

None the less, here's a piece by the fabulously liberal Nick Kristoff buttressing my observations.........

These days, brilliant women become surgeons and investment bankers — and 47 percent of America’s kindergarten through 12th-grade teachers come from the bottom one-third of their college classes (as measured by SAT scores). The figure is from a study by McKinsey & Company, “Closing the Talent Gap.”

Now, being liberal, Kristoff attributes this to low pay for not attracting our best and brightest.

But riddle me this Batman, can you name a white collar professional in the sphere of people you know represented by a union?

One of my observations which I believe has more scientific validity than global warming is this. Unions only protect douchebags, derelicts and ding dongs. They don't do anything for achievers. For those who believe that some star teacher is going to be frozen out of a job because of an intraschool beef with a principal doesn't understand that, like most "professions", when you get fed up with the job, you go find a new one. That's what "professionals" do!

Instead, we throw the handcuff of seniority and pay scales on good teachers and zap them of their mobility. Not exactly qualities of a "profession" if you ask me.

Who did he vote for? #661

Meet Timothy Chapek. Why is Tim in the news?





So when Tim here voted in the past presidential election did he vote for Obama or McCain?

Dana Perino: It's Interesting How Obama Says Things That Are So Quickly ...

When public unions squeeze the taxpayers

As I've said time and time again. I'm not a conservative for me I'm a conservative for those in our society who have few choices.

So when public unions squeeze the taxpayer's, who's most likely to feel the impact. Hint, it's not the rich and here's a liberal who gets it...........

Let's hope, then, that current popular sentiment turns against the unions, and soon.

How can any compassionate person say such a thing? At a time when so many middle- and lower-income Americans have lost their jobs and homes, while many in the elite haven't even lost their bonuses, isn't it only decent to stand up against further assaults on struggling folks? Exactly whom are these Republicans targeting when they portray unions as big, fat, and overpaid? Janitors? Hospital attendants? Street cleaners?

Those are all painfully fair questions — and they should shape the way officials deal with the problem of a burgeoning public work force, not serve as an excuse to avoid the issue. Simply put, if politicians are scared away from revamping the public sector, they will be leaving in place a major structural flaw in the national economy. Ironically, no one will pay more dearly for this than the average worker.

Think about it: When education unions succeed in wringing every concession they can out of their particular piece of a school system, the squeeze is felt mainly by people who have to rely on the whole of that school system: Goodbye, gym class; hello, parents' paying out of pocket for all kinds of "extras" — and these are not, by and large, parents who can just throw their hands up and say, “That's it, he's going to Buckley!” When transit workers' demands shut down services or drive up fares, it barely registers with the rich who ferry themselves in taxis and towncars from one gilded district to another. It hurts those who can't get to their jobs without a bus or subway — and who need to count every cent that commute costs them. When a city's police force receives so much in salary and benefits that the city is then unable to hire enough cops on the beat, who is going to feel it more? The professional who must ask the cabdriver to idle in front of the building until the doorman appears, or the woman who cleans that professional's office, and has to hustle up a dark street before letting herself in? In short, when any government is forced to starve one set of programs in order to feed another, it affects the people who most need those programs — people who are rarely found at the yacht club.

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Life in "Progress" City - Dayton edition

"You know, blacks are an inferior race who can't learn to the level of whites."

Of course, being a conservative, I'd be crucified for such a statement. Yet in "Progress" City, it's a standard operating procedure...........

The Dayton Police Department is lowering its testing standards for recruits.

It's a move required by the U.S. Department of Justice after it says not enough African-Americans passed the exam.

Dayton is in desperate need of officers to replace dozens of retirees. The hiring process was postponed for months because the D.O.J. rejected the original scores provided by the Dayton Civil Service Board, which administers the test.

Under the previous requirements, candidates had to get a 66% on part one of the exam and a 72% on part two.

The D.O.J. approved new scoring policy only requires potential police officers to get a 58% and a 63%. That's the equivalent of an ‘F’ and a ‘D’.

Apparently, they're not too familiar with the Pygmalion Effect.

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Teachers Unions explained

Veronique de Rugy on the Truth About the State Pension Crisis on Bloomberg

MSNBC's Ratigan Admits Left is Scared to Criticize Obama Because He's a ...

Question of the day

Would you pay someone $38.00 an hour to mow your lawn and weed your garden?

Would you believe you already do?

One of our little government entitlement programs is the process of paying prevailing wage. Prevailing wage is essentially the union scale for services. It's a way for cities and states to avoid paying non union workers a lower wage and thus making union workers less competitive.

Every month, I receive an email from some state entity updating the prevailing wage for various trade jobs.

Now I have a client who did landscape work for the city of Cincinnati. This client pays their guys somewhere between $12 and $20 an hour for their workers which is in line with my other landscaping employers.

As a result of accepting a contract with the City of Cincinnati, this employer now pays $38 for doing the same work they do for the average homeowner. (BTW it's $34 if you offer health benefits).

What's disgusting is that the employees making $12.00 actually pay the wages for someone making three times more than they do.

Why would anyone pay a wage that's more than they make for the same work?

If you believe that doesn't make sense, then you'll understand why it is that Governors Kasich and Walker are waging war on these practices.

You'll also understand why the unions will fight this one to the death.

You'll also understand why people flee to the suburbs, where they farm this crap out for a third of the price that a union friendly city/state charges the residents.

Sen. Rand Paul on Consumer Choice in Energy Committee Hearing

Life in "Progress" Cities - Youngstown, Akron, Toledo, Dayton, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Canton et al edition.

A couple of years ago, I did a post on the quality of life in the Lovely Mrs. Gekko's hometown of Warren Ohio and nearby Youngstown and Steubenville.

Some circus clown from Defend Youngstown commented this

I guess none of the following is relevant:

Youngstown, Ohio: Entrepreneur magazine Top 10 U.S. cities to start a

new business 2009-2010.
http://www.entrepreneur.com/topcities2009/index.html

Youngstown-Warren, Ohio: S I T E Selection magazine Top 10 metro area
for business expansion 2009.
http://www.siteselection.com/issues/2009/mar/Top-Metros/

Youngstown: "A Young Town Again" The Economist October 8th, 2009
http://www.economist.com/world/unitedstates/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14
588263

Inc Magazine (May 2010): "Semper Youngstown":
http://www.inc.com/magazine/20100501/semper-youngstown.html


More: www.DefendYoungstown.com

Here's what I want to know from this idiot. If Youngstown is so hoppin' and groovin' for young Ohioans how does this happen.............

The news from the U.S. Census couldn’t be much worse for Youngstown.

Youngstown’s population declined by 18.3 percent between 2000 and 2010, the U.S. Census Bureau reported today.

Just as Youngstown had in the 2000 census compared to the one from 10 years earlier, it had the largest decline of any of the state’s largest 25 cities between 2000 and 2010.

If you think I'm picking on Youngstown, I am. But Youngstown's not the only Ohio city suffering from Blue City Exodus it's an affliction all Ohio's once great cities are suffering from.........

Ohio's major cities continued their drastic decline during the past decade, a sign that hard times are not easing in the industrial heartland.

Places that once prospered from making things — steel, tires, cash registers, bikes — continued a free-fall that started half a century ago and may be getting worse, according to Census Bureau population numbers released Wednesday.

Cleveland lost 17% of its population to fall to 396,815 — its fewest inhabitants since 1900. The city peaked in 1950 at 914,808. More residents abandoned the city from 2000 to 2010 than in the 1990s.

Now class. If you could put your finger on one thing that all of these cities have in common, what would that be?

If you answer democrats, lots and lots of democrats, you get a gold star. They're like cockroaches in a city, well, without the charm.

Seriously, it would be easier to find gold panning the Maumee River than to find a republican in these cities.

But for some reason, no one wants to make the connection.

None the less, I don't see young Berkeley grads lining up to the latest cool hot spot of Youngstown anytime soon.

Coulter criticizes Walker

Ace of Spades with an analysis of Coulter's analysis of Scott Walker.

She makes some good points.

Her belief is that this is a crucial fight with implications for the nation and its future, and while Walker did well on the substance of the policy, he failed as regards the public persuasion part of it.

She thinks Walker should have been on TV "every night" to explain this to Wisconsinites, citing government worker abuses like the one's she writes about in her latest column. Such as a bus driver making $159,000 per year (more than $100 K in overtime).

Or the rule, "negotiated" with politicians looking for union donations, that if a public employee takes a single call of even a second's duration, that employee may bill the state for a half hour of overtime pay.

So if an employee calls out sick for two days, and the boss calls to ask if she'll be at work the next day, that's a half hour of overtime.

Ridonculous.

She keeps contrasting Walker to her obvious favorite, Chris Christie, noting that Chris Christie never would have gone dark during such a crucial fight.

Here is the point she doesn't actually make but should: Republicans have gotten into a bad habit of flinching from public fights. Commenters tell me this every day, and I think they're right.

Republicans assume from the outset that they cannot win the media war as the media itself is too biased against them to even get their words out, and that the natural stupidity of the American people makes them suckers for the Democrats' promises of endless hand-outs and Buy Now, Pay Later funding schemes.

Personally, I believe the reason most republicans cave in on principle is because they don't actually believe in principle. When you believe in what you are doing is right you don't worry about what the media says about you. You take the message to the people, as Christie is doing in New Jersey.

When you believe in a cause no media in the world can twist your passion.

When you believe in being republican because it's better than a day job, you have to spin your communication in your own mind. Usually that means that no cause is worth fighting for..... except your political survival.

That's usually why I hate republicans more than democrats.

IT'S THE PRINCIPLE STUPID!

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Liberalism = Projection

Since my conversion to conservatism so may years ago, I've found that liberalism is less a political term than a psychological one. Namely it's a version of projection.

See Joe Biden knows all about greedy rich people since he only gives $300 to charity in any given year.

And the media can only assume that tea partiers are violent protesters given that liberals are known to do things like spike trees, burn down housing developments, etc.

Oh and Ed Schulz knows Rush plants callers because, well, he does..............

Ed Schultz yesterday slammed Rush Limbaugh for doing something Limbaugh denies but Schultz admits doing.

In response to a story in Tablet Magazine about a "custom caller service" offered by Premier Radio Networks, a vast Clear Channel subsidiary that syndicates Limbaugh and other prominent conservative talkers, Limbaugh adamantly denied unsubstantiated allegations that staged calls were made to his show.

Read more: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/jack-coleman/2011/03/09/ed-schultz-admits-use-staged-calls-his-radio-show#ixzz1GCbLDA3B

Big Unions, Big Money, Big Payback

Life in "Progress" City - Cincinnati edition

How good is life in "Progress" City?

Good enough to leave as soon as you get a chance...........

Cincinnati lost more than 10 percent of its population over the past decade, falling below 300,000 people for the first time in more than a century.

U.S. Census data released today also show that the city’s losses helped drive down Hamilton County’s population by 5 percent, leaving the county with about 802,000 residents.

The population of Cincinnati’s northern suburbs continued to boom over the past decade, with Warren County once again leading the way with a 34 percent jump. Butler and Clermont counties both grew by about 10 percent.

The Census figures showed a strengthening of a trend that took hold decades ago as growing numbers of people began choosing suburban cul-de-sacs over traditional city neighborhoods.

This should read "a trend that took hold decades ago as growing numbers of people fled to life in Redville, an area devoid of such amenities as horrible schools, high crime, high taxes, crappy city services, crumbling infrastructure, etc."

On the good side, the trolley should slow that exodus to a smooth 9.9% a decade.

More.......

PS for the record, I'm one of those people who fled the city for friendly environs in Warren County.