HT: Governing
Cities contemplating increasing the number of surveillance cameras may want to consider London’s recent experience as a cautionary tale — the city's huge camera system was used as cinematographer for a new music video.
The Get Out Clause performed their new song "Paper" in front of various security cameras around the city, and then followed the British equivalent of FOIA requests to obtain the tape.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Rock video using surveillance videos/open records
Yikes, another County Commissioner who GETS IT
in Maury County. Thank YOU Commissioner Hasse.
Link
Commissioner Glen Hasse, who made the proposal along with Commissioner Bob Farmer, said the cutback is needed because taxpayers are being forced to “severely cut their expenditures just to buy food, gasoline and keep a roof over their heads.”
“It is the duty and the responsibility ... of this commission to help them when we can,” he said. “We cannot be callous, insensitive and passive to their plight, nor can we raise taxes regardless of the amount.”
Shelby County Mayor hears distant thunder of
stampeding taxpayers leaving Shelby County and decides that he CAN make hard decisions and devise a no tax increase budget. Its a MIRACLE!! Actually, no, its not a miracle, its an elected official who understands that he is there to SERVE the citizen/taxpayers.
Link
County Mayor A C Wharton unveiled a balanced budget on Wednesday that will not require a property tax increase next year, but will include about $12 million in cuts, layoffs and no salary increase for employees.
"The commission said no tax increase, see if you can do it by way of cuts and we honored that request," Wharton said. "It's up to the 13 members of the commission to see if they wish to adopt what we're proposing. I hope they will."
Income Tax Repeal effort in Mass gains big mo
After pushing a similar initiative that almost passed six years ago, a group called the Committee for Small Government is back for another round, asking voters to end the income tax and save the average taxpayer $3,600 a year. The group, led by libertarian Carla Howell, is almost certain to gather the 11,000 signatures needed to put a question on the November ballot.
To say that state officials are worried about the prospect would be an understatement.
Community, political, and business officials are grasping for words such as "chaos," "devastating," and "catastrophe" to describe the scenario that would unfold if the measure passes.
Six years ago, Beacon Hill didn't pay much attention to what seemed to be a pie-in-the-sky campaign. Confident that voters would reject the plan as folly, no one even organized a campaign to fight it.
But it almost passed, gaining the support of 45 percent of voters.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Iowa Democratic Gov Vetos collective bargaining
bill. Wow, nice to see a Governor who understands that no matter how politically powerful the public sector unions are, the job of the Governor is to stand up for taxpayers.
Link HT: Intercepts
While I have always been a strong supporter of workers rights and collective bargaining, a close examination of House File 2645 shows that it is not in the best interests of the taxpayers of Iowa to let this legislation become law. It is vaguely written with the potential for far reaching, unintended consequences that could obligate the citizens of Iowa to substantial new public expenditures. Therefore, I will veto the bill.
Chicago repeals a really stupid law
Hopefully this will be the start of a trend. There are many more stupid laws.
Link
CHICAGO, May 14 (UPI) -- The city of Chicago Wednesday overturned its controversial ban on foie gras, a liver pate delicacy some say requires inhumane treatment of geese to produce.
The Chicago City Council voted 37-6 to reverse a 2-year-old ordinance forbidding the serving of foie gras in city restaurants, a measure that Chicago Mayor Richard Daley opposed and said had made the city look foolish in the eyes of the world.
The vote to overturn the foie gras ban came over the strenuous objections of its author, Alderman Joe Moore, who tried to halt the vote but was ruled out of order by Daley, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. Moore denounced Daley's maneuver as dictatorial.
"Even in the ugliest days of one-man rule, members of the City Council still had the opportunity to ... state their case," Moore told the newspaper. "For the mayor to fail to recognize me to debate the merits of this issue was the height of arrogance."
Daley said the foie gras ban was meaningless because restaurant owners were finding ways around it. HE also questioned whether it was the city's role to police what types of food are acceptable.
Casino Owners vs Teacher's Union in Nevada
Since October, the teachers have been pushing a ballot initiative that would raise the gaming tax on the state’s largest casinos from 6.75 percent to 9.75 percent.
The union has until Tuesday to submit 59,000 signatures of registered voters to county clerks throughout the state. Once the signatures are submitted and a sufficient number is verified, the union cannot remove the initiative from the ballot, said Matt Griffin, deputy secretary of state.
Hence the flurry of last-minute meetings, phone calls and posturing to see whether a deal can be worked out.
Steve Wynn and former Las Vegas Mayor Jan Jones, now an executive at Harrah’s, met with teachers union President Lynn Warne and political consultant Dan Hart last week to propose raising the room tax rate.
Wynn flew to Reno to meet with Gov. Jim Gibbons and Raggio about the plan. Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, also has been involved in the discussions.
Cooper only Dem NO, D Davis only Repub YES
on Farm Bill fiasco. Thank you Congressman Cooper and what were you thinking David Davis?
Here is the Vote.
As CFG notes the Republican Leadership was split. How perfectly emblematic of Republican malaise in Congress.
We're 19th lowest in Business Tax Burden
| State | Business Tax Burden as % of GSP |
| Delaware | 3.5 |
| Oregon | 3.8 |
| DC | 3.8 |
| N Carolina | 3.9 |
| Connecticut | 4.0 |
| Indiana | 4.0 |
| Virginia | 4.0 |
| Colorado | 4.2 |
| Georgia | 4.2 |
| Maryland | 4.2 |
| Missouri | 4.3 |
| Utah | 4.3 |
| Mass | 4.5 |
| Ohio | 4.5 |
| Alabama | 4.6 |
| Arkansas | 4.6 |
| Idaho | 4.6 |
| Minnesota | 4.6 |
| Tennessee | 4.6 |
| California | 4.7 |
| Iowa | 4.8 |
| Florida | 4.9 |
| Nevada | 4.9 |
| New Jersey | 4.9 |
| Kentucky | 5.0 |
| S Carolina | 5.0 |
| Texas | 5.0 |
| Wisconsin | 5.0 |
| Arizona | 5.1 |
| Illinois | 5.1 |
| Michigan | 5.1 |
| Pennsylvania | 5.1 |
| Hawaii | 5.4 |
| Nebraska | 5.4 |
| New Hampshire | 5.4 |
| South Dakota | 5.5 |
| Oklahoma | 5.8 |
| Washington | 5.8 |
| Kansas | 6.1 |
| Rhode Island | 6.1 |
| Mississippi | 6.3 |
| New Mexico | 6.3 |
| New York | 6.4 |
| Louisiana | 6.5 |
| Montana | 6.5 |
| Vermont | 6.8 |
| West Virginia | 7.2 |
| North Dakota | 7.4 |
| Maine | 7.6 |
| Wyoming | 9.3 |
| Alaska | 11.6 |
"New Sites Make It Easier To Spy on Your Friends"
Armed with new and established Web sites, people are uncovering surprising details about colleagues, lovers and strangers that often don't turn up in a simple Internet search. Though none of these sites can reveal anything that isn't already available publicly, they can make it much easier to find. And most of them are free.Zaba Inc.'s ZabaSearch.com turns up public records such as criminal history and birthdates. Spock Networks Inc.'s Spock.com and Wink Technologies Inc.'s Wink.com are "people-search engines" that specialize in digging up personal pages, such as social-networking profiles, buried deep in the Web. Spokeo.com is a search site operated by Spokeo Inc., a startup that lets users see what their friends are doing on other Web sites. Zillow Inc.'s Zillow.com estimates the value of people's homes, while the Huffington Post's Fundrace feature tracks their campaign donations. Jigsaw Data Corp.'s Jigsaw.com, meanwhile, lets people share details with each other from business cards they've collected -- a sort of gray market for Rolodex data.
Half of all insured Amercians on prescription meds
for a chronic condition. Can you say overmedicated?
Link
The company examined prescription records from 2001 to 2007 of a representative sample of 2.5 million customers, from newborns to the elderly.
Medication use for chronic problems was seen in all demographic groups:
• Almost two-thirds of women 20 and older.
• One in four children and teenagers.
• 52 percent of adult men.
• Three out of four people 65 or older.
Among seniors, 28 percent of women and nearly 22 percent of men take five or more medicines regularly.
200 plus yrs of Federal Govt and we are just now
getting around to this: Plain Language in Government Communications Act of 2008
Sen Wilder explains why TN Plan is best
for choosing judges in Tennessee. From Senate Gov Ops Committee 5-13-08.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Big Corporations line up to attend Conventions
To date, the Democratic National Convention Host Committee has lined up 56 corporate sponsors.
A few have local ties, like Qwest, Molson Coors and Vail Resorts. Others are huge national corporations, such as Anheuser-Busch, Union Pacific and 3M.
It is not a phenomenon unique to the Democrats or Denver. A slew of corporate donors have lined up for the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis, and 20 of them also are sponsoring the DNC.
They include companies like 3M, Allstate, AstraZeneca, AT&T, Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway Co., Ford, Merck, Qwest, the Service Employees International Union, US Bank, Visa and Xcel Energy.
"Welcome to the American political system," Barnes-Gelt said of the companies ponying up money on both sides of the aisle.
171,549 Fed Employees owe $1.23 bil in back taxes
and thus won't be getting their stimulus checks (which is a bit ironic since many people who pay no taxes will still be getting a check.) This is just a tad better than the overall delinquency rate.
Link
Federal employees are held to a high standard when it comes to ethics and the public trust. That's also the case when it comes to taxes.
Recently released data from the Internal Revenue Service show that federal employees owed $1.23 billion in overdue taxes in October 2007. According to the IRS snapshot, 3.79 percent of federal employees could be labeled tax deadbeats.
A billion-dollar tax debt sounds pretty bad. But the percentage of federal employees who have not paid their taxes on time actually has dropped slightly. For example, in 2005, the delinquency rate was 3.93 percent, and in 2006, 3.81 percent.
The compliance rate for the government is generally better than the rate for all Americans, the IRS said. The agency, though, does not release data that can be compared against information on federal employees, in part because the IRS knows a lot more about the income of people who work or have worked for Uncle Sam and can more easily match payroll, pension and other documents.
Congress is much better at creating problems
than it is at creating solutions. In fact, if they would simply concentrate on protecting our freedom to make our OWN decisions about OUR welfare then we would have far fewer problems. Economist Walter Williams talks about the "mortgage crisis" and the "gas price crisis", both of which have been exacerbated by Congress.
Link
Most of the great problems we face are caused by politicians creating solutions to problems they created in the first place. Politicians and a large percentage of the public lose sight of the unavoidable fact that for every created benefit, there's also a created cost or, as Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman put it, "There's no free lunch." While the person who receives the benefit might not pay or even be aware of the cost, but as sure as night follows day, there is a cost borne by someone.
Former DC Mayor Barry says bring on the Vouchers
I know it may surprise some that I would support a school voucher program, but I am proud to do so -- and I especially support the D.C. scholarships. Many here in Washington also favor this program: community and business leaders, educators, parents, and elected officials who are putting children first. I would oppose this voucher program if it took money from the D.C. public schools, but it doesn't.
I support this package because it provides much-needed financial support to all D.C. schools and because it offers parents a choice without hurting public schools. That's a win-win situation. We must make sure that children in the District are given every chance to attend schools that work for them. To do anything else is wrong.
Male Recession? The Gender Jobs Gap
Link
The troubles for the American male worker, while exacerbated by the current slump, are hardly new. The manufacturing sector is in long-term decline, and construction goes through repeated booms and busts. Meanwhile women are graduating from college at higher rates than men. Some analysts even argue that men are less suited than women to the knowledge economy, which rewards supposedly female traits such as sensitivity, intuition, and a willingness to collaborate. "Men have tended to do better in the hierarchies, following orders and relying on positional power," says Andy Hines, a futurist at the Washington (D.C.) consulting firm Social Technologies, who previously worked for Kellogg and Dow Chemical.
Economists are debating whether the overall economy is in a recession. For men, the evidence is clear.
Monday, May 12, 2008
States Seize Citizens' Property to Balance Budgets
The 50 U.S. states are holding more than $32 billion worth of unclaimed property that they're supposed to safeguard for their citizens. But a "Good Morning America" investigation found some states aggressively seize property that isn't really unclaimed and then use the money -- your money -- to balance their budgets.
Unclaimed property consists of things like forgotten apartment security deposits, uncashed dividend checks and safe-deposit boxes abandoned when an elderly relative dies.
Banks and other businesses are required to turn that property over to the state for safekeeping. The problem is that the states return less than a quarter of unclaimed property to the rightful owners.
Democratic lawmakers warm up to vouchers in Fla
In 2001, Democrats in the Legislature pounded Republican plans to start a private school voucher program for poor and predominantly minority kids. They said it was unconstitutional, a drain on public schools, even un-American. In the end, all but one Democrat voted against it.
Times have changed. This year, a bill to vastly expand the same program passed by large margins.
And this time, a third of the Democratic caucus was on board.
"I'm a strong advocate for public school education, and I'm not necessarily a strong advocate for vouchers," said Rep. Bill Heller, D-St. Petersburg, one of four Tampa Bay-area Democrats to vote yes. But "the bottom line has to be the child. If good things are happening for the child, then you can justify it."
Another Rich Guy gets $80 mil from Taxpayers
Last August, Concord leaders learned that Bruton Smith, billionaire owner of Lowe's Motor Speedway, wanted incentives for a proposed drag strip and track expansion.
Three months passed, and Smith threatened to move his racing complex, before Concord and Cabarrus County worked out a deal he would accept.
The $80 million package included $20 million that local leaders hope the state will pay. If the state doesn't pay -- and there has been no indication that it will -- local taxpayers will be on the hook for the entire amount.
Big Post office vs Big Oil
Link
If stamp prices had increased over time at "only" the rate of gas prices, a first-class stamp would only cost only 27.6 cents today instead of 42 cents.
When gas prices rose last year, Rep. Bart Stupak (D.-MI) introduced "The Federal Price Gouging Prevention Act," which would make it a crime to "sell crude oil or gasoline at a price that is unconscionably excessive." Shouldn't we now investigate "unconscionably excessive stamp prices"? Monopoly has its privileges.
Man offers ride home, charged as illegal taxi service
Link
The 78-year-old said he was walking into a Winn-Dixie to get some groceries when he was approached by a woman who said she needed a ride.
"She asked me, 'Do I do a service?'" O'Neil said. "I told her no. She said, 'I need help getting home.'
"O'Neil told the woman if she was still there when he finished his shopping, he would give her a ride. She was, so he did.
As it turned out, the woman was an undercover employee with the consumer services department targeting people providing illegal taxi services.
"She said the reason she targeted him (is because) she saw him sitting in his car for a few minutes," said Ellen Novodeletsky, O'Neil's attorney.
Sunday, May 11, 2008
School "Leaders' kids attend private schools"
Yikes, even more education truth telling at Tennessean, this could get to be a trend.
Our politicians reserve for themselves the same choices which they refuse to grant to the constituents they supposedly "serve"? YES! I think you call that condescending arrogance.
If politicians really wanted to serve their constituents they would FIGHT to give them the same power of choice the politicians reserve for their own children.
Link
Many in Metro Nashville's core group of public school reformers, including the mayor, attend parent-teacher conferences for their children at upscale private schools.
Mayor Karl Dean, the council's Education Committee chairman and some nonprofit leaders heavily involved in Metro's potential transformation have opted out of public schools for one or both of their children.
Advertisement
Each of them cited the same reasons: family tradition or educational options they couldn't get anywhere else. And they contend it doesn't take having children in public schools to understand the issues and help out.
Dean campaigned as the education mayor and is pushing hard for reform. But his daughter attends Nashville's prestigious Harpeth Hall all-girls school, and his son is a Montgomery Bell Academy graduate.
"As for where my children go to school, that is a decision my wife and I made about what we think is best for our children. It's not a political decision," Dean wrote in an e-mail.
Excellent Tennessean article on Metro Schools
Jaime Sarrio begins a three part series on "Saving Nashville Schools." The first installment is an amazingly candid look at the pressures shaping Metro Schools.
Link
The city's top leadership is challenged to find ways to bring those middle-class students back. If they don't, the district faces a much tougher task educating the historically harder-to-reach low-income population and getting back the support of the city's residents.
As it stands, Metro's dismal reputation drives both families and businesses across county lines to higher-performing Williamson and Rutherford counties. And many from the middle class who have remained in Nashville have opted for the private school route, willing to pay pricey tuitions to escape the public school system.
Despite the city's growth, so many families have left that fewer students are enrolled in Nashville's public schools today than in 1970.
Enron was a rank amateur at cooking the books
Federal, State and Local politicians are the world champs at accounting fraud.
Link
But the accounting techniques used by state and local governments to balance their pension books disguise the extent of the crisis facing these retirees and the taxpayers who may ultimately be called on to pay the freight, according to a growing number of leading financial analysts.
State governments alone have reported they are already confronting a deficit of at least $750 billion to cover the cost of the retirement benefits they have promised. But that figure likely underestimates the actual shortfall because of the range of methods they use to make their calculations, including practices that have been barred in the private sector for decades.
Local governments use these same techniques for their pension funds and face deficits that further contribute to what some investors and analysts say may be shaping up to be a massive breach of faith with a generation of public employees.
Lets burden taxpayers with a tax hike? Yea, thats the ticket
Ok, here are the facts:
1-The City Council in Maryville works for and serves the taxpayers.
2-Taxpayers are experiencing a bad economy and have less disposable income.
3-Does the City Council cut their own spending or do they FORCE taxpayers (whom they serve) to cut their family budgets by raising taxes?
Why, you raise taxes of course, its the government way.
McCain's guy quits over Myanmar lobbying
"Today I offered the convention my resignation so as not to become a distraction in this campaign. I continue to strongly support John McCain for president, and wish him the best of luck in this campaign."
Goodyear is chief executive of DCI Group, a lobbying firm that Newsweek reported in a story posted online was paid $348,000 in 2002 to represent Myanmar's junta.
"If only the UAW would allow It..."
A fascinating video by the Detroit News about why the most efficient car production plants will never be built in the US, at least not by unionized companies. More HERE.
This state-of-the-art manufacturing complex in the northeastern Brazilian state of Bahia is not only the centerpiece of Ford's Brazilian turnaround plan, it is also one of the most advanced automobile plants in the world. It is more automated than many of Ford's U.S. factories, and leaner and more flexible than any other Ford facility. It can produce five different vehicle platforms at the same time and on the same line.Ford sources said it is the sort of plant the company wants in the United States, were it not for the United Auto Workers, which has historically opposed such extensive supplier integration on the factory floor.
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