Link
State education officials have levied the harshest level of sanctions under the federal No Child Left Behind education law on 20 underperforming schools, including 17 in Memphis.
The state has given Memphis City Schools Superintendent Carol Johnson directives on making changes in the failing schools, which includes mandatory administration changes in some cases.
It's the first time state officials have told the district they are required to make the changes.
The schools had been on notice for six years that stricter sanctions could be coming.
All of Johnson's nominations for shuffling principals, assistant principals and guidance counselors will have to be approved by the state this year.
Two Chattanooga schools and one Nashville school also received similar notifications as the ones in Memphis.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Gov decides to "stop short"
of taking over 17 failing schools in Memphis.
Link
Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen stopped short of taking over 17 under-performing Memphis City Schools, but his patience is running thin. It's a story the FOX 13 I-Team has been investigating for two weeks.
The governor has ordered Memphis City Schools to restructure education plans at the 17 schools.
Memphis City Schools Superintendent Dr. Carol Johnson said the district has already taken corrective actions like replacing some principals and assigning math and reading coaches.
"I do believe that the governor will expect greater accountability, greater oversight, greater reporting of these schools and we certainly plan to work in partnership with the accountability office," she said.
Link
Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen stopped short of taking over 17 under-performing Memphis City Schools, but his patience is running thin. It's a story the FOX 13 I-Team has been investigating for two weeks.
The governor has ordered Memphis City Schools to restructure education plans at the 17 schools.
Memphis City Schools Superintendent Dr. Carol Johnson said the district has already taken corrective actions like replacing some principals and assigning math and reading coaches.
"I do believe that the governor will expect greater accountability, greater oversight, greater reporting of these schools and we certainly plan to work in partnership with the accountability office," she said.
Dems TAX HIKE Wish list get longer and longer
Link
- At the beginning of Congress this year, Speaker Pelosi said that she would target those making more than $250,000 per year (presumably, married couples making this income) for tax hikes.
- Less than a month into their new majority, the Democrats passed (with some GOP help) the first tax increase since 1993. This tax increase (some provisions of which violate the Taxpayer Protection Pledge) was on energy companies. Guess whose bill that will come out of?
- I'll be charitable and put all of the private equity tax hike ideas in one basket. S. 1624 would tax publicly-traded investment partnerships as if they were corporations. H.R. 2834 would tax capital gains received by the investment manager (called "carried interest") at 35%, rather than 15%.
- John Edwards has come out for a top capital gains rate of 28%. Senator Ron Wyden has done him one better, saying that the top rate on capital gains and dividends (which are themselves actually double taxes) should be 35%.
- Just this past week, the Democrat House passed a bill that raises taxes on U.S. subsidiary corporations of foreign companies. This Pledge-violating vote was to pay for more food stamp money.
- In order to pay for nearly-full AMT repeal, the Democrats have come out with no shortage of ideas to raise taxes (why fixing an AMT mistake needs to be paid for is beyond me). Such ideas have included curtailing the state and local income and sales tax deduction, imposing a 4% AGI "surtax" on high income earners, taxing capital gains and dividends at AMT rates for those taxpayers, and probably a few others that I have forgotten.
- Rhetorically, Democrats have reserved a lot of their vitriol for international taxpayers. They want to repeal the 911 exclusion which allows Americans to shelter lots of earned income from double taxation, and they want to repeal many of the international corporate provisions of FSC-ETI.
ALL City employees want a property tax break
in Houston. Firefighters who live in the county are already receiving a $750 tax break BUT they were very disappointed that the IRS counts the tax break as income so now the firefighters union is asking that the tax break be restructured so it won't be taxed as income.....YOU CAN'T MAKE THIS STUFF UP!!
Link
Link
City employees are asking for a $750 refund of the property taxes they pay each year as part of their union's wish list of contract proposals.
That sounds like a long shot, like the union's request that the city pick up the full cost of employee medical insurance premiums.
What city would ever give city workers a break on their property taxes?
Well, Houston for one.
The city sets aside $1 million each year to offer firefighters with homes in Houston a $750 annual refund on their property taxes, according to the Houston Professional Fire Fighters Association contract.
Did you expense those lap dancers?
Link (profanity)
Sales: "You want answers?"
Finance: "I think we are entitled to them!"
Sales: "You want answers?!"
Finance: "I want the truth!"
Sales: "You can't handle the truth!!! Son, we live in a world that requires net license revenue. And that revenue must be brought in by people with elite skills. Who's going to find it? You? You, Mr. Operations? We have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom.
You scoff at the sales division and you curse our lucrative incentives.
You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what we know:
That while the cost of business results are excessive, it drives revenue. And my very existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, drives REVENUE! You don't want to know the truth because deep down in places you don't talk about at staff meetings ... you want me on that call. You NEED me on that call!
We use words like upgrades, another round, top-shelf, medium-rare, on-the-rocks, cabernet, Cohiba and foursome. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent negotiating something. You use them as a punch line!
I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to people who rise and sleep under the very blanket of revenue I provide and then question the manner in which I provide it. I would rather you just said "thank you" and went on your way. Otherwise I suggest you pick up a phone and make some sales calls. Either way, I don't give a damn what you think you're entitled to!"
Finance: "Did you expense the lap dancers?"
Sales: "I did the job I was hired to do."
Finance: "Did you expense the lap dancers?!"
Sales: "You're damn right I did!"
Sales: "You want answers?"
Finance: "I think we are entitled to them!"
Sales: "You want answers?!"
Finance: "I want the truth!"
Sales: "You can't handle the truth!!! Son, we live in a world that requires net license revenue. And that revenue must be brought in by people with elite skills. Who's going to find it? You? You, Mr. Operations? We have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom.
You scoff at the sales division and you curse our lucrative incentives.
You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what we know:
That while the cost of business results are excessive, it drives revenue. And my very existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, drives REVENUE! You don't want to know the truth because deep down in places you don't talk about at staff meetings ... you want me on that call. You NEED me on that call!
We use words like upgrades, another round, top-shelf, medium-rare, on-the-rocks, cabernet, Cohiba and foursome. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent negotiating something. You use them as a punch line!
I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to people who rise and sleep under the very blanket of revenue I provide and then question the manner in which I provide it. I would rather you just said "thank you" and went on your way. Otherwise I suggest you pick up a phone and make some sales calls. Either way, I don't give a damn what you think you're entitled to!"
Finance: "Did you expense the lap dancers?"
Sales: "I did the job I was hired to do."
Finance: "Did you expense the lap dancers?!"
Sales: "You're damn right I did!"
Phil for VP?
Link
Romero said he could "absolutely" see Bredesen as a vice presidential candidate next year. "Tennessee has been a good bellwether of how candidates come across to the rest of the nation. His leadership and popularity here, in a state that usually picks the winner in presidential elections, I think would lend to the credibility of him as a vice presidential candidate."
Romero said he could "absolutely" see Bredesen as a vice presidential candidate next year. "Tennessee has been a good bellwether of how candidates come across to the rest of the nation. His leadership and popularity here, in a state that usually picks the winner in presidential elections, I think would lend to the credibility of him as a vice presidential candidate."
Monday, July 30, 2007
Rolling Stone: Ethanol is delusional bullsh*t.
Ok, when Rolling Stone comes out against ethanol, I think we can pretty much agree that the farm lobbyists and the politicians are the ONLY people who think ethanol is a good idea.
Link
This is not just hype -- it's dangerous, delusional bullsh*t. Ethanol doesn't burn cleaner than gasoline, nor is it cheaper. Our current ethanol production represents only 3.5 percent of our gasoline consumption -- yet it consumes twenty percent of the entire U.S. corn crop, causing the price of corn to double in the last two years and raising the threat of hunger in the Third World. And the increasing acreage devoted to corn for ethanol means less land for other staple crops, giving farmers in South America an incentive to carve fields out of tropical forests that help to cool the planet and stave off global warming.
Link
This is not just hype -- it's dangerous, delusional bullsh*t. Ethanol doesn't burn cleaner than gasoline, nor is it cheaper. Our current ethanol production represents only 3.5 percent of our gasoline consumption -- yet it consumes twenty percent of the entire U.S. corn crop, causing the price of corn to double in the last two years and raising the threat of hunger in the Third World. And the increasing acreage devoted to corn for ethanol means less land for other staple crops, giving farmers in South America an incentive to carve fields out of tropical forests that help to cool the planet and stave off global warming.
Mexico's Teacher's Union Rules
Very interesting profile, in the Economist, of the Teacher's Union in Mexico and its stranglehold on education policy. As in the US, public employee unions are simply vehicles to gain and hold political power, first, last and always.
Link
Ms Gordillo's political power comes mainly from the union's sheer size: with 1.4m members teaching in primary and secondary schools, it is the largest labour union in Latin America. From that political base, Ms Gordillo controls a significant block of deputies in the lower house of the federal Congress, as well as two senators. And while no state governor will say so openly, "none of them will go against her will," says Carlos Ornelas, an education specialist at Mexico City's Metropolitan Autonomous University.
So it is hard to ascribe poor educational performance to lack of money. The problem is how the system is organised. Teachers, including school heads, are accountable to union leaders, not to the education ministry or parents. Teacher evaluation exists in name but not in practice. A significant slice of education spending goes straight to the union. Some 30,000 union officials are on the payroll as teachers; they never set foot in a classroom although there is a teacher shortage in some schools. In 2006, an election year, 750m pesos ($70m) was transferred from the ministry to the union, a threefold rise over the 250m pesos in transfers in 2005, according to Aldo Muñoz, a political scientist at the Iberoamerican University.
Link
Ms Gordillo's political power comes mainly from the union's sheer size: with 1.4m members teaching in primary and secondary schools, it is the largest labour union in Latin America. From that political base, Ms Gordillo controls a significant block of deputies in the lower house of the federal Congress, as well as two senators. And while no state governor will say so openly, "none of them will go against her will," says Carlos Ornelas, an education specialist at Mexico City's Metropolitan Autonomous University.
So it is hard to ascribe poor educational performance to lack of money. The problem is how the system is organised. Teachers, including school heads, are accountable to union leaders, not to the education ministry or parents. Teacher evaluation exists in name but not in practice. A significant slice of education spending goes straight to the union. Some 30,000 union officials are on the payroll as teachers; they never set foot in a classroom although there is a teacher shortage in some schools. In 2006, an election year, 750m pesos ($70m) was transferred from the ministry to the union, a threefold rise over the 250m pesos in transfers in 2005, according to Aldo Muñoz, a political scientist at the Iberoamerican University.
House Dems have better party discipline
according to THIS Washington Post Vote analysis in the current session. Maybe this is always true for the majority party?
- 92.7%
Democratic
(233 members) - 84.2%
Republican
(202 members) - 88.7%
All Members
(435 members)
Homebuilders paid NOT to build new homes
NOT really but if the homebuilders lobbyists were as effective as the big agriculture lobby you could have your own gravy train......so you home builders out there need to rev up the political contributions and hire some new lobbyists, YOU TOO might be able to pillage and plunder the taxpayers.
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Health Care Tourism Saving BIG bucks for patients
HT: Prof Mark PerryHUGE savings for patients willing to travel to exotic locations and be pampered like a VIP. I think you call it COMPETITION!! Look for the AMA to try to pass a law to LIMIT YOUR FREEDOM by prohibiting this kind of medical tourism just as many state medical associations are trying to pass laws to limit the spread of the very popular minute clinics.
Link
George Will on the attempt to end Farm subsidies
by a farm state Senator. Good luck to him in his attempt to end this farm lobby, politician-encouraged, taxpayer exploitation.
Link
Link
Under the continuing New Deal approach, five commodities -- corn, soybeans, cotton, rice and wheat -- got about 90 percent of last year's $19 billion in subsidies. This is a perverse incentive for overproduction of the five, which depresses prices, which triggers federal supports.
Lugar, who proposes capping annual farm assistance at $30,000 per recipient, is attempting reform at a time when federal energy policy is making matters worse. By subsidizing corn-based ethanol, the government is making the "crop specific" approach to subsidies increasingly irrational: Ethanol enthusiasm has produced a one-year increase of 12 percent in acres planted in corn, the price of which has risen 20 percent in a year. So farmers are planting fewer acres in soybeans, which therefore also are being made more expensive by federal policy. Furthermore, U.S. agriculture subsidies, which have the World Trade Organization properly frowning, are becoming major impediments to further liberalization of global trade, and hence to the huge potential growth of U.S. farmers' incomes from exports.
TN Waltz is a minor offense compared to this
Pedro Gracia can't fire bad teachers so he is proposing to allow principals to shift them to another school...IF the principal agrees to accept bad teachers from other schools. WHAT??? How did we reach this level of government absurdity? How did we fail the parents and taxpayers to this extent? Answer: The political power of teacher's unions. And OUR elected representatives have watched calmly as this awful system has been put in place because they value the political power of the teacher's union more than they value the quality of education. This makes Tennessee Waltz look like a minor offense.
Garcia says the maneuver is legal, and the district is making strides toward giving some teachers — who enjoy special protection under state tenure laws — a fresh start, reassigning them where they may be more successful.
"That's life," he said. "… I think sometimes a person has been in a place too long. Maybe you need a change in scenery."
No other Nashville-area districts employ a similar policy, and national education experts say the strategy is unconventional, to say the least.
Indianapolis 'Boston' Tea Party over Prop Taxes
LinkThe latest version of the Boston Tea Party played out in the normally tranquil Northside neighborhood at Central Avenue and Westfield Boulevard. Motorists passing at least 500 protesters honked their horns in response to signs demanding that politicians fix the property tax bill mess.
The original Boston Tea Party in 1773 protested the way the American colonists were being treated by Great Britain.
Tax bills and Monday's decision by the City-County Council to increase the county income tax to 1.65 percent, to pay for Mayor Bart Peterson's $90 million crime-fighting plan, upset protesters Saturday.
The Rev. Mmoja Ajabu, representing the Light of the World Christian Church, asked the crowd whether an attorney might look into having the council vote set aside on a conflict-of-interest charge. Some council members, who are also police officers and firefighters, voted on the measure, he noted.
Saturday, July 28, 2007
More Crime Related Public Databases
Federal Prison Inmate Locator
Inmate Search for Davidson and Shelby Counties
Davidson County Criminal Court
Shelby County Criminal Court
Hamilton County Criminal Court
Inmate Search for Davidson and Shelby Counties
Davidson County Criminal Court
Shelby County Criminal Court
Hamilton County Criminal Court
The tyranny of good intentions
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity (desire) may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."
C.S. Lewis
C.S. Lewis
"Events Center" crumbles in Clarksville
All together now....AAAAWWWWWWWW!! The developer just couldn't get enough taxpayer subsidies.
Clarksville taxpayers should remain vigilant however because even though the statement below seems pro-taxpayer, the definition of "subsidies" can be quite slippery.
Link
Clarksville taxpayers should remain vigilant however because even though the statement below seems pro-taxpayer, the definition of "subsidies" can be quite slippery.
Link
James Chavez, president and CEO of the Clarksville-Montgomery County Economic Development Council, said Global was aware when talks began two years ago that "if people didn't use (the events center), they shouldn't have to pay for it."
"(Global) knew the community was in transition," Chavez said.
Chavez told the City Council and County Commission the Sports Authority would not go forward with a financing plan that used subsidies from those not patronizing the events center.
Would Fred Thompson sign the FairTax Bill as Pres?
FairTax supporters in Houston asked Fred Thompson if he would sign the FairTax bill if he was President and the House and Senate Passed it. He said "YEA, absolutely." (Very) Short Cameo by Bob Davis.
Canadians reject tax on unhealthy foods
but not by much. The farm lobby, fresh from their victory over taxpayers yesterday, better re-direct their efforts.
Polling Data
Earlier this month, researchers at Britain's Oxford University suggested the implementation of a higher value-added tax on foods deemed unhealthy in order to reduce both consumer demand and the number of heart attacks and strokes. Do you personally think charging higher taxes on unhealthy foods is a good idea or a bad idea?
| A good idea | 43% |
| A bad idea | 50% |
| Not sure | 7% |
Source: Angus Reid Strategies
Methodology: Online interviews with 1,086 Canadian adults, conducted on Jul. 13 and Jul. 16, 2007. Margin of error is 3.0 per cent.
Kudos to Jim Cooper, again
Jim Cooper voted AGAINST a bloated Farm Bill which contained billions in corporate farm subsidies and a huge tax increase. He was joined by all four of the Republicans.
Nationwide WiMax from Sprint
by next year. Exciting stuff. All sorts of new applications and technology will result...IF a bunch of self-important Congresspersons don't strangle it with regulations. Brings to mind this T.S. Eliot quote:
the WiMax technology, a wireless Internet connection for laptop computers and other portable devices that offers DSL-like speeds over a range of miles, as opposed to WiFi's range of several hundred feet.
"Half the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don't mean to do harm -- but the harm does not interest them. Or they do not see it, or they justify it because they are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves."Link
the WiMax technology, a wireless Internet connection for laptop computers and other portable devices that offers DSL-like speeds over a range of miles, as opposed to WiFi's range of several hundred feet.
Friday, July 27, 2007
Corporate welfare lawsuit in North Carolina
The State of North Carolina gave Google millions in taxpayer funded incentives. This is clearly unconstitutional on so many levels. Hopefully this new lawsuit will succeed where others have failed:
Link
1. No public purpose. Private economic benefits to GOOGLE, and private political benefits to North Carolina's elected officials. Nothing here for the businesses and taxpayers of NC. Government shouldn't be in this business. It violates our constitutional principles, and violates a long tradition of separation of business and political activities. GOOGLE is being used as free political advertising for politicians, and taxpayers are being used as unwilling subsidizers of GOOGLE's stock price.
2. Equal protection. You can't single out a business for bad treatment, and tax them extra to benefit everyone else. But then you can't tax everyone else just to benefit one business.
3. These programs don't work. It's a waste of money. Few jobs are created, at enormous cost. The cost to taxpayers will be double the "salary" of the "new" workers. And, more generally, businesses don't make location decisions based on these kinds of subsidies. It's just a pure political payoff.
Link
1. No public purpose. Private economic benefits to GOOGLE, and private political benefits to North Carolina's elected officials. Nothing here for the businesses and taxpayers of NC. Government shouldn't be in this business. It violates our constitutional principles, and violates a long tradition of separation of business and political activities. GOOGLE is being used as free political advertising for politicians, and taxpayers are being used as unwilling subsidizers of GOOGLE's stock price.
2. Equal protection. You can't single out a business for bad treatment, and tax them extra to benefit everyone else. But then you can't tax everyone else just to benefit one business.
3. These programs don't work. It's a waste of money. Few jobs are created, at enormous cost. The cost to taxpayers will be double the "salary" of the "new" workers. And, more generally, businesses don't make location decisions based on these kinds of subsidies. It's just a pure political payoff.
Most OPPOSE Nashville Convention Center
Interesting Result in the City Paper sponsored SURVEYUSA Mayoral Poll:
51% Say Metro Should NOT build a new Convention Center
37% Say Metro Should build a Convention Center
51% Say Metro Should NOT build a new Convention Center
37% Say Metro Should build a Convention Center
Tax protest billboards in Chattanooga
After the property tax hike passed in Hamilton County, Rhonda Thurman, Tim Price, Roy Burrage and others formed www.HadEnoughTaxes.Com and raised money for five billboards, one for each of the county commissioners who voted to raise taxes. They will also put the billboards up when these five commissioners run for re-election. Congrats to these Hamilton County taxpayers for taking action. We MUST raise our voices if taxpayers are to be heard.
Press coverage:
Link
Link
Press coverage:
Link
Link
Here Comes Santa Claude (Tax protest song)
After Hamilton (Chattanooga) County Mayor Claude Ramsey lead a successful effort to hike property taxes, Tim Price, who worked very hard in opposition, decided to immortalize what he felt was a VERY flawed and rigged process. A taxpayer and artistic triumph!!!
Tim has received great Press HERE, and HERE.
Tim has received great Press HERE, and HERE.
Massive voter fraud charges against Lefty ACORN
This is the latest in a long line of voter fraud problems charged and suspected by ACORN. This group is supported mainly by labor unions,
Link
"Ladies and gentlemen, this is the worst case of voter-registration fraud in the history of the state of Washington. There has been nothing comparable to this," state Secretary of State Sam Reed said at a news conference with Satterberg, King County Executive Ron Sims and Acting U.S. Attorney Jeff Sullivan.
Link
"Ladies and gentlemen, this is the worst case of voter-registration fraud in the history of the state of Washington. There has been nothing comparable to this," state Secretary of State Sam Reed said at a news conference with Satterberg, King County Executive Ron Sims and Acting U.S. Attorney Jeff Sullivan.
Canadian Doc: Don't Socialize medicine
Socialized medicine is a prescription for waiting lines and low quality. A Canadian Doc tries to warn us.
I soon discovered that the problems went well beyond overcrowded ERs. Patients had to wait for practically any diagnostic test or procedure, such as the man with persistent pain from a hernia operation whom we referred to a pain clinic — with a three-year wait list; or the woman with breast cancer who needed to wait four months for radiation therapy, when the standard of care was four weeks
[...]
And now even Canadian governments are looking to the private sector to shrink the waiting lists. In British Columbia, private clinics perform roughly 80% of government-funded diagnostic testing.
This privatizing trend is reaching Europe, too. Britain's Labour Party — which originally created the National Health Service — now openly favors privatization. Sweden's government, after the completion of the latest round of privatizations, will be contracting out some 80% of Stockholm's primary care and 40% of its total health services.
Since the fall of communism, Slovakia has looked to liberalize its state-run system, introducing co-payments and privatizations. And modest market reforms have begun in Germany.
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Whitehouseforsale.org contribution tracking website
Link
All sorts of info. For example, HERE is a list of "bundlers" they list for Fred Thompson
All sorts of info. For example, HERE is a list of "bundlers" they list for Fred Thompson
Name   | State | Employer | Min. Amount Raised | Cycle | Candidate |
| Chuck Ashman | CA | | Not Listed | 2008 | Fred Thompson |
| Pamela Ashman | CA | | Not Listed | 2008 | Fred Thompson |
| Michael Curb | TN | Curb Records | Not Listed | 2008 | Fred Thompson |
| Christen Ellis | CA | | Not Listed | 2008 | Fred Thompson |
| David Ellis | CA | Ellis/Hart Associates Inc. | Not Listed | 2008 | Fred Thompson |
| Jay Grodin | CA | | Not Listed | 2008 | Fred Thompson |
| Arthur Kassel | CA | Eagle & Badge Foundation | Not Listed | 2008 | Fred Thompson |
| Rose Layton | CA | | Not Listed | 2008 | Fred Thompson |
| Tom Layton | CA | | Not Listed | 2008 | Fred Thompson |
| Deanne Lewis | CA | | Not Listed | 2008 | Fred Thompson |
| John Lewis | CA | | Not Listed | 2008 | Fred Thompson |
| Shel Lytton | CA | | Not Listed | 2008 | Fred Thompson |
| Susan Lytton | CA | | Not Listed | 2008 | Fred Thompson |
| Phil Martin | TN | | Not Listed | 2008 | Fred Thompson |
| Mack Mattingly | | former Georgia Senator | Not Listed | 2008 | Fred Thompson |
| Sarah Newman | DC | Cassidy and Associates | Not Listed | 2008 | Fred Thompson |
| Sam Pimm | NH | | Not Listed | 2008 | Fred Thompson |
| Ken Reitz | DC | 360 Advantage | Not Listed | 2008 | Fred Thompson |
| Candace Smith | CA | | Not Listed | 2008 | Fred Thompson |
| Clifton S. Smith Jr. | CA | San Marino Tribune, Beverly Hills Courier and Design Magazine | Not Listed | 2008 | Fred Thompson |
| Zach Wamp | TN | U.S. Congressman | Not Listed | 2008 | Fred Thompson |
CIA and NSA say bloggers can get records
Spy agencies think bloggers are legit!! I thought ANY citizen could make FOIA requests???
Link
The CIA recently updated its policies on Freedom of Information Act requests to allow bloggers to qualify for special treatment once reserved for old-school reporters. And last August, the NSA issued a directive to its employees to report leaks of classified information to the media -- "including blogs," the order said.
Link
The CIA recently updated its policies on Freedom of Information Act requests to allow bloggers to qualify for special treatment once reserved for old-school reporters. And last August, the NSA issued a directive to its employees to report leaks of classified information to the media -- "including blogs," the order said.
YEA!! We are #2....from the bottom
Thank goodness for Ameren-Illinois and their 523 points!
Link
Link
Memphis Light, Gas & Water was at the bottom of J.D. Power and Associates ' list of medium-sized utilities for customer satisfaction.
It scored 534 points out of 1,000, which was also the second-lowest score in the country. Only Ameren-Illinois scored fewer points than MLGW -- 523.
Ohio trying to hock their Tobacco Settlement
The Tobacco Settlement never was about reducing smoking, it was always about a hidden tax on cigarettes. HERE is how it worked: Instead of simply raising state taxes on cigarettes, the states sued the tobacco companies and got a big settlement. Same effect as a tax of course, prices of cigarettes go up and politicians get more money to give away, SWEET!! The States pretended like they would use the money for "smoking reduction" but everybody knew that was a bunch of horse malarkey, they simply threw most (some went to the lawyers) of the money in the general fund and kept right on spending.
Now, Ohio pols wants to take their future payments from the "tobacco settlement" (wink, wink..tax) and hock them for a big cash settlement because those damn feds are messin up the game by threatening to raise federal cigarettes taxes...damn feds.
Plunder and pillage is such a complex bidness, especially when you are competing with the feds.
Link
Now, Ohio pols wants to take their future payments from the "tobacco settlement" (wink, wink..tax) and hock them for a big cash settlement because those damn feds are messin up the game by threatening to raise federal cigarettes taxes...damn feds.
Plunder and pillage is such a complex bidness, especially when you are competing with the feds.
Link
Columbus- With a proposed increase in the national cigarette tax casting a long shadow, a panel of Ohio officials took the first step toward completing a plan to raise $5 billion for the state by selling off future payments from tobacco companies.
As Congress considers legislation adding 61 cents a pack to the cigarette tax to pay for children's health care expansion, the Buckeye Tobacco Settlement Financing Authority is racing to get the largest financial transaction in Ohio's history off the ground.
Timing is crucial for the three-member panel as it hurries to get the multibillion-dollar bond plan into financial markets by early November - before potential new taxes, court decisions or more-extensive smoking bans are rolled out.
"The Alliance for Tax Fairness" ?
You call your group "The Alliance for Tax Fairness" and its consists of three huge public employee unions and the League of Women Voters among others and you have a poll taken and voila what do you find? Taxpayers just LUV paying higher taxes. Sorta brings tears to your eyes.
Link
The Alliance for Tax Fairness includes the Maryland League of Conservation Voters; the Maryland State Teachers Association; the Service Employees International Union; the League of Women Voters; the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, 1,000 Friends of Maryland; the Association of Nonprofit Organizations; and Progressive Maryland.
Link
A majority of Marylanders want state leaders to raise enough new tax revenue to fix the state's budget shortfall and increase spending on education, health care and other priorities, a coalition of labor unions, environmental advocates and liberal groups said yesterday.
The Alliance for Tax Fairness released the results of a poll showing broad-based opposition to the idea of resolving Maryland's projected $1.5 billion budget shortfall by spending cuts alone. Respondents favored higher taxes on the wealthy and corporations, the coalition said.
[...]The Alliance for Tax Fairness includes the Maryland League of Conservation Voters; the Maryland State Teachers Association; the Service Employees International Union; the League of Women Voters; the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, 1,000 Friends of Maryland; the Association of Nonprofit Organizations; and Progressive Maryland.
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Ethanol is an environmental Disaster
Link
The study, whose sponsors included the U.S. government and an environmental group, predicted that farmers in the bay watershed will plant 500,000 or more new acres of corn in the next five years. Because fields of corn generally produce more polluted runoff than those of other crops, that's a problem.
The study, whose sponsors included the U.S. government and an environmental group, predicted that farmers in the bay watershed will plant 500,000 or more new acres of corn in the next five years. Because fields of corn generally produce more polluted runoff than those of other crops, that's a problem.
Obscene $260 million Oprah Profits
Oprah made $260 million last year. Congress must ACT immediately, clearly this woman is using the public airways, which are owned by everyone, for personal enrichment. We should pass a tax on Oprah. No one should earn this kind of money....NOT!!
More power to Oprah!! I hope she earns twice as much next year.
More power to Oprah!! I hope she earns twice as much next year.
John Ford sentencing delayed
Link
Former state senator John Ford's sentencing date has been reset for August 27th, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.
Former state senator John Ford's sentencing date has been reset for August 27th, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.
Ford, who was convicted of bribery earlier this year, had been scheduled to be sentenced on July 31st. He was one of the premier defendants in the Tennessee Waltz political corruption investigation.
Ford has a status conference scheduled for August 3rd in Nashville in a separate federal case involving his consulting fees from Tenn-Care providers. He has pleaded not guilty in that case.
In an interesting twist in the Nashville case, Edward Yarbrough has been nominated to become the new assistant United States Attorney for Middle Tennessee. Yarbrough represented Ford in his senate ethics hearing, meaning he would likely recuse himself from any dealings with Ford's criminal case. Yarbrough would replace Craig Morford, who has been promoted to a job with the U.S. Attorney General in Washington.
Pew Research Study: 13% of Hispanics vote
Link
The 5.6 million votes cast in 2006 midterms by Hispanics represented only 13 percent of the total Hispanic population compared to the 27 percent of all blacks who cast votes and 39 percent of all whites who voted -- a disappointing turnout attributed to a population too young to vote or ineligible because of citizenship status.
[...]
The 5.6 million votes cast in 2006 midterms by Hispanics represented only 13 percent of the total Hispanic population compared to the 27 percent of all blacks who cast votes and 39 percent of all whites who voted -- a disappointing turnout attributed to a population too young to vote or ineligible because of citizenship status.
[...]
BY THE NUMBERS
• Whites accounted for 24% of the U.S. population growth between 2002 and 2006 and 47% of all eligible new voters.• Latinos gained 1% more registered voters and voted 2% more in 2006 than in 2002.
• Whites gained 2% more registered voters and voted 1% more in 2006 than in 2002.
• Black-registered voters declined by 2% and voted 1% less in 2006 than in 2002.
In 2006:
• 13% of all Latinos voted, a 1% increase
• 39% of all whites voted, a 2% increase
• 27% of all blacks voted, no change
• More than 400,000 legal permanent residents are eligible for U.S. citizenship -- and the right to vote -- in Illinois.
• There are 55,000 registered Hispanic voters in Chicago -- about 13% of all registered to vote.
Nashville Police Union probe widens
Link
A TBI investigation involving feuding Metro police unions widened Tuesday as one union's headquarters were raided and officers in two other departments were questioned.
Agents hauled off computer hard drives and files from the Antioch Pike offices of the Teamsters, which took over as the Metro Nashville police union last year in a bitter department election.
A Teamsters representative is being investigated for allegedly concealing cameras at a youth camp run by the ousted Metro union, the Fraternal Order of Police.
Agents have begun questioning law enforcement officers in Memphis and at Nashville's police and sheriff's departments to learn the identities of others believed to be connected to the incident, TBI spokeswoman Kristin Helm said.
LicketyShip-Same day shipping in CA
The Postal service remains stuck in the 1950s while FedEX, UPS, etc and now LicketyShip offer real innovation.
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Young Pavarotti at his effortless, confident best
Supremely confident in his skill and art, Luciano, like Michael Jordan in the final seconds of the NBA playoff or Tiger Woods in the final putt of a playoff, wants that conductor to point to him and he will take care of the rest.
Study: More Radio play = less record sales
Link
The study, written by Stan Liebowitz, an economics professor at the University of Texas at Dallas, compared record sales and music radio listening in some 100 American cities from 1998 to 2003. It found that, very roughly, an hour's worth of radio listening per person per day, over the course of a year, corresponded with a 0.75 drop in the number of albums purchased per capita in a given city. Professor Liebowitz has proposed that people use radio listening as a substitute for buying music.
The study, written by Stan Liebowitz, an economics professor at the University of Texas at Dallas, compared record sales and music radio listening in some 100 American cities from 1998 to 2003. It found that, very roughly, an hour's worth of radio listening per person per day, over the course of a year, corresponded with a 0.75 drop in the number of albums purchased per capita in a given city. Professor Liebowitz has proposed that people use radio listening as a substitute for buying music.
We are NOT doing ENOUGH about POVERTY!!
Why?, OH WHY!!!!
Because the solution was never in our hands to start with. Yes, it looks and sounds good to tap your quivering lips with the tips of your fingers and force a few tear drops from your red eyes and say, "Why don't more people, like ME, CARE about poverty?"
This is simply a narcissistic exercise that allows the ME to parade their presumed moral superiority. Simply expressing concern may make you feel better about yourself but it does nothing to help those living in poverty.
Donald Sensing points out that world wide poverty is plummeting. And it has nothing to do with collective awareness raising. It has to do with free markets.
The people of the world do NOT need our pity or faux concern. They need a chance to prove they are as good or better than we are at producing goods and services in a free and open marketplace.
Because the solution was never in our hands to start with. Yes, it looks and sounds good to tap your quivering lips with the tips of your fingers and force a few tear drops from your red eyes and say, "Why don't more people, like ME, CARE about poverty?"
This is simply a narcissistic exercise that allows the ME to parade their presumed moral superiority. Simply expressing concern may make you feel better about yourself but it does nothing to help those living in poverty.
Donald Sensing points out that world wide poverty is plummeting. And it has nothing to do with collective awareness raising. It has to do with free markets.
The people of the world do NOT need our pity or faux concern. They need a chance to prove they are as good or better than we are at producing goods and services in a free and open marketplace.
Unions believe in high wages ONLY
when receiving them...but not when paying them.
Link
Link
Although their placards identify the picketers as being with the Mid-Atlantic Regional Council of Carpenters, they are not union members.
They're hired feet, or, as the union calls them, temporary workers, paid $8 an hour to picket. Many were recruited from homeless shelters or transitional houses. Several have recently been released from prison. Others are between jobs.
"It's about the cash," said Tina Shaw, 44, who lives in a House of Ruth women's shelter and has walked the line at various sites. "We're against low wages, but I'm here for the cash."
Carpenters locals across the country are outsourcing their picket lines, hiring the homeless, students, retirees and day laborers to get their message across. Larry Hujo, a spokesman for the Indiana-Kentucky Regional Council of Carpenters, calls it a "shift in the paradigm" of picketing.
Political groups also are tapping into local homeless shelters for temps.
Throwing money down the Homeland Security Hole
From USAToday, an article about how ineffectively Homeland Security grants are spent at the state and local levels.
This is so bloody typical...money is ineffectively spent for one purpose. BUT, rather than hold the bureaucracy accountable for the original goal, the money is simply absorbed and "repurposed" and the bureaucracy has an excuse to ask for even more money in next year's budget. Spending is the problem!!
Link
This is so bloody typical...money is ineffectively spent for one purpose. BUT, rather than hold the bureaucracy accountable for the original goal, the money is simply absorbed and "repurposed" and the bureaucracy has an excuse to ask for even more money in next year's budget. Spending is the problem!!
Link
Homeland Security has given states $380 million to set up the high-tech intelligence centers to help law enforcement officials do what they were not able to do before Sept. 11, 2001: recognize suspicious activity, patterns and people and use the information to prevent terrorist attacks.
However, the centers "have increasingly gravitated toward an all-crimes and even broader all-hazards approach," focusing on traditional criminals and local emergencies, according to a report this month by the Congressional Research Service (CRS).
Govt wants to tell you how to play with your children
No kidding. This kind of elitist condescension is the natural result of nanny government WAAAY out of control.
Link
There is now a concerted effort to spread adult-child play beyond its stronghold in the upper- and middle-classes of wealthy countries. To this end, many cities and states support programs of some sort. Massachusetts will give the Parent-Child Home Program, which has 33 sites in the state, $3 million this year (up from $2 million last year). Through the program, staff members visit the homes of low-income residents and offer tips not just on good books for toddlers but also on "play activities" for parents and kids. Likewise, the eminent Yale psychologist Jerome Singer has partnered with a media company to devise imaginative parent-child games (examples: "My Magic Story Car" and "Puppets: Counting") that librarians and social workers can teach to low-income parents.
Lancy is concerned that specialists behind the movement -- psychologists, social workers, preschool teachers -- are too aggressively promoting this intense, interventionist parenting style to low-income parents, and that they are are too quick to claim that adult-child play is crucial for human development. He doesn't quite rule out that some interventions may improve literacy -- though the data are murkier than the psychologists admit, he insists. But the programs, with their premise (as he sees it) that a whole class of people is simply parenting badly, leave their advocates "open to charges of racism or cultural imperialism."
Link
There is now a concerted effort to spread adult-child play beyond its stronghold in the upper- and middle-classes of wealthy countries. To this end, many cities and states support programs of some sort. Massachusetts will give the Parent-Child Home Program, which has 33 sites in the state, $3 million this year (up from $2 million last year). Through the program, staff members visit the homes of low-income residents and offer tips not just on good books for toddlers but also on "play activities" for parents and kids. Likewise, the eminent Yale psychologist Jerome Singer has partnered with a media company to devise imaginative parent-child games (examples: "My Magic Story Car" and "Puppets: Counting") that librarians and social workers can teach to low-income parents.
Lancy is concerned that specialists behind the movement -- psychologists, social workers, preschool teachers -- are too aggressively promoting this intense, interventionist parenting style to low-income parents, and that they are are too quick to claim that adult-child play is crucial for human development. He doesn't quite rule out that some interventions may improve literacy -- though the data are murkier than the psychologists admit, he insists. But the programs, with their premise (as he sees it) that a whole class of people is simply parenting badly, leave their advocates "open to charges of racism or cultural imperialism."
State Police plant embarrassing story in NY
Link
ALBANY - A blistering report by Attorney General Andrew Cuomo charged yesterday that top aides to Gov. Spitzer improperly used the state police to plant an embarrassing story on Senate GOP Leader Joe Bruno.
Spitzer suspended without pay his communications director, Darren Dopp - a close, longtime aide - and reassigned homeland security official Bill Howard for their roles in the dirty tricks.
Cuomo's findings were a shocking turn in the raging feud between the governor, who rode into Albany promising to clean up the town, and the lawmaker he has derided as a relic of old-style politics.
A grim-faced Spitzer said he accepted the findings without question and had telephoned Bruno to tell him, "I apologize. ... This is unacceptable."
Monday, July 23, 2007
More Georgia Legislators Blogging
Link
State Rep. Doug McKillip's blog,
State Rep. John Lunsford's blog,
State Rep. Mike Jacobs' blog ,
State Rep. Steve Davis' blog,
State Sen. David Shafer's blog,
State Sen. John Douglas' blog.
State Rep. Doug McKillip's blog,
State Rep. John Lunsford's blog,
State Rep. Mike Jacobs' blog ,
State Rep. Steve Davis' blog,
State Sen. David Shafer's blog,
State Sen. John Douglas' blog.
Rhonda says tax fight not over in Hamilton Cnty
Link
She condemned promoters of the tax increase for suggesting that taxpayers can "cut back by not buying that extra Coke, or not buying that pizza. The next thing you know, they'll be saying, you can cut back to two meals a day. But they never say what they can cut back."
She condemned promoters of the tax increase for suggesting that taxpayers can "cut back by not buying that extra Coke, or not buying that pizza. The next thing you know, they'll be saying, you can cut back to two meals a day. But they never say what they can cut back."
Wheel Tax Voted Down in Washington Cnty
Link
This morning, Washington County, Tennessee commissioners voted down a wheel tax on its first reading.
The proposal on the table: implement a 50 dollar wheel tax to generate funds to pay for more than 130 million dollars in building projects and to pay off some of the county's debt.
For a wheel tax to be enacted, it must be approved by two-thirds of the commission on two separate readings.
Today, citizens showed up at the commission meeting to voice their concerns about the tax.
"Blacks rethink school choice" in South Carolina
Jackson, 50, is among a handful of black lawmakers who say they are concerned that S.C. public schools are failing to educate poor and minority children. Their concern could push the state's years-long debate over school choice and vouchers or tax credits for private school tuition over the finish line in 2008.
Standing in the well of the Senate during a debate in May, Jackson, long considered a public school defender, said he could see the day coming when he would support school choice.
It would be a historic alliance — traditionally pro-public school black Democrats, such as Jackson, joining with school choice advocates, largely white Republicans — to allow parents to use public money to send their children to better-performing public or private schools.
Jackson says he's not alone as he reconsiders school choice, ticking off the names of colleagues: Sens. Gerald Malloy, D-Darlington, and Kay Patterson, D-Richland, and Rep. Leon Howard, D-Richland, chairman of the Legislative Black Caucus.
Most say it is too easy to get welfare
In an earlier Rasmussen survey 56% said the Government should do more about poverty but this survey says most people believe its too easy to get on welfare. Could it be that most people believe government can help those in poverty by providing more opportunities through economic growth which means low taxes and less regulation?
Link
Link
Is it too easy or too hard to qualify for welfare in the United States? | |
|---|---|
| Too Easy | 53% |
| Too Hard | 22% |
| About Right | 9% |
Politicians lying? YEP and this is a whopper
House Republicans last month rallied behind President Bush's vow to restrain spending with a pledge of support from enough lawmakers to uphold vetoes of appropriations bills.
But some of the 147 GOP lawmakers who signed that pledge now say they won't necessarily stand behind it. It's a sign that although Republicans are rhetorically backing the president's efforts to challenge Democrats on spending, the details of the fight could prove uncomfortable for some GOP members, particularly those who face tough re-election contests next year.
"I'm boxing myself in, in a very strange way, and I have to figure it out," said Christopher Shays of Connecticut, the only House Republican from New England to survive the 2006 election. "I'm going to re-look at the letter I signed and may have to go down to the White House and say I'm not on board."
So far, the House has considered four fiscal 2008 spending bills that the president has threatened to veto over cost: Energy-Water (HR 2641), Homeland Security (HR 2638), Interior-Environment (HR 2643) and Labor-HHS-Education (HR 3043). Overall, 62 lawmakers who signed the pledge have voted for at least one of those bills.
Four House Republicans — Shays, Wayne T. Gilchrest of Maryland, Steven C. LaTourette of Ohio and Mike D. Rogers of Alabama — who signed the letter nonetheless have voted to pass all four bills.
Harry Potter star turns 18, gets $41 mil
Link
LONDON, Italy (Reuters) -- Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe gains access to a reported £20 million ($41.1 million) fortune as he turns 18 on Monday, but he insists the money won't cast a spell on him.
LONDON, Italy (Reuters) -- Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe gains access to a reported £20 million ($41.1 million) fortune as he turns 18 on Monday, but he insists the money won't cast a spell on him.
To the disappointment of gossip columnists around the world, the young actor says he has no plans to fritter his cash away on fast cars, drink and celebrity parties.
"I don't plan to be one of those people who, as soon as they turn 18, suddenly buy themselves a massive sports car collection or something similar," he told an Australian interviewer earlier this month. "I don't think I'll be particularly extravagant.
"The things I like buying are things that cost about 10 pounds -- books and CDs and DVDs."
At 18, Radcliffe will be able to gamble in a casino, buy a drink in a pub or see the horror film "Hostel: Part II," currently six places below his number one movie on the UK box office chart.
Details of how he'll mark his landmark birthday are under wraps. His agent and publicist had no comment on his plans.
Dead Farmers doing REALLY Well!!
The U.S. Department of Agriculture distributed $1.1 billion over seven years to the estates or companies of deceased farmers and routinely failed to conduct reviews required to ensure that the payments were properly made, according to a government report.
In a selection of 181 cases from 1999 to 2005, the Government Accountability Office found that officials approved payments without any review 40 percent of the time.
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Rural Vacation spot wants to remain cell free
Link
A group of residents in the valley in southeastern British Columbia have asked telephone company Telus Corp. not to build a planned cellphone tower in New Denver, a one-time mining boomtown that is now home to about 600 people.
If Telus decides against building the system, the economic development group plans to promote the valley's "cellphone free status" as a unique reason to visit or move to the region, Roberts said.
Norman Borlaug saved a billion lives, heard of him?
Innovate and beware the bureaucracy and save a billion lives.
The danger of bureaucracy is another life lesson. Whether in government, private industry or universities, bureaucracies inhibit new ideas and approaches, he said. That's why, when he started on the wheat project in Mexico, he recruited young scientists, who had not been damaged by bureaucratic thinking.
In the mid-'60s, doomsayers predicted that, because of war and overpopulation, millions of people in India and Pakistan would die of starvation – and nothing could be done to prevent it. Dr. Borlaug thought otherwise. He wanted to see if his new wheat seeds could help prevent the looming catastrophe in South Asia. Bureaucrats initially thwarted him. But as the famine grew worse, he was finally permitted to move forward.
Within a year, wheat yields more than doubled. Over the next eight years, the two countries became self-sufficient in wheat production. For his work, Dr. Borlaug was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970. In his acceptance speech, Dr. Borlaug quoted the creator of the prize, Alfred Nobel: "I would rather take care of the stomachs of the living than the glory of the departed in the form of monuments."
Cutting the red tape
The danger of bureaucracy is another life lesson. Whether in government, private industry or universities, bureaucracies inhibit new ideas and approaches, he said. That's why, when he started on the wheat project in Mexico, he recruited young scientists, who had not been damaged by bureaucratic thinking.
As Dr. Borlaug talked, the Congressional Gold Medal sat on an end table next to him. Set in a green felt case, the gold medal is engraved with a sketch of him standing in a wheat field in Mexico, hat on head, busy writing notes. The drawing is based on a photo that sits in his home office, which is also jammed floor-to-ceiling with books and mementos – including photos of him with presidents Richard Nixon and George Bush.
His granddaughter, Julie Borlaug, who works for Texas A&M, acts as a personal assistant, helping him sort through his vast collection of papers. Dr. Borlaug and his wife, Margaret, moved to Dallas in the mid-'80s to be close to their children. In 1984, Dr. Borlaug was recruited to Texas A&M, where he still teaches part-time.
How much do you Trust the Fed Govt?
LInk
| CBS News/New York Times Poll. July 9-17, 2007. N=1,554 adults nationwide. MoE ± 3. | |||||||
. | |||||||
| "How much of the time do you think you can trust the government in Washington to do what is right: just about always, most of the time, or only some of the time?" | |||||||
. | |||||||
| Just About Always | Most of The Time | Only Some Of the Time | Never (vol.) | Unsure | |||
| % | % | % | % | % | |||
| 7/9-17/07 | 2 | 22 | 71 | 5 | 0 | ||
| 10/5-8/06 | 2 | 26 | 66 | 4 | 1 | ||
| 9/15-19/06 | 1 | 26 | 65 | 6 | 2 | ||
| 1/20-25/06 | 5 | 27 | 63 | 4 | 1 | ||
| 12/2-6/05 | 2 | 30 | 65 | 2 | 1 | ||
| 9/9-13/05 | 3 | 26 | 63 | 6 | 2 | ||
| 7/11-15/04 | 4 | 36 | 56 | 3 | 1 | ||
| 7/13-27/03 | 4 | 32 | 60 | 3 | 1 | ||
| 9/2-5/02 | 5 | 33 | 57 | 4 | 2 | ||
| 10/25-28/01 | 10 | 45 | 42 | 2 | 2 | ||
Power Corrupts, Power Corrupts, Power Corrupts
Every member of Congress has FAR TOO MUCH power over our lives. Nancy Pelosi just happens to have a lot more power over our lives than most members Congress.
Link
Pelosi, a San Francisco Democrat, hailed as reform a bill that would grant subsidies to farmers earning up to $1 million -- five times more than the cap sought by the Bush administration -- while increasing actual payments to farmers. The bill comes during the most prosperous era American agriculture has seen in decades as crop prices and farm income approach or set record highs.
"Bush seems to be taking a harder stance on millionaires than the Democratic Party, which is surprising," said Kari Hamerschlag, policy director for the California Coalition for Food and Farming, a Watsonville group urging lawmakers to move money from crop subsidies to environmental and nutrition programs.
Link
Pelosi, a San Francisco Democrat, hailed as reform a bill that would grant subsidies to farmers earning up to $1 million -- five times more than the cap sought by the Bush administration -- while increasing actual payments to farmers. The bill comes during the most prosperous era American agriculture has seen in decades as crop prices and farm income approach or set record highs.
"Bush seems to be taking a harder stance on millionaires than the Democratic Party, which is surprising," said Kari Hamerschlag, policy director for the California Coalition for Food and Farming, a Watsonville group urging lawmakers to move money from crop subsidies to environmental and nutrition programs.
Hugger Muggers?
Link
The "hugger-mugger" pretends to be drunk, approaches a drunk reveller, embraces him as a long lost friend and picks his pocket.
The wallet or phone is then passed to an accomplice.
Commander Steve Allen, head of the Metropolitan Police in Westminster, has launched a seven-week campaign called Operation Tiffanie.
Corn Price volatility is a ticking time bomb
The geniuses in Congress have chosen to mandate fuel production from a food commodity that is historically very volatile. The next downturn in corn production will mean huge increases in food prices. The politicians better be preparing some good excuses because they will need them. Link
A recent analysis by University of Illinois Professors Darrel Good and Scott Irwin notes that over the last half-century, corn-production shortfalls as big as 30% are not that uncommon. Very inelastic demand means that having a stable, reliable source for fuel is a very high priority for consumers. Having the supply for such a commodity depend on something as volatile as U.S. corn production does not seem like such a brilliant idea.
Saturday, July 21, 2007
TN ELVIS License Plate rescued by NJ Fan
Link
The Elvis plate, which benefits the Elvis Presley Memorial Trauma Center at the Regional Medical Center at Memphis, was about 100 buyers shy of meeting the benchmark, even after receiving an extension on its deadline.
The New Jersey fan anonymously donated the $3,500 needed to cover the final 100 pre-ordered plates after hearing about the car tag's troubles on Sirius satellite radio's Elvis program hosted by longtime Presley friend George Klein.
Tammie Ritchey, executive director of the hospital's foundation, The Med Foundation, said Wednesday the donor wanted to express her love of Presley through the kind of charitable donation the rocker was known for in his lifetime.
TN not Giving away taxpayer money fast enough
Ok, Tennessee politicians, listen UP!! We have a Nashville Company opening up a 500 job call center in Kentucky! because of taxpayer funded incentives.
KENTUCKY!!!
Come ON!! What is going on here Tennessee politicians? Are you going to let the Kentucky politicians give away their taxpayer's money faster than YOU can give away Tennessee taxpayer's money. Here is what the article says:
"(Kentucky) lawmakers passed legislation earlier this year that would allow Sitel (A Nashville, TN Company) to receive tax incentives if it located near a regional university and hired students."
Sarcasm mode off:
The only way politicians "create" jobs is to bribe companies, with taxpayer money, into making decisions they would not otherwise make. The politicians then tell us, in all their exquisite arrogance, that they "created" jobs. When in fact the only thing they created was 1- a photo-op for themselves and 2- an excuse for some other politician to "create" jobs by giving away even more money. The BIG loser is ALWAYS the TAXPAYERS!!
KENTUCKY!!!
Come ON!! What is going on here Tennessee politicians? Are you going to let the Kentucky politicians give away their taxpayer's money faster than YOU can give away Tennessee taxpayer's money. Here is what the article says:
"(Kentucky) lawmakers passed legislation earlier this year that would allow Sitel (A Nashville, TN Company) to receive tax incentives if it located near a regional university and hired students."
Sarcasm mode off:
The only way politicians "create" jobs is to bribe companies, with taxpayer money, into making decisions they would not otherwise make. The politicians then tell us, in all their exquisite arrogance, that they "created" jobs. When in fact the only thing they created was 1- a photo-op for themselves and 2- an excuse for some other politician to "create" jobs by giving away even more money. The BIG loser is ALWAYS the TAXPAYERS!!
Its not WHAT's in your Wallet but WHO!!
Great quote from a lady's letter to the editor about the upcoming vote on a tax hike in Roane Cnty.
Regarding taxes and a property tax hike (to be voted on at the County Commission meeting).
It's not what's in our wallet, but who?
Ursula Beckmann
Sevierville
Regarding taxes and a property tax hike (to be voted on at the County Commission meeting).
It's not what's in our wallet, but who?
Ursula Beckmann
Sevierville
Bredesen about to take over Memphis Schools? RIGHT!!
Smart City Memphis says Gov Bredesen is talking tough to Memphis City Schools about a possible takeover. Not sure what his source is but a reality check is in order. Governor Bredesen has known for six years, since he took office, that some Memphis City Schools were failing students and he has failed to take action of any kind. In those six years thousands of Memphis students and parents have had NO CHOICE but to attend miserably failing schools.
Gov Bredesen is quite happy to hold taxpayers absolutely accountable for the $500 million in new education funding he and the General Assembly passed this year. The Governor's attitude towards taxpayers is ZERO TOLERANCE. If we refuse to pay our taxes we go to jail, NO questions asked. the State department of Revenue will see to that.
BUT....when it comes to the spending side of the equation, he is happy to spend OUR money with NO accountability...NONE zip, zero, nadda.
If the Governor lived in Memphis instead of Nashville, it is quite likely that he would have chosen to avoid public schools there just as he did in Nashville and yet he has condemned thousands of Memphis parents to a single option that no one should have to choose.
Gov Bredesen is quite happy to hold taxpayers absolutely accountable for the $500 million in new education funding he and the General Assembly passed this year. The Governor's attitude towards taxpayers is ZERO TOLERANCE. If we refuse to pay our taxes we go to jail, NO questions asked. the State department of Revenue will see to that.
BUT....when it comes to the spending side of the equation, he is happy to spend OUR money with NO accountability...NONE zip, zero, nadda.
If the Governor lived in Memphis instead of Nashville, it is quite likely that he would have chosen to avoid public schools there just as he did in Nashville and yet he has condemned thousands of Memphis parents to a single option that no one should have to choose.
The Bredesen version of "fair"
Gov Bredesen's claim that he was raising salaries to "keep up" with surrounding states doesn't quite pan out according to the article below from the Tennessean......but, hey, that is the way Government seems to work......now Governors in surrounding States can claim their commissioners aren't paid enough and they will be able to leapfrog Tennessee's salaries and THEN Gov Bredesen.....etc etc etc.
Link
Commissioners for whom comparisons were available now are paid between $8,941 and $62,571 more than the average pay of their counterparts in neighboring states. One, Commissioner of Health Susan Cooper, earns less.
Link
Commissioners for whom comparisons were available now are paid between $8,941 and $62,571 more than the average pay of their counterparts in neighboring states. One, Commissioner of Health Susan Cooper, earns less.
The raises announced this week will cost taxpayers nearly $1 million a year.
"I'm outraged," said Richard Merryman of Murfreesboro, a salesman and business owner. "It's one thing to give them a raise, but to rub our noses in it. … I felt like it's crazy. It's insensitive."
Friday, July 20, 2007
"Inevitable" East Ridge Tax Hike avoided
What happened? The citizens of East Ridge made it clear who is in charge and the public servants listened to the public. Isn't that how its supposed to work?
Why does the press always say "make up" a deficit??? Why not more accurately say "reduce spending"?
Link
It appears property owners in East Ridge Tennessee will not be getting hit with a property tax hike as was expected.
Friday the city council held a budget workshop to try and figure out how the city will make up a $1-million budget deficit.
Why does the press always say "make up" a deficit??? Why not more accurately say "reduce spending"?
Link
It appears property owners in East Ridge Tennessee will not be getting hit with a property tax hike as was expected.
Friday the city council held a budget workshop to try and figure out how the city will make up a $1-million budget deficit.
Why don't we assume parents are NOT idiots
and let them tend to the job of raising their children...hmmmmm? of course, there are some bad parents but we might as well just go ahead and implement a tyrannical dictatorship with NO personal freedom if we assume the majority of parents care less about their kids than a bunch of hapless politicians and State and Federal bureaucrats.
New research shows that anti-smoking ads actually increases smoking among teens.
Lets assume parents actually care about their children more than the government and let THEM be responsible for the behavior and care of their kids.
New research shows that anti-smoking ads actually increases smoking among teens.
Lets assume parents actually care about their children more than the government and let THEM be responsible for the behavior and care of their kids.
Homeschooling Expo in Chattanooga
The Chattanooga Southeast Tennessee Home Education Association is hosting the 25th annual Curriculum Fair and Home Education Expo today and Saturday at the 34,000-square-foot Camp Jordan Arena in East Ridge.
More than 80 vendors will sell everything from textbooks, encyclopedias and novels to compact discs that teach parts of the body, card games that teach word roots, kits to keep pet insects in jars and coloring books that accompany classical music.
In addition, experts will offer workshops on topics such as "Homeschooling Distractable Kids Who Don't Like School" and "Teaching the U.S. Constitution."
Janell Bontekoe, who manages vendor registration and recruitment for the Expo, expects about 1,400 families from Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia to attend this year.
The Expo is not just for families who homeschool their children, as parents whose children attend public or private schools can find materials to enhance their children's learning, she said.
Cigarette Lighters no longer banned
Link
WASHINGTON, July 19 — Federal aviation authorities have decided to stop enforcing a two-year-old rule against taking cigarette lighters on airplanes, concluding that it was a waste of time to search for them before passengers boarded.
The ban was imposed at the insistence of Congress after a passenger, Richard Reed, tried to ignite a bomb in his shoe in 2001 on a flight from Paris to Miami.
Medicare/Medicaid driving Health Cost explosion
Just as State Lotteries have driven up the cost of Higher Education. Medicare/Medicaid is the major driver of heathcare costs says an MIT Prof. Government solutions always involve politicians showing us how much they care by dumping OUR money on favored groups. This almost always involves a huge misallocation of resources.
Link
It comes from Lyndon B Johnson's Great Society and the introduction of Medicare/Medicaid in 1965. At the time, health care spending in the US was a mere 5% of GDP. Today it has exploded to a staggering 16.5% of GDP. An economics professor named Amy Finkelstein from MIT has shown what happened after the implementation of the new state health insurance. She concluded that it is not, as conventional wisdom has it, ageing populations and medical progress, but rather the expansion of the insurance industry itself that is the the real driver of healthcare costs. Her views stirred up the thinking about health care spending since first published last year.
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It comes from Lyndon B Johnson's Great Society and the introduction of Medicare/Medicaid in 1965. At the time, health care spending in the US was a mere 5% of GDP. Today it has exploded to a staggering 16.5% of GDP. An economics professor named Amy Finkelstein from MIT has shown what happened after the implementation of the new state health insurance. She concluded that it is not, as conventional wisdom has it, ageing populations and medical progress, but rather the expansion of the insurance industry itself that is the the real driver of healthcare costs. Her views stirred up the thinking about health care spending since first published last year.
Customize your YouTube player
Link
Users are able to customize player features including the name of the player, color theme, layout (a standard layout or one with related videos to the right), and content.
The content feature allows users to include their own videos or other videos from a YouTube Favorites List or YouTube playlist.
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Publishers reject Pride and Prejudice
Jane Austen fan submits her work anonymously to publishers... and receives a dozen rejections.
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For when a budding author sent typed chapters of Jane Austen's novels to 18 of them, changing just the titles and characters' names, only one recognised her words.
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For when a budding author sent typed chapters of Jane Austen's novels to 18 of them, changing just the titles and characters' names, only one recognised her words.
Another managed to recognise they were 'a really original read'. But the rest simply rejected them or never responded, according to the man who posted the manuscripts, David Lassman.
"It was unbelievable," he said. "If the major publishers can't recognise great literature, who knows what might be slipping through the net?
"Here is one of the greatest writers that has lived, with her oeuvre securely fixed in the English canon and yet only one recipient recognised them as Austen's work."
MI Taxpayer Group's Recall Boot Camp
Link
If the Michigan Legislature wants to raise taxes, Leon Drolet wants lawmakers to pay - with their jobs.
Despite the fact that no major vote to raise taxes has been made in the Legislature, the Michigan Taxpayers Alliance has been holding seminars across the state to inform voters of their ability to recall a lawmaker, said Drolet, who serves as chair of the organization.
"We're having recall boot camps to train citizens about the rules and techniques involved in recalling elected officials," said Drolet, a former state legislator and current Macomb County commissioner.
Michigan is one of 18 states that allows its citizens to recall an elected official, or remove and replace them before the end of their term. In order to recall an official, a group must collect signatures totaling 25 percent of the votes cast for the position in the last election.
There hasn't been a recall since 1983, when two Democratic senators were recalled for voting for an income tax increase during another recession, under then-Gov. James Blanchard.
The campaign is being mounted because a tax increase would do more harm than good to Michigan taxpayers, Drolet said.
Politicians are NOT responsible!!
I will SCREAM with all the power my old lungs can muster if Phil Bredesen or George Bush come out and say they are responsible for the lowest unemployment since 2000 for Tennessee.
Politicians do NOT create jobs. Hardworking citizens create jobs.
Politicians do NOT create jobs. Hardworking citizens create jobs.
Budget Impasse? Two bottles of wine, Pls
Link
When Californians look back on what eased this year's budget negotiations, the unsung hero might be a pair of distinguished Napa Valley reds.
Although no deal was struck Wednesday, the 3-week-old state budget impasse appeared to have softened during a 24-hour period in which Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez shared two bottles of fine wine -- a 2002 Joseph Phelps Insignia declared by Wine Spectator as Wine of the Year and a 2003 red wine from Quintessa Estate.
"The wine helped," Senate Republican leader Dick Ackerman said Wednesday after taking an impromptu stroll with Assembly leaders outside the Capitol. "He has good wine."
Zach Wamp and the mystery $1 mil earmark?
InstaGlenn is reporting that the mystery $1 million earmark, which Zach Wamp voted FOR, can't even be explained by its sponsor John Murtha. Why would Zach Wamp, a Republican, vote for an earmark that the Democratic sponsor can't even explain or justify? Zach Wamp's Constituents (aka bosses) deserve an explanation. Here is an excerpt from the post from Glenn:
The Department of Energy is denying Rep. John Murtha's (D-Pa.) claim that it supports his $1 million earmark request for a project in his district aimed at protecting the nation's natural-gas pipelines.
Murtha attempted yesterday to quell criticism of a so-called mystery $1 million earmark to establish the Center for Instrumented Critical Infrastructure, a subsidiary of Concurrent Technology Corporation (CTC), a nonprofit technology innovation center in Johnstown, Pa., that has received millions of dollars in earmarks in recent years.
DoE spokeswoman Anne Kolton said yesterday the earmark is not a program that meets the department's "mission critical" threshold, noting it was "inconsistent" with the department's 2008 budget.
Liberals turning against central planning?
There is much we can ALL dislike about overbearing, arrogant, and intrusive big government. This post from the Freedom Democrats blog is promising.
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Study: How are newspapers adapting to the web
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Our research examined the websites of the top 100 newspapers in the United States, as determined by circulation (via the Audit Bureau of Circulations). We evaluated all of the websites on the presence of lack of various web features. Here are some of our key findings:
- The use of RSS increased in 2007 by 21 percent since 2006. Now 96 of the papers we researched are using this technology. Within this group, 93 papers offer partial text feeds, while three offer full text RSS feeds. No papers have begun embedding advertisements in their RSS feeds.
- Ninety-two percent of America's top 100 papers now offer video on their websites. This represents a significant jump from 2006, where just 61 percent offered video. In this group, there is a mixture of local, Associated Press, and original content available on newspaper websites. Thirty-nine papers offer original content, 26 use AP video streams, 13 offer video content from local news outlets, four papers use all three technologies, and 10 papers use a mixture of two different types of video.
- The number and quality of reporter blogs also improved in 2007. Now, 95 percent of papers offer at least one reporter blog. Ninety-three percent (88 papers) of these blogs allow comments. In 2006, 80 percent of the papers offered blogs, with 83 percent (67 papers) allowing comments.
- One-third of newspapers now allow comments on articles. This represents a 14% improvement on 2006 statistics, when only 19 percent of papers allowed comments on articles.
- The number of papers requiring registration increased by six percent from last year's results. Twenty-nine percent of the nation's top 100 papers now require users to register before gaining full access to their website. Of this group, three papers required a paid subscription, while 26 papers required free registration.
Political Tid bits
Database of the DC Madam's phone numbers
If clicks were votes- Mapping Dem web site visits
Candidates spend heavily on voter lists
If clicks were votes- Mapping Dem web site visits
Candidates spend heavily on voter lists
Those darn poor people and their smoking
Bill Hobbs points to a post about smoking and the poor by a self described liberal Democrat. She says the poor have no business smoking so its ok to raise their cigarette taxes to fund their children's health insurance.
This is just about perfectly describes what is terribly wrong with "liberal" politics.
Why don't we assume that anyone, be they rich or poor, has the self-respect and dignity and compassion to want the best for their children. The author of the post said she was poor once and gave up smoking because she couldn't afford it. She made the decent decision that we would expect of anyone. Why should we make public policy that assumes "poor" means low class slob who won't take care of their children and rich means greedy, uncaring, and self-centered.
In her exquisitely condescending analysis she assumes she is better than her fellow citizens who are poor and that she must demonstrate her intellectual and moral superiority by using government to force other citizens to help these inept poor people:
And don't the children of other poor people deserve to have their parents respected??
So many issues like "homelessness" and "affordable housing" and hunger etc etc ad infinitum are just vehicles for some people to parade their presumed intellectual and moral superiority. They are quite willing to assume a whole group of people are incapable of making decisions about their own welfare.
This is just about perfectly describes what is terribly wrong with "liberal" politics.
Why don't we assume that anyone, be they rich or poor, has the self-respect and dignity and compassion to want the best for their children. The author of the post said she was poor once and gave up smoking because she couldn't afford it. She made the decent decision that we would expect of anyone. Why should we make public policy that assumes "poor" means low class slob who won't take care of their children and rich means greedy, uncaring, and self-centered.
In her exquisitely condescending analysis she assumes she is better than her fellow citizens who are poor and that she must demonstrate her intellectual and moral superiority by using government to force other citizens to help these inept poor people:
I'm not just saying that either. One of the reasons I quit 12 years ago is because it was pinching my family budget. With two little girls to take care of on my own, I felt it was only fair to them. They deserved the extra money, and they deserved to have mommy around to take care of them.
And don't the children of other poor people deserve to have their parents respected??
So many issues like "homelessness" and "affordable housing" and hunger etc etc ad infinitum are just vehicles for some people to parade their presumed intellectual and moral superiority. They are quite willing to assume a whole group of people are incapable of making decisions about their own welfare.
"Stop robbin the hood" and "justica economica"
This protest is not in Tennessee but these guys sure know how to turn a phrase.Link
PROVIDENCE — With signs proclaiming “Stop robbing the ‘hood’ ” and “We demand justica economica,” they came last night to City Hall to fight the city budget and its hefty tax increase.
One after another, Providence residents pleaded their case for why a property-tax increase that would mean a 4.25-percent increase in the average resident’s tax bill was too much, and would force residents out of their homes and the city.
Susan Donahue, of Silver Lake, said that the recent property-tax revaluation coupled with the tax increase would mean an extra $300 to her tax bill every month — and that leaves her with only one option.
“How am I going to deal with this? In August, I’m going to primp up my property and put it on the market,” she said.
Taxpayers getting the shaft two ways
This article linked below is about Michigan farmers who are worried they will lose their taxpayer funded subsidies? WHAT!!! First Congress mandates and subsidizes ethanol using taxpayer money. Sooooo, not only are our taxes higher but the price of corn is driven up so the price of our food is higher. And in addition Congress will use our tax money to continue subsidizing farmers who grow corn??
Congress is like OPEC for the stupid, a cartel to protect the idiots!!
Link
The most controversial subsidies are direct payments to farmers who grow corn, rice and wheat. The corn subsidy is based on a formula that includes a set price per bushel (currently 28 cents) along with how many acres are planted and a farm's long-term yield. The 28-cent rate was set in 2002, the last time the farm bill was renewed.
Congress is like OPEC for the stupid, a cartel to protect the idiots!!
Link
The most controversial subsidies are direct payments to farmers who grow corn, rice and wheat. The corn subsidy is based on a formula that includes a set price per bushel (currently 28 cents) along with how many acres are planted and a farm's long-term yield. The 28-cent rate was set in 2002, the last time the farm bill was renewed.
Stones earn staggering $50.5 million for private party
LInk
The Rolling Stones earned a staggering $50.5 million for performing at a private party.
The legendary British rockers raked in nearly $62,000 per minute for their 80-minute set when they entertained 500 guests at a Deutsche Bank party at Barcelona's Catalan National Art Museum.
Frontman Sir Mick Jagger finished the show by jokingly telling the crowd, "Thank you for having us. The best part is that it is coming out of your bonuses!"
The Rolling Stones earned a staggering $50.5 million for performing at a private party.
The legendary British rockers raked in nearly $62,000 per minute for their 80-minute set when they entertained 500 guests at a Deutsche Bank party at Barcelona's Catalan National Art Museum.
Frontman Sir Mick Jagger finished the show by jokingly telling the crowd, "Thank you for having us. The best part is that it is coming out of your bonuses!"
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Bredesen gives HUGE RAISES to top Staff
Did he say "a little more reasonable"? In a year when taxpayers have had their pay cut because of $250 million in tax increases and fee increases and in a year when the Governor REFUSED to return any of the huge overpayment surplus to taxpayers, he decides to give his top staff a 63% increase. This is waaaaaay beyond insensitive, this is an insult to taxpayers.
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NASHVILLE — Gov. Phil Bredesen announced salary increases of up to 63 percent for top state government officials Wednesday, saying the new rates make their compensation "a little more reasonable."
Bredesen said that, acting in accord with recommendations in a recent consultant's report on state salaries, he has divided heads of state executive branch departments into three categories "based on the complexity of their duties."
The new salary for the top category is $180,000 per year. In the top category are Finance Commissioner Dave Goetz, Education Commissioner Lana Seivers and Economic and Community Development Commissioner Matt Kisber.
Zach Wamp votes FOR a terrible earmark
When I posted this video yesterday I was not aware of the vote. HERE it is. Zach Wamp was the only Tennessee Republican to vote for this earmark that was designated for a non existent company (or group, not sure what the entity was since there was only an obscure name).
Jim Cooper was the only Tennessee Democrat who voted against this ridiculous earmark, which happened to be sponsored by Democrat John Murtha. I AGAIN commend Congressman Cooper for his courage.
ZACH WAMP owes the taxpayers of Tennessee an explanation.
Jim Cooper was the only Tennessee Democrat who voted against this ridiculous earmark, which happened to be sponsored by Democrat John Murtha. I AGAIN commend Congressman Cooper for his courage.
ZACH WAMP owes the taxpayers of Tennessee an explanation.
7.11% since 1871 AFTER inflation, 9.29% since 1980
for the S & P 500.
| Annualized Rates of Return in the S&P 500, Assuming Full Dividend Reinvestment | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Annualized Rates | Nominal Rate of Return | Rate of Inflation | Real Rate of Return |
| Since January 1871 | 9.20% | 2.09% | 7.11% |
| Year over Year | 23.04% | 2.69% | 20.36% |
| Year to Date | 17.99% | 7.18% | 10.82% |
Giving obscure groups lobbying clout in DC
Link
Russ Snyder has had responsibility over a weird and eclectic collection of groups: the National Candle Association, the Asphalt Roofing Manufacturers Association and the Greeting Card Association, among others. He now helps oversee three floors of a building on M Street NW that house 25 associations and a six-person lobbying shop. The associations include a few that you might have even heard of: the Pet Food Institute and the Regional Airline Association, for example.
Russ Snyder has had responsibility over a weird and eclectic collection of groups: the National Candle Association, the Asphalt Roofing Manufacturers Association and the Greeting Card Association, among others. He now helps oversee three floors of a building on M Street NW that house 25 associations and a six-person lobbying shop. The associations include a few that you might have even heard of: the Pet Food Institute and the Regional Airline Association, for example.
Had Enough Taxes in Hamilton Cnty?
If so you can join a new group.
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Other tax critics such as Hamilton County Board of Education member Rhonda Thurman and Chris Lanier, who previously led the Citizens Taxpayers Association, will be part of the group. Mr. Price said the group has a five-member steering committee and about 20 members.
One of the group's first orders of business will be to place a billboard in the district of each of the five commissioners who voted for the increase. Mr. Price said the group has raised about 75 percent of the money needed to do that and hopes to have the billboards up in a couple weeks.
One of HeT's targets, County Commissioner Curtis Adams, declined to criticize it and offered his congratulations.
"I have no objection to that," Mr. Adams said. "It keeps everybody on their toes."
Earmarks were key to Cunningham corruption
Former Congressman Duke Cunningham has been interviewed extensively in prison by the FBI. He is singing like a parakeet and the extent of his greed and corruption is breathtaking.
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Cunningham was able to promote defense contracts for favored companies through the use of legislative "earmarks," provisions lawmakers could slip anonymously into spending bills without debate, discussion or disclosure that benefit interests in their districts or their political supporters Wilkes has said a $100,000 payment he made to Cunningham in 2000, was not a bribe, but instead was to purchase Cunningham's river yacht, the Kelly C.
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Cunningham was able to promote defense contracts for favored companies through the use of legislative "earmarks," provisions lawmakers could slip anonymously into spending bills without debate, discussion or disclosure that benefit interests in their districts or their political supporters Wilkes has said a $100,000 payment he made to Cunningham in 2000, was not a bribe, but instead was to purchase Cunningham's river yacht, the Kelly C.
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Barry Manilow supporting Ron Paul?
Is that a good thing?
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| 3 | Manilow, Barry | Woodland Hills | CA | 91367 | Self employed | $2,300 | Hillary Clinton |
| 4 | Manilow, Barry | Woodland Hills | CA | 91367 | Self employed | $2,300 | John Edwards |
| 5 | Manilow, Barry | Woodland Hills | CA | 91367 | Self employed | $2,300 | Barack Obama |
| 6 | Manilow, Barry | Woodland Hills | CA | 91367 | Self | $2,300 | Ron Paul |
| 7 | Manilow, Barry | Woodland Hills | CA | 91367 | Self | $2,300 | Joe Biden |
Jim DeMint holds DEMs feet to fire on earmarks
Link
According to CongressDaily ($$), Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) will continue to block a conference on lobbying and ethics reform until he receives a guarantee that his earmark disclosure language will not be changed during conference committee. This promise remains despite Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's (D-NV) offer to put him on the conference committee. "The majority leader is trying to be clever, but I wasn't born yesterday," DeMint said. "Everybody knows Democrats are going to control the conference, 4 to 3, and they will vote 4 to 3 to kill earmark reform. Being on the conference won't do a thing to protect earmark reform." Many, including members of his own party, are noticing DeMint's stubborn behavior. A story in Roll Call ($$) addresses how DeMint's Republican colleagues are responding.
According to CongressDaily ($$), Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) will continue to block a conference on lobbying and ethics reform until he receives a guarantee that his earmark disclosure language will not be changed during conference committee. This promise remains despite Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's (D-NV) offer to put him on the conference committee. "The majority leader is trying to be clever, but I wasn't born yesterday," DeMint said. "Everybody knows Democrats are going to control the conference, 4 to 3, and they will vote 4 to 3 to kill earmark reform. Being on the conference won't do a thing to protect earmark reform." Many, including members of his own party, are noticing DeMint's stubborn behavior. A story in Roll Call ($$) addresses how DeMint's Republican colleagues are responding.
Govt IS the problem - this video will crush the spirit
of anyone who has any faith left that government represents the people. Congressman Jeff Flake tells us about the earmark from Hell. The sponsor of the earmark was not on the floor to defend it and Flake's staff could not find the company it was supposed to be for...the company doesn't exist. Jeff Flake is one of the very FEW US Representatives who represents taxpayers.
Is it time for a Third Party?
Link
USA Today/Gallup Poll. July 6-8, 2007. N=1,014 adults nationwide. MoE ± 3..
"Thinking about the political parties -- In your view, do the Republican and Democratic parties do an adequate job of representing the American people, or do they do such a poor job that a third major party is needed?"
Do an Adequate Job Third Party Is Needed Unsure
% % %
7/6-8/07 33 58 10
9/7-10/06 45 48 7
10/10-12/03 56 40 4
Buy cars or Light Rail...
which would cost taxpayers more?
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Having run the default numbers, some of which were provided by Castelazo and Garrett, we confirmed that instead of pouring money into low return light rail, the government could simply purchase cars for the light rail riders without them still have enough money left over to provide all the other riders with substantial credits to use for bus service or other subsidized mass transportation options.
The Coyote Blog's Warren Meyer did follow up his original post with some figures from Los Angeles. And before we leave off, let's also remember that the costs of putting in a light rail system and the subsidies to operate them are not one-time only events.
Light rail. The gift to politicians and the local developers who support them that taxpayers keep giving, and giving, and giving....
In Disaster do you turn to FEMA or HomeDepot?
In Texas, they looked at the FEMA response in Louisiana and Mississippi...their conclusion: HomeDepot and Wal-Mart more reliable than FEMA.
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For the past two years, Colley and Texas Homeland Security Director Steve McCraw have cultivated direct relationships with retailers after watching Louisiana and Mississippi officials dial FEMA in vain for food, water and other aid.
"FEMA can't compete with the private sector," Colley said. "They do it quicker, smarter, faster every day."
Speedier response
These large retailers, including Wal-Mart, H-E-B and Home Depot, are part of the state's emergency prep team, invited to brainstorm about strategy and problem solve when there are questions about the best way to respond to a disaster. In exchange for their know-how, they're given advance notice about when the state is about to make critical decisions on evacuations, school closings or when highways will be "contraflowed" into one direction away from a storm.
Police Union feud: hidden surveillance camera
in Metro Nashville.
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An ongoing feud between two unions vying to represent Metro police officers has taken a bizarre twist with the arrest of a former police lieutenant in the planting of hidden surveillance cameras.
Calvin Hullett was arrested Saturday evening and released on $5,000 bail Sunday morning on a charge of aggravated burglary for installing two hidden cameras on the grounds of a Fraternal Order of Police camp for underprivileged youth, police said.
Hullett, a national organizer for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the union that represents Met ro officers, has been on a po lice disability pension since 2006.
To: Politicians, Taxpayers are getting fed up
in another Tennessee County, Benton.Link
Mark Ward, a former county commissioner, is among those who support a petition. The jail would be funded by property owners, Ward said. A $5 million bond would make property taxes go up by 19 cents, Ward said.
The current property tax rate, which is $2.75 per $100 of assessed value, would go up to $2.94. The original $10 million bond proposal would've meant a 38 cent increase on the tax rate, Ward said.
Before the commission met at 6 p.m.. about 300 people turned out to hold a rally in protest of the original proposal. Several demonstrators held posters that read, "No new jail. No high taxes."
More ethanol = more pollution
Politicians + good intentions + Big Corporate Agriculture Lobby = higher prices and more pollution for the rest of us.
Why can't they LEAVE US ALONE!!
Link
Why can't they LEAVE US ALONE!!
Link
A surge in the demand for ethanol -- touted as a greener alternative to gasoline -- could have a serious environmental downside for the Chesapeake Bay, because more farmers growing corn could mean more pollution washing off farm fields, a new study warned yesterday.
The study, whose sponsors included the U.S. government and an environmental group, predicted that farmers in the bay watershed will plant 500,000 or more new acres of corn in the next five years. Because fields of corn generally produce more polluted runoff than those of other crops, that's a problem.
Monday, July 16, 2007
Cnty Commissioners should NOT be Cnty Employees
More evidence from Knox County.
Note: The Metro Nashville Charter specifically prohibits county employees from serving on the Metro Council whereas State law specifically allows County employees to be county commissioners in non-chartered counties.
Note: The Metro Nashville Charter specifically prohibits county employees from serving on the Metro Council whereas State law specifically allows County employees to be county commissioners in non-chartered counties.
Freedom means saying NO to bad ideas
Bad and useless ideas are common to both the government sector and the private free market sector. The difference is that government institutionalizes and subsidizes and perpetuates bad ideas. Bad ideas build a constituency and a bureaucracy in government. Members of Congress write earmarks for bad ideas.
In the free market bad ideas are MUCH more likely to go away....like the Bladder Buddy:
In the free market bad ideas are MUCH more likely to go away....like the Bladder Buddy:
Tax increases are highly contractionary
New study, short version: raise taxes and the economy goes in the toilet.
Link
The resulting estimates indicate that tax increases are highly contractionary. The effects are strongly significant, highly robust, and much larger than those obtained using broader measures of tax changes. The large effect stems in considerable part from a powerful negative effect of tax increases on investment. We also find that legislated tax increases designed to reduce a persistent budget deficit appear to have much smaller output costs than other tax increases.
Link
The resulting estimates indicate that tax increases are highly contractionary. The effects are strongly significant, highly robust, and much larger than those obtained using broader measures of tax changes. The large effect stems in considerable part from a powerful negative effect of tax increases on investment. We also find that legislated tax increases designed to reduce a persistent budget deficit appear to have much smaller output costs than other tax increases.
Memphis Flyer: Wharton won't run
Link
Leaders of the "Draft A C" movement threw in the towel on Monday, after confirming reports that Shelby County mayor A C Wharton will not enter the race for (Memphis) city mayor against Mayor Willie Herenton.
One leader of the group, Rev. Bill Adkins, said he had the bad news from Wharton as early as Sunday and that nothing had changed by the time he talked again Monday morning with the county mayor, who is on official business in Washington, D.C.
"We're disheartened. We thought he was the solution to Memphis' problems," Adkins said in an interview at Greater Imani Church in Raleigh, where he is pastor. Adkins credited "consultations with his family" as the main reason for Wharton's decision.
"But he was always aggravated by having to make the decision. That's how he is. He called us up when he first heard about the committee and said, 'What are y'all doing?'"
Adkins said neither he nor, as far as he knew, other members of the draft committee would attempt to find another candidate.
Kill a rattlesnake, break TN law!!
Larry Woody at the Tennessean reminds us the General Assembly has used the power which we granted to it to make it illegal to kill ANY snakes.
So the next time you are in the woods and your slinky snake friend bares his fangs remember the General Assembly says you can't protect yourself. Oh, Larry says the TWRA will enforce the law using "common sense."....too bad the General Assembly has long ago lost its collective common sense.
So the next time you are in the woods and your slinky snake friend bares his fangs remember the General Assembly says you can't protect yourself. Oh, Larry says the TWRA will enforce the law using "common sense."....too bad the General Assembly has long ago lost its collective common sense.
Online Microsoft Compatible office Suite
Link
ThinkFree Online beta lets you:
- store 1GB of documents for free
- create, view, and edit Microsoft Office compatible files over the web
- collaborate using group editing and file sharing
- publish documents to our ThinkFree Docs, your web pages, blogs, or Internet applications
- quickly search from published or private files for the exact file you need
- create, view, and edit Microsoft Office compatible files over the web
- collaborate using group editing and file sharing
- publish documents to our ThinkFree Docs, your web pages, blogs, or Internet applications
- quickly search from published or private files for the exact file you need
The Detroit Exodus-give parents a choice and...
they leave in droves when offered a "clean, safe, orderly school" alternative. What is the response of the school system they are leaving? You can probably guess.
NYT-Young people don't have the news habit and...
and they are not paying close attention even when they do watch.
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"We found that most young adults don't have an ingrained news habit," he said. "Most children today, when watching television, are not watching the same TV set that their parents are watching. So even if their parents are watching the news every day, the children are likely to be in another room watching something else and aren't acquiring the news habit."
The survey went a step further to see what the respondents meant when they said that they did pay attention to the news. Those results, especially among the younger groups, were equally discouraging for the news industry, said Alex S. Jones, the director of the Shorenstein Center.
"What we found is that what people mean when they say they are engaged in the news has much more of a glancing, superficial basis than anything we would have hoped," he said. "Young people seemed to think that just listening to the radio in the background was listening to the news."
Will Sen. Kyle opt for Shelby Mayor?
MisterTurnbow, a Memphis blogger, speculates that Senator Kyle might be tempted to pursue the appointment for Shelby County Mayor if AC Wharton runs for City of Memphis Mayor.
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Educational choice is working in TN Higher ED
Link
Tennessee's private, not-for-profit colleges grew 30 percent from 1995 to 2005, while public college enrollment increased 17 percent during that time.
"When you provide a funded scholarship source for Tennesseans, then that gives them the ability to choose an institution that best fits their academic and social needs," said Dr. Claude Pressnell, president of the Tennessee Independent Colleges and Universities. "In other words, instead of going to their second or third choice institution because of cost, they're now able to choose their first choice."
Tennessee's private, not-for-profit colleges grew 30 percent from 1995 to 2005, while public college enrollment increased 17 percent during that time.
"When you provide a funded scholarship source for Tennesseans, then that gives them the ability to choose an institution that best fits their academic and social needs," said Dr. Claude Pressnell, president of the Tennessee Independent Colleges and Universities. "In other words, instead of going to their second or third choice institution because of cost, they're now able to choose their first choice."
Sunday, July 15, 2007
O. Henry on the politician who has "nothing to say"
This poem, by O. Henry, is about a young reporter sent for an interview with an important politician. The politician told him, 'I have nothing to say"
LInk
Nothing to Say
by O Henry
"You can tell your paper," the great man said,
"I refused an interview.
I have nothing to say on the question, sir;
Nothing to say to you."
And then he talked till the sun went down
And the chickens went to roost;
And he seized the collar of the poor young man,
And never his hold he loosed.
And the sun went down and the moon came up,
And he talked till the dawn of day;
Though he said, "On this subject mentioned by you
I have nothing whatever to say."
And down the reporter dropped to sleep
And flat on the floor he lay;
And the last he heard was the great man's words,
"I have nothing at all to say."
LInk
Nothing to Say
by O Henry
"You can tell your paper," the great man said,
"I refused an interview.
I have nothing to say on the question, sir;
Nothing to say to you."
And then he talked till the sun went down
And the chickens went to roost;
And he seized the collar of the poor young man,
And never his hold he loosed.
And the sun went down and the moon came up,
And he talked till the dawn of day;
Though he said, "On this subject mentioned by you
I have nothing whatever to say."
And down the reporter dropped to sleep
And flat on the floor he lay;
And the last he heard was the great man's words,
"I have nothing at all to say."
Temperature sensors next to air conditioners
Climate Audit is a blog that questions global warming orthodoxy. One of the projects they are detailing is an effort to examine the placement of NOAA temperature sensors. The picture to the left shows a sensor (which has since been moved) close to a building with four window air conditioners which expel lots of summer time hot air. Many of these sensors have also been found to be close to asphalt parking lots.
Do the rich pay more taxes? Of course
The assertion that the rich pay less in federal taxes, as a portion of their income, than the middle class is clearly wrong. Even a brief look at the evidence is enough to convince most people. Greg Mankiw's article in today's New York Times is another effort to lay out these facts.
Saturday, July 14, 2007
Special Election for Crutchfield's seat
Link
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP) -- Sen. Ward Crutchfield, who pleaded guilty this week to a federal bribery charge, indicated he would resign in time for voters to select a replacement in a special election.
The Chattanooga Democrat said Friday he believes voters should get the opportunity to have an election, rather than let the Hamilton County Commission name a new senator.
Tax Poem from Chattanooga
County Mayor Claude Ramsey who lead the push for the tax hike inspires poetry:
Link
Old Mayor Ramsey had a farm E-I-E-I-O.
And on his farm he had five lame ducks, E-I-E-I-O,
With a "quack-tax" here and a "quack-tax" there,
Here a "tax," there a "tax"
Everywhere a "quack-tax."
Old Mayor Ramsey had a farm, E-I-E-I-O.
Old Mayor Ramsey had a farm, E-I-E-I-O.
And on his farm he had a big staff, E-I-E-I-O.
With a "raise, raise" here and a "raise, raise" there,
Here a "raise" there a "raise"
Everywhere a "raise, raise."
Old Mayor Ramsey had a farm, E-I-E-I-O.
Link
Old Mayor Ramsey had a farm E-I-E-I-O.
And on his farm he had five lame ducks, E-I-E-I-O,
With a "quack-tax" here and a "quack-tax" there,
Here a "tax," there a "tax"
Everywhere a "quack-tax."
Old Mayor Ramsey had a farm, E-I-E-I-O.
Old Mayor Ramsey had a farm, E-I-E-I-O.
And on his farm he had a big staff, E-I-E-I-O.
With a "raise, raise" here and a "raise, raise" there,
Here a "raise" there a "raise"
Everywhere a "raise, raise."
Old Mayor Ramsey had a farm, E-I-E-I-O.
They are still mad as hell in Chattanooga
The property tax increase vote in Hamilton County did not dampen the spirit of those opposed to the tax hike. If anything it simply refocused their efforts.
See Video HERE
See Video HERE
S-Town Mike scores another investigative coup
S-Town is all over the apparent conflicts of interest in the "grants" by Metro council members. S-Town and I may disagree about how much of our incomes should be paid in taxes but darned if he doesn't know how to do him some investigative journalism.
Kudos to the FBI, we owe them a big THANK YOU
Marc Perrusquia's article in the Commercial Appeal sums up very nicely the Tennessee Waltz investigation to date. The FBI served us well and every citizen of Tennessee owes them a debt of gratitude. As one who believes the federal government is far too big, intrusive, costly, and arrogant I am very cautious with my praise but lets give credit where credit is due. There is no other law enforcement agency that would or could have successfully carried this off.
Tennessee Waltz
12 arrests; 11 convictions, guilty pleas, expected to plead guilty; 1 awaiting trial
Kathryn Bowers, former state senator, scheduled to plead guilty Monday
Darrell Catron, former juvenile court aide, pleaded guilty, awaits sentencing
William Cotton, former Hamilton Co commissioner, convicted, serving three years
Ward Crutchfield, state senator, pleaded guilty Thursday, awaits sentencing
Roscoe Dixon, former state senator, convicted, serving five years
John Ford, former state senator, convicted, awaits sentencing
Michael Hooks Jr., former Memphis city school board member, awaits December trial
Michael Hooks Sr., former county commissioner, pleaded guilty, begins 26 month prisonterm Friday
Charles Love, former Hamilton County school board member, pleaded guilty, awaits sentencing
Barry Myers, consultant, pleaded guilty, awaits sentencing
Chris Newton, former state representative from Cleveland, pleaded guilty, served one year
Calvin Williams, former county commission aide, convicted, sentenced to 33 months
Bibliodyssey Blog - a Gem and visual delight
The Bibliodyssey Blog is a visual delight and among the best art/history/culture blogs around. Paul has provided a link list of blogs that he visits and it is an extraordinary resource.
Friday, July 13, 2007
Removed from office because of public intoxication?
I didn't know that.
8-47-101. Officers subject to removal — Grounds. —
Every person holding any office of trust or profit, under and by virtue of any of the laws of the state, either state, county, or municipal, except such officers as are by the constitution removable only and exclusively by methods other than those provided in this chapter, who shall knowingly or willfully commit misconduct in office, or who shall knowingly or willfully neglect to perform any duty enjoined upon such officer by any of the laws of the state, or who shall in any public place be in a state of intoxication produced by strong drink voluntarily taken, or who shall engage in any form of illegal gambling, or who shall commit any act constituting a violation of any penal statute involving moral turpitude, shall forfeit such office and shall be ousted from such office in the manner hereinafter provided.
8-47-101. Officers subject to removal — Grounds. —
Every person holding any office of trust or profit, under and by virtue of any of the laws of the state, either state, county, or municipal, except such officers as are by the constitution removable only and exclusively by methods other than those provided in this chapter, who shall knowingly or willfully commit misconduct in office, or who shall knowingly or willfully neglect to perform any duty enjoined upon such officer by any of the laws of the state, or who shall in any public place be in a state of intoxication produced by strong drink voluntarily taken, or who shall engage in any form of illegal gambling, or who shall commit any act constituting a violation of any penal statute involving moral turpitude, shall forfeit such office and shall be ousted from such office in the manner hereinafter provided.
Politics of taxes not as simple as they used to be
Link
Whereas Chuck Schumer is not ready to whack his constituency's leading industry with punitive taxes, Hillary Clinton is. What's more, she's willing to stick the tax knife into a great many of her financial supporters. Mark Lasry of Avenue Capital (who also employs Chelsea) comes to mind, but there are numerous hedgies and big money private equity folks who have ponied up big time for the Dems and Hillary's presidential run recently. Now that she's got the campaign loot, this is how she pays them back. Or maybe she is burnishing her populist credentials free of charge by supporting this knowing that it will never pass, precisely because the hedgies have bought off so many Dems and it will likely get a Bush veto. Which is it? Cynical ploy or good ole' fashioned betrayal?
Whereas Chuck Schumer is not ready to whack his constituency's leading industry with punitive taxes, Hillary Clinton is. What's more, she's willing to stick the tax knife into a great many of her financial supporters. Mark Lasry of Avenue Capital (who also employs Chelsea) comes to mind, but there are numerous hedgies and big money private equity folks who have ponied up big time for the Dems and Hillary's presidential run recently. Now that she's got the campaign loot, this is how she pays them back. Or maybe she is burnishing her populist credentials free of charge by supporting this knowing that it will never pass, precisely because the hedgies have bought off so many Dems and it will likely get a Bush veto. Which is it? Cynical ploy or good ole' fashioned betrayal?
Harry Reid needs an intervention for earmark addiction
Link
Among those celebrating the achievement was Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who said that piecing together the $463.5-billion spending bill was difficult, "but we got it done without a single earmark."
But the day after President Bush signed it, Reid wrote federal agencies to "strongly support the priorities" in the discarded GOP bills. "I believe they are essential to the nation and to my home state of Nevada."
[...]
Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), a leading critic of earmarking and one of the few lawmakers who wants to end the practice, offered a simple explanation: "We're addicts."
[...]
Reid wrote Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, a former Senate colleague, to ask him to support projects in the Republican-penned Interior bill, which included $200,000 for a Mojave Desert science center and $300,000 to help preserve historic buildings in the frontier mining town of Goldfield, Nev.
In a handwritten note, Reid added, "Call if I can ever help."
In his letter to Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, wife of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Reid also added a personal touch, scrawling: "P.S. I'll keep an eye on Mitch."
Among those celebrating the achievement was Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who said that piecing together the $463.5-billion spending bill was difficult, "but we got it done without a single earmark."
But the day after President Bush signed it, Reid wrote federal agencies to "strongly support the priorities" in the discarded GOP bills. "I believe they are essential to the nation and to my home state of Nevada."
[...]
Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), a leading critic of earmarking and one of the few lawmakers who wants to end the practice, offered a simple explanation: "We're addicts."
[...]
Reid wrote Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, a former Senate colleague, to ask him to support projects in the Republican-penned Interior bill, which included $200,000 for a Mojave Desert science center and $300,000 to help preserve historic buildings in the frontier mining town of Goldfield, Nev.
In a handwritten note, Reid added, "Call if I can ever help."
In his letter to Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, wife of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Reid also added a personal touch, scrawling: "P.S. I'll keep an eye on Mitch."
Hill: Dems can't decide who is rich
Class envy is such a tedious business and politically risky to boot. And it is even more complicated when your constituents and contributors are concentrated in large urban areas where incomes are higher than average. Then you throw in the AMT which hits these high income constituents the hardest and you have a real mess. The lefty, big government, high tax "Talking Taxes" blog is about to pull their "hair out" because the Democrats are throwing around figures as high as $200k.
Link to the Hill article
Link to the Hill article
Clearly defining who is wealthy can be politically risky. Many of the rich consider themselves middle-class; meanwhile, many in the middle class believe they'll be rich someday.
In the 2004 presidential race, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) ran into trouble with his pledge to increase taxes on those making $200,000 or more, according to Paul Weinstein, the chief operating officer of the Progressive Policy Institute.
"Even though it is a small percentage of people who actually make that amount," Weinstein said, "a lot of people aspire to that." He pointed out that Kerry had more success when he would make the roughly equivalent claim that he would raise taxes on about two percent of households.
"The number defining what is wealthy — the number where you phase out a lot of tax breaks — that number has moved up," Weinstein said. "It was roughly $100,000 in the 1990s, it's at least $200,000 now and some would move it higher."
Rep. Rahm Emanuel (Ill.), the House Democratic Caucus chairman, speculated that most in his party would agree that households earning at least $500,000 to $1 million a year were rich: "That's their range."
Aiming tax increases at such a rarified group is a safer bet politically. But then there's the risk of generating too few funds to pay for middle-class tax relief and ambitious policy goals.
The immortal federal bureaucracy
I happened across this article written in 1995 about the efforts of the Contract with America Republicans and Bill Clinton to "right size" government....very interesting read. A bit depressing and a good dose of reality for those of us who would like to see the Federal Govt smaller but an interesting read none the less if that sort of thing interests you.
Link
Link
Computer program can read your emotions
LinkThe most important facial characteristics used by the system are the contours of the face, the eyes, the eyebrows and the nose.
The system first has to go through a training phase in which it is presented with huge quantities of data containing images of faces.
The computer compares 30,000 facial characteristics with the information that it has previously learned. "On a standard PC, the calculations are carried out so quickly that mood changes can be tracked live," explains Küblbeck.
The software package is not only of interest to advertising psychologists; there are numerous potential applications for the system.
The developers say that it can be used to test the user-friendliness of computer software programs.
Karl Marx on school diploma certificate?
LinkRichmond schools spokeswoman Felicia Cosby called last night to explain:
"She really thought she was capturing clip art representing Frederick Douglass. She did a search to pull up Frederick Douglass and this is what came up . . . with the beard and the hair."
Hold on. Wait a minute.
One was a German philosopher, the other an African-American slave who became a leading abolitionist.
They can't be distinguished?
The teacher, the school and the school system "apologize profusely if this image offended parents and children alike," Cosby said.
"But it was not intentional to put an image of Karl Marx up."
It will be taken off in the future, she said.
Fair enough.
But in the future, let's make sure this committee isn't teaching history.
Kid to Gov: I want to call you clown
The wisdom of innocent children.Link
July 10, 2007 -- Like the late Rodney Dangerfield, Gov. Spitzer can't get no respect.
Spitzer, who was at an Albany child-care center yesterday to read to preschoolers, told the kids they should call him "Eliot."
When one kid said no, the governor asked what he wanted to call him.
"I want to call you 'clown,'" the small-fry said, before three of his classmates chimed in agreement.
Two Lobster Tails to go and charge it to taxpayers
Apparently, Mayor Ragsdale has set a "high" standard for his employees. Earlier we learned that he ate at the Palm here in Nashville while "reviewing the new BEP"...total cost for his party was $600. Now we learn that his assistant has developed a taste for taxpayer funded lobster. As I said in an earlier post, I think it would be much more effective for him to simply walk up to the nearest taxpayer and cold-cock them right on the jaw......what the heck is going on in Knoxville???
Link
Link
The Knox County mayor's executive administrative assistant, a then-county commissioner and another diner liked the lobster tails they ate for lunch at Regas last October so much they got two more to go.
The lobster tails cost $75.95 a pair.
And taxpayers picked up the tab.
Receipts for the meal — which cost a total of $227.56, including tip, for three people — turned up during a News Sentinel review of purchasing card records in Knox County Mayor Mike Ragsdale's office.
East Ridge HIKE was "inevitable", now its a maybe
It is so amazing to listen to tax hike rhetoric. Several years ago, the Alabama Governor said the world would, in fact, come to an end if voters did not approve a massive $1 billion tax hike. Voters overwhelmingly defeated the tax hike and two years after the defeat the same Governor pushed tax cuts because of a large surplus. In East Ridge, a city next to Chattanooga in Hamilton County, the Mayor last week said a tax hike was "inevitable"....yesterday, after the County increased taxes, residents raised a little sand and now the Mayor is backing off the "inevitable" claim.
Link
East Ridge residents concerned about a possible property tax increase packed Thursday's council meeting at City Hall.
And got what they wanted, sort of.
In light of Hamilton County's tax hike, Mayor Mike Steele met with the council prior to Thursday's public meeting and agreed to go back to the table and take another look at the budget.
"We're going to look at further cuts and further opportunities that we can put together a budget that would be a no tax budget or as low as possible. Now that is a big hill to climb but we're gonna do our best to try to do that," said Steele.
Link
East Ridge residents concerned about a possible property tax increase packed Thursday's council meeting at City Hall.
And got what they wanted, sort of.
In light of Hamilton County's tax hike, Mayor Mike Steele met with the council prior to Thursday's public meeting and agreed to go back to the table and take another look at the budget.
"We're going to look at further cuts and further opportunities that we can put together a budget that would be a no tax budget or as low as possible. Now that is a big hill to climb but we're gonna do our best to try to do that," said Steele.
Thursday, July 12, 2007
The freedom to Protect your life and property
Link
When a pair of interlopers at a party in East Memphis left, then returned wearing gloves, one resident became suspicious and got his pistol.
When a pair of interlopers at a party in East Memphis left, then returned wearing gloves, one resident became suspicious and got his pistol.
And when the two men announced a holdup and demanded money and valuables, both were shot by their intended victim.
Buddy School - Sort of an eBay for Tutoring
http://www.buddyschool.com/
How does BuddySchool work?
In BuddySchool teachers and students meet to study online. Here's a simple step-by-step description of how they go about doing it: | Teachers post their listings with information about their field of expertise, pricing, availability and contact information, especially about the Internet communicators they use. |
| Students search through listings to find a teacher most suitable for them |
| When they find the teacher, they check his or hers schedule and send a "request for lesson" message. In it they specify the date, time, price and other details of the lesson. |
| Teachers receive requests for lesson and accept it or reject them. They can also change some of the conditions and send the request back to the student for confirmation. |
| When the request is accepted, a lesson is officially scheduled. This is indicated in calendars of both the teacher and student. |
| At the time of the lesson teacher and student log into BuddySchool and call each other on Skype, Google Talk or any other Internet communicator of their choice. They carry on with the lesson until BuddySchool indicates that the time is up. |
| After the lesson the teacher sends an invoice to the student, requesting payment. The student receives the invoice with instructions on how to pay the teacher. |
Email overload in Congress..what to do?
Link
Roll Call ($$) reports that the Congressional Management Foundation (CMF) is working on a project to attempt to solve a problem facing Members and their staff, excessive amounts of e-mail that often causes their systems to crash. The article explains the many frustrations citizens and nonprofits are feeling in trying to carry out their advocacy work in encouraging people to contact Congress on important issues, and the frustration of those receiving the unmanageable number of messages.
Roll Call ($$) reports that the Congressional Management Foundation (CMF) is working on a project to attempt to solve a problem facing Members and their staff, excessive amounts of e-mail that often causes their systems to crash. The article explains the many frustrations citizens and nonprofits are feeling in trying to carry out their advocacy work in encouraging people to contact Congress on important issues, and the frustration of those receiving the unmanageable number of messages.
He has made millions giving away OUR money
LinkLesko to Have Capitol Sleepover
Mothers, lock up your daughters, because Matthew Lesko, the so-called “crazy Free Money Guy,” will be camping out in front of the U.S. Capitol from August 14-17. Famous for his question-marked suit, Lesko will be answering questions during his campout as part of a program he calls: One Man, 72 Hours, 100,000 Government Freebies.
Home Schooling the path to Genius?
Link
The evidence is that many of our foremost achievers developed under conditions that are not much like those of present-day mass education. Robert Lawler just showed me a paper by Harold McCurdy on the child pattern of genius. McCurdy reviews the early education of many eminent people from the last couple of centuries and concludes (1) that most of them had an enormous amount of attention paid to them by one or both parents and (2) that generally they were relatively isolated from other children. This is very different from what most people today consider an ideal school. It seems to me that much of what we call education is really socialization. Consider what we do to our kids. Is it really a good idea to send your 6-year-old into a room full of 6-year-olds, and then, the next year, to put your 7-year-old in with 7-year-olds, and so on? A simple recursive argument suggests this exposes them to a real danger of all growing up with the minds of 6-year-olds. And, so far as I can see, that's exactly what happens.
Our present culture may be largely shaped by this strange idea of isolating children's thought from adult thought. Perhaps the way our culture educates its children better explains why most of us come out as dumb as they do, than it explains how some of us come out as smart as they do.
The evidence is that many of our foremost achievers developed under conditions that are not much like those of present-day mass education. Robert Lawler just showed me a paper by Harold McCurdy on the child pattern of genius. McCurdy reviews the early education of many eminent people from the last couple of centuries and concludes (1) that most of them had an enormous amount of attention paid to them by one or both parents and (2) that generally they were relatively isolated from other children. This is very different from what most people today consider an ideal school. It seems to me that much of what we call education is really socialization. Consider what we do to our kids. Is it really a good idea to send your 6-year-old into a room full of 6-year-olds, and then, the next year, to put your 7-year-old in with 7-year-olds, and so on? A simple recursive argument suggests this exposes them to a real danger of all growing up with the minds of 6-year-olds. And, so far as I can see, that's exactly what happens.
Our present culture may be largely shaped by this strange idea of isolating children's thought from adult thought. Perhaps the way our culture educates its children better explains why most of us come out as dumb as they do, than it explains how some of us come out as smart as they do.
Nancy Pelosi's Poll Numbers
Link
| The Harris Poll. July 6-9, 2007. N=1,003 adults nationwide. MoE ± 3. | ||||||
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| "How would you rate the job House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is doing: excellent, pretty good, only fair, or poor?" | ||||||
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| Excellent/ | Only Fair/ |
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| 7/6-9/07 | 34 | 51 |
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| 4/20-23/07 | 30 | 56 |
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| 2/2-5/07 | 38 | 45 |
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Harry Reid's Poll Numbers
Link
| The Harris Poll. July 6-9, 2007. N=1,003 adults nationwide. MoE ± 3. | ||||||
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| "How would you rate the job Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is doing: excellent, pretty good, only fair, or poor?"
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| Excellent/ | Only Fair/ |
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| % | % |
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| 7/6-9/07 | 20 | 49 |
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| 4/20-23/07 | 22 | 52 |
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| 2/2-5/07 | 23 | 47 |
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| 9/8-11/06 | 23 | 52 |
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| 6/2-5/06 | 19 | 54 |
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| 3/3-7/06 | 19 | 53 |
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| 8/9-16/05 | 24 | 47 |
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TN Welfare recipients can't "stop the clock"
Link
While federal rules set a five-year lifetime limit for receiving welfare, the waiver allowed Tennessee to suspend that limit for some students who were working toward a GED certificate, for those with medical incapacities, or for those who do not work because of the state's inability to help with child care or transportation.
The waiver ended this month, and welfare recipients now have to work to keep receiving benefits.
setting limits
Statewide, 39,900 adults will have to meet the new standards.
None of them will be dropped from welfare rolls immediately, said Michelle Mowery Johnson, spokeswoman for the Department of Human Services. However, recipients will be restricted to a 60-month lifetime limit on welfare, she said.
Each month on the Families First program will count toward the 60-month limit, officials said.
When the waiver was in place, there were several ways for a client to "stop the clock" and still get welfare benefits while not meeting the education or job requirements, said Caroline Scott, Families First program manager. Most of those ways have been eliminated with the stricter standards, she said.
Tennessee ranked 13th in Best for business
Link
| Overall rank | 2006 rank | State | Business Costs Rank1 | Labor Rank2 | Regulatory Environment Rank3 | Economic Climate Rank4 | Growth Prospects Rank5 | Quality of Life Rank6 | Population | Gross State Product ($bil) | Five-Year Change (%) | Governor |
| 1 | 1 | Virginia | 17 | 5 | 1 | 11 | 8 | 6 | 7,644,230 | 335 | 3.8 | Tim Kaine |
| 2 | 4 | Utah | 12 | 11 | 17 | 9 | 16 | 12 | 2,514,200 | 81 | 3.9 | Jon Huntsman |
| 3 | 3 | North Carolina | 6 | 22 | 2 | 27 | 5 | 30 | 8,783,550 | 336 | 3.9 | Michael Easley |
| 4 | 2 | Texas | 21 | 26 | 7 | 10 | 2 | 28 | 23,261,060 | 888 | 4.1 | Rick Perry |
| 5 | 12 | Washington | 33 | 4 | 5 | 16 | 4 | 32 | 6,369,300 | 256 | 4.4 | Christine Gregoire |
| 6 | 6 | Idaho | 11 | 10 | 30 | 3 | 23 | 27 | 1,462,790 | 45 | 4.1 | C.L. Otter |
| 7 | 9 | Florida | 31 | 15 | 12 | 1 | 3 | 35 | 18,138,140 | 616 | 4.1 | Charlie Crist |
| 8 | 5 | Colorado | 35 | 2 | 15 | 33 | 1 | 23 | 4,736,630 | 206 | 3.4 | Bill Ritter |
| 9 | 13 | North Dakota | 5 | 37 | 16 | 11 | 42 | 14 | 636,480 | 22 | 3.7 | John Hoeven |