Its time for the Mayor to stop being coy about the Predators deal. He is a public servant who represents all the people of Davidson County. These talks have been going on for a month. Unless they have been talking about the weather all this time, he needs to let the Sunshine in and give his bosses, the citizens, a substantive status report.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
42% of households paid no Fed IT in 2006
This is up from 30% in 1990.
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- 57.6% of households paid income tax in 2006, meaning that 42.4% did not pay any income tax.
- Looking at the similar JCT table for 1990, that 42% nonpayer share is up from about 30%. Some of the reasons include the expansion of the earned income tax credit (EITC), the creation and expansion of the child tax credit, and President Bush's new bottom tax rate of 10%.
- The JCT data show that for 2006, 23 million filers received $43 billion in EITC, which is a key reason why most people at the bottom do not pay any tax.
Knox Cnty Recall Charter Amendment Gains big mo
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If the commission votes not to add the amendment to next year's ballot, the group plans to collect signatures from 15 percent of Knox County's registered voters - the amount required for the amendment to be added to the ballot.
"We'll go to a full-scale petition drive," Paone said. "We'd have to get 33,954 signatures in 75 days. That's why we tried to recruit so many civic group leaders, so that we would have a network of networks."
Bob Wolfenbarger represents the 2nd District in the drive.
"There is a constituency of neighborhood activists around the county and, by gosh, we're finally figuring out how to network," he said. "I'm involved because it's the right thing to do."
The group plans to meet Nov. 6 with Knox County Mayor Mike Ragsdale.
Some GOOD Open Govt News
Wow...This is GOOD news. Several Oak Ridge local Government officials and Sen. Randy McNally speak up in favor of Open Government and in opposition to changes that would close the door on open government. Sen McNally's support is critical since he chairs one of the key committees. The most damaging change proposed would change the "two person rule." This rule states that anytime two or more govt officials meet to deliberate or make decisions about public policy they must notify the public and press. This rule has served us well for more than 30 years and there is NO good reason to change it. If they are simply exchanging information they can meet anytime, anywhere but if they actually start the process of deliberating and making decisions then they must do so in a public meeting.
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"That's not something I would be in favor of," said state Sen. Randy McNally, R-Oak Ridge. He chairs the state's Open Government Committee, which could hear the subcommittee's recommendation in November.
The proposal, probably the most controversial so far, would also have to be considered by the Tennessee General Assembly before being adopted, McNally said.
Anderson County Commission Chairman Myron Iwanski said he would probably oppose the recommended change, although he has not seen the legislation.
Under the changed definition, eight of the 16 members of the Anderson County Commission could gather in private to talk about public business.
"I'm not in favor of allowing eight commissioners to meet in secret to discuss issues," Iwanski said.
In Oak Ridge, meanwhile, three City Council members could meet privately if the change were adopted.
Beehan and McNally said the current "two or more" standard seems to be working well and doesn't need to be altered.
Venezuela descends even further into craziness
Hugo Chavez and his "supporters" continue their downward spiral into communal insanity and thuggery.
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Under a new constitution being considered in Venezuela, the workday would be slashed from eight hours to six, so workers would have sufficient time for "personal development." But while Venezuelans might have more leisure time, the constitution would also ensure that President Hugo Chavez could toil far into the future.
One of the most controversial proposals in the charter would abolish presidential term limits, giving the 53-year-old populist the opportunity to remain in office indefinitely. The presidential term would also be extended from six to seven years. To Chavez's supporters, it makes perfect sense.
"We're giving the leader the possibility to continue directing us," Mario Isea, a legislator, said in a speech. "And we're giving ourselves the opportunity to continue enjoying his leadership."
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Under a new constitution being considered in Venezuela, the workday would be slashed from eight hours to six, so workers would have sufficient time for "personal development." But while Venezuelans might have more leisure time, the constitution would also ensure that President Hugo Chavez could toil far into the future.
One of the most controversial proposals in the charter would abolish presidential term limits, giving the 53-year-old populist the opportunity to remain in office indefinitely. The presidential term would also be extended from six to seven years. To Chavez's supporters, it makes perfect sense.
"We're giving the leader the possibility to continue directing us," Mario Isea, a legislator, said in a speech. "And we're giving ourselves the opportunity to continue enjoying his leadership."
Record number of TennCare arrests in October
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The state of Tennessee saw a record-setting number of TennCare fraud arrests in October. The Office of the Inspector General reports three dozen people were charged in October.
Heather Davis of Oliver Springs, 20, is the latest. She faces one felony charge of fraud for trying to get several prescriptions of the painkiller Oxycodone. Davis could serve up to two years in prison if convicted.
More than 500 people have been arrested for TennCare fraud since the crackdown began in February, 2005.
Heather Davis of Oliver Springs, 20, is the latest. She faces one felony charge of fraud for trying to get several prescriptions of the painkiller Oxycodone. Davis could serve up to two years in prison if convicted.
More than 500 people have been arrested for TennCare fraud since the crackdown began in February, 2005.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Republican Hypocrisy on Parade-Rep. Jerry Lewis
California Republican Congressman Jerry Lewis is the most powerful Republican on the House appropriations committee and is ranked by many as one of the worst pork barrel spenders in the House. In fact, many blame him for much of the run-away spending of recent years. On April 13, 2006, the Wall Street Journal wrote:
If Republicans lose control of Congress in November, they might want to look back at last Thursday as the day it was lost. That's when the big spenders among House Republicans blew up a deal between the leadership and rank-in-file to impose some modest spending discipline.So has Jerry Lewis made amends for his pork barrel spending and the resultant damage it has done to the Republican Party? NO, in fact, he had the audacity to write a Sept 19 editorial for The Hill in which he said:
Unlike the collapse of the immigration bill, this fiasco can't be blamed on Senate Democrats. This one is all about Republicans and their refusal to give up their power to spend money at will and pass out "earmarks" like a bartender offering drinks on the house. The chief culprits are the House Appropriators, led by Committee Chairman Jerry Lewis of California and his 13 subcommittee chairmen known as "cardinals." If Republicans lose the House--and they are well on their way--Mr. Lewis deserves the moniker of the minority maker.
We made significant efforts toward reforming our appropriations process in the past few years. Like many, I am concerned that for too long Congress has believed that every federal problem is best solved by throwing money at it. Today, America has a multi-trillion dollar debt. While our country has the strongest economy in the world, deficit spending will undermine our economy and destroy our future.UNBELIEVABLE!!! He acts as if he is clueless. And the Republican Party wants me to believe they are the party of small government and lower taxes??
Our national debt will not just go away. Balanced budgets over a number of years will help a lot. But that will happen only if the Congress reduces the rate of growth of all spending. We must commit ourselves to reduced spending across the board to save our economy.
These Numbers may not lie but
they certainly don't tell the truth. There is a study that many newspapers reported on today without questioning the underlying assumptions. Michael (formerly Half-bakered, now of Mediaverse) Ray Hollihan provides the context:
Tuesday's Commercial Appeal has an article on a report (PDF format) issued by the Southern Education Foundation. The SEF is an advocacy group dedicated, according to its website, to Advancing Creative Solutions to Assure Fairness and Excellence in Education.
The article puts forward all the report's statements and conclusions without question. The quotes used come only from "Steve Suitts, SEF program coordinator and author of the report." Nothing seems to have been examined or rebutted.
[...]
Ah, more money. That's only "part" of the solution, but it's the only part talked about. Praise for Governor Bredesen's new education programs is singled out. Those programs are in large part funded by one-time windfalls from the state lottery and revenue tax surpluses. They may not be sustainable if the state's budget or economic situation changes.
The other problem is that comparisons are made between state expenditures on education on a dollar-by-dollar basis, not taking cost of living into account. In other words, a dollar spent in Tennessee will go a lot farther than a dollar spent in New York or California. Factoring in the cost of living to make comparisons more valid might change the picture.
There is also the whole issue of advocacy. The report is arguing for the very thing that the SEF wants to do -- spend more money. Skepticism seems called for in reporting any press release by an advocacy group.
Reading the report; knowing the context; watching for possible issues of self-interest by the group that gives you the report; looking past the numbers on the page. All are good ideas that lead to substantive news stories of real value.
Elvis: Highest Earning dead celebrity
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Elvis Presley Estate's $49 million in revenue in the past year was enough to push the performer to the top of Forbes.com's list for top-earning dead celebrities. Presley was followed by Beatle John Lennon, whose 2007 earnings were $44 million; cartoonist Charles Schulz who pulled in $35 million; Beatle George Harrison who earned $22 million; and scientist Albert Einstein, who died in 1955, earned $18 million.
Elvis Presley Estate's $49 million in revenue in the past year was enough to push the performer to the top of Forbes.com's list for top-earning dead celebrities. Presley was followed by Beatle John Lennon, whose 2007 earnings were $44 million; cartoonist Charles Schulz who pulled in $35 million; Beatle George Harrison who earned $22 million; and scientist Albert Einstein, who died in 1955, earned $18 million.
65% oppose FDA regulating tobacco
Don Fenley points to a Zogby poll that indicates Americans do NOT want the FDA to regulate tobacco products. Maybe there is hope.....maybe Americans still believe in their ability to make decisions about their own welfare.
There ought to be a law!! allowing citizens to opt out of FDA regulation altogether. If you want to follow the recommendations of the FDA, fine.....but if not, you should be allowed the FREEDOM to disregard their advice if you choose to make decisions about your own welfare.
There ought to be a law!! allowing citizens to opt out of FDA regulation altogether. If you want to follow the recommendations of the FDA, fine.....but if not, you should be allowed the FREEDOM to disregard their advice if you choose to make decisions about your own welfare.
These damned rich people and their job creation
Mukesh Ambani, reportedly one of the world's richest people, is taking some of his filthy lucre and.....creating jobs? Why doesn't he just shut up and act like the filthy, greedy sob that we all know he is!! (Irony alert)
“I’m going to stand up and oppose every stinking tax,”
Rep. Donna Stifler leaves no doubt where she stands on new taxes.
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Annapolis - "No new taxes" was the rallying cry Monday of demonstrations by taxpayer, conservative and Republican groups around the State House.
The relatively modest turnouts of about 300 people came just hours before Gov. Martin O'Malley was set to give a short pep talk to a special session of the General Assembly he called to raise a series of taxes.
"I'm going to stand up and oppose every stinking tax," said Del. Donna Stifler, R-Harford, typifying the comments of dozens of GOP lawmakers.
No whoopee on new AirBus A380
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The A380 may have the world's first airborne double bed, but it won't be put to the obvious use if Singapore Airlines has its way: "If couples used our double beds to engage in inappropriate activity, we would politely ask them to desist," said the company's Stephen Forshaw. "There are things that are acceptable on an aircraft and things that aren't, and the rules for behaviour in our double beds are the same ones that apply throughout the aircraft."
In any case, the plane is as yet unchristened: Tony and Julie Elwood from Perth, Australia had booked the first A380 double suite, but hardly had a moment of privacy for a romantic kiss, let alone anything raunchier, as a parade of journalists came knocking on their door. Even so, they weren't too impressed with Singapore's strait-laced attitude. "So they'll sell you a double bed, and give you privacy and endless champagne — and then say you can't do what comes naturally?" asked Tony, a vigorous 76. "Seems a bit strange."
"They seem to have done everything they can to make it romantic, short of bringing round oysters," said Julie, 51. "I'd say they shouldn't really complain, should they? Though I don't think they'll have anything to worry about from us — the flight is so busy with people coming to see the suites, we wouldn't have the opportunity."
How to find old web pages
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The Web changes constantly, and sometimes that page that had just the information you needed yesterday (or last month or two years ago) is not available today. At other times you may want to see how a page's content or design has changed. There are several sources for finding Web pages as they used to exist.
While Google's cache is probably the best known, the others are important alternatives that may have pages not available at Google or the Wayback Machine plus they may have an archived page from a different date. The table below notes the name of the service, the way to find the archived page, and some notes that should give some idea as to how old a page the archive may contain.
Memphis School audit even bigger mess
for taxpayers than first thought.
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Customers of Memphis City Schools' catering service got a heck of a deal, a preliminary audit shows.
The audit reveals former nutrition services director James Jordan, who resigned Oct. 11, extended credit to catering patrons and severely underpriced catering events.
A draft of the report, discussed at Monday's school board audit committee meeting, shows the catering operation has lost at least $157,832 through a combination of underpricing and the hiring of new catering assistants in May -- a cost borne by taxpayers.
Bush talks compromise on SCHIP
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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Bush and other critics of a $35 billion spending increase for children's health insurance say they'll support expanding coverage to families of four making as much as $62,000 a year, but they want to limit states' ability to go beyond that level.
About three dozen states ignore certain income when determining who can get government-subsidized health coverage. For example, many states exclude child support payments. Others deduct expenses for child care when determining who qualifies for the State Children's Health Insurance Program.
[...]
"You leave it up to the states to say you can't have an income level over 300% (of poverty), but you can deduct $20,000 for a housing allowance or you can deduct $15,000 for shelter or whatever," said Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas. "So, what you've got here is the classic bait and switch."Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., said that allowing states to exempt some income helps to ensure that low-income families don't have to resort to welfare to get health care for their children.
Another disagreement over the program's future is over the coverage of adults, even though the Bush administration approved most of the waivers that allowed adults into the SCHIP program. Now, the administration wants to remove those adults from the SCHIP rolls more quickly than called for in the bill that passed the House last week.
Under that bill, states would have to move an estimated 200,000 childless adults off SCHIP within one year. Also, by 2010, waivers covering about 500,000 parents would be paid from a separate fund. States that perform well on covering low-income children could continue covering parents through that fund, which would get a lower federal matching rate than under current policy, Dingell said.
City dwellers get huge harvest of taxpayer farm subsidies
Farm "subsidies" are a very bad joke on taxpayers. This is about as clear an example of theft by taxation as you can find. This is a scandal, corruption, criminal...take your pick, they all apply.
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The urban payments total millions of dollars out of the nearly $1 billion sent to Minnesota farmers in 2005, according to federal records sent to the Star Tribune under a Freedom of Information Act request.
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The urban payments total millions of dollars out of the nearly $1 billion sent to Minnesota farmers in 2005, according to federal records sent to the Star Tribune under a Freedom of Information Act request.
Among those taking farm bill checks: Cargill family member Whitney Macmillan Jr. and money manager Noel Rahn, a wealthy businessman who helped bring the NHL back to Minnesota.
The flow of federal largesse comes thanks to rules that allow landowners -- including some 2,000 in the metro area -- to collect subsidies without farming the land themselves, a legal and increasingly common practice as farm ownership has consolidated over the past few decades.
60% of Tennessee Readers fail test
...but we were told they passed. New, more difficult, TCAP tests coming in 2009-10. Why did Phil Bredesen wait until the last of his 8 years in office to implement these more difficult tests? And he waited until AFTER he got a huge tax increase passed??
The TCAPs are going to get a lot harder.
Eighty-seven percent of Tennessee fourth-graders got a "proficient" grade on the state reading achievement test in 2005, when only 27 percent earned a proficient rating on a national reading achievement test, according to a U.S. Chamber of Commerce study and other sources.
[...]
"The state tests are widely known to be calibrated to the lowest standard," said James Guthrie, a professor of public policy and education and director of the Peabody Center for Education Policy at Vanderbilt University.
"The gap is real, and our students are not being held to a sufficiently high standard. For me, as a resident of this state, it's embarrassing and unacceptable."
The sweeping changes in math and language arts standards are a part of Gov. Phil Bredesen's education reform. They're intended to produce graduates who don't need remedial help in college, don't lag behind their peers and can compete in the marketplace.
They'll roll out in the 2009-10 school year, pending approval from the state Board of Education.
Monday, October 29, 2007
Ga Legislator wants stronger open records laws
Nice to see there are legislators in other states who are trying to strengthen open records laws.
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A Georgia lawmaker says she wants to make it a felony to deliberately violate the state's Open Records Act.
State Rep. Jill Chambers, R-Atlanta, said she plans to introduce a bill to make the law easier to understand and possibly eliminate some exemptions.
Chambers said she would make "willfully and knowingly violating" the Open Records Act a felony, with a fine of up to $5,000. Under current law violations are a misdemeanor, subject to a $100 fine.
The law requires public officials to allow citizens to view and photocopy most government documents. Exceptions include medical or veterinary records, confidential police and prosecution investigative files, individuals' Social Security numbers, and others.
Thinly veiled call for educational choice?
The Commercial Appeal editorial linked below by Shelby County Mayor A.C. Wharton and Harold Ford, Jr. is titled: "Parents are key to improving education." Looks like they favor giving more power to parents...thats a good first step:
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Clearly, schools are in a time of profound change. But for a century, one thing has not changed -- their one-size-fits-all approach.
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Clearly, schools are in a time of profound change. But for a century, one thing has not changed -- their one-size-fits-all approach.
Because public schools have a monopoly, they have not been challenged to find the kinds of breakthrough innovations that are needed for every child to receive an effective education.
What??
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"There is this image of government service as a sort of bureaucratic service with a negative connotation," said Rep. John Sarbanes, D-Md., at an event Friday to launch a nationwide education campaign. "But in fact, there is no place more cutting edge or more exciting to be than in the federal government."
"There is this image of government service as a sort of bureaucratic service with a negative connotation," said Rep. John Sarbanes, D-Md., at an event Friday to launch a nationwide education campaign. "But in fact, there is no place more cutting edge or more exciting to be than in the federal government."
8% nationally read Blogs, 11% in Nashville
Nashville 11%, Memphis 8%, Chattanooga 6%, Knoxville 6%
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NEW YORK, Oct. 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Scarborough Research, the leading local market research firm for identifying consumer and retail behaviors in the United States, finds that Austin, TX, Portland, OR, San Francisco and Seattle are the top markets for people who read or contributed to blogs.
Fifteen percent of adults in Austin are bloggers*, and they are 78 percent more likely than the national average to be in this consumer group. Fourteen percent of Portland adults are bloggers; followed by San Francisco and Seattle, with 13 percent of adults blogging in these cities. Nationally, eight percent of all consumers are bloggers.
[...]"Bloggers tend to have a different relationship with the Internet than the average user. They are more likely to advantage of its utility for standard household and personal tasks, such as email, shopping and online banking," said Mr. Meo. "Given that they are contributing to the content of the Internet itself, it's not surprising that bloggers are more advanced online than your average Internet user, and more tech savvy overall."
Demographically, bloggers are young and hail from middle class families. They are 66 percent more likely than the national average to be between the ages of 18 and 34. Fifty percent of bloggers are part of a household that has children under 17, as opposed to 41 percent of the total population. Bloggers are 20 percent more likely than the national average to have an annual household income between $50k and $100k per year.
More Taxpayer dollars down the drain
The Tennessean has a good article on the elite group of educators that are assigned to swoop in to failing TN schools and try to turn them around. This is an exercise in futility and a waste of taxpayer dollars. Like virtually all efforts to "fix education" this effort is, at least in part, well intended. It is also doomed to failure because it doesn't change the underlying structure and incentives that created the problem in the first place.
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"It's so hard to put outsiders in a situation, but if a situation has failed there's got to be some outside help," said Connie Smith, executive director of innovation, improvement and accountability for the state Department of Education.
"I knew it was going to be highly sensitive because they're going into someone's house. And they've got to be top-notch people."
Tennessee has dubbed these agents "exemplary educators," and STAT (System Targeted Assistance Team) members.
Exemplary educators are assigned to "high priority" schools that fail to meet state testing standards for two years or more.
Want safe, affordable treatment in UK?
Get out of town...in fact, get out of the country.
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Record numbers of Britons are travelling abroad for medical treatment to escape the NHS - with 70,000 patients expected to fly out this year.
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Record numbers of Britons are travelling abroad for medical treatment to escape the NHS - with 70,000 patients expected to fly out this year.
And by the end of the decade 200,000 "health tourists" will fly as far as Malaysa and South Africa for major surgery to avoid long waiting lists and the rising threat of superbugs, according to a new report.
The first survey of Britons opting for treatment overseas shows that fears of hospital infections and frustration of often waiting months for operations are fuelling the increasing trend.
Patients needing major heart surgery, hip operations and cataracts are using the internet to book operations to be carried out thousands of miles away.
India is the most popular destination for surgery, followed by Hungary, Turkey, Germany, Malaysia, Poland and Spain. But dozens more countries are attracting health tourists.
Research by the Treatment Abroad website shows that Britons have travelled to 112 foreign hospitals, based in 48 countries, to find safe, affordable treatment.
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Inequality is good, in fact it is Great
Inequality is the one overriding fact that we all must deal with. We are all utterly and completely unique and no one is "equal" to anyone else. Thank goodness that Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan are not equal to anyone else. The video below is of Charice Pempengco a Phillipine prodigy who was 12 at the time of this video and who is now 15 according to a brief search on Google. She was "discovered" via a YouTube video and by now probably has a recording contract worth a gazillion dollars. Her voice and stage presence are not equaled by many 30 year olds, much less a 15 year old. Thank goodness for inequality.
Does Income Inequality mean the US
is a meaner, more brutish, and less equitable society?
Does it mean that rich people are a bunch of greedy s.o.b.'s who gain their wealth by exploiting the poor?
Does it mean that there is a special group of people, call them liberals or progressives, who have a special capacity for empathy for the poor that the rest of us don't possess?
Does it mean that this special group of people is morally justified in using government to force the rest of us to conform to their moral orthodoxy?
NO
Does it mean that rich people are a bunch of greedy s.o.b.'s who gain their wealth by exploiting the poor?
Does it mean that there is a special group of people, call them liberals or progressives, who have a special capacity for empathy for the poor that the rest of us don't possess?
Does it mean that this special group of people is morally justified in using government to force the rest of us to conform to their moral orthodoxy?
NO
Private School is less
so says Professor Perry:Link
Bottom Line: Private schools can educate students at a lower cost, with more teachers per 1000 students, than the public schools. Reason: Private schools must have significantly fewer non-instructional administrative employees, and therefore significantly lower administrative expenses than their public counterparts.
Update: Professor Perry just keeps knocking it out of the park. He has another post documenting the huge growth in administrative overhead. It far exceeds the growth in students.
Ron Paul in New York
I disagree with Ron Paul about a number of issues but I am strongly drawn to his liberty message. Among all the candidates he is the only one that seems truly disgusted with the excessive power that the Federal Government has over the lives of US citizens. Whatever they may say, other members of Congress act as if they are justified and satisfied with having such an extraordinary amount of power over our lives. He is the only one that has such a clear message of returning that power to individual citizens.
More Govt secrecy and we pay for it!
The really disgusting aspect of this push for greater secrecy is that OUR taxpayer money is funding it. As the Commercial Appeal article below points out, all the groups involved are associations of government officials. They take OUR tax money and pay the dues to these groups which then hire lobbyists to lobby against the interests of taxpayers. It is outrageous. They are basically daring us to stop them.
Report from Commercial Appeal-Rick Locker
Oped in Daily News Journal
Report from Commercial Appeal-Rick Locker
The TML, Tennessee School Boards Association, the association of county governments and others have presented wish lists for new exemptions to the meetings and records laws -- including closed school board meetings on job performance of the schools superintendent and other "sensitive issues."
But the study coincides with a time of scandal and other concerns about government across the state, including the federal government's "Tennessee Waltz" corruption investigation. In Memphis, one city councilman is under indictment, as is the former president of MLGW, and the FBI continues its work.
Oped in Daily News Journal
A subcommittee of the state's open meetings panel voted recently to allow members of an elected body to gather and discuss public business in private as long as fewer than a quorum are present.
To me, that's nuts. Why is transparency so threatening to some officials? The public's business should always be handled in the open, the legal exception being to allow elected officials to discuss ongoing lawsuits with attorneys in private.
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Gas prices vs Public Education?
Professor Perry compares the per pupil cost of education to oil prices (both inflation adjusted).Link
Conclusion #1: Oil and gas prices in real dollars are about the same today in 2007 as in 1980, so we can conclude that petroleum prices have approximately doubled since 1929.
Conclusion #2: On the other hand, assuming the trend in spending increases for public schools in real dollars has continued over the last 5 years, the cost of educating a student in U.S. public schools is about 9X the cost in 1929.
Conclusion #3: Consider also the the quality of a barrel of oil or gallon of gas has probably remained the same since 1929, and we probably can't say that about the quality of public school education over the last 78 years. For example, see this 8th grade exam from 1895, how many high school students could pass this today?
Remove politics from the process? RIGHT!!
We were told by the Tennessee General Assembly that they would remove politics from the process of handing out the $20 million of community grants....no more pork they said. The result: The Tennessean found that 85% of the money handed out so far is going to projects sponsored by legislators. What an unmitigated farce!!
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About 85 percent of funds awarded have been given to groups whose requests had a legislator's endorsement.
"I don't think that's fair. We could have gotten a senator or representative to support us, but we didn't know we had to," Qualls said.
[...]
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About 85 percent of funds awarded have been given to groups whose requests had a legislator's endorsement.
"I don't think that's fair. We could have gotten a senator or representative to support us, but we didn't know we had to," Qualls said.
[...]
Secretary of State Riley Darnell, who said he had been hounded by inquiries about the grants both from applicants and legislators, acknowledged that he was given discretion by the legislature to award the money.
But he said each of the sponsored requests had a "legislative history" and that he was "honor bound to try to deal" with the lawmakers' requests first. The money was appropriated following the formula of $100,000 per state representative and $300,000 per state senator.
Twins reunited after 35 years
LinkPaula Bernstein and Elyse Schein lived very similar lives. They were both born in New York, edited their high school newspapers and studied film at university. And both were adopted in 1968.
It was only at the age of 35 that they discovered each other and just how similar they were: identical twins who had been separated as infants in a bizarre social experiment.
It came to light when Elyse, who had been living in Paris, had decided to seek her birth mother. She was told that the mother was not interested in meeting her, but was then informed that she had an identical twin, Paula.
After not knowing her sister for three decades, with help from social workers she was able to find her within days.
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Its not about teachers, its about power
Jeff Wood's article in the Scene weakly suggests the TEA teacher's union actually cares about teacher quality and student performance...they do not. They care about maintaining the union's funding and political power.
If Phil Bredesen cares about teacher quality and students he must summon the courage to fight the political power of the union. The union has one overriding objective and that is to preserve the status quo.
If Phil Bredesen cares about teacher quality and students he must summon the courage to fight the political power of the union. The union has one overriding objective and that is to preserve the status quo.
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Its different when it's your child
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In the end, though, I couldn't sacrifice my son to an education system that seems at best inefficient and at worst willfully corrupt. As much as I admire Mayor Fenty, I can't help noting that his children go to a private school.
And if he doesn't send his kids to D.C. schools, why should I?
Athens TN Sales Tax Hike Defeated
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The city of Athens, Tennessee says NO to a half cent sales tax increase. Voters took to the polls and the unofficial results from the election commission say that the city is not in favor of the SPLOST increase. We were told that the increase would go to various school projects in Athens. At last check 65 percent of the votes decided against the increase and 35 were in favor.Depend on us to have the final numbers today.
The city of Athens, Tennessee says NO to a half cent sales tax increase. Voters took to the polls and the unofficial results from the election commission say that the city is not in favor of the SPLOST increase. We were told that the increase would go to various school projects in Athens. At last check 65 percent of the votes decided against the increase and 35 were in favor.Depend on us to have the final numbers today.
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
KY Tobacco shop customers targeted
Link
10 News spotted several Tennessee tags at the Middlesboro Smoke Shop, despite last month's announcement from the Department of Revenue saying they would enforce a law prohibiting Tennesseans from buying and transporting more than two cartons of cigarettes from other states.
But King says she wouldn't cooperate with state workers if they stopped her.
"If I was approached, I'd smack em," King said. "I'd tell them they don't have no right snooping through my vehicle."
Although King hasn't been stopped yet, other Middlesboro Smoke Shop customers have apparently gone toe-to-toe with the state.
"They told the clerks they been stopped," Middlesboro Smoke co-owner Ralph Carter said. "They, in some cases, had two cartons and were okay, and in other cases they had four or five cartons and they took the cigarettes from them."
10 News spotted several Tennessee tags at the Middlesboro Smoke Shop, despite last month's announcement from the Department of Revenue saying they would enforce a law prohibiting Tennesseans from buying and transporting more than two cartons of cigarettes from other states.
But King says she wouldn't cooperate with state workers if they stopped her.
"If I was approached, I'd smack em," King said. "I'd tell them they don't have no right snooping through my vehicle."
Although King hasn't been stopped yet, other Middlesboro Smoke Shop customers have apparently gone toe-to-toe with the state.
"They told the clerks they been stopped," Middlesboro Smoke co-owner Ralph Carter said. "They, in some cases, had two cartons and were okay, and in other cases they had four or five cartons and they took the cigarettes from them."
Senate Vote: Pork or Children's Health insurance
The vote was on an amendment, offered by Senator Tom Coburn, that would have barred the use of funds for earmarks within the Labor-HHS appropriations bill until all children under the age of 18 were covered by health insurance.
Corker Yes to eliminating pork (No on the tabling motion)
Alexander No to eliminating pork (Yes on the tabling motion)
HERE is the vote.
Corker Yes to eliminating pork (No on the tabling motion)
Alexander No to eliminating pork (Yes on the tabling motion)
HERE is the vote.
Shelby Cnty gets $1.8 billion in State Funds
Link
Shelby County should expect to receive about $1.8 billion in state appropriations during the 2007-2008 fiscal year, according to State Rep. Curry Todd.
According to a release from Todd, (R-Memphis), the county could expect to receive $616.6 million for health and social services, $600 million for the local school system, $144 million in state tax collections, $89 million for justice and public safety, $34 million for recreation and resources, $15 million listed as miscellaneous and $8 million for transportation obligations.
Also, the county should receive a portion of the $9.5 billion of federal funds included in the state's $27.8 billion budget.
Todd said he was most pleased with education funding for the county.
"The legislature provided $160 million in new funding to address a significant portion of the amended funding formula called the Basic Education Program," Todd stated in a release.
More Food police in California
Bill Hobbs tell us about the LA city council considering a law to stop the construction of new fast food restaurants ina poor area of town.
Now Joanne Jacobs says that students in Los Altos are buying food from a catering truck because they don't like the "healthy food" served in the cafeteria. So they are considering a law that would keep these catering trucks 500 feet from schools.
I think its pretty clear that Arnold will have to create a
Department of Food Enforcement.
Now Joanne Jacobs says that students in Los Altos are buying food from a catering truck because they don't like the "healthy food" served in the cafeteria. So they are considering a law that would keep these catering trucks 500 feet from schools.
I think its pretty clear that Arnold will have to create a
Department of Food Enforcement.
Will you let me live in freedom?
The Citypaper says yes, the government ought to "regulate" the mortgage industry.
Sean and, other bloggers very probably, agree.
Question to them and anyone else caring to consider the issue, are you willing to let me live in freedom?
More specifically, would you approve of a provision in the mortgage regulation law that will allow citizens to sign a statement opting out, i.e., a form that says the citizen agrees to accept all the consequences of dealing with unlicensed mortgage lenders. This opt out form will make it clear the signer agrees not to sue the government or regulatory agencies and can not accept any government money if there are problems with the mortgage. And of course the law must allow mortgage lenders to opt out but they may only deal with customers who also sign an opt out statement.
Would you allow me to live in freedom?
Sean and, other bloggers very probably, agree.
Question to them and anyone else caring to consider the issue, are you willing to let me live in freedom?
More specifically, would you approve of a provision in the mortgage regulation law that will allow citizens to sign a statement opting out, i.e., a form that says the citizen agrees to accept all the consequences of dealing with unlicensed mortgage lenders. This opt out form will make it clear the signer agrees not to sue the government or regulatory agencies and can not accept any government money if there are problems with the mortgage. And of course the law must allow mortgage lenders to opt out but they may only deal with customers who also sign an opt out statement.
Would you allow me to live in freedom?
Free tickets cause change in Shelby ethics policy
Link
(HT: TN Politics)
(HT: TN Politics)
The U of M has contracts with the county, and a pair of season tickets is worth $360, so commissioners had to return them.
The issue of the tickets led commissioners to support amending the ethics policy to allow them to accept gifts worth more than $200, provided all commissioners are awarded the same thing and all gifts are fully disclosed.
County Commissioners were forced to return University of Memphis season football tickets this year because of a tougher ethics policy, but they'll be back in their seats next year after they approved a change Monday.
The tougher ethics policy took effect in June and put a $200 limit on gifts from groups with which the county does business.
On Monday, in a 7-6 vote along party lines, commissioners approved the change on third and final reading.
"I don't think any commissioner is going to find themselves in the position where $200 or $100 basketball tickets or any ticket from any entity is going to influence their vote," said Democratic commissioner Sidney Chism, who originally sponsored the amendment.
City employees in TN may NOT run
County employees are NOT prevented from serving on county commissions but apparently city employees may not run for elective office in the city where they work. The Metro Nashville Charter prohibits employees of Metro Govt from serving on Metro Council.
Link
Link
CLINTON - A longtime Clinton schoolteacher's name has been removed from the ballot for the city's upcoming City Council election because she's considered a city employee.
Cindy Stiner Boshears, running for a Ward 1 seat, received confirmation Monday from the state Election Commission office that she would not be able to run.
Boshears has been a schoolteacher for 22 years at Clinton Elementary School, one of three elementary schools within the city's school district.
Election laws state that employees of city government can't run for elected office in the city where they work.
OUR govt officials want to meet in private
NOT the citizens!! but taxpayer funded associations of local govt officials want to change the Sunshine law so they are allowed to meet in private.
Link
Link
In particular, the two government groups propose to remove from current law a provision that prohibits two or more city council members or county commissioners from meeting in private if deliberating on issues before them. Instead, they would propose that a quorum of the governing body - typically a majority of all members - would trigger an open meeting requirement.
"In the clear majority of states (37), the quorum is used as the standard for open meetings laws," states the TML/TCSA document, noting that the state Legislature has also adopted a quorum standard in applying open meetings requirements to the House, Senate and legislative committees.
Frank Gibson, executive director of the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government, said the proposal would be a major step backward in requiring city councils and county commissions to make their decisions in public.
"It would be a mistake to change the law that drastically," Gibson said. "The 'two or more' standard has worked well for 33 years. It worked in the Knox County case. It worked 17 years ago in a Memphis case."
Poll: 2/3 of Thais would accept bribe for vote
Link
Polling Data
Would you be willing or unwilling to accept bribes in exchange for your vote in the Dec. 23 election?
| Willing | 64.6% |
| Unwilling | 35.4% |
Source: Assumption University of Thailand (ABAC)
Methodology: Interviews with 3,758 Thai adults, conducted from Oct. 15 to Oct. 29, 2007. Margin of error is 3 per cent.
Monday, October 22, 2007
Local Taxpayer Funded DC Lobbying
More New Jersey local governments are using taxpayer money to hire Washington lobbyists. The numbers in Tennessee are also almost certainly rising.
Link
Link
"The return on investment can be extraordinary," gushed William Murray, vice president of East Rutherford-based MWW Group, whose firm recently hired Sen. Frank Lautenberg's chief of staff to co-direct its Washington office. "If you pay a certain fee, you can make that back in a year or two."
It's not hard to find examples where that's true.
Secaucus paid a Washington lobbying firm that was a big financial supporter of Sen. Bob Menendez about $200,000 since 2002 and got federal grants totaling $2.8 million. That included $1.5 million to repair a crumbling Meadowlands Parkway bridge that Hartz Mountain built but no longer would maintain, Town Administrator Anthony D. Iacono said.
Ramapo paid MWW about $540,000 during the past five years and won federal grants worth more than $1 million for two facilities named after former members of Congress. In addition to funding for the Bill Bradley Sports and Recreation Center and the Marge Roukema Center for International Education and Entrepreneurship, Ramapo received another $500,000 for the Berrie Center for the Performing and Visual Arts.
The Bergen County Utilities Authority, using a firm that includes David Pascrell, the son of Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr., obtained about $10 million for a sewer project.
Kudos to Corker, Alexander disappoints again
The Allard amendment would have actually held government bureaucrats accountable by reducing funding to federal programs that were rated ineffective by the Office of Management and Budget through the Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART).
This was an attempt, at long last, to make some small effort to take action if taxpayer money was not being spent effectively.
Senator Corker voted against the tabling motion (effectively voting FOR the amendment) and Senator Alexander voted for the tabling motion (effectively voting AGAINST the amendment).
Here is the vote on the motion to table the amendment.
Here is more information on PART. Approximately 25% of all government programs are rated as "ineffective" or "no results shown" via this rating system.
This was an attempt, at long last, to make some small effort to take action if taxpayer money was not being spent effectively.
Senator Corker voted against the tabling motion (effectively voting FOR the amendment) and Senator Alexander voted for the tabling motion (effectively voting AGAINST the amendment).
Here is the vote on the motion to table the amendment.
Here is more information on PART. Approximately 25% of all government programs are rated as "ineffective" or "no results shown" via this rating system.
A Legal Cigarette? Technology marches on.
This would drive the Dept of Revenue to distraction. Would it be taxable?Link
They are already a familiar nocturnal sight on the streets of London - huddles of windswept smokers lighting up outside pubs, clubs and bars.
Now one nightclub claims it has solved the problem, allowing smokers to get their fix without having to sneak outside in mid-conversation.
Celebrity hangout Chinawhite in Soho is trying out Britains first "e-cig", a Chinese-made device that mimics the ritual of smoking but is claimed to be entirely legal indoors.
The six-inch white plastic stick uses a battery-powered atomiser to create realistic puffs of "smoke," while the tip glows red with each suck.
It was all a bluff?? An intimidation tactic?
Link
Nashville (AP) - A new focus on enforcing the state's law on how many cigarettes can be brought into Tennessee does not involve any increased spending by the Department of Revenue.
The lack of new funding or staffing for the increased cigarette tax enforcement was revealed through a records request by Tennessee Center for Policy Research, a conservative think tank.
Drew Johnson, the think tank's president, said he considers the enforcement program to be an elaborate ruse to scare consumers.
"They're bluffing because they know this program is completely unconstitutional, and if they were actually arresting people it would be overturned," he said. "So it's better to scare people into not crossing the border to buy cigarettes instead of actually enforcing the program."
Revenue spokeswoman Sophie Moery said that the department is flexible enough to shift its attention without neglecting other enforcement areas.
Nashville (AP) - A new focus on enforcing the state's law on how many cigarettes can be brought into Tennessee does not involve any increased spending by the Department of Revenue.
The lack of new funding or staffing for the increased cigarette tax enforcement was revealed through a records request by Tennessee Center for Policy Research, a conservative think tank.
Drew Johnson, the think tank's president, said he considers the enforcement program to be an elaborate ruse to scare consumers.
"They're bluffing because they know this program is completely unconstitutional, and if they were actually arresting people it would be overturned," he said. "So it's better to scare people into not crossing the border to buy cigarettes instead of actually enforcing the program."
Revenue spokeswoman Sophie Moery said that the department is flexible enough to shift its attention without neglecting other enforcement areas.
NEA fighting UTAH parental choice vouchers
Teacher's unions are concerned first and foremost with maintaining the status quo which in turn preserves their monopoly power. NEA doesn't care about education or "the kids" or tax burden...they may use these issues in their rhetoric but they are basically like ornaments on a tree....mainly to enhance the illusion.
NEA is about power.
Link
NEA is about power.
Link
2) Utah's $3 Million Question. On August 20, EIA published an exclusive report that the NEA Board of Directors had held an emergency telephone conference call to discuss and vote on the Utah Education Association's request for $3 million to defeat the ballot referendum on school vouchers. The board approved the request, though because I didn't have the vote totals, I used some qualifying language in the original report.
People who trust EIA's content, including the Wall Street Journal, picked up the story, and the $3 million figure has been widely disseminated. For two months, however, I have been baffled by the reluctance of the teachers' union and its allies to acknowledge the total. A sum of $1.5 million had already been sent (and mostly spent) by September 17, a full seven weeks before the election. Still, the UEA executive director called the $3 million figure " speculative," and NEA President Reg Weaver refused to even address the question, despite repeated prodding by Education Week.
I have since confirmed from other sources that my original reporting was accurate and correct, that UEA's request was for $3 million, that the money has and will come from the union's national ballot initiative fund, and I now have the additional information that the request was approved by the NEA board of directors via an Internet voting system by a count of 126 to 1. Given time and a break from other tasks, I'm sure I could eventually learn who the lone "nay" vote was.
I certainly understand, and encourage, caution before believing news from unidentified sources. But this secrecy over NEA's contribution to the Utah anti-voucher campaign (not to mention the union's connection to Communities for Quality Education) illustrates why those sources cannot be identified, and why the union's claims cannot be trusted to include the whole truth.
Confusing political economy with personal virtue
Megan McCardle blogs:
It is common to hear Democrats/progressives complain that Republicans/conservatives/libertarians are selfish because they want to cut taxes instead of spending that money on national health insurance or expanded welfare benefits or some other social program.
But this makes absolutely no sense. Democrats are not advocating spending their own money on the poor; they're advocating spending the money of a very small group of voters who lean Republican. One might argue that this very small group of voters is selfish, but they are not the majority, or even a plurality, of Republicans staunchly opposed to taxes. Or other people opposed to taxes. Of all of the libertarian bloggers out there advocating lower taxes and social spending, I'm hard pressed to think of one who wouldn't personally benefit more from the increased social spending than from the lower taxes.
The majority of people opposed to purchasing the higher-taxes/lower-social-spending combo pack may be wrong on some utilitarian basis, but whatever their sins, they are not the sin of selfishness.
Yet public debate often features an underlying moralistic current in which Democrats act as if they have captured the moral high ground on matters of the public purse--as if advocating public charity were some lesser form of engaging in private charity. It isn't. It may be necessary to take money from third parties in order to give it to other third parties, but doing so at absolutely no personal cost to yourself is not an act of virtue.
Dave Barry on Federal audit craziness
Link
When the auditors were finally finished, they released a report that contained a number of alarming findings, including these:
It turns out that both "Lewis" and "Clark" were actually the same person, and he never got farther west than New Jersey.
Although, according to the U.S. Constitution, there are supposed to be nine members of the Supreme Court, a detailed search of the premises, including under all the desks, turned up only five.
In one three-month period, the Task Force on Reinventing the Government spent, without any formal authorization or supporting documentation, $141 million on party hats. North Dakota is missing. "We think Canada took it," stated the auditors, "but every time we called up there to ask about it, they just laughed and hung up the phone."
Now I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is, I made up the preceding audit findings. The bad news is, the real audit findings are worse. I am NOT referring to the finding that the government has no idea what happened to billions and billions of dollars.
[...]
Now, in any organization you're going to have people stealing pens, paper clips, etc. But security has to be pretty darned lax for somebody to walk off with a tugboat.
When the auditors were finally finished, they released a report that contained a number of alarming findings, including these:
It turns out that both "Lewis" and "Clark" were actually the same person, and he never got farther west than New Jersey.
Although, according to the U.S. Constitution, there are supposed to be nine members of the Supreme Court, a detailed search of the premises, including under all the desks, turned up only five.
In one three-month period, the Task Force on Reinventing the Government spent, without any formal authorization or supporting documentation, $141 million on party hats. North Dakota is missing. "We think Canada took it," stated the auditors, "but every time we called up there to ask about it, they just laughed and hung up the phone."
Now I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is, I made up the preceding audit findings. The bad news is, the real audit findings are worse. I am NOT referring to the finding that the government has no idea what happened to billions and billions of dollars.
[...]
Now, in any organization you're going to have people stealing pens, paper clips, etc. But security has to be pretty darned lax for somebody to walk off with a tugboat.
Govt refuses to release air safety data
Link
The AP sought to obtain the survey data over 14 months under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act.
"Release of the requested data, which are sensitive and safety-related, could materially affect the public confidence in, and the commercial welfare of, the air carriers and general aviation companies whose pilots participated in the survey," Luedtke wrote in a final denial letter to the AP. NASA also cited pilot confidentiality as a reason, although no airlines were identified in the survey, nor were the identities of pilots, all of whom were promised anonymity.
Among other results, the pilots reported at least twice as many bird strikes, near mid-air collisions and runway incursions as other government monitoring systems show, according to a person familiar with the results who was not authorized to discuss them publicly.
The survey also revealed higher-than-expected numbers of pilots who experienced "in-close approach changes" — potentially dangerous, last-minute instructions to alter landing plans.
Officials at the NASA Ames Research Center in California have said they want to publish their own report on the project by year's end.
Although to most people NASA is associated with spaceflight, the agency has a long and storied history of aviation safety research. Its experts study atmospheric science and airplane materials and design, among other areas.
"If the airlines aren't safe I want to know about it," said Rep. Brad Miller, D-N.C., chairman of the House Science and Technology investigations and oversight subcommittee. "I would rather not feel a false sense of security because they don't tell us."
TACIR churns out more Income tax propaganda
funded by THE TAXPAYERS.
Link
Link
Cliff Lippard, associate executive director of TACIR, said the study is one in a series of reports on local fiscal flexibility.
"We're not prescribing a solution," he said.
According to the report, families in the lower income bracket had a higher-percentage tax burden than those in the high-income brackets in all the state's counties. The difference was the largest in Williamson County, where 11 percent of poorer families' income goes toward local taxes, compared to 3.4 percent for more affluent families.
Brian Miller, a spokesman for Tennesseans for Fair Taxation, a Knoxville-based group that supports a state income tax, said the current local tax burden "disproportionately hits low-income families."
"We need to seriously revisit our tax structure," he said. "The state can make a lot of revisions that make the state system more fair."
Local Govts close the door on taxpayers
This is unbelievable....coming just weeks after a judge in Knoxville came down on local officials for secret meetings, those same local officials, through their taxpayer funded associations, are trying to shut out taxpayers.
Link
Link
Governments will ask to do more business in secret when a legislative committee meets Tuesday to consider changes in the state "sunshine law," which governs public access to meetings of government bodies.
An open-meetings subcommittee of the Joint Study Committee on Open Government will hear proposals from both sides about the Open Meetings Act, which prohibits deliberation of public business in closed meetings or by electronic communication.
Farm Subsidies survive another year
WaPo says farm subsidies survive almost universal opposition because the food stamp program is always a part of the bill...while I would fault their analysis a bit, it is a brilliant bit of taxpayer exploitation to tie food stamps to billions in corporate welfare. Government is institutionalized corruption.
Link
Link
Who would vote against a bill that helps 25 million people with emergency food aid every year and the 4 million who rely on food pantries and soup kitchens every week?
That is the quandary. There will be no deep reforms of farm policy as long as the welfare of the poor is tied to the welfare of corporate farmers. But hunger activists fear that the food stamp entitlement might disappear outside of the farm bill.
Rate your MD website
Link
The purpose of the site is to be a resource for people who want to find a good doctor. Where else can you find out what others think of your doctor? When choosing a doctor, wouldn't you like some information first? It also gives you, the user, a place to voice your opinion. Your opinion will help others find a good doctor.
The purpose of the site is to be a resource for people who want to find a good doctor. Where else can you find out what others think of your doctor? When choosing a doctor, wouldn't you like some information first? It also gives you, the user, a place to voice your opinion. Your opinion will help others find a good doctor.
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Chicago Taxpayers Revolt
Link
CHICAGO (CBS) ― Chicago residents weary of tax increases are taking a stand. They've had it with Mayor Daley threatening to tax everything from bottled water to wine, as CBS 2's Katie McCall reports.
CHICAGO (CBS) ― Chicago residents weary of tax increases are taking a stand. They've had it with Mayor Daley threatening to tax everything from bottled water to wine, as CBS 2's Katie McCall reports.
The Real war on Children
Mark Steyn nailes it. The American experiment is based on one all important premise: that each individual is sovereign and independent and worthy of the presumption of high expectations. We are turning parents into children by robbing them of every vestige of dignity.
I'm in favor of tax credits for child health care, and Health Savings Accounts for adults, and any other reform that emphasizes the citizen's responsibility to himself and his dependants. But middle-class entitlement creep would be wrong even if was affordable, even if Bill Gates wrote a check to cover it every month: it turns free-born citizens into enervated wards of the Nanny State. As Gerald Ford likes to say when trying to ingratiate himself with conservative audiences, "A government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take away everything you have." But there's an intermediate stage: A government big enough to give you everything you want isn't big enough to get you to give any of it back. As I point out in my book, nothing makes a citizen more selfish than socially equitable communitarianism: Once a fellow's enjoying the fruits of Euro-style entitlements, he couldn't give a hoot about the general societal interest; he's got his, and who cares if it's going to bankrupt the state a generation hence?
That's the real "war on children": in Europe, it's killing their future. Don't make the same mistake here.
Boy that Metro Govt can sure make the deals
Great investigative article in today's Tennessean by Sheila Wissner on the history of the Preds and how Craig Leipold will profit big time when he sells the team.
The article says that Metro taxpayers are actually the biggest investors in the project....wonder if ole Craig will send us a thank you card after he puts all that money from the sale in his pocket.
I have an idea!! Why doesn't the Metro Government concentrate on paving streets, keeping the garbage picked up and our school drop out rate and leave entertainment to the private sector.
Link
The deal gave Leipold and the Johnson family 80.1 percent of the team and Gaylord 19.9 percent. But the amount invested by each of the parties to buy the expansion team did not reflect that split, according to documents in the lawsuit.
City taxpayers actually put up the most — $20 million toward the franchise fee, plus $14.5 million for arena improvements.
The exact amount of payments Leipold made is unclear from court documents. But they show Leipold and his family contributed between $8 million and $9.6 million. For its analysis, The Tennessean assumed the highest figure.
Gaylord invested more than $12.8 million.
The final $40 million came from bank loans to be repaid by the team.
Bobby Jindal wins in Louisiana
LinkWhen he takes office in January, Jindal will become the nation's youngest governor in office. He pledged to fight corruption and rid the state of those "feeding at the public trough," revisiting a campaign theme.
"They can either go quietly or they can go loudly, but either way, they will go," he said, adding that he would call the Legislature into special session to address ethics reform.
Top 10 Repeat Offenders=1,478 arrrests
cumulative thru 2007 in Memphis. John Harvery with the Memphis PD blogs about this on Memphiscrime.blogspot.com.The top repeat offender has been arrested over 200 times.
Link
In order to "stop the madness", people are going to have to get mad. I have proposed that we pass a law that deals with the repeat offenders in such a way that they cease and desist their activities, or move to another state. I think if a person has been convicted of a misdemeanor 10 times, the next time they are arrested on any charge, their case should be escalated to a class E felony. You see, the problem is that we have over 15,000 people in Shelby County who have been arrested 10 times or more. Dealing with this group first, then looking at those who are continually moving through the "criminal justice system" (talk about a misnomer) has to be the strategy.
I heard a prosecutor explaining the other day that the law doesn't make allowances for how many times a person commits a crime. That's just insane.
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Cyberwatch Crime notification system
I came upon the crime stats in the previous post by reading John Harvey's blog. I met John last year in Memphis He is a cop and a nerd and darn good at both endeavors. After 32 years with the Shelby Cnty Sheriff's Dept, he retired and then later went to work for the Memphis PD.
He has created Cyberwatch in Memphis, an excellent tool to provide citizens notification of crimes in their neighborhood. I believe he also created the outstanding warrants database for the Shelby County Sheriff's Dept. His blog is excellent and highlights the problem of repeat offenders.
He has created Cyberwatch in Memphis, an excellent tool to provide citizens notification of crimes in their neighborhood. I believe he also created the outstanding warrants database for the Shelby County Sheriff's Dept. His blog is excellent and highlights the problem of repeat offenders.
Nashville is 7th most Dangerous?
We are the 7th most dangerous for cities 500,000 or more?
| CITIES OF 500,000 OR MORE POPULATION: (32 cities) | |||
| Safest 10: | Most Dangerous 10: | ||
| 1 | San Jose, CA | 1 | Detroit, MI |
| 2 | Honolulu, HI | 2 | Baltimore, MD |
| 3 | El Paso, TX | 3 | Memphis, TN |
| 4 | New York, NY | 4 | Washington, DC |
| 5 | Austin, TX | 5 | Philadelphia, PA |
| 6 | San Diego, CA | 6 | Dallas, TX |
| 7 | San Antonio, TX | 7 | Nashville, TN |
| 8 | Louisville, KY | 8 | Charlotte, NC |
| 9 | Fort Worth, TX | 9 | Columbus, OH |
| 10 | Jacksonville, FL | 10 | Houston, TX |
They meet in secret and don't keep notes
what could possibly go wrong.
DETROIT -- A little-known city committee empowered to give property tax exemptions to needy residents has awarded tax breaks worth thousands of dollars to apparently well-to-do homeowners, a three-month investigation by The Detroit News has found.
In some of the most egregious cases, people who own multiple houses, drive luxury vehicles and live in homes worth more than $500,000 have been granted "hardship exemptions" by the nine-member committee, which is appointed by the Detroit City Council.
The Hardship Committee keeps no notes, meets in private, has no staff and conducts no investigations of applicants. It has granted more than 14,000 applications totaling $15 million in tax exemptions over the past seven years.
Why do services degrade as govt grows?
Chicago is the textbook case of big government growing until it crushes the taxpayers and topples over of its own weight. Many city services are in shambles and yet Mayor Daley's response is higher taxes and more levels of bureaucracy....precisely the wrong solution.
When government grows to this size, the constituencies within government have far more influence than the taxpayers in the legislative body. The taxpayers only real option is to move to another, lower taxed, city.
Link: Behind the Great Tax Push
There's an old political maxim in Illinois that speaks volumes about why it's so hard to put governments on a diet.
"If you can't get a meal, at least take a sandwich," officials like to say as they cut deals with taxpayer money that can lead to bigger programs and payrolls and, sometimes, political fiefdoms.
But suddenly, it might seem, some of the state's most powerful political leaders have wearied of budget snacks and are headed for the all-you-can-eat buffet.
Eye-popping new budget plans from Mayor Richard Daley and Cook County Board President Todd Stroger ask taxpayers to pony up nearly $1.2 billion in new taxes and fees. Meanwhile, the CTA and other transit agencies are pushing for a regionwide one-quarter percent sales tax increase.
And this all follows Gov. Rod Blagojevich's failed attempt to raise $7 billion in business taxes.
Civic Federation president Laurence Msall calls it a "tsunami of tax increase proposals," but the question is, why is all this happening now?
When government grows to this size, the constituencies within government have far more influence than the taxpayers in the legislative body. The taxpayers only real option is to move to another, lower taxed, city.
Link: Behind the Great Tax Push
There's an old political maxim in Illinois that speaks volumes about why it's so hard to put governments on a diet.
"If you can't get a meal, at least take a sandwich," officials like to say as they cut deals with taxpayer money that can lead to bigger programs and payrolls and, sometimes, political fiefdoms.
But suddenly, it might seem, some of the state's most powerful political leaders have wearied of budget snacks and are headed for the all-you-can-eat buffet.
Eye-popping new budget plans from Mayor Richard Daley and Cook County Board President Todd Stroger ask taxpayers to pony up nearly $1.2 billion in new taxes and fees. Meanwhile, the CTA and other transit agencies are pushing for a regionwide one-quarter percent sales tax increase.
And this all follows Gov. Rod Blagojevich's failed attempt to raise $7 billion in business taxes.
Civic Federation president Laurence Msall calls it a "tsunami of tax increase proposals," but the question is, why is all this happening now?
Friday, October 19, 2007
TV Viewing time per household FLAT
LinkNielsen released information showing that average TV viewing for US households was flat from 2005-6 to 2006-7 at 8:14 per day.
Average Primetime household viewing fell 1 minute from 1:11 to 1:10.
That flattening and decline also take into account Live+7 viewing for 2005-6 and 2006-7, so live viewing of TV shows are showing declines, but we have no specific data.
Nielsen also said that DVR ownership more than doubled in the last 2 years to 20.5% of TV households up from 17.2% of households in May, 2007 and 8% in January, 2006.
Ron Paul at the Value Voters Summit
An extraordinary speech for anyone concerned with liberty and limited government.
British Healthcare languishes
Link
Labour has made much of its bid to "rescue" the NHS. It has presided over a kind of permanent revolution, recruiting tens of thousands of doctors and nurses (many from overseas, leading to charges of inadequate domestic training), building hospitals with the private sector, revamping hospital funding, and encouraging competition. It has also spent money: The NHS bill is to rise from £35 billion in 1998 to £110 billion (about $224 billion) by 2011.
Labour has made much of its bid to "rescue" the NHS. It has presided over a kind of permanent revolution, recruiting tens of thousands of doctors and nurses (many from overseas, leading to charges of inadequate domestic training), building hospitals with the private sector, revamping hospital funding, and encouraging competition. It has also spent money: The NHS bill is to rise from £35 billion in 1998 to £110 billion (about $224 billion) by 2011.
But critics say the extra billions have not always been well spent. A recent survey said Britain ranks 17th out of 29 European countries on a range of healthcare benchmarks, including quality of service, length of wait times, and patient information.
"We are surprised that given the massive spend on healthcare, Britain is not faring better," says Kasja Wilhelmsson, director of European affairs at the Health Consumer Powerhouse, a Brussels-based healthcare research group that conducted the survey. "For waiting times, they are pretty close to the worst in Europe. And outcomes [of treatment] is not high either.
Property Taxes an issue in Franklin
Mayor's race. A word of advice to Franklin residents meant in no way to favor either of the candidates...the candidates are listening to the taxpayers during the campaign. When the election is over and the winner is in office, he will no longer be able to hear you over the din of the taxtakers.
Link
"I would never advocate for a tax increase unless our city was in situation where we had to have one," Schroer said.
Link
"I would never advocate for a tax increase unless our city was in situation where we had to have one," Schroer said.
CNN report on intimidation by union members
including a severed cow's head placed on the car of a worker who crossed the picket lines.
Kelvin on the madness of socialized medicine
Link
I often wonder if i am the only one who sees the madness of socialized medicine, whether on a limited or unlimited scale.
Have our rugged individualism muscles become so atrophied, that we are reduced to mewling, puking children that must perpetually suckle and nurse at the leathery teat of the nanny state?
Does no one realize that if government pays your health care, it can determine how much of it you get; where and from whom you get it; and what behavior you must engage or refrain from engaging?
Those who foot the bill for socialized medicine will clamor for more regulations to reduce their tax/premium burden. Those who consume socialized medicine will clamor for more benefits.
In the end, the producers will be reduced to a position of resentful penury cheering on the coming fascist state, just as the consumers cheer on the coming leviathan state that will take care of them from cradle to grave. The few intrepid rugged individualists will be left standing alone against the tidal wave of statism, merely waiting to be swept out to oblivion, leaving a society that is nasty, brutish and short.
Time: Libertarians Rising
Link
The chance of the two political parties realigning so conveniently is slim. But the party that does well in the future will be the one that makes the better guess about where to place its bets. My money's on the libertarians. People were shocked a couple of weeks ago when Ron Paul--one of those mysterious Republicans who seem to be running for President because everyone needs a hobby--raised $5 million from July through September, mostly on the Internet. Paul is a libertarian. In fact, he was the Libertarian Party presidential candidate in 1988. The computer revolution has bred a generation of smart loners, many of them rich and some of them complacently Darwinian, convinced that they don't need society--nor should anyone else. They are going to be an increasingly powerful force in politics.
The chance of the two political parties realigning so conveniently is slim. But the party that does well in the future will be the one that makes the better guess about where to place its bets. My money's on the libertarians. People were shocked a couple of weeks ago when Ron Paul--one of those mysterious Republicans who seem to be running for President because everyone needs a hobby--raised $5 million from July through September, mostly on the Internet. Paul is a libertarian. In fact, he was the Libertarian Party presidential candidate in 1988. The computer revolution has bred a generation of smart loners, many of them rich and some of them complacently Darwinian, convinced that they don't need society--nor should anyone else. They are going to be an increasingly powerful force in politics.
TN General Assembly Travel Expenses
TN General Assembly Travel Expense Disclosure
TN Senate Per Diem and Travel Reimbursement 1st Qtr
TN Senate Per Diem and Travel Reimbursement 2nd Qtr
TN Senate Per Diem and Travel Reimbursement 3rd Qtr
TN Senate Per Diem and Travel Reimbursement 4th Qtr
TN House Per Diem and Travel Reimbursement 1st Qtr
TN House Per Diem and Travel Reimbursement 2nd Qtr
TN House Per Diem and Travel Reimbursement 3rd Qtr
TN House Per Diem and Travel Reimbursement 4th Qtr
TN Senate Per Diem and Travel Reimbursement 1st Qtr
TN Senate Per Diem and Travel Reimbursement 2nd Qtr
TN Senate Per Diem and Travel Reimbursement 3rd Qtr
TN Senate Per Diem and Travel Reimbursement 4th Qtr
TN House Per Diem and Travel Reimbursement 1st Qtr
TN House Per Diem and Travel Reimbursement 2nd Qtr
TN House Per Diem and Travel Reimbursement 3rd Qtr
TN House Per Diem and Travel Reimbursement 4th Qtr
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Alexander, Wamp hit taxpayers below belt
Senator Jim Demint and Rep. John Campbell very bravely tried to stop a taxpayer funded $2 million earmark to create a monument to the very powerful Rep. Charlie Rangel, The Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service. This in spite of House Rules which prevent naming monuments after sitting members.
Rep. Jim Cooper was the lone Democrat to vote against this ridiculous earmark, kudos to him. All other TN Dems voted for this earmark.
Reps Blackburn, David Davis, and Duncan, along with Sen. Corker voted against this earmark.
Senator Alexander and Rep. Wamp both voted in favor of this travesty. Zach Wamp is showing himself to be the quintessential BIG SPENDING REPUBLICAN, and Senator Alexander failed us big time also.
Senate Vote
House Vote
Rep. Jim Cooper was the lone Democrat to vote against this ridiculous earmark, kudos to him. All other TN Dems voted for this earmark.
Reps Blackburn, David Davis, and Duncan, along with Sen. Corker voted against this earmark.
Senator Alexander and Rep. Wamp both voted in favor of this travesty. Zach Wamp is showing himself to be the quintessential BIG SPENDING REPUBLICAN, and Senator Alexander failed us big time also.
Senate Vote
House Vote
Willie Nelson H & R Block Tax Ad
Willie had his troubles with the IRS so he became a spokesman for H & R Block...a new trend?
Romania launches pension overhaul
Romania GETS IT!! Private accounts for young workers.
Link
Link
Starting in 2008, 2% of every worker's general income will be redirected from the state budget to the chosen private fund. This contribution will gradually increase to 6% by 2015, and the current 9.5% social security contribution to the state system will diminish accordingly.
"Several million Romanians will become investors, and the private pension system will educate them in the spirit of a free market economy," says Romanian President Traian Basescu.
"The launch of the private pension system marks the end of the process of transition from a socialist economy to a capitalist one, creating the premises for a long-term economic stability," says Finance Minister Varujan Vosganian. "The privatisation of the public pension system will thus ensure the transition from populism to guaranteeing the freedom and dignity of retired people."
60% of fake bombs escape screeners
Link
WASHINGTON — Security screeners at two of the nation's busiest airports failed to find fake bombs hidden on undercover agents posing as passengers in more than 60% of tests last year, according to a classified report obtained by USA TODAY.
Screeners at Los Angeles International Airport missed about 75% of simulated explosives and bomb parts that Transportation Security Administration testers hid under their clothes or in carry-on bags at checkpoints, the TSA report shows.
Eye Scanner Security- A little creepy
LinkAccording to many security experts, iris recognition is likely the most fail-proof and high-tech security tool out there, which is why companies like Panasonic are jumping into the cargo of this possibly profitable ride. Panasonic’s upcoming scanner, the BM-ET200, is voice activated (with intimidating prompts like “stand up straight”) and identifies a user within 0.3 seconds. It can be modded to hold over 10,000 user records and is expected to start selling near a $2,500 tag when it becomes available in the US next year.
Clueless Hamilton County Commissioners
"Here is some taxpayer money...and by the way...could you PLEASE tell me why you need this taxpayer money?...oh you can't give me a reason? No problem, just take it anyway."
un^%$#believable...these County Commissioners in Hamilton County (Chattanooga) know absolutely NOTHING about these corporate welfare projects. All they know is they want to give away the taxpayers money as quickly as possible:
Link
Dr. Casavant asked the four companies' attorney, Alfred Smith, what types of tax break programs other counties offer.
un^%$#believable...these County Commissioners in Hamilton County (Chattanooga) know absolutely NOTHING about these corporate welfare projects. All they know is they want to give away the taxpayers money as quickly as possible:
Link
Dr. Casavant asked the four companies' attorney, Alfred Smith, what types of tax break programs other counties offer.
"It varies," (thats it? it varies) Mr. Smith said, noting that several rural counties offer more sweeping and longer-term breaks.
Mr. Skillern and several other commissioners questioned Mr. Smith, as well as representatives from the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce, in their Oct. 9 agenda meeting.
Commissioner Warren Mackey said several constituents asked about the impact of a facility FedEx Ground plans to put in his district. He said he had gotten no information about the project at the time.
Dr. Mackey said Wednesday that he supports the projects but would like more information. (YA THINK!!!!!!)
GOP candidates courting anti-tax activists
Link
WASHINGTON -- Republican presidential candidates Fred Thompson and Rudy Giuliani sparred Wednesday at an anti-tax summit over their records on taxes.
"While I was fighting for tax cuts in Congress, others were opposing tax cuts in New York state," Mr. Thompson said, referring to Mr. Giuliani, a former mayor of New York City. "Others were claiming not to be raising taxes but were instead raising every state-mandated fee and imposing hidden taxes on unsuspecting taxpayers."
Mr. Giuliani, who spoke before Mr. Thompson at the conservative Club for Growth forum, said he cut taxes at least 15 times as mayor, while lessening regulations on businesses, which he said stemmed a tide of corporations moving out of New York City.
"At 15-0 on tax reductions, I lead all of my opponents," Mr. Giuliani said. "I can support what I believe by my results. That is a big distinction between me and the other candidates, Republican and Democrat."
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Senator wants to ban lobbyist seat fillers
Link
WASHINGTON (AP) - A Washington lobbyist has many things to do and standing in line for a seat in an important hearing isn't usually one. Instead, they often pay someone else to do it for them.
Now a freshman senator wants to ban the practice.
Missouri Democrat Claire McCaskill is proposing a bill that would require lobbyists to certify twice a year that they have not paid anyone to save a seat for them.
The senator says hiring professional "line-standers" reinforces the culture of buying access to Congress. She also argues that it prevents ordinary citizens from getting into crammed hearing rooms and seeing the legislative process at work.
McCaskill announced her proposal outside a Senate hearing room, where dozens of paid line-standers had been waiting since 3 a.m.. As she spoke, lawyers, lobbyists and others with a stake in the hearing arrived, having paid up to $60 an hour to secure a good seat.
One line-stander said he understood the senator's position, but countered that it's a free market and anyone can come wait.
Rudy says no tax hike to fix SocSec
Link
WASHINGTON -- Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani ruled out a tax increase Wednesday to help shore up Social Security, a slight shift in position designed to reassure anti-tax conservatives.
The former New York mayor also said the best remedy for the current housing slump would be for Congress to make President Bush's tax cuts permanent, adding that would "do much much more for the economy than a tailored bailout."
I'll see your tax hike and raise you two more
Chicago has entered the twilight zone of governance......its like they are competing with New Jersey to see how fast they can depopulate.
Link
Link
(Crain's) — Cook County Board President Todd Stroger on Wednesday raised his tax hike ante, proposing a fiscal 2008 budget that includes not only the huge sales tax increase that already has been rejected once by the County Board, but more than $100 million in additional new levies.
He also asked for a $2.4-million increase in the property tax levy to pay for the county's forest preserve system.
Though most funds would be used to fill budget holes, Mr. Stroger conceded that his proposed spending plan would increase the county's employee head count 1,100 jobs, about a 5% increase. The new jobs are needed to cut waiting lines and restore health services at Stroger Hospital, modernize data processing and meet court orders for staffing at the county jail, he said.
49% want to leave New Jersey
Link
The Monmouth University/Gannett New Jersey Poll found 49 percent of New Jersey adults would like to move out of the state, compared to 44 percent who would prefer to stay and 7 percent who are unsure.
The poll found 51 percent of those who want to leave say they're very likely to make good on that wish, with most of the those who want to leave adults less than 50 years of age and earning between $50,000 and $100,000 per year.
[...]
When lost income and sales taxes from the people who left New Jersey are considered, the population drain is estimated to have cost the state $680 million in tax revenue last year, the report found.
The latest poll found 28 percent of people wanting to leave citing America's highest property taxes as the leading reason; 19 percent mentioned the state's generally high cost-of-living, with 6 percent citing housing costs and 5 percent citing state taxes.
Jesse Jackson Jr hits Mayor Daley over Tax Hike
Link
Middle-class city taxpayers are already weary from carrying the heavy cost of waste, fraud and abuse. They deserve better government. Now.
When I was exploring a possible run for mayor, many people defended Mayor Daley. Almost universally, residents expressed to me how beautiful the flowers were downtown.
At the same time, local newspapers reported more corruption and scandal.
The flower boxes are nice. But now the mayor wants you to ante up for all the dirt.
Middle-class city taxpayers are already weary from carrying the heavy cost of waste, fraud and abuse. They deserve better government. Now.
When I was exploring a possible run for mayor, many people defended Mayor Daley. Almost universally, residents expressed to me how beautiful the flowers were downtown.
At the same time, local newspapers reported more corruption and scandal.
The flower boxes are nice. But now the mayor wants you to ante up for all the dirt.
Blizzard Babies in Denver
Link
(CNN) -- The weather can affect your travel, your mood and apparently the size of your family.
(CNN) -- The weather can affect your travel, your mood and apparently the size of your family.
Denver hospitals are reporting a baby boom, which is arriving about nine months after two blizzards walloped Colorado's capital city. With roads shut down for days, couples were stuck at home and apparently cuddled up to stay warm.
Marjorie Silva told the Rocky Mountain News that she has a new baby because she didn't want her husband to play in the snow during the blizzard.
Stretching before exercise is waste of time
Link
The elaborate limbering up routines favoured by many athletes and gym-goers do little to prevent muscle aches and stiffness, researchers found.
Stretching muscles after exercise may be equally pointless, they say.
The findings, published today in a respected medical journal, are likely to prove fiercely contentious as fitness experts have long advised that stretching is vital to increase flexibility, improve performance and reduce the risk of injury.
Judge says Fed Govt can withhold Employee records
Link
It's a bad decision. It flies in the face of 220 years of federal history," said Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. "Who is employed by the federal government and what they make has never been kept a secret in this country, unless you're a covert operative. This is an example of privacy interests running amok.
"I just think the court found some legitimacy in the government's arguments and then went too far and accepted them wholesale. What the court should have done is considered the public right to information and the need for accountability about salaries and focused its decision to protect the specific privacy issues OPM raised," she said.
It's a bad decision. It flies in the face of 220 years of federal history," said Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. "Who is employed by the federal government and what they make has never been kept a secret in this country, unless you're a covert operative. This is an example of privacy interests running amok.
Meredith Fuchs, general counsel at the National Security Archive at George Washington University, called Mordue's ruling a "blunderbuss approach."
"I just think the court found some legitimacy in the government's arguments and then went too far and accepted them wholesale. What the court should have done is considered the public right to information and the need for accountability about salaries and focused its decision to protect the specific privacy issues OPM raised," she said.
Washington Cnty Wheel Tax Petitions Turned in
LinkThe organizer of a drive for a referendum on Washington County’s recently enacted wheel tax said Tuesday he had exceeded his goal when he submitted petitions bearing 7,000 signatures to Washington County Elections Administrator Connie Sinks.
Reiterating that his goal had been 6,000 signatures, James Reeves arrived at the Washington County Courthouse in Jonesborough around 3 p.m. with a briefcase containing 769 petitions calling for a wheel tax referendum.
The effort is in response to a $50 wheel tax approved by the Washington County Commission last month. It is slated to go into effect on July 1.
If Reeves’ petitions contain at least 3,403 valid signatures, a referendum is likely to appear on the Feb. 5 presidential primary ballot.
“I feel a whole lot better knowing that I turned in 7,000 signatures,” Reeves said, admitting that he was anxious to get the petitions to the Election Commission after collecting them the night before.
House votes to renew Internet tax block
for 4 years. It will probably pass the Senate also. Unfortunately Senator Alexander continues to oppose a permanent ban on internet access taxes...because oh his and others' opposition we will have to fight this battle again in four years.
Link
Many lawmakers favor a permanent tax break. But 1 of the bill's sponsors argued that a temporary ban is the right way to go for both political and practical reasons. North Carolina Democrat Mel Watt says the Senate has made it clear that a permanent tax moratorium would be "dead on arrival." Watt argued that without quick action, the ban was in danger of expiring before new legislation could pass.
Link
Many lawmakers favor a permanent tax break. But 1 of the bill's sponsors argued that a temporary ban is the right way to go for both political and practical reasons. North Carolina Democrat Mel Watt says the Senate has made it clear that a permanent tax moratorium would be "dead on arrival." Watt argued that without quick action, the ban was in danger of expiring before new legislation could pass.
"I will not accept lobbyist money"...oh ,wait
Link
For the second straight quarter, U.S. Representative Zack Space, D-OH, reported receiving thousands of dollars in contributions from Washington, DC, lobbyists, even though he signed a 2006 pledge promising not to accept their support, Majority Accountability Project ( www.majorityap.com) research has found. Space's biggest take was from the lobby shop of Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Preston Gates Ellis. The firm's political action committee (PAC) gave Space $1,000 in September, and two lobbyists and an attorney with the firm combined for an additional $1,350, bringing Space's total for $2,350. Another DC firm, Kelley Drye Collier Shannon, gave Space $1,000 in July.
For the second straight quarter, U.S. Representative Zack Space, D-OH, reported receiving thousands of dollars in contributions from Washington, DC, lobbyists, even though he signed a 2006 pledge promising not to accept their support, Majority Accountability Project ( www.majorityap.com) research has found. Space's biggest take was from the lobby shop of Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Preston Gates Ellis. The firm's political action committee (PAC) gave Space $1,000 in September, and two lobbyists and an attorney with the firm combined for an additional $1,350, bringing Space's total for $2,350. Another DC firm, Kelley Drye Collier Shannon, gave Space $1,000 in July.
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
90% say Fed Govt does a Poor Job
spending taxpayer dollars.
Nearly 90 percent of Americans believe the federal government does a poor job spending taxpayer dollars and managing its programs efficiently, according to a new online survey.
The results of the "America Inc." survey, conducted in August by Primavera Systems, a software firm based in Bala Cynwyd, Pa., and O'Keefe & Co., a marketing and communications firm based in Alexandria, Va., also indicate a difference between the public's and federal managers' perceptions of the government's performance.
Wiping the educational slate clean
Link
All city school districts - Boston included - suffer from the same disease that afflicted New Orleans before Katrina. Because of their position as monopoly providers of public education, urban districts invariably become overgrown bureaucracies that manage schools through elaborate, highly politicized systems of command and control that reward compliance with district rules rather than student achievement. Even for independent-minded school leaders, change can be nearly impossible because of powerful teachers' unions, which hamstring principals in hiring, firing, managing, and rewarding their teachers
All city school districts - Boston included - suffer from the same disease that afflicted New Orleans before Katrina. Because of their position as monopoly providers of public education, urban districts invariably become overgrown bureaucracies that manage schools through elaborate, highly politicized systems of command and control that reward compliance with district rules rather than student achievement. Even for independent-minded school leaders, change can be nearly impossible because of powerful teachers' unions, which hamstring principals in hiring, firing, managing, and rewarding their teachers
Health Care: Hazardous to Your Health?
Link
In the United States, HAIs (Hospital-acquired infections) are estimated to occur in 5 percent of all acute care hospitalizations, resulting in more than $4.5 billion in excess health care costs.[6] According to a survey of U.S. hospitals by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),[7] HAIs accounted for about 1.7 million infections and about 99,000 associated deaths in 2002.[8] The CDC reports: "The number of HAIs exceeded the number of cases of any currently notifiable disease, and deaths associated with HAIs in hospitals exceeded the number attributable to several of the top ten leading causes of death in U.S. vital statistics."
Monday, October 15, 2007
R.I Gov to cut 1,000 Govt jobs
Link
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) -- Gov. Don Carcieri announced Monday that he would eliminate more than 1,000 state jobs to help close an estimated $200 million budget deficit in Rhode Island, where the state is the largest employer.
Under the plan, 1,016 full-time positions - or about 7 percent of the current state work force - will be eliminated through layoffs and attrition, Carcieri said. That total includes state workers and contractors who have retired or quit since July.
The Republican governor promised to close the rest of the deficit by seeking concessions from labor unions and cutting spending on social programs.
"This is going to be one of the hardest things that has ever been done in state government," Carcieri said. "Either we do the hard work now or, by doing nothing, we will pass on the burden to our children."
Metro Council wants to Close Open meetings!!
Taxpayers be damned according to Ronnie Steine and Rip Ryman. They want citizens and press barred from meetings where non-profits are deciding how to spend Taxpayer money...what!!!!!
S-Town breaks the news:
Council Members Ronnie Steine and Rip Ryman are co-sponsoring an ordinance Tuesday night to repeal a previous bill sponsored by ex-member John Summers that requires non-profit boards to make their directors' meetings open to the public when deliberating the expenditure of Metro earmarks.
S-Town breaks the news:
Council Members Ronnie Steine and Rip Ryman are co-sponsoring an ordinance Tuesday night to repeal a previous bill sponsored by ex-member John Summers that requires non-profit boards to make their directors' meetings open to the public when deliberating the expenditure of Metro earmarks.
$34 Billion Tax Cuts in Australia
Link
Prime Minister John Howard and Treasurer Peter Costello have made their first election campaign outing as "The Team" with a dramatic announcement of tax cuts worth $34 billion over five years.
They chose the first day of the election campaign to release early the mid-year budget review and said the money to cover the cuts would come from significantly improved growth forecasts and employment growth.
The cuts would leave enough in the kitty for a healthy budget surplus, Mr Costello said.
50 people charged with Tenncare Fraud
Link
LIVINGSTON, Tenn. (AP) - Fifty people accused of TennCare fraud were being sought in Overton County in what officials are calling the biggest such bust in the state.
Overton County Sheriff's deputies, assisted by law officers from several surrounding counties, and the Office of Inspector General began a roundup of suspects in the case late last week.
[...]
NYT-New Group to provide investigations
Link
The nonprofit group, called Pro Publica, will pitch each project to a newspaper or magazine (and occasionally to other media) where the group hopes the work will make the strongest impression. The plan is to do long-term projects, uncovering misdeeds in government, business and organizations.
Nothing quite like it has been attempted, and despite having a lot going for it, Pro Publica will be something of an experiment, inventing its practices by trial and error. It remains to be seen how well it can attract talent and win the cooperation of the mainstream media.
Sunday, October 14, 2007
WOW-Seattle Times Earmark Investigation
The Seattle Times has done an extraordinary job of investigating Congressional Earmarks. The picture is of a $4.5 million boat that nobody wanted....except a contractor who had contributed huge amounts to Sen. Patty Murray and Congressmen Norm Dicks and Brian Baird....all Washington State Members of Congress. Link
The Navy paid $4.5 million to build the boat. But months before the hull ever touched water, the Navy gave the boat to the University of Washington. The school never found a use for it, either.
Why would the Navy waste taxpayer dollars on a boat that nobody wanted?
Blame it on Sen. Patty Murray and Congressmen Norm Dicks and Brian Baird. All three exercised their political muscle to slip language into a 2002 spending bill to force the Navy to buy the boat from Edmonds shipbuilder Guardian Marine International.
Year after year, the Washington lawmakers did favors for the tiny company, inserting four "earmarks" into different bills to force the Navy and Coast Guard to buy boats they didn't ask for — $17.65 million in all. None of the boats was used as Congress intended.
The congressional trio say they were helping Guardian Marine because it had a great product. But each has also received generous campaign donations from the company's three executives, its sole employees: $14,277 to Baird, $15,000 to Murray, and $16,750 to Dicks.
Oklahoma Toll Road Poll
This is particularly interesting since toll roads have been used for many years in Oklahoma. Apparently their popularity has not increased over time.
Link
Which one of the following do you think is the best way to pay for new roads? Toll roads? Gas taxes? By using state funding from other areas? Or some other way?
Link
Which one of the following do you think is the best way to pay for new roads? Toll roads? Gas taxes? By using state funding from other areas? Or some other way?
| 21% | Toll Roads |
| 15% | Gas Taxes |
| 43% | Other State Funding |
| 16% | Some Other Way |
| 4% | Not Sure |
This is priceless!! Colleges fight Govt Intrusion
There is a movement afoot in Congress to force colleges with mega billion endowments to use more of their endowment income to reduce tuition.
How do the colleges react? The same colleges which are filled with academics who constantly recommend that government run our lives.
You guessed it, they don't want the Congress meddling in their business:
"We don't think as a general matter the federal government ought to be telling private philanthropic organizations, that have been around in some cases since before the federal government, how to spend their money," said Terry Hartle, senior vice president of the American Council on Education, the main group representing colleges and universities in Washington.
How do the colleges react? The same colleges which are filled with academics who constantly recommend that government run our lives.
You guessed it, they don't want the Congress meddling in their business:
"We don't think as a general matter the federal government ought to be telling private philanthropic organizations, that have been around in some cases since before the federal government, how to spend their money," said Terry Hartle, senior vice president of the American Council on Education, the main group representing colleges and universities in Washington.
You veel believe and you veel LIKE IT!!
George Will on political indoctrination in college social work curriculum.
Link
They are teachers at public universities, in schools of social work. A study prepared by the National Association of Scholars, a group that combats political correctness on campuses, reviews social work education programs at 10 major public universities and comes to this conclusion: Such programs mandate an ideological orthodoxy to which students must subscribe concerning "social justice" and "oppression."
Link
They are teachers at public universities, in schools of social work. A study prepared by the National Association of Scholars, a group that combats political correctness on campuses, reviews social work education programs at 10 major public universities and comes to this conclusion: Such programs mandate an ideological orthodoxy to which students must subscribe concerning "social justice" and "oppression."
The Council on Social Work Education (CSWE), the national accreditor of social work education programs, encourages -- not that encouragement is required -- the ideological permeation of the curricula, including mandatory student advocacy. The CSWE says students must demonstrate an ability to "understand the forms and mechanisms of oppression and discrimination."
[...]
Schools' mission statements, student manuals and course descriptions are clotted with the vocabulary of "progressive" cant -- "diversity," "inclusion," "classism," "ethnocentrism," "racism," "sexism," "heterosexism," "ageism," "white privilege," "ableism," "contextualizes subjects," "cultural imperialism," "social identities and positionalities," "biopsychosocial" problems, "a just share of society's resources," and on and on. What goes on under the cover of this miasma of jargon? Just what the American Association of University Professors warned against in its 1915 "Declaration of Principles" -- teachers "indoctrinating" students.
"Dr. Granholm, you have killed the economy"
Another ad by the Michigan GOP. This one a soap opera spoof where "Dr. Granholm" is called in to help the patient (the economy) and the only thing she can recommend is to kill the economy with higher taxes.
Ad Link - MP3
Ad Link - MP3
The Arrogance of Congress knows no bounds
Making special laws to benefit members of Congress...this is sickening.
Link
Link
The arrangement was one of the most visible efforts, but hardly the only one, to get around new rules passed by Congress this summer limiting meals, travel, gifts and campaign contributions from lobbyists and companies that employ them.
Last week, Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) and Republican leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) found bipartisan agreement on maintaining one special privilege. Together they put language into a defense appropriations bill that would keep legal the practice of some senators of booking several flights on days they return home, keeping the most convenient reservation and dumping the rest without paying cancellation fees -- a practice some airlines say could violate the new law.
85% of Foreclosures hitting Speculators
Link
Combining the RealtyTrac figures with data from the Clark County assessor's office, the analysis found that 74 percent of all single-family homes in foreclosure during the past six months were owned by investors who did not live in the homes.
Roughly 85 percent of actual auctions or repossessions of homes from March 1 through Aug. 31 involved properties not occupied by their owners, the figures show.
Washington County Wheel Tax Petition Drive
Washington County Wheel Tax Petition organizer James Reeves is trying to get 6,000 signatures to put the $50 wheel tax increase on the ballot so the taxpayers can say whether they are both willing and able to pay additional taxes.Link
Reeves, organizer of the wheel tax petition, said he expects to have 6,000 signatures in hand by Tuesday to present to the Washington County Election Commission.
“Right now, I have about 3,700 myself, with about 1,500 out there,” Reeves said on Friday.
The petition is in response to a $50 wheel tax approved by the Washington County Commission last month. It is slated to go into effect on July 1.
Dept of Revenue refuses open records request
The Department of Revenue has FAR too much power over our lives to be this arrogant towards press and citizens. Gov. Bredesen needs to step in quickly and reign in this abuse.
LInk
Revenue officials launched a program Sept. 21 to keep an eye on tobacco retailers just over state lines to spot and seize cigarettes from anyone bringing in too many.
LInk
Revenue officials launched a program Sept. 21 to keep an eye on tobacco retailers just over state lines to spot and seize cigarettes from anyone bringing in too many.
But the department refused to grant an Associated Press information request Friday to find out how widespread the enforcement has been since the policy went into effect.
Revenue spokeswoman Sophie Moery said officials can't release the information because of concerns about violating taxpayer confidentiality.
Update: This Chattanooga Times Free Press article about border county cigarette retailers loosing business also quotes Dept of Revenue spokesman Sophie Moery:
Ms. Moery said revenue agents have made about 20 stops since the increased enforcement began, but there have been no arrests or citations. She said there is no inventory yet of contraband seized during the traffic stops.
Taxpayer funded Campaign contributions
The new Montgomery County County Clerk's web site HERE is the latest example of very blatant, and illegal, taxpayer funded campaign contributions. TN County Clerks are among the worst offenders,
There is absolutely NO reason for the campaign brochure on the center front page of this web site.
Update: Got an email from a reader saying they couldn't find the "campaign brochure." I was referring to the picture and the two paragraphs next to the picture which are clearly meant to promote the clerk and have nothing to with making the web site more useful to the citizens. Local Government web sites, in particular, are looking more and more like campaign brochures.
Most local government officials would dismiss any such criticism as petty BUT if a bill was introduced in the General Assembly limiting pictures and information about local officials to a secondary location on web sites they would fight it tooth and nail.
There are MANY reasons term limits are so popular....this is just one of them.
There is absolutely NO reason for the campaign brochure on the center front page of this web site.
Update: Got an email from a reader saying they couldn't find the "campaign brochure." I was referring to the picture and the two paragraphs next to the picture which are clearly meant to promote the clerk and have nothing to with making the web site more useful to the citizens. Local Government web sites, in particular, are looking more and more like campaign brochures.
Most local government officials would dismiss any such criticism as petty BUT if a bill was introduced in the General Assembly limiting pictures and information about local officials to a secondary location on web sites they would fight it tooth and nail.
There are MANY reasons term limits are so popular....this is just one of them.
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Rep. Susan Lynn on a free market in cable
Amen to her eloquent post. Once again local government officials are the problem. They are fighting this expansion of a free and open cable market because it threatens what they perceive as "their" slice of the cable franchise fees. As usual the county Mayors and Commissioners, and their taxpayer funded associations, identify their interests as being separate and apart from those of the very citizens they are supposed to serve.
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We do not require telephone companies or internet service providers to operate using the same local franchise agreement process; rather, they operate statewide, taking advantage of economies of scale. In fact, the local franchise process is what has allowed companies to cherry pick the most lucrative towns and cities for years leaving many areas without competition and service.
Statewide franchising is a way to streamline the work required to obtain a contract to operate, stimulate the capital investment necessary to expand service, and encourage a competitive atmosphere among providers, thereby creating real choice and competition for every consumer in our state.
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We do not require telephone companies or internet service providers to operate using the same local franchise agreement process; rather, they operate statewide, taking advantage of economies of scale. In fact, the local franchise process is what has allowed companies to cherry pick the most lucrative towns and cities for years leaving many areas without competition and service.
Statewide franchising is a way to streamline the work required to obtain a contract to operate, stimulate the capital investment necessary to expand service, and encourage a competitive atmosphere among providers, thereby creating real choice and competition for every consumer in our state.
Video No better than an audio in some committees
Before the TN General Assembly started posting videos online they recorded audio of major committee meetings. The audio was ok but video is much, much better. Unfortunately, some of the committee rooms have very minimal video capabilities and very important committee meetings., like the one below on open records, are no better than audio. This needs to be fixed so all committees are recorded using the same high quality video.
Incidentally, Marc Perrusquia, of the Commercial Appeal, starts testifying at 2:02:20 about how important it is for newspapers to be able to track criminals using open records. Good stuff. (You can slide the progess bar around to any point once you click on the link and bring up the Windows Media Player.)
Committee Video
Incidentally, Marc Perrusquia, of the Commercial Appeal, starts testifying at 2:02:20 about how important it is for newspapers to be able to track criminals using open records. Good stuff. (You can slide the progess bar around to any point once you click on the link and bring up the Windows Media Player.)
Committee Video
Famous last words - "we take the toll off"
AP article from: June 5, 2007
Rep. Harry Brooks, R-Knoxville, said he'd received a suggestion from other states that already use tolls for transportation projects.
"If we ever do a tollway, we should set up a plan where there's a definite date that we take the toll off," he said.
Rep. Harry Brooks, R-Knoxville, said he'd received a suggestion from other states that already use tolls for transportation projects.
"If we ever do a tollway, we should set up a plan where there's a definite date that we take the toll off," he said.
Pork on Ga Golf Courses-FORE!!!
Government funded golf courses are an insult to taxpayers!!
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Rutledge — Golfers pay about $40 to play at Hard Labor Creek, a state park about an hour east of Atlanta. Taxpayers chip in another $5 per round at the money-losing golf course.
That's a bargain compared with a round of golf at Brazzell's Creek in Reidsville. Taxpayers subsidize players at the South Georgia course to the tune of $29 per round. And the little-used golf course is undergoing a $3 million upgrade, trading nine holes for 18, paid for by, yup, taxpayers.
Georgia's seven state-run golf courses lost $1 million in fiscal year 2006. Since 2002, losses have averaged $941,000 a year.
"It's pretty ridiculous, isn't it?" said former state Sen. Robert Lamutt, an east Cobb Republican who railed against golf course spending while serving in the General Assembly. "Is that government's job? To take [tax money] from me, by force of law, to give to somebody down in South Georgia so they can have a golf course?
Memphis Kids were never in danger, taxpayers were
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In a statement, School Superintendent Dan Ward said "Our internal audit team worked diligently to address all CNC practices deemed to be inconsistent with the long established standard for safe and sound operations. All questionable food items have been safely removed."
But that questionable spoiled food cooked up to a $600,000 loss for the school system.
School board member Wanda Halbert says kids were never in danger with the bad food, but when you are talking about serving tens of thousands of students, things have to be in order.
Friday, October 12, 2007
Now THIS is a lobbyist
HERE is the invite
This is the latest event listed here:
TN Ethics Commissions List of Lobbyist sponsored events
Come on smokers...lets fire up those cigs!!
What is wrong with YOU people!! Don't you know we are depending on you. And while you are picking up a few smokes, grab a few pick 3 lottery cards and help us out there also.
What is that you say? You may have problems with your other obligations? Don't worry!!, we will pay for your children's school lunches, and be sure to sign up for CoverKids so we can pay for your children's health insurance. Your State Government is looking out for YOU....so smoke those cigs and play that lottery and we will take care of your children. WE CARE!!!
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Tobacco tax collections for the month were $20.6 million - more than $10 million higher than the same month last year but still $9.6 million below projections.
What is that you say? You may have problems with your other obligations? Don't worry!!, we will pay for your children's school lunches, and be sure to sign up for CoverKids so we can pay for your children's health insurance. Your State Government is looking out for YOU....so smoke those cigs and play that lottery and we will take care of your children. WE CARE!!!
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Tobacco tax collections for the month were $20.6 million - more than $10 million higher than the same month last year but still $9.6 million below projections.
Poll: most Virginians favor budget cuts
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Most Virginians say the state's cash-strapped budget should be balanced by cutting spending -- not raising taxes.
Most Virginians say the state's cash-strapped budget should be balanced by cutting spending -- not raising taxes.
I will raise your taxes...me too!!
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New York Sen. Hillary Clinton is coming under fire from Democratic rival John Edwards on the hot-button issue of Social Security taxes for the wealthy.
The indignation of the Edwards campaign was unleashed Thursday when a reporter for The Associated Press wrote that she had overheard Clinton, who has rejected the Edwards plan in public, privately tell a prospective voter she would consider a Social Security tax hike that resembles the approach favored by the former North Carolina senator.
You mean "Free" health care isn't "free"?
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Thousands of Britons who have taken early retirement and moved to France are to lose free health care under radical reforms introduced by France's new president.
In his drive to kick-start the French economy by creating a culture of hard work, Nicolas Sarkozy believes those who chose to retire early - under 65 - should not benefit from free health care.
During his election campaign earlier this year Mr Sarkozy said: "If you think 53 makes you old enough to retire, then fine, go ahead and retire. But don't expect the state to pay for it."
Thousands of Britons who have taken early retirement and moved to France are to lose free health care under radical reforms introduced by France's new president.
In his drive to kick-start the French economy by creating a culture of hard work, Nicolas Sarkozy believes those who chose to retire early - under 65 - should not benefit from free health care.
During his election campaign earlier this year Mr Sarkozy said: "If you think 53 makes you old enough to retire, then fine, go ahead and retire. But don't expect the state to pay for it."
Thursday, October 11, 2007
10 MI Reps targeted for Recall for tax hike vote
5 Dems and 5 Repubs.
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Proposed petition language was submitted to the Macomb County Clerk at 3:22 p.m., citing Bieda's votes in favor of the tax hikes during the state budget showdown, which ended in the early morning hours of Oct. 1.
Nine more lawmakers who supported one or both of the tax hikes -- 4 more Democrats and 5 Republicans -- will have petitions submitted within a week, said former state Rep. Leon Drolet, head of an anti-tax group helping to organize the recall campaigns.
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Proposed petition language was submitted to the Macomb County Clerk at 3:22 p.m., citing Bieda's votes in favor of the tax hikes during the state budget showdown, which ended in the early morning hours of Oct. 1.
Nine more lawmakers who supported one or both of the tax hikes -- 4 more Democrats and 5 Republicans -- will have petitions submitted within a week, said former state Rep. Leon Drolet, head of an anti-tax group helping to organize the recall campaigns.
Medicaid enrollment down
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WASHINGTON (AP) — For the first time in nearly a decade, enrollment in the nation's health insurance program for the poor fell during the fiscal year ending June 30, says a new survey of state Medicaid directors.
In turn, that drop led to the second smallest increase in Medicaid spending during the past decade — 2.9 percent.
Medicaid directors attributed the 0.5 percent enrollment decline to a solid economy and to new documentation checks that require beneficiaries to prove their citizenship or that they are qualified legal immigrants.
Before July 1, 2006, beneficiaries could attest to their citizenship by checking a box on their application. Now, they have to provide documentation, such as a birth certificate and driver's license.
Will Tolls on TN Toll Roads Ever Go Away? NO
From the 9-25-07 Joint Transportation Committee, Senator Jack Johnson asks if the Tolls on Toll Roads would go away after the toll road debt is paid off. Ed Cole, with TDOT, says no, the money will continue to go into a toll fund so it can be used on other projects.
RI Legislator took bribes to block free market
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Gerard Martineau was accused of agreeing to block pending pharmacy freedom-of-choice legislation, which would have allowed consumers to fill prescriptions at any drug store rather than within a preferred pharmacy network.
Gerard Martineau was accused of agreeing to block pending pharmacy freedom-of-choice legislation, which would have allowed consumers to fill prescriptions at any drug store rather than within a preferred pharmacy network.
Pork really is a white meat
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"...the average white Democrat got $12 million in special projects. Black Democrats got $6.1 million and Hispanic Dems got $5.7 million. Interestingly enough, minorities in the Democratic Caucus got less on average than the $8.7 million that the average Republican secured ."
"...the average white Democrat got $12 million in special projects. Black Democrats got $6.1 million and Hispanic Dems got $5.7 million. Interestingly enough, minorities in the Democratic Caucus got less on average than the $8.7 million that the average Republican secured ."
"I have a million ideas. The country can't afford them all."
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Clinton recently floated the idea of issuing a $5,000 bond to each baby born in the United States to help pay for college and a first home, but it immediately inspired Republican ridicule and she quickly said she would not implement the proposal.
She defended that decision yesterday, saying she is focusing on proposals with more political support and she is not formally proposing anything she can't fund without increasing the deficit: "I have a million ideas. The country can't afford them all."
Dems shake the money tree
Don Luskin's insider suggests that the threatened tax on private equity by the Dems was just a subtle bit of extortion to get money from the rich guys.
Dems draining the swamp?
LInk
WASHINGTON - Here's how the Democrats "drained the swamp" and ended the Republicans' "culture of corruption" on Capitol Hill: Roll Call recently reported that three top Democrats on the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee got more than $100 million in earmarks for clients of the PMA Group, an Arlington-based lobbying shop run by their former chiefs of staff.
The earmark recipients coincidentally (we are supposed to believe) donated $542,350 during the first half of this year to the ethically challenged trio — Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va., and Rep. Peter Visclosky, D-Ind. This cozy arrangement is apparently OK under the House's new ethics rules. "Unless you can demonstrate a quid pro quo, it's hard to prove campaign contributions were made to yield an earmark," Steve Ellis, vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense, told The Examiner.
Micro loans to entrepreneurs in developing countries
Kiva.org allows you to make micro loans to entrepreneurs in developing countries. This is an extraordinary idea which removes the government/bureaucratic middleman and allows you to deal directly with the recipient of the loan.
Here is a New York Times video on this extraordinary organization.
Here is a New York Times video on this extraordinary organization.
Thin Line Between Lobbying and Bribery
Former Rep. Duke Cunningham has already pled guilty to accepting bribes and now several of those who "lobbied" him are on trial. They are apparently using the defense that everyone was doing it so it couldn't possibly be wrong.
This is the "business as usual" defense, that if everyone does it then it can't be bribery. Any benefits conferred on Cunningham were not connected to the lobbying, and so the argument would be that a quid pro quo cannot be established for a bribery conviction. Needless to say, the government takes a somewhat less benign view of Cunningham's efforts on Wilkes' behalf, and has already threatened to bring out testimony about the presence of prostitutes in a hot tub as one of the unseemly benefits Wilkes gave in exchange for Cunningham's help to obtain $85 million in no-bid contracts.
This is the "business as usual" defense, that if everyone does it then it can't be bribery. Any benefits conferred on Cunningham were not connected to the lobbying, and so the argument would be that a quid pro quo cannot be established for a bribery conviction. Needless to say, the government takes a somewhat less benign view of Cunningham's efforts on Wilkes' behalf, and has already threatened to bring out testimony about the presence of prostitutes in a hot tub as one of the unseemly benefits Wilkes gave in exchange for Cunningham's help to obtain $85 million in no-bid contracts.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
CoverKids enrollment still lagging
In the meantime, Bredesen says the main challenge for CoverKids is increasing enrollment.
"It's one of these frustrating things, you know-all the agonies we went through with Tenncare; this is a very comprehensive, completely free program for the most deserving people in Tennessee, the children, and you know, we're having trouble getting enough kids signed up for it. But I think that will continue to improve in the months ahead."
"Our money trees are our people."
AT LAST!! An honest politician, Chicago Alderwoman Carrie Austin:
"Our money trees are our people. That's the bottom line. Let's not try to sugar coat anything or try to make it into something that it isn't. It's going to be painful," said Ald. Carrie Austin (34th), chairwoman of the City Council's Budget Committee.
'We must ask taxpayers for more,'
First Michigan, now Chicago...at one time I would have thought that Gov. Granholm and Mayor Daley were stupendously but sincerely misguided. Now, I just can't believe they are so blind to their soaring unemployment rates and out-migration.
If we can keep our TN pols under control we will have a lot more Michiganders and Chicagoans moving here to join us.
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"I know that many Chicagoans are struggling to make ends meet and facing economic uncertainty, which made developing this budget all the more difficult," the mayor said. "Do we maintain city services and make the investments needed to keep Chicago moving forward, or do we cut services, make substantial layoffs and risk falling behind? I believe we have only one choice: We must keep Chicago moving forward."
If we can keep our TN pols under control we will have a lot more Michiganders and Chicagoans moving here to join us.
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"I know that many Chicagoans are struggling to make ends meet and facing economic uncertainty, which made developing this budget all the more difficult," the mayor said. "Do we maintain city services and make the investments needed to keep Chicago moving forward, or do we cut services, make substantial layoffs and risk falling behind? I believe we have only one choice: We must keep Chicago moving forward."
He qualifies for SCHIP!!!
SCHIP expansion is NOT about the poor.
I just phoned California's SCHIP program, Healthy Families, and found that my family could qualify.
This is the scenario I laid out:
· Husband, age 62 (which I'll be in 2-years), collecting early Social Security; Wife, age 41;
· Two minor dependent children, ages 2 and 7;
· Currently covered under self-paid individual health insurance (incidentally, costing about $10,000 a year, HMO, with $35 doctor visits and 30% co-insurance payments for other services, formulary Rx's $20 generic and $35 brand);
· Mutual fund capital gains of $50,000 and ordinary dividends of $30,000;
· Earned income of $2289 a month by wife at job without medical benefits. (My wife is not currently working, being a house-mom.)
Bruce Barry's eloquence is scary
Another on-target Nashville Scene article, this one from Bruce Barry on the Predators deal.
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The bottom line here is that a group of well-heeled private individuals are spending $193 million on an asset that was first purchased a decade ago for $55 million, was valued by Forbes last year at $134 million, and has little to no chance of ever finding long-term operating success as a local franchise. The buying and selling of sports teams is a shell game in which excitement-hungry investors overpay for assets, extract fiscal welfare from municipal governments, and then later take profits when new overeager investors step in to overvalue the asset even further. One of these days an up-and-coming city with a lucid grip on reality and an optimistic future is going to pass on the Kool-Aid and simply refuse to play.
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The bottom line here is that a group of well-heeled private individuals are spending $193 million on an asset that was first purchased a decade ago for $55 million, was valued by Forbes last year at $134 million, and has little to no chance of ever finding long-term operating success as a local franchise. The buying and selling of sports teams is a shell game in which excitement-hungry investors overpay for assets, extract fiscal welfare from municipal governments, and then later take profits when new overeager investors step in to overvalue the asset even further. One of these days an up-and-coming city with a lucid grip on reality and an optimistic future is going to pass on the Kool-Aid and simply refuse to play.
CRS Report: Mortality of those 65+
To you young folks.....12% of every dollar you earn will be confiscated for boomer retirement because Congress has been spending the Social Security surplus since 1983 when Social Security rates were increased. That money was supposed to go into the so-called Social Security Trust Fund. The only thing left in the Social Security Trust Fund is IOU's which you young folks will have to pay....good luck, thats what happens when you trust Congress with your retirement funds.
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Individuals age 65 and older have experienced remarkable declines in mortality during the past 20 years. In 1980, 14.2% of newborns could expect to live to age 90; by 2003, this percentage increased nearly 50% to 20.9%. Average life expectancy
went from 73.7 years in 1980 to 77.8 years in 2004 – about 30.5 years longer than the anticipated life expectancy for a baby born at the beginning of the 20th century.
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Individuals age 65 and older have experienced remarkable declines in mortality during the past 20 years. In 1980, 14.2% of newborns could expect to live to age 90; by 2003, this percentage increased nearly 50% to 20.9%. Average life expectancy
went from 73.7 years in 1980 to 77.8 years in 2004 – about 30.5 years longer than the anticipated life expectancy for a baby born at the beginning of the 20th century.
Scene article on Briley is breathtaking
Some excerpts....emphasis is mine. The money quote: "Have they all become so pathetic that they think this kind of stuff is OK?"
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...Briley was having an affair with a lobbyist named Mary Littleton. Their relationship was common knowledge at the Capitol and eyebrow-raising even among its jaded denizens—not because of personal impropriety but because Littleton lobbies for the state trial lawyers association and Briley, as chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, controlled legislation important to her employer. Notably, Briley tacked on amendments that effectively killed a Senate-passed medical malpractice reform bill, a primary target of the trial lawyers during this year's legislative session.
[...]
These friends, who ask not to be named, blame the Capitol's well-publicized culture of sleaze for contributing to Briley's troubles. They question why House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh never intervened to stop Briley's affair with Littleton—a volatile, on-again, off-again relationship they say destabilized the tormented young politician. But it's hard to imagine Naifeh objecting, given that the speaker himself romanced his now-wife Betty Anderson, a lobbyist, in the 1990s.
"Rob's gotten up in something he can't handle, but he's not willing to give it up," one source says. "All these people knew what was going on. Every one of these people knew he was out of control, but they overlooked it. Every time I leave there, I need a bath. It's so dirty and contaminated."
[...]
But one source says at least some lawyers in the association are disturbed by Littleton's conduct as their lobbyist. "They think it's unprofessional," this source says. "They think it's sleazy. There are some trial lawyers who are as ethical as anyone I know."
[...]
It's doubtful that Briley's crack-up will curb bad behavior at the legislature. The House leadership isn't showing any inclination to act in any way against the troubled lawmaker. He resigned as Judiciary Committee chairman only after Gov. Phil Bredesen said he should. House Republican leaders have demanded Briley's resignation, but Naifeh hasn't said much, except to call the GOP comments "pretty low-life." Still, some of Briley's friends are holding out hope that his travails might at least do some good by leading to reform. As one asks, "Have they all become so pathetic that they think this kind of stuff is OK?"
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...Briley was having an affair with a lobbyist named Mary Littleton. Their relationship was common knowledge at the Capitol and eyebrow-raising even among its jaded denizens—not because of personal impropriety but because Littleton lobbies for the state trial lawyers association and Briley, as chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, controlled legislation important to her employer. Notably, Briley tacked on amendments that effectively killed a Senate-passed medical malpractice reform bill, a primary target of the trial lawyers during this year's legislative session.
[...]
These friends, who ask not to be named, blame the Capitol's well-publicized culture of sleaze for contributing to Briley's troubles. They question why House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh never intervened to stop Briley's affair with Littleton—a volatile, on-again, off-again relationship they say destabilized the tormented young politician. But it's hard to imagine Naifeh objecting, given that the speaker himself romanced his now-wife Betty Anderson, a lobbyist, in the 1990s.
"Rob's gotten up in something he can't handle, but he's not willing to give it up," one source says. "All these people knew what was going on. Every one of these people knew he was out of control, but they overlooked it. Every time I leave there, I need a bath. It's so dirty and contaminated."
[...]
But one source says at least some lawyers in the association are disturbed by Littleton's conduct as their lobbyist. "They think it's unprofessional," this source says. "They think it's sleazy. There are some trial lawyers who are as ethical as anyone I know."
[...]
It's doubtful that Briley's crack-up will curb bad behavior at the legislature. The House leadership isn't showing any inclination to act in any way against the troubled lawmaker. He resigned as Judiciary Committee chairman only after Gov. Phil Bredesen said he should. House Republican leaders have demanded Briley's resignation, but Naifeh hasn't said much, except to call the GOP comments "pretty low-life." Still, some of Briley's friends are holding out hope that his travails might at least do some good by leading to reform. As one asks, "Have they all become so pathetic that they think this kind of stuff is OK?"
Dallas Developer helps FBI in PayForVotes
But the approaches continued. Hire this person or that, Mr. Fisher was told, and Mr. Hill's political support would follow. He continued to do nothing.
When the meeting finally arrived in fall 2004, Mr. Fisher's projects were rejected. "We hadn't appreciated the magnitude of not cooperating until then," his lawyer, John Shackelford, recalled.
So Mr. Fisher went to the FBI and became an informant. His cooperation set in motion the bribery and extortion investigation that rocked Dallas politics and led to last week's 166-page criminal indictment.
[...]
Among the others indicted was Mr. Fisher's former boss, Southwest Housing Development Co.'s Brian Potashnik. The two had dueling low-income housing proposals on the agenda in fall 2004, and only one of them could win approval because of state rules. Mr. Hill endorsed Mr. Potashnik because the developer, the indictment alleges, paid bribes similar to the ones Mr. Fisher refused.
Most of the people charged have pleaded not guilty, including Mr. Hill, Mr. Potashnik and state Rep. Terri Hodge, the only sitting official indicted. A few have yet to enter pleas.
China now has 106 Billionaires
up from 15 last year...boy, that communism is sure working out for them.
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China's billionaire tally is second only to that of the U.S., which has 400, according to the Hurun Report, as surging mainland and Hong Kong stock markets have boosted wealth.
``China may have 200 billionaires, we just haven't identified them yet -- there are a lot of people out there who don't report their assets,'' said Rupert Hoogewerf, who has produced the list since 1999. ``The new wealth we haven't discovered yet is lying in the stock markets.''
The mainland benchmark CSI 300 Index of stocks has nearly quadrupled in the past year. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index is up 41 percent this year through yesterday, the strongest annual performance since 1999 if it holds through year-end. Mainland and Hong Kong-based companies raised HK$160.3 billion in Hong Kong this year through Sept. 30, up from HK$133.9 billion last year.
UT Grads earn $50k 7 yrs after graduation
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Seven years after graduation, graduates of Tennessee's public institutions are earning an average annual wage of $50,418, with bachelor's degree holders earning just under the average, associate's degree holders earning approximately $7,000 under the average, and graduate and professional degree holders earning well above the average.
That's according to a new study just released by the University of Tennessee Center For Business and Economic Research. Read the complete details below:
Seven years after graduation, graduates of Tennessee's public institutions are earning an average annual wage of $50,418, with bachelor's degree holders earning just under the average, associate's degree holders earning approximately $7,000 under the average, and graduate and professional degree holders earning well above the average.
That's according to a new study just released by the University of Tennessee Center For Business and Economic Research. Read the complete details below:
NO asset test for SCHIP eligibility
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With the SCHIP program, parents with assets accessible to do so are not legally obligated to protect their minor children's health by providing them insurance. As this Kaiser 2006 survey of all the states details, in all but three states a family's assets are not considered at all in determining eligibility for SCHIP. (As I pointed out here Maryland, home of the Frost's, and California, my home, do not consider assets in qualification for SCHIP.)
With the SCHIP program, parents with assets accessible to do so are not legally obligated to protect their minor children's health by providing them insurance. As this Kaiser 2006 survey of all the states details, in all but three states a family's assets are not considered at all in determining eligibility for SCHIP. (As I pointed out here Maryland, home of the Frost's, and California, my home, do not consider assets in qualification for SCHIP.)
Corporate giveaways questioned in Chattanooga
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Several Hamilton County commissioners said Tuesday that they felt area business leaders had not been forthcoming with information about expansion and development projects for which they were requesting tax breaks.
Several Hamilton County commissioners said Tuesday that they felt area business leaders had not been forthcoming with information about expansion and development projects for which they were requesting tax breaks.
Tuesday, October 09, 2007
SCHIP-Lobbyist Full Employment Act
SCHIP is not about poor children, its about tens of millions of pharmacy and HMO lobbying dollars.
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And so while Democrats are dragging children to the White House for photo ops, as if the children are the primary constituency of this bill, federal lobbying records tell a different tale.
Lobbying records from the first half of 2007 show that the health care industry spent more than $227 million lobbying Washington. Congressional Quarterly Healthbeat News reported last month: "What's behind health care lobbyists' spending frenzy? Most signs point to ... SCHIP."
Sure enough, the biggest lobbyists in the industry all support the Democratic bill. America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), the trade association for HMOs, supports the bill, as do its biggest members, such as Blue Cross Blue Shield.
The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturing Association (PhRMA), one of Washington's most powerful lobbyists, is also behind the bill. So is the American Medical Association.
Tax Cuts = Big Government
Despite all the silly demagoguery about "tax cuts for the rich", the rich are not only paying more, they are paying a larger share of the tax burden and federal tax revenues have exploded over the last 6 years. If so-called "progressives" don't wise up and keep their mouths shut they are going to kill the big government goose.
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Americans coughed up a record $2.568 trillion in taxes to the IRS in 2007, or 6.7% more than in 2006. This means federal receipts have climbed by $785 billion since the 2003 investment tax cuts, the largest four-year revenue increase in U.S. history. Income, dividend and capital gains tax rates were all cut in 2003, but individual income tax receipts have soared by 46.3% in four years, with payments by the wealthy accounting for most of the windfall. Last year's increase in individual income payments was 11.3%, or more than double the rate of growth in nominal GDP.
The overriding lesson here is that the best antidote for deficits is faster growth, not tax increases. The budget deficit has declined more rapidly this decade in the wake of the Bush tax cuts than it did in the 1990s in the wake of the Clinton tax increases.
Quote of the day
From economist Joseph Schumpeter:
"Politicians are like bad horsemen who are so preoccupied with keeping in the saddle that they can't bother about where they go."
"Politicians are like bad horsemen who are so preoccupied with keeping in the saddle that they can't bother about where they go."
The homeless as political pets
Interesting article on changing attitudes about the homeless in San Francisco. Many "homeless advocates" have treated the homeless as political pets, using them as props to declare their own moral superiority or more often using them as a club with which to beat more taxpayer money out of politicians.
Reality has a way of weaseling its way into these discussions however. One of the most revealing comments from the article:
"Maybe there has been an epiphany," says David Latterman, president of Fall Line Analytics, a local market research firm. "People have realized they can hate George Bush but still not want people crapping in their doorway."
The "homeless" are not helped by excusing outrageously anti-social behavior.
Reality has a way of weaseling its way into these discussions however. One of the most revealing comments from the article:
"Maybe there has been an epiphany," says David Latterman, president of Fall Line Analytics, a local market research firm. "People have realized they can hate George Bush but still not want people crapping in their doorway."
The "homeless" are not helped by excusing outrageously anti-social behavior.
First Boomer goes on Social Security
All of you young people need to start looking for a second job so you can support us in our golden years.
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EARLEVILLE, Md. — When Kathleen Casey-Kirschling signs up for Social Security benefits Monday, it will represent one small step for her, one giant leap for her baby boom generation — and a symbolic jump toward the retirement system's looming bankruptcy.
Casey-Kirschling — generally recognized as the nation's first boomer (born in Philadelphia on Jan. 1, 1946, at 12:00:01 a.m.) — won't bankrupt the Social Security system by taking early retirement at 62. But after her, the deluge: 80 million Americans born from 1946 to 1964 who could qualify for Social Security and Medicare during the next 22 years.
The first wave of 3.2 million baby boomers turns 62 next year — 365 an hour. About 49% of the men and 53% of the women are projected to choose early retirement and begin drawing monthly Social Security checks representing 75% of the benefit they'd be entitled to receive if they waited four more years to retire.
US Health Companies recruited to help UK
The bureaucrats in UK don't like it but US insurance companies are being recruited to help with their govt run health care disaster.
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England's new "Framework for Procuring External Support for Commissioners," a kind of buying club for government-owned regional health plans, has chosen European units of at least 3 U.S. health insurers to join the initial pool of suppliers.
The units are subsidiaries of Aetna Inc., Hartford; Humana Inc., Louisville, Ky.; and UnitedHealth Group Inc., Minnetonka, Minn.
The United Kingdom is trying to improve the National Health Service, the agency that provides health coverage in England, by creating a system of regional "primary care trusts."
Monday, October 08, 2007
Predictable but still depressing
The geniuses in Congress create the ethanol industry out of whole cloth to pander to the corporate agriculture lobby. Now the ethanol plans are failing and pols want MORE tax dollars to bail them out. Why do we trust politicians to do anything?
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Today comes news of North Dakota's legislature planning on using some of our tax dollars they've been hoarding in a special fund to bail out the ethanol plants.
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Today comes news of North Dakota's legislature planning on using some of our tax dollars they've been hoarding in a special fund to bail out the ethanol plants.
Nashville Airport Stolen Items from Luggage
The Nashville Airport Report is HERE. This info comes from an excellent investigative report by Seattle TV Station KIRO HERE. Lots of guns are stolen from luggage.
Tenncare $270 million short
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NASHVILLE — The federal government has approved a three-year TennCare waiver extension that will leave the state with about $270 million less than needed to cover growing hospital costs, state officials announced today.
But the agreement with Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is an improvement over an original proposal that would have left Tennessee with more than $385 million less than projected.
KC wants to fill their empty arena
Millionaires just can't seem to get enough taxpayer money and our elected officials can't seem to give it away fast enough....only problem is that Karl Dean has to give it away faster than the folks in KC.
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When voters approved the $276 million arena in 2004, Leiweke, president of Anschutz Entertainment Group, brimmed with confidence that either an NBA or an NHL franchise could be playing in Kansas City as soon as this fall.
But during that time, no team from either league has moved, and neither league has expanded since the NBA returned to Charlotte, N.C., in 2004.
However, the chances of the NHL's Nashville Predators moving to Kansas City appear to be increasing.
Preds already have the best deal?
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I've said it before, but it's widely known that the Predators already had the league's best arena lease deal before any of these concessions were made — concessions that the Freeman group brought to the table after signing an agreement with Craig Leipold.
Update:
I emailed James Mirtle, the sports writer who made the claim in his blog, asking for more info. Here is his reply:
It's fact - not a claim.
Forbes, 2006:
They are one of the only pro sports teams in North America with an arrangement that forgiving.
James.
I've said it before, but it's widely known that the Predators already had the league's best arena lease deal before any of these concessions were made — concessions that the Freeman group brought to the table after signing an agreement with Craig Leipold.
Update:
I emailed James Mirtle, the sports writer who made the claim in his blog, asking for more info. Here is his reply:
It's fact - not a claim.
Forbes, 2006:
"The Nashville Predators are one of the most subsidized teams in hockey. The city of Nashville covers any operating deficits at Gaylord Entertainment Center while the Predators, who operate the arena, keep most of the revenue (the city also paid for $25 million of the team's $80 million expansion fee). Also, the NHL gave the team about $10 million from the league's revenue-sharing pool last season."
They are one of the only pro sports teams in North America with an arrangement that forgiving.
James.
New Taxes in Michigan are a mess
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But they acknowledge the result is muddy -- produced by sleepy legislators in marathon, pressure-packed sessions last weekend aimed at avoiding or quickly ending a state government shutdown.
"Sometimes we didn't do as good a job as we wanted to," state Sen. Valde Garcia, R-Howell, said in an interview.
Garcia and Rep. Steve Bieda, D-Warren and head of the House taxation committee, said it was challenging to include enough services to raise an estimated $750 million per year (about $600 million the first year because it's only 10 months).
The tax on services has stirred confusion and irritation as the public and even those who approved it grapple with its oddities.
Some business groups want to repeal it.
AJC-Cig smuggling linked to terrorists
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"ATF has put a greater emphasis on these crimes because they involve organized crime and the link to terrorism has been established," Awe told the committee.
Cases have been prosecuted in North Carolina and Michigan against smugglers who law enforcement officials said were funneling profits to the Hezbollah terrorist group. Federal officials have also investigated similar links between smugglers and al-Qaida. No such cases have been made in Georgia.
However, Georgia was mentioned in a Michigan indictment last year, when 18 people were charged in a smuggling conspiracy that prosecutors said raised money for Hezbollah.
"The enterprise operated from Lebanon, Canada, Brazil, Paraguay, China, North Carolina, Florida and the Dearborn, Mich., area, perpetrating crimes in the states of Michigan, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, North Carolina, West Virginia and points in between," the indictment alleged.
Heritage Conservative Policy Experts Database
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Policy Experts is your single-source directory for locating knowledgeable authorities and leading policy institutes actively involved in a broad range of public policy issues, both domestic and foreign. Journalists, researchers, public officials and conference planners find it to be an indispensable guide for locating the right expert at a moment's notice.
Our online format is updated regularly and searchable by name, affiliation, location or more than 160 areas of expertise. The database of organizations includes mission statements, tax-status, websites and priority issues.
66% say work hard and earn a decent living
Sixty-six percent (66%) of all likely voters believe that "just about anyone who is willing to work hard" can make a decent living in this country; 28% disagree and say that's not the case.
The Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey also shows that Republicans (84%) and men (74%) are more likely than Democrats (56%), unaffiliated voters (58%), and women (58%) to think persons willing to work hard can pay the bills.